Former military pilot Blaine Darby carries a load of guilt and pain from the harm he may have caused in wartime. Now he seeks to earn some good karma by fighting wild land fires while holding on to his great love of flying. But reporters like young Daz Contreras scare him -- one of the few things that do -- because he shuns the public eye.<br><br>Freelance investigative journalist Daz Contreras is convinced terrorists are behind at least some of the wild land fires plaguing New Mexico. All he needs is enough proof to break the story. As he pursues leads, he begins to shadow pilot Blaine Darby and, in the process, develops a gigantic case of hero worship.<br><br>When Daz is allowed to ride with Blaine one time, he hopes the adventure will help him to uncover the proof he seeks. Yet when a near tragedy unexpectedly develops and Blaine puts his life on the line to save a trapped hotshot firefighting crew, Daz realizes he’s an eyewitness to what may be a bigger story than the one he planned. But will the reclusive Blaine actually allow Daz to report the news as he sees fit, even as they grow closer?

Red Tails in the Sunset

One of the guys there looked up as he walked in. “Hey, good show, Darby. Those sixteen members of the hotshot crew owe you their asses.”


“All in a day’s work,” Blaine replied. “It was a team effort, anyway. I probably made too many bad strikes while I was in the air force. Maybe I can pick up a little good karma now.”


Maybe he should be more willing to take credit where it was probably due. He still found it hard. He exhaled a long, slow breath before he spoke again. “Any more news?”


“Well, they actually had a blurb on the radio this morning about those Middle Eastern guys they picked up. Could be we’ve finally got Homeland Security’s attention. Kinda hard to blow this off when fifty people saw it, and I guess it’ll be on TV this afternoon. That reporter kid was there, wasn’t he?”


Blaine nodded. “Yeah, he was and looked like he recorded a lot of footage. Said he had to go back to his home base and get it ready to present.”


Chapter 17