“For Hawke!”
Jesse moved off with Jenny and a couple of other guys in the brush truck. They took out the hoses that had already seen so much action today, hooked one end to a fire hydrant, and aimed the other at a row of homes that included his own.
It felt surreal to stand there dousing the place—the roof, the walls, the wooden fence, the wood pile, the trees. He couldn’t help but think of the time he and Ellie had spent inside those four walls. She’d lived here the night he’d met her. He’d carried the twins through that front door when they’d been sick with strep, and, yeah, he’d gotten sick himself. They’d lived there when he’d proposed, when they’d gotten married, when Dylan had been conceived and born.
If the fire took it all, they would rebuild—but it would hurt.
They moved to the next house and the next until they’d soaked that entire block.
Jesse wished they could get the fan guns down here and hook them up to hydrants, but he knew that wouldn’t work.
Their connections weren’t compatible with fire hydrants, and the machines only functioned with water kept under intense pressure.
But that was okay. That was all right.
They’d beat this fucker one way or another.
The big Skycrane flew overhead, hose dangling from its belly. The helicopter was working on spot fires, while the SEATs were protecting homes and bombarding the canyons that led into Scarlet, trying to bottle up the blaze.
If they could funnel the flaming front into the backburn…
The first ember landed in the grass not far from Jesse’s feet.
Still holding the big hose, he stepped to the side and stomped it out. He reached for his hand mic and called it in. “Wind is carrying embers our way.”
But Ryan had already seen and called it into Scarlet Command.
At first it was just an ember here or there, small ones carried aloft by the wind. Then spot fires started on the mountainside above them.
“Fuck!” Jenny shouted.
But Jesse had known this would happen. He heard through his earpiece when Ryan called this in, too. Scarlet Command responded by diverting one of the SEATs and the Skycrane to the spot fires above town.
Jesse looked to Jenny. “We arenotgiving up!”
“Giving up?” Jenny grinned. “Hell, we’re just getting started.”
They kept at it, drenching houses and trees in their little corner of Scarlet while the mountainside above them ignited, one spot fire at a time.
The Skycrane didn’t have far to go to refill its tank and seemed to pass overhead every few minutes, while the SEATs took much longer. Where was that fucking Supertanker?
“Three o’clock!” Jenny shouted.
Jesse looked to his right, saw that embers had ignited the leaf litter in someone’s gutter. They turned the hose on it, put it out.
But as the fires on the mountainside above them grew in size and number, it seemed to Jesse that they were fighting a losing battle.
Marc stood near the door,glancing outside every so often, the inaction wearing on him. He wanted to do something besides stand here. He wanted to get out there, to go after Rossiter and the others. Instead, he was standing here, waiting.
He glanced at his phone, smiled at the photo of Sophie and Tessa with Mia and Joaquin.
“He looks pretty good for a guy who almost died twice today.” Darcangelo leaned back against the wall, winced, stood upright again, a scowl on his face.
The man was hurting, but he was too damned stubborn to do anything about it.
Across the room, Megs sat at her desk listening to radio traffic, the others double-checking gear they would take with them when they finally had the green light to head up to Camp Mato Sapa. There were ropes, litters that broke down into two pieces, medical kits—all kinds of shit—spread out around the room. People were just passing the time, keeping their hands busy.
It gave Marc an idea.