‘Mike, if you fall from there you’ll be no help to Hugh at all.’
A middle-aged couple came into view, picking their way across the rocks. Callum rushed to meet them. ‘Do you have a rope?’ he asked, knowing the answer before they shook their heads. ‘Then, can I borrow your jackets? There’s a bloke in trouble over there.’ They immediately stripped off their coats. Callum grabbed them and said, ‘Follow me.’
‘How are you doing, Mike?’ he called as he got back.
‘I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.’ Mike’s voice was faint.
Callum took off his own jacket and then knelt on the ground. He was trying to figure out how to tie the clothing together when two more figures appeared, running along the path. Callum’s spirits rose as they neared and he saw what they were holding.
‘We were about to start climbing the buttress,’ the first man said, holding out the rope. ‘We heard a cry, so we hurried back.’
Each man had a rope. Callum tied the first one around himself and abseiled down next to Mike as the other men worked as a team to steady him. Then he secured the second rope to Mike, and watched as they pulled him up.
By the time they had winched Callum back to the footpath, Mike had scrabbled forward on all fours and was peering over the edge, yelling his son’s name. Callum held on tightly to the rope that was still around Mike’s waist, in case he took another plunge. He could feel his own throat swell at the panic and despair in Mike’s voice.
When Mike stopped for a moment, Callum took a chance and knelt beside him, putting his arms around the man’s shoulders. ‘Listen,’ he insisted.
In the distance they could hear the chugging sounds of whirring rotor blades, closing fast. The Air Ambulance flew low over their heads, dipping into the valley, circling around and coming to hover close enough that most of the group kept their hands over their ears.
The helicopter was motionless for an unbearably long time as a team member was lowered alongside a stretcher. When they were winched back up, Callum watched Mike raise his head as his gaze followed the helicopter higher and higher, shading his eyes to see.
‘How do we know if he’s okay?’ he asked, dazed, once the helicopter was out of sight.
‘Come on,’ Callum said, coaxing him along the narrow path. ‘We need to go now.’ They said hasty goodbyes to the pale, shocked members of the rescue party and began to pick their way over the rocky terrain. When his mobile rang, Callum answered with his heart pounding. ‘Les, what do you know?’
‘The boy is alive, but badly injured.’
‘He’s alive,’ Callum said to Mike. ‘But he’s been hurt. Let’s get you back down as quickly as we can, and take you to your son.’
They had descended the fastest way Callum knew, to the closest spot accessible by four-wheel drive. For the final section of the journey they were joined by some of Callum’s colleagues from the rescue team, who escorted them to a vehicle. Callum had eventually left Mike in the emergency department of the Royal Lancaster, coming to terms with the news of his son’s multiple fractures. He hadn’t thought he would see Mike McCallister again, let alone that this man would be one of the catalysts that would lead him into this perilous situation with Danielle. But now, as he enters the same hospital in search of his niece, Callum wonders if his life would have been any different today if he had played no part in the rescue of Mike and Hugh McCallister.
10
ANYA