Trapped in the Mayan Tattoo (40 page)

Abbi moved along under
the zipline quickly until the strap of the binoculars caught up in her pulley,
bringing her to a sudden stop. Perched above the ravine, she tried to pull her
weight up by the zipline itself and reduce the weight in the harness so that
she could free up the binocular strap. Unsuccessful at first, she felt a
momentary clutch of panic. She pulled herself up by hanging directly onto the
zipline with both hands, grateful for the gloves she wore. Freeing her weight
from the zipline, she was able to uncoil the neckstrap of the binoculars and
release them.

Abbi cautiously
enjoyed the rest of her ride but moved along as quickly as she could now. She
knew she could do the drop in the allotted window of time but getting back
would be difficult. Before long, she had crossed the ravine and landed within a
tenth of a mile of the drop zone.

Searching her
memory for the pace counts, she found her waypoints and looked for the hollow
rock. She hiked downhill from the zipline, counting one hundred paces, but wanted
to speed up for two reasons: (1) given a short time frame, she didn’t want any NM2
people to suspect that anything was wrong while she finished the drop,
especially not the hothead she had heard about; and (2) she wanted ample time for
the return on the zipline and complete her mission safely.

As she approached
her destination, she used binoculars to scan the leafy terrain of the rough
hillside. The ground colors blended well so that rocks, well-camouflaged by
sticks, leaves, moss and ferns, lay hidden. The hollow rock had to be nearby. Everything
else on this trek had been in place exactly where it was supposed to be. Whoever
had laid out the course waypoints with landmarks had done well. Still, Abbi wondered
how well she herself had done. She was so excited about getting close to the
drop zone that she possibly had stepped off in the wrong direction when she
unhooked from the zipline or when she speeded up, and either one could have
thrown her off course.

Abbi spun around
looking for the hollow rock.  Not seeing it, she again started to panic. She
was too deep in the dense woods to even see the zipline now and was afraid of losing
her bearings. She had used a GPS before but didn’t feel skilled enough with
this one to avoid getting lost if she went off track, even with the automatic
tracking. Remembering her mother’s admonition to trust her training, she finally
relaxed and let her senses work for her. That’s when she spotted a glint of
gray. A mound of old leaves under an oak tree about fifteen feet away hid the
rock almost completely. Raking away leaves, she found her target.

The imitation rock,
lightweight and hollow as a gourd, lay waiting to receive the packet that
contained a note and ransom money, the key pieces in Operation Shoe Drop.

Abbi breathed a
sigh of relief. Her pace count had been close. She bent over to retrieve the small
package from her bra without exposing herself to any cameras or spotting scopes.
She suspected eyes from both sides were watching, even though she was told the rules
had changed. Quickly, she slipped the package, still slightly damp from her
X-ray spray, into the hollow of the rock and replaced it under its cover of
leaves, imagining every movement was under the scrutiny of someone’s watchful
eye. A false move could get her killed.

With that
finished, she brushed off the dried slime on her knees as well as she could and
looked around, hoping for the impossible--a portable potty in the woods. Knowing
that wouldn’t happen, being watched or not, she found a bush instead. She slid
out of her harness and then peeled out of the leotard down to her ankles and
laughed at how full her bra was. Then she peed for a long time, relieving her
bladder of what seemed like a gallon of urine, worth it whether she was being
watched or not.

“OK, then!” she said,
fastening up and preparing for her return trip. “Operation Shoe Drop accomplished.
Returning to start!”

As she left the
drop zone, Abbi experienced a sense of dread, a feeling she had to shake before
she would grapple with the zipline.

Abbi breathed
deeply, trying to restore her strength and shake feelings of trepidation,
anxiety, and general nervousness that were allowing doubt to creep in with its
ugly head. If she could get rid of that psychological baggage, she’d give
herself a mental advantage. If she failed this mission with its tiny window of time,
her mother’s life and her own would be at stake. Unthinkable.

She tried clearing
her brain with deep breathing. Then she retraced her steps, having memorized
pace counts. She had to work backwards with her count to get back from the drop
zone to the culvert. She
really
wanted to avoid the zipline on her
return. It was too long and she wasn’t sure she had the strength to pull
herself up the incline. Looking at the deep ravine, Abbi figured she could trek
down into it but its steep, rocky slopes and briars might prevent her from
safely climbing out without losing her bearings. She checked her time. At the
very least, it would throw her off course. At the worst, it would throw her off
on time. Using the zipline for her return trip was her only viable option.

By backtracking with
her GPS and continuing to count her paces, Abbi successfully hiked back to the
zipline. The sight of it gave her a sense of impending doom, unusual for her
since she loved the feeling of gliding through the air on ziplines. Now, as she
put her gloves on, she felt sluggish, heavy, knowing that this time would not
be a joy ride.

She hooked up
carefully and studied the prusik, a device that would attach Abbi to the rope
of the zipline for safety. The prusik would actually serve two purposes. One is
that it should keep her from falling or sliding backward, down the incline. The
other purpose would be to allow her to suspend herself during the climb if she
felt fatigue. She remembered using prusiks before and was grateful to have this
one. Another device for this climb up the zipline was the ascender. Under ideal
conditions, that would give her a mechanical advantage so that pulling her 120
pounds on the incline should feel about like pulling twenty pounds. These were
not ideal conditions. In reality, her ascender was worn from lots of use and
the zipline was sagging badly, as if she’d stretched it on her wild descent. Something
had messed it up, but it wasn’t Abbi.

She looked at fifty
yards of sagging zipline going up a steep incline. Devices that should provide
a mechanical advantage seemed useless. Maybe, Abbi admitted to herself, she
didn’t fully understand how to work the ropes with the mechanics of the metal
prusik that she held in her hand. Maybe there was a way to tighten the zipline.
She looked up. There was a way but she couldn’t reach it.

Abbi did a series
of stretching and breathing exercises. She still didn’t have a mental
advantage, much less a mechanical advantage. She had to get her thinking right
before she would attempt it.

Finally, ready or
not, knowing she was already working against the clock, Abbi attached herself
to the rope, with both the prusik and ascender in place, and then started pulling
herself up the zipline. There seemed to be an even greater sag in the rope. The
ascender, basically a sliding loop of rope, was designed to help her gain
altitude as she moved up the zipline. It seemed to work fine for a little while
but the farther she traveled, the more the zipline sagged. Pulling up became
more and more difficult. Halfway across the ravine, the line sagged down six to
eight feet. The ascent became much steeper and the exertion soon exhausted her.
When she tried to edge on up to the beginning of the zipline, her forward
progress became slower, then finally came to a halt. Abbi’s strength had
momentarily given out and she sat in her harness, suspended above the ragged
ravine. Abbi became increasingly aware of the dryness of her throat and deeply
regretted that she left the water bottle in the bag at the culvert.  

While Abbi tried
to suck on imaginary prunes to moisten her parched throat, a trick she had
learned from her father, she looked down into the 75-foot ravine. The prusik held
her safely in place, suspending her over the ravine. For three full minutes she
allowed herself to hang in her harness, resting and relaxing while she took in
the beauty of the ravine. This should help both her attitude and her endurance,
and actually save her some time. She needed the rest badly.

Her feet almost
touched the leaves of the treetops as she observed the lushness of the thick
green ferns on the surrounding rocky cliffs. While she rested, Abbi tried hard
to regain strength and return some moisture to her parched throat.

By now, Abbi was
fully aware that time was getting away from her. Abbi finally loosened the
prusik enough to start pulling across the zipline again, pushing herself to finish
her journey within her closing time frame.

It took every bit
of her strength to pull her weight up the zipline. During the last half of her
ascent on the zipline, she found herself resting frequently and followed each
brief rest with a renewed burst of strength. In spite of the mechanical
advantage she should have had, the sag in the line caused her to lift almost
her full weight with each thrust as she attempted to pull herself back to the
beginning of the zipline. Her poor exercise routine in the past three weeks had
made her lose muscle and tone.

 “Feel the burn”,
the DVD aerobics instructor had said.

“I feel the burn,”
Abbi said as she struggled to safety.

Suddenly, with about
the last twenty-five feet of zipline to go, a jolt, feeling almost electrical, shot
through her body. Something had slipped. The line sagged even more. Frantically,
she reached out a hand to grab the zipline. By this time, the mechanical
advantage evaded her. Abbi looked behind her to see what had happened. The line
had begun fraying, snapping one fiber at a time. Rapidly, the fraying behind
her reached up toward her. The pulley that held her now dangled crookedly.

Another sudden
jolt made the line sway. Suddenly, the swaying came to an abrupt stop. For a
brief moment, Abbi dangled in space. Then, with a snap, her pulley broke free
from the zipline. Abbi was free falling!

“Please God!”
she called out and closed her eyes.

 When Abbi opened
her eyes, she found to her surprise that she hadn’t died. Nor was she badly injured,
nor was blood pouring out, nor bones protruding awkwardly out of her body. Slightly
bruised, but relieved, she found herself very much alive. She ran a quick
inventory of the rest of her body parts. Everything checked out except her
right ankle. It ached and felt weak. Abbi tried pushing up the mountainside but
her ankle would not support her.

Abbi had landed
hard on moss-covered rocks within a couple of yards of the top of the cliff.

A wayward root
stuck out of the ground over her head. Abbi unhooked another piece of her nylon
webbing and managed to loop it around the exposed root. With that, she pulled
herself up until she could grab a boulder, part of a rock outcropping. Using
her right knee to brace herself and her left foot to kick off, she managed to hoist
herself up onto the rock. Then, once she was securely on the rock, she was able
to pull herself up over the cliff’s edge. She made it!

Breathless now and
caked with dirt, Abbi grabbed a small tree branch to use as a walking stick. She
hobbled a short distance to the beginning of the zipline. From here she would
get her bearings and be able to return to the SUV.

She checked the
time. She was running over by just a few minutes but was still a quarter of a
mile from the road. Big Sam would be worried. She pulled out her phone.

“A little mishap
but doing fine here,” Abbi said for the benefit of those back waiting in the
SUV. “Had a little altercation with the zipline, but I won! I’ll see you in
about five minutes!”

Abbi wanted to run
to make up for lost time! She couldn’t. Knowing that she wouldn’t be getting
out of the wooded area on time kept her focused and moving although the physical
challenges of the zipline and crawling up onto the cliff had exhausted her. She
caught her breath and rested for one final brief moment. She did some quick
calculations to get back to each waypoint then to the road, the SUV, and her
friends.

She reached for
her GPS to check her course, only to find that she must have dropped it down into
the ravine during her struggle on the zipline.

Pulling all her
patience together, she studied her surroundings and started making her way out
of the woods, lumbering awkwardly up the hilly terrain, this time following her
own “shine”, the stirred path she had made on her way to the drop zone. When
she found the slimy culvert, she felt relief and pulled herself up through it
by using the nylon cord she had left behind, loving herself for having thought
of using the cord to get through it. The slime was so thick that it made the
culvert a slippery slide. She pulled and crawled on her knees and avoided
kicking with her right foot.

After Abbi made it
through the culvert, she removed her muddy, slime-covered gloves and grabbed
her water bottle. She took a sip, swished it around in her mouth, and then downed
the bottle. She left her harness on, also encrusted with mud and slime, hoping
to save some time. The gloves helped her get through the briars faster.

 The mission had
taken its toll. She felt exhausted. Her right ankle and foot were swelling. The
shoe was tight. She could feel a blister that formed on her left heel.

Abbi peered
through her binoculars. Before she could spot the SUV, she could hear Louise
talking, probably flirting with Scott. Thoughts of Lowell entered her
subconscious mind. Determined, she stood up with the aid of her walking stick
and continued on her trek.