Chasing Fire

thought I’d check in, grab a minute and see how it’s all going.” He pulled off his sunglasses, hooked them in his pocket. “So, a strong crop of rooks this year.”
    “Yeah. In fact . . .” Rowan glanced around, then signaled to Gull so he’d change direction and join them. “Here’s the one who broke the base record on the mile-and-a-half. Hotshot out of California.” She kept her arm around her father’s waist while Gull walked to them.
    “Gulliver Curry, Lucas Tripp.”
    “It’s a genuine pleasure, Mr. Tripp,” Gull told him as he extended a hand.
    “You can drop the mister. Congratulations on the base record, and making the cut.”
    “Thanks.”
    She had her father’s eyes, Gull noted as they covered the small talk. And his bone structure. But what made more of an impression was the body language of both. It said, simply and unquestionably, they were an unassailable unit.
    “There’s that son of a bitch.” Yangtree let the door of Operations slap behind him, and came forward to exchange one-armed hugs with Lucas.
    “Man, it’s good to see you. So they let you skate through again this year?”
    “Hell. Somebody’s got to keep these screwups in line.”
    “When you’re tired of riding herd on the kids, I can always use another instructor.”
    “Teaching rich boys to jump out of planes.”
    “And girls,” Lucas added. “It’s a living.”
    “No packing in, packing out, no twenty hours on a line. You miss it every day,” Yangtree said, and pointed at him.
    “And twice on Sunday.” Tripp ran a hand down Rowan’s back. “But my knees don’t.”
    “I hear that.”
    “We’ll get you a couple rocking chairs,” Rowan suggested, “and maybe a nice pot of chamomile tea.”
    Lucas tugged her earlobe. “Make it a beer and I’m there. Then again, I heard the bunch of you had plenty of those last night, and got into a little ruckus.”
    “Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Yangtree claimed, and winked at Gull. “Or you couldn’t handle, right, Kick Ass?”
    “A momentary distraction.”
    “Did the momentary distraction give you that bruise on your jaw?” Lucas wondered.
    Gull rubbed a hand over it. “I’d say you should see the other guys, but it’s hard to be sure how they looked since they ran off with their tails tucked.”
    “From having them rammed into your fists.” Lucas nodded at Gull’s scraped and swollen knuckles. “How’s the man they ganged up on?”
    “Do you know everything?” Rowan demanded.
    “Ear to the ground, darling.” Lucas kissed her temple. “My ear’s always to the ground.”
    “Dobie’s a little guy, but he got some licks in.” Yangtree turned his head, spat on the ground. “They beat on him pretty good until Kick Ass here came along. Of course, before all that, your girl put two of them on their asses.”
    “Yeah, I heard about that, too.”
    “I didn’t start it.”
    “So I’m told. Starting it’s stupid,” Lucas stated. “Finishing it’s necessary.”
    Rowan narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t come by to check in, you came by to check on .”
    “Maybe. Want to fight about it?”
    She gave her father a poke in the chest, grinned.
    And the siren went off.
    Rowan kissed her father’s cheek. “See you later,” she said, and took off running. Yangtree slapped Lucas’s shoulder and did the same.
    “It was good to meet you.”
    Tripp took the hand Gull offered, studied the knuckles. “You’re off the list because of these.”
    “Today.”
    “There’s tomorrow.”
    “I’m counting on it.”
    Gull headed to the ready room. He was off the jump list, but he could lend a hand to those on it. Already jumpers were suiting up, taking their gear out of the tall cabinets, pulling on Kevlar suits over the fire-retardant undergarments. By the time he spotted her, Rowan had dropped into one of the folding chairs to put on her boots.
    He helped with gear and equipment until he could work his way to her.
    Over the sound of engines and raised voices, he shouted at her, “Where?”
    “Got one in the Bitterroots, near Bass Creek.”
    A short enough flight, he calculated, to warrant a buddy check prior to boarding. He started at her bootstraps, worked his way up. He’d already gotten past the state of his knuckles, and his temporary leave from the jump list.
    No point in regrets.
    “You’re clear.” Gull squeezed a hand to her shoulder, met her eyes. “Make it good.”
    “It’s the only way I know.”
    He watched her go,