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“It means if the plane was heading down in a crash course toward the northwest, it could’ve hit the starboard side against the cliff, knocked off the propeller, then continued down through that pass,” he said, pointing to the only place low enough to allow the plane through—in the opposite direction they’d been searching.
Their pilot, Julio, looked over at Sam. “That way?”
“Yes.”
—
FOR THE NEXT three days, with Julio piloting the helicopter, Sam, Remi, and Dietrich searched the pass for the downed plane, each evening returning without finding anything.
The next morning, they expanded their search even farther. Julio circled the helicopter around a craggy peak of barren rock and snow, when Sam saw something that caught his eye. “Make another pass again,” he said. “Lower, this time.”
“I’m going to need to refuel soon.”
Julio was right. Too dangerous to cut it close out here, with the unstable wind patterns. “One more pass, then we go back.”
Julio nodded. What looked like a shadow jutting out from between the two peaks was taking on the appearance of something a lot smoother than the snow-covered, rocky terrain.
Remi leaned over, peering out. “Sam . . .”
“Sure looks like something there.”
Julio hovered over the area. “Decision time.” He tapped at his gauge.
“Come in from the other side,” Sam said, trying to get a better look through his binoculars. “I have a good feeling about this.”
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There was no doubt when they made the next pass.
“Look at that!” Dietrich said. He pulled out his phone and took several pictures, while Remi did the same with a camera and telephoto lens. The plane was wedged in a crevice between two peaks, the glacier holding it, having melted just enough to partially expose the nose, fuselage, and left wing. Because the shadow of the mountain helped camouflage the gray Avro Lancastrian, blending it into the rocky landscape, if they’d flown over it in any other direction, they probably would have missed seeing it altogether.
“Time to head home,” Julio said.
Dietrich looked around, almost in a panic, as the helicopter started moving away. “Where ar
e we going? We need to get down there.”
“Tomorrow,” Julio replied. “Unless you want to spend the next week hiking back.”
Sam eyed the fuel gauge, glad to know their pilot was keeping a close watch. “Now that we know what we’re dealing with, we can come back better prepared.”
Julio nodded toward the mountain peak on the right of the plane as they took off. “I don’t like the looks of that.”
Neither did Sam. He glanced down at the plane again. Sunlight glistened on the rivulet of water running down one side of it. The warming trend that helped to expose the missing plane was a doubled-edged sword, he thought, looking back up at the mountainside. Packed with snow and with a melting glacier at the base, it was an avalanche in the making. They’d definitely want to avoid disturbing the right shoulder of the mountain. “Let’s hope the weather is better. We’ll have to find somewhere to land tomorrow below the plane. I think it’ll be safer to climb up.”
As far as Dietrich was concerned, tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.
—
BACK AT BASE CAMP, Sam, Remi, and Dietrich hiked from the helipad up the hill, almost half a mile through the scattered tents, until they reached their campsite. The scent of beef simmering in spices greeted them as they entered the tent. Nando, busy stirring the stew, looked up. “You’re back. How was the trip?”
“We found it,” Dietrich said. “We just couldn’t get to it today.”
“But we have pictures,” Remi said, taking the memory card from the camera and transferring the photos to her laptop.
Nando gave the stew a quick stir, then walked over to see the photos. “That’s amazing. No wonder no one’s found it before. It looks a lot like the rock from the mountainside.”
“We got lucky,” Sam said, taking a seat next to Remi. “A few feet over, one way or the other, we might’ve missed it.” He pulled out his own computer to look up the weather report. The storm coming in had been upgraded, which meant more snow and stronger winds. But the front had stalled, and it wasn’t supposed to move in for a couple of days. That would leave them with more than enough time for exploring the plane.