He found the machine in a cupboard. Dawson brought it to the small table, pulled out a chair, and turned it on.
Hallelujah, it still had battery juice. He lifted the antenna.Please work,please work.
The radio buzzed and crackled. Once upon a time, his grandfather had one of these, but of course he couldn’t drag upthatuseful memory.
He didn’t touch the frequency—certainly they had it set for Copper Mountain.
“Um, hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me? I have an emergency. Come in.”
A crackle, and in a moment. “This is AL7SKY, I read you loud and clear. Who is this?”
“It’s Dawson Mulligan.”
“Dawson. It’s Echo Kingston. Read me the call sign on the front of your radio.”
He leaned down to read the faded tag. “It’s AL7RAC, Alpha Lima 7 Romeo Alpha Charlie.”
“Gotcha. Please go ahead with the details of your emergency. Over.”
“I need Moose. There’s a little girl at Woodcrest who fell and might have internal bleeding. As soon as he can get a chopper or a plane up, she needs evac.”
“Understood, AL7RAC. Moose is at the police station, working calls. Want me to call him?”
“Yes.”
“Stay on the line.”
He blew out a breath, then pulled his chair up to the fire and held his hand to it.C’mon,Moose—
“Dawson.” His cousin’s voice emerged through the speaker, a little grainy, and Dawson guessed Echo held the phone to her mic. “You okay? Sully said he left you at Woodcrest.”
“Yeah. We’re good. I found the passenger that Caspian ran after. A woman. She’s safe.” It occurred to him then that maybe Keely might want someone to know that. Like ... Vic?
Or maybe not his news to tell.
“What’s going on with this little girl?”
“She hit a tree sledding, and the nurse on-site thinks she might have internal bleeding.”
“Where are you?”
“Sully’s place—no, actually, I’m at the cache cabin about two clicks west. But I’m headed back to the Bowie Outpost. But ... have you heard from Sully? There was blood—”
“Yeah. Sully and Kennedy are in town.” A sigh on his end, then, “Kennedy lost her baby.”
Dawson closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. He nearly lost her too. Can you sit tight for a day? I’ll get out there as soon as I can. Storm’s dying, but I’m losing my ceiling. I’ll barely make it to Woodcrest and back.”
“Yeah. I’m good.” Maybe better than that.
“Good to hear your voice, coz. Not going to say I was worried. Sully briefed us on your whereabouts. But...”
“Moose, have you heard anything about the Sorros brothers being around?”
A pause. “No.”
“Keely—the woman from the plane—says that a guy named Thornwood took that plane down at gunpoint. Wilder Frost was on the plane.”
