Ninety Degrees Out

Alicia hugged Arimina tighter and went over to stand out of the way by the garage door.Jazz blurred by her in a streak of fur, launched himself over two soldiers, and knocked Chay flying.She dropped Ari and dashed over to see what was going on.

“Daddy, Daddy!”Arimina’s scream was heart stopping.

Jazz had Angel’s arm in his mouth, a glittering blade fell to the gas soaked grass as Chay rolled onto his back.The girl was far from dead.The bloody wound on Angel’s forehead furrowed from above her left eye back where Ari’s bullet winged her.

“Get the basket,” A soldier dropped to the ground by Angel and started to check her for injuries.She kicked out hard at his legs.

Two soldiers ran back to the Chinook and brought it back.

“Jazz, out!”Chay shouted from where he lay on his back.

The Malawolf growled and gave Angel’s arm a shake.

Chay dragged himself up to his knees.

“Jazz, out!” This time the command came out in a sharp bark.

The huge malamute cross gave Angel’s arm one more violent shake, and her piercing scream was blood curdling. He sat and watched her, ready to pounce.

“She’s going to have a nasty scar on her forehead. And your dog managed to dislocate her shoulder and put a tear deep into her forearm. Looks like we’ve got an artery bleed here.”

The medic pulled a tourniquet off his belt and Alicia sighed. The red cross badge on his shoulder was a welcome sight. She wondered if there was hope for Angel. Would this experience harden the girl further, or give her the wake up call to get her to change?

Angel’s free arm came up to punch the medic’s shoulder.

“Grab the restraints.”

As the tourniquet stopped the shooting arcs of blood pouring out Angel’s arm, the other soldiers fastened leather cuffs over Angel’s wrists.When they shifted her into the basket, they clipped them to the frame.

“Fucker’s. Attacking me. You’re going to pay. I’ll fucking be back!” Angel’s cursing threats came with a piercing glare from blazing blue eyes.

The medic jabbed her with a syringe, and she went silent.

“Damn good thing I’m a trauma surgeon. She’ll hold. I hear we have a couple of other stops to make. We’ll be taking everyone to the Coast Guard base. Nice work, whoever shot her did a fine job.”

Arimina said, “Me.I didn’t mean to hit her head. She moved.”

A Coast Guard team member holding an assault rifle knelt down where Arimina came to a stop and was staring at Angel.

“Kiddo, it happens to the best of us. Better lucky than good. But you are damn good. I’ll take you for a partner any time.”

Alicia shook her head. What a comment. But he was right. And with Ari’s fierce need to keep her family safe, she didn’t need a guilt trip about her actions. It was strange to think a sniper would consider her six-year-old daughter as a partner.

Arimina put her hand in the sniper’s when he held it out, and he shook it. Alicia watched Ari straighten her shoulders and stand a little taller. Perfect. She’d get the soldier’s name later from Captain Whipper. He deserved a commendation for his actions.

The soldiers picked up the basket and started heading back to the chopper.

“What’s your name?” The sniper asked.

“Arimina Stargazer, sir.”

“I’ll let Captain know who took her down,” he said looking up at Chay and Alicia. “She deserves recognition.”

“I just did what I had to. Angel was going to burn our house down.”

“So that’s where the gas smell came from?” the sniper asked.

“Yeah, the container is over there,” Arimina pointed to where it sat under her bedroom window.

“We’ll take that with us too.”

He stood, pulling gloves out his pocket and put them on before walking over to pick up the empty red jug. He waved at Ari as he jogged over to the helicopter as the blades started to rotate.

“Jazz did it again, didn’t he?” Alicia commented as she picked Ari up to hug her again.

“How did he know, Daddy?” Ari asked.

“I’m not sure, but he always does, and he always gets there in time. It was pretty close this time. Angel went for her knife when I touched her throat to see if she still had a pulse.”

Chay had one hand on Jazz’s neck where the dog leaned into his leg.He wrapped the other arm around Alicia’s shoulders as they watched the helicopter slowly rise up over the treetops.She felt him turn toward the house when Ari’s hand tightened on her arm.

“It’s coming back!”

Ari’s shout made her wince.

Chay tapped his ear, and said, “Pete and Milo.Remember, broken knee?”

“Right, forgot about them,” Alicia responded.

“More bad guys?” Ari’s panicked question had her squeezing her daughter into a tighter hug again.

“One bad guy and one RCMP officer,” Chay explained.

“But they’re from Canada,” Ari’s confusion was evident.

“Yeah, our bad guys did some pretty awful things down there when the left after one of them shot Ursa,” Alicia explained.

“Okay.So, they helped us to catch our bad guys.I couldn’t figure out what you were talking about.”

Alicia met Chay’s eyes over Ari’s head. He nodded, so he caught her thought.

We’re going to have to have a long talk about keeping Ari in the loop. Looks like we blew it again when we planned this.

They turned to watch as the medic and four others disappeared into the backyard with another patient transfer basket. Five minutes later, they came back carrying Milo and Pete came over to talk to them.

“We’re heading down to the ranch next and we’ll be landing at the house down the road too.We’re going to have a full load going back to base.Thanks to you all, we’ve got our whole list of perps to take back.”

Pete reached out to shake Chay and Alicia’s hands. Then he turned to speak to Ari.

“And you, young lady, you are our hero today. Way to go. You did great defending your family and home. I’ll take you on my team anytime.”

Pete extended his hand to shake Arimina’s.

Ari’s eyes popped wide open, and Alicia said a silent thank you prayer. She couldn’t have asked for a better reaction to Ari’s decision to take a shot at Angel.

“Thank you, sir.”

Ari put her hand in Pete’s, and he shook it.

“We’re out of here.Bran, Jax, Jimbo, and I will be taking this bunch of men back to Canada. Angel will be Captain Whipper and Sargent Stan’s problem.”

Pete spun to run for the helicopter. The door slid closed behind him, and this time the chopper rose quickly, turned toward the ranch and disappeared.