Catalyst

by Ross Richdale

  "I ran to the bathroom and by the time I gained enough courage peep out, Jake had gone," Courtney muttered. "I found a cab at the corner and returned to the RV."

  "Oh, my God." Renee gasped. "I'm so sorry, Courtney."

  "Kathleen just laughed and said it was something that everyone did and if I wasn't such a prude I'd realize that," Courtney added in a whisper. "We had a frightful row. I called her a little slut, packed up my bags and walked out. I guess I partly blamed her for everything that had happened."

  "From what you told me about Kathleen, I'd say you're better off without her." Renee said softly. "What happened next?"

  "That afternoon, after wandering around in a sort of daze, I found one of those free clinics. They couldn't have been nicer. I was given this course of morning after pills, some injections to prevent VD and sent on my way.

  I took a bus to Jacksonville and drifted west through youth hostels and campgrounds until my money was gone. I was too ashamed to contact home and ended up here in Wyoming where I got my job at the motel. The pay's nothing much but the manager is a decent guy and I have a free cabin. I've been here almost a month."

  Renee nodded.

  "Damn baby, aren't I?" Courtney continued as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Thanks for the shoulder to cry on."

  "More like a friend wanting to talk things over." Renee gazed at the downcast ones opposite her. "But a good friend. Understand?"

  "I think so."

  "Look, when we get out of here, why don't you come back with me to Seattle? I reckon we could find you a job in the district."

  Courtney looked up and whispered, "I'd like that." She reached forward, hugged Renee and gave her a kiss on the cheek "You and Lem deserve each other. Don't let him get away after we're rescued."

  ****

  CHAPTER 7

  The diner adjacent to the campground where Renee's Dad had hired a cabin was crowded with hordes of tourists on summer vacation and the curious attracted by the plight of those in the cave.

  Jack loved a full cooked breakfast and had piled his plate high with fried eggs, tomatoes, frankfurters and fries, as well as toast and coffee. He did, however, have trouble carrying the tray from the counter to the one vacant table near the rear of the room. With his usual determination he hitched his walking stick beneath an armpit and used his good hand to hold the tray against his stomach. All went well until he arrived at the table. It now required a balancing act to set the food down. He let the stick go. It clattered to the floor but Jack's good hand was strong and he held the tray securely.

  All he had to do now was lower it to the tabletop. This he accomplished and thinking how Renee would have complimented him, turned to recover the walking stick.

  "You did well," a stranger's voice said, "but can I recover your stick for you?"

  Jack looked down at a chubby woman with short gray hair. "I would appreciate the help, thank you, Madam," he said. "I never realized how much my daughter does for me until she's not around."

  "Oh, call me Amy," the woman replied. "Amy Ryburn." She rested her own tray on the table, stooped, picked up Jack's stick and placed it by the wall before glancing around the crowded room. "We were both making for the same table."

  "Then take a seat. Jack Bonnett's the name. Thank you so much for helping an old fellow out."

  Amy nodded and sat down. "Bonnett? I know the name. Of course, the other girl trapped in the cave is Renee Bonnett."

  "My daughter," Jack replied. "I had to be here." He shrugged. "Not that I can do much."

  "And how are they?" The woman sounded like more than someone being polite. There was apprehension in her voice. "I only arrived late last night."

  Jack studied Amy. "Do you know Renee?"

  "No," Amy replied. "Courtney Howlett, the other girl with her, is my granddaughter. I was contacted by the police yesterday and flew straight out."

  "I see," Jack replied slowly. "You're going through what I am." He reached across the table with his right hand. "I'm glad we bumped into each other, so to speak."

  Amy's hand was soft with well-manicured nails but her grip was firm. She flushed softly. "I must confess it wasn't a coincident, Jack. When I arrived last night I was told you were here and I followed you into the diner."

  "I'm glad," Jack replied with a smile. "It gets so impersonal here. Sure, the police and parks people couldn't be more helpful but they have their hands full."

  Amy looked at Jack with warm hazel eyes. "So tell me about Renee."

  "She's a lawyer," Jack began proudly. "A wonderful girl..." He gave his table companion a glowing summary of his daughter's accomplishments before stopping mid-sentence. "Here I go again. Sorry, I shouldn't be rambling on. I'm sure your granddaughter is every bit as successful."

  "No," replied Amy. "She could be, I'm sure but she dropped out of school and ran away. I've been trying to trace her for weeks."

  Jack frowned. "Where did she go?"

  "I've no idea," Amy said. "Elizabeth, that's my daughter and Courtney's father broke up and Lizzie moved in with another man. Hank, her father, is overseas in England. This man Lizzie moved in with had his own family and the kids didn't get on with Courtney." Amy stirred her breakfast cereal and sighed. "He's a pleasant enough chap but you know how it is when two families are brought together."

  "I've heard," Jack replied. "And is Elizabeth here?"

  "No," Amy replied angrily. "She had the silly idea Courtney wouldn't want her, so I told her if that was the case I'd come." She glanced up and smiled. "Teenagers can be difficult these days but what else could I do?"

  "I'm sure this young lass will appreciate you being here."

  "We'll see. My own daughter had everything but never appreciated a thing. I had hoped Courtney wouldn't grow up the same." She ate more breakfast before continuing. "Perhaps it was all my fault, I don't know. Anyhow, I tried to help Courtney but it seems she's gone down the same track as Elizabeth."

  "But you don't know that."

  "Well, she ran away and heaven knows what she's like now. The things you hear that happen to young girls. When I heard she was here, it seemed a blessing but now..." She ran a hand over her mouth and gazed at Jack with moist eyes. "There's some rumor about poisonous gas blowing up before they can be rescued."

  "There are always rumors," Jack said in a whisper. He, too, had heard the story and was worried. "Look, I'm driving up to the cave after breakfast. I've got the farm's Chevy Blazer that Renee brought, at my cabin. Would you like to come?"

  "Thank you, Jack," Amy replied. "I've got no transportation and would love a ride." She frowned. "But how do you drive?"

  "Stick the automatic in Drive. My good side is all I need for the accelerator and brake." Jack grunted and dug into his breakfast. He glanced up and saw that the woman looked interested, rather than just nosy or condescending, so he continued. "Still want to risk coming with me?"

  Amy smiled. "Of course."

  Jack grinned. The woman seemed pleasant but he felt self-conscious. Except for Renee, of course, he had little to do with the fair sex since his wife died. He was discreet but sized the woman up. She was probably in her late fifties, obviously wealthy but seemed genuine in her concern about the wayward granddaughter.

  Jack reached for his coffee and sipped. "Damn thing's cold," he muttered to himself and felt embarrassed when Amy took the mug and walked to the counter. She returned a moment later with two steaming hot replacements.

  "They didn't mind," she said. "I like my coffee hot, too."

  ****

  "Dad," Renee said through the microphone. "We have a little problem with Courtney. She's distressed."

  "What is it, Sweetheart?"

  "She feels alone. Could you ask the police if they managed to trace either of her parents? I think she needs them."

  "Is that so?" Jack replied. "Can I talk to her?"

  "I'll get her. Won't be a moment."

  Courtney frowned as she switched on the microphone. "Hello, Mr. Bonnett."


  "Do you know a Mrs. Amy Ryburn, Courtney?"

  "She's my grandmother but how do you know about her?"

  "Let's say I've been in contact and she's worried about you."

  "Grandma? Did she call here?"

  "She thinks you won't want to talk to her," Jack continued. "I told her that was a load of old rubbish and you'd be thrilled to have her near. Am I right?"

  "Of course I'd talk to Grandma," Courtney said. "I always got on well with her. Next time she phones can you get the call transferred down here?"

  "Nope," said Jack.

  "Why not?" Courtney was disappointed.

  "No need. Can you wait a moment?"

  "I'm not going anywhere," Courtney retorted and glared at Renee, who could hear the conversation over the speaker.

  "Honey, is that you?" Amy spoke.

  "Grandma!" she screamed. "Where are you?"

  "Here, Honey. Right above you with Jack."

  "Oh, my God." The girl gasped and burst into tears. "You came all the way out here from home?"

  "When I found out I took the first plane out."

  "For me?" Courtney's voice broke.

  "Of course, Honey. I have only one granddaughter, you know."

  "Oh, Grandma. Thank you so much but where's Daddy or Mom?"

  "We're trying to contact your dad. Mom sends her love and will try to make it out here as soon as possible."

  "Yeah. I'm sure," Courtney muttered. "But you're here, aren't you?"

  "I sure am, Honey and I'll be here when you come out. We can catch up on everything. I've missed you, Courtney."

  "You have?"

  "Of course. I wrote several times but your mother said she didn't know where to forward the letters. You were naughty, disappearing like that."

  "Yes, Grandma," Courtney replied but her eyes were glowing.

  ****

  The eastern access to the cave proved to be a problem. The labyrinth of unexplored tunnels came back on themselves, petered out, or became so narrow nobody could proceed.

  One possibility was a large cavern shaped like a horizontal exclamation mark with the point dropping vertically to another twisting tunnel. If instruments could be believed, it ended up close to where the three victims were trapped.

  "I don't like it," Dave Foy, the bearded spelunker muttered, as he squinted into the flashlight beam showing the chasm below. "We're below the cavern and this next section is lower still. I wouldn't be surprised if the air is foul. There could be a leak from that gas reserve the satellite picked up."

  "So what do we do?" Police Officer Kelly Brausch replied.

  Dave wiped his hands on his jacket and grunted. "This is where we need to use Rex."

  He squatted, took a large pack off his back and opened it. Inside was Rex, a remote exploration vehicle. It was about fifteen inches long and with its two bulbous lenses at the front and oversized lights on each corner, looked like a grotesque insect on six balloon tires. Dave placed the vehicle in a fishnet cradle and hooked it to a rope. With Kelly's help he dangled the cradle over the vertical drop and lowered it down.

  Rex disappeared into the depths for almost the full length of the rope before it went slack to show solid ground had been reached.

  "Okay, Kelly get it going, then switch the controls to the guys above."

  "Right." The police officer pressed a button on the remote control; four powerful lights blazed far below and bathed the tunnel beneath them in a shadowless white light.

  The pair gazed at the small monitor. Rex was in a narrow cave large enough for a human to stand upright. The floor sloped up to the west at a thirty-degree angle.

  "It looks promising," Dave muttered. "Let's head back. We've done our bit."

  They turned and made their methodical way back to the surface.

  ****

  Fifteen minutes later an earsplitting roar shook the speakers in the control vehicle parked on Eagle Point Plateau. A vision of a fireball of gas filled the monitor screen before it flickered and died. The whole mountainside shook.

  Far below, the earth moved, the ceilings buckled and fell. Countless millennia of natural formations collapsed like a faulty building in a Turkish earthquake. Layer upon layer tumbled, the surface dipped and shook, while surface crews could only hold on and watch.

  A gentle slope of mountainside just beyond the small base camp vented smoke before the earth moved again. Thousands of cubic feet of the surface quivered and imploded. Trees, rocks and soil sunk for hundreds of feet into a moonlike crater of debris, smoke and dust. The mountainside trembled and a second landslide tumbled into the subsequent gap, until the gentle forested slope was no more.

  In its place was an inverted cone of sheer cliffs that disappeared into the bowels of the earth. Hissing, groaning rocks replaced the thunder, the quivering soil slowed and stopped as the caverns filled and held. Incoming soil backed up, slid down ravines or other slopes, until gravity stopped the momentum and dust flew into the air to join the smoke and ash.

  Dave, Kelly and the others discovered later that the landslide did something humans with all their resources would have had difficulty achieving. A million tons of limestone, rock and soil contained and smothered the explosion, so it never reached the surface. Only a cloud of fine brown dust blew into the air and dropped over the mountain.

  Kelly and Dave were lucky to escape death that morning. Fifteen rescue workers were trapped in higher tunnels but radio contact was maintained. Everyone survived the explosion and the subsequent collapse of the caves with little more than ringing ears and thumping hearts as adrenaline worked overtime to supply terrified minds. Confusion reined and rescue crews waited for aftershocks.

  ****

  "What was it, Jack?" An ashen-faced Amy asked when she staggered to her feet beside the collapsed tent that served as rescue headquarters.

  "Something went terribly wrong," he replied in a hoarse whisper choked with emotion. "There was an explosion." His one good arm encircled the woman beside him. "I don't think it came from below but around the mountain. Look."

  The pair gazed up at a cloud of brown dust bellowing into the sky beyond the firs.

  "My Courtney," Amy whispered. "Could they have survived?"

  "I don't know," Jack replied, his own face like chalk, "but pray to God, they did."

  He held the weeping woman while his haunted eyes stared at the dust. His gaze shifted and saw others rising to their feet. Stephanie stood dazed with blood streaming down her face. Another man staggered, groaning and disoriented, while a third crawled from beneath the tent canvas. Orders filled the air but it was not over yet, for the earth had begun to shake again.

  ****

  "We've got the electricity going," Gary McKnight told Jack and Amy. He pointed to a gauge needle that had swung to a yellow curve. "So the cavern must still be there."

  It was over an hour since the explosion and the father and grandmother were standing beside the mobile generator. Most of McKnight's team had gone to help in rescue efforts but the sergeant had decided it was important to make contact with Renee, Lem and Courtney, so had kept a skeleton crew at the drill site.

  "But the phone and speakers are dead," Jack grumbled.

  "Equipment failure," Gary explained. "A crew is feeding a new line in now. If they're conscious we'll find out within a few moments. Excuse me." He glanced up as a man wearing a hard hat walked in. "Any luck, Nathan?"

  "As you can see, we got the power on," Nathan replied. "The main pipe has been squashed and nothing will get through. I'm hesitant about trying to clear it with the drill. We could sever the power line."

  "So what do you suggest?"

  "We need to move the rig a few feet and drill a new hole."

  "But how do we find out if they're alive?" Amy said. "They could be lying there injured, suffocating...anything."

  "They have light," Jack replied. "So at least they'll know we're okay. I'm sure this gentleman will get through as soon as it's possible."

  Gary nodded. "
If that's the best way, then do it. You're the engineer, Nathan."

  "Right," the man replied. He glanced at Amy and raised his helmet a fraction. "Sorry, Ma'am. As soon as we have news, we'll tell you."

  "Thank you, Nathan. I know you're doing your best and it is appreciated." She turned back to the elderly man watching her. "I'm glad you're here to share the burden, Jack. Somehow, it makes it easier."

  Jack ran a shaky hand over his stubble and held her blue eyes. "Me, too," he replied in a soft voice. "I wish I'd met you in better circumstances."

  He gave a twisted smile, nodded at the sergeant and limped out of the tent. Dust still rose above the firs but the sun poked out beyond it from a deep blue sky. Jack stopped and stared. If only Renee was safe. The waiting and not knowing was unbearable.

  A rustle from behind made him turn. Amy stood with an apprehensive expression. "If you want to be alone with your thoughts I'll leave, Jack."

  "No, Amy. I'm not good at talking to ladies but would like you to stay. What say we go and watch the rig being shifted?"

  "I'd like that."

  As they walked down the path her hand slipped through his arm. Jack glanced down, smiled and stepped forward with hardly a limp. Inside, his thoughts turned to confidence. Renee was safe, he knew now but other emotions, suppressed for years, stirred.

  "Thoughts?"

  "Just thinking about my daughter." Jack lied as his leathery face heated. "She's a lawyer, did I tell you?"

  "You did, Jack." She laughed. "You must be proud of her."

  Their solitude was interrupted when the huge tractor unit that carried the rig burst into life. Two workers used oversized wrenches to unbolt the pipe protruding from the ground rock. Another man waved, sixteen massive tires gripped and the steel tower crawled forward. Within a few moments the truck had maneuvered to a new spot twenty feet away, commands were shouted and the drill itself was raised, locked in a vertical position and the cutting head turned.

  It descended, the rumble turned to a howl and particles of dirt and dust spun into the air. Water, used to cool the cutter, sprayed everywhere but was ignored by the crew as they carried out their appointed duties.

  For better or worse, the fate of those trapped below would soon be known.