12 Curt came dropping in close behind her. Amos hovered in turn and began calling Curt’s tail clearances—they stayed above ten feet the whole way using Stacy’s guideposts. Within minutes they had two three-helicopter rotations gulping up and delivering two hundred-gallon loads of water in a near continuous stream. That was as fast as most fire trucks could deliver it—except the trucks had already been ordered to fall back a street and were no longer on the front line. One by one they chopped gaps in the fire with their helos—down to the pool, pump, up even as Amos’ bird came down, follow Stacy to the fire, dump on the burning trees and lawn, turn back to pool, down as she once more lifted away. They herded the flames through vacant lots where the firefighters on the ground had set up we