She saw Jean-Pierre’s face and felt like she’d known him almost all her life.
“I’m fine, but I can’t move my leg,” Debby added.
The helicopter captain and Dr Capri tried to approach Debby. To do so, they had to push Yulia and David outside. They sat squatting near Debby’s legs, which were lying in the doorway.
“Yes, it’s a closed fracture, she needs to go to the hospital right away,” the helicopter captain said in Nepali, examining Debby’s leg.
“What can we do, the helicopter is broken, right?” looking at Debby, Dr Capri asked the captain.
“We have to get the helicopter working and take her to the nearest town with a hospital,” said the captain, “otherwise… based on the blue toes on her leg…” he paused again. “We need to try to get the helicopter up, or find a village nearby.”
“Can you get a helicopter up here?” Dr Capri asked.
“If we can take off,” said the captain as he stood up, “but it would be better to take her to the helicopter.”
They moved away from the room, making some space for Yulia and David. Jean-Pierre approached them to discuss the plan. They agreed that the girl had a closed fracture and many bruises, and they needed to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible.
“It’s amazing how you survived,” Dr Capri shook his head. “Surviving a plane crash.”
“Now we need to help the American girl and send rescuers to search for the plane,” concluded Jean-Pierre.
Captain Shah nodded:
“Yes, and as fast as we could.”
He put the first aid kit he had taken from the helicopter in front of him and pulled out a painkiller. He put the liquid in a syringe and went into the tail section of the plane to give Debby the injection.
Dr Capri looked around at everyone standing outside.
In the middle of the beautiful mountain landscape, standing next to the wreckage, were people who shouldn’t have been here at all. And the doctor understood that very well. He knew this country, he knew what was possible here and what was not. What he saw in front of him in no way fit into his already complicated plans for the day.
He looked at Yulia, who did not fully, but certainly understood the complexity of the whole situation better than anyone else. She knew for a fact that the helicopter would almost certainly not take off. She knew for a fact that the plane had crashed for the same reason that their helicopter. And so David’s phone went crazy for the same reason. And it all started with that signal they detected in Kathmandu. And the source of that signal is somewhere near here.