Page 163 of Smoke and Fire
“Just . . . steady on. Maybe she’ll let it go when she doesn’t discover anything here.”
“Any idea how she found it?”
“IP tracker, maybe,” he murmured. “Not sure. Lizbeth might. She's got a brain for computers and programming.”
The thought hadn’t occurred to me. For several wordless moments, I had no response to give.
“Do you want me to ask Lizbeth to find out?” I asked. "I'm not sure I can do that without revealing Jess."
“No. The less people that know, the better.”
“Okay.”
“And . . .” he hesitated. “The wind is supposed to shift and build through the night. It’ll come out of the northwest and blow toward Pineville. There's a chance voluntary evacuations could hit.”
“Sione just texted me about it. That means the fire would be headed right for us, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So the weather report is accurate?”
“As accurate as they ever are.”
I chewed on my bottom lip and thought of Sione's text. Maybe I should get the RV prepped, just in case. One of the stablizer jacks had been having an issue retracting. I wouldn’t be able to leave with that still down.
“Okay, thanks.”
“You’ll be safe,” he added quickly. “There are emergency alerts that go out to anyone in an area, so keep your phone close and keep it turned up and loud.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“I have to go back out soon. They’re putting us on a different part of the fire tonight to try to get ahead of it. Hopefully, we can stop it at the highway so it doesn’t jump.”
Jumping over the highway, if memory served correctly, would put it on the path to Adventura.
“I hope it doesn’t,” I murmured.
“We’ll get it.”
He sounded so easily confident and calm about this building conflagration thing. Darkness had started to settle, driving me inside. The comfort of the bright RV interior settled the building uncertainty. Or maybe it was his voice and reassurance.
“Thanks, Bastian.”
The sound of a scuffle and calling voices came from the background.
“I’ll update as much as I can, but I’m not sure when we’ll get back. I need to go, this was a short break. Thanks.”
“My pleasure.”
“Oh,” he added, “thanks for the videos. I . . . I’ve really enjoyed them. Send more.”
The call ended before I could squeak out another word.
14
BASTIAN
Mother Nature was a beast.
