“Just an official mission,” Dan called back vaguely.
“You mean there are people around who still care about stuff like that?” the copilot threw in.
The Sikorsky rose and began turning. Only now was Keene able to begin collecting his swimming thoughts. . . . And suddenly his mind rebelled as the words that he had just heard replayed themselves. “El Paso in two hours . . .” No! This was all wrong! He turned to look at Mitch, but the soldier’s face was set impassively, staring ahead at the windshield. Keene looked at Dan. Dan was looking forward between the crew seats, scanning the instruments—as if to distract himself.
Keene remembered the look on Furle’s face when they had left him in charge of the group on the mountain. Furle didn’t really know Mitch, and he hadn’t been sure if he could trust him. Keene didn’t know Mitch either, he realized. And what little he had seen cast Mitch as one who confronted brutal realities. Was this his way not only of saying that there was only one realistic option for them to take now, but presenting it as a fait accompli? Keene tried to moisten his cracked lips, asking himself if he could accept it. In his weakened condition, he simply wasn’t up to a face-off with somebody like Mitch. He glanced at Colby, and from the concerned look on Colby’s face could see that he was wrestling with the same problem. Maybe it was time, Keene told himself. Eventually, one way or another, they were all going to have to learn hardness. Was that what Mitch was telling them?
The blank wall of orange-pink outside brightened as the chopper climbed. Takeoff complete, the engine noise settled back to its cruising level.
And then Mitch said, “Oh, there’s just one more thing. We have another group to pick up. They’re about ten miles back the other way, where our plane came down. Twenty of ’em.” At the last count there had actually been twenty-five. But the Sikorski had plenty of room to spare.
The pilot raised a hand and shook his head. “Sorry. We’re on a tight schedule. I hate to say it, but twenty isn’t any big deal one way or another in all this.”
“This twenty happen to be important to us,” Mitch told him.
“Everybody’s got someone who’s important. Like I said, sorry, but this isn’t a taxi service. I’m under orders to return directly to El Paso. They don’t say anything about going the other way.”
Mitch produced his automatic and pointed it. “Now you have orders,” he said.
The copilot turned around sharply, his arm reaching out reflexively, but Dan produced another pistol and eased him back. Several of the other passengers started in alarm, but none seemed prepared to risk interfering. It seemed Mitch and Dan had planned it. “Go on, pull it,” the pilot challenged, showing his teeth. “Then the only way you’re going to get back down is as a piece of jelly.”
Mitch turned his head toward Dan. “How long did you fly choppers in the Air Force?” he asked casually.
“Oh, five or six years, probably.” That was news. Keene had never heard Dan mention anything about choppers.
“You reckon you could handle this bird?”
“Sure. No problem.”
Mitch looked back at the pilot. “Sometimes things work two ways,” he said him. “I hate to say it, but one pilot isn’t any big deal to me one way or another in all this. It’s your call.”
There was a long, agonized silence. Finally, the pilot sighed. “Okay, you’ve got it. Ten miles? Which way do I go?”
“Back along I-10 past the crater, then over a ridge to the left a couple of miles farther along. Stay in sight of the ground, and I’ll direct you from there.”
43
When the rain turned their shelter into a torrent, the group left on the mountain had abandoned the ravine and made a new refuge for themselves underneath the surviving parts of the Rustler. Jed was still cheerful and had been making himself useful cleaning cutlery and pots and talking to the injured. Joan was hanging on but needed surgery urgently. Two of the ones left hadn’t pulled through: the man with the head injuries and fractures whose chances hadn’t looked good when Keene and the others left, and a soldier with his back broken in the crash. In addition, three more were missing through a tragedy of a different kind.