There was the sound again. Yes, it was definitely there.
“Captain, I think someone’s out there. Or on top of us!”
Bright light suddenly broke through the window on her side. A snow shovel tossed more snow and ice away from her door.
Luna pressed her face against the window, noticing she couldn’t feel her right arm anymore.
But it didn’t matter. Rescue had come!
Chapter 31
Erin knew they were in trouble. The Chief was a whirlwind of paperwork, phone calls, and planning. Every flat surface in the office was covered with maps and notes. She’d dragged in a folding table and taped long pieces of paper over the windows to serve as a makeshift incident command.
Baker was swearing a blue streak on the radio at the nursing home. The captain of 19 had done a terrible job deploying his resources. His communications were unfinished, and he never identified the units he had in the field. They couldn’t get a sense of casualties or teams. Even more, they were constantly interrupted by minor 911 calls that kept appearing on Baker’s phone since he was the only chief available.
She had made contact with Kyra Yates and sent them a snowplow early on. Engine 15’s snowplow went to the closest battalion chief. Hopefully, the authority figure would reorder the mess. It didn’t sound like there had been any deaths because the cafeteria had been empty of patients at the time.
The single positive occurrence was that somehow, Jacob Carver ended up triaging the evac. The garbled transmissions they got from him did not describe severe burns or deaths. MetroGen reluctantly agreed to take the sickest patients, as their resources were strained to the breaking point.
Kyra Yates warned them she was pulling in and identified the apparatus present. Erin started writing them down on with a Sharpie, adding to their preliminary list they’d cobbled together from Dispatch and snippets of conversations from the scene.
She’d finished her list when Baker said to Yates, “Are you sure that’s it?”
His tone was weird. She spun around to see him staring at her list. His face was unreadable.
Baker cleared it away. “Hudgens, I want you to call Dispatch and confirm the location of all staff assigned to the MVA on Route 480. Then contact everyone individually.”
“Yes, sir.”
He went back to communicating with Yates on the evacuation of Briar Hill. Erin spent ten more minutes making phone calls and came back with information she didn’t like.
“Chief Baker, I have accounted for all staff at the MVA except Ladder 15.”
He seemed even less happy now and contacted Dispatch. “I need you to locate Ladder 15. Begin checking all channels and call the cell phones on file for Luna Rodriguez and Jacen Williams.”
He stepped over to the large map he had spread out on the table. It was covered with marks of firehouses that had reported in and the roads they had opened up to the nursing home. Baker used a red pen to circle the location of the accident.
“They’re missing?” Erin asked quietly.
“The weather might be interfering with their communications,” he said in his too neutral poker face. A communications failure was an unlikely explanation, and they both knew it. He examined the map for a few seconds and gave an order. “Contact these three firehouses. Get them out and headed to the closest exit to 480. Tell them to begin searching for Ladder 15.”
“They are missing,” Erin confirmed.
“I don’t know that. Their last order was to report to Briar Hill. Yates is our first source of good information. It’s possible that they parked farther away because of snow and came in on foot.”
That didn’t sound like Williams. He never would have left the captain of 19 in charge of a scene.
The firehouses responded and were in the midst of digging out with their reduced staff. Erin called two of the plows and sent them backtracking to those other firehouses. Then she made contact with Vanessa who confirmed Ladder 15 had not arrived on scene.
“They disappeared into thin air?” Erin said, worry creeping in and not just about Ladder 15.
“They have to be somewhere.” Baker narrowed his eyes. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, sir. Let me coordinate the search.” Erin busied herself with his notes and the map.
He stepped up next to her. “Hudgens, what’s going on?” Now his eyes were penetrating hers with the same power he’d used the first day they met.
She couldn’t betray her team, but she couldn’t lie either. “Vanessa answered the radio.”
