Aimee
“Okay team, listen up!”
Aimee flipped her e-reader closed and put it on the table next to the cot as her team leader Brian “Angel” Harkness walked into the room. Normally she might have given him some lip, but two things stopped her. One, he’d called for the team, in an official capacity, and second, he was dressed for the job. All told, it could only mean one thing:
They had a mission.
“How many?” she asked, already sliding into her boots and pulling up her orange jumpsuit.
Around her the other two members of their team, Paul “Jerk-it” Jergins and Kevin “King” Clancy were doing the same.
“No reported victims this time, Flow. Reconnaissance.”
The team groaned, but it was all in good fun. Everyone was relieved to hear that there were no skiers, hikers, or others trapped. It was midwinter, and they were at the peak of avalanche season. A report of zero emergencies was always a good thing.
“Hey, at least we’re going out!”
“He’s got a point,” Clancy said as he stood up next to her. “Come on, Flow, let’s get a move on.”
She grinned and socked him good-naturedly as she stood up, tucking the long golden-blonde locks that had earned her the nickname “Flow” up into her helmet with practiced ease. It had taken her some time to figure out how to have long hair and how to wear it properly. Oddly enough, it turned out that the high ponytail worked best, allowing her to wrap the hair around it.
“Do me up?” she teased, turning to waggle her hips back and forth at him.
Kevin laughed and zipped up the jumpsuit in one motion. “Why do I feel like that’s how you dance at the bar?”
“If I did, I certainly wouldn’t be almost as lonely as Paul over there,” she retorted, the jab earning a round of laughter from everyone as Paul held up his one hand.
His last name, coupled with an unfortunate slip of the mind when it came to locking a door had earned Paul his nickname. By now he’d just learned to roll with it. The fact he had a smoking-hot wife now didn’t hurt either. Aimee wasn’t sure how he’d landed such a gorgeous babe, but he had.
“Hey, I’ll have you know my wife is real, and not eight inches of silicone,” Paul fired back, his jab poking fun at her lack of a sex life.
“Maybe not, but I bet you she wishes you were.”
Paul’s jaw dropped and the rest of the team, including Brian, all howled with laughter as they followed their team lead out the door of their ready room and into the hallway, heading for the helipad.
“I’m going to get you back for that one, Flow,” he promised as they settled down and started to put their game faces on. “Just wait.”
She grinned. “Bring it.”
The double doors banged open and the Drake’s Crossing Search and Rescue Team went to work. The humor slipped from their voices and they all started going over the pre-flight checklists.
Kevin and Paul, the two pilots, started going over the warmup checklist while Brian and Aimee did a once-over of the exterior of the red and gray chopper, ensuring they didn’t see anything out of place. After that they switched to the interior, this time going over all their packed gear while the pilots reviewed the exterior.
“Report,” Angel barked.
“Flow, clear,” she said first, as his second.
“King, we are go.”
“Jergins, everything is green.” For obvious reasons Paul used his last name as a call sign, not his nickname.
“Fire it up,” Harkness said as they all climbed inside.
Aimee swung up and into her seat, clipping herself in before slamming the sliding door shut. Then she slipped back into her seat, pulled her harness into place, and buckled it up. The harness was the primary point of safety, with the safety clip being a backup, just in case. She turned and checked that Brian was secured in place while he did the same for her. They exchanged a fist bump and then pulled on their headsets to listen to Paul go through his spiel.
“Welcome to Drake’s Crossing Scenic Tours. Today we will be going into the mountains. Fascinating stuff. Please keep your eyes open for any oddities, and report them back to the Angel himself. Thank you.”
She rolled her eyes and settled in, content among her team, and eager to go see what was up. There had been a higher incidence of avalanches reported so far this year, and her team had been busy. She was happy that this time they were able to go on a mission that might help prevent others from coming to harm in the future. Aimee liked the idea of being proactive, instead of purely reactive.
The flight itself wasn’t very long. By helicopter the mountains were ten minutes or so outside of town. She sat up straighter as they neared, her trained eyes scanning the slopes as they came into view. On the opposite side she knew Angel would be doing the same thing. He had nearly ten years on anyone else on the team, the grizzled old veteran, such as it were, even though he was just entering his forties.
Aimee wanted his position though. Not at his expense of course, but she was driving herself hard, working to ensure she had the skills necessary to be a team leader. So she was determined to be the first one to spot something.
“What’s that?” Angel said sharply from his side perhaps thirty seconds later.
She sighed. So much for being first. Turning, she looked over his shoulder. The evidence of an avalanche was clear. “Looks like it exposed part of the mountain.”
“Indeed. Jergins, take us in closer.”
“I want it,” she said automatically, before Angel could speak again. Now that they were on duty, she thought of him only by his call-sign.
He glanced at her, his experienced brown eyes searching her face, ensuring she was in the right frame of mind. Finally he sighed. “Okay boys, Flow is going to go down and check it out. Nice and easy now.”
The team was on edge. This was the most dangerous part of the job. Putting her down on the mountain wasn’t something that many would go for, but they needed to find out the reason for the increase in avalanches. And that meant sometimes risks needed to be taken.
Plus she wanted to see what was inside the mountain. It was rare that a cave was exposed by an avalanche, but there was no doubt that this was fresh. The sides were far too jagged, and the rocks strewn down the hill below it indicated a fresh fall. This was uncharted territory, and she was going to possibly be the first human inside it. Ever.
Angel pulled the door open as she slipped out of her harness, clipped in to the winch line, and then finally undid her safety rope.
“Be safe, be smart. Not stupid.”
She smiled at Angel’s normal parting. “I’m not ready for a halo just yet,” she shot back with a wink, and then dropped out the door. The winch started to lower her down. A shiver swept over her body, but she waved it off to the sudden bite of winter as she exited the heated interior of the chopper.
“Tell me again why I volunteered to come out in the cold?” she muttered to herself as she descended.
When her legs touched down she flexed them, her long, powerful frame absorbing the landing with ease. At a hair under six feet tall, and packed with the muscle necessary to hang with the boys, Aimee didn’t cut the normal feminine figure. Broad shoulders, thick thighs, and legs that looked like they belonged to a speedskater tended to scare away most of the guys. Her hair was the sole feminine attribute she allowed herself.
That, and once a month she got a mani-pedi done, but nobody, and she meant nobody was allowed to know about that. She’d never live it down if her team found out she was actually a girl. If she ever grew breasts, they might find out, but at age thirty-four, she’d stopped expecting that to happen. This was her lot in life, and minus the occasional lonely night where she wished she had male company, she loved it. Her job was amazing, her team were her best friends, and she wouldn’t trade it for the world!
Unclipping, she radioed up. “Unclipped, proceeding inside. Hang tight there boys.”
“Roger,” came Angel’s voice. “Remember to—”
“Obey all the safety signs, including keep your arms and legs inside the coaster at all times,” she interrupted. “Don’t worry, Angel, I’m coming home.”
She walked forward and into the cave, pulling a flashlight from her belt and flicking it on. Moving it around the interior, she felt her eyebrows raise in surprise. “This is huge,” she radioed back. “Absolutely massive. It goes way back.”
“Anything of interest?”
Swinging the light around some more she frowned. “Yeah. There’s no—”
“Hold on, Flow,” Angel’s voice barked sharply.
There was silence for a solid thirty seconds before her boss came back on the line.
“Sorry, Flow, bad news. We have reports of a skier who took a bad fall. They need immediate transport to a hospital. We’re the closest unit.”
“On my way,” she barked, turning and heading for the cave entrance at full tilt.
“Negative on that.” Her boss’s voice was tight. Whatever it was, it must be bad. “We’re already on the move. Hang tight and we’ll come back for you as soon as we can, understand?”
She skidded to a halt. “That bad?” she whispered.
“We might already be too late,” Angel came back after a pause.
“Just don’t forget about me,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.
“No worries, Flow. We’ll have you back before shift end. I know you’ve got a bunch of hot dates lined up during your time off.”
The radio channel was filled with snickering. Everyone on her team was well aware of her lack of a personal life. She smiled. Despite his levity, Aimee knew he hated the idea of leaving her behind, especially in such a precarious position. But this is what they signed up for when they joined SAR. They weren’t classified as expendable, but each member of their team wouldn’t hesitate to lay down their own life to save someone else’s, if that’s what it took.
“Roger that, Angel. Maybe one of them will even turn up this time.” She paused to allow the others to laugh. “Godspeed,” she whispered into the headset, going silent for a moment as she whispered a quick prayer for the downed skier, hoping her team could get there in time.
As the chopper disappeared into the distance she gave the huge cavern another once-over.
“May as well explore. Not like I’m doing anything else.” She was talking to herself now, a nervous habit she’d picked up a long time ago.
Climbing back inside, she once again regarded what had caught her attention the first time. The smoothness of the walls seemed so out of place. It looked like they had been worn down by the passage of water. Only there was no way that was possible up here at this elevation. Perhaps down on the valley floor. There was a huge gorge that went between the mountains, heading back toward Drake’s Crossing, which ran high and rough in the spring when meltwater flowed down from the peaks.
She walked in deeper, wondering what had become of all the various rock formations that should have dotted such a large opening. Nature was weird though, and she knew it wouldn’t be the first time it had acted one way when it should have gone another.
Behind her the sun erupted from behind some of the intermittent cloud cover that was dotting the sky today, shining deep into the cave, providing her with extra ambient lighting. Aimee shielded her eyes as a sudden glare reached her.
“What the hell?” Her eyes were drawn to the far side of the cavern as she tried to identify the source. Walking over, she realized that what she’d assumed to just be a boulder was actually a pile of shiny stones.
Weird. How did they all get…
The earth shook again slightly and one of the “stones” rattled and slid to the floor, becoming impaled by her flashlight.
It wasn’t stone. Aimee gasped as the burnished yellow gold bar glittered in the sunlight. She picked it up, turning it over several times, until her brain gave her a gentle reminder that this was but one small piece of the pile.
“Oh…oh my.” She kept repeating that over and over again as her eyes picked out one pile after another scattered through the back of the cavern. “Oh dear.”
She needed to tell Angel. He would know what to do, how to handle it. All Aimee knew was that they were rich. Rich beyond her wildest dreams. They could buy a helicopter that worked now! And new gear, and hire more team members, and replace the cots with something that didn’t feel like stone. And…and…
“He’s never going to believe me,” she muttered. “I need proof. This isn’t enough.” She twirled the one bar in her hand. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled her phone out and stepped back, trying to get the right angle with the light.
“Dammit,” she cursed as the light dulled once more. “Get back out from behind those clouds,” she yelled, utterly absorbed in her find. “Stop hiding!”
The cavern was suddenly thrown into darkness as even the ambient light from the day disappeared. Aimee spun around, wondering how the hell Angel and the others had managed to prank her this time. It was only as her mind registered what it was seeing did she realize one tiny detail.
She hadn’t heard the helicopter come back.
“Very well,” a deep, flowing voice replied as it filled the cavern. “I am no longer hiding.”
Aimee swallowed and remained very, very still. Maybe if she didn’t move, it wouldn’t see her.