Page 24 of Natalie's Nighthawk

At her porch, they kissed again. And again. Graham would have loved nothing more than to be invited inside, even knowing it was too soon. Determined not to mess this up, he forced himself to tamp down his libido and step back from her, promising he’d see her tomorrow.

After listening for the click of her lock, he climbed into his truck, grateful that the guys had dropped it off. He had a feeling it would be a while before his smile would fade. He drove off in preoccupied ignorance of the shadow that had watched them from across the street.

Chapter 7

Thefollowing morning went quickly, and it was soon time for Natalie to arrive. He tried to pretend he wasn’t anxiously waiting for her as he prowled the parking lot, but the Nighthawks weren’t fooled. They all knew their boss was smitten, but he didn’t care what they thought. He was as eager for Natalie to learn about him and his world as he was to learn all about her.

Finally, she arrived, and he watched as she climbed out of her car. She wore black and looked sexy as hell. No more paint splattered hand-me-downs for her. Black jeans paired with a black sweater hugged every one of her delectable curves. Black leather boots completed the picture, their low heels bringing her an inch closer to his height. Unable to help himself, he leaned in, kissing her briefly. She flashed him her brilliant smile, and his chest clenched. Rubbing a hand over the spot, he took her hand to lead her out of the lot.

“Ready to see my world?”

“Absolutely. Can’t wait.”

He and his brother had spent six grueling years building Nighthawk from nothing and he was anxious to discover what she thought about the place – more so than with anyone else he’d given a tour to. He tried to see it through her eyes. For the most part, the Nighthawk complex resembled a college campus. There was a building that held several classrooms and their main offices. Behind that the barracks and dining hall. Finch, Logan, Tin Man, and Evan also had rooms at the barracks, finding it easier to stay there than find their own place. Until recently, Jude had also stayed there.

The barracks was a four-story building, containing the dining hall and kitchen on the first floor, three other levels housed the rooms, ten to a floor. The bathrooms were shared dorm-style and located in the middle of each floor. Clients were good about cleaning up after themselves, though they had a cleaning company come in once a week. Graham had been relieved when the day had come that he no longer had to do the weekly cleaning. After the first year of operation, they’d finally been in the black and able to hire outside help.

The kitchen was part of a buffet-style dining hall complete with a cook and staff. Chef Layla immediately doted on Natalie once she and her staff had been introduced and promised to make her something special for dinner that night. The cook was like family to Graham, so he was pleased the two women were forming a friendship.

The hands-on training areas had Natalie in awe. Graham took her first to the urban search and rescue training area, which, to the untrained eye, looked like a disaster. What had once been a strip mall now lay in a disorganized pile of rubble. The mangled mess of a building was designed to look like it had once held a restaurant, a clothing store, and a salon.

Next to the strip mall were single-family homes that appeared to have been hit hard by disaster. A few mangled mobile homes that Graham had been able to purchase after they had been through a catastrophe, completed the area that the Nighthawks called Calamity Village.

After nine-eleven, most of the country had become painfully aware of how unprepared they were for terrorist attack. Therefore, complexes like Nighthawk were seen to be needed and were sought after.

Graham showed Natalie how they used the buildings of Calamity Village to train their clients. “Someday, I hope to add K-9 SAR training,” he was telling her as he climbed around on the debris. “I’ve worked with a few organizations over the years. The work they do is remarkable. Their senses are so much more attuned than the average human. I’ve seen a SAR dog sniff out a person that we had passed over numerous times.”

Near the village was the Pile a disorganized pile of wood, concrete, and rebar resembling a large trash heap - included several pockets where “victims” could be found and rescued by the men and women in training.

Next, he showed Natalie the warehouse where they kept their equipment. The front part of the building was lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves. They held everything from bottled water and energy bars to lanterns, ropes, tents, and blankets. Anything they could need on a rescue was stored in the warehouse. At the back of the long concrete building was the repair room. There they could look their equipment over after each use to make sure it was sound for the next mission.

Natalie had wandered over to the shelves that held their high-tech. Graham was raising funds for the purchase of several new devices to aid in searches. One in particular, the snake, with a small camera attached, could slither through small cracks in search of victims. Future tech for search and rescue was exciting but damn expensive.

Graham took down a device and turned it on. “This is a thermal imager, a special camera that can detect infrared heat signatures.” He handed it to her saying, “Point it at me. You can see on the screen there a large reddish-white blob. Body heat shows up that color. Comes in handy when we don’t have access to K-9s.”

“How far away can you see with it?”

“For a good reading, and to understand what you are looking at, no more than one hundred feet. But we can’t rely completely on this one device. It might show a warm spot, but it could just be a gas line or water heater. Or even an animal. False positives are frequent when using it on its own; that’s why we pair it with other equipment, both high and low-tech.

“And new technology is being developed every day,” he continued, returning the device to its assigned spot on the shelf. “There is a place in Texas where they are testing the use of a special type of AI that can squeeze into spaces the average human can’t, to spot people who might be trapped. It can film the area around the victim, allowing the SAR crew to safely develop a plan of action to get that person out.” He hoped to have equipment like that someday.

“Robots to the rescue,” Natalie quipped.

“Respect the robots,” he teased. “They may be our overlords someday.”

After showing Natalie the docks and RIBs they used for water rescue training and the occasional real-life rescue; Graham took her to their newest facility. The climbing gym was built the previous year, complete with locker rooms and gym equipment that comprised half of the building. The various climbing walls allowed them to train for any sort of rescue, be it mountain, cliff, deep hole?like the one Colin and Lucy had fallen into?or building. Anything that would require ropes and climbing to reach a victim. David, being an avid climber, had insisted they build the facility. It had been a quality addition to Nighthawk. Most of their clients came to them with absolutely no ropes knowledge. After taking Nighthawk’s climbing courses, they could adequately handle all aspects of climbing and working with the ropes. David, of course, was particularly proud of these courses.

The Whitaker brothers were expert climbers, but David was a step above, a natural on any terrain. Graham was often in awe of his brother when he watched him climb.

“This is all so fascinating. How often do your rescues require climbing skills?”

“More often than you would think. Mostly it depends on how hazardous the terrain is. We don’t have very many mountain ranges here in Michigan, but we do have the bluffs overlooking the lakes. And the UP has some excellent climbing areas where people can sometimes find themselves in trouble if they are not careful.”

“I didn’t know climbing was such a big business. I’ve heard of the occasional climbing gym like this, but I didn’t know people climbed cliffs and mountains like they do these walls.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not only the occasional climber we’re called out for.” At her look of confusion, he went on to explain about yesterday’s rescue. “Since Lake Superior was having a fit, the water was too rough for a rescue by boat. We had to climb down to them. They were uninjured and had some climbing experience, so we helped them climb up, and they had a blast, which was a nice change.”

“Other rescues don’t go that well?” Her voice was full of concern.

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