Within the Dead Space

by Hutchens, Gary

  “That’s better Professor, I think you had better come over to the embassy immediately and we can talk when you get here.”

  “I’m leaving now.” The phone went silent.

  “Come on Cordova, we’ve been in a lot tougher straights than this one. Remember the trucking scandal, we survived that one and now look at you, you’re an ambassador.”

  Ortiz was talking out one side of his mouth. They always did their scams in Peru. They were in the U.S. now, and their system of laws didn’t allow cutting deals and payoffs on the side. He would have to use every skill he knew to survive this one. He’d always been able to manipulate Cordova, but worried that Cordova might panic. Ortiz had to solve this crisis quickly before the damage overwhelmed them.

  The police were held at bay and were refused admittance to the embassy, news crews from all the major networks were setting up portable stations at the front gate.

  The police stopped a car trying to get into the embassy. It was Professor Manuel. He had talked to the mayor of Boston and assured him that he was trying to help with the situation.

  His car was allowed to pass into the embassy grounds.

  Sanchez met the car and escorted Manuel to the third floor where Ortiz and the ambassador were waiting.

  “Professor Manuel, this is Ambassador Cordova, I have told him a lot about you.”

  They shook hands and talked casually for a few moments until Ortiz directed the conversation back to the problem at hand.

  “Professor, I persuaded young Chaco to come with me this afternoon of his own free will. His comments to the media were embarrassing to Peru and I had to take some action. Chaco is safe and I think we can work this problem out. Here is what I propose. You will leave here with Chaco in a little while and I must ask that you agree to fly him back to Peru by the end of the week. You must talk to him and make sure that he tells the media that this was all a misunderstanding and that he was not kidnapped. Can you do that?”

  The professor hesitated about giving an answer.

  Ortiz spoke up and said, “We need to really understand each other. There will be one of two conclusions to today’s events. The first, you will leave this office without a school to return to in Peru and without any funding from the state, or secondly, your school will remain intact and your funding doubled. What is your answer?”

  The professor knew that his government was corrupt and there was no way he could fight it. He wanted to protect Chaco but the wolves would get him no matter what he did. “I agree.”

  “I knew you were a man of character. Also, Sanchez will accompany you to make sure that you and Chaco do as you have been told.”

  Sanchez accompanied Professor Manuel to where Chaco was being held.

  “Are you okay, Chaco?” The professor was shocked to see Chaco’s condition. He had been severely beaten.

  “I’ll be fine. Can you get me out of here?”

  “Yes I can, but you have to agree to a couple of things.”

  Chaco remained silent, not quite understanding what was being asked of him.

  “When we leave here you must tell the police and the news people that you fell down some stairs and hurt yourself. You were not kidnapped and you plan to leave for Peru at the end of this week. I am sorry that this has happened to you, but nothing you can do will change it.”

  The bastards, thought Chaco, just like Pizarro, nothing that comes out of their mouths is the truth. He’ll take me back to Peru and give me to Ortiz. The professor has sold his soul to the devil, but I’ll be fine. Two can play at this game. I’ll promise them what they want and the first chance I get, I’ll run. Then they’ll never see me again.

  “I’ll do as you say, Professor Manuel. I’ve always been able to trust you.”

  The professor and Sanchez accompanied Chaco from the embassy grounds and he was interviewed by the police and the news organizations. The crisis was averted. Chaco did as he was told.

  Ortiz however, wasn’t quite as trusting and wasn’t about to let Chaco out of his sight.

  Chapter 35

  Professor Manuel didn’t take Chaco back to his room. Instead he took him to a high rise hotel in downtown Boston where Ortiz was waiting. He wanted to isolate Chaco from further contact with the media and keep control of him until he could get him back to Lima.

  They all walked into the lobby of the hotel together. Ortiz had rented the adjoining room to his suite on the sixty second floor. Sanchez followed Chaco into the elevator along with Ortiz and Jorge. Dr. Manuel was told that he wasn’t needed any further and he should leave. What little hope Chaco still had vanished as Professor Manuel turned and walked away.

  The doors to the elevator opened onto the sixty second floor. The four stepped off the elevator. Chaco saw an exit sign to his right at the end of the hallway.

  The moment was now, if they get me in that room I could be tied up for good. Chaco bolted for the exit sign. The suddenness surprised the men. Chaco had a five foot head start. He raced down the hall and reached the exit door in seconds. He jerked the door open.

  Up or down, he questioned himself. He went up hoping he could make the first turn in the stairway and get out of sight before Sanchez entered. The door opened a second time. Sanchez barely caught a glimpse of Chaco’s leg going up the stairway.

  “We’ve got him. He’s headed for the roof and the stairway is the only access.” Sanchez said as he held the door for the other two.

  Chaco rushed out onto the roof. He quickly surmised that he had messed up. The only way down was the stairs and Sanchez was in the stairway. He ran back to the door and peeked into the stairway. He could see Sanchez standing there waiting. Quietly, he shut the door.

  “Now I really messed up,” Chaco said out loud, and ran around the exterior of the rooftop. If he had his wing he would fly off of here. That would show them. He found the furthest corner of the roof and crouched down behind an exhaust vent and waited.

  The door slowly opened and the three men walked onto the roof. They looked around, but didn’t see him.

  “Are you sure he is up here?” asked Ortiz.

  Chaco could hear them talking.

  “Oh he’s up here alright. You give me the word and I’ll throw him off the building. I’m getting tired of that little bastard.”

  “Just be patient. Once I’ve got all of the information I need you can have him.”

  An ugly smile showing Sanchez’s yellow teeth and partially toothless mouth crept across his face.

  “I’ll stay by the door,” said Ortiz. “You guys spread out and check every hiding place up here. We’ll get him.”

  They started at the far end of the roof, which gave Chaco a little breathing space. He crawled up to the wall and peered over the edge. He was on a building with windows proportionally spaced all the way to the ground floor.

  Can I climb down the side here? Is there any foot or toeholds on the surface? Oh man, one mistake and I’m dead.

  “Nothing here,” Jorge called out. The two men had covered half the rooftop.

  I’ve got only seconds before they have me, thought Chaco. Without thinking he slipped over the wall and was hanging by his hands. He searched with his toe for anywhere that could support his weight. They were only a few feet away. Chaco had one toe positioned into a space between the sectional seams on the wall. He kept holding on to the top wall with one hand as he searched for a handhold. He found it and let go. He was a foot below the top glued onto the facade of the building. He was able to move downward about four feet before Sanchez looked over the side.

  “Ortiz, get over here,” he screamed. He looked at Chaco and smiled, “You damn fool, if I had my way I would shoot you dead right now.” Ortiz came running.

  Chaco kept inching lower. His fingers and arms were aching but he remembered that if he could survive the initial pain for a few minutes, it would get better.

  “Now where do you think you’re going?” smiled Ortiz. “We’re not going to help you until you beg.” He w
as having great fun with Chaco. He pulled back from the wall to where Chaco couldn’t see him. “Jorge,” he whispered, “get a rope, and keep it quiet.”

  Sanchez kept watching Chaco inch down the face of the building. “How are those hands holding out? Getting a little tired? I’d hate to see you slip.” He looked at Ortiz who was talking to Jorge and in the same instant whished his hand across the building wall throwing dust and dirt down on Chaco.

  Chaco ducked his head in time or his eyes would have been full of dirt. A side effect was that he now needed to sneeze. At first he thought to let go with one hand but common sense got the best of him. He pulled his body as close to the wall as he could and pressed his nose against it and gently rubbed. It relieved the sneeze at least temporarily. Chaco was now ten feet from the top.

  Ortiz looked over the side again. “At the rate you’re going it’ll take you a week to get to the bottom. Just say ‘please’ and we’ll get you back up here.”

  Chaco ignored him. His main concern now besides hanging on for dear life was nightfall would be there in an hour. Climbing was hard enough in the light but darkness created a whole new dimension.

  And then it happened, someone looking out from the hotel across the street saw a kid hanging on the side of the building. She called 911 and almost before the phone went dead, the echoing sound of fire engines could be heard throughout the downtown. As soon as the first engine arrived at the entrance to the Dublin Towers Hotel, the street became filled with people looking upward at the roof. They could see the flyspeck of a person hanging on the wall almost at the top. The news media wasn’t far behind. They came with their telephoto lenses and before long they were sending live feed to their local channels, which in turn was being picked up by their national affiliates.

  Chaco had heard the sirens down below but couldn’t get a good look for fear of falling.

  Ortiz realized he was in a fix…again. Somehow he had to convince the news media that Chaco was unstable and that he, Ortiz, was the good guy.

  The first fireman arrived on the roof. The rooms directly below were being taken over temporarily by other fire men.

  “What’s going on?” he asked Ortiz.

  “I think he’s unstable. We’ve been trying to get him to let us lower him a rope but he refuses. He says he will jump if we do anything.”

  The fireman, who was a crisis specialist, leaned over the edge to look at the person on the side of the building.

  “Can I lower a rope down to you?” he called out in a helpful voice. The response startled him.

  “No thank you.”

  “Who is that? It looks like that kid that was on TV this morning. What’s his name, uhh, uhh…..Chaco, the kid from Peru, that’s it.”

  What’s going on here? Supposedly, he was kidnapped this morning and now he is hanging onto the side of a building. He pulled his cell phone out, “Captain, we have that Chaco kid on the face of the building and he doesn’t want any help. Something fishy here, what do you want me to do?” As they talked several of the windows right below Chaco were being made into makeshift safety tarps. Chaco saw what they were doing and moved sideways along the building away from them.

  Sanchez had the TV on and had a better view of what was going on than anyone who was on the roof. The TV announcer was saying, “We have an unknown individual threatening to jump from the sixtieth floor of the Dublin Towers right now as we speak. We are trying to get more information.” Ortiz walked into the room just as the TV announcer said, “We have additional breaking news.”

  The announcer’s eyes lit up and a look of disbelief was on his face, “The young man hanging on the face of the building is none other than Chaco. You know, Chaco who was in a questionable kidnapping earlier today. Now hold tight and watch.” The cameraman focused his telephoto lens and got a perfect side shot of Chaco hanging there. The close-up showed his fingertips and edges of his shoes gripping the wall.

  “Oh, we have someone in the crowd that is an expert climber who is willing to talk to us. It is Dr. McDowell…..let me remind you who he is. He climbed Mt. Everest last year and was responsible for saving the lives of two climbers in his party.”

  “Dr. McDowell, you’re on KTBN, Channel 12. Can you tell us how this kid is able to hang on to the side of a building like that?”

  “It isn’t easy. It takes enormous strength, particularly in the hands. We need to get help to him quickly. Even expert climbers with years of experience couldn’t last long up there.”

  “Thank you, Dr. McDowell.”

  “And now we have Dr. Ortiz from Peru, he was the man involved with Chaco at the Peruvian Embassy today. Thank you for speaking with us Dr. Ortiz. I understand that you want to make a statement.”

  “Yes I do, thank you. It is Chaco on the building. He has had a very stressful day today. I was taking him to my suite at the Dublin Towers when he just lost it. He has been under enormous pressure today. All he wanted was to tell people what he knew about Inca history and somehow things got out of hand. I would like to ask all of your viewers out there to pray for him.”

  “Dr. Ortiz, can you tell us what transpired today at the Peruvian Embassy?”

  “I can’t talk right now. I’m sorry, I just can’t think straight and I need to get back to the roof. Chaco might need me.”

  “Like he said folks…..let’s all pray for this young man.” The cameraman zoomed back in on Chaco.

  Chapter 36

  The sun’s reflected glow shined across the Dublin Towers Hotel but faded rapidly as it disappeared below the horizon. Chaco slowly climbed toward the corner of the building. He was hoping that he could get away from all of the windows. He only had ten more feet to go. He was about fifty feet from the top of the building now. He reached the corner of the building and peered down the other side. There were fewer windows on that side.

  “Look at this guy. He’s climbing around the corner of the building,” explained the newsman. The camera focused on Chaco’s every move. People on the street watched the TV screen on the side of the truck and saw Chaco’s foot slip, and then slip again. The suspense was building. Few of the people below or those watching their TV’s at home believed he could survive much longer.

  Chaco discovered very quickly that climbing around the corner was extremely difficult. With the last minutes of light fading he examined the side of the building for any pipes or wires running down the building wall. He saw nothing and was getting tired. With his options fading he saw out of the corner of his eye a wire going from his building across to another building. It was about fifty feet away and twenty feet above him and it wasn’t a very large wire. The last light faded away and he was hidden from the news media, the firemen, and the onlookers below. He wasn’t completely without light; it was just that they couldn’t see him now. The street lights and the lights from the hotel rooms helped him to see enough to keep climbing toward the wire.

  The firemen had to devise a new plan. Chaco going around the corner of the building had changed everything. They quickly began moving their equipment to the alleyway. The large spotlights would be there in just a few more minutes and the gigantic airbag was on its way. It had never been used before for someone falling from this height. The big problem was that he could miss the bag.

  Chaco hurried across the facade of the building. He was startled when a bright flashlight from above shined on him and he almost fell.

  “Don’t shine that light on him from above,” ordered the fire captain from the top of the building. “Get something less bright and hurry.”

  Chaco heard this conversation and realized that any chance of escape was diminishing rapidly. He reached down to his waist to see if his jute rope was tied there. He could feel it. He was using it for a belt.

  He reached the wire that stretched across from one building to the other. Could it be a power cord, Chaco wondered? He got the best grip that he could on the building and then with the back of his fingers on his right hand touched the wire. It was safe. The wi
re was mounted to the building with what appeared to be a fairly secure metal clasp. As quickly as he could, he removed the rope from his waist and using his mouth tied each end to his wrist. Chaco laid one leg over the wire and then the other as he still gripped the building with his fingertips. He figured that the wire had a gradual slope across to the other building and was connected about ten feet from the top. He held himself stationary a few moments longer and then with his rope drooped over the wire and the wire running between his legs he released his hand and began sliding across.

  “Can you hear something down there?” the fire captain asked.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Quick, get the light on him.”

  “The other light isn’t here yet, sir.”

  “Use the bright one then.”

  The firemen flicked the switch and couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Chaco was part way between the buildings sliding with a wire between his legs.

  “Quick, get some men to the other building and keep that light on him.” The light was only bright enough to follow Chaco half way across.

  Chaco had been using his legs as a braking mechanism but as soon as the light came on him he released the friction of the wire from his legs and sailed across the chasm to the other building. He hit it hard, knocking his legs loose from the wire. He was dangling in midair with only the rope around the wire. It only took him seconds to position his feet onto the face of the building. The skin on his wrists were burned and torn open but nothing was broken. It took a couple of minutes to untie the rope from his wrists. He took a few deep breaths and then climbed with enormous strength to the top of the building. He realized they could be up there at any time.

  He ran across the top of the building to the door. It was locked. He could hear the sounds of men running up the stairs on the other side the door. He stepped around to the side of the door and waited in the dark. In seconds the door was thrown open and two firemen came running out carrying ropes and a large flashlight.

  Chaco gambled and stepped through the door hoping that no more firemen would be coming. The stairway seemed to be empty. He ran down the stairs a couple of floors and then heard more commotion coming from above. Several more firemen were coming into the stairwell heading for the roof. Chaco ran down two more flights of stairs before entering the building. He took the elevator to the third floor. He ran down the stairs to the basement and exited to the street from the garage.