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

Page 48

by James M. Corkill


  “They are coming back. Did you do what I told you?”

  Bartram jumped down onto the deck. “I did just like you said, Captain. I don’t know what went wrong.”

  Dieter heard footsteps approaching. “Just keep your mouth shut. I will take care of this.”

  *

  Ten minutes later, the sub was in its bracket and Alex and Okana climbed down the ladder. Alex noticed Okana’s clenched fists. “What’s going on?”

  Okana didn’t answer and walked straight over to Bartram. He drove his fist into Bartram’s jaw, driving him backward, and he slammed onto the deck. He stood over him, glaring down into his eyes. “You mess with my sub again and I’ll kill you!”

  Okana turned and glared at Dieter. “Did you really think you could get away with this?”

  Alex wasn’t sure what was going on. “Okana?”

  “They tried to kill us, Alex. Bartram loosened one of the hydraulic fittings. If we had activated the arm with the pincer, we would have lost all the hydraulic controls. I didn’t notice until we were vertical and the fluid ran down the floor.”

  Bartram got back on his feet. “I didn’t do anything, Okana. You should take better care of your equipment.”

  Alex grabbed Okana’s shoulder as his arm reached back to swing at Bartram again. “Not yet, my friend.” He stepped past Okana and stared down at Dieter. “He was just following orders, Okana. Isn’t that right, Captain?”

  “You are a suspicious man, Professor. It was a simple maintenance issue.”

  Mike knew that without proof nothing would be resolved for the moment, and walked up to Alex. “What would you like us to do next, Alex? We still need to find a way to shut down the devices.”

  Alex turned and looked at Mike. “I’m not sure yet. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to stick around until I talk to a few people.”

  “No problem. We’ll stay here until you’re ready to go.”

  Alex turned and walked away, and then up the stairs to the bridge deck. He leaned forward with his arms against the railing, and stared across the bow at the wall of ice. He was not looking forward to telling the bad news to all the people counting on him. He looked back over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps, and then stood and turned from the railing as Okana approached. “I fear we are too late, my friend,” he told him.

  Okana turned up his collar and shoved his hands into the coat pockets of his thick dark blue coat as he stared at the wall. “Maybe the Discovery is making some progress.”

  Dieter stepped onto the deck from the stairs. “What would it be worth if I knew the location of another one of those devices?”

  Okana spun around, fire in his eyes as he grabbed the front of Dieter’s coat. “What’s it worth for me not to throw you over this railing right now, you son of a bitch!”

  Alex put his hand on Okana’s shoulder. “Let’s hear the man out. Then we’ll decide whether to throw him overboard.”

  Okana gave Dieter a shove as he let go of his collar, and then took a step back and continued to glare at him.

  Dieter remained calm and stuck his hands into his coat pockets. “It appears your journey has come to an end, Professor. I was not talking about you paying me. I was talking about what percentage of a large stash of treasure you would want in exchange for using this ship to find it.”

  Alex leaned back against the railing and crossed his arms. “This isn’t my ship, but I’m listening.”

  Dieter looked over at Okana. “I will tell you what is on that disk you are so interested in, Okana. It is a digital copy of a motion picture made in 1945, at the end of World War II.” He turned back to Cave. “There are two items in the movie that no one has been able to identify until you showed up, Professor.”

  Alex stood from the railing. “I’m interested. Show me.”

  ‘CRRRAAAACCCCKKKKKK!’

  Suddenly, bright blue light radiated from the wall of ice as the air was ripped open by a bolt of blue lightning racing up from the location of the device. In an instant, it was gone, and then high-pitched cracking sounds echoed off the face of the ice wall.

  Alex spun back to the railing and could see the water freezing and expanding toward the ship from the bottom of the wall. He spun back around to Okana. “Turn us around and get us out of here!” he yelled.

  Okana was thinking the same thing. He ran into the bridge and engaged the thrusters to spin the ship around.

  Alex moved along the railing to keep an eye on the expanding ice. The Mystic spun one hundred-eighty-degrees in the water. The ice was gaining rapidly as the turbine engines increased to a high-pitched whine and the jet pumps moved her forward in the water. The broken slabs of ice closely scattered across the open water created a formidable maze ahead of the ship. There was no way to go around, the only option was to nudge the slabs of ice out of the way.

  Alex glanced into the bridge through the rear window, where Okana was concentrating and doing the best he could. Dieter walked over and stood beside him at the rear railing as the ice crept closer to the stern. They began to feel heavy thuds against the hull of the ship as Okana tried to increase their speed. The ice continued to close the distance, now less than eighty-feet behind the stern.

  Okana looked out the rear window and the number of thuds against the hull increased rapidly as he shoved the throttle further forward.

  Alex’s fingers tightened on the steel railing as the ice continued to close the distance from the Stern. He spun around and ran to the front railing to see what was ahead of them. Fortunately, the floating slabs of ice were beginning to thin. He spun back around and ran to the rear railing, the ice was less than sixty-feet from the stern. The rest of the crew was huddled together on the deck, staring at the approaching ice.

  The Mystic was gaining speed as the ice slabs began to thin, and Okana stared out the rear window at the ice, still closing the distance. He shoved the throttle forward in a desperate attempt to reach open water, and then the Mystic leapt onto the surface, her pontoons slicing through the water and riding up over the smaller slabs of ice.

  The unexpected surge from the twin engines tossed those below off their feet and sent them tumbling across the deck. Rita managed to grab the bracket for the sub with one hand and reached out for Mike’s hand as he tumbled toward the stern, but she was too late and he tumbled out of range. Lisa suddenly grabbed her arm and Rita pulled her closer so she could grab the bracket.

  Mike saw the world spinning around him and his eyes locked onto the back edge of the ship. He was helpless to stop sliding into the freezing water. “Help me!” he screamed.

  Harrison nearly went over the stern himself, but managed to wrap his arm around the hoist post before sliding over the edge into the water.

  “Harrison!” Mike yelled as he slid past on his way into the water.

  Harrison grabbed Mike’s hand as he passed the hoist, but Mike continued sliding until his torso itself was now hanging over the stern. Harrison was unable to pull him back aboard with just one hand. “Grab my arm with your other hand and pull yourself up, damn it! I can’t hold on much longer!”

  Rita jumped up, ran to Mike, grabbed his coat sleeve, and was nearly dragged over the stern when Harrison lost his grip on Mike’s hand. Suddenly, Lisa was kneeling next to her and pulling on Mike’s coat collar, and together they dragged him up over the edge, onto the deck.

  The Mystic began to stop accelerating and Mike rolled onto his back and stared up at Rita and Lisa’s ashen faces. “Thanks.”

  A moment later, the Mystic reached a cruising speed of fifty-eight-knots, and everyone adjusted to the movement and stood back up. They looked behind the ship and stared at the sheet of ice, still racing across the water and closing the distance to the stern.

  Alex was amazed by the speed of the freezing water, still gaining, if only by a few feet at a time. The ice wall began to shrink into the background as the Mystic and the new ice raced across the water at nearly the same speed, with only fifty-feet of separation. He l
ooked into the bridge, Okana was staring back, and he knew the Mystic was at full speed.

  Okana thought about turning the Mystic on a different heading, but the width of the approaching ice was miles across, and they would lose the race if he tried. He felt a sudden lurch in her speed, but it was nothing he had done.

  Alex felt the Mystic lunge forward, and he spun around to look at the ice. He thought the reflection of the sun was causing an illusion, but the distance was widening between the stern and the ice. Sixty-feet of separation, then eighty, one-hundred, one-fifty. Everyone below was watching the receding ice as the Mystic continued to increase the distance, now four-hundred, six hundred, one thousand, and then the freezing abruptly stopped.

  Alex felt their speed decrease rapidly, and suddenly Okana was at his side. They could hear loud cracking sounds, and stared at the new ice wall beginning to rise out of the water, forcing the old wall of ice higher into the air to increase the size of the pyramid.

  Okana shook his head. “Wow. You don’t see that every day.”

  “I felt our speed increase. What did you do?”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  “Hey, Okana?”

  Alex and Okana looked down at Rita, smiling up at them. “Yeah?”

  “That was close. I bypassed the governor for the turbines, so don’t increase speed until I can reset them, or they’ll fly apart.”

  “How did you know they would hold together?”

  “I didn’t. I figured we didn’t have much choice.”

  “You have my undying thanks.” Okana stepped back into the bridge, switched the controls from turbines to thrusters, and set them to hover. He walked outside and grabbed Dieter’s arm. “Let’s watch a movie, Captain.”

  Dieter jerked his arm free and glared up at him. “There is more to this than just the movie, Okana. If you want my help, you had better show me a little courtesy or you will never find that device.”

  * * *

  Chapter 32

  RANGER STATION:

  Larry stood from his desk and stared out through the window when he heard a vehicle drive into the parking lot. He recognized Wesley’s Hummer and walked outside.

  Wesley did his best to hide his pain as he climbed out. “I need to see the extent of the damage, Larry.”

  “Let’s go inside and I’ll show you on the map. Frank is evacuating the park and the campgrounds. You look like you’ve been hurt, Wesley. You still have blood in your hair.”

  “He is hurt, Larry, and not just the cut on his head. He’s being delusional. We were nearly killed in an ice cave, and he has a possible cracked rib.”

  Wesley shook his head at Larry. “I’m fine. Let’s not worry about that right now.”

  Jamie and Wesley followed him into the station and looked at the large plastic covered map of the park mounted to the wall. Larry indicated four areas circled in red. “Those are the campgrounds we’ve cleared so far. We can’t reach Marmot Campground because the creek flooded and washed out the road.”

  “That’s where a woman and two kids were staying.” Jamie told him. “They were hiding from her ex-husband.”

  Wesley indicated an area on the map. “There’s an old logging road that drops down behind the campground.” He looked at Jamie. “We can make it there in my Hummer. It’s near that canyon where we left the trailer. I want to find out what’s holding back that water, and we can go down into the campground from there.”

  “I’ll call my sister and let her know what happened,” she told them, then stepped to one side and entered the number on her cellphone.

  “Are you sure you feel up to bouncing around, Wesley?” Larry asked.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Jamie turned off her phone and grabbed a portable radio from the charging rack. “We’ll be on channel two.”

  “Be careful in the woods, you two. I don’t want to see you get hurt again, Wesley.”

  Wesley gave him a nod. “We’ll let you know what we find.”

  *

  Wesley parked his Hummer at the bottom of a low ridge. “The canyon should be just over that rise, if I remember right.”

  Jamie was surprised he had even found it. The number of old logging roads Wesley had taken was like following a maze cut into the mountain. They climbed out of the Hummer and hiked up the steep slope. When they reached the top of the ridge and looked down, it caught them off guard.

  “You were right, Wesley. That’s a new lake, isn’t it?”

  “This is very bad, Jamie. Now we know why that stream was so low.

  They stared down at a massive pile of logs, branches, and brush. The forty-foot-high logjam across the canyon held back thousands of gallons of water for over a mile up the canyon. A fast moving stream gushed from under the tree trunks of the logjam, dragging more debris down the canyon and creating smaller dams, all collecting water. At the bottom end of the canyon was the reservoir and the old dam.

  “What if we tried to open one side to let the water out?” Jamie asked.

  “It won’t work. The entire logjam will tear loose.”

  “How far are we from the campground?”

  “About an hour if we take that logging road we passed a moment ago. It follows the canyon on the other side of this hill, and drops down into the campground.”

  Jamie could tell he was trying to hide his discomfort, but knew not to say anything. At least the ride was not too bad, although sometimes she could not see any road at all. “What do you want me to tell Larry?”

  “To be honest, I don’t know what to say. It could tear loose at any moment or not break at all. If it does tear loose, it will overwhelm the reservoir. That concrete dam is so old it won’t handle the load, and when it breaks, the lahar will destroy anything in its path, starting with the track field behind the high school.”

  “Won’t it just follow the river and miss the valley?”

  “The reservoir water didn’t originally flow in its current direction. The loggers diverted it around the valley. The best thing to do is open the dam right now and drain the reservoir. The river will flood downstream, but the damage will be minimal compared to what will happen if we don’t open it.”

  Jamie stared at him for a moment. “Okay. So what do I tell him?”

  “Just let him know he did the right thing, evacuating the park.”

  Jamie called Larry on the radio and told him what they found, and noticed Wesley checking his pockets. “Did you lose something?”

  “Yeah, my cellphone. If Larry decides to open the dam, the Cave ranch will flood. I told Derek I would let him know when it was time to leave the ranch.”

  “It probably fell out in your Hummer.”

  “Maybe. Let’s get going.”

  They walked back down to the Hummer and searched for the phone, but could not find it.

  “Do you know Derek’s number? You could use my cellphone.”

  “No, it’s one those satellite phones. I’ll call him once we talk to Larry and decide what to do after we check the campground.”

  They climbed into his Hummer and Wesley backed up until they could follow the old logging road, then they drove down the mountain, toward the campground.

  “Did you know about the track meet tomorrow?”

  Wesley jerked his head around to Jamie. “What? That’s tomorrow?”

  “It starts at four tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Oh, crap!”

  *

  SPARROW VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL:

  Derek walked out of the classroom and saw Jessica waiting near his locker. From her expression, something was bothering her. “What’s going on?”

  “Jamie and Wesley were in an accident. Wesley has a fractured rib.”

  “Is Jamie okay?”

  “She’s fine.”

  “What happened?”

  “They used Wesley’s snow cat to go up to the glaciers. When we had that earthquake, the glaciers collapsed and nearly killed them.”

  Derek opened his locker, grabbed the
sat phone, and pressed speed dial number two. He held it to his ear and it just kept ringing. He slipped it into his backpack, and then slid the strap over his shoulder as he continued down the hall.

  “Derek? Where are you going?”

  “He’s not answering, so I’m going up to his cabin.”

  “Just wait a minute. Let me call my sister back and find out if Wesley is with her in the park.”

  Derek turned and walked back to her, then waited while she dug through her purse for the phone and called her sister.

  “Jamie? Hang on a second.” She turned on the speaker. “Where are you?”

  “I’m with Wesley. We’re driving down to the campground. You need to find Derek Cave.”

  “He’s listening.”

  “Derek, it’s Wesley. Do you remember when we talked about that lahar? There’s a good chance that will happen to the valley if we can’t stop it.”

  “What can I do to help?”

  “Find the Sheriff and tell him to cancel the track meet tomorrow.”

  “What makes you think he’ll listen to me?”

  “Your grandfather and Arnie go back a ways. If he won’t listen to you, tell Robert. As excited as Arnie is about the games, Robert could be the only person he’ll pay attention to and call it off.”

  “Got it.”

  “Jamie? Be careful, and call me if you need anything. Bye, sis.” She watched Derek turn and walk down the hallway. She slipped the phone into her purse and ran up beside him. “Let’s try the restaurant first. It’s on the way. What’s a lahar?”

  “I can take care of it, Jessica.”

  “I know you can. Let’s take my car. So what’s a lahar?”

  “A lahar is a massive mud slide. If that dam breaks, it will wash everything away.”

  When they reached Jessica’s mustang, she opened the driver’s door and stared across the roof at Derek, still standing on the other side. “Get in, and I’ll drive us to the restaurant.”

  “I’ll take my motor cycle. I’ll meet you there.”

 

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