Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Jen

" C aptain, we're two minutes out," Nick said, as we crossed over into the valley. "Looks like the Apaches are right overhead."

"Archer Zero-Nine, Dustoff, we are through the west valley and inbound to the landing zone, two minutes," I called over the radio. "Can you see the landing zone?" I asked Nick.

He was searching through his night vision goggles. "I see the flares, I have it."

I keyed the radio to Ty, our point of contact with the Green Beret team. "Jaguar Eight, Dustoff, sixty seconds out, we have the landing zone in sight."

"Dustoff, we are two hundred meters to the east, we'll be moving as soon as you set down.

"Two hundred meters? Can you see them? Look to the east," I told Nick. Two hundred meters was too far to carry a critical patient.

"I can see their InfraRed Flashers, they're at our one o'clock." All ground teams had infrared flashers during night operations. We could see them flashing from miles away under our night vision goggles, but under the naked eye you would never catch sight of them. It was one of the great things about flying at night, we always had a way of keeping track of our people.

"Dustoff, Archer one-nine, the landing zone is not safe, need you to push south until we can clear it." Sheppard's command startled me, I was already laser focused on the new place I was intending to land. The fact that he wanted me to break off was unacceptable.

"Negative Archer, patient is critical. We don't have time to wait, we're bypassing the landing zone and going straight to the patient." We didn't have time to argue. If we couldn't wait for the team to carry him two hundred yards we certainly didn't have time to go fly in circles somewhere else.

I made a slight turn to the right and started scanning for the strobes. Once I spotted their location, I made a decision. There was enough space near their position, barely. Blowing past the original landing zone, I got as close to them as I could. I pulled back on the controls to raise the nose high while simultaneously slamming the power lever down to rapidly decelerate. As we approached the new spot, I let the tail touch the ground and used it as an anchor to catch the rest of our deceleration and let the nose slam down. We were maybe twenty meters from Ty's team.

As soon as we touched down Sarah was out of the bird and helping to grab the litter carrying the injured soldier. They had been running to us before we had set down. Sarah secured him into the back, and she gave me the thumbs up as Karolyn slid the side door shut. The rest of the Green Beret team was already moving away from the helicopter, so that we could take off again. I grabbed the flight controls, ready to pull in all the power we had and get off the ground. The time from touching down to right now was maybe a minute.

Sheppard's voice came over the radio. "Dustoff, be advised, shooting's going to start any second now."

"What the fuck does that mean?" I muttered.

I saw Nick shrug out of the corner of my eye. "Nothing good," he said, eyes scanning all around us for whatever the Apaches were worried about.

A barrage of bullets answered my question. The sound of gunfire was so loud that we could hear it over the noise of the helicopter. The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. "Shit, time to go. We'll go forward and haul ass back the way we came." I started to pull up on the controls, the aircraft rising with it.

Sheppard came on again, "Dustoff, your approach path is compromised, you can't depart the same direction. Take off and break east. Depart to the east and south."

"Roger that," I growled over the radio.

Irritation flickered through me. I was about to call him back and tell him that we didn't have the time when the whole mountainside to the west became a series of explosions. My annoyance melted away as shock and an inherent need to stay alive took over. I pulled all the power we had and banked hard to the east. As we moved, through my night vision goggles I saw a streak of smoke shoot past my left door and continue on in front of us. It ended with an explosion into the ground.

"Holy shit, they just shot an RPG at us." Nick was craning his neck, looking out the back. His voice was a hoarse croak. "The Apaches are dropping a ton of rockets on the hill side. I think they got him." The amount of explosions I saw in my periphery told me they got the whole mountain. Nothing could have lived through that. We almost hadn't lived through that.

Shaking off the close call—there'd be time to worry about it later—I shot a glance over my shoulder. Sarah was working on our patient in the back, but he was still in critical condition and I needed to get him back as soon as possible. Loading him into the helicopter and the rapid maneuvering we did must have shaken loose his bandages. Blood ran like rivers off the gurney as she swiftly tied off a tourniquet and then began working on putting an IV in the man. Sarah was calm and steady despite the jostling aircraft. I always did my best to provide a smooth ride on the way back, but ultimately I was at the mercy of gunfire and air currents.

I pulled up on the flight controls, bringing the engines to max power. The helicopter screamed as the engines red lined, pressing us into the backs of our seats. My heart was threatening to beat right out of my chest. I shoved down the fear of the explosions and near miss and, with a tunnel vision like focus, hauled ass to the south, then back to base.

We landed at a helipad off the main runway where the hospital medics met us and took the patient straight to the hospital. Once they were clear we repositioned to the refuel point, refueled, hosed the blood from the helicopter, and shut down. Our part of the event was over. All we could do now was wait for the next call, or the end of shift, whichever came first.

Now that the danger was behind us and our patient was safely at the hospital, I could finally think. Sheppard was still out there. He and his team had saved us. I would have to thank him for that. It seemed he really did have my—our—best interests in mind and I was a little unfair to him. You were down right bitchy.

A few hours later Sheppard's team landed. I was still out at the aircraft. Nick, Sarah, and Karolyn were already headed back to the barracks since our shift was over. My eyes itched from exhaustion, but I had a few things to get out of the helicopter before I could head back and wind down for the night. I refused to admit to myself that I was waiting for him to get in. Looking up, I watched them taxi into their parking spaces and start to shut down. The blades weren't even done turning when I saw Sheppard jump out and head my way. I stiffened at the way he was storming forward.

Guilt, irritation, and gratitude had been eating at me all night while I waited for our shift to end. I'd started off annoyed that he'd tried to tell me how to do my job. A job I was damn good at. Then guilt had taken over when I'd realized that he had saved all our lives. I was irritated at the way he had micromanaged my exit. I shouldn't be, but that delay had nearly been enough to cost our patient his life. Irritation mixed itself in with the gratitude that they'd been there and had done their jobs well, effectively helping us to save the injured soldier, and me and my crew. We'd gotten word a few hours prior that the man would live. We always tried to follow up and find out how those we transported fared.

As Sheppard got closer, his eyes locked onto mine with laser focus. I inadvertently took a step backwards as my heart started racing. His face was as dark as a storm cloud. Gritting my teeth, I waited for him to approach. I wasn't about to back down from this conflict. Not that I wanted to go toe to toe with him.

"Captain, what the fuck was that all about? What part of ‘the landing zone isn't safe' don't you understand?" He wasn't yelling, not exactly. But his tone was enough to have the same effect. I stiffened further and glared at him. All the feelings of guilt and gratitude vanished under his verbal assault.

Truthfully, between a bad connection on the radio and tunnel vision on my injured patient, I hadn't fully acknowledged his transmission. "Excuse me, Chief ," I spat his rank at him, since we were being overly formal. "You don't get to tell me how to operate my aircraft." This hadn't been how I'd expected tonight to go. I'd been planning on thanking him for Christ's sake. How were we here, yelling at each other right now?

"You flew right through the line of fire and blew into a firefight. You nearly got your whole crew killed," his voice had dropped to a dangerous growl.

I had to repress the urge to back up. Goosebumps rose on my skin from the low timbre of his voice. I wasn't sure if I was nervous or turned on. Shoving the feeling down deep, I let anger override it.

"We didn't have time to fly around a mountain and hold!" I yelled. I was the only one of us raising our voices, but for some reason it felt like that was the only way to combat his cold calmness. "As it is, we barely got him back in time. It was a miracle that Sarah kept him together for that long. He dropped more blood on the bottom of my helicopter than can be healthy. It's your job to clear the area, it's your job to cover my ass. It's my job to get him out alive. If we had held to the south like you wanted, he would be dead. Dead!" I yelled the last word and poked him in the chest for emphasis.

He was still red in the face, but I saw him relax a little. He was relieved, despite his anger. That cooled off my temper a little. He stood straight and composed himself. He studied me for a moment before responding.

"Do you fly like this for all your patients?"

His question almost completely disarmed me. The anger bled out of me, leaving only confusion about my reaction to him. I couldn't seem to keep my composure around this man. The way he was looking at me right now, there was almost a hint of admiration there, and something else. Exhausted relief? Shaking my head in exasperation, mostly at myself, I answered, "Yes. Although that's the first time someone has actually shot at us. Hurricanes and tornadoes, sure. But yeah, I always put my patients first."

"Do you know who it was you picked up today?" he asked me, throwing me for another loop. I shook my head ‘no'. Sheppard continued, with a much softer tone. "Dozer. His name is Robert Doyle. He lives in western Kentucky and has a wife and three sons. This is his third deployment. I've been flying overhead of him and his team for five months. I know every one of those men." He rubbed his eyes, the only indication of how weary he was, and continued. "I worked with Doyle out of Kandahar four years ago. Every year his wife sends me a Christmas card, with pictures of the family. I imagine that you'll not only be getting a card every year, but a Christmas turkey to go with it. She's not the type of woman to forget. You and your crew will be heroes to her for the rest of her life."

Then why all the attitude?

He gave me a hard look as though he'd read my mind. "This isn't a game. There's no scorecard for reckless flights and narrow escapes." He backed up a few steps and continued. I relaxed further as he moved out of my space. "His wife will be forever grateful. But your crew? You nearly killed them." With that he turned and walked away. My cheeks heated with anger and embarrassment.

Sucking in an angry breath, I watched him stride away and fought the urge to scream my frustration into the night. He was right. It wouldn't have helped anyone if that insurgent had blown us out of the sky. Then we'd all be dead. I understood that. I even understood his anger. What I didn't get was why he got under my skin the way he did. I couldn't even take an ass-chewing that I deserved from him without losing my cool.

I stayed in the aircraft for a little while longer, trying to calm myself. There would be no sleep for me for some time. Doubt plagued me. The last thing I wanted was to put my crew in harm's way. That was the burden of being in charge. Sometimes, no matter what call you made, someone got hurt.