Page 95 of One Last Shot

“Of course,” Dodge said. “Some of the mamas are already venturing out of their dens. And wolves are in the area.”

“So let’s say they saw something. Maybe they’d run down here, to the river. It’s probably still passable, most of it frozen. If I were running from something, I’d want to get back to the lodge. So...” He traced his finger down the river route. “I’d head south, toward the road.”

“Or north—you can see the upper chalet from there,” said Deke, leaning over now to point at the building marked on the map.

“Yeah,” Moose said. “Okay, Dodge, you take the northern part of the river with Shep and London. Axel, you and Oaken are with me. We’ll take Boo too.” He looked at Deke. “Stay here. We’ll keep you posted.”

“A local pilot took a plane up with some of the volunteers from Copper Mountain,” Deke said. “She’s doing low sweeps of the area.”

“Let’s get some eyes on the riverbed,” Moose said. “Axel, Oaken, be ready to hoof it.”

Moose had lent Oaken some pack boots, thick and sturdy, along with a wool face mask, mittens, and a radio.

He barely recognized himself, just his eyes poking through like he might be an axe murderer.

Huxley, however, caught him leaving the room, behind Axel, and followed him outside.

“Oaken! A word for the camera before you leave.”

He’d pushed through the double doors of the lodge and now stood outside, backdropped by the parking lot, where the two choppers sat. Moose had followed him out, eyed him as he hurried past. “Hurry up.”

Oaken pulled off the mask. Huxley held up three fingers. Two. One. Pointed. “We’re headed out to lookfor the lost women. They’ve been out overnight, and with another storm coming, we need to work fast.” He turned.

“Wait—Oaken. How do you feel about being included in the rescue?”

He looked at the camera. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else right now.” The words shook through him, settled.Yes. Then he raised his hand to wave and hustled out to the chopper.

Boo stood on the deck. “You ready?”

He nodded, climbed in, and she closed the door behind him.

Moose fired up the chopper, the other Air One bird already lifting off and clearing the area. The blades stirred up a tempest of white as they rose.

He looked out the window, down at the lodge. Not a small place, the lodge rose five stories, with a massive stone fireplace that jutted from the top of the timber building and picture windows that overlooked the surrounding view of the snow-clad Copper Mountain range. It sat in the center of a bowl, the ski runs rising around it, the light of the sun fighting hard to break through the dour clouds.

So much forest. So much snow. “This might be impossible,” he said to Boo.

She gave him a grim nod.

The chopper lifted, then followed a ridge toward a semi-frozen river, flowing in some areas, chunks of ice and snow in others. He spotted the hot spring, a stone-clad bath higher up on the cliff with lighting and a path that led back to the lodge. Boo tugged out monoculars and handed Axel one, then Oaken. One for herself.

“Scan the riverbed, but also the shoreline in the woods. It’s possible that if they were running from a bear, they might have climbed a tree,” Boo said.

Moose flew as low as he could go and skimmed along the riverbank. The world was a wash of gray and brown and white, with some skims of green pine and an ashy river, maybethirty feet wide, frothy, icy, and wild. Oaken scanned his monocular along the shoreline.

For a long moment, he was back in interior Alaska, running along a river, Mike’s death thundering in his mind. That fear had fueled him, kept him alive.

What fear had pushed these ladies into a blizzard and trapped them there?

The river jagged west, and he heard Dodge reporting no joy to Moose when Oaken spotted it—something red amidst the trees.

“Moose—port side,” he said.

On the tail of his words, someone ran out of the brush, waving her hands. She wore a parka, a hat, gloves, and boots and jumped along the shoreline, clearly unhurt.

“I see her,” Moose said, circling back. “But I have nowhere to put down.”

“I’ll get her,” Oaken said and cast a glance at Boo. She nodded.