Hunter Walker

Hunter Walker 1

As he rolled aboard, the chopper thundered forward and converted to upward lift. Here and there, bursts of wind and rain gusted and pushed harshly against the aircraft. A sudden bank to the west and he knew they over were over the ocean itself..  then running downwind .. probably not much more than 100 feet off the surface. They'd soon push for as much elevation as they could muster, then cut across the island if the fading storm allowed. Or they'd round the bottom and skirl back up to Vancouver, no doubt in the heaviest of rain. It was always so when such big weather rolled in off the Pacific.

He looked around him .. and nodded lightly at the smiling crew chief that watched him orient and collect thoughts and memories of many many chopper dustoff's. The chief lightly touched his helmet mike and gave the universal OK ? symbol.  Hunter nodded again and heard the chief break through the headset.

"Got one Hunter Walker back here, a bit, a lot.. bigger than I'd thought Winston .. seems kinda harmless though, actually .. looks downright almost friendly to me.."

"You're sure about that Chief .. its the Hunterman back there? Say back, confirm.. Base Ops is all over this pickup and delivery."

"Sure as bears live in the woods .. helped wrassle him aboard myself and he said some kinda heavy duty Navajo mumbo jumbo .. and now he's here lookin at me like I'm some kinda  freakin god or something. Maybe even thinking I'm good to eat. Not sure Winnie.. looks awful scary dangerous in a nice n friendly way .."

'Well ... send him up here.. maybe handcuff him or something first, but straighten him out in your own special way.. and get him shipshape. We're going to stay low, scoot south a bit real fast, look for cleaner, lighter air then take a heading due east."

"Uh, roger that, skipper .. not sure about shipshape. Looks pretty damn straight back here.. real shipshape and buttoned down."

"Well send him on up when he has his shit in one bag, so we can all meet the Hunter .... got sit-rep for him!"

Hunter cuffed the chief lightly on the shoulder with a smile from dark eyes, and turning real low, suddenly stepped through the short passageway to the cockpit.. lightly tapping the pilot's shoulder.

"Hey !! What..! Uh oh.. hi there, well, ah.. Hunter, Sir. You're headed into another real clusterfuck ... a dirty, tangled scene, that's what I hear."

'Some are dude .. Winnie Winston. and I'm not sir to you any more, sir. I'm civilian..  just Hunter Walker of the Fast Horse clan.. New Mexico territory, and a real pleasure to ride with you.'  A large hand was extended forward and the pilot turned quickly.

'I'm sorry, Winston Fullbright the 3rd.. and over there, 1st officer Mary Blackcrow. This night flying just takes the manners right out of us and my apologies. Caught your orders about an hour ago.. special RCMP request via Coast Guard and bumped up to RCAF.. us....and here we all are."

A vicious downdraft put all aboard into a weightless state but the scout seemed not to notice and neither did the aircrew. He was pushed hard into the co-pilot as the chopper finally bit air and leapt wickedly to starboard

"Appreciated much Winston the 3rd, RCAF... officer Blackcrow, RCAF, nice to meet you.. and any sitrep you could tell me ..?"

The pilot left control of the buffeting aircraft to his female co-pilot without concern and looked to the legendary man leaning in between them..

"A week's head start you're up against, and this lunatic was spotted again. At a service center west of the Alberta border. He's heavily armed, highly capable.. trained by the very best... has a young female hostage.. or so a note he left behind would indicate and he sounds really messed up."