Wildfire Run (4 page)

OUTSIDE ASPEN, THE PRESIDENTIAL LODGE, CAMP DAVID

“Sal, what's the decision
about Luke?” President Brockett asked as he caught sight of the agent talking to George Michelson, the head of his security detail.

“We've decided Luke is better off here, sir,” Sal said. “There's been minor damage all over to roads and bridges, and reports of fires in Washington from broken gas lines, so until we know the extent of the problems, we'll stick with our original plan.”

“Fine.” A blast of wind muffled the President's response. He straightened his tie and smoothed his hair. “George, how soon can I leave?”

CAMP DAVID

When Luke and Theo
got back to their room, it took only a few minutes to collect what they needed. “If you bring the suitcase with the parts, I'll carry my laptop and the food,” Luke said. He took his pocketknife off the table by the bed and slipped it in his pocket. He wasn't allowed to have it at the White House, but he liked carrying it around at Camp David, even though so far he'd only used it to cut up fruit.

“Is your laptop charged? You don't have electricity in the tree house, do you?” Theo asked.

“No,” Luke said. “I want to run a big extension
cord so I can put in some lights, but that idea hasn't gone anywhere yet. The laptop has enough charge for an hour or so. That should be enough time to work out the program for the robot. Once we download it, the robot has plenty of its own battery power.”

“What are we going to get the robot to grab?” Theo asked.

“The kit came with some plastic balls. We can just use those. And I was thinking about your idea of the sound sensor. I have a whistle we can use with it.” Luke rummaged around in the drawer of his nightstand. “Someday I'm going to use it to train Comet to do tricks.”

Hearing his name, Comet crawled out from under the bed and put his head on Luke's foot.

“Are you coming too?” Luke said, scratching the spot behind Comet's ear that made the dog's back foot thump. “Are you done acting like a scaredy-cat?” Comet sat up and barked once, thumping his tail.

“Do the agents have to come up in the tree house too?” Theo asked. “That would feel weird.”

“No, they'll just stay close enough to see us.”

“Okay,” Theo said. He had gone back to his notebook, checking off items on a list. “I think
we have what we need.” He pulled out his pocket watch and wrote down the time. Theo checked the watch constantly. Luke had given up teasing him about it. Theo's uncle had given it to him, claiming it once belonged to Orville Wright, who used it to time one of Wilbur's early flights. Luke wasn't sure he believed that, but Theo did.

“Let's go. Come on, boy.” Comet barked again and then followed after them out the door. In the hall Luke said to Adam, “We're ready.”

“Speeder is on his way to the tree house.” Isabelle spoke into the microphone attached to her wrist.

“Speeder?” Theo said to Luke.

“Speeder is me,” Luke explained, embarrassed. “Everybody has a code name, and they gave me that when I was a little kid. Adam, can't we change it?”

“Maybe,” Adam said. “I'll have to talk to Sal. Maybe we could change it to ‘Monkey,' since you're always climbing trees. Or maybe we could change it to ‘Drummer,' since you drive everyone crazy with your drumming.”

“You're just jealous you can't do it,” Luke said. “Listen to this.” He beat out a complicated pattern on the wall.

“You're right, I can't do that,” Adam said. “You beat me in drumming talent.”

“Who's on duty after you?” Luke asked. “We want to roast marshmallows tonight.”

“Brian and the new guy, Grant, were supposed to be on duty.” Adam grinned. “Don't tease Brian about this when he gets back, but the earthquake made a lamp fall over in his room, and Brian tripped on it getting out of bed. He's down in Hagerstown getting an X-ray. He may have broken his wrist.”

“He won't be happy about that,” Luke said.

“No, he won't,” Adam agreed. “I don't know who'll be teaming up with Grant yet. I don't know about the marshmallows either. The fire danger is so high we aren't supposed to have any open flames.”

“You told me the chefs here can make anything,” Theo said. “Do you think we could do ice-cream sundaes?”

Here was a reason Theo would definitely want to come back. “Sure,” Luke said. “They have all sorts of toppings and flavors, just like a real ice-cream place.” Luke remembered going to an ice-cream place one time, and even with all the photographers taking his picture, it had been great.

“Nice.”

Outside, gusts of wind made the heat worse, like hot furnace blasts of air.

Theo whistled when he saw the tree house. “That's big. How many kids can fit in there?”

“I don't know. I'm the only one who has ever been up in it, besides the agents and the crew who built it.” Theo was the first person Luke had ever had to visit.

“Boy, my dad told me about a tree house he had when he was a kid that sounded fantastic, but I don't think it topped this one,” Theo said. “I should have worked harder on him to help me build one.”

“My dad helped me,” Luke said. That wasn't exactly a lie. Pierce Brockett had come out to check on the progress while Luke and the Navy staff on the building and repair team were working on it.

“The best part of it is the pulley system. We can raise and lower a crate,” Luke said. That part of the tree house was his dad's major contribution, at least the idea of it.

“Every tree house should have a block-and-tackle system,” his dad had said. “It was one of Archimedes' most important inventions.”

Luke didn't care who invented it, but he liked putting it together and trying to figure out the right arrangement of pulleys and ropes. When they first put it up, he wanted to get in the crate himself and have someone hoist him up, but everyone nixed that idea as too dangerous.

Theo started to climb up the ladder with the suitcase.

“Wait,” Luke said. “We can put everything in the crate and pull it up.”

“I could just carry stuff up.”

“No, the whole point of the pulley system is to make it easier.”

Luke climbed up, leaving Theo to put stuff in the crate. When Theo gave him a signal to go, Luke pulled on a rope and hoisted the crate up. He loved working the ropes because he could pretend he was on a sailing ship, pulling up the sails.

The crate came level with Luke and he looped the rope around the hook they had installed just for that purpose. Once he had unloaded the crate, he lowered it back down.

“Comet, your turn,” Luke called, pointing at the crate. Comet got up slowly and walked over. The wind was making the crate sway.

“In, boy,” Luke ordered. Comet looked up at Luke apologetically, then lay down, deciding to stay put.

Theo climbed up. “Let's lay everything out in a row first.”

“Why don't I build while you work on the programming?” Luke said as he opened the suitcase. He didn't want to spend the time sorting out everything.

“That's a good idea. I figured out the steps already. We need to program it to move forward, then stop, then grab, then return to base, all on sound commands.”

Luke turned his laptop on. Once the robot program was open, Luke ran through the menu options with Theo.

“This is great!” Theo said. “We'll be able to make it do all sorts of things.” He sat down with the laptop on his knees and his notebook open beside him.

Luke had most of the robot together in ten minutes. “How's it going?” he asked Theo.

“I need to think for a minute.” Theo got up and paced three steps one way and then three steps the other. When Theo said he had to think, he always paced exactly three steps, no matter how
much room he had.

“I think our next robot after this one should be a squirrel robot,” Luke said, looking out over the trees, tapping on the window ledge, already bored with Theo's thinking. The tree house windows didn't have glass in them, but they had shutters that could be closed in case of rain.

“Wouldn't that be great?” Luke eyed the nearest tree. “It could have stealthlike spy capabilities. Nobody pays attention to squirrels. I've been watching them, and it's incredible how they can jump between thin branches. They jump and then hold on while the branch sways up and down.”

Theo stopped pacing. “How would you get a squirrel robot's extensors to clasp onto a branch at the right moment? Even if we could program a remote control, your reflexes wouldn't be quick enough to operate it.”

“Maybe we could put a lot of extensors on the front of it, already partway closed,” Luke said. “Some would catch on, don't you think? If I jumped like a squirrel with my hands already closed, I bet it would be easy to catch. I'll show you.”

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Theo said.

“No, it will work.” Luke looked out the front
window. Isabelle was standing in the shade, angled so she could see the tree house and the road. Adam was talking to Sal by the road.

Luke went to the back of the tree house and swung a leg over the windowsill. There was a maple tree with a branch almost close enough to reach.

“It's a really terrible idea,” Theo said.

“No, watch.”

Luke climbed up on the edge of the window, crouching down, using one hand for balance until he was stable. He pushed off, both hands in front of him, fingers curled. The second he was in the air was just like flying, but the great feeling was all too short. He caught the branch of the maple tree, surprised at how much it hurt when his hands hit the rough bark. The branch bent down, then up again, and then down, making a loud crack as it split from the trunk and plummeted to the ground, taking Luke with it.

Still holding on to
the branch, Luke fell, hitting feetfirst. One end of the branch drove into the ground and Luke pushed away from it, toppling over. He lay looking up at the sky.

Adam and Isabelle were there in seconds. Comet leaned over him, whimpering.

“It's okay, boy,” Luke said, getting up, trying not to wince when he felt pain shoot through his knee. He put his hands behind him so no one could see the scrapes.

“What are you doing?” Isabelle asked, her voice sharp. “You could have broken your neck!”

Theo climbed down. “I won't say I told you so.”

“Experimenting with gravity again, I see.” Luke's dad came around the tree, followed by two of his agents. Christine trailed behind them, checking her watch.

Adam and Isabelle stood up straight, and Isabelle's eyes went wide. “I'm sorry, Mr. President,” she said. “We didn't see him climb out the back.” Isabelle stuttered a little, and Adam's face turned bright red. Luke realized they could be in trouble for his bad idea.

“It's not your fault.” Pierce Brockett examined the broken branch. “I know this boy can surprise you. Someday he will learn, I hope.”

“I was…was just trying to see how squirrels jump from branch to branch,” Luke said. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew how stupid he sounded.

“Hmmm, we'll talk another time about ‘look before you leap,' though I never expected you to be actually leaping.” Luke's dad smiled a little, but he didn't look happy.

Luke put his head down and scuffed the ground. The dry leaves flew up and some dirt got on his dad's perfectly shined shoes.

“I'm not sure I should leave you here,” Pierce Brockett said. “Maybe you and Theo should go
back to Washington after all.”

“Please, Dad. I promise I won't do anything like that again. We have all sorts of stuff planned. We want to try the robot over rough ground and see how it does. We can't do that at the White House.” Luke knew he sounded like he was begging, but he was desperate. He didn't want to leave now.

“Everything okay?” Sal asked, walking over to his dad.

While the two men decided his and Theo's fate, the helicopters started up in the camp's airfield. Everywhere his dad went there were helicopters ready for him. Even when he traveled on Air Force One, another cargo plane carrying helicopters went along too. Normally Luke loved riding in them, but not today.

“All right. You and Theo can stay,” Luke's dad said. “I talked to your mother and she will be calling you in a few minutes. I'm counting on you to stay out of trouble. Theo, I know you have a good head on your shoulders.” He said nothing about Luke's head.

“We'll be careful, sir,” Theo replied.

“It's time, Mr. President,” Christine said.

Luke watched his father's face turn serious.
“I have to get going,” Luke's dad said. “I expect to hear an astonishing report about the robot's capabilities. I'll try to call tonight.”

“Okay.”

The chief of staff walked up, holding out a cell phone. “More damage updates, sir.”

As his dad took the phone and turned to go, Luke said, “I'm…I'm sorry about all those people out in Missouri.”

Pierce Brockett came back and put his hand on Luke's shoulder. “I know,” he said in a soft voice only Luke could hear. “But what do we always say? You didn't ask to be the President's son, and the weight of the country isn't on your shoulders. I'm glad you are here having fun. It's something I can think about when I need a break. Good luck with the robot.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Sir, the helicopters are ready to go,” one of his dad's agents said.

“Let's get a move on.
Dimidium facti qui coepit habet
.” President Brockett strode off toward the landing pad. Luke couldn't remember what this one meant. His dad had too many sayings. The only one he knew for sure was
festina lente
—“make haste slowly.” His dad said it to him all the
time because he thought Luke was too impulsive.

“‘He who has begun has the work half done,'” Theo murmured as he came up.

“What?”

“Your dad just said, ‘He who has begun has the work half done.' Horace said it first.”

“Oh, right.”

“Excuse me, Luke,” Sal said. “Your mother is on the phone for you.” He held out a cell phone and then went over to Adam and Isabelle. Luke hoped Sal wouldn't chew them out for his stupid trick.

“Hi, Mom. How was the wedding?” Luke's mom was in England for the wedding of somebody royal.

“It hasn't happened yet.” Her voice sounded as if she were around the corner. “I have to leave for the church in just a minute. Luke, don't forget Callie is coming with her dad today. I want you to be nice to her. Chef Lansa told me Callie isn't excited about moving to Washington.”

Luke could hear people talking in the background.

“I have to go,” his mother said. “I'll see you in two days. Have fun. Love you.” The phone clicked off.

The sound from the helicopters grew louder. In a few seconds, they rose over the trees, turning to the south. There were always three identical helicopters in the air whenever his dad flew, so no one could tell for sure which one held the President. Anyone trying to shoot a missile at the helicopter wouldn't know which one to target. Luke watched until they were specks in the distance.

“Look at the fog,” Theo said. “That's very strange.” He pointed to the east, where a clump of fog hung over the forest outside of Camp David, down in the valley where the campgrounds and hiking trails were located. “I thought it was too dry for fog.”

Sal looked surprised. “That's not fog; that's smoke, and that means fire.” He held out his hand for his cell phone. “Why can't these campers obey the rules? I'll make sure the park district knows.”

Luke watched the smoke for a moment. He couldn't see any actual fire, and the smoke was a long way away, at least a mile or so.

Theo went back to the ladder and called, “Let's get the robot finished so we can try it out.”

“Okay.” Luke followed him up. At the top he
looked out at the smoke and then at Sal, still talking on his phone. When Sal wanted something done, it happened, so that fire would be out in no time.