The Encounter

by Donal Myrick

  Peggy was quick to agree, “This wet suit was great for going through that torrent up top, but mine is a bit tight. I need to get out of it.”

  Jim quipped, “It was the first thing we all did once we got out of this pouring rain and into the canyon. I don’t mind wet coveralls, but that wet suit just didn’t feel right.”

  As they were climbing down the breakdown on the bottom of the pit towards the entrance to the canyon, Peggy asked, “How far to the base camp?”

  “Not far,” Max said. “But it is a bit treacherous.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Cooperation No More

  Miguel was busy putting together a provisions package for Peggy and Ted when he was visited by one of the friendly Russians that Sergei had assigned to help the Americans. The trooper was noticeably nervous as he told Miguel, “We just got a new boss. Not good, I think. Comrade Vassilov has been recalled to Moscow, and this new guy is bad news. He gave immediate orders to cease working with you all, so I won’t be hanging around here anymore. I don’t know what it is all about, none of us suspected anything. So, I’m warning you to take care and watch your back.”

  Just about then, Dr. Schillinger showed up. He had run practically all of the way from the Russians’ lab to Miguel’s tent. “Guess what,” he said, “I just got kicked out of the lab and was told by Dr. Kuznetsov that I was no longer permitted to be there.”

  Miguel said, “Anatoly here just told me there is a new person in charge and that he is terminating the agreement that we had with Sergei immediately. Also, Sergei is being recalled to Moscow.”

  Anatoly corrected, “He has already left. He is no longer here. Someone said he left in a hurry early this morning.”

  Dr. Schillinger said with concern, “This is definitely not good.”

  Miguel agreed, “This is definitely not good. We need to get this information back to Scott immediately. Ted is fixing to head to the bottom of the pit to join in the exploration of the cave beyond the pit. He needs to know. They all need to know. This changes everything.”

  Schillinger asked, “Can we still talk directly with Scott back at the top of the Pit?”

  Miguel replied, “I think so. I can’t do it from here. All the com gear is over in Peggy’s tent. She handled all the communication and video feeds. Surely the link is still active.” With that said, Miguel and Dr. Schillinger hustled over to Peggy’s tent. Once inside, a quick look around located a couple of headsets plugged into the communications controller.

  They donned the headsets, and Dr. Schillinger said, “Can anyone hear me?”

  Scott and Sam replied simultaneously, “Yeah, I can hear you.” Sam went on to say, “What’s up, Doc?”

  Schillinger asked, “Is this line secure?”

  Scott replied, sensing the seriousness in Schillinger’s voice, “Yes, this line is very secure. Only people directly connected to the system can hear us. Why?”

  Miguel said, “Things have changed.”

  Schillinger added, “Drastically.”

  Miguel and Dr. Schillinger went on to explain everything that had just transpired, emphasizing that they no longer had the Russian’s support or access to the assay laboratory, and probably no longer access to the Russian’s bridge back to the pit.

  Scott said, “Ted is about seven hundred feet down right now, so he probably couldn’t hear any of what you just said.” Then he asked, “Ted, can you hear me yet?”

  Ted replied, “It is still quite noisy, but I can hear somewhat. I caught a bit of what Fred was saying, but not enough. Repeat now that I can hear better.”

  Miguel gave a quick rundown of what they had just said. Ted asked, “Scott, how do you suspect that this is going to affect our operations?”

  After a moment, Scott replied, “Well, actually, I don’t think it will affect us much at all if they will just leave us alone. Basically, we are back to Plan A. This is how we planned to proceed in the first place. We have benefited from the extra muscle they provided. We really don’t need it anymore. We have the results of the lab analysis, so we know as much as they do, and we are in a better position than they are in regard to acquiring more data. So, I think we proceed as per Plan A. What do you think, Ted?”

  Ted said, “I think you are dead right. Let’s rock and roll and steer clear of the Russians for now.”

  Scott said, “Miguel, how are the provisions packages coming along?”

  Miguel replied, “I’m just about done. I’ll have them ready within the hour.”

  Scott asked, “Do you think you can sneak them back here along the Russians’ bridge before they shut us down?”

  Miguel, just realizing how dependent they had become on the bridge, replied, “I hope so. I’m not real comfortable with that ‘Tarzaning’ yet. I’ve done it only twice.”

  Scott said, “Well, you said you wanted to learn the ropes. It looks like you are going to get your wish. As soon as we get Ted situated, you need to let Director Ruiz know what’s going on.”

  Miguel said, “Definitely. By-the-way, Sam, how are your rope skills?”

  Sam said sheepishly, “Just about non-existent. I’m sitting here thinking, ‘what the hell am I doing here?’.”

  Scott said, “What you are going to be doing is learning some new tricks. I hope you are a quick learner.”

  Ted interjected, “Scott, slow me down, I’m just about to the bottom!”

  Scott put the brakes on Ted’s descent, and gently landed him on the bottom where he was greeted by Max and Jim. Max said as Ted touched down, “You came in com range about a hundred feet up. What is with Sam being a quick learner?”

  As Ted was getting unrigged, Scott began to fill Max and Jim in on the new developments. Max said without any prompting from Scott, “Well, it looks like it is back to Plan A. Scott, secure your end of this rope. We have to pull real hard on it in order to stretch it all the way back to our camp.”

  “Roger that,” replied Scott. “Let me know when we can start pulling,” Max said.

  Jim said, “Ted, grab some slack, and let’s start hauling the shield down this pile and get out of this rain.”

  Peggy finished unpacking the gear that she brought down with her and began to prepare her heavy drone for its maiden flight. All drone flying down here would have to be controlled manually with some inertial assists. Peggy found a nice flat and almost level boulder for Charlie to take off from and to land on. Peggy had recently named her heavy drone, Charlie. Charlie’s battery was fully charged, and it was almost as if he was eager to take flight. Peggy situated herself nearby and donned her control visor. Through this visor, Peggy saw what Charlie saw, in all directions. Because of this omnidirectional multi-view, it required a high level of skill to fly Charlie manually. And, Peggy was a highly skilled drone operator, so Charlie just became an extension of Peggy’s reality. In an instant, Charlie leaped into flight. If anyone watched Peggy as she flew Charlie, they surely would be amused. What they would see would be this person sitting with something covering her face while her hands would be waving back and forth at some imaginary object in front of her. In reality, what was happening was that the hand waving was actually Peggy operating the virtual controls that were displayed on her visor. When Peggy turned her head, she saw the view in that direction, as seen from the drone. If, for some reason, Peggy lost connection with Charlie, Charlie would simply return to his landing site following the reverse of the exact path he had followed since takeoff. Peggy flew up a little way, then slowly rotated to get a feel for the flight environment. Looking upward, Peggy could see Bufford and Spider’s lights four hundred feet above her and the fixed ropes that they had emplaced during their ascent. It was time to pay a visit, and Charlie zoomed upward following the fixed lines.

  As Charlie slowed and hovered fifteen feet from the duo, Spider said, “Hello Peggy, so glad to see you.”

  Peggy responded, “You two look cozy, just sitting up there. Glad to see you all too.”

  Bufford asked, “When did you get
down here?”

  “About an hour ago,” Peggy responded. “Can I be of some help?”

  Spider said, “We were just about ready to rappel back down when we saw your drone’s lights come on. We were just waiting for you to find us. However, now that you are here, maybe you can help. As you can see, we are temporarily stymied by this overhang. I can’t climb this one, so it looks like we will have to bolt our way around. Question, will it be worth the effort? Is there any passage above us? We can’t tell from here.”

  Peggy said, “Just a moment; I’ll check.” With that, Peggy flew Charlie around then up and over the overhang. Peggy said, “Oh yeah. It looks like there is lots of passage up here. It is a breakdown slope that goes up at a very steep angle. It doesn’t look particularly stable and might be really dangerous while we are climbing. I’ll shoot some high res video. You can analyze an attack when you get down.”

  “Sounds good. It’s great to have your help once again. We’ll see you down at base camp in a bit. Good to see you again too, Charlie.”

  Back at base camp, Max, Jim, and Ted were struggling to stretch the rope back towards the base camp. Max lamented as the pulled on the rope, “Dang, it didn’t seem this hard when stretched before.”

  Ted asked, “How much further do we need to go?”

  “About twenty-five feet. We have a good anchor set for it that is close enough to our camp for the com pickup to work,” replied Max.

  After struggling for a few more minutes, Jim said, “Forget this crap. We’re not getting anywhere. Let’s tie off here and wait till Bufford gets back down. He’s the one with the brawn.”

  Max opined, “For some reason, I think this is going to require more than just brawn. We are going to need to rig up a pulley to get some additional leverage. Hold tight, and I’ll try to get a loop around this boulder. There, I got it. Put a couple of half hitches on it, then we can wait for Bufford.”

  Scott had been listening to all their effort with a mixture of concern and amusement. He chimed in, “Sounds like you need an engineer down there. Have you got it under control yet?” “Just about,” replied Max.

  Scott said, “In about an hour, be prepared to receive the provisions packages. Miguel said he just about has them ready. I want to get them down there as soon as possible before the Russians cut off our access to their bridge. I’m the only one up here with experience with our Tarzan method, so I want to minimize the transport of heavy loads that way. I want to get Sam back topside because he has practically no rope experience, and I don’t want his first experience to be under adverse circumstances. So, while we can still use the bridge, he is going back.” Everyone agreed that would be a good idea.

  While Max and Jim were figuring out how to rig a pulley to help stretch the NMI rope back nearer to the base camp, Charlie landed gracefully on his hew landing pad and shut down. Peggy stowed her control visor and made her way down the passage to rejoin with the men. Bufford and Spider were still about three hundred feet up, slowly rappelling their way down.

  There were limited places to sit comfortably in the base camp area. The canyon was not very wide, and the Churún River took up most of the width. Finding sitting places for six people was not easy. But, as everyone got situated, Peggy began to describe what she had seen above the overhang where Bufford and Spider had paused their climb.

  Peggy said, “As I told Spider and Bufford, the passage continues above the overhang. The canyon walls are about twenty feet apart and sloped steeply upward at about forty-five degrees. The space between the walls is filled with loose rocks. It reminds me of the talus filled slot that leads to the top of the Middle Teton in Wyoming for those of you who have climbed there. It looked very dangerous to me. I’ve been thinking, and I don’t believe we can have anyone climbing up that slot while we have a base camp down here. Whoever or whatever is left down here will literally get bombed with falling rocks.”

  “That’s a problem,” said Max, “this is the best place we’ve seen so far to set up camp.”

  Peggy said, “It looked like the passage goes up steeply for about two hundred feet. I didn’t fly up to check out the passage, but I’ll bet there are many better places to camp up there than there are down here.”

  “Well then, we will have to find a way to get our stuff up there. Ideas, anyone?” asked Max.

  Spider said, “That overhang where Bufford and I stopped is huge. That’s the reason we stopped. I couldn’t climb around it. We could haul everything up to there. I wouldn’t want to camp there for long, but we would be sheltered while we worked our way up the slot.” Peggy said, “I can fly up and set a jam nut anchor and clip in a rope. Then, Spider can climb up and set a bolt anchor. That way she won’t have to bolt her way up. It’ll be a lot quicker and safer.” Max said, “Yes, that sounds like a plan, and if you make sure to set the anchor high enough, Bufford will be out of the line-of-fire while he belays Spider. The rest of us will sit under the overhang and watch the rocks fall. Spider, after you get a fixed line set up all the way to the top, the rest of us can come up one at a time carrying some of our gear. Actually, some of us may have to make several trips. We have a lot of stuff, and more is coming down soon.”

  Ted said, “Well, let’s start packing stuff up. How much spare rope do we have down here?”

  Max and Jim looked at each other with a smile and simultaneously said, “Oh, we’ve got lots of rope, but some of it is still in bags back at the bottom of the pit.”

  Scott and Sam had been busy at the top of the pit preparing to lower provisions for Ted and Peggy. Scott, who had been listening, entered the conversation and told them, “Looks like Miguel has packed up everything he had that’s edible from his kitchen as well as from our stash. I think you have enough here to last for over a week. I’m beginning to wonder what is left up here for us to eat. I hope he made a call to Carlos to fly in more provisions. Get ready, we will start lowering in a few minutes. Also, it looks like it is going to take at least two drops. There is a lot of stuff here. We have three full duffle bags and two large Pelican cases. I hope you have a knife down there to open these packages. It looks like Miguel must have used two complete rolls of duct tape sealing this stuff up.”

  Max said, “We’ll manage, send it on down.”

  Almost two hours later, the five provision packages were safely on the bottom. Earlier, Jim and Bufford grabbed a bag of rope and anchor gear and began the climb up the ropes to the bottom of the overhang. There they began setting a bunch of anchors from which to hang all of their gear. When Bufford and Spider set the fixed ropes, they did so in three separate pitches. This was fine for climbing up and rappelling down. It just meant that the climber had to change ropes three times each way. This was not okay for hauling a lot of gear up four hundred or so feet. For that purpose, they rigged a single four hundred and fifty foot rope through a pulley. That way, using their rope walking ascender rigs, they could haul a load approximately equal to their weight up the four hundred foot climb with no more effort than was required to make the actual climb.

  The easy part of relocating the base camp was packing up the gear and hauling it up to the top of the breakdown slope where Bufford and Jim would take turns hauling it the rest of the way up to the overhang. Ted asked Max, “What do you want to do about tying off the NMI rope and shield. Since we are relocating there is no sense in expending the effort to stretch it on back to where you originally had it tied. I vote that we finish tying it off where it is since once we move we will be out of communications range anyway.”

  “I think you are completely right. Let’s get that done.” Max also said, “Scott, are you still listening?”

  Scott replied, “I’m listening, but I don’t have anything to contribute from up here.”

  Max said, “When we move up to the top of the canyon, we won’t be able to communicate, and I don’t know how long we will be out of touch. If the passage goes, we will follow it as far as we can. If it takes a couple of days, then we will be gone at le
ast that long. If it peters out, we will be back sooner. So, if you don’t hear from us for a while, don’t panic. If there turns up a reason to panic, you will be the first to know. So, as soon as we finish tying off the shield, we are signing off for a while.”

  Peggy had a question, “Am I right in assuming that once all this is hauled up, that we are going to be sleeping hanging from a couple of anchors four hundred feet up there?”

  Spider said, “Yep, I believe that is the plan. I take it that you have never done that before.”

  “Nope, never done that. And, I’m not sure I’ll be sleeping either.”

  Spider chuckled, “After we get all situated up there you will be so tired that I guarantee that you will sleep.”

  Max was mumbling as he struggled to get a particularly heavy bag tied to the haul rope, “I’ve been on a lot of long cave expeditions, and I can’t ever remember hauling this much stuff into the cave. This is ridiculous.”

  Ted remarked with admiration, “You know, Jim and Bufford are doing a yeoman’s job hauling all this gear up. It’s got to be like doing a couple of tandem fifteen hundred foot rope ascents. You talk about a couple of guys that are going to be worn out; I’ll bet they are going to sleep well tonight.”

  Max suggested to the girls, “Spider, why don’t you and Peggy head on up. I’m sure they could use some help setting anchors and stashing these bags. Ted and I will head up when we finish securing the shield.”

  Spider agreed, “We’re not being much help down here. I think we are done with all that we can do. Is there any loose stuff I can carry up with me?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Get on up there and figure out just how you are going to get around that overhang.”

  When it came to rope climbing, the two girls couldn’t have been different. Peggy preferred the standard rope walking system that let her legs do most of the work. Spider on the other hand preferred a two Jumar system that allowed her to take giant steps and climb really fast. Her system required a lot of upper body and arm strength, both of which Spider had in abundance. Spider arrived at the overhang in about fifteen minutes which was a scorching climbing pace considering that she had two rope changes on the way up. Peggy took a more leisurely pace and took about forty minutes to complete her climb. Max and Ted were about twenty minutes behind Peggy. They pulled the fixed ropes up behind them to ensure that they didn’t get damaged by falling rocks when they began the assault on the slot.