CHAPTER 4

Both Hawkes finished their breakfast, expecting the kids to show up any time, but neither did even as it neared time to leave for the hangar. If they were just out playing, he had no problem leaving them, but Le hadn't taken the hand held radio he was supposed to when he was going to be gone long. Having gotten into a fair amount of trouble on their own when they were younger, neither String nor Saint John wanted to leave without some idea of their whereabouts.

Decision made, Hawke radioed Santini Air to let Dominic know he and Saint John would be late, and they began they hunt for the missing kids.

"They can't have gotten too far," Saint John said aloud, but after looking for an hour and covering all the area they knew Le liked to frequent, they were still no closer to finding Le or Nikita.

"I'm starting to get worried. Neither one of us has seen them all morning, so they've been gone since at least seven in the morning. That was five hours ago."

"I know," String agreed. "I think it's about time we take up the helicopter and see if we can spot them from the air."

"Sounds good," Saint John agreed. Finding them from the air could prove difficult, especially with all the tree cover, but at least them could cover the ground faster.

Within minutes they were in the air and covering the expanse around the cabin. Saint John sat in the co-pilot's seat searching the ground below for any sign of the two, but String's low level flight was limited by the height of the pine trees, and it was difficult to focus on a singular object as they flew by. A couple times he thought he might have spotted them, but after circling around each time he determined it wasn't them or couldn't relocate his original point of reference.

"You don't think they would have taken the skiff out, do you?"

"I didn't notice if it was still tied to the dock or nnot," String answered, immediately sending them in that direction and demanding of himself why that hadn't been his first thought. The water on the lake wasn't that rough, but it would be cold, and he knew from personal experience how quickly things could go wrong on the water.

Thankfully, as he rounded closed in on the cabin, he could see the skiff was still secure at the dock.

"I'm going to circle over the lake again just to make sure, but then I"m going to set down on the dock again," he told his brother, "the stick seems a bit loose to me."

Saint John nodded his approval of the plan and continued to search the shore line for any signs of the children until his brother's command ripped him away.

"Sinj, take the stick."

"String, not now. I-"

"Yes now – I lost control!"

Abruptly the mushy feeling they cyclic had been giving him had gone completely and without Saint John's intervention, they would be the ones ditching in the middle of the lake.

Left with no other choice, Saint John took the controls and leveled out their flight.

"I need you to land on the dock or in the clearing next to the cabin," his brother requested.

"String, I haven't flown in years and neither place has much room for error. I'll either dump us in the drink of send a tree through the windscreen."

"We don't have much of a choice, Sinj. The control is out on this side and I can't switch seats with you midflight."

"This isn't how I wanted to be reintroduced to flying."

"I know, but you can do it, Saint John. You've done it hundreds of times before."

Not nearly as many as the probably thousands of times String had, Saint John thought breifly, but he tried to shove the thought aside. String was right. There wasn't any choice and without knowing why he lost control on the pilot's side, he needed to get down before they potentially faced the same thing on the co-pilot's side.

He brought the helicopter in slowly above the clearing near the cabin and pulled slightly on the collective.

"Watch the trees to the left," String cautioned.

"I know," Saint John replied a calmly as possible. Shifting over to avoid the low branches, he continued the decent and landed with a gentle thump.

"You did it."

"Yeah." Saint John let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "I still think you should come out here with a chain saw and get rid of a few of these trees, but we're here, and without any branches through the window."

"You did well," String said seriously before sliding out.

\A/

Even after yet another stop to rest, Le was worn out with quite a ways to go. It was approaching one o'clock, but they didn't have any lunch to stop and eat since they had only planned on being gone for breakfast.

Next time, he thought to himself, he was packing the backpack. Nikita had saved them a lot of weight with her minimalistic packing, but if they had the proper climbing hear, she probably wouldn't have ever gotten hurt in the first place. Even if she had, he would have brought a first aid kit and radio so they could get in touch with help if they needed it. She probably never thought about needing it though. He never would have had it not been for the camping trip he took with String in the summer. At the time it had seemed like an excessive amount to carry for a couple days, but now he understood the necessity of carrying more than the bare essentials. Sometimes something unimportant became very important.

On his back again, Nikita draped over his shoulder half asleep. Despite not having walked since early that morning, she seemed exhausted. Even so, he made sure to wake her at least a couple time an hour for fear she had gained a concussion on addition to her leg injury from her tumble. With any luck, they would be back to the cabin in about half an hour. He just hoped the weather would hold out that long. Most the morning it had been pleasantly warm and sunny, but as it moved further into the afternoon, the temperature had dropped and clouds had begun gathering overhead. The last ting they needed was to be cold and muddy after all this.