Page 96 of One Last Shot

“Axel, work the winch. I’ll spot Oaken as he goes down.”

Oaken sat, working on the harness over his jumpsuit. Boo knelt in front of him. “You know how to do this,” she said as she checked his gear, then snapped on the winch line. She also hooked a harness to the winch loop with another carabiner.

Then she met his eyes, and for a second he thought she might kiss him.

Instead, she smiled. “Go get her.” She patted him on the shoulder, then opened the chopper door.

Moose fought the sudden onslaught of wind but steadied the chopper. The woman stood below, maybe fifty feet down.

Oaken stepped out onto the skids. Boo, clipped in with her safety line, held on to his harness. “Ready?”

He nodded, and she glanced back at Axel. He gave a thumbs-up.

The winch started to lower him, and he pushed away from the strut slowly, then caught it with his hand and eased himself down.

Almost like a pro.

The wind caught him, turned him, but he kept his focus on the woman and then motioned her away from him as he touched down.

He stood on the beach, his feet planted, waiting for slack, then waved her over.

She’d been crying. Puffy, reddened eyes, her face chapped.

“My name is Oaken! I’m here with the Air One Rescue team. What’s your name?”

“Lydia!”

“Anyone else with you, Lydia?”

“We got separated. I don’t... I think they went back to the lodge. I got lost.”

She had to be hypothermic, although the temperatures hadn’t dropped much below freezing despite the storm. Still, so much exposure... “How did you survive?”

“I took a survival course in college—I made a snow cave and holed up in there.”

Smart. “Let’s get you into this harness.” He held out the leg straps, then helped her into the waist and arm straps. Then he grabbed the front of her harness, the other hand on her belt. “I got you.”

He looked up and gave Boo a thumbs-up, along with a “Take us up” into his coms.

The winch lifted them, and he held Lydia even as the line twisted, her eyes widening.

“It’s okay,” he said as they reached the strut. He put his foot on it and let Boo grab his harness and bring Lydia into the chopper. He stood on the strut while Boo hooked her into a safety line and unhooked her from the winch.

He leaned over to Boo. “I think we need to go to ground. The women headed back to the lodge. They could be anywherein the woods.”

“We’re at least two miles from the lodge,” she said. “That’s a long way to hike.” She turned to Lydia. “Where did they run?”

Oaken held on to the bed of the chopper, the rotor wash muffled, hearing their conversation through his in-helmet coms via Boo’s mic.

“I don’t know. He was chasing us and we got scared, so we just kept running,” Lydia said.

“Who was chasing you?” said Boo.

“A man. He came down the trail after us... We took off, but he did too. Chased us down to the river. We kept running, but I fell.” She pulled back her arm to reveal scrapes on her hands, her wrists. “When I got up, I just ran into the woods and hid.”

Boo sat back. Then she reached for a harness. “Moose, I’d like to go back down with Oaken. I’ll take the med and survival pack with us.”

“Roger. We’ll keep searching the riverbed.”