Echo-Foxtrot Read Online Free Page A

her cheek. “What about you, honey? Are you OK?”
    “I’m fine.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes.
    “No, you’re not.” He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “C’mon, I got time for a coffee first before the debrief. Let me just dump the bag.”
    Nichola smiled at him. “You shouldn’t talk about people like that. And you should at least shower and change first.”
    Jack grinned at her, then glanced at his crumpled and stained flight suit. “You’re right. On both counts. Give me ten minutes. I’ll meet you in the mess.” He squeezed her hand briefly and headed off.
    Jim looked down. He felt horrible, useless, and alone. This was his fault. Didn’t matter how much he apologized, if she died, it’d be solely down to him.
    Dad touched his shoulder. “Come on, son. Let’s go and find the others. Mum and I need to talk to you and Staci.”
    Jim nodded. “OK.” He walked slowly with his father, not looking forward to anything his parents had to say.
    In the infirmary, Staci lay curled up on the bed. “Jim, where’s Lou?”
    Jim sat on the bed next to her. “They took her straight to surgery. They’re really worried about her.”
    “Is she going to die?”
    He pushed a hand through his hair. The length of it hadn’t bothered him in weeks, but now it did. All he wanted was to cut it. Daft…his best friend was dying and all he could think about was his hair. “She could. It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t taken her fishing because I wanted the fish…”
    “I asked for the fish in the first place.”
    Jim shook his head. “It was my decision to take her fishing that morning, because I was angry with her. I wanted the fish more than anyone, because I was tired of tinned food. I should never have let you come. Either of you. I should have turned around soon as I found you both that first morning, never mind after her idiot stunt in the docks.”
    Dad slammed his hand down on the bedside unit. “James Tiberius Kirk. That’s enough,” he thundered. “I don’t want a pity party or a let’s-blame-each-other-or-myself attitude. James, I want you to explain, from the beginning. And I want all of it.”
    Jim shifted uncomfortably. “Where’s the bag? It has the logbook in it…”
    “Never mind the logbook. There’s plenty of time for me to read that later. Just talk.”
    He glanced at the others and began from the beginning, explaining what he and the others had done. Explaining it all, the explosion in the docks, Hurricane Erika, the shark attack, the shipwreck, volcano, and forest fire made it sound awful. Which it was. And a miracle they had all survived.
    He supposed it was a good job that God was looking out for them, because he hadn’t done a very good job at all. And he was meant to have been the grown-up in all this.
    “I’m so sorry. I just wanted to find you,” he finished. “No one was looking and you’d been declared missing.”
    Dad nodded. “There wasn’t any communication possible for days. Nothing much in or out where we were. There was a lot of damage, but we were high enough to avoid the floodwaters. It just cut us off. They managed to get the news crews into the main towns, but anything else just wasn’t possible. It was chaos, no one knew where anyone was, so many people hurt, dead, or simply missing.”
    Mum took his hand. “We finally got rescued three weeks later and rang home. Nicky said you’d all left. We got the first flight home we could—which wasn’t until September. By which point Jack had been in touch, saying he’d seen you all.”
    Staci looked up slowly. “Are we grounded?”
    “Forever,” Mum replied.
    “Already asked that,” Jim muttered.
    “And got the same response,” Dad said.
    Jack came in. “Nicky’s sleeping in my quarters here on base tonight in case Lou needs her.” He held out his car keys. “I’m going to stay here as well so she’s not on her own. You guys can drive yourselves back to the house when you’re