Chasing Fire by Pamela Clare

Author:Pamela Clare [Clare, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9987491-9-8
Publisher: Pamela Clare

Joaquin rode in the back of the truck, the mood somber since Hawke had gotten the call on the radio about the kids’ camp—and his missing friend. Brandon Silver had explained the situation to Joaquin quietly.

Hawke had asked his best friend, a park ranger named Austin Taylor, to search for someone named Bear. The fire had burned through the area where Taylor had gone, and no one had heard from him since. The fire had also burned through a canyon where more than sixty people, most of them children, had been trapped. The people Hawke had sent to rescue the kids hadn’t been heard from either.

Madre de Dios.

Joaquin didn’t want to imagine what might have just happened—people, including children, dying of smoke inhalation or being burned to death. The thought put a knot in his stomach, the mental images it conjured too horrible even to consider.

He turned his mind back to his work, scrolling through the images on his camera. Firefighters using drip torches to start the backburn, the sky beyond them gray with smoke. An exhausted firefighter taking a drink, sweat beading on her soot-blackened face. Firefighters looking up at the helicopter as it arrived for its first water drop.

Then Joaquin came to it—the shot that told the story.

Hawke stood with his boots planted firmly in the black, sunglasses in hand, glaring at the hundred-foot-tall wall of fire as it raced toward the backburn, as if trying to put out the blaze through force of will alone.

The exposure was perfect. The contrast in colors—the yellow of his shirt and green of his pants against the black beneath his feet and the orange wall of flame—made it pop. The composition was pretty solid, too.

It was his pick for the front page—so far.

“Great shot.”

Joaquin looked up from the camera to find Silver looking over his shoulder. “Thanks.”

Silver kept his voice low. “So, you’re friends with Gabe Rossiter?”

Joaquin nodded. “Good friends.”

“Is he as crazy as he seems when it comes to the climbing shit?”

Joaquin couldn’t help but smile. “Crazier.”

“I believe it.”

Now it was Joaquin’s turn to ask a question. “Do you have family in town, people trying to evacuate while you’re up here?”

Silver’s brows drew together in a frown. “A girlfriend—or maybe she’s not my girlfriend. Hell, I don’t know. It’s complicated. Her house is gone. I want to call her to see how she’s doing and make sure she’s safe, but I left my phone at the firehouse.”

Joaquin held out his. “You can borrow mine.”

“Thanks, man.” Silver took the phone, typed in a number, left a short message. “She didn’t answer.”

“She probably didn’t recognize the number.”

“Yeah.” But there was worry on Silver’s face.

What a terrible thing to be split between duty and the desire to protect loved ones.

In the front passenger seat, Hawke was speaking to someone with his hand mic.

“He’s talking with the super of the hotshot crew,” Silver explained. “They’re meeting us at Ski Scarlet.”

Any word about the kids or Taylor?

Joaquin wanted to ask but couldn’t. He didn’t want to distract anyone, least of all Hawke, who had the weight of the world on his shoulders right now.

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