The Vilcabamba Prophecy: A Nick Randall Novel

by Robert Rapoza

  Randall slid his hand one last time where he thought the opening should be. At first, he wasn’t sure, but then he felt a gap in the stony wall. It wasn’t as big as before. Randall surmised that falling rocks must have partially sealed it, but the opening was big enough to allow him to pass through. With the remaining strength in his body, Randall pulled himself up and through the opening. Once on the other side, he realized that he was not as hot anymore. The fallen rock acting as an insulator had kept this side of the tunnel cooler for now. Rising to his feet, Randall’s arms felt ragged and burned from rubbing against the rocky surface.

  He continued to feel his way through the dark and move onward through the tunnel. He had gone several feet when he tripped and fell to the ground. He had fallen over Ackers’s body. Suddenly, a thought gripped him: Ackers might have something useful to help him get out. Overcoming his natural instinct to move away from the dead corpse, Randall searched through his pockets. He found a small cylindrical item in his cargo pocket. “Please let it be a light.” It was. Randall rummaged through the other pockets and found a knife, a compass, a canteen, and a final item that produced a sense of both hope and foreboding. An explosive device. At least that’s what it appeared to be.

  Randall’s thoughts raced wildly. If he could get back down the main tunnel, he might be able to blast his way through the fallen rocks. Moving quickly, he ran back to the opening that he had gone through only minutes before. The magma was almost directly below him. He had about eight feet before it covered the opening. The heat was devastating and Randall had to pull back before being overwhelmed. It was too hot, he couldn’t go back over. He breathed deeply and realized what he had to do.

  Moving quickly, he returned to Ackers’s side and removed the soldier’s shirt. Dousing it with water, Randall cut it into three pieces. He then made two holes in the largest piece, wrapping it around his face. The two remaining pieces were used to make coverings for both hands. Rising to his feet, he quickly climbed back to the opening. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed himself over and through the rocky opening. Randall landed upside-down, his hands on the ground holding him like he was trying to do military-style pushups against the rocky wall. His left hand closest to the magma felt like fire. He quickly pushed off and fell sideways away from the magma. Tearing the shirt from his face, he raced back toward the blocked opening.

  “Sam, Phil, can you hear me!”

  “Dad, is that you? We can hear you. Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I’m going to blow an opening in the tunnel. Move away from the entrance and let me know when you’re back!”

  Phil grabbed Sam and pulled her away, screaming, “Go, Dr. Randall, go!”

  Randall, holding the device in his hand, depressed a small button that read Arm Device. A small green light immediately began blinking, first slowly, then more quickly. Randall realized that it was time delayed, but had no idea how long. He raced as close to the magma as he dared, dropped to the ground, and covered his head and neck as best he could.

  The explosion rocked the cavern, sending rocks flying wildly through the air. Randall looked up and saw the most wonderful sight he could have imagined. Daylight! Jumping up, he ran as quickly as his damaged body could manage, exiting the tunnel to safety. Exhausted, he fell to the ground.

  Chapter thirty-six

  “Dad, you made it!” Sam ran over to her father, kneeling down to see if he was all right. Slowly, Randall opened his eyes and looked at his daughter. He grinned broadly.

  “Good to see you, kiddo. Wasn’t completely sure if I ever would again. Phil, good to see you, too. Where’s George?”

  “He’s okay, he’s right over there,” Phil said, pointing in George’s direction. Clearly in pain, George waved back to Randall. Randall lifted a tired hand in acknowledgement.

  “Well, we’re still not out of the proverbial frying pan. This volcano is going to blow its top and we need to find a way to get out of here,” Randall said, looking at his watch. There were only a few minutes left in the countdown to Misti’s eruption.

  “Dad, what happened with you and Ackers?”

  “Let’s just say that Ackers won’t be bothering us again and leave it at that.”

  “Did you kill him, Dr. R?”

  Randall looked his graduate student in the eye and nodded. Phil stuck out is hand to help his professor back to his feet. Randall grasped hold and pulled himself up.

  “What do we do now?” Phil asked.

  As Randall pondered the question, a strange noise appeared in the distance. They all turned to look. Sam was the first to spot the source of the noise.

  “Is that a helicopter?” Sam asked.

  “It looks like it’s coming our way. Phil, help me get George. If this is one of Ackers’s men, we’re in big trouble. I hate to say it, but if the bullets start flying we’ll need to go back into the tunnel.” Randall winced internally at the thought of going back in, but it was the only shelter they had. He and Phil hoisted George to his feet, supporting him one under each shoulder.

  The helicopter approached like a large sullen bird, arcing slowly over the earth toward them. Within a minute it was hovering yards away from them, hanging menacingly in the sky.

  “Get ready to run,” Randall warned the group.

  “This is Dr. Tom Reinsdorf from the United States Geological Survey. This is an active volcano site and we expect eruption at any moment. Are you in need of assistance?” The voice rang out like the voice of God from above. The group nodded and waived them down. “We’re unable to land here. Stand by.” Tom looked around the cabin of the helicopter and had an idea. “Jesse, what’s the capacity of that cable we use to haul the sonar unit?”

  “It’s rated to 2,000 pounds, why? You’re not thinking of pulling those folks up on that, are you?”

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  Jesse thought for a moment and glanced at the ticking time bomb beneath them. Reluctantly, he shook his head. “Okay, there’s a safety harness in the side of the bay. You need to detach the sonar unit and hook the safety harness on the carabineer instead. We can lower the harness and haul them up one at a time. There’s a toggle in the bay that operates the hoist. You got all that?”

  “What about the injured guy?” Tom asked.

  “Sorry, he’s going to have to deal with it if he wants to get out of here.”

  Tom keyed the mike again. “We’re going to lower a cable and safety harness to you on the ground. You’ll have to strap in and we’ll haul you up one at a time. If you understand that, give me a thumbs up.” Four thumbs quickly popped into the air.

  Tom maneuvered his way to the cargo bay of the helicopter. Just as Jesse had instructed, he found the harness and swapped it in place of the towed sonar unit. Opening the side bay door, he released the harness and cable, then lowered them slowly to the ground.

  “Sam, you first!” Randall yelled above the din of the helicopter.

  “No, we have to get George up first, he’s hurt,” Sam protested.

  “No, Sam, you need to go first. I’ll be fine,” George answered.

  Sam decided it would be a waste of time to argue. Grasping the hanging harness, she strapped herself in and gave a thumbs-up to the figure standing in the helicopter bay. In a moment, she was slowly moving up and into the sky, her feet dangling toward the earth. The ascent was slow but steady, and Sam slowly rotated as the splayed cable fed back onto the spool. For a moment, she marveled at the incredible view, but her thoughts quickly turned to the others. She was concerned about getting everyone else safely into the helicopter and wished the winch would retrieve her more quickly. Finally, she arrived at the opening of the bay. An enormous man was standing there waiting for her. Before she could even think to speak, he reached out with a huge hand and grabbed the harness, hauling her into the helicopter.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. We need to hurry and get the rest of them in,” Sam said, removing the harness as she s
poke so as not to waste precious time.

  The harness began its second journey down. This time, Phil and Randall strapped George in. He protested, saying it wasn’t fair and that Phil or Randall should go, but they ignored his pleas. Once safely attached, Randall gave the thumbs-up sign again and George was whisked into the waiting chopper.

  Randall and Phil looked at each other. “You next, Dr. Randall.”

  Randall shook his head. “No way, Phil, you’re going next. I got you into this mess so it’s my responsibility to get you out.”

  “But …”

  “There’s no discussion. Here, I’ll help you get the harness on.” Randall swung the harness around the back of his graduate student, who stood helplessly as his professor strapped him in first. A sudden jolt came from the ground as the earth heaved once more, knocking Randall and Phil off balance. Phil, partially strapped into the harness, was flung to the side, half of his body in the harness, the other half dangling out. Tom didn’t wait, hitting the toggle switch; he pulled Phil up to the chopper, while the student hung on for dear life. Once he was safely aboard, Tom began lowering the harness a final time. As he did, he heard Jesse yelling.

  “They’re back, Tom, we need to get the hell out of here!”

  Gunfire once again raked the air around the Sikorsky. The group looked out the back of the helicopter to see the combat helicopter barreling down out of the sky toward them. Time was short.

  “The harness hasn’t reached the ground yet.”

  “Well you better hurry, that guy’s coming fast! If he hits us with that Gatling gun, we’re dead meat!”

  Randall glanced at his watch, the eruption was less than a minute away. He stared up at the cable which crawled toward the ground, seeming to move in slow motion. Finally, the harness reached him.

  The combat helicopter had closed half the remaining distance to the Sikorsky. Tom picked up the speaker again. “On the ground, grab the harness now!” Randall complied, climbing as best he could into the harness.

  “Hang on everyone.”

  Before he could fully strap in, the helicopter lifted into the sky, with Randall dangling helplessly from the end of the cable. The helicopter skimmed the uneven and now collapsing surface of Misti as the timer on Randall’s watch began to beep. A loud rumbling sound came from deep within the mountain as lava spewed forth from the tunnel and other fissures which had developed in the side of Misti. Randall took a deep breath, relieved that there was no large explosion from the volcano, theorizing that the huge opening in which Vilcabamba resided must have provided space for most of the force of the volcano to disperse.

  His relief was short lived. The pursuing combat chopper was quickly closing the gap, and its pilot seemed hell bent on using them for target practice. Jesse banked their copter hard to the right to try and evade their pursuers. The force of the turn sent the passengers summersaulting across the cabin of the Sikorsky, only stopping when they reached a hard surface. The force of the turn knocked Tom away from the cable toggle, causing Randall’s upward motion to stop. Struggling to his feet, Tom lurched back to the controls, trying desperately to get his final passenger into the relative safety of the helicopter cabin. More bullets sprayed the air around them, several finding purchase in the tail section of the Sikorsky. Sheet metal tore away as the bullets ripped through the rear of the helicopter like a heated knife through butter.

  A veteran military pilot with multiple tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Jesse was no stranger to being shot at and his response was immediate: a hard banking move to the left. Once again the passengers were thrown about the open back of the helicopter, each one experiencing the nauseating sensation of seeing at one moment the side of the helicopter, then the floor, followed by the ceiling. Rinse and repeat.

  “Grab something!” Tom yelled, clinging to the handrail as he fought gravity trying to pull him out of the open door of the helicopter.

  George, nearly delirious from the pain, grasped the edge of the seat he had been placed into. Sam managed to grab a section of webbing used to secure items to the side of the chopper. Phil wasn’t so fortunate. Grasping wildly at any secure item within reach, he tumbled toward the open helicopter door.

  “Jesse!” was the only word Tom could manage to get out. The pilot, realizing the situation, banked again to the right as Phil continued his death tumble. Reaching the opening, Phil’s legs were the first to make their exit from the Sikorsky, his body dropping like a lead weight tossed from the side of a building. Tom grasped desperately at him as he floated helplessly by him and out the door.

  “Phil! Sam screamed.

  Phil was shocked at how quiet his mind had become. Falling out the door, he was consumed by the raucous noise of both the thumping of the helicopter blades and the sudden rush of wind by his ears. He had the sensation of moving very slowly, like a person trying to run away from some unforeseen danger in a dream. He tumbled downward with nothing to arrest his fall. He felt a tug, an impact with something hard and his fall suddenly stopped. In a stunned state, he turned his head to the side and was greeted by a familiar sight. Professor Randall had caught him.

  During the course of the helicopter’s aerial acrobatics, Randall had swung back and forth under the Sikorsky like a pendulum. Fortunately for Phil, his final arc had placed him directly under the open door when Phil fell out. Randall simply hooked the falling graduate student as he fell past him, each of them suffering little more than a few bumps and bruises.

  “I’ve got you!” was all Phil could make out over the din of wind and helicopter propeller noise.

  Tom scrambled to his feet, trying to regain his balance. Jamming himself between a wall-mounted seat and the frame of the aircraft, he steadied himself and hit the toggle switch for the cable. The winch slowly returned to life, steadily retrieving the precious cargo at the end of the cable. The wind played havoc with Randall and his now added cargo. The two were tossed about as the cable slowly wound its way back into the dipping and diving helicopter. Randall looked up to find the helicopter slowly growing in size as they drew nearer. With the cable spinning, Randall glanced behind the Sikorsky when he faced that direction. He immediately regretted doing so. There in the sky behind them was the imposing silhouette of another helicopter. Randall suddenly realized why their helicopter was zigzagging so madly.

  “Dumond,” he said out loud, realizing that they had not seen the last of the crazed industrialist. As he watched helplessly, he witnessed small bursts of flame jetting out from a gun mounted under the belly of Dumond’s helicopter. He needed no help realizing that they were being shot at, and he and Phil were as exposed as newborns on the day they arrived on this earth. He heard whizzing sounds like angry hornets pass within inches of his lower extremities. “Come on, hurry and get us up!”

  “They’re still there. Were you ever able to reach the control tower to report what happened?” Tom asked over the intercom, still holding the toggle to retrieve Randall and Phil.

  “Negative. I sent several messages, but I don’t know if they were ever received. Whatever’s going on is really interfering with our communication system. I think we’re on our own here.”

  Sam struggled forward to the front of the helicopter.

  “How far are we from a safe landing spot? The guy who’s flying that helicopter behind us is crazy. If he has his way, he’ll turn your helicopter into Swiss cheese.”

  “We still have a ways to go and that bird back there is faster than us. Factoring in the added weight only makes us that much slower.”

  “Can you call for help?”

  “Tried that already, but something is jamming our communication system.”

  “When did you try?”

  “Right before we picked you up. We saw some guy standing all alone on the mountain and were going to help him out when this thing showed up.” Jesse gestured toward the combat chopper behind them. “We tried calling air traffic control but all I got was static.”

  “Try it now, I ha
ve a feeling it will work.”

  Jesse gave Sam a long, hard stare. He didn’t know who she was, but doubted that she knew anything about electronic communication systems on aircraft. Sam sensed his doubt. “What’s your name?”

  “Jesse.”

  “Jesse, I know you don’t know me from Adam, but you have to trust me here. I’m pretty sure I know why your radio wasn’t working. The underground facility we escaped from was jamming your signal, but the cause of the interference is gone now.” She placed a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Please.”

  Jesse keyed the mike. “Control tower, this is November 2115, over.”

  “November 2115, this is Air Traffic Control Arequipa.” Jesse shot a glance in Sam’s direction. She had a smile plastered on her face and gave a small “I don’t know” shrug.

  “Tower, this is November 2115, we have a situation. We are under fire from hostile aircraft, I repeat, we are under fire from aggressive aircraft.”

  “November 2115, are you near Misti?

  “Affirmative, tower, hostile aircraft is an EC-665 Tiger Combat helicopter, I repeat an Echo Charlie Six, Six, Five Combat Chopper!”

  Bullets once again whizzed by the Sikorsky, several finding their mark. Glass exploded from the rear of the injured helicopter as everyone dropped to the ground for protection.

  “Goddam it! Tower, this is November 2115, we are hit and continue to take fire from aggressive aircraft. Do you read?”