Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (the best books to read .txt) 📗

to turn and run away, but Silas had told her in no uncertain terms to stand her ground.

But terror prickled her skin. It made her pulse race and her chest harden in pain.

She had to leave.

She had to get out of here before they got any closer.

She looked over her shoulder at the road stretching away. The brush was impenetrably thick in the forest. There was nowhere to run or hide.

The sow lowered her head. Her ears went back, and the cubs stopped still.

In a blinding moment of clarity, Mia remembered her bear spray. She reached to the back of her belt, past the water bottle to the mesh pouch. The Velcro sounded loud and she pulled the tab. The bear loped faster, its big paws eating up the ground between them. Time seemed to slow down as Mia jerked out the spray canister, peeled off the orange tab, double-checked the nozzle direction.

When she looked back up, the bear was at a full-on run. It was close, almost on her.

“No!” she shouted instinctively, but it didn’t even break stride.

“Stay back!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

It kept right on coming.

She guessed the distance, fifteen feet, ten, eight. She pointed the nozzle and pressed the trigger as hard as she could, holding it there.

The bear roared in anger, terrifyingly loud. It reared up.

Mia screamed and braced herself for impact.

But then the bear turned. It bolted into the forest, and the two cubs galloped after it.

Mia ran too. It was a sprint this time, definitely not a jog; but it was almost easy with the adrenaline running through her body.

She was afraid to look back over her shoulder. She told herself to keep going, going, through the puddles in the straightest line possible until she spotted the parking lot.

That was the worst part, the hundred yards she had to run with safety in her sights and danger behind her. There were pickups in the parking lot, but most of the planes were gone.

She made it to the office door and threw it open, slamming it shut behind her and leaning back, gulping in breaths, holding back tears.

“Hello?” she finally managed. Her voice trembled, echoing back to her in the dim building. She tried again. “Hello?”

*   *   *

The office was empty, and she didn’t find Cobra out in the hangar. It was eerily quiet with no one else around. She’d tried calling Raven, but her phone had gone to voice mail. Mia didn’t know the main number for Galina.

Intensely thirsty from the exertion and the fear, she grabbed herself a bottle of water. She stood in the break room chugging it and wondering what to do next. Some of the pickups likely had keys left inside. Was she bold enough to borrow one and head for the bridge? It was an emergency, after all.

The radio crackled behind her. “WSA base, this is Three-Zero-Alpha.”

Mia whirled.

“WSA base, this is Three-Zero-Alpha. Come in WSA base.” It was Hailey on the radio.

Mia set down the water bottle and crept to the doorway of the radio room. Why wasn’t Shannon here if planes were coming in right now?

“WSA base? You there?”

A new voice came on, Silas this time. “Three-Zero-Alpha this is Echo-Sierra.”

Mia gasped at the sound of Silas’s voice, feeling its timbre to her bones.

“Hey, Silas. Roger that,” Hailey said.

“I’m inbound over Clear Hills, weather’s good to the north, crap to the south. What do you see?”

Mia moved to the desk and sat down at the radio, staring at the lights and switches.

“We’re skirting the edge of it,” Hailey said. “Should be able to make Paradise before it catches us. Shannon, you there?”

Mia’s hand shook as she pressed the microphone button. “WSA base. It’s, uh, Mia.”

“Mia?” Silas’s voice sounded shocked. “What are you doing there?”

“Shannon’s not here,” Mia said. “You guys should know the bridge may have washed out.”

“Say again?” Hailey asked.

“The bridge. I didn’t see it, but I heard it. I think it washed out. The creek’s flooding the road.”

“Did you check the strip?” Silas asked.

“I just got here.”

“We need an airstrip condition report,” Silas said.

Suddenly everything Mia had learned and read flooded into her brain. “Roger that,” she said. “Stand by.”

She hopped up from her chair and was halfway to the office door when she remembered the bears. She stumbled to a halt. There were grizzly bears outside. And they were mad at her. But Silas was up in the sky. The pilots needed her now.

She took a step forward, then another, then defiantly flung open the door and ran up the access road.

She took note of the windsock on the way, twelve knots, north, northeast. Then she came out on the strip and stopped to stare. Her heart sank all the way to her toes. It looked like the whole of Falls Creek had washed out onto the strip, leaving mud, rocks, tree branches and trunks, big uprooted trunks out in the middle.

Her hand went to her forehead in a moment of despair. Then she shook herself. It was what it was, and she had to focus. She turned to sprint back to the radio room.

Out of breath, she made the call. “WSA base here. Wind is twelve knots north, northeast. But the airstrip is compromised. Echo-Sierra, Thee-Zero-Alpha, reroute to your alternate airstrips.”

“How bad?’ Hailey asked.

“Mud and debris across the middle of the strip, one hundred feet west of the access road.”

“Roger that,” Hailey said. “Three-Zero-Alpha rerouting to Mulberry Trail. You have us on tracking.”

Mia checked the tracking screen. “I’ve got you.”

“We’ll overnight and try to approach Paradise strip fifteen-hundred tomorrow. Three-Zero-Alpha out.”

“Three-Zero-Alpha, approach Paradise strip fifteen-hundred tomorrow,” Mia confirmed.

“WSA base, Echo-Sierra,” Silas came back.

“Go ahead Echo-Sierra.”

“Alternate airstrip is a no-go.”

Mia’s mind screamed no, and her hand trembled again. “Say again?”

“Alternate airstrip for Echo-Sierra is a no-go. Insufficient fuel to return to survey camp. Echo-Sierra is landing WSA strip in forty-five minutes. I’m in the PC-12. I need the whole strip.”

“But . . .” She didn’t know what else to say.

“Describe the debris.”

“Mud, rocks, branches, tree