Solomon's Sieve (35 page)

“What is so fucking funny?” her companion wanted to know.

She was still chuckling. “Your face is completely covered with dust and the way your eyes are peeking out, it just, I don’t know, struck me as comical.”

“Comical. You should see
you
.”

“Then why aren’t you laughing?”

“Because I’m sane.”

“Oh don’t even think about going there because that is
so
up for debate.”

“Okay, look, before you go off on one of your little tangents…”

On the other side of the rubble, Gunnar and Glen had their hands full trying to rescue Torn. When the tunnel began to close he was forced onto the catwalk that was being supported by scaffolding. The scaffolding was the first thing to go, It came apart and fell down the mountain like it had been made of Tinker Toys. Fortunately Torn was able to grab onto a couple of feet of protruding rebar that had been sunk into the cliff wall to support the scaffolding.

The only thing keeping him from a long fall to a painful death was his grip and the strength of his biceps, which were burning from holding up his weight while he screamed for his team mates to do something.

“Hold on, we’ve got it under control,” Gun yelled back.

“Are you bat droppin’s mad, Gunnar? You do
no’
have it under control. My hands are slippin’ and in another minute I’m likely to be meetin’ Paddy, whose name I have taken in vain on an hourly basis most of my life.”

Gun turned around to look at Glen and say, “What in hel’s name should we do?, but Glen wasn’t there. He looked at Yanov, who was frozen in indecision with all the color gone from his face.

Glen came jogging up with a spool of cable that had been left to connect the lights to the generators.

“What’s that for?” Gun asked.

“I’m making a lasso out of this cable. Feed it to me.”

“You know how to do that?”

“Yep.”

“Would you two wankers stop fuckin’ around and get me down?!? This is no’ funny!”

Glen yelled back. “Okay. Get ready. I’m gonna rope your head.”

“You’re what?!?” Torn was one notch past hysterical.

“Rope your head. Here it comes.”

“NO! WAIT!”

The cable had gone sailing through the air and smacked Torn on the side of the face before it slid by and kept going.

“You’re gonna have to suck it up and help, Torn. When it comes by next time, let go with one hand so you can grab the cable and put it around your waist.”

“LET GO?!? THAT’S YOUR PLAN?!?”

“Stop being such a baby. You’re not the only one who needs rescuing, you know. Here it comes. Man up and grab the rope. Maybe you’d have more energy if you’d had some sugar with lunch.”

There was no time to reply to that when Torn saw the makeshift cable lasso flying toward his face again. He pressed his lips together, let go with his left hand, reached for it and caught it. He shoved the circle over his shoulder and brought his left arm through before taking hold of the rebar again. He took three deep breaths, then tightened his grip with his left hand, let go with his right hand and pulled the cable so that it slipped past his right shoulder.

Glen had been poised, waiting for that exact moment. When he saw the loop clear Torn’s other shoulder he jerked the cable so that it tightened around him.

“Gun. Grab this cable on the ground behind me. If he lets go, the only thing that’s going to keep him from hitting bottom is the hold we’ve got. And prepare yourself. Since we don’t have gloves, it’s going to cut into our hands and hurt like the devil.”

“Don’t worry, brother. I’m right behind you,” Gun said.

“Torn!” Glen shouted. “We’ve got you. You’re gonna have to let go. It’s gonna be scary because you’ll drop a little ways at first and then swing, but it’s okay. Just like rappelling. We’re not gonna let you go. You may smack into the side of this mountain, but you’re to survive it. You understand me?”

Torn knew he didn’t have a choice. His hands were sweaty from the fear and they’d be slipping even if he still had the strength to hold himself up. Which he didn’t.

“Do no’ let me go!” And with that his hands slipped off the rebar.

As Glen predicted, he dropped and swung like a pendulum across the face wall. Fortunately he stayed close enough to the wall so that the impact didn’t break bones. He was able to use his legs to create a braking effect and stop the swing back, just like rappelling – as Glen had said.. When his body came to a rest, his team mates started to pull him up.

Yanov and the other government employees who had been working as guards had grabbed the cable to help pull Torn up. The cord bit into their hands and stung, but after seven long minutes of pain and strain, they brought Torn up and over the top of the flimsy little guardrail.

He collapsed on the sand and gravel parking lot, as did Glen and Gun.

Yanov said something to Glen in Bulgarian, which he didn’t understand, then remembered he needed to speak English. “Give me your keys. He needs water.”

Without sitting up, Glen dug into his pants pocket and retrieved the keys to the equipment vehicle. Yanov had seen him take bottled waters out of the trunk so he went straight there hoping to find more. And, yes, there was a carton of twenty-four minus those that Glen had passed out at lunch. He grabbed an armful and hurried back to the knights as fast as he could.

Glen crawled over and raised Torn’s upper body enough so he could drink water without choking. He slowly gave Torn water until he’d consumed two entire bottles.

Torn looked around, “Where’s…?” Then he remembered. “Oh gods no.”

Glen and Gun looked at each other, then at Yanov. “We’re going to need your best engineers to figure out how to dig them out before they run out of air.”

Yanov’s sad eyes didn’t change expression and he stood unmoving. “Forgive me for saying so, but it seems very unlikely that…”

“I don’t know how you do things here,” Gun said, “but
we
don’t leave people behind until we’re absolutely sure they can’t be saved. Right now we’re not sure of anything except that our people are trapped and we can’t see or hear them.”

“I understand and am very sorry to be the one to inform you, but I do not believe the Bulgarian government will incur the expense. Even if they would…”

“Even if they would? What?”

“The scaffolding would have to be rebuilt to support heavy digging equipment. Even with funding and permission to proceed, I don’t think it could be accomplished in time, while sufficient air remains.”

Glen scowled at Yanov. “I’ve seen reports of mine collapses on the news. Don’t they have a way of boring through rubble to communicate with people who might be trapped? And to run an oxygen hose?”

Yanov cocked his head to the side like he was interested. “Truthfully I cannot answer those questions. That is far outside my area of expertise and I’m not familiar with new developments in the field.”

Glen turned to Gun. “You gonna call it in?” Gun stared at Glen. “You’re the honcho.”

Gun shook his head while continuing to stare at Glen. “That’s ludicrous. I’m ‘honcho’ in name only. When Torn’s not in charge,” he glanced at Torn, who was still lying on his back staring at the sky like he’d seen a miracle, “that would be you.”

“Me?”

“Not to mention the fact that, of the three of us, which one actually knows the Director personally?”

Glen returned Gun’s stare that was half determination and half plea then turned aside pulling out his phone as he walked away.

Gun walked over and squatted next to Torn. Without looking over at Gun Torn asked, “The kid makin’ the call?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel funny no’ knowin’ if Raif is alive or hurt or… Well, just no’ knowin’. I was just thinkin’ about the first time I met him. We were about the same age Glen is now. We’d both been in trouble and were bein’ sent to the Yucatan on chupacabra duty as a punishment.

“I remember my Sovereign sayin’ with a smile that there’s only one thin’ worse than goin’ after vampire and that’s chupa huntin’. Nasty creatures to be sure. Wily and way too many teeth for a species that lives on land.

“Raif and I, we got on the same plane in Phoenix and,” he stopped and chuckled like he was reliving a good time, “you remember when they used to have the big reclinin’ chairs on tracks so that the seatin’ could be reconfigured?”

Gun nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“Well, we hit turbulence in flight. The truly frightenin’ sort that reminds you that human bein’s are no’ meant to be sling shottin’ around the globe in a hunk of metal. A hunk of metal whose integrity depends on whether or no’ some welder had a fight with his wife.

“So I was grippin’ the arm rests with white knuckles and tellin’ Paddy I’d be a good boy if I lived to tell the tale. All the while, bins and compartments ‘round the plane were flyin’ open and slammin’ shut.

“Then I hear this war cry whoop. I look over and see that Raif has released the brake that kept his chair in place. So every time the plane shifted, his chair would run up and back on the tracks. He’d slide one way and come to a slammin’ stop like bumper cars. Then slide back the other. He was laughin’ so hard.

“Naturally I did no’ want to be left out. So I looked around for the release on my own chair. In seconds the two of us were ridin’ the storm out. Literally.” Torn chuckled again. “I forgot all about bein’ afraid. He made big fun out of scary flyin’.

“You know it was right after that that somebody decided the chairs should no’ be on tracks.

“He was so full o’ life back then. Three years later, we’d both hit the wall of foolishness past which there is no tolerance. We were both assigned to Z Team in Marrakesh, but I did no’ know he’d also be there until I looked up and saw him comin’. I was so pissin’ glad to see him. I could no’ keep the grin off my face.

“At the time, the other two on Z Team were old fuckups in their mid-thirties who’d been assigned to that cesspool so long they did no’ even bother to bathe. After Raif had a day or so to get his bearin’s, he realized what kind of consequence we’d got ourselves into. So you know what he said?

“Well, here we are, brother and, no doubt, we deserve it. So let us go find out who imports tequila and get tattoos.”

They heard steps crunching on gravel and looked up to see Glen approaching. “The Director says they’ll take it from here. He says everything that can be done will be done, for us to sit tight at the hotel after we get Torn cleared by medics. They’ll keep us informed. Play by play.”

“The Director said ‘play by play’?”

“No. That was a paraphrase. Sue me.”

“I do no’ need to be poked and prodded by medics. I need Margaritas.”

“Yeah? Then how come you’re still lying down in a parking lot looking like your body just smacked into the side of a mountain?”

“You’re a funny kid. He’s a funny kid, is he no’, Gun?”

“Hysterical, Torn. Let’s get you to the car and then decide about the clinic.”

“I’m no’ goin’ anywhere.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m no’ leavin’ here until Raif comes out of that hole.”

Gun and Glen looked at each other. Gun cleared his throat. “I get the sentiment, brother. I love him, too. But setting up camp here in this parking lot? It’s not going to bring him back sooner.”

“No’ the point and you know it.”

“What is the point, then?”

Torn didn’t answer. After a long pause, Glen said, “Do you feel like it would be kind of a betrayal to leave?”

Torn didn’t answer, but Glen could see his jaw clenched down.

Glen nodded, mostly to himself. “Here’s the deal. Our orders,” he motioned between Gun and himself, “are to take you to a hospital and make sure there’s no concussion or breakage. After that, we’ve been told to go to the hotel and wait. That’s exactly what we’re going to do even if we have to drug you to get you to the car.”

Torn shot a death glare at Glen, who had started to look and sound a lot like authority.

Glen continued. “However, after we’ve gotten a med green light, and, after you’ve gone back to the hotel for a nap and a meal, I’ll bring you back here until it gets dark.”

Torn seemed to be thinking about that. “Paddy. He’s goin’ to be cold in there. That hole feels like a meat locker.”

“Well,” Gun said. “He’s not alone. Maybe they’ll call a survival truce and keep each other warm.”

CHAPTER 18

“My little
tangents
!” She shouted as if the incredulity of it couldn’t be grasped by the human brain.

“You know, this is
exactly
why they don’t allow women in mines.”