“Fair point.” Reed nodded. “If he did not have more experience in dangerous missions than probably all of you combined, I would concede your rebuttal. I make no secret that I think Doctor Park is a perfect man.” Reed winked at me.
I felt my face go up in flames.
“What you may not know is that he is an ex-military field surgeon. He has had to plunge his hand inside a man’s open chest cavity to keep the heart beating while simultaneously giving instructions to the rest of us. And he did all that in a calm tone, his hands steady. Many times over.”
I heard several gasps and murmurs. Reed drawled on. “I’m here today because this man here is the bravest one I’ve ever met.” He looked so proud that I couldn’t even be mad at him.
“Daniel? Our Daniel?” Theo, our chef, looked thunderstruck.
“Well, my Daniel, if you don’t mind.” Reed snaked a heavy arm around my shoulder and pulled me close as if I wasn’t already embarrassed enough.
Theo laughed. Grant joined the discussion enthusiastically. “And just to prove why his assessment matters, did you guysknow Reed has several Guinness World Records to his name? He is the only one to have landed a chopper on Mount Everest.”
“That’s damn impressive,” August said.
“Thank you. So yes, to the good folks of Waypoint Station…” Reed turned his head, looking around the room. “Let me reiterate that your doctor is the best man you could fly with into a storm or a rescue.”
8
Reed
“The whole thing can fit inside the chopper backseat,” the master carpenter of Waypoint Station, Garrett, was explaining.
In the twenty minutes it had taken me to change into my flight suit, pack my bag, get the chopper started and warmed up, talk with my base station to get permission, and file the flight plan, the station’s master carpenter had apparently rigged some kind of ladder-cum-ramp.
Daniel, Viktor, Garrett, and I were standing inside his workshop.
“I absolutely love what you’ve done,” I said to him. “But…” I rubbed my chin as I studied it.
“But?” Garrett asked.
“I’m worried this is too short. It’ll fit in the backseat of my chopper all right, but I think it’s too short for any rescue work we may have to perform.”
He was already nodding as I spoke, seemingly aware of this issue already, so I stopped talking and let him speak.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Let me show you.” He bent down and pulled on one end of the ramp, and the entire thing started extending. I was newly amazed—not only had he designed a ramp in twenty minutes, but he had also managed to make it collapsible. He kept extending segments of it like one of those vacuum cleaner handles, and by the time he was done pulling every segment out, the thing stretched to forty feet.
Viktor whistled, and Daniel and I exchanged stunned looks.
“You are a magician. This is fantastic.” Viktor bounced on his toes.
Garrett looked mighty pleased. “It’s a team effort,” he said modestly. “I’m not the one taking the risk to fly out there. I just wanted to contribute in some way.”
We practiced collapsing and extending his creation a couple of times to make sure Daniel and I could do it out there, should we need it.
“Where do you want these, Pilot Harmon?” one of the crew asked. Other people from the station were helping me load the supplies we might need. We had no idea what we would find.
“Under the backseats,” I instructed.
“Can I have a private word with the Doc?” Garrett asked.
“Sure,” Daniel replied. “You go ahead. I’ll join you soon.” He nodded at me to get going.
“Ah. Okay.”
I jogged back toward my chopper. August flagged me down.
“What about fuel?” he asked, coming to stand next to me, a device in his hand.
