by R. G. Ryan
The near miss had left me weak-kneed.
“I owe you one, man.”
As I shined the beam of flashlight into the opening attempting to discern its dimensions, it passed over something that caught my eye and I snapped it back for closer examination.
“Is that a ladder?” Grover asked, adding his flashlight to the mix.
He indicated what appeared to be a wooden ladder that had been secured to the side of a simple box frame that surrounded the mine’s opening.
“Looks very much like one,” I answered.
“Think it’ll hold up under our weight?”
“Only one way to find out.”
I placed one foot warily on the top rung as Washington supported me under my arms, gradually relaxing his grip until the ladder bore my full weight.
“Okay, let’s see if we can do this,” I said testing the second rung and finding it to be secure as well.
I became suddenly aware that the thunderstorm had passed, leaving only the wind in its wake.
“Grover, shine your light right down below me there.”
The beam revealed what were obviously tracks for a narrow-gauge railroad of some kind.
He said, “Well, they had to have some way to move the ore, right? So tracks make sense. Pretty ambitious, though”.
I grunted as I dropped the last couple of feet and now stood sweeping my light in gradual arcs around the landing.
“You sure it’s okay for me to put my weight on it?” Washington asked.
“All I know is that it held me up, but you got a few pounds on me. Should be all right though.”
He started down the narrow ladder and heard it creak with his first step.
“I don’t like the way this sounds.”
“Look, if it gives out you only fall ‘bout five feet or so. Not gonna’ kill you.”
“Easy for you to say.”
He took one more step and chose to drop from there rather than tempt fate.
He said, “What’s that smell?”
I had been so intent on finding Cassie that I hadn’t noticed before, but there was, indeed, a horrible smell permeating the atmosphere in the shaft.
“If I had to guess, I’d say it was…maybe…hydrogen sulfide?”
“Sulphur?”
“No, hydrogen sulfide. It’s common in most mines. This…” I paused, sniffing the air. “…this seems like a particularly high concentration. In fact, do you notice yourself feeling faint?”
“Matter of fact, I do a little. I figured it was probably ‘cause of the tumble into the ravine or something.”
I shook my head and replied, “No, it’s the gas. And I’m betting that the deeper you go into the shaft, the stronger the concentration.”
“Is it poisonous?”
“Lower exposures will manifest in eye and skin irritation, but in higher concentrations it will produce headache, nausea, delirium and even convulsions. In the worst-case scenarios, you can experience immediate loss of consciousness and even death.”
“Why you know so much about this?” Washington asked.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted, “Cassie!” before answering his question.
Nothing!
“I had a case years ago that involved finding a guy who had disappeared. His family thought he had been kidnapped, but as it turned out he was what the FBI designates ‘voluntary missing.’ Found him hiding in an abandoned mine up in the California gold country—a mine with a high concentration of hydrogen sulfide. When we finally pulled him out, he was basically nuts and manifesting all sorts of physical symptoms.”
“Let me guess…the boy was hiding from his wife?”
“It was a little more complicated than that, but close enough.”
I called her name again.
“You think she’s unconscious?” Washington asked.
I was praying that she was merely unconscious.
“Yeah, or…well…”
After each of us called Cassie’s name two more times with no response, we set about exploring the immediate area and found that the tracks continued on from their position toward what appeared to be a loading dock of some sort about twenty yards away.
“Look over here,” Grover said, pointing toward the tracks as they dropped off sharply into the tunnel.
“Looks like it would be quite a ride,” I replied soberly as we continued to sweep our lights around the area.
“Wonder how far down that thing goes?” he asked.
“No way to tell except we go see,” I said as my light found the top of the wooden steps.
“Jake, you really think your girl’s down there somewhere?”
“I would stake my life on it.”
“Well, I hope it don’t come to that.”
“I wish that whatever goes with these tracks was still here,” I mused while slowly progressing from one step to the next. “We’d get down a lot faster.”
“Yeah, well, the idea of plunging rapidly through pitch darkness toward an uncertain ending doesn’t quite hold the appeal for me as it may for you. But, you know, to each his own.”
I suddenly lost all spatial reference and felt myself beginning to fall into the tunnel.
“Bro, you okay?”
Grover grabbed me so quickly he lost hold of his flashlight in the process. It bounced down the tunnel for a ways coming to rest in the middle of the tracks with the beam shining against the side.
I stood up from where I had been forced to grab onto a conveniently placed structural beam and stared down the tunnel toward where the flashlight lay.
What I saw revealed in its dim cone of light nearly buckled my knees.
“Oh, my God!”
Grover quickly looked around me.
“Is that what I think it is?”
“It’s Cassie,” I replied, as I took off down the steps in complete disregard for my own safety.
Chapter Forty-four
I covered the final few yards, feeling my heart start to come apart in my chest as my eyes fell on the battered form of my niece.
“Oh, God! Oh, no…no, no, God, no. Cassie!”
The air at this level was saturated by the stench from the hydrogen sulfide, which did not bode well for Cassie. I sat down hard on the step right above where she lay and with Grover holding the flashlight, picked up her torso, cradling her head in my arms.
I smoothed matted hair away from the face I loved above all others; ran my finger across a brow, now cut and scabbed. Lips that had smiled in that special way she reserved only for me, were now a mass of blisters and broken skin. Where her skin was visible through torn and tattered clothing it revealed cuts and scrapes too numerous to count.
In a voice that betrayed his emotion, Grover asked quietly, “Jake, is she…”
With courage I didn’t feel, I laid my finger beside her neck. The pulse that beat feebly there electrified me with hope.
“She’s alive! She’s still alive. But, she’s really out—maybe comatose.”
“If your girl’s been through half of what it appears she’s been through, I’d have to say that’s a distinct possibility. And then there’s this smell. Lord, have mercy!”
A low moan escaped Cassie’s lips causing us to snap our attention back to her.
“Cassie, it’s Jake. You’re okay—I’m here now. It’s going to be okay, little girl.”
I rocked her gently, the way a loving mother would rock a newborn.
Briefly, ever so briefly her eyes opened and her gaze rested on me ever so lightly.
“Uncle?” she mouthed, managing a weak smile before retreating back into the safety of her repose.
“We need to get her out of here right now, Grover.”
“That means we carry her—think you can manage?”
“Oh, I’m not quite as beat up as you might imagine. I’ll be fine. Let’s do it.”
At first, I tried to stand without relinqu
ishing my hold and found it to be way too awkward. Reluctantly I laid Cassie down gently and readjusted my position so I could be downhill from Grover
“You got any ideas on how to proceed?” he asked.
As I quickly assessed the situation, I said, “Well, we’ve got two problems: One, to get her out of here as quickly as possible and, two, do it in such a way as to not inflict any further injury or tweak any injuries she may already have.” I thought for a moment. “The only way to do that is to use the old fireman’s carry—you know, the over-the-shoulder thing?”
“Okay, but that seems like it’s going to be pretty rough on her.”
“I know it seems like that, but why do you think firemen use it? It will be all right—trust me.” I bent toward her. “Give me a hand sitting her up.”
Between us, we gently pulled her into a sitting position.
“Okay, now,” I said. “When I bend over, kind of lean her over my shoulder. Got it?”
“Yeah…you bend, I lean.”
I bent over at the waist and put my arms around Cassie as Grover supported and directed her body. I stood, being hyper aware of a pervasive disorientation accompanied by headache and nausea. If I was feeling these effects from being down there for only minutes, what must the gas have done to Cassie having been down there for God only knows how long.
“Grover, if you will…I’d feel a lot better if you followed behind in case I stumble or something.”
“No problem, bro.”
He flattened himself against the side of the tunnel and asked, “You okay?” as I grunted my way past him.
I mumbled, “Never better. Nothin’ to this rescue stuff.”
He then bent over at the waist and threw up impressively.
“Sorry, bro. Couldn’t stop myself.”
Cassie was as though dead. In spite of what I had felt a few minutes ago, I could no longer detect a pulse. No breathing…nothing.
Far more rapidly than either of us could have imagined, we reached the landing and between us eased Cassie to the ground. I checked her pulse once again and, to my immense relief, found her heart still beating.
“Okay,” I said, blowing out a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. “She’s still with us but we’ve got to get her as far away from here as possible. At least the wind is helping clear away some of the residual gas.”
Grover trained his flashlight up the wooden ladder.
“The next problem is going to be that bad boy.”
He put his foot on one of the lower rungs while using a higher one for support. As he pulled himself up, the bottom rung abruptly snapped followed quickly by the upper rung, which sent him reeling backwards where I fortunately caught him before he could fall.
Brushing himself off, he said dejectedly, “Well, so much for that.”
I was staring toward where we had earlier seen the loading dock.
“Maybe not,” I said and started off in that direction.
“Hey, be careful now,” he admonished.
“You tend to Cassie for a minute, I’ll be fine.”
The beam from my weapon light illuminated what was obviously an area once used for loading ore from one mode of transport to another. Playing the beam down the tunnel, I could see neither obvious obstructions nor anything else that could possibly pose a danger.
I shouted, “Grover, I’m going to go a little ways down this tunnel and see if it leads outside.”
“Like I said before…be careful.”
The ceiling was high enough to allow me to proceed without stooping and I found myself outside relatively quickly. A brief survey revealed a trail leading directly back to the main access corridor.
I breathed deeply of the wind-swept air, feeling an immediate improvement in my overall sense of wellbeing.
“I think we’re in luck,” I hollered from above the original entrance causing Grover to cry out in fright.
“Whoa, bruh! Thought you was that Morgan dude come back to life or something. So, what’d you find?”
“Back there where we saw that loading dock, or whatever it was, there is another tunnel that leads to right here where I’m standing.”
“No ladders to climb?”
“No, no ladders. Just a nice, easy rise and before you know it, you’re outside.”
“Okay…what do you want me to do?”
“Just hang tight ‘til I get back down and we’ll figure something out.”
I turned and headed back the way I had come and had barely cleared the tunnel when without warning, the air was filled with the sound of deep rumbling.
“What in the hell is that?” Washington said.
I yelled, “Earthquake! Get down!” as we both attempted to shield Cassie’s inert form.
Rocks and debris showered down as the ground shook, threatening to send the tunnel crashing in upon us. Then as quickly as it began, it ceased.
“Well, I suppose that eliminates our easy exit,” Grover said, brushing himself off.
A soft, “Uncle?” caused both of us to turn and see Cassie struggling to sit up.
“Cassie!”
I bent and gently helped her into a sitting position. We held on to each other tightly, the emotions too strong to do anything more.
She turned her head to the side as dry heaves convulsed her body.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” Cassie finally managed to squeeze from a throat constricted by dehydration and the passion of the moment.
“I know. But here we are and everything is going to be all right.”
Grover pulled a water bottle from a clip and helped her drink a few sips at a time.
I said, “Cassie, this is agent Grover Washington with the FBI. Grover, this is Cassie.
“Pleased to meet you, miss,” he replied.
She could only nod a greeting.
I continued, “Without his help, I don’t think I could have done this. Morgan was…I don’t know…he was—“
Pulling the water away from her lips, she completed my sentence, “A monster, that’s what he was. A monster!”
“No kidding!” Grover added with conviction. “Ain’t never seen nothing like it in all my days.”
“Please tell me he’s dead.”
I sighed, “I can’t, little girl. He’s on some sort of very powerful drug. He tossed me and agent Washington around like we didn’t weigh anything at all. And then he took off.”
“Where?” she asked.
“I wish I could tell you.”
“Suddenly, I’m feeling quite a bit better. That’s very strange, because I truly think I almost died.”
Unconsciously, I reached around to feel the back of my head.
“Huh! Now that’s a new experience,” I said as I discovered that my head wound had almost completely healed.
“Look at this,” Washington exclaimed as he revealed a perfectly normal knee.
Cassie sat up slowly, staring at her hands, feeling around her face.
“The wounds seem to be healing. But that can’t be. That can’t be.”
Grover was smiling. “Looks like we’ve all experienced something beyond explanation today, huh?”
I said, “We’ll probably never know what happened. But what I do know is that we have to get out of here. Morgan is still out there somewhere. Hang on.”
I walked toward the cave-in and upon closer inspection, saw that it wasn’t as severe as I had at first feared.
Washington said, “You find a way through that rubble?”
“Yeah…we’ll have to squeeze through a couple of places, but it’s passable.”
“You up for this, little girl?” I asked.
“Yes, actually, I am. In fact, I can’t wait to get out of this place.”
“All right…let’s blow this joint,” Washington replied and started down the tunnel with Cassie and me close behind.
Chapter Forty-five
On the way down from
the bluffs, both Grover and I tried repeatedly to raise someone on the comm and on our respective SatPhones, but whatever atmospheric anomaly had shut things down earlier must’ve still been in effect because neither form of communication was working. All we could do was continue on toward the cabin where we planned to collect agent Carter and Eddie and head overland toward the command center. Even if the replacement chopper had arrived—and I was certain that by now it had—they didn’t have a clue where we were.
“Where is he, Uncle?” Cassie asked while casting worried glances around every possible hiding place we passed.
“Morgan? I don’t know, Cass. He initially ran toward the entrance to the mine, but obviously, that wasn’t where he ended up. For all I know he could’ve stepped off into the same ravine where you fell and is laying at the bottom too injured to move.”
“Or,” Washington suggested. “He could have circled back around to where you left the van. Did you take the keys?”
Damn!
“No. I didn’t. The last time we stopped was to check out something he had found and then Cassie called. After that, he, well, rocked me to sleep.”
In spite of her exhaustion, Cassie smiled.
“That was possibly the worst joke you’ve ever told. And you’ve told some bad ones.”
“Come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
“Terrible, bro!” Washington confirmed. “Absolutely terrible. So, if the keys were in the van, what would prevent him from doing exactly what I said—climbing in, starting it up and driving out of here?”
“Nothing,” I replied regretfully. “But even if my suspicion is correct and he’s been under the influence of some powerful drug all this time, the drug will eventually wear off and when it does, he’s going to crash big time. Factor in the gunshot wound and the injuries Cassie and I inflicted on him—bottom line is that he’ll be forced to seek medical attention at some point.”
“Yeah,” Washington agreed. “Maybe we should call Redfern and have him get a BOLO out on…oh…wait, we can’t call anyone because none of our stuff works!”
Cassie grabbed my arm and pointed down the trail.
“We made it, Uncle.”
