I walked toward Grace, took hold of her shoulder. “Help Beth get off the path, into the grass where you guys won’t be seen.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. Get Mary back.” I weaved my way back through the grove of trees and grass toward the flashlight beams.
It wasn’t until I reached the cabin that Anya came into view. She was standing on the dirt at the bottom of the porch steps. She had Mary on her knees before her and was holding her by the hair, the katana sword resting on Mary’s shoulder.
Two men rushed off the porch and pinned me to the ground.
Tears streamed down Mary’s face. “I’m sorry, Spencer.”
She was sorry? If Anya didn’t kill me, Mr. S would.
REPORT NUMBER: 26
REPORT TITLE: Three of Us Rappel Down Suicide Cliffs with One Harness
SUBMITTED BY: Agent-in-Training Spencer Garmond
LOCATION: Jungle near Suicide Cliffs, Okinawa, Japan
DATE AND TIME: Sunday night/Monday morning, July 12/13, time unknown
THE MEN HAULED ME AND MARY TO A grove of bamboo. One guy handcuffed my left hand to a thick stalk, then handcuffed Mary’s left hand to my right. We weren’t there more than five minutes before the men returned, pushing Grace toward us. Two other men followed, carrying Beth between them.
Come on! “Didn’t I tell you to help her hide?”
“I tried,” Grace said, her bottom lip trembling.
“She did try.” Beth’s face was really pale. Could someone die from a broken leg?
The man handcuffed Grace’s left hand to Mary’s right so that we were all in one big line. He and his partner mumbled to each other in Japanese, apparently out of handcuffs. They ended up tying Beth with a couple head scarves to a different grove of bamboo that was across from us.
“I guess they don’t think you’re much of a threat,” I said to Beth.
“Their mistake.”
I hoped she was right.
“Tell the men to bring the jeep!” Anya yelled in the distance.
I squinted through the bamboo and mangrove trees to a clearing lit up with several sets of headlights. A flurry of people dressed in black darted around Anya in the silvery night. In her white outfit, she glowed like a gray angel. I shuddered. So not an angel.
God? A little help here? Pretty please? If not for me, then for Mary. She’s a nice kid. And Grace, well, she’s had a rough time of it too. And Beth is hurt.
The way the guy had cuffed me to the tree, I was facing Beth. She was dressed in black. “Beth, did you pick those clothes or did they come from the Mission League people?”
“Sergeant Parish gave them to me for my assignment.”
Awesome. “Do they have a kit in the pocket?”
She looked blank and very pale. She needed a doctor.
I jerked my elbow toward her pants. “A field ops kit, in the pants pocket. Check and see.” The real field ops kits were 100 times better than mine. I wanted a paperclip, but the night vision contacts would be helpful too.
Beth frowned and reached into her left pants pocket. Then she tried the right. Her face softened, and she pulled out her hand.
I got up on my knees and stretched as close as I could toward her, but I still couldn’t see. “What do you have?”
“A coin. A piece of candy. And I think this might be a contact lens case.”
Good, good. “Check again for a paperclip. And if there’s a stick of gum, don’t chew it.”
Beth shoved her hand back in her pocket. “How do you know about this stuff ?”
“Kimbal showed me once. And I used Ryan’s kit in Moscow.”
“What’s a field ops kit?” Grace asked.
“It’s a collection of gadgets that look like junk but can help get the agent out of a scrape,” I said. “There’s usually a coin, which is really a bionic ear. There’s a pill or piece of candy, which is concentrated ipecac. And a set of night vision contact lenses. The gum is C4—”
“Got it.” Beth held up the paperclip.
Yes! “Guys, can we stretch out and reach Beth? I need that paperclip.”
“What’s the paperclip do?” Grace asked.
“Holds papers together,” I said. “But we can also use it to pick the locks on these handcuffs.”
The girls stood. Grace walked toward Beth, and Mary’s arms stretched out between us like a scarecrow. At our longest, our line just barely reached Beth, who dropped the goods into Grace’s hand.
“You can’t reach Beth to untie her?” I asked.
Mary pulled on my arm as Grace tried to reach Beth, and I stretched myself as far as I could, pulling against the bamboo.
“Not quite,” Grace said.
“Okay, come back then.”
The girls came back and sat beside me. Grace handed everything to me. “I wish you were on this side, Beth,” I said. “I suck at locks.”
“An agent is only as good as his biggest weakness,” Beth said.
“That’s why agents have partners.” I tugged my hand that was cuffed to Mary’s. “Give me some slack, Mair.” She did, and I popped the night vision contacts into my eyes. At first they felt cold and foreign, but the more I blinked the more natural they became. The world around me lit up as if a green sun had risen. I saw now that we were sitting off to the side of a wide section of the path. To my left, flashes of light came from Anya’s camp. Back the other way, a warm breeze made the ferns and tree leaves bounce. The trail toward the cabin was a pale green stripe. I shoved the other spy kit things in my pocket, just in case, then set to work on the handcuffs.
I think a year might have passed as I tried the locks.
Finally, Mary took the paperclip from my cramped hand. “Let me try,” she said. “I’ve been playing with locks for years.”
“Go for it,” I said, imagining Mr. S giving his toddler twins a box of locks for Christmas.
Gunfire almost stopped my heart. Not because I got hit but because of the nearness of the sound. Something big was going on over in Anya’s camp. A Jeep rolled up, headlights sweeping the forest for a moment. People were yelling in Japanese, and Anya was the loudest.
My right hand came free of the cuffs, which clattered against the bamboo. I stared at Mary. “You’re amazing.”
She beamed, then turned to the cuffs linking her to me.
“No.” I grabbed her arm. “Let’s get Beth free then get out of here. We don’t have time to mess with the other cuffs.”
Mary pocketed the paperclip, and the three of us made our way to Beth. Once we’d untied her and I’d gotten her on my back again, I padded back through the grass toward Suicide Cliffs. And this time, because of the night vision contacts, I moved faster.
The cuff on my left arm tugged behind me where Mary and Grace followed. I slid through the trees, taking a shortcut. Part of my head screamed that I was a fool to take a shortcut through the dark woods, but the night vision contacts lit up the forest. If the girls disagreed, they didn’t mention it.
I came out in the place I’d told Beth and Grace to hide. Now on a solid path, I broke into a jog through the waist-high grass. Mary and Grace plodded behind, slaves to my pace and better vision. At least this time, with Mary cuffed to me, I wouldn’t lose her.
By the time we reached the cliffs, my legs were cramped. I squatted to set Beth on the ground and panted. “What am I looking for?”
“There should be a black duffel bag somewhere close to that mangrove tree.” Beth pointed at the green outline of a tree at the edge of the cliff surrounded by the vast blackness of the ocean. I walked toward it and scanned the ground. The bag was shoved under a bush at the base of the tree.
“Grace, Mair, help me pull this out.”
We dragged the bag out of the nest of bushes and over to Beth, who unzipped it. A flashlight clicked on, and she held it in her mouth. I squinted away from the blinding beam. Light and night vision contacts didn’t mix.
“Yame!” someone said. “Anat
a dare?”
Beth dropped the flashlight and put her hands in the air. I looked where the voice had come from. “Jun?”
“Supensa-san?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I have a task to be here. Why are you here?”
“Guys, we don’t have time for twenty questions, okay?” Beth picked up the flashlight and went back to looking through the duffle bag.
“Is that Besu-san?” Jun asked, coming closer to us.
“Yes,” Beth said. “I’ve got Spencer, Grace, and Mary with me. I need to get them down the cliff.” Beth pulled out coils of rope and set them around her, then handed me a harness. “Put that on. Works like a pair of pants.”
I stepped into the harness, Mary’s hand bouncing awkwardly at my side. “Beth is hurt, Jun. Bushi broke her leg.”
“I think he broke my leg,” Beth said.
“Shinjirarenai! I can carry you to my motor scooter,” Jun said. “That may be safer than going down the cliff.”
“Might be?” I said.
“Yeah, thanks, Jun,” Beth said. “That would be great. Help me get these guys down the cliff first, though.” She zipped up the duffle bag and shoved it back into the bushes.
“There’s only one harness?” I asked. “How are all three of us going to get down? We’re handcuffed, remember?”
“I’m not big on heights,” Grace said.
Beth looped three different thick ropes around the base of a tree. “You’ll have to take turns with the harness. Spencer goes down first so he can catch you guys. Mary, get out the paperclip and start working on those other cuffs.”
Voices drifted over the grass. Men, shouting in Japanese.
“Hurry,” Jun said, “they are coming.”
I crouched low and whispered, “We don’t have time for messing with the cuffs. How much do you weigh, Grace?”
Her jaw dropped, and she flashed me the “dark eyes.”
“I weigh one-sixty,” I said, ignoring her drama. “Mary?”
“Sixty-three.”
I grinned at Mary and did the math. “That’s two twenty-three. Grace?”
“Ninety.”
Beth grunted. “And you didn’t want to tell us that, why?” She clipped two carabiners through the ropes on the tree, then looped another knotted rope into both carabiners.
“That’s three-thirteen,” I said. “Beth, how much weight can—”
“It’s tech cord, Tiger. It’ll hold,” Beth said.
Oh-kay. I didn’t know what tech cord was. “Now what?”
Beth buckled the harness snug at my waist. She clipped two more carabiners through a loop on my harness, then hooked a metal figure eight through them. The rope was already threaded through. She moved the huge coil of slack to my right and placed the ropes in my right hand. “Lift up to go. Pull down to brake. Try it.”
I fiddled with the rope, stepping back and stopping myself. “I get the concept.”
She pulled off her gloves. “Put these on.”
The gloves were sweaty and way too small for my hands, but I crammed them on anyway, appreciative for the protection. The cord burns I’d gotten last summer in Moscow had taken a month to heal. I pulled the glove’s Velcro strap around my wrist. It barely reached.
Beth pulled out the duffle bag and removed another rope. She tied it into three loops, two big ones with a small one in the middle. She waved me down and looped the small loop over my head and one shoulder. “Mary, get this rope loop around your waist. You’re in front. You and Grace put your cuffs over Spencer’s head. That’s right.” Mary was now standing on my right, her left hand behind my head, hooked to Grace’s, who was standing behind me. Jun came forward and tightened the rope loop around Mary.
“Grace, you get in the other loop,” Beth said. “You’re riding piggyback. Don’t let go of Spencer, either of you. And, Tiger, you keep a tight hold on that brake at all times unless you want to free fall, which I don’t recommend.” Jun came around me and tightened Grace’s rope loop.
In the woods, someone yelled in Japanese—the voice was so close it sent a throb of panic to my heart.
“Quick!” I whispered.
“You ready for this, Tiger?”
“I was born ready.” Then I met Beth’s gaze—her eyes looked like pools of black through the goggles. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Beth.”
“You’ll be fine. Stay in a sitting position and use your feet to walk and bounce down the rocks. The boat is directly below us. Keep your brake on, and you can’t fall.”
“But the girls could.”
“Nope, they’re tied onto you,” Beth said. “So, unless you forget the brake …”
My head lolled back at the stars. “Fine. Let’s do this.” I crouched and picked up Mary, setting her over my right hip like a mother holding a small child. “Sixty-three, huh?”
She swatted the back of my head with the hand that was hooked to Grace’s.
I crouched for Grace, and she jumped onto my back. I resituated her leg over Mary’s on my right but could do nothing to hold Grace on my left as my left hand was attached to Mary’s and holding the main ropes. This wasn’t so bad. I had a pretty good grip on the ropes and Mary. If Grace could hold on—
“Tiger,” Beth said. “Right hand. You’re not holding the brake.”
Figs and jam!
“Mary, you’re going to have to hold on,” I said. “Use your arms and legs.” I let go of Mary and found the brake rope. “Got it.” I was thankful for the handcuffs and ropes. Although I didn’t relish the idea of either girl falling, at least they were sort of locked/tied on.
“Hold on tight, girls,” Beth said.
They were. I felt like I was in a chokehold at the dojo. And both the girls’ legs around my waist hurt my bruised abs. Too bad I couldn’t tap out.
I hadn’t bothered to look over the cliff. With a name like Suicide Cliffs, it couldn’t have been an encouraging view. I crept back and felt my heels go off the edge. I kept the ropes braked and leaned back. My toes gripped the rock edge as I let out the rope an inch at a time. A bead of sweat trickled from my forehead down my nose.
Three lights flickered in the field beyond the mangrove tree. Flashlights. They were coming. I took a deep breath and let out another inch of rope. We eased farther back, but I didn’t move my feet.
“Tiger,” Beth’s voice nagged. “Go already! You’re gonna twist if you don’t.”
My toes clung to the rock, not wanting to let go. I released my left foot and felt the smooth rock that jetted straight down. I wondered how far.
I bent my right knee, pressed my left foot against the cliff wall below, then released. The ropes fell taught against the rock edge, and we were suddenly very heavy and swinging fast to the left.
Grace screamed as we hit. My left arm scraped against the rock wall.
“Get your feet on the rocks!” Beth yelled down to me. “Let out some slack! Sit! Sit with your feet against the cliff !”
My limbs were like a vise refusing to give in. I let out the brake enough that our knot of twisted bodies sank a couple inches. Grace’s arms choked me as she hung off my back. At least her right leg was wedged between me and Mary.
“Let out more, Tiger!” Beth commanded. “Get yourself straight.”
I let out more slack, and we slid down slowly, still dragging against the rocky cliff.
“Get your feet on the wall!” Beth called.
I kicked my legs, feeling for a foothold with my toes as we continued to inch down. I finally managed to straighten myself out into a sitting position and took baby steps down. Mary’s hold on my neck diminished as her weight transferred to my lap. I looked up at Beth and Jun’s green faces, peeking over the cliff above.
“Good!” Beth said. “You got it now, Tiger. Be careful! We’ve got to go.” And their faces disappeared.
I kicked back and let out more slack. We fell several feet. As we swung back at the cliff, I bounced on my toes to catch us. I gr
inned. Except for the fact that Grace was choking me, this wasn’t so bad.
I kicked out again and slid us down, a yard this time. How tall was this cliff anyway?
One of the three ropes in my upper hand went slack, fell past me. What?
“Uh … Grace?” “Yeah?”
“Someone cut one of the ropes.”
A scream shuddered Mary’s body.
“Then, go!” Grace yelled. “Go!”
I kicked out hard and let out the brake. We plummeted a good six feet before my toes found the rock. I kicked out again and prayed the boat was near. On a third go, Grace’s right leg slipped free, and she clamped onto my neck with all her strength.
“You’re close, Spencer,” Mary said, “but we’re too far right. One more big one, maybe.”
I kicked out and released the brake. We slid down and cut right into the water up to my waist. The girls screamed. And when my feet found the wall, it was slimy with algae.
“Okay, well, at least now, death by falling isn’t an issue,” I said.
“Yeah, just death by drowning because we’re tied up like a big pretzel,” Grace said.
I held the brake and turned to see where the boat was. A rubber dinghy bounced against the rock cliff two yards to my left.
“That’s the boat?” I yelled, not believing this could be a professional escape plan. There wasn’t even a motor.
“There’s a bigger boat out there,” Mary said. “I saw it from the top. They probably can’t anchor this close to the rocks.”
Good theory.
“We need to swing over,” Mary said. “Can you swing?”
“Not in the water.” I tried walking to the left, in the direction of the boat, but we were too heavy and my feet kept slipping on the algae. Then a wave smashed against the cliff, catching us in the middle of an eruption of saltwater. Both girls screamed again, and I blinked, trying to clear the water from my eyes and the night vision contacts.
Once my vision was somewhat back to normal, I gripped the upper ropes with my left hand as tightly as I could and let go of the slack. I brought my right hand up to join my left. Mary looked at me with big eyes as her hand lifted up over her head, attached to mine.
Project Gemini (Mission 2 Page 26