Wildfire Run Read Online Free PDF Page A

Callie’s hand. It was so little the scratchy tongue felt like a tickle. Callie looked back to the entrance. Her dad was turned toward the parking lot. She pulled her jacket on and put the kitten in the pocket, closing her hand around its little body.
    â€œBe quiet now and everything will be all right,” Callie whispered as she went back outside.

10
Catoctin Mountain Park
    The gusting wind confused the deer. The smell of the smoke came from too many different directions, and they didn’t know which way to run. They turned to the north. A bear, rooting for grubs in a fallen log, saw them. Sniffing the air, he shifted his head from side to side, and the scent of the fire came to him. He started after the deer, then stopped, knowing that way would take him too close to humans. He headed toward his den, craving its safety.

11
Temporary Haven
    PRESIDENTIAL LODGE, CAMP DAVID
    In the dining room, Luke poured the maple syrup over his pancake until the syrup ran over the edges and covered the plate.
    â€œThat’s a lot of syrup,” Theo said. “My mom would have a harpy fit if she saw that. She’s on a major no-sugar kick.”
    â€œIt’s maple syrup, not sugar. Besides, your mom’s not here. Take as much as you want.” They were by themselves, surrounded by enough pancakes and sausages and eggs and pastries for ten people. Luke’s dad and everybody else were too busy to eat.
    Theo held the syrup bottle up high and poured a stream down, not quite covering his entire pancake. “It looks like a giant blob engulfing a planet.” He picked up his fork and stabbed at the syrup at different spots on the plate.
    â€œPlanet destruction commencing.” Luke stuffed a big bite into his mouth. “Wait until Chef Lansa gets here. His pancakes are even better than these.”
    â€œOh, you mean that girl’s dad. Is she going to follow us around all the time, or will we be able to do stuff without her?” Theo asked.
    Luke groaned. “I don’t think she’s going to want to hang around us much.” He wished his mom hadn’t arranged for Callie to come. His mom didn’t know they had stopped being friends. Last time he saw Callie at the ranch, she purposely teased him to get up on that crazy horse and then laughed when the horse tried to brush him off against the fence. He wouldn’t have fallen off if he hadn’t been trying to keep his leg from being squashed. Callie probably taught the horse to do that herself. Now he felt stupid that he had yelled at her and then stomped off, but he wished she wouldn’t always rub in the fact she could always do everything better than he could.
    Just as Luke was reaching for his milk, the emergency siren went off again, the wail so loud it felt like it was inside his head. His hand jerked in midreach, knocking the glass over. He stood up, the chair falling over behind him.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Theo asked.
    Adam was in the room in seconds. “Luke, relax. Stay put until we know what’s going on.”
    Luke took hold of the table, trying to breathe. Theo gave him a funny look and picked up the glass, even though the milk had already soaked through the tablecloth.
    Isabelle came in. “System glitches, according to security ops. When the earthquake happened, some of the…uh…automatic sensors were thrown off, and the high winds are an issue.” She looked at Theo like she had given away some big secret.
    â€œHow do they know for sure? They haven’t had time to check everything out. They can’t just assume it’s all because of the earthquake,” Luke said.
    â€œThey’re not just assuming that,” Adam said. “Everybody is doing their jobs step by step, running through checklists, but I’m sure everything is earthquake related.”
    â€œSounds logical.” Theo cut up more pancake. “Come on, Luke, Let’s finish.”
    Luke tried to