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SATURN SIX ONE SEVEN, eight eight three. Got it, Drake. Over and out.”
Allie wrote the coordinates for the Saturn geocache on her paper, clipped the radio onto her belt, and went back to the sunflowers.
“That’s the second one they’ve finished,” Ingrid said. “And we’re still on our first.”
“Don’t worry about it. That’s the way we planned it, remember? Besides, we’re almost done.”
They were on the ninth stage looking through a patch of fake sunflowers, searching for the coordinates that were written on one of its petals. Like the first multi-cache the other team did, the first stage presented a single flower, but the number of flowers at each stage increased in number. Checking each flower was long, tedious work, but eventually it paid off.
“Got it!” Ingrid squealed with delight. “Finally.”
Allie jotted down the numbers as Ingrid read them off. Then, three minutes later, they arrived at the location of the geocache. From beneath a pile of rocks, Ingrid extracted an ammo can. They opened the can, pulled out the log, and saw the sheet of paper without a mark on it other than boxes labeled from one to ten.
“Who should we stamp first?” Ingrid asked.
“Yours. You found the coords to this one,” Allie said.
Ingrid pulled the stamp from her pocket and applied a gray moon in the number one box, then passed it to Allie, who added her green clover to the number two space. She handed the sheet back, and Ingrid put it away and tucked the can back under the rocks.
“And now, the simple part begins. Where to next?” Ingrid asked.
Allie entered the coordinates for the first geocache Drake called in and mapped the route. “That way,” she said as she pointed toward the northeast.
“What do you do for work?” Ingrid asked as she drove along a dirt trail.
“I teach classes at a gym. Aerobics, yoga, stuff like that.”
“That’s going to be hard with that knee,” Ingrid said.
Allie rubbed her leg. The night before, Dr. Liz stopped by, had a look at it, and didn’t seem concerned. She’d also given Allie two additional pain pills, which Allie appreciated. “It’s feeling better today. The swelling is way down since yesterday, so I think I’ll be fine in the long run, but you’re right, I probably won’t be teaching the high-impact stuff for a while. I might have to concentrate on the water exercise classes for a couple of months.”
“Oh, I love those,” Ingrid said. “I go to them all the time at my gym. I love all the water stuff. Swimming, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling. My mom always said I was part mermaid.”
Allie nodded. “I can see that.” And she could. Ingrid had long hair that was so blond it was almost white, and she had ice-blue eyes that sparkled like the stars over Iceland. Her summer tan was fading, so her skin was fading back to its alabaster shade. “You remind me of that mermaid in Copenhagen.”
“You’ve been to Denmark?” Ingrid asked with a pitch in her delivery that showed her excitement.
“Yes. I embarked for a cruise there, so I got there a couple of days beforehand to explore the city.”
“My parents are from Denmark. A little city called Aalborg, which is in the Jutland region in the north. Have you been there?”
“No. Just Copenhagen. Can you speak Danish?”
“Ja jeg kan. I learned Danish before I learned English. I still speak it at home when I visit my parents.”
“Do they still live in Denmark?”
“No. They live near Boston.”
“So, what do you do?” Allie asked.
“Oh, I’m a teacher, too.”
“You teach aerobics?”
Ingrid smiled. “No. English and American literature to high schoolers. It’s almost the same thing, though.”
Allie laughed. “Almost.”
Allie checked her GPS and had Ingrid slow down since they were almost at ground zero. Ingrid parked next to an area where there was a small cactus field, and both women got out and started the search.
“Be careful in here. Geneva wasn’t paying attention yesterday and backed right into a saguaro.” Ingrid laughed.
“You found that funny?”
“No. I’m just remembering all the choice words she said afterward. It was funny at the time, and of course, much funnier if you were there in person.”
The radio gave a squelch, and then Allie heard her name.
“Allie here, copy.”
“Venus nine two one zero three eight. Copy,” Drake said over the radio.
Allie recorded the numbers and repeated them to Drake, and when he confirmed they were correct, she ended the call.
“That was a quick one,” Ingrid said. “I feel like we’re getting behind them.”
“Don’t panic. We’re only two back, and they have the hard work. We’ll catch up to them soon enough. Relax. Keep looking for this one.”
Together, they carefully picked their way around the cacti, and eventually Allie stumbled upon a small rock pile.
“Hey, it’s over here.”
Allie undid the pile and found a small plastic pencil box underneath. She opened the log and saw a mark already in the one position. “Looks like the Beasley brothers beat us to this one.”
Allie placed her mark at number two, and Ingrid stamped hers at number three.
“Well, we can’t expect to be the first at every cache, right?” Ingrid said as she placed the paper back in the box and stacked the rocks on top. “Let’s go get Saturn.”
They had traveled half the distance when they came across the Beasley brothers. Ingrid stopped the UTV when they pulled even with them. Brandon was sitting on the front bumper; Ben was sitting on the ground with his back to the vehicle in the UTV’s shade.
“Hi Ben, Brandon,” Allie said. “Need help?”
Brandon pointed his thumb at Ben. “Genius here kissed a rock formation and blew the sidewall out of the front tire.”
“Oh, no. Are you guys okay?”
“We’re fine. Just embarrassed, since I should know better,” Ben said.
“You need us to radio base?” Ingrid asked.
Brandon shook his head. “No thanks, we already did that. They should be here anytime now. I think within twenty minutes we’ll be back on the road. Where are you coming from?”
Allie held out an arm in the direction they came from. “That way. We just found your mark on a log. First to find. Not bad.”
Ben shrugged. “Not that impressive. Ten caches and eight teams mean the odds are good that everyone will get one, right?”
“Good point. Well, I guess we’d better get at it then. Have a good day.”
“See you later,” Brandon said as he saluted to the women.
Ingrid pressed the accelerator and drove off.
“I like those guys. They’re fun. We were hanging out at the pool together a couple of nights ago,” Ingrid said.
“Yeah, they’re a hoot. Watch out for Brandon, though. He’s a pool shark. Like eight-ball, I mean, not swimming.”
“Do you know if they’re single?”
Allie shrugged. “It beats me. I didn’t think to ask.”
“Why not? They’re dreamy.”
“Not my type. You’re a little off track. Look off to the north, see that mesa way out in the distance? Head for that.”
Ingrid got her bearings and made the course correction. They soon arrived at the top of a ridge, stepped out of the vehicle, and walked to the edge.
“Based on the distance to the cache, I’m guessing it’s by that gigantic tree down there,” Allie said as she pointed to the large mesquite near the bend of a dry river. “I don’t think I can make that hike.”
“Why walk when we can ride? If we follow the ridge, it dips down to that level.”
Allie turned and traced the landscape with her eyes. Just as Ingrid said, the ridge lowered as it went, and eventually it bottomed out at near the same ground level as the tree.
“Let’s go,” Allie said.
They got in the vehicle, and Ingrid followed the ridge. Near the end, they got to a fairly steep slope, but it wasn’t so bad that they needed to abandon the UTV and walk. Instead, Ingrid took her time and drove to the bottom of the hill without incident. From there, she motored across the riverbed, and made a direct line for the tree.
“I hope it’s not up in there. I wouldn’t be able to climb it,” Allie said.
Ingrid parked next to the tree and looked for the telltale rock pile, but there wasn’t one. She started scanning the branches, looking for a container, but didn’t see one.
“I can’t get up there, either. The branches are too high,” Ingrid said.
“Don’t have to. It’s around here,” Allie said.
Ingrid moved her vision from the boughs to the ground and spotted Allie on the opposite side of the tree. She walked to Allie’s side and noticed a thin plastic case stuck in where the two main trunks joined to become one. Allie pulled out the case and opened it up.
“Drat. Pink and yellow have both been here,” Allie said as she checked the log.
“No worries. Third and fourth are worth points too.”
The women stamped the logs and were on their way. Over the next three hours, they found Venus, Neptune, and Uranus, and were on their way to Earth when the radio cackled.
“That must have been an easy one. Drake just called like ten minutes ago,” Ingrid said.
Allie picked up the radio and turned up the volume.
Drake’s voice came over the radio. “Team green to base. Team green to base. Over.”
“This is base. Go ahead.”
“Base, I’m here with the black team. They’ve been involved in an accident and need medical attention. Over.”
“Where are you?”
Drake rattled off his coordinates, and Allie jotted them down and entered them into the GPS.
“He’s less than a mile from here. Go due west. Fast.”
Ingrid nodded and pressed the pedal to the floor, leaving a trail of dust behind them. A few minutes later, Allie spotted the green flag of Drake’s UTV next to the sheer wall of a thirty-foot high mesa that had an uncanny resemblance to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Ingrid got as close as she dared, then skidded to a stop. The women jumped out of the vehicle and rushed to the scene of the accident.
Allie couldn’t believe her eyes. A rock pile completely covered the black team’s UTV. “What happened?”
Drake hadn’t noticed their approach, but he looked relieved when he looked back and spotted a couple of extra people to help.
“Rockslide. Can you two help pull some of these smaller ones aside? I can’t reach them.”
Ingrid got right to work next to Geneva and pulled stones away from the UTV. Drake wedged his way to the front of the UTV and cleared the rocks the size of basketballs away from the windshield.
“Can you see them?” Allie asked.
“Move over,” Drake ordered.
Allie stepped aside and Drake pushed the rocks over to the side of the UTV, then lifted them enough so they’d topple over the top of the pile. From there, it took only another push for gravity to take over and the rocks rolled off the pile and farther down the hill they were on.
Once he cleared the hood and windshield area of debris, he had enough space to sit down and use his legs to push away the larger rocks that settled near the driver’s seat.
“Okay, Allie, get in here. Take a look at him while I see if we can get to her.”
Allie approached the driver and realized immediately he was unconscious. She checked for a pulse and determined he was breathing.
“His vitals are okay, but I don’t want to move him until the ambulance gets here. He may have a spinal injury. What about her?”
“I can’t get to her. That side is pushed all the way against the wall, and I can’t get through the windshield.”
Allie looked past the driver at the passenger. She, too, was out cold, but based on the wheezing sound she was making as she breathed, Allie suspected the woman had a broken rib or two.
“Allie, her head is bleeding pretty good.”
“Can you reach around from where you are to the inside?” Allie asked.
“No. The wall’s in the way.”
“Why don’t we push them out?” Geneva asked. “We’ll move the UTV. Allie, put it in Drive and steer, and the rest of us will push it from behind.”
Allie looked at Drake. “You think that will work?”
“Can’t tell that until we try.”
Drake got off the hood and made sure the ground was clear in front of the UTV. He rushed around to the back, where he kneeled and checked the ground around the back wheels. Once he cleared away a few smaller rocks, he got to his feet.
“Okay, let’s do this. Put it in Drive, Allie.”
“It already is.”
Drake got in the middle of the UTV, and with Geneva and Ingrid on either side of him, he counted to three, and they pushed. It didn’t move.
“Let’s try to rock it,” Geneva said. “That always works when I get my car stuck in the snow.”
Drake nodded, and the trio pushed the car, and after it budged and settled back, they pushed again. After the fourth push, there was a screech of metal on stone and the UTV broke away from the wall and rolled forward, first a foot, then another.
“Keep pushing!” Allie yelled.
Allie cranked the steering wheel to the left, so it turned away from the mesa, then got worried that the thing would take off down the hill.
“Okay, stop,” Allie ordered.
The three stopped pushing, but the UTV kept rolling and even though it was only going as fast as a quick walk. It was gaining some speed as it rolled down the incline. Allie tried to reach the brake but couldn’t. Instead, she straightened the steering wheel and aimed the UTV at a boulder that was ten feet away. Confident it would hit, she stepped away from the vehicle and let it hit the boulder.
“Did you plan it that way?” Drake asked.
“Calculated risk, unless you wanted to chase them all the way down the hill. Come on.”
Allie and Drake ran to the UTV. Geneva and Ingrid, who didn’t know what to do, stayed where they were and watched.
Allie moved to the passenger and checked the side of the passenger’s head. Just as Drake had described, her head was gushing blood. “I need a compress or something. Get the first-aid kit.”
Drake checked the black team’s UTV for the kit, couldn’t find it, and retrieved the one from his own UTV. When he got back to Allie’s side, he opened it.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“Give me all the gauze pads you have there.”
While Allie waited for Drake to hand her the pads, she checked for additional injuries. She noticed by the contorted angle of the woman’s hand she had at least a broken wrist.
“Here,” Drake said as he passed Allie the gauze.
Allie took the gauze and, while supporting the woman’s head with her left hand, pressed the cotton pads firmly against the scalp laceration.
In response, the woman woke immediately and started to scream and cry at the same time.
“No. Stay still. You have to stay as still as you can. What’s your name?”
“Her name is Emma,” Ingrid said.
“Emma, can you hear me? You need to calm down, okay? I know you’re in pain, and help is on the way, but until then, you need to stay still. Understand?”
Emma tried to nod, but Allie held her head firm. “Can you speak?”
“Yes,” Emma whispered in between sobs.
“I’ll give it to you straight. You have a big gash on your head and a broken arm. If you move, you may injure something else, so don’t move, okay?”
“Yes.”
To Allie, Emma’s voice sounded soft, like the plea of a wounded kitten.
“What about Kerry? I can’t see him. Is he okay?” Emma said.
“He’s unconscious, but his pulse and breathing are strong. I don’t want to move him either until the ambulance gets here. Drake, you got any more bandages in there? These are beginning to seep through.”
Without a word, Drake ran to the gray team’s UTV and returned with their kit. Within seconds, he scrounged from there any bit of cotton he could find.
“Here.”
“I’m going to remove this one, and when I do, put the new one against her head, okay?”
“Got it.”
Drake moved in close to Emma’s head, and when Allie removed the bloody bandage, he replaced it with the clean one. Allie dropped the used one to the ground and replaced Drake’s hand with her own.
“This isn’t going to work. She needs stitches like right now. Where’s the ambulance?”
Drake was about to ask Geneva to radio base again when, off in the distance, he heard a siren. He knew his time was short, so he leaned into the UTV, close to Emma’s face.
“Emma? Can you understand me?”
“Yes.” Her voice was trailing off, and Drake could tell she was getting weak.
“Can you tell me what happened? How did the rocks fall on you? Do you remember? Emma?”
“Not fall... Hit... Truck...”
“Emma? What does that mean? Emma?”
“She passed out, Drake. She’s not going to tell you anything else.”
“Damn. Hold on a couple more minutes, Allie. They’re almost here.”
“I know. There’s one other thing I’d really like to know.”
“What’s that?”
Allie turned to look at Drake. She had a small streak of Emma’s blood on her cheek. “What the hell is going on around here?”
