The Challenge(22)
“Are they likely to have any tools with them, or camping equipment? Could they have been planning to spend the night and just didn’t tell you? Kids don’t always share their plans with us,” Harvey said with a smile, and they all shook their heads.
“I think they would have told us,” Anne volunteered.
He asked what kind of food and water supplies they had, and who had been responsible for it. Tom answered that Juliet had been making a stack of sandwiches that she took with her. And Anne guessed that they probably had about six large bottles of water, and maybe some canteens.
“So they would have been all right for food and water last night,” Harvey estimated. Marlene guessed that Noel would have about two days of insulin left in his pump, or maybe less, and she didn’t believe he had a spare on him, although he should have. She said that Justin was well versed in emergency procedures for problems with Noel’s diabetes. Most of them knew what their children had been wearing. Pitt told Harvey about the little scrap of red plaid fabric he’d seen snagged on a branch, and Anne confirmed it was the shirt their son was wearing. He asked Tom some details about Juliet, what she was wearing, her height and weight, how strong and athletic she was, and if she’d done any rock or mountain climbing previously. Harvey jotted down a few notes, but committed most of it to memory. All seven of them were his highest priority at the moment, and he knew everything he needed to know about them. All of the parents were adamant that neither drugs nor alcohol would have been a part of their plan.
“We think they just started hiking up a trail to check things out, went farther than they meant to, and got stuck somewhere,” Pitt said simply.
“One of them could be injured, and the others are trying to help, which would slow them all down,” Harvey explained to them. “And if they crossed the riverbed, which the fragment of plaid fabric suggests, then their return by the same route would have been impossible after the flash flood when the riverbed filled. We’ve got fires burning on the other side of Granite Peak, but they couldn’t have gone far enough for that to be a problem. The fires are moving slowly and are contained at the moment. Unfortunately, the rainfall didn’t happen on that side of the mountain, so it didn’t help us with the fires, but I don’t think that’s our prime risk at the moment. I’m more concerned about the ravines, or something untoward, like their disturbing a mother bear and a cub in a cave. We’re going to be looking very closely with our recon planes. I think it’s very unlikely we won’t have them home by tonight, with a whole new respect for wandering around the mountains without adult supervision, adequate supplies, and a plan.” He smiled at them.
“We’ll be going up the mountain on horseback too. I’ll be with them, and we’ll all be connected by radios, so we’ll be in constant contact with you. I’m going to leave a radio with each of you today, set to our frequency. You’ll hear the folks in the recon planes too, so you’ll know as much as we do at all times.”
“Could Bill and I ride up with you?” Pitt asked, and Harvey hesitated. He knew what excellent riders they were, but it could be emotional for them if any or all of the seven were severely injured or worse. He couldn’t rule that out.
“I think you’d be better off here,” he said, “but I won’t stop you if that’s what you want to do.” Pitt nodded and looked at Bill, who nodded too. They wanted to be on the ground, helping with the search. Maybe they would recognize some scrap of something that one of the rangers and rescuers might miss.
The chief ranger spent three quarters of an hour with them, and then he glanced at his watch and stood up. “We want to get on the road as soon as we can, and in the air. We’re set to start in half an hour.” He signaled to his driver from the kitchen door, and he came in with a box of radios, one for each of them, and showed them how to operate them. They were already on the frequency, listening to communications about preparations. They were taking several additional horses with them, in case some of the young people would need to ride to an area where the helicopters could pick them up. They had a dozen paramedics in the medevac plane, and Saint Vincent Healthcare hospital in Billings had been notified and were ready for them. They had a very efficient trauma unit. Most of their rescue missions happened in winter during snowstorms, with hypothermia and icy conditions involved. Summer rescues were rare and they hadn’t had one in several years.
They all followed Harvey to the door and thanked him. Marlene was rushing back to Bob, to relieve the hospice nurse. Bill and Pitt agreed to a meeting place where they would join up with Harvey and the rangers on horseback. June had patients to see in her office and was going to keep the radio on. And Anne invited Tom to spend the day with her and Pattie, while they waited for progress reports from the search in the air and on the ground. Then Harvey stopped on his way out as he thought of something else.
“I almost forgot. Press. If we don’t find them pretty fast, this is going to turn into the hottest story of the hour. It could go national, which means we’ll have news trucks, reporters, and cameras all over town, and in your faces. Brace yourself for that. It’s always best not to get tangled up with them, and best not to comment. They’ll put words in your mouth whenever they can, and once they get caught up in the technical aspects of a rescue, they cause a lot of confusion and slow us down. You’re free to talk to them if you want to, of course, but I always prefer to keep it to a minimum. As far as I’m concerned, nothing good ever comes from too much contact with the press.” Harvey knew too, the press’s involvement would also depend on whether there were fatalities or not. If there were, it would be an even bigger story, and it would make headlines everywhere.