by Donal Myrick
THE UNEXPECTED
Book 1 The Encounter
Donal Myrick
Copyright © 2019 Donal Myrick
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 9781234567890
ISBN-10: 1477123456
Cover Image: ShutterStock
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
THE UNEXPECTED
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 56
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
About The Author
THE UNEXPECTED
Book 1 ENCOUNTER
By
Don Myrick
First Printing 2019
Second Printing 2020
CHAPTER 1
Something Big Just Occurred
It wasn’t a really large earthquake as earthquakes go, but at 6.9 on the Richter Scale, it gave a good shaking to the area. It was centered just off of the coast of Venezuela and about six miles deep. While all eyes were focused looking north in anticipation of a possible tsunami hitting the coast of Venezuela or washing over the ABC islands, the real action was occurring to the south where the Churún River, which normally spilled from the top of the high table mountain Auyán tepui creating the world’s highest waterfall, suddenly dried up. Angel Falls, located in Venezuela’s Canaima National Park, suddenly was no more.
Atop the Auyán tepui, a giant crack in the normally impervious sandstone cap had opened up swallowing the Churún River. This new chasm was about a half-mile long and roughly fifty to one hundred feet wide. The river cascaded down several hundred foot high waterfalls and finally disappeared into the mouth of a large dark cave. The remainder of the Churún’s river bed leading to the edge of the escarpment was completely dry.
Miguel Santos, a Park Ranger with the Parque Nacional Canaima, was among the first to witness the demise of Angel Falls, which he immediately brought to the attention of his superiors in the Venezuelan Department of Parks. Needless to say, the Venezuelan government and especially the personnel in the Department of Parks, experienced an immediate and massive panic attack with the apparent loss of their crown jewel of natural wonders. This was a potentially devastating and irreplaceable loss to the country both in terms of international tourism and national prestige.
The Venezuelan Department of Parks immediately dispatched a photo recon team to investigate and document the event. Angel Falls often dries up during the dry season, but this event occurred during the middle of the wettest rainy season on record. Obviously, something catastrophic had just occurred, and no one was prepared for what they would soon discover.
While similar earthquakes have occurred in the past off of the coast of neighboring Columbia to the west without causing any major damage or tsunamis, the fault where this earthquake occurred was completely unknown. No seismic activity had ever been recorded this far to the east. Further, since the Table Mountains of Venezuela are some of the most remote and difficult to access areas on the planet, the geology of the area has not been fully explored nor well described. So, other than the fact that the two events occurred basically at the same time, it was hard to definitively connect the two events. This lack of information made it impossible for the government officials to proffer more than mere speculations about what had happened and what was the likely impact on the Venezuelan economy.
News of this event stirred both shock and excitement throughout the scientific community. So when the Venezuelan government asked for assistance, scientific institutions across the planet were eager to come, investigate the event and recommend a course of action to restore the world’s highest waterfall. The response from the scientific community was swift and massive. Unfortunately, the region was quickly overwhelmed by the teams of people flocking the region. It is a very remote region and had a very limited capacity to accommodate their needs for lodging, food, transportation, and communication as well as other basic necessities. Despite the fact that Venezuela is a major oil-producing country, petrol in the quantities required by all the vehicles, boats, and aircraft converging in the area, was simply not available. This, in turn, put a serious damper on the accomplishment of any really useful scientific investigations. After months of fumbling about, talking heads recording sound bites for their home networks, excessive complaining about the lack of support from the Venezuelan government, and massive environmental impact on the local environs, most of the teams returned to their home countries without accomplishing much of anything.
There were a few exceptions. The Venezuelan equivalent of the U.S. Corp of Engineers did establish a primitive runway near Jimmy Angel’s original landing site that was capable of handling light aircraft, and they cleared several landing pads for helicopters. One of the teams from one of the nature magazines did a drone video survey of the narrow gorge and several hundred feet back into the gaping cave at the end of the gorge. This gave the world at large a view as to what a massive event this was. A geological team from a major U.S. university, also using drones, developed a high-resolution laser map of the gorge and about a thousand feet of the cave back to where the Churún River disappeared into a dark deep chasm.
In terms of how to fix the problem, a few big international construction firms concluded that the only way to restore the flow to the falls would to build a large aqua duct over the gorge re-connecting the river to the now dry river bed beyond the gorge thus returning the Churún River flow to the falls. They also noted that this would be a massive, expensive, and extremely challenging engineering effort considering the remoteness of the area. No actual proposals were offered, and that in turn begged the question as to who would step up to do the p
roject, and who would pay for it.
Those were the only tangible real results produced during the few months following the earthquake. Everyone came, and then everyone left. News interest waned, and soon only a few entities in the government and those directly connected to the Canaima National Park continued to have a concern. All that was left were the massive environmental impacts, huge piles of trash, many unanswered questions, and little continuing international interest.
That is until a group of spelunkers from a caving club, also known as a Grotto, near Austin, Texas, acquired access to the laser map of the Churún River Cave. The notion that the entire Churún River disappeared into a dark deep chasm got their attention big time. Exploring deep, dark, complicated caves is what they lived for. This is what they did. This was the most exciting deep pit prospect that they had heard about in years. Many members of this group had spent the better part of their adult lives exploring deep pit caves in Northern Alabama and Georgia, and the thousand-foot deep pits in the Yucatan area of Mexico. The possibility of exploring a potential two thousand foot deep pit was just something they could not pass up.
It began when Ted Baldridge, Ph.D., a consultant to the oil industry and an adjunct professor of geology at a local Texas state college, received a copy of the laser map of the Churún River Cave. He was also a caver, and he had been following the Angel Falls saga with some professional interest. Ted was highly intrigued by the obvious relationship between the earthquake and the opening of the Churún River Gorge. When Ted brought up the digital map, it didn’t take him two minutes to note the identification of a pit at the terminus of the laser mapped portion of the cave. When he noted that the river disappeared into this pit, he immediately recognized the potential for a pit with a record-setting depth. He knew his caver friend Max Meccum needed to see this and needed to see it quick.
Ted got on the phone and called Max. “Yo, Max.”
“Hey, Ted,” Max replied, “What’s up?”
Ted said, “Max, I’ve got something that you’ve got to see. How quickly can you get over to my place?”
“I can leave right now. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. What do you have that is so important? Are you okay, you sound upset.”
“No, I’m okay. I’m definitely not upset, I’m just excited. Get over here quick as you can, and I’ll fill you in when you get here.”
“Okay, I’m on my way.”
Sure enough, when Ted showed the Churún River Cave map to Max, Max was immediately frothing at the bit to go and check it out. Ted brought Max up to speed on what he knew of the recent history of the event, and all that had transpired since.
Max said, “Ted, I fully understand why you have an interest in this cave, but really, how did you come by this information? And, given that you have it, others must have it also. How come there isn’t a caravan of cavers trekking to Venezuela to check this out? I remember seeing something about this on television a couple of months ago, but there was never a mention of a deep pit back in the cave.”
Ted said, “It is true that I have a professional interest in the event. I’ve been following everything that has been published on this event ever since it occurred. One of my colleagues made me aware that this map was available to anyone who had an interest. So, I immediately downloaded it. When I saw the pit, I called you. I knew you would have an interest.”
They both speculated as to why there was no significant follow-up interest in this incredible geological event from the geological community or in the cave with its potentially deep pit from any caving organizations. Max concluded that “Well, speaking for the caving community, it must have had something to do with the fact that there was little or no mention of a potentially deep, deep pit. Or, perhaps the logistics and likely cost of conducting a massive expedition in such a remote region, and the probable extreme difficulty in actually successfully exploring the pit was a deterrent.”
“Or maybe the right cavers were simply not aware of it yet,” said Ted.
Max Meccum was now aware of it, and he was not to be deterred by the potential difficulties. This was now at the top of his to-do list, and he knew that it definitely would be worth pursuing.
Max was a real estate lawyer, who fortunately had just recently completed the closing of a forty million dollar land development deal. So, not only would it be possible for him to take time away from his professional job, he was looking for an excuse to get away from the stresses of his high-pressure job for a while. This was the perfect excuse. The opportunity to explore this new cave with its potential world record pit was just exactly what he needed. Ted, on the other hand, stated that his interest in the cave was primarily professional, but deep down, he knew that he was just as eager as Max was to bounce that pit. As an adjunct professor, he had a very flexible teaching schedule, so it would not be difficult for him to take professional time away from his teaching duties to pursue the exploration. His consulting business would just have to wait a bit.
They decided to contact a couple of members of the local Grotto whom they knew very well and had shared extensive caving experiences while exploring some of the deep caves of the Yucatan. Max knew that when he and Ted told them about the cave, what their answer would be even before he asked the question, “Are you guys interested in checking out the Churún River Cave?” Their answer would, of course, be an enthusiastic “YES.”
Both of the people that Max initially contacted were self-employed or else worked in an industry that permitted them to take considerable time off from their jobs for personal reasons. The first person Max contacted was Peggy Allen. Peggy was a very attractive tall, and slender woman. She was athletic and adventurous. She had not only caved with Max, but she had also worked professionally with him. She also kinda liked Max. Peggy was an expert drone pilot and photographer. She worked primarily in the real estate industry, supporting the marketing of high-end properties with her photography. Her skills were in high demand, and she was able to set her own hours. She often lent her skills to law enforcement to photograph crime scenes, and sometimes for the surveillance of persons of interest. Her real passion, however, was cave photography, and her drone photography skills had earned her numerous awards. Basically, she was able to pick and choose when she worked, and that generally was whenever she needed money for the pursuit of something of personal interest.
When Max called, he said, “Peggy, I hope you don’t have any plans for the near future.”
This got Peggy’s attention, and she replied jokingly, “Oh Max, is this a proposal? I know we have been friends for a long time, and I really like you, but this is kinda sudden.”
Max said, “Oh, cut it out. I’ve got a proposal, alright. Do you want to go caving?”
With a more serious tone, Peggy said, “When the infamous Max Meccum calls and asks if I want to go caving, my answer is, of course, yes. I assume you will tell me when and where later.”
Max said, “Our friend Ted has come up with a lead that we absolutely must check out before others get wind of it. Do you know if Jim Ralston is in town?”
“Yes, as far as I know. I haven’t talked with him since the last grotto meeting.”
“I think I’ll ping him now,” Max said, “and if he is around, we will need to get together as soon as possible.”
Peggy asked, “Aren’t you going to at least tell me a little something about this incredible lead before you call Jim?”
Apologizing, Max said, “Oh, sorry, I’m so excited about this prospect that I’m getting ahead of myself.” Max proceeded to fill Peggy in on the details of the Churún River event, after which Peggy was beside herself with excitement and anticipation.
After Max finished filling Peggy in on the Churún River Cave prospect, he contacted Jim Ralston. Jim was an electrician who worked in the HVAC construction industry, so his work was often seasonal. Jim was also an experienced vertical caver. Jim had a couple of other skills which would later prove useful to the expedition: he was a licensed ham radio operat
or and most importantly, he was bi-lingual. Jim’s mother was Columbian, so Spanish was his second language.
“Jim, are you busy these days?” Max asked when he called.
“Not really. I’m just messing around waiting for my next job opportunity. I’m not working at the moment. What’s on your mind?” As with Peggy, after Max explained, Jim was immediately on board.
Ted suggested that they all meet soon at the La Ventana Cantina to toss some ideas around and begin planning the expedition. This group often met at the La Ventana for burgers and beers, and they had their own semi-reserved table near the back.
When the group got together, Ted brought out his laptop and displayed the laser map of the gorge and the cave. Ted said, “This map was made by a group from MSU using a drone laser mapper. It is not the best map in the world, and Peggy, I’ll bet you could do a much better job. The MSU folks were among the original group of scientist that went to Venezuela to research the post-earthquake event at Angel Falls. Apparently, not a lot of people are paying attention to this map, because if they did, I’ll bet there would be a lot more interest. When we look at the end of the map, it clearly shows a large pit where the river disappears. No other information is available, but considering the topography of the region, and the fact that no resurgence of the river has been reported, this pit could be as much as twenty-five hundred feet deep.”
“That is what got my attention,” said Max. He went on to say, “This is an opportunity like no other we have ever had.”
Jim said, “Bouncing that pit will certainly be a first, but what do we know about the waterfall?”
Ted answered, “We know little to nothing about both the pit and the waterfall. All we know comes from this map, a bunch of pictures that have been published, and what we know about the geology of the region.”
Max opined, “That it is actually a twenty-five hundred-foot deep pit is our speculation, but it has real potential.”
This high-resolution scan, while lacking in many ways, was very helpful in that it provided answers to many questions that otherwise would have required a preliminary visit to the site. As talk centered about equipment that would be needed, how much they already had, logistic issues, costs, and the like, one really important issue emerged. The scan revealed that the walls of the gorge and cave appeared to be essentially sheer and smooth. There were few ledges, cracks, or other discontinuities that would have made the climbing entry into the cave less daunting. Ted, Max, and Jim had plenty of experience climbing around and rigging deep vertical pits, however, entry into Churún River Cave was going to be a highly technical horizontal assault along and down a very smooth cliff face. It was going to involve a lot of hole drilling and setting of expansion bolts to provide safe and secure anchor points for safety lines, belay points, climbing aids, and the like. The advent of lightweight cordless hammer drills powered by long-lasting lithium batteries made this type of assault feasible. Both Max and Jim had plenty of experience bolting their way to the top of several dome pits to explore what lay beyond, but they never faced a challenge anything like what the walls of the Churún River Cave appeared to be presenting. It was agreed that this might involve a skill that was above and beyond what any of them had. For a moment, this looked like it might be a show stopper, but Max had an idea.