Page 49 of Double Exposure

My mother loved him very much. He died of bone cancer, an extraordinary painful death. This makes Brock ask us questions I think he normally wouldn’t have.

“Are you falling for her?”

I do a double-take. Without alcohol he goes right for the question. “What?”

“Oh, you are,” he says and there’s a faint smile. Then his face becomes set. “Do you have any idea what time she left?”

“Her mother was asleep.”

“Thanks,” says Ryan into his phone. He shoves it back into a pocket. “I got it. I know where she is.”

΅

According to Ryan’s biologist friend, there’s a series of shallow caves three miles from where we found Ken Choi. Out here, a chopper can be heard up to a mile away, which is critical for everyone’s safety: bears can startled from torpor and become enraged, disoriented or even die.

We need to land and cut engines.

As soon as Brock figures we are about a mile from the first boulder cave, he turns to me. “Let's pull up. I don't want to get too close. I don't want them to hear the chopper. There’s no place to land here. Do you want to drop in?”

“I do, but we might need to make a fast get-away.”

Jace rises and points to a ledge I can’t quite make out. He hands me the binoculars.

“Brock could drop you and then loop around and come in from the west. Ry and I could take the two caves further down and you could take the first one.” He claps Brock on the shoulder. “Just set her down between the two spots—then we can all make it back.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

It only takes another five minutes for me to drop using the winch line. Brock holds the Bell steady as I make my way down to the ground. Jace retracts the winch and the chopper disappears over the treetops.

I land, sinking immediately up to my knees. I pull the snowshoes off my back and strap a snowshoe to each foot. I've got the GPS coordinates Ryan’s friend suggested, still on my phone.

I turn, position the red blinking light in the direction I want to head in and start. As long as I keep to the left of the mountain headed toward sunrise, I’m traveling in the right direction.

A hawk cries twice overhead. A deer bounds ahead, unaware I’m even here. Everything is silent.

And that's when I hear a scream.