Higher Ground by Becky Black (notion reading list txt) 📗

Shouts up top and Simon began to move, fending off the cliff with his feet. Adam clung to his rope, swinging gently in the improvised harness. He wanted to be up there at Zach’s side as soon as possible, but with Zach hurt, the leadership fell to Adam, and the leader always had to make sure his people were safe first before finding safety himself. Where had he gotten that idea from? Read it, he supposed. He’d certainly never been in a leadership position before, or even been trained to be. It felt odd. Did the gun give him more authority than he’d have without it?

Simon vanished from sight at the top. Someone called down to Adam. “Ready?”

“Ready.” He started to rise slowly. When he swung too close to the cliff, he pushed himself off with his feet, but not too hard in case he jarred the people above. He didn’t want them to lose their grip on the rope and drop him. One injured man in the party was enough.

He reached the top and scrambled over the edge, people grabbing on to him and heaving him up. Someone reached down a hand to help him to his feet. He grabbed the hand and gasped when he saw who it belonged to.

“Barbara!”

“Hello, Deputy.” She grinned at him and pulled him well away from the edge. Once they were several meters away, he grabbed her into a bear hug.

“You caught up.” No wonder they’d had plenty of people to haul on the ropes. Torres’s party numbered at least twenty-five, he estimated, looking around.

“You lot clearly aren’t trying hard enough.”

He wanted to hear all about it, but he had to see Zach first. “I’ll be back in a second; don’t go anywhere.”

“Not this time.”

He found Zach half awake and a little dopey from the painkiller. Adam knelt by him and took his hand.

“Barbara’s here, Adam.”

“I know.” With his other hand, he stroked Zach’s hair out of his eyes. He smiled, gently teasing. “So we have plenty of help to drag your malingering butt up the mountain.”

“Like Barbara. I was scared of her before.”

“Scared, huh? I’ll never let you live that one down.” He squeezed Zach’s hand. He didn’t seem too bad. Seemed ready to continue the trip. One of the girls knelt by Zach with a water bottle and helped him drink. Adam left her to it and hurried back to Torres, who was talking to Simon.

“So I hear you’ve been showing off with my gun,” she said.

Adam bristled. “Hey, you gave it to me and said to use my judgment. That’s what I did.”

“He was right too,” Simon said. “We needed the medical kit, and Glyn wasn’t going to give it up. I admit I was a bit shocked.” He looked at Adam. “Even if I’d known he had a gun, I never would have thought of him as someone who’d pull one. But I guess we’ll do anything when the motivation is strong enough.”

Does he mean love? Loyalty? Duty? Adam wondered. Or all those things? Does he understand because in my position he’d have done the same? He nodded at Simon, then calmed the mild irritation he’d felt at Torres’s words, sensing criticism, wondering if he’d been oversensitive.

“Didn’t mean to snap at you, Barb. Thanks for giving me the gun. I didn’t want it, and I almost forgot I had it. But when I needed it, it was the first thing I thought of.” He frowned, not sure he liked that. “Glyn’s probably going to get me sent to jail about it, though.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting this Glyn,” Torres said, making Adam stare at her.

“You are?”

“Oh yes. I think as a fellow public servant, it would be useful for us to have a long chat about professional ethics.” She looked around, shook her head. “Shit, this place looks like a bomb hit it. I’ll start getting everyone organized for moving on. Give me a hand, Simon?” She looked at Adam. “Okay with you?”

“What? Oh yes, thanks.” She was taking the burden from him, he realized, knowing he’d want to be with Zach as much as possible while they completed the climb. But while she took the burden, she left him with the authority—she’d asked him for permission. Before she moved away, she stepped closer and offered her hand to him,

“You did well, Deputy Gray.”

He laughed, shaking her hand. “Thanks. Can I resign now?”

“Okay.”

“Don’t you have to say hereby this time?”

She shrugged. “Hereby my ass. You’re un-deputized.”

“So you’d better have this back.” He handed her the gun, and she put it into the empty holster on her belt.

“Thanks. You go take care of Zach now. We’ll be on the move in five minutes.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

They didn’t make a proper camp when they stopped for the night, just a bivouac. Several people had sacrificed their tents to make the stretcher anyway. A few made improvised lean-tos and windbreaks. Adam and Simon erected a windbreak and a canopy for Zach and kept him close to the fire.

Zach put on a brave face, but he was weakening by the hour. The fear Zach would die before rescue came entirely consumed Adam. He could barely carry on a conversation with anyone else. Nobody approached him the way they had before, looking for advice or to ask questions. They went instead to Torres or Simon. Adam’s only job was taking care of Zach. He never left his side.

Not quite true. He did have to answer the call of nature sometimes. He was coming back from doing that, close to midnight, when he found Jones kneeling next to Zach.

“Hey,” he snapped, hurrying over. “Leave him alone.”

Jones stared up at him. “Adam, hello, I was just—”

“Never mind what you were just. Stay away from him.”

“He was apologizing,” Zach said.

“Oh.” Adam grimaced at his overreaction. What an idiot. He’d become so jumpy and irritable.

“Get some rest, then, Dr. Benesh,” Jones said, standing up. He moved a few steps away, making Adam follow him. “I