49
“Okay, Steve. Need you to keep sharp today.”
Henderson.
He couldn’t have slept any more than Steve, so how could he sound so damn cheerful when Steve ached as much as if he’d spent a month on a fireline? He hunched against the cool dawn at the picnic table. His eyes were open, but that’s all he could lay claim to.
“We’re into the fire Day Three. Winds are coming, and I want you to tell me the first instant anything moves up there in the north.”
“Uh.” He tried to shift into smokie mode. When jumping a fire, or before that when working as a hotshot, a firefighter became used to sleep deprivation. Sometimes three or four days between breaks for any shuteye. Get right into hallucinations and he’d learned how to still work the line. But now he’d be flying two drones and keeping close lo
