Captain Kate’s Tracker Kept Moving After the Fall

None of that mattered while I was sinking.

My vest dragged at my shoulders, and the breath I had taken before the fall was gone.

I kicked toward the pale light above me and tried to pull with both arms.

Pain shot through my left shoulder.

When my face broke the surface, I coughed up water and heard the helicopter moving away.

I looked up once.

The side door was still open, but I could not make out anyone inside it.

The helicopter was flying low over the reservoir on its approach, and I had wanted a clear look at the bank before we reached our landing zone.

Sergeant Nolan Price had raised two fingers where I could see them.

Then Specialist Eric Voss and Specialist Caleb Reed hit me together, hard enough that I never got a hand on the doorframe.

Price was close enough to stop them.

I did not see him try.

I had heard the three of them complain about taking orders from me often enough.

I had never imagined that resentment would turn into this.

In the water, I could not afford to guess what they planned to say about my fall.

I could only assume they might come looking for me.

The shoreline was closer than the helicopter’s landing zone, but the distance still looked awful from where I was.

I rolled onto my back to rest my shoulder and found that my pack was pulling me under again.

I managed to release its waist strap, then shrugged it free with my right hand.

It floated for an instant before the weight inside took it down.

My radio went with it.

I had clipped the handset to my vest, but its cable was connected to the pack, and I felt it tear loose as the pack sank.

The handset struck my chest, its casing cracked, and I could hear nothing but water when I tried the call button.

I let it hang and swam.

A narrow strip of stones ran below the relay station’s access fence.

I kept my eyes on that strip because the rest of the shore was steep and thick with brush.

Several times my boots touched weeds beneath the surface, and each time I made myself keep moving rather than stand too soon.

When the water finally reached my waist, I stumbled forward and caught myself on the stones with my good hand.

I stayed there on my knees until I could breathe without coughing.

The helicopter was no longer in sight.

I checked the emergency tracker fastened inside my vest and saw its status light blinking green.

It could report my position to the aircraft and to operations, but it had no way to carry my voice.

I pressed its manual alert anyway.

Then I pushed myself up.

The relay station stood beyond a short rise, a squat building behind a chain-link fence.

Our briefing had described it as unmanned, with the maintenance entrance locked and no work scheduled that week.

I meant to reach it before the soldiers did, even if all I could do was find a working telephone.

Near the gate, I stopped.

There were fresh tire marks in the damp earth, and the chain on the gate was looped through the links without its padlock.

Someone had been there ahead of us.

Chapter 2 – The Station Behind the Fence

I did not touch the gate.

Whoever had looped that chain through the links had wanted it to look secured from the air, and a person who cares about appearances usually has something worth hiding. I crouched beside the fence post instead and studied the tire marks. They were wide and deep, the kind a loaded cargo truck leaves, and there were two sets, one going in and one coming out.

The outgoing set was shallower. Whatever the truck had carried in, it had left some of it behind.

My shoulder throbbed with every heartbeat. I tested it gently and felt the joint grind. It was not broken, but it was badly wrenched, and I would not be pulling myself over any fence. That made the gate my only way in.