set off the pre-alerts and aired the call to the closest units.
Thank God. Lexy flicked a quick glance at the call timer. Ian and his father had been hiking approximately ten minutes when the call came in. They’d be close to the trailhead, but who knew how long the father had been down. “What color is your SUV, Ian?”
“Blue. It’s a H-Honda.”
“And what’s your daddy’s name?”
“Drew K-Kimball.”
“Okay, good.” In her peripheral vision Lexy saw Dane standing to her left, slightly behind her. He was intently listening to her side of the conversation for important details. She pointed to the line she’d just typed in: BLUE HONDA SUV, DREW KIMBALL, signaling for Dane to run a check for the vehicle. She covered the headset microphone with her thumb and told him, “Check under Andrew, too.”
“Got it,” Dane said.
She refocused on her caller. “Stay with me, honey,” she said, sounding much calmer than she felt. “You’re doing an excellent job.”
“’K–’kay. Are they comin’, Lexy?”
“Yes, honey, they’re on the way. Look around you and tell me exactly what you see on the trail so the paramedics can find you quickly.”
“Um.um. Orange f-flowers. A whole gigungus field. We stopped to pick them for the angels to take up to Mommy at the top of the mountain, because orange was her f-f-favorite color.” He sucked back a sob and his pitch rose. “Right around a curve after a tree tunnel.”
“Okay. Orange flowers. Got it.” Despite the continued stabs to her heart with this child’s every word, Lexy swallowed back her instinctively human, sympathetic reaction. Sadly, she didn’t have time to feel sorrow for Ian, not while his father still needed life-saving help.
She click-clacked the location details into CAD and pushed a button that would transmit it straight to Dane’s computer, so he’d have everything he’d need to update the responding units over the radio. They had maybe ten minutes before Ian could quite possibly lose his father.
Could they get there in time?
No clue.
That part was out of her hands. But she needed to engage Ian in the rescue effort, so that regardless of what happened, he’d know he’d done everything he could to help his father. No regrets.
A thought struck her. “Ian, do you think the medicine shot is back in your daddy’s SUV?” A stretch, she knew.
“I don’t know!” came another agonizing wail.
“Ian, honey, take a deep breath for me.” She paused, listened to him drag in air and blow it out noisily. “Good boy. Do you have your daddy’s keys?”
She heard him fumbling.
“Um … um … yeah! I got ‘em from his pocket.”
“Good. How fast can you run back to the SUV?”
“I d-don’t know. I’m a-scared, Lexy!” he wailed. The wobble in his voice had returned full force. “When are they comin'?”
“Honey, you’re being very brave. I know it seems like a long time, but they’re coming as fast as possible. Take a breath.”
He hiccupped in some air and blew it out.
“Good. Now, listen to me. This is your most important job. I want you to run as fast as you’ve ever run before and look for that medicine shot, okay? I’ll stay on the phone, but if we get disconnected, don’t panic. I’ll call you right back as soon as we have a signal.”
“’K-’kay—”
“Ian, wait. Are you listening?”
“Y-yeah?”
“When you have that shot, you run right back to your daddy fast, fast, fast. Okay?”
“’Kay.”
“I’m not going to talk while you run because I don’t want to slow you down, but I’ll be here if you need me.”
“’Kay.”
She listened to Ian, footsteps pounding, sucking wind, as he ran back to retrieve the EpiPen she prayed was in the vehicle. Every once in a while, Ian would gasp, “Lexy?”
“I’m here.”
“Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.”
Astonishingly, they never lost the signal. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, he said, “I’m here!”
Lexy exhaled, squeezing the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “Check the car, Ian. Take a breath and look carefully.”
She heard the unlocking, the scrambling, Ian muttering to himself. A moment passed. “I have it! It fell out on the floor by the um … um … gas pedal.”
Lexy crossed her fingers. “Run, Ian. Run back to your daddy and I’ll help you give him that shot.”
“I…I know how,” he gasped out. More pounding. Voice jostling with his steps. “Daddy taught me ‘cuz he and I are a team now.”
Oh, God. “Good. Run fast.”
Adrenaline pumping, she tapped a pen rapidly on the console, her gaze ping-ponging from the call timer to the GPS map on a separate computer that showed the paramedics’ progress toward the scene, and back again. She focused on her young caller’s panting breaths, counting them.
In, out. In, out. In, out.
One, two. Three, four. Five, six.
“L-Lexy?”
“I’m here, honey.”
“Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t leave you.”
Finally a shaky-voiced Ian said, “I’m b-back. He’s still not awake. He slid off the rock, Lexy. He’s on the ground.” The panic reared up, making his words higher pitched, thready.
“That’s okay. Ian, you can still help him.” She had to tamp down his hysteria in order for him to be effective. She flicked a glance at the call timer: seven minutes. Lexy gulped and said a quick prayer in her mind. “Listen to me carefully. Open the package and get the shot ready. Did your daddy teach you that part?”
“Yes. I c-can do it.”
“Perfect. Set the phone down and do it. Then pick it back up and tell me when you’re done.”
“’Kay.”
The phone clattered to the ground. She listened to the package being torn, to Ian’s heavy breathing,
