“Glad to hear from you too,” Hyland scoffs under his breath.
“Got her!” Axel shouts excitedly.
We crowd around him to look over his shoulder at the screen. He’s geolocated the call to a remote stretch of countryside not far from the town or its coastal airport.
“Find us a helicopter,” I instruct him. “Offer the pilot double if we can get wheels up in under an hour.”
“I’m on it,” he quips.
“We’ll need to find a private airstrip to request the Sabre jet for evac too. Call HQ to update them.”
“Way ahead of you. I’ll wake the boss up again.”
“Good luck.” Picking up my phone, I click the speakerphone off. “We’re coming for you, Em. You need to sit tight.”
“Okay,” she replies in a rush of breath. “Um, my brother. Is he… okay?”
“Yeah. Tom’s doing fine. He calls me for an update on the search weekly.”
“Oh my god… After all this time?”
“None of us ever stopped looking.”
It’s getting nearly impossible to talk around the boulder of repressed emotion that’s growing in my tight chest. I doubt it’ll shift until I can lay eyes on her myself and verify she’s real. Alive. Safe.
“He never stopped hoping you’d be found. Not once.”
Her sniffles intensify into outright cries that scratch at my battered heart. Hearing her weep is tearing me apart inside. All I want is to hold her in my arms and make it all better.
“We’ll be there soon. I promise. Hold on for me?”
“I’ll be waiting.”
“Good girl,” I praise emotionally.
We need to haul ass, but the thought of hanging up on her is literally unbearable. Hyland is already stomping between ourtwo rooms, tossing equipment and suitcases into the living space at random.
“Thank you for not forgetting me,” Ember whispers in a tiny voice.
“Forget you?” I repeat in disbelief.
“Well, it’s been… Shit, six years.”
That’s the final straw for the throbbing organ in my chest.
“It could’ve been sixty years, and I’d still be searching for you.”
I’m not sure I’ll have a job to return to once my superiors see the bill for our helicopter ride into Acapulco’s small airport. We had to bribe the pilot with triple his standard fare to speed up the entire process and bypass official checks.
Even so, it’s been almost five hours since we received her call. Five hours since the entire world shifted on its axis. Five hours since I got the first shred of hope that I could bring my best friend’s sister home alive.
Sliding behind the wheel of the first rental car we could lay our hands on, Hyland assumes control of driving. I’m too on edge to even think about navigating the dusty roads right now.
We haven’t heard from Ember since we landed under the cover of night. Our subsequent phone calls have gone unanswered, the line clicking without connecting. Best case scenario… the phone she’s using has died.
Worse case… I’m not considering that.
“Buckle up.” Hyland fires up the engine.
