Burn Season novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: In Front of the Crew

At six o'clock thirty jumpers sat in the grass around the fire ring.

Every one of them turned to watch me walk out of the trees.

I had not been in a briefing since the barbecue.

Some of them had been in the loft that night.

Some of them had spent a week saying I froze.

The base manager stood beside the ring with his arms folded.

"MacLaren," he said. "Tell them what you saw at two-ten."

I told them in four sentences.

The last one was about the draw behind the rock cut, which had become a chimney.

Anything standing in it would have burned.

"That's what I saw," I said.

Nobody moved.

Then a rookie in the back said, quietly, "She saved the whole squad."

"She saved eight people," Bea said, loud enough for everyone.

The manager nodded.

"Anyone who repeated that MacLaren froze in Idaho can take it back in front of me," he said.

"I want to hear it tonight."

Silence.

A few of them looked at their boots.

Kasey sat at the far end of the circle with her knees drawn up and her hands folded.

Her face was perfectly still.

"Good," the manager said. "That's settled."

"No," Walker said. "It isn't."

He had been sitting on his bucket behind the radio, with the crutch across his knees.

Now he stood, and put his weight on the good foot, and the crowd turned.

"I want to say something in front of the crew."

"Dunleavy," the manager said, "sit down."

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