by Donal Myrick
It was really tight all huddled together under the overhang with all of the gear bags hanging down, the hammocks bumping together, and the safety lanyards all entwined. To an outside observer, it would have looked like a bunch bats hunkered down hanging from the ceiling trying to stay warm. It was not cold; it was just that the accommodations were very tight.
Max said, “I hope everyone is comfortable.”
Bufford quipped, “I’m so tired, I could be comfortable on a bed of nails.”
Ted remarked while rummaging through his pack digging something out to eat, “Bufford, you and Jim did a fantastic job hauling all this gear up here.”
“No thanks necessary, it’s all part of the job,” Jim replied. “But, you know what I’m really going to miss on this trek is Miguel’s cooking.”
“Don’t remind us of that, please,” said Peggy as she chowed down on a couple of protein bars.
“Ted, are you still awake?” asked Max.
“Yeah, I’m not asleep yet.”
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you what I found on the bottom of the pit while I was waiting for Peggy to come down.”
“Oh, what did you come up with?”
“I was already soaking wet, but rather than retreating back into the canyon, I started poking around. When we collected our original samples, we just picked up any loose rocks we found lying around, and hoped for the best. I’m actually surprised that we found anything useful. Anyway, I started turning over some of the breakdown that were small enough for me to move. Underneath several of the boulders, I found some very interesting rocks, glassified like the other rocks we collected, but very colorful, unlike anything we had seen before.”
“No crap! What did you do with the rocks?” “I packed them away in a little sack. They are in one of these bags here. You can look at them later. But that’s not all. I also found something that looks like a piece of metal. Again something like I’ve never seen before.”
“Oh, the plot thickens! That kind of stuff lends more and more credence to the illegal secret Russian nuclear experiment gone bad theory.”
“Exactly, that’s what I thought. Couple that with the fact that Sergei is out, a new guy is in, and we are no longer partners with them certainly points to the fact that they are somehow deeply involved in all this.”
Peggy joined the conversation and pointed out, “Max, I recall your saying something to the effect that if this is some kind of a Russian operation, then we don’t want to be involved. Is that still your feeling?”
“Yes, but like it or not, it looks like we are right in the middle of it anyway.”
Ted added, “If this is a Russian operation gone bad, then Kuznetsov already knows what is down here, and he probably would rather we not tell the outside world anything.”
Max said, “And, that makes our situation down here rather precarious, doesn’t it?”
“Yes it does,” Ted agreed. “Remember, we speculated about that possibility before, but now it seems a lot more realistic.”
Max said, “Do you all think we should turn back now and get out of here as quick as possible, or shall we press ahead?”
Ted offered his opinion, “I think that if we bail, the Russians will think we found something and will probably do whatever they can to prevent us from revealing it. I vote that we push on. We may never have another chance to get down here again. However, if we spend several days down here and then bail, the Russians will be sure we found something. So we are screwed no matter what. So, let’s push on.”
“How does everyone else feel?” asked Max. Everyone was in general agreement to push on except Jim and Bufford. They were both sound asleep.
CHAPTER 12
Help Wanted
Early the next morning Sam, Scott, and Dr. Schillinger joined Miguel in Miguel’s kitchen to mooch another of Miguel’s gourmet breakfasts. The Americans had brought with them more than adequate supplies to feed themselves, however, they much preferred Miguel’s cooking to their own. Besides, they would claim that they had sent most of their reserve down the pit to support the team on the bottom. That would be a bit of a stretch, but that was their story and they were sticking to it. This was all okay with Miguel because he enjoyed cooking, and it made him feel more as a part of the team.
Scott opened the morning’s conversation with a rhetorical question, “I wonder what crisis is going to rear its ugly head today?”
Sam remarked back, “Well, aren’t you in an optimistic mood today. I take it that you slept well.”
“Well, you take wrong,” snarled Scott as he watched Dr. Schillinger filling his plate with a generous helping of eggs, sausage, hash brown potatoes, fresh fruit, and a couple of biscuits. “Dr. Fred, you look mighty pensive. What’s weighing heavily on your mind?”
“Coffee, I need coffee.”
“Coming right up,” said Miguel much too cheerfully for this time of morning, “I’ve got a fresh pot right here. Where’s your cup?”
“I don’t know,” mumbled Dr. Fred. “Do you have one I can borrow?”
“Yeah, sit down Doc, I’ll take care of you.” Scott said as he was filling his plate, “If you are bringing the pot, I could use a refill also.”
Sam piped in and said, “Me too.”
Dr. Fred, who obviously had been awake for most of the night thinking about their situation, looked at Scott and said between bites, “I think we are in a dangerous situation here, especially since the Russians have withdrawn their support. If we had known that they were going to do that then Ted and Peggy wouldn’t have joined the team on the bottom. As it is now, Scott, you are the only one of us who has any competence in this kind of caving. If we have any kind of a problem, even a small one, then we are in big trouble.” Scott nodded his head in total agreement. Dr. Fred went on to ask, “I was wondering if you had any experienced caving friends back in the States that you could get on short notice to come down here and bolster our capabilities? Do you know if Max has any friends we could contact?”
“As a matter of fact I do have a lot of friends in Huntsville I can call on, and I know a couple of Max’s friends in Austin as well. I agree with you completely. We need some help on board down here fast.”
“Can your foundation finance a couple more team members? I know that most of the cavers I know, especially the young ones won’t be able to afford to drop whatever they are doing and to hop on an airplane and fly down here.”
“That won’t be a problem. After we finish breakfast, I’ll get right on it.”
Scott made a list of everyone that he could think of that had the right kind of experience and skills and that might be able to join the team on short notice. Then he added a couple of names that he knew Max respected. When the list was done, despite the fact he knew a lot of capable cavers, he noted that the list of cavers with what he considered the right stuff was a rather short list. He thought he might have to ask some of the people on the list if they had any recommendations. Scott was thinking that he would feel comfortable if they could add four more people to the team. He got on Miguel’s satellite phone and called Connie, his secretary at the foundation.
“Hi Connie, this is Scott. How are things going?”
“Hi Boss, things are going well here. How is your vacation going?”
“Vacation hell!! You know damn well I’m not on vacation! This is anything but a vacation. As a matter of fact and since you asked, things are not going well down here at all. That’s why I’m calling. I need to contact several people and see if I can recruit them to join us down here. At the moment, we are seriously shorthanded. We need some serious help of the caver variety.”
“Good Lord, are you in some kind of trouble?”
“No, at least not yet, but we could be. That’s why we need some help. I have just emailed you a list of people. I need to know how and when best to call them. I would like for you to dig up phone numbers and make an initial call for me. Find out when is the best time for me to call them. I think you can find
most of their phone numbers in the NSS Members Directory.”
“Okay, can do. Is there anything I should tell them when I call?”
“No, not really. You can tell them where I am, but not what I am doing. Also, you need to be looking into the availability of flights from Huntsville and Austin to Caracas. I’ll arrange transportation from Caracas to here. The foundation will be funding their expenses, but don’t tell them that. I’ll let them know that I’ll cover their expenses when I find out if they can drop what they are doing and join us. Call me back as soon as you can.”
“Okay, I’m on it. Can you tell me what is going on? Do I need to be concerned?”
“I’ll fill you in later. No reason to be really concerned yet. I’d say on a scale of one to ten, level four concern would be about right. Be on guard, be careful, be attentive, and take note of anything unusual. I’ll talk with you later. Bye for now.”
“Bye.”
CHAPTER 13
Passage at the Top
On the surface, the rising sun marks the dawn of a new day. Twenty-five hundred feet below the surface, the sun doesn’t shine. Max used the highly accurate digital clock on the laser survey instrument to keep track of time. On the previous evening, he set the alarm for six am. When six am arrived, he poked Peggy’s hammock to wake her. Peggy’s hammock was jam-packed next to his, so he could feel her stirring. “Are you ready to get going again?” he asked.
“I guess so if you insist,” she replied with a yawn.
“Hey everyone, time to wake up,” Max said in a much louder voice.
“Max! We are all right here, you don’t need to yell,” Spider complained.
“Who is cooking breakfast today?” Jim asked jokingly.
“Well, if anyone is cooking this morning, it must be you, Jim. I doubt that any of us will be volunteering,” said Max as he dug into his backpack for some cherry breakfast tarts, his favorite caving breakfast.
“Okay, I was just kidding. What’s the plan? How do we want to attack this overhang? Spider, that’s your bag. What do you need for us to do besides get out of your way?”
Before Spider could remind Jim that they already had a plan, Peggy said, “If I can get a little room, I can deploy Charlie. Just like we talked about yesterday, Charlie can fly up, find a crack, insert a jam nut, clip in a line, and Bufford can belay Spider up to set a bolt.”
“Oh yeah, it’s all coming back now. I just need a cup of coffee to get my brain going.”
“Well, you need to get it going without coffee because until we reestablish our base camp up there somewhere, we aren’t going to be brewing any coffee.”
Max’s hammock was located closest to the open space of the canyon, so he and Peggy traded positions. Spider and Bufford took up positions a few feet away with climbing rope and gear ready. Peggy unpacked Charlie, donned her control visor, and held Charlie out in space to allow his inertial system to establish his flight origin point. That is the point to which Charlie would return to if Peggy lost contact with him. Then Charlie took flight, headlights blazing out, up, and around the overhang in search of a suitable crack for a jam nut. About thirty feet higher up and on the wall of the slot, Charlie spotted exactly what he was looking for. He returned autonomously to his origin, and Peggy placed to appropriate Jam nut in his claw. Up and away he flew again, and expertly placed the jam jut in the aforementioned crack. Charlie flew back down, took the end of the climbing rope from Spider, and flew back up and clipped the rope securely onto the Jam nut. With that, Charlie’s work was done. While Peggy re-stowed Charlie, Spider clipped her Jumars onto the newly established fixed-line, clipped on her belay line, and swung out into space. Spider quickly made her way up and around the overhang and found a site to sink a secure bolt anchor. She then moved a little higher and set another anchor from which Bufford could belay her as she climbed the boulder-strewn slot establishing fixed ropes as they went. Bufford soon joined her, and she carefully began the dangerous climb up the steep boulder pile. As soon as she could, she made her way across the slot to the far wall away from Bufford so that any rocks she might dislodge would not tumble directly towards Bufford. Sure enough, as soon as she started up the unstable rock pile, she shouted, “Rock!” as the first of many rocks to come, became dislodged and rattled down the slope and launched off into space. Seven seconds later, came a reverberating “boom” as the rock crashed onto the bottom some four hundred feet below.
Spider shouted down to everyone, “As predicted, this is going to be a tricky climb. Expect a lot of rocks so keep you heads down.” Spider continued to carefully pick her way up the rocky slope, but no matter how careful she climbed, every ten feet or so, another rock loosened and fell. As she moved higher, every rock that came loose caused a mini-avalanche of other rocks. After Spider made her way up the first twenty feet, she paused and set a new bolt as high on the wall as she could reach. Then she belayed Bufford up to this position. Bufford clipped in, pulled the fixed rope up, and slipped it into the carabiner to which he was likewise attached. He called for Max to take up the slack so that the fixed-line would hang about six feet above the rock slope and out of danger of being damaged by cascading rocks. Spider then traversed back across the slope to the opposite wall and began her ascent again. In this manner, Spider and Bufford zig-zagged their way up the slot. This was a tedious process, and required several hours to reach the top.
When Spider final made it safely to the top, she shouted back to Bufford, “You aren’t going to believe this, but the passage actually opens up and goes horizontal as far as I can see.”
“Halleluiah,” came the relieved cry. “Let’s get this rope fixed and head back down.”
“Amen to that, I’ll bet everyone is bored stiff by now.”
“Naw, they’ve been entertained by the falling rock serenade!”
Spider laughed, “I’ll bet you are right.”
After the fixed rope was secured, they made their way back down the slope. They stayed very close to each other so that when one of them dislodged a rock, it would not endanger the other. Everyone was greatly relieved to hear that the passage opened up and that a comfortable base camp could likely be had.
While Spider and Bufford took a highly deserved rest, the others began the process of transporting all the gear and supplies to the top of the passage. Even with the newly established fixed ropes, this was not an easy task. The bags were heavy, and for safety reasons, only two people could make the ascent at a time. And, again, because of the falling rock hazard, they had to stay close to each other. Jim and Ted made up the first duo to make the climb, each with a heavy load. Upon their return, Max and Peggy began their assault. Max loaded himself down with an eighty-pound load, and Peggy took Charlie. Next, Jim and Ted made their second trip up the slot, each carrying a huge load.
On his second trip up, Max wandered a little way down the passage and proclaimed, “Hey guys, here looks like a great place to set up our new base camp. Let’s make sure that all the gear gets brought all the way back to here so that we don’t have to handle it yet another time.”
It took a dozen round trips and the rest of the day to transport everything up. With the new base camp set up, Jim said, “Let’s cook something. I’m famished; I’m so hungry I could eat a fried rock.” Everyone was in complete agreement. Jim dug out the little cook stove, and looked into one of the food bags and announced, “The choices are: beans and franks or franks and beans. That looks like that all that got stowed in this bag.”
“Well, in that case, I vote for franks and beans,” said Bufford. Ted was digging around in one of the clothing bags that Miguel had packed, and said, “Holy cow, look what I found!” With that, he proceeded to fish out a dozen carefully packed cans of beer, much to the delight everyone. As they popped the tops, a unanimous cheer went up, “Here’s to Miguel! Long will he be remembered!”
That evening the crew sacked out in reasonable comfort and with full and contented bellies.
CHAPTER 14
Help Provided
When Connie called back, she had three names for Scott. She was unable to make contact with the other names he had given her. With obvious tension in her voice, she said, “Boss, I tried to call everyone the list that you gave me, but so far, I’ve only made contact with three. Also, Boss, I am very concerned now. Not thirty minutes ago, right after I finished talking with Glen, a man with a foreign accent came into the office. He said that he had a message for you. I told him that you were unavailable. He said that he knew that, but he also knew that I could get messages to you. He gave me an envelope with several wax seals securing it. Can you imagine that! Wax seals, who uses wax seals these days? He saw me looking at the seals, and he said, “Look carefully at those seals. Memorize what you see. After you give Mr. Mueller the message, destroy the message and the envelope, but remember the seals. You will be seeing them again.” Then he left with no further explanation. Boss, what is going on?”
Now Scott was concerned. “Who is the message from?” he inquired.
“I don’t know. I haven’t opened it. I wouldn’t dare open it until I told you.”
“Open it. Let’s see who it is from. Don’t mess up the seals.”
Connie fumbled around her desk looking for her letter opener. When she found it, she slit the envelope open and withdrew the contents. Looking at the bottom of the note, she said, “It is from a Mr. Sergei Vassilov.”