The Price of Fame - KJ1 Read Free Page A

sake of the viewers. “The ceiling has caved in here, as you can see, trapping a number of people.” Kate spied a young blonde girl whose leg was crushed under what had once been a pillar to the side portico. She went immediately to the girl’s side. “It’s okay, sweetheart, we’re going to get you out of here.” The girl’s watery green eyes and tear-stained face bespoke her terror and pain, and, for a moment, the sight sent Kate’s mind spinning back five and a half years to the winter of 1982.

    It had been a glorious mid-winter day at the college snow bowl. Kate, a senior, stood atop one of the most challenging runs on the mountain.
    She had a half-hour before her next shift was set to begin and she was determined to enjoy the superb conditions. “Well,” she thought to herself, “if you’ve got to make money somehow, this sure isn’t a bad way to go.” As a member of the ski patrol, she could ski for free whenever she was off duty; when she was on, she got paid. In her mind, it just didn’t get any better than that.
    The slopes were crowded on that Saturday, no doubt thanks to the fresh dumping of two feet of snow they had received the night before.
    Kate pushed off, gathering speed and picking the line she wished to follow through the numerous moguls just ahead of her. She loved the freedom of skiing, the rush of adrenaline she got while attacking the hill and the thrill of finding a great rhythm through a minefield of bumps.
    She stopped to rest momentarily at the bottom of the first tier of moguls, surveying the next part of the slope. Just as she was about to move on, a blur of movement caught her eye over on the far left side of the trail about 100 yards ahead. A big mountain of a man was barreling down the slope, completely out of control. Kate quickly scanned the area, already calculating the distance between him and anyone below him.
    “Shit!”
    The ski patroller was already in motion, knowing that she was going to be too late. She watched helplessly as the out-of-control goon slammed full speed into a much smaller female skier who had the misfortune to be in his path. The pair disappeared in a cloud of snow, arms and legs 18

    The Price of Fame

    flying through the air in a tumble of bodies. Kate arrived before the plume of snow had settled, releasing her skis and planting them to mark the accident even before she had come to a complete stop. The petite blonde was lying motionless, her right arm and left leg at odd, unnatural angles; the behemoth was shaking his head. “Wow, man, that was really something,” he remarked.
    Kate didn’t spare him so much as a look. “Are you hurt?” she asked him coldly, kneeling next to the woman.
    “Naw, I’m tougher’n that.”
    “Grand, then just sit there until I can deal with you; if you so much as move a muscle, so help me I’ll ram my ski so far up your ass it will come out your mouth. Got me?”
    The big man’s eyes opened as wide as saucers, and he just nodded mutely.
    Kate was busy assessing the woman’s injuries and checking to see if she was breathing okay. Pulling out her two-way radio, she called to the base patrol hut and radioed her location, calmly asking for a stretcher and leg immobilizer and instructing them to have an ambulance standing by. “And Ken,” she added, “send up Robbie to deal with the jerkball who caused this thing; I don’t ever want to see him on this mountain again.”
    “Roger that, Kate. It’s going to take us a few to get to you; you’re in a tough spot. Hard to reach.”
    “Do the best you can, Ken, she needs help now. Out.”
    Kate put the radio back in her fanny pack and looked down at the injured woman, who was just now coming around. Gently, she removed her charge’s goggles, which had cracked but miraculously remained on her face. She had a shocked moment of recognition upon seeing eyes the color of the Caribbean Sea trying desperately to focus. She had caught a glimpse of that unforgettable face