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‘Who?’ David frowned. ‘Ellie? Where is she? Yes, okay, I’ll put him on.’
He passed the phone to Kane. ‘Someone called Jock for you.’
‘Jock?’ Kane turned into the lodge and parked in the front car park. ‘Fuck. When? Where?’
Kane focused on his breathing, drawing the air in deep and letting it out slowly as the panic built in his chest. ‘No, it’s too far to drive. I’ll take the other helicopter up.’
David stared at him, waiting for him to finish.
‘How long till the national park helicopter can get there? Okay, I’ll radio in when we’re in the air.’
Kane shoved the phone into his pocket and opened the door. He beckoned David to follow him and they ran through the lodge towards the flight centre. ‘Ellie took a chopper up and she sent a mayday call about ten minutes ago. Jock said she was out of fuel and in autorotation. And she said there was a pregnant woman needing assistance. She’s found Gina. I hope to hell they’re okay.’
‘Thank God.’ David hurried along beside Kane, ignoring the curious looks of the tourists. ‘What’s autorotation?’
‘It’s a controlled crash.’ Kane briefly closed his eyes at the thought of what could go wrong. ‘But she’s a damn fine pilot. She should be right.’
‘He didn’t say anything else?’
‘No. The national park mob has got a crew heading out there. But we’re closer. We’ll get there first.’
They reached the gate next to the hangar. ‘Shit, it’s padlocked and I don’t have my keys with me. No time to get them.’ Kane hoisted himself up on the wire fence and climbed to the top, bracing himself for the jarring pain in his hip as he landed on the concrete below. He waited for David to follow.
Kane focused on the R44 sitting on the tarmac in front of him. He walked around it slowly, checking the skids and the rotor blades before opening the cowl on the fuel tank. His eyes widened when he spotted the piece of hose.
‘There’s very little fuel left in this tank. That bastard who was here yesterday must have interfered with the helicopters. I’d say the same thing was done to Ellie’s.’
Although the delay frustrated him, Kane took his time preparing for the flight. He refuelled the chopper and did another thorough pre-flight check before he was satisfied that the bird was safe to take up. Knowing the helicopter had been tampered with filled him with cold anger and he used that anger to fight the trepidation that threatened.
As he did the final check, the faces of Hawk, and Dirk and Jerry, filled his mind. They were gone and he was damn lucky to be alive. Shutting down the part of his life that he’d once loved wouldn’t change anything. Anticipation flooded through him; the desire to be up in the air again.
‘Okay, right to go. Climb in.’ He shut the door behind David after he’d climbed into the passenger seat.
As he checked the instruments, Kane was surprised at how calm he felt. His hands were steady when he passed over the headset to David, and he slipped his own on once David was ready.
‘Can you hear me okay?’
David nodded and Kane lifted the right side of his headset away and opened the right hand door as he started up the engine.
Exhilaration rushed through him as the bird lifted into the sky. He was totally focused on getting to Ellie. The first tremor ran through him when he imagined her lying broken in the wreckage. But this time he refused to give in to the fear.
Chapter 35
7.20 am Saturday
Darwin CBD
‘What do you mean, she’s not fucking there?’ Russell Fairweather was sitting in the Cove restaurant of the Skycity Hotel in Darwin, waiting for his appointment to join him for a breakfast meeting. A couple looked at him curiously from the next table and he lowered his voice and smiled politely. ‘Where is she?’ he hissed.
‘She got away. The back door’s open and there’s no sign of her. What do you want me to do?’
‘Go and find her, of course. If you lose her, trust me, you will be very, very sorry. Now –’
Before he could finish, a strange sound came through the phone. ‘Holy shit. You’ll never believe what’s just happened.’
‘What?’
‘Ellie Porter has just crashed her helicopter in the river.’
