“That was it? Have we landed, or am I dead?” Creed asked to the stunned cabin.
Before anyone could answer, Captain Jacobi came over the speaker laughing, “Did you feel that? Guys, that was probably the smoothest landing I’ve ever made at this airport. Somehow, a tailwind carried us right to the tarmac and set us gently on the ground. That was the damn-dest thing I’ve ever seen! Trainer? Have you ever heard of something like this? Me either! I’ll be talking about this flight for the next fifty years! That was awesome! Hang on, the tower’s calling me…” and the ecstatic voice of the pilot clicked off.
“Thank you, God!” Alik said aloud.
“Amen, brother! Mom’s going to love this story!” Evan grinned widely.
“You kidding? Who wouldn’t?” Creed said relieved.
“Williams.” Alik smiled.
“Except him.” Creed was unfastening his seatbelt.
“Farrow,” Evan added jumping up from his seat and looked at the ambulance waiting for them at the gate.
“…and her.” Creed walked over to Meg and gently touched her forehead with his hands.
Leaning down he whispered, “Hi, beautiful! We’re back on land and taking you home. I can’t wait to see you smile.” Without thinking, he brushed his lips softly against her pale cheek.
“Hey, now—enough with the mushy stuff. We’ve got to get her unloaded and on that bus down there.” Alik was so thrilled to be so close to safety, he felt like running the whole way home.
The ground crew was opening the special ambulatory hatch that acted as a ramp for Meg’s gurney when the two captains came back to help.
“The tower’s givin’ me a hard time about them having to pull out all their emergency vehicles and personnel for nothing! Ha! They don’t believe me that we have zero fuel left on this bird!”
“It really was the most remarkable landing I’ve ever been a part of,” Mr. Trainer was saying.
The two men were smiling and smacking each other on the back like a couple of football players who just threw, caught and scored the winning touchdown.
They could afford to relax and celebrate now. They weren’t on their way to face a furious female meta named Farrow who had personalized bullets waiting for them.
53 Orographic Effects
“How did you talk the driver out of giving you the keys to this ambulance?” Evan asked Creed as they were cruising down the road with Meg, her gurney and all her medical equipment.
Creed smiled. “I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
“You don’t mean…” Alik started, frowning.
“I asked him how much money he made in a year working as a paramedic and gave him double that in cash.” Creed glanced over at Alik and Evan, taking his eyes off the road only for a second.
“Working for Williams, I had access to as much money as I needed to accomplish my objectives. All that’s about to be cut off, so I thought I’d go out with a bang. I also gave the pilots and Missy double their yearly salaries each. They certainly earned it!”
“Nice, Creed! So, how does it feel to be a good guy?” Alik teased.
“I’ll feel better once we get Meg healthy,” he said changing the tone of the conversation.
“We all will.”
“What is our ETA?”
“GPS says eight minutes.”
“It’s time to text Mom.”
“Is it just me or does it seem to be getting darker?” Creed said.
“Oh, no. Do you see that?” Evan pointed upward as they rounded a ridge.
“Damn it. This isn’t good,” Alik moaned.
“Is that a huge rain cloud up there?” Creed said amazed at how quickly the weather changed from the crisp blue skies of the airport.
“Yes. The greatest influencing factor in Hawaiian weather is orographic, and here on the Big Island, Paulie’s house is on the west coast—great for surfing, but also great for rain bursts.” Evan was craning his head out of the window to look upcountry.
“What is he talking about?” Creed asked Alik.
“Elevation. The higher up on a mountain, the more dramatic the weather. West side of the island is wetter than east side,” Alik explained.
“Those dense, black clouds are already starting to release,…”
Splat!
“…rain.” Evan finished and pulled his head back into the ambulance. He wiped the big, sloppy, raindrop from his forehead with his T-shirt.
“This is going to pose a serious problem. Smoke bombs don’t work in the rain,” Alik had to raise his voice to be heard over the hugely thick droplets that had begun to splat flat onto the windshield of the ambulance.
“Maybe Farrow will be caught off guard by the rain, too,” Evan said hopefully.
The other two boys looked back at him with raised eyebrows.
“Well, one can hope, can’t one?”
Ignoring Evan and his goofy optimism Alik said, “We can’t call mom now. We have to maintain silence since Farrow is probably listening in on a scanner,” Alik said.