The Alex Cave Series. Books 1, 2, & 3.: Box set

by James M. Corkill

  Wesley lightly shook his head. “Just bruised, I think.”

  “Listen, Wesley. That was a rough ride getting up here, and I don’t think you can take that kind of punishment. Not without aggravating your injuries.”

  “I’m sure as hell not staying here.” He slowly stood up straight. “I’ll be all right. I just need to wrap my ribs before we get into the cat. Let’s go.”

  “I’ve got a radio in my backpack. Let me call for a helicopter.”

  “I’ll be fine, Jamie.”

  She crossed her arms and stared at him. “Raise your hands above your head.”

  “What?”

  “If you can raise your hands above your head, we’ll take the cat. If not, I call the helicopter.”

  “ Fine.” Wesley brought his arms up, but his right arm caused him to wince, so he brought them down. “Okay, no snow cat. Let’s hike down and get my truck.”

  Jamie ran to the cat and climbed into the cab, tossed both backpacks out the door, then climbed down.

  Wesley grabbed his with his left arm and slung it over the same shoulder.

  Jamie noticed him trying to hide his discomfort, but decided not say anything unless it got worse.

  Wesley looked around to get his bearings and began walking across the loose gravel down into the tree line.

  Jamie slung her backpack on and followed him. “When I heard that crack, I thought someone had fired a cannon into the cave. What caused it to collapse?”

  Wesley did not think someone would be stupid enough to activate that device again, but Alex was not around to stop them. “I’ll find out when I get back to my truck.”

  “I guess you won’t have your snow cat for a while.”

  “Just give me a couple of days to recuperate and I’ll come back and get it.”

  * * *

  Chapter 28

  DISCOVERY:

  Victor knelt beside Carl, watching him blink to clear his vision. “You should be fine in a few moments. The same thing happened to the crew on the Mystic.”

  Henry noticed something very odd on the video feed from Celeas. The camera appeared to be rolling in and out of a cloud of silt and the massive slab was bouncing along the seabed. “Janice, look!”

  Janice took control of the rover and swept the camera around until she saw the slab. It bounced up through the silt and began rising toward the surface, but one side was rising higher than the other one. She maneuvered the rover above the silt, and saw that only two of the cables were still attached to the methane. “Oh no!” She spun around to Carl. “Can you see anything yet?”

  “Yes. I mean, I see a bright blue light in the center of my vision, but it’s starting to fade.”

  “The methane tore loose and two of the cables have been yanked from the slab. It’s about to tear loose from the other two cables. Celeas is still hidden under the silt, so you need to take control and try to anchor that slab down before it breaks free and floats to the surface.”

  “I’ll try. Give me the headset, Victor.”

  Victor bent over, grabbed the headset from the floor, and helped him put it on. “How’s that?”

  “Okay, I can see the silt. I’ll bring her up and get my bearings.”

  Everyone turned back to the video screens. Janice swung the rover around to look for Celeas, and a moment later, they watched her rising out of the cloud of silt. On the other display, the view from Celeas’s cameras focused on the slab.

  “Okay, I see it,” Carl informed them. “What do you want me to do?”

  Henry spun around to face him. “The eyebolts are not holding, so try and bring the other cables over the slab to hold it down.”

  “How? The other cables are buried in the silt. I can’t grab what I can’t see.”

  Janice had an idea. “Use Celeas to push against the side of the slab and force it back down with the thrusters. At least enough to take the strain off the other cables.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Everyone sat on the edge of their chairs, staring at the displays. The view from the rover showed Celeas maneuver up around the slab and she settled on the upper edge.

  “Here we go,” Carl said softly.

  Small bubbles appeared behind the two large thrusters as the propellers began cavitating, creating a vacuum that forced the water to vaporize. No one dared breathe for several long moments until the slab slowly began to lean over. Everyone gasped as Celeas suddenly slid sideways along the edge and the slab began to rise again.

  “Damn! Okay, I’ve got it,” Carl informed them.

  The video from Celeas jerked as she bumped against the slab, and once again, it slowly leaned over. They dare not breathe while time seemed to advance in slow motion as the slab continued to lean over. When it was nearly horizontal, Carl gradually moved Celeas back from the edge and forced it down to the seabed. The view from the rover showed only the top of Celeas protruding above the swirling cloud of silt, and everyone released a collective sigh.

  Carl continued to hold Celeas steady against the slab. “Okay. Now that it’s down, what are we going to do?”

  They looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Henry leaned back in his chair. “How long will the batteries last under that load, Carl?”

  Carl looked at the upper corner of his headset display. The reading for the power consumption was near the red line. “At this rate, we have less than an hour before the batteries are too depleted to hold it down. Take this visor off for me, would you, Victor?”

  Victor removed the visor, and Carl continued to hold the control handles as he looked around the room. “You guys are the brainiacks, but it appeared to me that the device activated again. You said that wouldn’t happen. I bet that’s what tore the cables loose.”

  “That’s not our immediate problem,” Victor announced. “We need a solution within the next forty five minutes.”

  Carl looked up at the two video screens mounted on the wall. “The silt is drifting away with the tide. We should use the rover to locate the cables and drag one over the methane.”

  Janice shook her head. “It won’t work unless we can anchor the other end.”

  Henry had an idea. “Janice, would you guide the rover to the areas on the slab where the cables tore loose?”

  “Sure. What have you got in mind?”

  “We should compare them to the anchor points that are still attached to the slab and see how well they are connected. We may be able to simply control the rate of rise of the slab until it is floating and held in place by the other two cables.”

  “I wouldn’t call that slab of methane simple to control,” Carl informed them. “You saw how hard it was to bring that monster down.”

  Henry nodded. “Yes, but you are already on top of the slab, so you will not be fighting to push it back down. Just let it up slowly.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  Janice swung her chair around to face the video screen. “Let’s check it out.”

  Henry and Victor stood and stared over Janice’s shoulders at the video screen from the rover. A moment later, the rover moved cautiously along the outer edge of the slab. After several minutes, it was possible to discern a large ragged pie-shaped area missing from the top of the methane.

  Victor pointed at the screen. “That’s amazing. The mass of the methane must be incredibly heavy. Once it was moving, the anchor couldn’t hold it back.”

  “It’s not just the methane,” Janice added. “Add all the heavy pollutants they discovered in the methane, plus it’s all held together by frozen water molecules. Let’s move to the next one.”

  Janice carefully maneuvered the rover around the outside edge, to the second anchor point, now a large ragged hole ripped out of the ice. The rover continued to the third anchor point, still firmly embedded in the methane, with a taut steel cable stretching away into the darkness.

  Henry placed his hand on her shoulder. “If the last one is like this, we should not have any problem.”

  Several minutes
later, the rover stopped three-feet away from the fourth anchor point, where they could see a small crack in the ice across the anchor bolt. Otherwise, it looked solid, with a slack cable snaking away across the seafloor into darkness.

  Janice spun her chair around to face everyone. “This could work.”

  Victor shook his head. “We don’t know if they will hold.”

  “Hey!” Carl hollered from his chair. “The clock is ticking over here, so is there another option?” He could tell by their blank stares that they had none. “Okay. Give me a higher angle from the rover so I can see what I’m trying to do.”

  Janice brought the rover around the outside edge until she could see Celeas pushing on the slab, fifty-feet below. “How’s that?”

  “Very good. Okay, I’m backing down the power to the thrusters, so let’s see what it does.”

  Small amounts of brown silt began to swirl off the grey-green surface as the slab slowly began to rise with Celeas riding piggyback near the outer edge.

  As the angle increased, Celeas began sliding across the surface. “I don’t know how much longer I can control the rate of rise, Doctors.”

  The others could see what was happening on the display, feeling helpless as Celeas continued to slide from side to side across the surface.

  “I’m losing it!” Carl warned them. He could see the image from the rover as Celeas suddenly shot forward over the edge of the slab. “Shit!”

  The slab was suddenly rushing up toward the rover’s camera. Janice tried to swing the rover out of the way, but it was too late. The picture shuddered for a long moment, as the rover slid across the surface, then it was clear of the slab. When she brought the rover back around, they saw the edge of the slab, pointed up toward the surface. It slowly moved sideways through the water, held down on one side by the taut cable. The snaking cable suddenly snapped taut as the slab stopped moving. Everyone released their breaths as the slab floated vertically in the water.

  Carl brought Celeas around to look at the cables. “Hey guys. That second cable is not going to hold. It’s that crack we saw. When the cable snapped tight, it must have yanked on the anchor point.”

  The crack suddenly raced across the surface, through the anchor point. “Back up, Carl!” Janice hollered. “It’s tearing free!”

  Carl applied full power to the elevation thrusters, forcing Celeas up, away from the slab. The cable tore loose and sliced through the water only inches below Celeas.

  Janice flinched and yanked her hands from the controls as the cable slammed into the camera lens of the rover and the screen went dark. “Shit!” She spun her chair around to see the video from Celeas.

  Carl made a tight U-turn and focused on the slab. It was rising at an angle, still anchored to the last cable. Moments dragged by as it continued to rise, now nearly vertical. A small bubble escaped and everyone flinched, but the slab remained anchored to the seafloor.

  “We did it,” Henry whispered.

  Janice leapt out of her chair and threw her arms around Henry’s waist, pulling him close. “That was brilliant,” she whispered into his ear.

  Henry gently put his arms around her waist. “It was a team effort.”

  They parted and smiled into each other’s eyes for a moment, then let go and looked at Victor and Carl, both grinning back at them.

  Carl swung Celeas around the slab, looking for any anomalies, and focused on the anchor point. It appeared solidly anchored in the slab. He entered the auto pilot command for Celeas to stay focused there, and released the controls.

  He stood to stretch and relax. “That was exiting,” he told them while opening and closing his hands to relieve the stress.

  Henry approached Carl and smiled. “Magnificent job, young man.”

  “Thanks, Doc. I damn near got hit by that cable.”

  “You did better than I did,” Janice told him. “That rover is history.”

  One problem solved, Victor thought. “Now that this problem is temporarily resolved, we need to start our next phase of this operation immediately.”

  Carl stared at him. “You need to lighten up a little, Victor. Give us a break, for crying out loud!”

  “You people have no idea how long this will take! We don’t have time to just sit around.”

  Henry stood to look sternly at Victor. “Please do not rush into this, Victor. We need to be cautious at this stage. We must determine why the device activated again before we move forward with the recovery.”

  Victor’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right, Henry. Let’s take a break and talk about this over coffee.”

  Chapter 29

  MYSTIC. THE BERING SEA:

  Alex leaned his arms against the railing outside the bridge, grateful Mike had bought him the thick white winter coat he was now wearing. When he had packed for his trip to Washington, he had no idea he would be going to the artic. The new ice sheet was already affecting the weather in the northern latitudes and the thin jacket he brought was useless against the frigid temperatures they were now encountering.

  He was not sure what to think about Harrison’s actions on the bridge. He was definitely working with Dieter, but to what degree of loyalty, was the question. When the hijacking failed, he knew I was onto him and gave up. He thought. If Dieter tried again, where would his loyalty lie? Okana might have a better insight.

  Alex walked into the bridge and found Okana lying back in the chair with his feet on the console. Okana was slowly guiding the Mystic through the scattered ice flows, and for the moment, it was easy. “What a cushy job you have, Okana.”

  “It has its moments, Alex. You look like a man with a question.”

  “Which side do you think Harrison is on? Bett told me he joined the crew after Dieter and Bartram.”

  “Hard to say. I think he’s just a sailor working for whoever pays him.”

  Joshua suddenly came up the stairs, dressed in a thick black winter coat, carrying a red plastic toolbox and a square fiberglass object. “Your friend David is a genius, Alex. Lisa read his report, and discovered he’s isolated a particular type of radiation emanating from the black hydrocarbons.” He held up the fiberglass object attached to a square base with clamps on the bottom. “I modified this radar unit to detect that particular type of radiation. I’m going to mount it above and see how it works.” Joshua left the bridge and climbed up on the roof.

  Alex went outside to watch Joshua, up on the roof. He looked over the railing at the twenty-foot slab of clear ice gently sliding past the side of the ship. It was the fifth one in the past two hours even though they had not reached the Arctic Ocean. At this slow speed they could see the ice with plenty of time to move out of the way, and once Joshua was down from the roof of the bridge, they could increase Mystic’s speed a little more.

  “Hey, Alex? I need your help up here.”

  Alex turned and looked up at Joshua squatting on the roof. “Be right up.”

  He climbed the narrow stainless steel ladder bolted to the back corner of the bridge, and once on the roof, he knelt beside Joshua. “What can I do?”

  Joshua reached into his coat pocket and handed Alex a tiny glass tube. “Stand up and hold this sample of black material I got from Lisa. I need you to walk to both sides of the roof when I say. I’m going down inside to make sure that sample shows up on the radar scope.”

  “All right. Tell me when to start walking.”

  Joshua climbed down the ladder, which would have been comical to a bystander because of his size and the skinny ladder, but he made it safely, yet awkwardly, down onto the deck. He went around to the left side door of the bridge and latched it open, then went inside and turned on the radar unit. The LCD screen had located the radiation emitted by the sample in Alex’s hand, so he leaned out through the doorway. “Walk over to the starboard side, Alex,” he called.

  He watched the flashing red dot move to the right. He stuck his head out through the doorway again. “Now move to the port side.” He ducked back inside, watched
the red dot move to the other side of the screen, and smiled. He walked back through the doorway, out onto the deck, and looked up at Alex. “Got it. You can come down now.”

  When Alex moved to the top of the ladder, Joshua was standing on the second step up from the bottom, reaching out over the roof.

  “Hand me my tool box, would you Alex?”

  “Sure.”

  Alex slipped the glass tube into the chest pocket of his coat, then grabbed the red plastic box and set it close to the edge, near the big man’s hand. When Joshua stepped away, he climbed down and followed him back onto the bridge.

  Joshua pointed at the red dot on the screen. “Now watch this, Alex.” He reset the gain, and the distance indicator on the screen changed from feet to miles, but there was no red dot.

  “Okay, what’s your point?” He watched Joshua’s smile fade away.

  “Don’t you get it, Alex? I just converted a radar unit into a radiation sensor capable of detecting the source from miles away.”

  Alex smiled and put his hand on Joshua’s shoulder. “Of course. That is amazing. Good job.”

  Joshua smiled proudly at Alex and Okana.

  “Are we ready to go, Josh?” Okana asked.

  “All set.”

  Okana shoved the throttle forward, and Mystic’s pontoons climbed out of the water and began slicing through the slight chop on the surface.

  *

  Three hours later, the entire crew stood on the deck outside the bridge, dressed in their heavy winter coats and staring at the one-hundred-foot wall of transparent ice three-hundred-yards in front of the Mystic. When Lisa saw the dozens of gray harbor seals held captive in the frozen wall of ice, she turned away and buried her head against Alex’s chest.

  When randomly scattered slabs of clear ice softly bumped against the hull, they dare not bring the Mystic closer and risk damaging the thrusters. They had received a satellite image from NASA, showing the extent of the expanding ice sheet, and compared it to a previous photo showing the normal size of the ice in summer. The new ice cap was shaped like a gigantic egg, with the large round end reaching deep down past the Arctic Ocean, into the Beaufort Sea. One hundred-miles inland from the bottom edge of the ice sheet, the picture showed concentrically smaller circles of dark material forming a target on the vast expanse of the ice sheet.