18
The Collins Aerospace cargo winch used by the C-17 had a rating of seventy-five hundred pounds. Thankfully, it didn’t have to lift the destroyed seventeen-ton Cat excavator into its cargo bay. It hadn’t burned long because she’d shot it high in the tank. Most of the fuel stayed safe inside the machine.
Holly watched as the C-17’s loadmasters used it to tug the excavator aboard, rolling on its own two treads. The cleats flashed light and dark as first the fire-soot-stained sides showed, then the tops that had only been heated until the pretty yellow paint job had peeled.
“Bets on whether they paid for the insurance rider on that?” Quint was the first to speak as they watched it being dragged aboard.
“Quarter million either in taxpayer dollars or upped insurance premiums. Either way,
