The ground around the pipeline appeared somewhat disturbed. The rotor wash kicked up loose dirt, whipping it around, making it hard to see what was below.
T-Rex didn’t know what he expected to find, but the area had seen one death and an attempt by someone to plant dynamite at the same point. Those facts alone gave them good reason to check it out again, despite the full investigation the state crime lab had conducted.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary on the ground so T-Rex redirected his attention to the hillsides rising up on either side of the valley.
“Anything?” he said into his headset.
“Nothing here,” the pilot responded.
“Nothing,” the copilot affirmed.
“I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I don’t see anything moving, or anything that appears out of place,” Sierra said.
“Let’s move on toward the border of the Stone Oak Ranch and the National Park,” the pilot said.
T-Rex nodded. “Roger.”
The pilot guided the aircraft upward and over the tops of several ridges.
From his bird’s-eye view, T-Rex could see into the valleys. The aircraft moved slowly, giving them plenty of time to scour the hillsides looking for caves, mine shafts and roads leading into and out of the hills.
As they neared the hills near Stone Oak Ranch where Olivia Dawson’s father had been murdered by Don Sweeney, T-Rex could see a lot more shadows against the sides of the hills, indicating overhangs and caves.
T-Rex leaned against his harness, trying to look out over the skids of the chopper. “Can you get closer to the caves?”
In response, Major Bailey tipped the helicopter and angled it nearer the caves, where he hovered in between two ridges.
“What’s that?” Sierra said. “Are those vehicles?”
T-Rex leaned toward her and followed her arm to where she pointed at the side of the hills.
A truck was backed up to a cave. A shadow detached from the darkness of the cave, and a man dressed in camouflage stared up at the helicopter. He looked back to the cave and appeared to be shouting, not that they could hear him over the roar of the rotors.
A moment later, another man joined him, carrying a short tube. He extended it to double its length, settled it on his shoulder and aimed it at the helicopter.
“Rocket launcher! Get out of here!” T-Rex cried.
The pilot pulled back on the controls and goosed the throttle, sending them climbing higher, out of the valley.
“Brace yourself!” T-Rex reached over, grabbed Sierra’s hand and squeezed it.
Something slammed into the back of the helicopter, sending it spinning around to the right.
“We’re hit,” the copilot shouted into the headset.
The pilot struggled with the controls, steadied the craft and pulled the nose upward as it rushed toward the side of a cliff.
T-Rex couldn’t look away from the bare rock cliff they were rushing toward, as if he was mesmerized by his forthcoming death.
At the last moment, the chopper lifted up, skimming over the top of the ridge, the skids scraping against the hard surface.
Major Bailey looked around. “We have to find a place to put this baby down.”
T-Rex looked around at the rugged terrain.
“It needs to be wide enough to allow for a sloppy landing.”
“South. Go south toward Stone Oak Ranch.”
“Those men who shot at us are moving,” Sierra said, leaning toward the open door. “They’re on ATVs.”
“They’re following us,” the copilot confirmed.
“Can you get us farther away before you land?” T-Rex asked.
The craft shuddered and dipped. Major Bailey held on to the controls with both hands, his body straining. “We’ll be lucky to land in one piece.”
“Over there. On that knoll.” The copilot pointed to a barren hilltop with a fence stretching across one side and angling downward into a valley.
“That’s on Stone Oak Ranch,” T-Rex said. “We could get help from the owner, Olivia Dawson.
“It will take at least an hour to hike down to her,” T-Rex said. “It took thirty minutes to get to that point on four-wheelers from her ranch house.”
“Those men on the ATVs might catch up to us.” Sierra twisted in her seat, staring at the ground below.
As the pilot concentrated on flying the Black Hawk to the open knoll, the copilot put out a mayday call.
Twenty yards from the projected landing zone, the chopper sputtered, the rotor slowed and the descent came quicker than expected.
“It’s going to be a bumpy landing,” the pilot said.
T-Rex held tighter to Sierra’s hand and gave her a tight smile. “We’ve got this.”
No sooner had he said the words, the helicopter slammed into the ground and skidded across the knoll, coming to a stop near the other end, at the edge of a sheer one-hundred-foot drop.
Everyone remained seated until the rotors stopped moving and the pilot turned off the engine.
Then the pilot unbuckled his harness and turned in his seat to look at each person in the craft. “Everyone all right?”
The copilot nodded.
“I’m okay,” T-Rex said.
Sierra grinned. “That was amazing.”
Her infectious smile made T-Rex smile, as well. “Good job, Major Bailey.”
“Thanks, but it would be even better if we hadn’t been hit in the first place.” He flung aside his harness and got out of the helicopter, stepping up to the edge of the cliff they’d almost gone over.
T-Rex helped Sierra out of her harness, slid out of his seat and held open his arms for her.
She let him help her out of the craft and onto her feet. Her glance followed the pilot standing a few feet away, looking down. “That was close.” Sierra leaned into T-Rex.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. “Yes, it was.” Too close.
The whine of small engines reminded him the men who’d lobbed a rocket at them were on their way through the hills to find them.
“What do you want to bet they will be armed?” the copilot said.
T-Rex nodded. “We need to get moving if we want to stay a reasonable distance ahead.”
“I can’t leave the aircraft here.” Major Bailey backed away from the cliff’s edge and joined them. “There’s no telling what they’ll do to it.”
“The army can afford to lose a chopper. They can’t afford to lose a trained pilot,” T-Rex said.
The copilot nodded. “He’s right. Without weapons to defend ourselves, we’d be sitting ducks.”
“Were you able to contact the sheriff?” Sierra asked.
“We put out a mayday call but didn’t get a response, so we have no idea if the call was heard.” The copilot slipped his headset back on and sat back in his seat, fiddling with the radio dial on the control panel.
T-Rex glanced at his cell phone. No signal.
A moment later, the copilot got out of the helicopter, tossed his headset onto the seat and shook his head. “The radio is dead.”
“Then we’re on our own.” T-Rex ran toward the other side of the hill and glanced down into a valley. Five men on four-wheelers were racing along a trail, headed their way.
T-Rex turned and almost ran into Sierra. “We have to get out of here.” He took her hand and hurried back to the pilot and copilot. “We only have a few minutes before five aggressors top this hill. We need to get down off of here and to somewhere we can take advantage of cover and concealment.”
“We don’t want them to have the opportunity to shoot at us on the way down, so we’d better hustle.” The pilot glanced around. “Are you familiar with the area? Do you know which way to the Dawson woman’s ranch house?”
“Follow me.” T-Rex led the way down from the hill, taking a trail barely wide enough for a four-wheeler. He’d been up there a couple of days earlier when he and the team had inspected the hill and the area around it, searching for a similar group of five marauders who’d given chase to Hawkeye and Olivia.
They had not been successful at locating the area from which they’d come. Numerous trails wound their way through the hills and mountains, weaving through the silent remains of a once-busy mining community back in the late 1800s. They’d spent a couple of days taking different trails, but they hadn’t been able to find the men.
If they didn’t get down to an area that provided cover and concealment soon, the attackers on four-wheelers would find them and pick them off, one-by-one. They hadn’t hesitated in firing a rocket at a government helicopter, and they wouldn’t balk at shooting four people.
They half walked and half ran down the trail, slipping on loose gravel. T-Rex worried Sierra would trip and fall over the edge. He held her hand, refusing to let her tumble to her death. Not on his watch.
As they neared the floor of a narrow valley, T-Rex paused and glanced up at the hill they’d just vacated.
The pilot and copilot had stopped to catch their breath. Each was bent over, hands on their knees. They’d pushed hard to get this far, and it hadn’t been easy with the loose gravel and treacherous terrain.
T-Rex could hear the roar of the four-wheeler engines. He spun and grabbed Sierra’s hand. She was winded and her cheeks were bright pink, but she gave him a brief smile.
“Are you all right?” T-Rex asked.
She nodded, glancing up at the hill they’d come down. Then she squared her shoulders. “Let’s move. They’re almost on us.”