Part 4
Evan kept his hand over the pocket and bent for Silver instead. He knew Gray could take the card from him; he also knew a guard could kill her before any camera caught it.
Coal wriggled out from under the coat and caught a strap that had come loose when Evan fell into the river. He dragged a palm-sized device over the stones. Ellie’s old emergency beacon, which Evan had kept after she died, had a cracked casing and a red light beneath its cover. Coal tugged it toward the water and let it drop into the shallows.
The light blinked again.
Evan had hit its recessed alert switch by accident during the fall, he realized. The signal had already gone out; the little wolf had brought the evidence of it into view.
Ellie had marked the back of the case with her initials in blue ink. He could see one curved stroke even through the mud. He remembered her solemn insistence that a person lost in the woods should ask to be found. For years the beacon had sat in a drawer among things he couldn’t use and couldn’t discard. Evan wanted to retrieve it, but Gray’s guard was closer. He settled for watching the red light blink through the water.
Gray recognized the kind of device. “Get that,” he told a guard. The man moved toward the river, and the big gray wolf appeared from the brush between him and Coal. It did not attack. The guard stopped, his foot sliding on wet gravel. Across the bar the other wolves crossed through mist and trees, looking for clear ground away from people and aircraft. Their movement was enough to unsettle Gray’s men.
Evan got an arm around Silver and edged toward the rocks. Kay took Coal when Evan gestured, then handed him back as soon as the pup strained toward his mother. Gray’s guards fired into the stone slope. Chips struck Evan’s sleeve. He stumbled behind a boulder, pulling Silver into cover with him. Her weight was more than he could carry for long.
Mike came around the opposite side with his hands raised. Evan brought up the hunting gun, but Mike set a packet of clean dressings and a handheld radio on the ground. His face was gray under a layer of soot. He did not come closer until Evan lowered the barrel. Evan had once helped him locate a lost hunter in this same maze of rocks; Mike knew where the animal tracks ran. Now his practical knowledge could make him useful without making him innocent.
“They’re looking for heat signatures,” he said. “Gray called in another crew. I told them I saw you downstream.”
Evan wanted to ask how much of the fire Mike had known about before he lit the shelter. Mike glanced at Coal, then looked away. He said his daughter’s medical bills had been the first reason he took Grant’s money. Evan saw no reason that excused what followed. He picked up the radio and dressings anyway. Mike showed him the narrow animal track through the rocks and went back toward the river to keep the guards occupied.
On the radio a voice assigned men to the eastern ridge. Evan took the western path, guiding Silver with a hand at her ribs. Mist gathered between the stones, but the thermal cameras could still find a warm body. Above the river was an old mineral spring he knew from his survey days. Its runoff crossed the path in a shallow, steaming sheet. He led Silver along the cooler rim where rainwater mixed with it; the pup rode inside his jacket. On the radio the searcher complained that the spring washed out the image.
The hot water was no refuge. It stung Evan’s cut, and he kept Silver out of the hottest flow. Through the steam he caught glimpses of wolves taking the same upper route. A guard startled when one crossed his path and fired at a shadow. The others answered with shouts. Evan did not imagine the pack understood his trouble. He used the seconds their movement gave him.
The radio crackled with men trying to describe a target they had lost. One said there were two heat signatures; another counted four. Evan left the radio on a rock so its sound would remain behind them. His breathing hurt, and Silver halted each time her front leg took weight. He waited rather than pulling. When she moved, Coal shifted beneath his coat, a little warm pressure against the ribs the river had bruised.
The path ended at a maintenance footbridge over the Narrows. Its railing had been patched with old cable; one post leaned out over the water. On the far side was a clear place where a rescue helicopter might set down.
Gray stood at the bridge with a compact gun and no room to pass him.
Evan lowered Silver onto the stone. Gray watched the card in his pocket. “I’ll let you keep the animal,” he said. “Give me what’s mine.”
Coal squeezed out of Evan’s jacket, darted forward, and caught Gray’s trouser cuff. Gray kicked at him. His heel skated on the wet plank. Evan pulled the loose cable he had been holding for balance, and the failing rail gave way under Gray’s other hand. The gun struck a beam and fell into the current. Gray caught the remaining edge of the bridge and hung above the river.
He called for Evan to help. Evan lifted Coal clear of the broken planks. He would not reach across that rail with Silver bleeding behind him and the guards still armed. A searchlight swept over them. A rescue helicopter, following the beacon’s location and Kay’s broadcast, had reached the river. Someone aboard shouted for the men on the bridge to stay still.
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