“Music to my ears. All right. I fixed the issue with my plane. I also did some more digging on that potential landing site closest to you. I pulled some different maps. We should be good to gofor that one. It’s a solid surface, not glacial, and has a long, clear approach. If my calculations are correct, and you don’t run into any complications on the way there, even with Toren’s bum ankle, it should be a two to three-hour hike. I’m going to take off in two hours. It’ll take me about ninety minutes to fly there. I don’t want to beat you there, if I can help it. The snowpack could be unstable and even with my skis on, the plane could sink if I stay too long.”
“Okay. We’ll watch for you.”
“I’ll do a low pass first to make sure you’re there. I’ll have enough fuel to hang around for about an hour. After that, we’ll have to try again later. Do you know the heading from your current position?”
I looked at Deke. He produced the GPS without being asked and held it out to Toren, who read the coordinates in a flat, even voice.
“Got it,” Walker said. “Head southwest until you hit the river valley. Follow the bend. It opens up to a floodplain. It’s hard to miss. See you in a couple hours.”
“Yep. Thanks, Walker,” Toren said.
“Not a problem. Catch you later.”
He hung up.
I handed the phone back to Deke. Toren passed him the GPS unit.
“Time to move.” Deke looked at Vic, who’d stopped near the downed tents when Walker called to listen in. “Get the product loaded.”
I exchanged a glance with Toren as Vic spun on his heel toward the work area that was now just a pile of logs. They’d already removed the tarp and taken apart the poles holding it up.
The product. Right.
A season’s worth of illegally harvested bear parts, vacuum-sealed and packed into two large duffels and a cooler. The whole reason any of us were here in the first place.
Walker’s Piper Navajo had eight seats, including the pilot’s.
I could do the math from there, and none of it was good. One or more of us wasn’t making it onto that plane if Deke wanted to take all their harvest and their gear. There just wasn’t enough room
Toren met my gaze. By the expression on his face, he’d been doing the same math.
The march to the clearing took almost exactly two and a half hours. It was downhill once we cleared the ridge and dropped into the river valley, which should have made it easier. It would have, if we weren’t behind three men hauling duffels heavy enough to make their shoulders roll forward with every step, two of them with a cooler strung between them, and a fourth man who was running on four days of minimal food and no sleep.
How Dustin walked all that way under his own power, I didn’t know. He made it but barely.
Toren dropped back twice on the descent without comment, matching Dustin’s pace, one hand on the crutch and his eyes moving across the terrain as he picked his way over the bumpy ground. I was happy he was who he was. I wasn’t sure a normal hunter or hiker could have made the trek under the same conditions.
The river valley opened up as we rounded the bend, exactly as Walker described. Wide and flat, fresh snow covered the ground from the edge of the river to the base of the mountain, much of it in broad, skinny swaths between dips in the terrain that were long enough and wide enough for a small plane to land comfortably. Under other circumstances, it might have even been pretty.
Finding a cluster of boulders not buried in the snow, we all sat down and settled in to wait.
Except Deke.
He paced the edge of the river, scanning the sky.
I perched on a boulder and crossed my legs and arms, watching our watchers. Vic sat next to the duffels and flexed his hands, watching his colleague and the sky in equal measure. Toby sat nearby with his arms crossed and his eyes on the ground, the same expression he’d been wearing since we met him yesterday on his face.
I hoped Toby’s silence was because he just wanted out of this mess and not because he had a plan none of us knew about.
My attention turned to Dustin.
He’d plopped down on a lower boulder. Feet still firmly on the ground, he had his head propped in his hands.
Hang in there, Dustin. Just a little while longer.I sent the silent encouragement out into the universe, then said a quick prayer to give him strength.
Toren shifted beside me, his shoulder brushing mine. I leaned into him, seeking his comforting, stalwart presence.
He leaned back.
