Iris Johansen - Dead Aim

Arapahoe Junction, Colorado

October 15

"I know I'm late, dammit." Alex Graham's hand clenched on her cell phone. "I'll get those pictures to you as soon as I can."

"You'd get them to me sooner if you'd stop working in the rubble and start taking pictures of those rescue workers whose job it is to do it," Jim Karak said sarcastically. "Old news is no news, Alex. That dam broke almost a week ago and the magazine goes to press in two days."

"They're still digging survivors from the landslide caused by the dam break."

"Then you should be taking warm, heroic pictures instead of manning a shovel. You're breaking one of the cardinal rules. You're becoming part of the story."

"There may be people alive beneath that-" It was no use. Karak had one priority and that was the story. "You'll get the pictures." She hung up and leaned back against the wall and rubbed her temple. God, she was tired. She'd be lucky if Karak didn't call her back and tell her to find another magazine to publish her work. She wasn't being fair and certainly not professional. If she hadn't had a decent track record before this, Karak would have dumped her days ago.

"Problems?" Sarah Logan and her dog, Monty, were standing in the doorway of the trailer.

"A few." Alex grimaced as she rose to her feet. "It seems I'm not doing my job. I'm not focusing on what's important."

"You could have fooled me." Sarah filled Monty's bowl with water and sat down on the floor beside him while he drank. "We found a baby alive in that hellhole this morning. I'd say that was pretty important."

"Me too." Alex smiled. "Screw Karak."

Sarah didn't return her smile. "I don't want you to lose your job, Alex. I know how much your work means to you. There are other volunteers out there helping to dig."

Alex lifted her brows. "Oh, then you have too much help?"

"You know there's no such thing in a disaster like this. We have to work fast or- Okay, we need you. I just don't want you to be hurt. God knows there's enough pain in this world."

And Sarah Logan witnessed a good deal of it, Alex thought. She and her golden retriever, Monty, were in a canine search-and-rescue team, and Alex had run across her on half a dozen disaster sites during the last five years. In the horror of natural and man-made tragedies, a strong bond of friendship had been forged. "I'll be okay."

"Your editor is right. This isn't your job." She shook her head. "Look at you. You're covered in dirt from head to toe. Your hands are bleeding from that shovel and you haven't slept in twenty-four hours."

"Have you?"

Sarah ignored the question. "And it's more than your hands that are bleeding. Take a step back, Alex. It will break you if you get too close to it. Believe me, I know."

"It's not as though I haven't been to other disaster sites."

"But then you weren't as involved. You were taking photographs and helping in the first-aid tent. You weren't uncovering the bodies of people you hoped would be alive'"

She didn't want to think of those bodies. There had been too many in the last few days. "Yet you do it all the time. You could stay home and live soft, and yet every time there's a call, you and Monty are off and running. I'm surprised your husband doesn't raise hell."

"He doesn't like it, but he understands." Sarah frowned. "But we're not talking about me. I've watched you work and there's no one more dedicated. You love what you do and you've told me a dozen times that your job is to tell the story. Don't get sidetracked."

"I'm not sidetracked. I'll get it done." She bent down and stroked Monty's soft fur. "I just can't- I'll get it done."

Sarah stared at her, troubled. "I don't think you should accept assignments like this anymore. I've seen it coming since Ground Zero, but it's getting worse. You've changed."

Steel and concrete and that stinging smoke that seemed to cover the world like a shroud.

"Ground Zero changed all of us."

Sarah and Monty crawling among the ruins while Alex watched helplessly.

Sarah and Alex holding desperately to each other while the tears poured down their faces.

Sarah nodded. "But I had someone to go home to while I healed. I should have made you come with me."

"Life had to go on. I had to go on." She shrugged. "And if I took some baggage with me, then that's the way it had to be. I'm usually okay. This one is rough. It's brought back too many memories."

"But it's not the same," Sarah said gently. "We've found survivors here, Alex. Seventy-two so far."

"That's not enough," she whispered. "It's never enough. I can't stand by and let-" She cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Is it your rest time?"

Sarah shook her head. "I just had to get Monty some water. My canteen was empty. We still have a few hours to work until dark. It's less dangerous for Monty if he can see clearly what's out there." She paused. "But we've just had two bits of good news. The President is coming here next week."

"It's about time. Vice President Shepard was here the day after the dam break."

"Yeah, I was impressed. But it's when the President shows up that FEMA and all the aid organizations get a boost."

"That's good." She made a face. "Maybe I can convince Karak I was only waiting for Andreas to show up so that I could give him a really big story." She shook her head. "Nah, I'm no good at lying. Besides, security is so tight around the President right now that I wouldn't get within a mile of him." "I'm surprised he's coming at all. There was a bombing at the embassy in Mexico City last night."

"The same terrorist group?"

Sarah nodded. "Matanza claimed it. And an effigy of Andreas was left burning on the lawn."

"Bastards." It was the third embassy attack by the Guatemalan terrorist group in the last six months. If it wasn't the Middle East, it was Guatemala or Venezuela. Juan Cordoba and his Matanza group had always been rabid revolutionaries in their own country, but now-fueled by drug money and Al Qaeda support-they had grown powerful enough to take aim at Andreas and the administration that was trying to stabilize the party in power. It seemed impossible to Alex that there had ever been a time when her country hadn't been surrounded by terror and ugliness and threats. Yet she could remember a childhood filled with trust and innocence and the belief that nothing really bad could come knocking on her door. The memory filled her with frustration and anger and immense sadness. "I hope your second bit of good news is better than your first."

"Hey, you have to take the bitter with the sweet. At least Andreas isn't letting anyone scare him into ignoring people who need him. He should be safe enough visiting this site. All the evidence points to a natural disaster here." She smiled. "And the preliminary report on the ground on the other side of the dam says it appears to be fairly stable. They're sending some teams up there tomorrow morning to do a final check. When the landslide buried this area, they were afraid the ground on the other side might be compromised."

"Jesus. That's all these poor people need. Another landslide."

"They tried to evacuate everyone from that area just for safety's sake. But it looks like they can go back home." Sarah stroked Monty's head. "Time to go back to work, boy." She stood up and headed for the door. "And it's a good time for you to take some photographs."

"How bossy can you get?" Alex followed her and stood in the doorway, gazing out at the disaster site. Every time she looked at the devastation it made her sick. The Arapahoe Dam had broken five days earlier and the water had rushed down into the valley below, killing over a hundred and twenty people. But the series of landslides caused by the explosive force of the water on either side of the valley was the horror they were dealing with now. The rock slides had buried the homes and businesses of Arapahoe Junction under tons of rock, and the area was still so unstable the rescue had to be done painstakingly by hand, not machine. Her glance shifted across the jagged wreck of the dam to the hills on the other side. The rocky terrain looked blessedly sturdy in a shaky world.