Eden's Children (Earth Exiles Book 2) (9 page)

Mike sat looking at four crosses.  One of those crosses he didn’t care about.  Jamison, the Director of Area 19, the DARPA facility, had been a mental case.  Jamison was the reason they were here.  He’d died from a brain tumor, possibly the reason he was a mental case.  Mike didn’t care.  There was no give in Mike about Jamison.

The other three though, they weighed on his mind.  Airman Kyle Babcock, killed by Talgit, a hunting bear pack, his chest crushed.  Air Force Staff Sergeant Bobby O’Neill, a suicide.  An introverted gamer, the current reality had been too much for him.  Now, Ben Davis, killed by ravening dragon spawn.  Ben would have lived through the damage to his leg, but he couldn’t live through the poison injected by the bite.

Tom sat down beside him, “What’s up, Mike?”

Mike took a drink from the water bottle, “nothing, just thinking about the situation.”

Tom looked out in the direction that Mike was staring.  He saw the four crosses, “And?”

Mike looked at him, “And, I think, that this place isn’t as good a choice that we thought it was.”

Tom thought about it, “Maybe.”

They sat there for a little while, not saying anything, just watching what passed for birds on this world flit by.

Tom spoke first, “You have any ideas?”

Mike nodded, “Yeah, I do.”

“Care to share them?”

Mike nodded again, “Yeah.”

Mike pointed up at the mountains behind the valley, “Matki’s people live up there.  The dragons don’t go there.  At least, not the full grown ones.  Not enough food, not enough oxygen, too cold for their metabolism.”

“What do you want to do, Mike?”

“Move up there.”

Tom thought about it, “How are we going to get up there?”

“Climb.”

Tom smiled, “One thing I’ve got to give you, Mike, you’re ambitious.”  He held his hand out, and Mike handed him the water bottle.  Tom took a swig and handed it back.

Mike took it back and took another drink, “You remember how it was when we moved here from the DARPA facility?”

Tom nodded, “Yeah, we fought dragons and other critters constantly.”

“Well, it’s twice as far to the entrance of the valley that Matki uses to travel to his tribe.  And, we don’t have any place that we could use for security stops between here and there.”

“Yeah, that could be a problem.  I’d hate to have to drag everything that far,” Tom mused.

“And there’s only one other way that we can get there.  Straight up.”

Tom lifted a hand and started scratching at his beard, “That’s an idea.  A lot shorter than walking twenty miles.  Still, that’s a good climb.  What, it’s about six hundred feet?”

Mike shook his head, “No, I had John map it with the drone.  Closer to seven, eight hundred.”

They sat back, looking up at the cliff face.  Mike passed the water bottle over to Tom.  Tom took a drink and passed it back.  Mickey walked by and saw them sitting there.

“Hey guys, what’s up?”

They told him.  Mickey sat down, his bulk casting a shadow over Mike and Tom. He held his hand up for the water bottle.  Mike passed it to him.  Mickey took a drink and passed it back.  He looked up at the cliff while he drank.  He passed the water bottle back.  Mickey summed up his thoughts with one word.

“Damn.”

----------------------------------------------------

Matki had been less than enthusiastic when Mike had first brought the idea of climbing the cliff to him.  Mike and Everett took Matki back into one of the box canyons and showed him climbing techniques.  Then, Mike explained some of the equipment that they’d be using, and Matki grudgingly gave a thumbs up to the mission.

Before Mike talked to anybody else about the climb, he did some research on the static ‘internet’ and found specs on the equipment they’d need.  He went to the fabrication team and talked to Will and Hank about the equipment needed for the climb, impressing on them the need for discretion.

Hank summed it up pretty quickly, “Don’t want the ladies to find out, huh?”

That was the truth.  Mike knew that if the wives and girlfriends found out about the climb, there would be a lot of resistance to the idea.

Next, he went to Tomiko to see if they could weave rope and harnesses.  Both teams came through for him.  They’d delivered everything he needed.  The fabrication team made every possible kind of technical equipment the team would need.  The chemists made the rope and harnesses from graphene carbon fibers, so it was incredibly light and incredibly strong.

As stealthy as Mike tried to be, he knew it was a matter of time before the wives found out.  Latricia saw Mike walk into the armory and she put down the rifle she was working on.  She stared at him, and then moved away from the table.  He watched her as she walked to the tunnel and disappeared.  Tom looked up at Mike, stared at him without saying anything, winked and then slowly tracked his gaze over to the tunnel.

“Uh oh,”
Mike thought.

Mike’s concern was justified.  Evidently a meeting had been in progress.  Joan, Jennifer, Tracy, Latricia and Michelle walked out of the tunnel.

Jennifer pointed at Mike, “You need to come with us.”

Joe whistled low.

John Smith was watching the drone footage, “Somebody’s in trou-ble!”

Even Rich Stein, usually a quiet guy, chipped in, “Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do.”

Latricia stepped forward and glared around the room.  She snapped her fingers and pointed around the room, “Can it.”

Everybody in the room suddenly found something interesting to do.  The armory was as quiet as a church.

Joan waved towards the tunnel, motioning for Mike to join them, “If you please.”

It wasn’t an invitation, it was a command.

They stepped aside as Mike walked into the tunnel.  They fell in behind him.  Other people in the tunnel saw the expressions on their faces, and quickly moved to the side, trying to get out of the way.

“Uh, where we goin’?” he asked.

“Meeting room,” Joan answered.

He walked to the back of the tunnel and turned into the meeting room.  They followed him in.

“Can I sit down?” he asked.

Jennifer pointed to a seat on the other side of the room.  Mike sat down.  They all took seats, watching him.  He sat there, outnumbered.  They remained quiet.  He decided to try and start the conversation.  He smiled, “What can I help you with today?”

“Really, that’s how you’re going to play this?” Latricia asked.

“Uh, . . . yeah?” he asked.

Joan took over, “Mike, what’s up?”

Suddenly, Mike felt like he was five years old, answering his stepmother, Allison, “What do you mean?”

Joan studied him, “Ropes, harnesses, climbing equipment, strange stories that you and the team are thinking about climbing the cliff at the back of the canyon.”

Mike hesitated for a moment, and then nodded, “Yes, that’s true.”

Latricia slapped the top of the table and looked away, shaking her head.  She turned back, and asked, “What the hell are you thinking!”  The dam burst.  It was pretty intense.  The questions were flying fast and furious.  Mike tried to answer, then thought better of it, and just shut his mouth in the face of the onslaught.  There was no way he could answer until they let him talk.

It continued for a few more minutes, then began to wind down.  Joan took advantage of the situation, and started asking questions again, “Mike, you realize that, if something happens, if somebody falls, there are no medical facilities here, and you are very likely to die?”

Mike nodded, happy that he only had the one person to answer, “Yes, Joan, I realize that.”

Latricia began to say something.  The other women turned to look at her.  She settled back into her chair, mumbling “fool,” under her breath.

Joan continued, “You also realize, that if the team is ki . . .,” she paused, not willing to say the word, “Leaves us, you take a big part of our defense away, yes?”

Mike nodded, “Yes, I realize that.”

“What do you think you’re going to accomplish with this stunt?”

Mike held up his hands, palms out, “Whoa, this isn’t a stunt, I promise you.”

“Explain.”

Mike looked around the table.  He’d dealt with hostile audiences before, but nothing like this.  He nodded, “Okay, I understand your concern.  Believe me, the last thing I would ever do, is put someone at risk unless I thought the benefit was worth it.”

He hoped he wasn’t throwing the team under the bus, so he proceeded slowly, “I’ve . . . conferred with the team.  They agree with me. They think the climb is possible.”

The faces before him didn’t give anything away
.  “God, I’d hate to play poker against them,”
he thought.  He didn’t see any negative reactions, so he continued, “I’ve talked to Matki, and he believes that there’s probably a way across the mountains to his people.”

“Probably?” Joan asked.

“Yes, probably.  But we won’t know until we check it out for ourselves.”

Once again, he paused for reactions.  He didn’t see any warning signs.  He spread his hands in a conciliatory gesture, “Look, we can’t keep on like this.  We have another grave out there.  How long will it be before that freak of nature, the Ancient, comes back with another way to hit us?”

Features softened, and postures relaxed, empathetic to his position.

“I know this may not be what you want to hear, but we have a chance to make sure that we don’t ever have to worry about another dragon attack again.”

He looked at Joan and Jennifer, “Look, you’ve been in the meetings.  We’re running out of materials for fabrication.  We need minerals. We need food.  We need a lot of things.  We can’t look for them while we’re trapped here.”

Mike took a breath, and settled back into his chair, “When we first came here, this compound seemed like the perfect solution.  It looked like the perfect solution, but this valley is a trap.  I don’t want to die here.”  He looked at Jennifer, “I don’t want our children to die here.”

He noticed Joan and Michelle’s hands move down to their stomachs.  His eyes grew wide, “Wait, are you two . . . ?”

Jen looked at the other women, then back at Mike, “Yes.  Now you know our secret.  Michelle and Joan are pregnant.  That’s one of the reasons we . . . have problems with the course of action you want to take.”

Mike nodded, “I understand your concern.  Think about this, though.  We fought every day to get here and set up.  Dragons, grasnig, talgit, and terror birds, plus a lot more.  Think about traveling twenty miles instead of the ten we had to travel to get here.  Only, with no secure areas to stay at, fighting dragons the entire way.”

He stopped to let that visual sink in, “Now, here, in the compound, we have a secure area.  If we can find a way up the cliff, we can take our time, and move everything up.  I’ve talked to Hank, Tomiko, Juan, and the three amigos, and they think that we can build the equipment necessary to haul everything up the cliff.”

He noticed the fire in Latricia’s eyes, and smiled, “No, I didn’t tell them what it’s for.  They had no idea what I was planning.”

Latricia settled back, another target for her ire dismissed.

Mike continued, “Our existence here is precarious.  The team and I can figure out a way up the cliff.  We can move into the mountains, do reconnaissance.  If things look good, then, with our engineers, we can figure out a way to get everyone and everything to the top.”

Jennifer asked the next question, “What about the climb?  How long’s it been since you’ve done something like that?”

“Well, it’s been over a year since the team’s done any climbing.”  Postures went tense again.  He continued, “But the team has a lot of climbing experience.  We all learned in the Army.  We were stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado.  We honed our skills whenever we could work it into the training schedule.  We’ve all spent a lot of time climbing, and we’ve all been through advanced classes in mountaineering.”  The body language relaxed again.  Mike suddenly realized that Jennifer was trying to help him.

“I promise you, I won’t let the team attempt the climb, unless I know that we’re ready.  And that includes Matki.  We’re going to train him up as well.”

He looked at Joan, “And Joan, you know that Everett wouldn’t agree to do this unless he feels that we’re ready.”

There was hesitation, and then Joan nodded.  Jennifer looked at him intently, and asked one more question, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Mike answered carefully, “I saw a problem.  I wanted to make sure I had a solution before I brought this to anybody else.”

Mike could see that they didn’t fully believe his explanation.  He knew that the rest of the team would have a rough time explaining themselves to their wives that night.

Mike put his hands flat on the table, “So, what’s the verdict?  Do I live?”

Jennifer spoke for the ladies, “This time.  I think you and I need to have a talk, though.”

That statement signaled the end of the meeting.  The rest of the ladies knew that Jennifer would take Mike in hand.  They had their own husbands and boyfriends to talk to.