by Donal Myrick
Just as Peggy finished telling Max about the high lead, Spider joined the group and said, “Max, when you go back, tell Bufford to bring more rope and all the climbing hardware he can find. Peggy’s high lead is the kind of thing that he and I do best; you know we both detest belly crawling passages. Also, ask him to bring over one of the chargers, our batteries are running low. Although I’m sure our friends here could find a way to give us a charge, it would be good to have our primary charger anyway.”
“I’ll tell them to bring over everything they have. However, we don’t have any more rope. Every length we have is dedicated to some pitch. It will be at least another day, possibly two before we can get more dropped down.“
“Dang!” Spider lamented. “I’d really like to get started sooner than that.”
Max was thinking, “Well, there is a possibility, but it would require a lot of trust on your part.”
“What possibility is that?”
“Bufford could come down here with all the gear that we have on hand. Then we could drop the four-fifty. That would leave you all stranded until more rope could be brought down. Assuming everything goes okay, that would only be for a couple of days, but with our luck, it could be longer. But, the two of you could begin the assault and get a three hundred-foot or so head start. Jim and Ted would stay back and wait for more rope. I know we have plenty in store top side.”
Without hesitation, Spider said, “Do it.”
“That possibility dramatically changes our options. How cool would it be if we could find a secret passage and just rappel directly down into here.” Turning to Xyllio, Max said, “ Maybe, just maybe when we blow the passage, you guys won’t be sealed up down here for another three of four hundred years. Actually, I don’t see that as a real possibility anyway. We know you are here, and we won’t abandon you.”
Max went on to relate to the girls the details of the situation in which they were now embroiled. He said, “I am going to go back topside and help Scott manage things there. As Xyllio said, we also need to find out who our friends are and who our enemies are, and that probably isn’t going to be easy. While I am gone, you need to continue to learn as much about our new friends as you can, and they need to learn as much about the present as you can possibly convey. We don’t know how much time we have before we have to exit, so be ready to go on a moment’s notice. So, I guess it is goodbye for a little while.”
Peggy came over and gave Max a hug and said, “You be careful, stay safe, and make dang sure you come back, okay?”
Max gave her a hug back and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll be back. You can count on it.”
As Max turned and started back towards the west end of the Alien’s chamber to where the four-fifty rope was rigged, Spider said to Peggy, “You kinda like Max, don’t you?”
Peggy blushed briefly, then replied a little surprised, “Does it show? Well, of course, I do, who wouldn’t. He is a really cool guy, and we have done a lot of caving together. Besides, we have known each other for a long time.”
Xyllio accompanied Max, and they chatted as they walked back to the four-fifty. Xyllio reminded Max that he must be extremely careful not to reveal anything regarding their presence and that he must be very mindful of his own safety. If the wrong people became suspicious, then he and his associates would be in peril even if he hadn’t confided everything to them. Max assured Xyllio that he would exercise the utmost caution. Max then began the four hundred foot climb out of the chamber.
CHAPTER 25
Revelation
By this time, Max had been awake and going like crazy for about twenty hours, so he was starting to drag. His return trip to the pit was much more leisurely than his trip coming from the pit. He arrived back at the pit about two hours after Jim had said that they should reconvene in six hours.
Max told them about the tentative plan regarding Peggy’s findings and Spider’s desire to begin the assault as soon as possible if Bufford was also willing. Bufford indicated that he was game. Ted indicated that he would also like to return with Bufford to the alien’s chamber and continue learning as much as he could.
Max announced, “I’m beat. I think I’m going to take this opportunity to get some rest before getting ready for them to winch me out of here.”
A little over four hours later, Jim shook Max awake. He said, “They are ready at the top. They have run the Russians out and have a full crew ready to pull you up. Sam says all systems are go.”
Max shook himself and stretched and said, “Let’s do it. Man. I could use a cup of coffee.”
Jim replied, “Yeah, I think we all could.”
Together they walked over to the end of the tunnel leading out into the bottom of the pit. Max donned the wet suit, the re-breather, and his Swiss seat. He clipped his waterproof travel bag, which contained his climbing gear, which he would need later and the beacon that Xyllio had given him, to his Swiss seat. He then donned his hard hat again, switched on his com, and said, “Get ready to beam me up, Sam.”
Sam replied, “Give me the word when you are ready.”
He climbed to the top of the breakdown pile, where Jim had the shield ready for him. Max snugged himself up tight under the shield, knowing that a rough ride lay ahead of him. On the upward ride, the shield was going to be taking a much harsher pounding than it did on the way down. This ascent would complete the first bounce of the world’s deepest freefall pit. Max steeled himself for the ride and said, “Beam me up!”
As expected, the first thousand feet of the ascent went smoothly. But the higher he went, the more the rain coalesced into sheets of water which moment by moment became heavier and heavier. Then the sheets began to turn into steady streams which pounded on the shield and cause it to shake violently. The noise was intense, and while the noise-canceling feature of the com was helpful, it couldn’t block out all of the noise. It did nothing to abate the violent shaking. Max shouted, his voice shaking in response to the pounding water, “This is a damn lot more scary than coming down was! I’m getting pounded, and I can’t see a thing.”
Max closed his eyes and snugged up even tighter under the shield. The winch ground on inexorably pulling Max higher and higher, and with each foot gained, to Max, it seemed like the pounding became harsher and harsher. Max thought that this was akin to running the gauntlet.
The twelve hundred feet of intense pounding lasted for about twenty minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime. As the shield slowly lurched and jerked its way through the spherical region of the pit, Max strained to see through the sheets of falling water. When Max descended the pit a week earlier, the falling water flowed smoothly around the shield forming a tunnel through which one could occasionally get a glimpse of the cavern walls. However, ascending through the torrent was a different story. The shield seemed to be struggling as though it was having to claw its way up through the torrent, and while a tunnel would start to form, the turbulence would cause it to immediately collapse. This made seeing anything impossible.
When Max finally emerged through the cascade at the top of the pit, he felt drained even though the ordeal had lasted for only a little over forty-five minutes. While Scott and Geraldo helped Max unclip from beneath the shield and get secured to an anchor in the ceiling of the pit, Sam tossed a pre-prepared water bottle into the abyss. The bottle contained a message for the team on the bottom to let them know that Max had arrived safely at the top and that the NMI would soon be on the way back down.
Scott asked, “How was the ride?”
“It was hell! Going down was interesting and exciting, but coming back up was definitely not fun. I felt like I was being batted around like a piñata, and I couldn’t help but wonder just how much abuse could this shield take.”
Scott replied, “Well, it looks like it took the abuse with flying colors. It is not showing any visible damage, and you survived apparently intact. So, it did its job.”
Sam said, “Welcome back topside. You are looking a little pale. Methinks you cou
ld use a bit of sunshine.”
“I think you are right. I wonder how long it will take for my eyes to adjust.”
Since they had run the Russians out, they had the premises all to themselves. Actually, they hadn’t run them out but rather had politely requested that they yield their space at the top of the pit since Scott was going to have eight or nine people assisting in extracting Max from the bottom. Further, since no one was there to tell them no, they used the Russian’s bridge to exit the cave. For such a large group, using the bridge was much easier and faster than Tarzaning out. Scott knew that Kuznetsov would somehow let them know that it was very presumptuous of them to use the bridge without permission. Scott figured that he would just take that hit. It is sometimes easier to beg forgiveness than to seek permission.
Miguel was waiting at the top of the canyon when the group finally emerged. “Welcome back Señor Meccum. A lot has happened since you left. Come over to my tent and let’s have a beer. We can talk about everything that has happened. I need an update so I can keep my Director informed.”
“Good to see you also, Miguel. Yes, we have a lot to talk about, and yes, I’d love a beer, but first, let me get out of this wetsuit and into some clean clothes. By-the-way, you wouldn’t just happen to have some of your famous nachos in the oven, would you?”
“But of course.”
“Okay. Sounds good. I’ll see you shortly.”
Max knew that he would have to be very careful about what he said. He knew that he would have to elaborate on the fake story that the girls were leading the way through a maze of belly crawls through the massive breakdown that filled the space between the canyon walls. In his mind, he had been working on a plan to have the Venezuelan cavers map the surface above what he would be claiming where the cave was leading. Hopefully, that would also give the Russians a false flag to follow. He also knew that he needed to find a time to spend with Scott in some secure place so as to give him a full data dump. He knew it would be hard for Scott to swallow, but in anticipation of that, he brought the memory stick from one of Peggy’s cameras with him. Scott was going to be blown away. Further, he was going to need an excuse to return to the States for a week or two to activate the beacon. There was much to do and too few trusted people in which he could confide.
Max dug around in his personal clothing stash and found a welcome change from the hot and sweaty wetsuit that he was still wearing. Although it was a high tech breathable suit, it was becoming very uncomfortable in this hot environment. After donning his change of clothes, he joined the group in the dining tent where the beer was already flowing in celebration of his successful and uneventful return. And most importantly, Miguel had just finished preparing a large batch of his famous four-cheese jalapeño nachos.
Max reiterated how the girls were leading the assault, and how he, Jim, and Ted spent most of their time exploring leads that so far had gone nowhere. He pointed out how Bufford didn’t like exploring belly crawls and that maybe he more than didn’t like, he, in fact, hated belly crawls. So, as a consequence, Bufford spent most of his time either fixing meals for everyone or else doing nothing.
“One thing,” Max said, “the girls have been working along a high lead straddling a deep narrow crack. It is quite dangerous and very tiring. They need some more rope as soon as we can get it to them so they can rig some safety lines through that section, and if they can find a place where they can rappel down lower, they will need some rope for that.”
Sam said, “I’ll get right on that. I think we have two spools left. Hopefully, twelve hundred feet will be enough. We will get it hanked up and sent down.”
Dr. Fred asked if Ted had found anything that would shed further light on the mysterious explosion. Max related what Ted had expressed as his opinion. “Ted hasn’t said anything about what he thinks caused the explosion other than it was obviously a massive event. He did say something about how he thought the shock wave had propagated to the bottom of the pit and some distance back into the canyon that ran off to the east from the bottom of the pit. He thinks the shock wave hit something solid and caused something like a hammer shock that shattered the walls of the canyon resulting in what we are observing. That is, the structure of the cave appears to be a high canyon filled from wall to wall with massive breakdown.”
“Interesting,” remarked Dr. Fred, “it must have been one hell of a shock wave.”
Max went on to explain that Ted also thought that, “The shock wave that propagated up through the top of the pit was basically unimpeded and that it resulted only in the glazing of the canyon walls instead of the massive damage we are seeing in the other direction.”
“That is an interesting theory, and it makes some sense. Have you all collected any more samples from the bottom or poked around to see if you could find anything interesting and out of the ordinary, at least out of the ordinary considering that this isn’t an ordinary cave? You know what I mean. Have you found anything you consider unusual?”
“I know what you mean, and yes, we have poked around a good bit. But no, we haven’t found anything that looks different from what we sent up initially. I would say that our main findings are what I just related regarding our observations, or actually Ted’s observations. One other thing, though, the reason we are continuing to push is the airflow. There is lots of airflow. It is going through the breakdown to somewhere, and that somewhere has to be large. Or else it is going to a lower entrance or another pit entrance somewhere.”
Geraldo jumped in and said, “If there is another entrance, we ought to be able to find it.”
“I agree, and that might be a good productive task for some of your guys to undertake. Why don’t you assign a team to start mapping along the surface and keep on the lookout for any feature that might suggest a possible entrance? I can sketch out the general direction that the mapping should take.”
Scott said, “I’ll bet that will get the attention of Kuznetsov when he sees our guys surveying off through the jungle. He will know that we have found something important, and it will tear him up until he finds out what it is. Don’t anyone tell any of your Russian acquaintances what we are looking for. Let’s keep them wondering as long as we can.”
Scott sensing that there was something that Max wasn’t telling, conjured up an excuse to get Max off to the side to talk. Max was also looking for an excuse to get Scott off to the side to let him know that they needed to talk privately, so when Scott said openly to Max, “Max, when you get a moment, I need to talk with you about the finances of this operation.” Max replied, “I understand. I know that this expedition must be becoming quite a drain on the Foundations resources. Let’s take a walk where we can talk. We don’t need to involve everyone else here in the administrative side of things. Let me get my camera, I want to show you something that I think you will find of interest. I think it will be of interest to the Foundation as well.”
Max added further, “I’ll be just a moment.” Then he set off towards his tent to get his travel bag. On the way, he popped into Peggy’s tent and picked up one of her spare cameras.
Geraldo observed this brief discourse between Scott and Max and quickly surmised there was more to their wanting a private discussion than finances as they had openly announced. Geraldo quietly said to Scott, “I sense that there is a lot more that Max needs to talk about, and that it doesn’t involve finances. If it is okay with both of you, I’d like to hear what he has to say.”
“You are right, I don’t need to talk finances, and I too sensed he needed an excuse for a private off the record conversation. If it is okay with Max, it is okay with me for you listen in.”
Max returned a few moments later and said, “Let’s take a walk over towards the edge of the escarpment while we talk. I’d like to get a couple of pictures of the sunset.”
Scott said to Max, “Geraldo would like to join us if that is okay with you.”
Max paused for a second and then said, “Sure, why not. He just might have some goo
d ideas on how to proceed.”
Geraldo said jokingly, “Pictures of the sunset? I think that this is a symptom signaling that you have spent too much time underground.”
Max laughed, “Very perceptive of you.”
The edge of the escarpment was only a few hundred yards from the camp. When they found a suitable spot with a good view of the valley below and sufficiently out in the open so that they could see that there were no unwelcome ears listening to their conversation, Max sat down and took out the camera and installed the memory stick.
Max began, “I presume that I am correct in that the two of you have figured out that there is more going on than what I have told you.”
Scott said, “You are absolutely correct. Spill it.”
“Well, for starters, most of what I have told you so far is a lie. Most of it is a total fabrication to cover what we have really found, and hopefully buy us time to continue what we are doing.”
“Why am I not shocked?” Scott remarked.
Geraldo said, “I sense that this is going to be really interesting.”