Instead of owning birds, Gallagher explained, they were just plain folks, hiring as they needed them. Which meant that they did business with Olympia Lift Corporation, a helicopter company up at the big motel a further five miles east. When we arrived there was only one chopper at home, on a flat gravelled area in front of the main motel building. Beside the landing pad there was an office, an army-type Ouonset hut with the name of the company painted badly on a sheet of plywood. "This is it," Gallagher told me. "I have to get back. If you find anybody to talk to, wave from the window and I'll take off. When you're through, give me a call and I'll come back. You can get a beer at the motel while you wait." I nodded and got out, taking a quick check of the chopper as I walked to the hut. It looked like the standard Hughes 500, the civilian version of the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse that I'd seen in Nam. They were small and quick and had been used only for scout work. I'd never flown in one. I went into the building and was time-whacked right back into the service.
