Читать книгу Turbulence - Dana Mentink - Страница 11

Breaking free of her numbing paralysis, she ran, falling and floundering, through the snow. He was so covered with black that she could not tell his identity at first, until she saw the twisted glasses lying next to him.

Dr. Wrigley.

Not allowing herself to acknowledge the keen surge of disappointment, she rolled him over as gently as she could, to prevent him from suffocating in the snow. His eyelids fluttered as he came to.

“What…?”

“Our plane crashed. Are you badly injured?”

He blinked and struggled to sit up. She considered pushing him back to keep him from further injury, but exposure to the icy ground would kill him as certainly as any internal damage. She helped him sit up.

He clutched a hand to his front. “I think my clavicle is broken.”

She didn’t dare peel away any layers of clothing to assess. “We’ve got to get to shelter somehow. Have—did you see what happened to Paul or the other passenger?”

Wrigley gently bent his glasses back into position and put them on. “No. I didn’t see anyone inside. But the smoke was so thick.”

He scrambled to his knees, sliding against the slick surface as she helped him to his feet. They moved to the shelter of a copse of fir trees.

Maddie made sure he was not going into shock before she turned away. “I’m going back. Stay here.”

Wrigley stiffened as if he wasn’t used to taking orders. “Going back in there? The plane is on fire. We need to stay away before it blows.”

The flames were visible now, dancing through the shattered windows.

“Not until I know about the survivors and I get my father’s heart.”

He didn’t raise a hand to stop her, and she moved quickly toward the burning wreck.

The smoke was thicker now, as she approached the threshold. An overnight bag flew out the opening, almost knocking her over.

Another followed.

“Hey,” she managed.

Tai Jaden appeared in the opening. He gaped at her.

“You made it.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe anybody did. The plane is shredded.”

“Dr. Wrigley is alive.” She watched him pull out blankets and toss them onto the snow. “What are you doing?”

“We’ve gotta get any warm clothes and supplies out of here before it goes up in flames.”

“I need the Berlin Heart.”

His eyes glittered in the dim light. “I’ll get it.”

“Where’s Paul? Have you seen him?”

“The tall guy who was with Dr. Wrigley?”

“Yes.”

Jaden looked around, prowling between the piles of loosened seats. “He’s not in here. Could have been thrown out when the plane cracked apart. Some of the seats are just plain gone, from what I can see. The rear is hard to get to, but maybe I can access it from the tail end. I’ll look for the box, and then we’ll find him.” Jaden disappeared back inside.

Maddie’s mind raced. Then Paul might be lying somewhere in the snow, covered by wreckage. Had she passed right by him and not known? She felt a surge of anger. He shouldn’t have even been on the plane. He had no reason to be a part of her life anymore.

Still, she strained her eyes through the smoke and the curtain of snow that had begun to fall. He’d been right behind her, or so she’d thought, but it was clear he was not in the wreckage now. The side they’d sat on was crushed against the ground. Had he been thrown clear? The only way to get a good look was to move around to the other side of the plane. Floundering in deep pockets of snow, she traced the perimeter of the tail end, though the rudder appeared to have been sheared off. The smoke nearly blinded her, and she kept her head down to avoid breathing the toxic fumes.

The crackle of flames grew louder, along with the sound of Jaden throwing bags off the plane. He would find the Berlin Heart; and if he didn’t she would get it herself, after she found Paul. She tried to move faster, but the snow seemed to pull her down. The glint of glass shone in the sunlight, and Maddie arrived at the cockpit.

The pilots.

She realized with a start that she hadn’t given a thought to their fate.

Teeth clenched, she peered in.

The glass was veined with cracks, the far door twisted off, allowing cold air to find its way in. There was no one inside.

More missing people, she thought.

A sound caught her attention, a half shout that died away abruptly. It came from the bottom of a small, snow-covered hill. She didn’t wait to hear more. Trying to run, Maddie slipped and skidded until she crested the hill and looked down to find two men, one prone, one on his knees.

Terror filled her, thick and weighty, as she tumbled toward them.

Paul looked up from his examination of the pilot, and felt a relief so profound he thought it might drown him. For a moment, he couldn’t get the words out. “Maddie. I looked everywhere to find you. I thought…”

Maddie closed her eyes for a moment and wrapped her arms around herself. He thought he saw tears glistening on her face, but decided it must be the dazzle of sun and snow.

She was alive. Alive. He wanted to grab hold and crush her in his arms, but instead he continued to monitor the pilot’s breathing, his hands suddenly shaking. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay. Jaden is, too. Wrigley’s hurt, but alive. What about you?”

He felt buoyed by the thought that the four of them had miraculously survived. “Couple of cracked ribs, I think. I was looking for you and I found the pilot wandering. The copilot is dead. I saw him under a chunk of wreckage, but I couldn’t move it.”

The pilot’s face was ashen, and his lips moved.

Paul bent low. “I’m here, buddy. Right here. You’re going to be okay.”

His lips moved several times before the words came out. “I think…coffee was drugged.”

Paul looked at Maddie, whose face showed shock and disbelief.

“Did he say…?” Maddie started.

Paul gently lifted the man’s eyelids. “His pupils are dilated. It could be from a narcotic or a concussion.” Drugged? He didn’t have time to think more about it as the pilot’s breathing died and his heartbeat fluttered to a halt. The man was in cardiac arrest. Paul immediately began chest compressions.

Maddie knelt next to him and gave the man two breaths.

They kept up a full cycle of CPR before Maddie felt for a pulse. “Nothing.”

Paul continued, feeling guilty that he was so happy to see Maddie while a man lay in cardiac arrest before him. He couldn’t stop himself from thinking it. Thank You, God, for sparing her life. Above all things, he did not want to find her dead or dying in the wreckage. And now she knelt next to him, cheeks pink, breath making puffs in the cold air.

Maddie was alive. When he brought the pilot back, there would be only one fatality from the horrific crash. They’d wait for rescue. They would all survive.

He was so lost in the feeling, he didn’t hear her at first.

“Still no heartbeat.”

Paul blinked. “What?”

Maddie gestured to the pilot. “No heartbeat, Paul. Nothing.”

Jaden joined them. “Took me a while to find you. What can I do?”

Paul waited to answer until Maddie was giving the rescue breaths. “Do you have any medical training?”

“No, I’m just a Heartline rep.”

Paul nodded. “Can you find a tarp or piece of plastic? Anything we can use to get him off this snow?”

Jaden hesitated a moment before he disappeared over the rise.

Maddie touched Paul’s arm. “Paul, I don’t think you’re going to save him.”

Paul shook his head. “Hasn’t been down that long. I can get him started.” Though his arms were aching with fatigue, and each movement aggravated his ribs and made the wounds on his back sting, Paul kept on. “One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand,” he counted with each thrust of his hands on the man’s chest.

Maddie gave the next set of breaths, though the urgency seemed to have gone out of her. Didn’t matter. She wasn’t a doctor. She didn’t know the wildly persistent quality of human life. He’d seen people in comas suddenly wake up when doctors said there was no hope. He’d known small children to survive inhuman conditions with smiles on their faces.

A part of him filled in the rest.

And you’ve also seen plenty of people you couldn’t save with any amount of effort.

Not this time.

The pilot’s name was N. Fisher. The man thought he had been drugged, if he’d heard right, yet somehow the guy had managed to get them down alive. Paul recalled the scuffle he’d heard in the cabin and wondered about the copilot’s part in the crash. He steeled his arms and did the compressions more aggressively.

The next time he looked up, Jaden was there, and Dr. Wrigley.

Dr. Wrigley looked at him from behind glasses that sat slightly cockeyed on his face. “Dr. Ford, your patient is gone. You need to call it.”

“No,” Paul said, feeling his stomach clench. “I can get him back.”

“Four-one-thousand, five-one-thousand.” His shoulder muscles screamed at him, his injured ribs stabbing at him with every movement. The end of the cycle came and he looked to Maddie. Her face was damp with tears.

“It’s over, Paul.”

Anger surged inside him. “I’m a doctor. I know when it’s time to quit. I say I can save him.”

He pushed past her and administered the two rescue breaths himself. When he returned for compressions, Dr. Wrigley took a step forward and gripped his upper arm with surprising strength.

“Dr. Ford, the pilot is dead. There is no hope of resuscitation, in spite of your efforts.” He looked at his watch. “The time of death is ten-fifteen a.m.”

Paul looked at them and read it in their faces. He knew they were right. He was not going to make a save this time. Despair rose inside, along with a deep fatigue. He slowly got to his feet and Jaden stepped forward with a blanket he’d retrieved, draping the body against the falling snow.

Paul stood, hands on hips. “His name was Fisher. I saw it on his ID tag. He saved us.”

Maddie looked at the ground when she spoke. “You did your best.”

The irony cut deep. I did my best for your nieces, too.

Had he?

The question that had tormented him every day since the crash surfaced again. Had he done everything medically possible for the children? Was there something he’d overlooked because he’d been distracted by another accident victim, his brother? He’d replayed the events second by painful second in his mind, without achieving any clarity. The bald facts were that today the children were gone, Bruce Lambert was hanging on by his fingernails and Paul’s brother, Mark, was in perfect health.

A cold wind struck at them and he saw Maddie shiver. “We’ve got to get some shelter and wait for a rescue team.”

Jaden looked around. “The cabin is unstable, and there’s a fire burning in the electrical system. I salvaged what I could, but we can’t take cover there.”

Wrigley took a few steps toward the top of the hill. “There must be something nearby. A cave, a cabin—something.”

Paul considered. “I think the best bet is to move to the bottom of that rock wall. If we can find some debris to stand on, maybe some wood to make a fire, we can at least be out of the wind.”

“I’ll get the gear that survived and see if there’s anything else.” Jaden zipped his jacket up to his chin, against the biting wind.

Maddie nodded. “I’ll help. I’ve got to make sure the Berlin Heart is safe.”

An odd look crossed Jaden’s face, but Paul could not read it before the man turned and headed quickly up the hill. Maddie followed, struggling to keep up.

The Berlin Heart. He’d forgotten all about it. The rescue team might still be able to fly it to Bruce’s hospital. He looked ahead at the smoke rising from the downed plane. Had it been damaged? He didn’t allow his mind to continue the thought. One catastrophe at a time, Ford.

Before he followed Maddie up hill, he bent to one knee again and said a prayer for N. Fisher.

Dr. Wrigley stayed with the pile of singed carry-on bags while Jaden and Paul approached the plane, Maddie following. Her thoughts were fuzzy as she moved to climb on the wreckage. She’d just seen a man die, and though all she knew about him was his last name, she couldn’t ignore a feeling of loss. She wondered if Paul felt it every time he lost a patient. Maybe he felt it more keenly when he’d sacrificed one patient for the next, as he’d done with her nieces. Her father’s words rang in her memory.

He let them die, Maddie. He let the girls die.

Thinking of her dad drove all thoughts about Paul away.

Her face was stiff with cold, and she reached carefully to hold on where the metal was not sheared off razor-sharp. Smoke continued to blossom out of the shattered windows and the crackle of flames was louder now.

She was about to haul herself up when Paul stopped her.

He put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t go in there.”

His face was calm again, unmarked with the same frustration and anger she’d seen a moment before.

“I’m going, Paul.”

“Not a good idea. The smoke is toxic, you know that.”

She yanked out of his grasp. “I’m not going to let my father die.”

Jaden appeared in the opening. “Fire’s getting closer to the fuel tanks. We’ve gotta clear out.”

Maddie called over the crackling. “Did you get the heart?”

She didn’t hear his reply as a whooshing noise filled the air.

Paul grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the wreck.

She fought him, twisting and jerking. “Let go of me.”

She thought he’d listened for a moment, until she found herself draped like an ungainly package over his shoulder. Squirming did nothing to loosen his grip.

“Fight all you want, Maddie. I’m not going to let you die.”

She watched his feet crunch through the snow. “I hate you, Paul,” she stormed, angry tears bursting from her eyes.

He sighed. “I know, Mads.”

The grief in his voice startled her. Before she could say anything else, he’d lowered her to the ground next to Dr. Wrigley and started to jog back to the plane.

Maddie wanted nothing more than to march over to the plane and let him have it. She settled for kicking a mound of snow into icy smithereens.

Wrigley didn’t comment as he watched her, but she could see the corner of his mouth crimp and the thought that he was amused infuriated her all the more. He handed her a bag.

“I believe this is yours. Do you have warmer clothes in there?”

She grabbed it from his hands. “Yes. But I can wait until the plane is unloaded.”

“At least put boots on if you’ve got them.” He pointed to her feet. “Frostbite sets in quickly, and we’ve been in the snow for a while now. I’m glad I found mine.” He looked as though he was going to cry for a moment.

The emotion unsettled her. To give herself something to do, she fished through the blackened carry-on until she found socks and her snow boots. The irony stung. She’d planned a long walk with her sister after their father’s surgery was completed. A time when they could share their grief, but with the added promise of a more hopeful future.

She yanked on the boots. She’d have it all, just like she’d planned.

Though her feet were numb with the cold, it was a relief to have the thick soles between her toes and the rapidly piling snow. Dr. Wrigley stiffened, his eyes riveted to the twisted remnants of the plane.

“What?” she said, trying to follow his gaze.

She saw Jaden and Paul dive out of the opening into the pile of luggage they’d retrieved.

After a few seconds’ delay, the structure erupted into an orange fireball. It was an explosion that deafened Maddie, and she threw her hands around her head as the air became unbearably hot.

When the noise and heat subsided enough for her to raise her face, she was relieved to see Jaden and Paul heaving themselves to their feet. Each man grabbed an armful of rescued belongings and made their way back to join the others.

Maddie couldn’t wait for them to cross the hundred yards. She ran and met them, nerves tingling, stomach constricted. “Did you get it out? Did you get the Berlin Heart?”

Jaden wiped a sooty hand across his face but didn’t answer.

“Tell me,” Maddie all but shrieked. “You found it, didn’t you?”

Paul made a small movement toward her. “Yes, we found it.”

Her breath whooshed out of her, the relief so profound she could feel it in every pore of her body. “Thank goodness. Where is it?”

“Maddie…” Paul said.

They weren’t carrying the box. It must be in the pile they hurled just before the plane exploded. She darted toward the wreck, shielding her face from the heat. “I’ve got to move it away from the fire.”

Paul put the gear down and followed her. “Maddie, it’s not there.”

She continued on, eyes searching, straining for a glimpse of the metal box. “Leave me alone, Paul.”

He spoke louder. “We couldn’t get it.”

The intensity finally penetrated. “What do you mean? You said you found it.”

Paul looked at her and she could see the flames mirrored in his eyes.

“The metal shell of the tail section collapsed in on itself while we searched. It’s welded shut from the heat. We couldn’t get to it. We couldn’t save your father’s heart.”