Free Pilot Error by T.C. Ravenscraft Page A

weather into the survival equation. "What?"
    She frowned. He must really be a city boy if he wasn't any more in tune with nature than that. "This is Florida. It storms most every afternoon and—"
    "And?" Luke asked impatiently.
    "And with the 'Bermuda High' that's been dominating the area for the past week or so, it storms bigtime."
    "Great. Why didn't you tell me this before?"
    "Because I'm the pilot, I read the weather brief, and I planned to be back in Marathon before it was a problem. What part of that statement makes you think I should have reported it to you?"
    "Since—"
    "—you're 'the paying customer and you're telling me to?' Give it a rest, huh?"
    Luke shook his head in lieu of getting into another argument. He stood. "Come on, we're wasting time." He moved back into the scrubby vegetation again, leaving her to follow.
    Micki bristled at the direct order and stayed where she was, watching him and the orange life vests he toted be swallowed by the thick tropical foliage. It was bad enough that some lunatics with guns considered her a threat to their 'secret hideout,' but Hardigan was not making things any easier by stubbornly refusing to give her the answers she was entitled to know.
    With a decisive bark, Fizz bounded after Luke, leaving her alone. Micki sighed, and ran her hand up under her cap to wipe away the sweat encouraged by the Florida sun. There was just one thing she was sure of in this whole mysterious mess. As she climbed to her feet and prepared to follow, she knew that whatever the threat—be it maniacs with guns, approaching storms, or Luke Hardigan himself—the one sure thing was that she was in deep, deep trouble.
    ***
    Ten minutes later they encountered their first obstacle; a horseshoe-shaped mangrove swamp that looked impassible on all sides.
    "Great," Micki said, stopping beside Luke on the bank and leaning wearily against a tree. They appeared to have walked into the swamp in the middle of the horseshoe, its arms stretching back behind them on both sides.
    Luke's eyes raked the stagnant water, downed vegetation, and maze upon maze of impassible 'stilt roots' from the Red Mangroves. "I think we can cross it."
    "Yeah, right," she said with a sarcastic snort. As if she had actually expected him to say anything else.
    "I'm open to suggestions."
    Micki drew herself up to her full five-foot-six inches and took back some of her lost authority. "Okay, here's one. We double back and find an easier place to get across."
    "And run straight into even bigger trouble? They won't be far behind us, you know. And I didn't leave much room for guessing which way we came."
    Grunting, she remembered the fallen palm saplings and crushed vegetation they had left in their wake, and wished she had considered that before now. Whoever was pursuing them would not have any trouble deciphering their trail.
    "Great. Brilliant maneuver there, Hardigan."
    Luke frowned. "Geez, what is it with you and the attitude? It's not my fault we walked into this damn swamp."
    "Yes, it is. This is all your fault. If you hadn't decided to use my plane to fly recon, I wouldn't be standing here sweating like a pig and being eaten alive by elephant-sized mosquitoes!" To emphasize her point, she took off her cap and swiped at one.
    "You know, I could say the same thing about you," Luke protested. He was turning to jump into the fray with her when Fizz's sudden, frantic barking had him instead casting his murderous look at the dog. "Damn, they'll hear that for sure!"
    "Fizz, come here boy," Micki called, knowing he was right and trying to quiet the dog. She pushed Luke out of her way in an effort to reach Fizz first.
    The black and white collie whined into silence as Micki came up beside him. He settled for warily regarding a pelican, perched without a care on a fallen tree, on the other side of the dark pool. As Luke joined her, it flapped its wings in obvious irritation to their intrusion.
    To Micki, its presence meant the ocean couldn't