Truth and Humility

by J. A. Dennam

  Sue winced and Mac ran a hand over his mustache. When she put it out there like that...

  While Mac drove, Sue unrolled the plans for the blender and went down the list of specs for Danny to look over. Two levels of blades, eight blades altogether. No one knew how many Austin had cut apart before the blender broke away, or how violently the sway had moved those loose pieces around pielevhim. The only thing they were sure of was that he was still inside the blender, he was conscious at one point, and he was no longer responding.

  As they approached the plant, Danny stilled her trembling hands. Her body was awash with feelings, emotions she would have to get under control if she were to do this without getting herself hurt in the process.

  Mac turned into the enormous parking lot and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay, Monkey,” he soothed, his confidence in her unwavering. When she didn’t answer, he peered down at her face, gave her shoulder a firm squeeze. “I really missed you, you know that?”

  Danny sniffed, remained tensed under his arm. Finally, she admitted, “I missed you too, you big jerk,” then for a brief moment, laid her head on his shoulder.

  Sue began to tear up.

  Derek’s Challenger was parked in plain sight, off to the side of the flashing fire trucks and emergency vehicles. He preferred his own ride to the Bennett trucks, just as she did. His post-work visits to Melanie’s house were becoming a regular routine.

  He met her as she exited the truck. “You sure you want to do this, Danny?” he said before she could open her mouth.

  “She wants to,” Mac answered for her and met the younger man’s glare with one of his own. “You just wanna leave him in there to die, Bennett? Would that make you happy?”

  Derek answered without pause. “No. I was going to volunteer myself, asshole.”

  “Jeez, you guys, like I’m not under enough pressure as it is!” Danny shrugged out of her brother’s hold. “I’m lighter than you, Derek. I’ll be the one going in and you and Shaw can communicate with me from the outside.”

  Derek nodded at something behind her. “Looks like your whole crew is in on this one, baby sister.”

  Danny, Mac and Sue all followed his gaze. Two Bennett trucks entered the parking lot, six guys total. Danny blew out a breath. “I told him to send them home. They don’t need to be mixed up in this.”

  It didn’t matter. It warmed her somewhat to know her crew was behind her. At least they hadn’t gone back to her father and enlightened him on the reason behind their early dismissal.

  The old plant was massive, ancient, tarnished from years of neglect. Endless rows of clouded, broken windows, weeded parking lot, broken fencing, and that was just on the outside.

  Two double doors at the side of the plant were wide open, giving rescue workers the necessary access. When the group entered, they were immediately exposed to the hovering wreckage of the busted blender – an old, crude contraption that had been customized for a gravity-fed processing system back in the thirties. Supported by an attached metal chute from above and a hastily wedged scissor-lift from below, the thing looked as if it would topple at any second. There was no; T. thing stable about it.

  Danny’s heart froze in a brief moment of terror. Austin was in there.

  Birds nested inside the place were flitting about in their daily routine while fire crews and police officers worked the floor. A ladder truck was close by, but dared not get too close fearing the instability of the buckling scissor-lift.

  Derek took one look and swore beneath his breath. “This is too dangerous, Danny. You’re putting a lot on the line.”

  “Isn’t that why we came?” she remarked, then caught his look. “You used to love him, too.”

  Shaw heard her comment and his expression darkened. Mac noticed as he had been keeping a close eye on the young stud since Danny’s crew had arrived. He leaned in close to the kid’s ear. “Did you get all that?”

  It was then that people started to notice the group heading straight for the danger zone. The Cahill crew recognized Danny, figured out that the unfamiliar crowd around her must be from the Bennett side. A couple members of the fire crew headed for them and attempted to stop any further progress. One of the firemen recognized Derek and approached with a hand out.

  “Derek,” he greeted with a look of confusion. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “Ty,” Derek clasped the other man’s hand and jerked his chin upward. “Can you help us get up there?”

  “You, maybe.” The man, suited up in rubbers and helmet recognized Danny from a few years back. “She stays on the floor.”

  Danny blew out a short laugh and shook her head at her shoes. Now was not the time for misplaced machismo. “The only difference between us is sixty pounds, if you know what I mean.”

  Ty narrowed his eyes, moved them back to Derek. “She as good as you?” he asked, taking the hint.

  Derek chewed his bottom lip. How to answer that one. All he needed to do was say no and the decision would be taken out of her hands. Danny knew what he was thinking and silently warned him from a few feet away. “Yeah,” he answered finally, hoping beyond hope he wouldn’t regret his decision. “She’s damn good.”

  “Any one of these guys in here will attest to that if you need us to,” Mac piped in from behind her, following along.

  After some thought, the fireman began to back away. “I’ll talk to the chief. Meanwhile you all stay put.”

  “This is bullshit.” Frustrated by the bonds of rules, Danny scoped out the top of the blender and the funnel-shaped bottom. All she wanted to do was get up there and make sure Austin was okay. “I’m going whether I get approval or not.”

  “Just wait a second,” Derek admonished holding out a hand. “Ty’s cool, if he doesn’t get anywhere with the chief he mige cize="+ht still help us.”

  “The lid to that thing is only, what...ten feet wide?”

  Derek slanted her a glance. “It always looks easy from the ground.”

  The seconds went by achingly slow. Meanwhile, Danny scraped together various items from her crew and prepared for her climb. “The least they could do is pull that ladder truck in closer, cushion the blender in case it falls.”

  “It would at least slow it down,” Derek added.

  “They won’t do it,” Mac interjected. “Too unstable of an environment is what they’ve been sayin’ so far.”

  Danny shoved a small flashlight in the back pocket of her jeans. “But they might if we up the ante.”

  Derek groaned and dropped his chin to his chest.

  “What do you mean by that?” Shaw asked, sensing by Derek’s reaction that it wasn’t good. When he looked to his supervisor for the answer, Danny was already gone. “Where’d she go?”

  “To up the ante,” Derek muttered, then stuck out a hand and pushed the kid back when he made a move to follow her. “Jeez, man, do you not know her at all?”

  “But she’ll get herself killed!”

  Derek shook his head and got up close to emphasize the importance of what he was about to say. “Something you need to learn about people like us. We like to test our limits, sure, but when we’re doing it we can’t and don’t think about our own mortality.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because that will get you killed.”

  Once Danny started climbing, all those on the floor were powerless to stop her. Shouts came from below which she ignored. She had everything she needed on her: a two-way radio, a flashlight and a bottle of water. Until she could assess the structural damage from up close, everything else could wait.

  Now at the top of the conveyer, Danny moved with utmost care not to shake up an already volatile situation. It was stifling near the ceiling of the old plant and she could only imagine how hot it had become inside the blender.

  Upon close inspection, the welded joints of the attached chute appeared to be holding steady enough for what needed to be done. Not that she could do anything about it if they weren’t.
Austin didn’t have time for a quick repair job. As people shouted orders at her from below, she gauged the distance to the cut-away opening below. The motor housing provided a few solid grips, but the rest was flat, slick metal.

  The ladder truck roared to life and pulled in closer to the vat. Firemen shouted at her to cli at wimb onto it, but she knew if she did, they’d only lower her down.

  “Shut up and let her focus!” Derek yelled, uptight with worry. She’d given him the good-to-go signal, but he didn’t like being stuck on the ground, no matter how easy it looked.

  To Danny’s relief, everyone seemed to quiet down as she made her way around the motor housing. Fire engines ran, filling the place with noise, but it wasn’t a stressful noise like shouted orders were.

  Keeping her eyes down, she reached her last solid handgrip and searched for the lower lip of the opening with her boot. Once she had a solid purchase, she was able to secure a good position. Piece of cake.

  The forklift shifted and the blender lurched. Danny grabbed for the opening’s jagged edge, but her hands were slick with sweat and she slipped. Quick reflexes were all that broke her fall and she found herself in a dead hang, her feet swinging wildly below her.

  Derek swore loudly, but was soon shouting support from below. “You got this, Danny, just get your feet up!”

  Briefly, Danny let go to wipe her hand on her shirt. Panicked sounds came from below, but waned when she regained her hold and performed a heel hook that allowed her to lift her lower body back up to and through the opening.

  In the zone with her, Derek kept his relief bottled up while the men a

  round him celebrated.

  The air inside the tank was stifling, rancid with the trapped odors of hot iron and ancient food residue. Danny moved slowly, turned on the flashlight.

  “Austin?” No answer. There were paddles in disarray on the bottom. Austin’s cutting torch and hoses were gone having slid out of the narrow funnel when he’d let go of it. One paddle was still attached to the huge shaft jutting through the center. The beam from her flashlight illuminated a boot and she slid down toward it. “Austin,” she said again, but not too loudly. The echo was deafening enough. The foot moved. Once she reached the bottom, she saw him cradled at the jointed lower portion of the blender, partially buried under jagged pieces of metal. Clinging to the zone that allowed her to move past her emotions, she quickly searched for injuries.

  “Austin, I need to know you can hear me.” He was awake, but not responding. “Say something!” she ordered hotly, shining the light behind him so as not to blind him.

  A low rumble came from deep within his chest. He was grimy, sweaty, pale, his hair sopping wet. When he opened one eye he saw her and closed it again. “Shit,” he hissed between his teeth.

  Chapter 22

  Well, at least he was awake if not happy to see her. “Yeah, that at whes’s what I said,” she mumbled, moving the flashlight over his body. “Where are you hurt? Anything broken?”

  He coughed beneath the weight of metal. “You can leave the way you came in.”

  “I’d love to, but unfortunately I’m as stuck as you are. Now, tell me where you’re hurt so we can both get out of here.” Her radio crackled at her side.

  “Talk to me, Danny.”

  She grabbed it and answered her brother. “He’s at the lowest point of the blender. Pinned beneath some paddles but he’s conscious. I see blood.” Her flashlight illuminated a sheet of crimson that coated the metal bottom. “He’s cut somewhere. By the looks of it, he’s been bleeding for a while, but he’s just as bossy a prick as ever so I don’t figure any head injuries.”

  Austin groaned again in answer and Danny shrugged out of her shirt as she waited for a reply.

  It finally came while she worked the cap off the water bottle. “Danny, it’s Ty. Can he move?”

  She halted only long enough to pick up the radio. “Not until I get some of this weight off of him. I don’t know if that’s such a good idea until you guys get up here.”

  “That blender jiggles every time you move,” the radio crackled back. “Just tell us where he is so we can cut him out from the outside.”

  The heat was brutal. She panted, fanned her camisole as she looked around, found a good spot, and put the radio back up to her mouth. “I want to talk to Derek,” she replied. As she waited, she soaked the denim shirt with water.

  “How many Bennetts are on my jobsite?” Austin grumbled weakly and winced at the effort.

  “Enough to get your ass out of this jam,” she replied smoothly.

  “I’m here, Danny.”

  She picked up the radio. “Derek, I only want you and Shaw up here. No fire department, no Cahill crew, got it?”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “We need speed and efficiency. If you can get a hold of two torches, you two can double up.”

  “It’ll get hot.”

  “But it’ll cut the time in half.” She worriedly took in Austin’s pale complexion. “We don’t have a lot to spare.”

  “Got it. Give me a good location.”

  She fanned her camisole to cool down. “Cut the funnel off the bottom. We’re at a safe enough distance.”

  “Copy that. I’ll let you know when we’re ready to light up.”

  Da NeTimnny blew hot breath from her lungs and looked for a more comfortable foothold that wouldn’t disturb the mess he was under. She could feel his black eyes on her, regarding her in the reflected light as she lowered herself down beside him. Her voice was scolding. “With all your nagging about safety, one would think you’d have checked the structural integrity of this thing before climbing in.”

  Austin moved his neck, winced in pain. “I did. It was fine yesterday.”

  “Apparently not.”

  “I said it was fine,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “The only thing I can figure is someone tampered with it through the night.” His eyes opened, looked at her suggestively.

  Danny seethed, but kept her emotions hidden. “Before you even say it, I would never risk my own life after a botched attempt to take yours.”

  “But your brother might.”

  Her nostrils flared. “You’re forgetting Derek never hurt anyone to begin with.”

  His eyes glazed over. “That’s right. You did.”

  “You know,” she began, forcing herself to remain calm, “I’ve had my eyes opened very wide, Cahill. Some people you want in your life, people who have such faith in you that you find it in yourself. I don’t know what happened between Rena and me, but until I find out, I don’t want to be anywhere near you. So, if you won’t tell me anything useful, let’s not talk at all. It’s probably best for you anyway.”

  After a short silence, Austin’s breathing began to pick up as pain sliced through his torso. “I think something is stuck in my side,” he panted, keeping his eyes closed.

  “You mean literally?” she asked, her ire forgotten.

  “Yeah. It hurts. Can’t breathe.”

  Scooting around, she shined the flashlight through the jagged metal pieces again. “I see it. It’s the edge of a blade.” In fact, it must have felt like someone buried a hatchet between his ribs, she thought sickeningly. “We’ll have to wait for medical supplies before it comes out.”

  “We’re ready out here,” Shaw informed through the narrow end of the funnel. “You okay in there, Danny?”

  “Yeah. Just hurry. There isn’t enough airflow in here and I’m already feeling the heat.”

  Before long, a broken hiss was heard outside and two orange glow spots lit up the seam around the base of the funnel. Sparks broke through. Danny positioned herself close to Austin and covered them both as adequately as possible with the soaked denim shirt. Her movement must have caused him pain because his breathing picked up considerably.

  “Even your breathing, Austin,” she coached beside him. “Slow it down, slow even breaths.” Her words had no effect on him, so she p hinositioned her face directly over his, eye-to-e
ye. “Follow me.” She breathed in, out, in, out. He finally responded by mimicking her examples as best he could. The excruciating pain was reflected in his face. Despite their quarrel, Danny felt every bit of it with him.

  Smoke engulfed them, began to seep in under their makeshift shelter. Austin coughed once and jerked violently from the pain. “Christ!” The exclamation came out much quieter without power behind it.

  “Are you hot?” she asked worriedly, suffering from the climbing temperatures herself.

  “No. Numb. Thirsty.”

  That didn’t sound good. Danny put her forehead to his and seriously began to wonder if either of them would make it out alive. “Just like the fourth-of-July. Giant sparklers, that’s all.”

  And the sparks continued to fly.

  “Why did you come?” he asked weakly, sensing the enormity of her sacrifice.

  Her thoughts began to jumble. It felt as if heat penetrated all seven layers of skin. “The feud, Cahill. It wouldn’t be the same without you.”

  “A joke. Nice.”

  “Just giving you something to live for.”

  The radio crackled beside her. “Danielle Connor Bennett!”

  Her flushed face paled by a slight degree. Austin noticed and was suddenly suspicious of the voice on the radio.

  Danny swore loudly, put the handset to her lips. “Yeah, Pop.”

  Austin groaned again.

  “I want you down here now, young lady!”

  Her lungs were beginning to burn. “I’m in the middle of a rescue mission. Not allowed to move.”

  A short silence. “I’m gonna kick your skinny backside, girl! Cahill got himself into this mess, his own men can get him out!”

  “It’s a moot point at this time. I’ll be out soon.”

  “Well, I don’t particularly like being in this position. Got Cahills all over me.”

  Now wasn’t the time, so Danny ignored the radio, instead mumbled to herself, “I know the feeling.”