Gale Force

50

The Coast Guard’s Dolphin arrived on scene after twenty long minutes. The AST took another twenty minutes to make his way down the access stairway to where McKenna waited with Harrington.

The architect hadn’t opened his eyes. McKenna checked his pulse again; it was weak, but it was there. The way Court’s vision swam as he’d looked at her, though, McKenna figured it was decent odds he had a head injury. Broken bones, definitely. Figured it was a coin flip whether he ever walked again.

The AST touched down beside McKenna. “Guess you guys got the same wave we did. Had to be thirty feet, easy.”

McKenna said nothing. The AST looked Harrington over. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “Sit tight. I’m going to get the medevac board down here.”

It was another twenty minutes before the board arrived. One hour since the fall now. McKenna could feel the minutes slipping away, just as fast as they’d passed with her dad in the water.

Come on, come on, come on.

Matt Jonas lowered the board from the top of the access stairs. It was long and unwieldy, and it banged and crashed against the walls of the stairway as it dropped. McKenna wondered how the hell they would get Court out without hurting him any further.

The AST laid out the board. With McKenna’s help, he got Harrington situated. The architect still hadn’t regained consciousness. He was breathing, but barely.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” the AST told McKenna. “You’re going to climb back up to that hatch, and you and your partners are going to haul this guy up. I’m going to climb up alongside him, steady the board, make sure he doesn’t crash into these walls too hard. Then we’ll do it again up the second set of stairs.”

“Roger that,” McKenna said, reaching for the rope. She looked back at Harrington. “Just be careful, okay?”

The AST didn’t look up from the medevac board. “I’ll look out for him,” he said. “You get going.”

McKENNA CLIMBED AS FAST as she could. Tried to cover the ground without clipping herself in, but then another wave hit and knocked her sideways, nearly knocked her clean off the line. She closed her eyes, saw Harrington falling, heard the thud as the architect hit the deck. Opened her eyes and reached for her carabiner and clipped herself in all the way to the top.

Stacey was with Matt at the top of the stairs. She stood back as Matt and McKenna began to pull Harrington skyward. The whiz kid wasn’t so heavy, not with two people hauling him, and somehow this struck McKenna where it hurt.

The most important member of the team, and you couldn’t lay off him. God help you if he’s dead because of you.

Slowly, Matt and McKenna hoisted the medevac board to the access hatch while the AST climbed beside. Harrington’s eyes were still closed when he came through the hatchway. Stacey stifled a gasp, her hand to her throat.

The AST paused at the bulkhead. “One more time,” he told McKenna and Matt. “You got enough left in the tank?”

“If they don’t, I do,” Stacey told him. But her husband was already following McKenna up the line.

The wind howled outside as McKenna reached the surface. The helicopter hovered overhead, buffeted by the gale. The sky was the same dull gray, the clouds hanging low, the wind whipping more froth off the water.

Ridley helped McKenna to her feet. Took the rope and helped her and Matt pull Harrington to the surface.

The job seemed to take hours. The wind attacked in force. McKenna heaved on the line and tried to fight the feeling that the whole job had just gone to hell.

Finally, Harrington was on deck. The AST climbed after him, signaled to the crew of the Dolphin to lower the hauling wire. It took the flight mechanic a couple of tries with the wind. The wire flew everywhere, landing thirty feet away. McKenna and Matt ran to it, dragged it back to the AST and Harrington, helped the AST clip the medevac board to the guy wire, and watched as the mechanic winched Harrington skyward.

The AST was next to go. McKenna gripped his arm. “How bad is it?”

“We’ll give him the best we’ve got, ma’am,” the AST replied, avoiding her eyes. “If our guys can fix him, they will.”