The Cupel Recruits (21 page)

“She’ll never do it,” Gabriel advised.

“It may take longer and more prompting, but I think we can steer her in the right direction,” Wood said to Gabriel directly.

“So is this what you do all day? Monitor and guide?”Gabriel asked.

“Pretty much,” Wood confirmed, “It is my present assignment, and I think if we do the right things in the right order, we can get her there.” He tweaked the controls and the screen changed from the cavern view to a fuzzy picture of the mountainside, with the bus going over the guardrail.

“Why are we watching this?” Chandra asked, still somewhat upset by the image on an emotional level though on an intellectual one she understood no harm resulted.

“It’s Lela’s dream. You can suggest directly into dreams. Clearer and more effective overall.” Wood switched down to the direct suggestion box at the bottom of the screen and handed it to Gabriel. “Talk to your sister.”

“Directly to her?” Gabriel confirmed.

“Sure,” Wood answered.

Gabriel spoke, “Lela, it’s Gabriel.” In her dream she saw his hand at the edge of the cliff. He struggled to pull himself back up from the edge and then sat on the edge, feet dangling, with the smashed bus in the ravine far below. Lela rushed to him and slid on her knees.

“Gabriel, oh my God, you’re okay,” she said and hugged her brother.

“We’re all okay, Lela. Me, Mom, Dad, most of the others on the bus,” he advised. She looked over the edge and saw no one else hanging on the cliff face, the bus flames still billowing smoke far below.

“That’s not possible,” she said, “but I’m so glad you’re here. I thought I was all alone.”

“You’re never all alone. I’m not really here, though, I’m there, and so are Mom and Dad, but I came to tell you that and give you a message,” he said. In her heart Lela knew the truth and the sky around Gabriel turned a purple hazy color with a surreal quality.

“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?” she slumped and looked down at her folded hands, dejected.

“Mostly,” he said, “but I am really here, I promise. The people we’re with have been trying to help you, and now I will be helping you. I promise I’ll send signs whenever I can and we are always there.” Gabriel adjusted the controls to keep the frequency aligned and Wood tapped the clock in front of him. Gabriel nodded and resumed.

“Lela, I know this project has the best of intentions. You know I believed in it, but the corporations will break into zones, start border wars and a 30 year continent-wide war will be the outcome. You have to end the project,” he said.

“They have acted so greedy. I know the motives of all the investors aren’t pure,” she conceded, “but we can get them to pay for so much good here.” Her brother’s face became ghostly in front of her.

“They will all die. Find another way. Dismantle the project,” Gabriel said, and then he was gone in the dispersion of a mist. Lela sat on the edge of the cliff, elbows resting on her knees, looking out across the mountain. On the other side she saw a wolf rise from a rock cropping, stop at the ledge and stare directly at her before letting out a loud howl. She jumped and awoke abruptly, still on the floor of the cavern, remembering every detail of the dream as if she lived it. She shivered.

“Are you okay?” Brett asked.

“Yeah. I just had the most realistic dream.” She shrugged it off, not wanting to look upset at seeing the bus go over the rail or seeing her brother. Deep in her gut she had a feeling they were alright, though, but she couldn’t fathom why.

“Waking dreams,” the African guide interjected, “This cavern brings you messages from beyond.” He pointed with one long, outstretched finger cuffed in a Lobi iron snake bracelet toward the small skylight rock opening in the cavern. Suddenly, a wolf appeared and stared directly at her. The wolf was smaller than a North American wolf,
red in color with a black-and-white tail and white blazes on his chest. The white fur on his throat, contrasting with the predominant red color, swept in a curve toward his eyes, a look that would have seemed almost amused but for his intent stare.

“Jesus, is that a wolf?” Kye asked Brett, who had more prior experience in this region.

Brett nodded. “Brought by breeders long ago. Some have survived.” Lela stared at the animal and had a further wrenching in her gut, like the feeling she would have when knowing not to go in a certain direction in the city. It was then she noticed the Wolf staring at her intently had one brown eye and one blue eye. Stunned by the coincidence, she stood up abruptly.

“A sign, I think,” the guide said quietly directly to Lela.

“I don’t believe in signs,” she said flatly, though internally she was not sure. If she hadn’t met Phillip Harriman, or had such a strange feeling, she would easily have dismissed it. Still, her academic brain told her that her grief was driving her to grasp at straws. Textbook reaction, really. She felt confused and instantly thought of calling James. He was her litmus test in uncharted waters. He could help her navigate this. She discarded that idea as easily as she had embraced it. ‘He barely even speaks to me. No way am I playing damsel in distress.’ she thought to herself.

Gabriel shook his head back in the control room. Her stubbornness always had hurt her more than helped her, but the companion traits that accompanied that stubbornness like loyalty, determination and a puritan work ethic served her well.

“She’ll never dismantle a whole project based on some dream,” Gabriel said to Wood and the Molior team. “She’s too pragmatic for that.”

“True,” Saraceni responded, “but we’ve planted a seed.” Wood withdrew his work plan for Lela’s guidance and handed it to Gabriel.

“I think if we execute these steps the right way, we can lead her there.” Wood said, proud of his plan and truly confident in its’ potential for success. He was slightly anxious to hear Gabriel’s thoughts since he knew Gabriel was right-he did know his sister better than anyone. Gabriel intently reviewed the plan. Twice.

“Maybe,” he said slowly as he handed it back.

On the monitor, a loud series of noises could be heard outside the cavern. Lela, Brett, the entire Africa team stood perfectly still and listened as what sounded like voices approaching from the distance.

“We need to assess,” Brett whispered, looking at Kye.

“I will inspect,” the guide said to Brett. Brett knew a native guide would be much more likely to go undetected, blend in with the forest, and not be harmed if found, but he was worried about the departure from the thoroughly-hidden cavern opening.

“I think they may see you exiting. We should just wait here,” Brett responded, for once not entirely convinced of his own decision.

“I walk without sound. No one sees me,” the guide responded.

“Okay,” Brett said, approving the action, and in a moment the man who walked among them that was really Kajika was gone.

“Isn’t he her protection?” Alexander asked, concerned.

“Yes, and he’s doing his job,” Saraceni reassured him.

Lela and the others sat with a stillness approaching perfection, surrounded by the gentle amethyst glow of the sun cascading through the small rooftop opening and bouncing around the mineral walls like electrons within an atom. The vague distant noises drew closer and coalesced into shouting voices and the sound of many footsteps running quickly around the river’s edge. Mako looked at Lance, still clutching one of his colored cubes as if it were a security blanket. Rachel, who had been in the middle of mineral readings, gently flipped off the equipment and sat down next to her brother, Brian, rather than Kye. Brett, Kye, and the three other soldiers gathered around the only entrance in semicircular formation, ready to pick off anyone who entered. That was the one, and only, advantage of their position, aside from being concealed-that if they were discovered, the entrance was so narrow that enemies would be forced to enter one at a time.

The remainder of the science team picked up the assorted weapons they had gathered earlier. At least ¾ of them had large hunting knives, and those who did not held either pieces of metal or sharp-edged hunks of the DL mineral. Tina pulled out a 9mm sidearm and joined the soldiers by the doorway. Brett didn’t move a muscle, but looked at her inquisitively. She shrugged, aware she had flounced the rules of declaring weapons to the head of security-a surly, stout man who worked for Brett while he was temporarily assigned to the camp with Lela. Lela reflected briefly on the fact that less than thirty-six hours earlier she had been comfortably ensconced in her parent’s home, sorting through boxes and taking conference calls on speakerphone with a large glass of iced tea.

The voices drew closer and gunfire could be heard, though it sounded like random shots into the jungle to see if they might hit someone, which was exactly what the rebels were doing. They were firing at random hoping to hear a gasp or moan or shriek that might tell them in which direction the arrogant intruders had fled.

“It looks like they went into the river!” Kye heard one man shout in a local dialect, and whispered the translation to Brett and the others. Lela’s heart skipped a beat, suddenly exhilarated at the prospect of remaining alive. She closed her eyes tightly and thought to herself ‘If we get through this, God, I promise I will never mope around or take my life for granted again.’ she thought intensely and then continued praying to herself with her eyes closed. Many in the room were also praying, in 12 different languages and 6 different religions, all inwardly focused, and all silent, the force and energy of their conviction was almost tangible. In fact, the light of the mineral walls even seemed to grow just a shade brighter.

For a long time, the group heard nothing, but Brett knew it would require several hours and subsequent reports from his scouts before he would even consider relaxing. They continued to sit quietly, but the overall postures did seem to relax. A few people even went to sleep, fueled by their belief that the threat had passed. Just when their relaxation was near complete, they heard a noise outside the entrance to the cavern. Lela wrapped her hand more tightly around her hunting knife. Mako awoke abruptly and appeared alarmed. A few rocks tumbled away from the cavern entrance. Brett and team were poised to strike.

“It is me, the silent one,” the native guide, the unknown Kajika, called out to them. His foot appeared first, followed by his body and finally his head as he contorted his body to move through the narrow partial entrance.

“Quick, replace the entrance cover!” Brett ordered one of his men.

“They are gone. They have moved to the land of the rift valley,” the guide advised.

“Thank you,” Brett answered, truly grateful for the information, “but I would prefer to make sure they have left no individual scouts behind. Our team will sweep the area before anyone from the science team will exit.” Three of them left, replacing the entrance cover, and three remained with the weary camp members.

“Everyone please remain quiet. We will do a sweep of the area and if that’s successful, we can move out to the riverbank.”

“Calls of nature will certainly be easier out there,” Tina added jovially. Lance smirked and waved a jar back and forth to her.

“No problem here! I just scoot around that corner of rock over there and I’m hoooome freeee!” he taunted with his Texas twang.

“Oh, yes, if only I were male-an homage to utilitarian construction,” she quipped back. Rachel laughed quietly, once again retrieving her monitoring instrumentation from the floor of the cavern, where she had placed it neatly on a jacket and covered it as if a delicate infant.

“What have you found so far?” Lela asked her, and the young intern was all too proud to present her project findings to the project lead. Still a freshman in college, Rachel already knew she wanted to do graduate work in geology and thought this project might help boost her credentials for one of the competitive spots at the University of Colorado, one of the top geology programs in the country.

“The readings are very high in the electromagnetic spectrum,” she pointed at the instrumentation, “and look at this-it’s almost 6 times higher in here than when I conducted independent readings of mineral samples back at the camp. Did they come from somewhere else?”

“No,” Lela crinkled her eyes at the data, “those samples came from here.”

“I knew you had found something in this zone!” Lance exclaimed. He turned to Mako and nudged him, which Mako bristled at slightly, not because he didn’t like the man, but because the gesture was too familiar for his taste. “Didn’t I tell you, Mako! That she found something out here?” Mako nodded affirmatively.

**************************

Back in the training room, Wood asked Kyle, viewing the monitor, “Did you get those mineral readings?”

“Yes.” Kyle viewed them and materialized a graph with a wave sin with an occasional peak. He pulled out a small metal clip from the machine and handed it to Wood.

“Would you like me to analyze this?” Wood asked Kyle.

“I just did,” Kyle responded. Wood looked surprised for only a second.

“How?” Wood responded, not grasping how Kyle had just skipped about fifty steps of the process he knew.

“I’ll show you sometime, but right now please take this to the project team. Ruth and Saraceni will be interested to see it, I think,” the teen ordered the hulking man.

“Yes, sir,” Wood responded reflexively, more to the tone than the individual.

“You need data from The Cupel?” Jack asked, “Why don’t you just pull it yourselves?”

“We can’t access everything we need directly, or impact everything we need directly. That’s why we have Kajika and future recruits with assignments there-to get to what we can’t,” Kyle responded.

The camp team stepped one at a time gingerly out of the cavern into the open area near the river’s edge by the cliff’s face.

“You’re clear to come out here, but we need to hug the cliff face for a while and not spread out any farther,” Kye relayed Brett’s instructions to the others. They were relieved to be outside and able to walk around after being huddled inside the cavern for so many hours. The guide sat next to Lela as she assembled the radio equipment, now that they would be able to get a clear satellite line of sight.

“I am thinking the rebels will not stop. They do not like the corporate invasion into their lands,” he reported.

“Don’t they realize we are bringing critical medicines, cleaner water into the interior, and education?” she asked.

“Perhaps the price is too high,” he mused, “They will not give up.” Lela reflected somberly, recalling her dream. She just wanted to help these people, not cause a civil war between those who agreed with the assistance and those who didn’t.

“Those companies do not care about these people.” He was stern. Lela sighed heavily, nodding. She turned to grab an antenna and when she turned back, he was gone. She completed the radio setup and set it aside so it would be ready when the reconnaissance team returned with information to relay to the main security base back in town. Next she turned to her waterproof hardbook computer and was thrilled to see she had two bars of satellite network available, enough to send some email. First, she typed a short paragraph to Pfister back in the states:

Have fled base camp with all camp team members except those remotely stationed. Rebel activity all around. Dangerous. All present here are safe now. Status of remote team members unknown, but security detail is gathering more information. Brett Davies advises we will likely take a boat out of here. Portable equipment with us. Some mineral samples and all project data are with us. All else is left behind at camp. Will call you when we are in the clear -Lela

Lela noticed her incoming mail. Three messages down was JMatthews. ‘James!’ she thought. Somehow, no matter how long it had been since they had spoken, he always knew when she really needed him. The message was not what she expected, though. He seemed to be having a hard time himself, something that he didn’t often share, so she knew it must be troubling indeed for him to admit even a shred of it. James closed the email with, “I miss you and I want to talk to you. When will you be back in the States?” Her heart tugged in a way it only did for James and she realized how much she missed him as well. She knew she couldn’t admit her own circumstances-that she wasn’t sure when she’d be back in the States or if they’d even get out of this mess, though she was more optimistic than earlier, or in fact than she had been since her family had died. She couldn’t worry him when he was already under such heavy stress, though she did not know the details. Lela decided to merely relay that she would find out the schedule as soon as possible and tell him, and that she missed him too. She flipped the keyboard shut with a sense of relief. She wanted to see him. If only their lives could ever be in the same place at the same time.

Brett returned.

“We’re getting out of here. The boats will be here shortly,” he clipped, out of breath from the run back from the scouting. He turned to Kye, “Call in all our men in the area. We’re escorting them to the city and the rest will return to home base.”

“I set up the radio,” Lela reported.

“Thanks,” he replied, “but I used an alternate one.” In four hours time, the boats arrived and the camp members boarded. Lela hesitated.

“We left a lot back at camp. Do you think there’s any chance we can retrieve it?” she asked Brett.

“No,” he said, taking her arm gently and guiding her toward the boat, “The risk is too high.” The boats cruised along the river and Lela was surprised at how choppy the ride was. The river looked more placid from the bank than it actually was, and after some time passed they entered some gentle rapids. The bottom of the boat could be heard scraping over rocks as they navigated some of the more narrow passages between rock formations.

“Everybody hold on tight!” the captain yelled, ‘We’re about to head into the roughest part, and you don’t want to fall in or those hippos by the banks will be very interested in meeting you!” He pointed toward the bank where several hippopotamus sat in the water, just the tips of their heads and nostrils peering out. If they’d not been pointed out, Lela wasn’t even sure she would have seen them. Everyone grabbed a tight hold on the center line rope woven through some metal eyes on the boats decks. Brett and the other soldiers wrapped the rope around their left forearm three times, and continued to brandish their rifles in their right hand, constantly scanning the area for any signs of rebel threat.

The boat hit the rapids and bounced at least four feet in the air. Lela felt her body leave the deck by about a foot for an instant and then descend, not exactly slamming into the deck, but not a gentle replacement either. She spread her feet to the left and right slightly, distributing her weight and pressing the side of her right foot against the inner wall of the boat.

“Do this!” she yelled to the line of people to her left and pointed at her feet. Those on the left side of the boat secured their weight in similar fashion and pressed their left feet against the boat’s inner wall, and then all those present pressed against each other shoulder to shoulder toward the center of the boat. None too soon, because the boat hit a hard rock edge and bounced very high, and the camp team inside the boat bounced 3-4 feet in the air. Two near the outer edges almost bounced out, but their feet caught on the top lip of the inner wall, and those nearest to them grabbed their inner arms and pulled them back to the deck. This continued for 5 minutes or so, and then the boats entered more placid water. Everyone was soaked, and the water was colder than expected, but otherwise fine. They relaxed.

“Any more like that expected, Captain?” Brett yelled, not wanting them to relax too much if the respite was merely a temporary one.

“There are more in the waters far east of town, but we’ll be docking before we hit the next set of large rapids. There may still be a bit of chop, so stay secured, but it shouldn’t be too uncomfortable. The boat bobbed up and down repetitively, almost a perfect cadence in a dance with the surrounding wildlife. One of the scientists became seasick and stood up, racing to the edge to vomit overboard.

“Get away from there! Vomit in the pail!” a crewman yelled, but it was too late. The boat hit a smaller bump which otherwise would have been uneventful, but with the man leaning far over the edge, the slight pitch sent him overboard. He was in the water and they were 200 meters past him before they could even cut the engine. The man was being swept in the opposite direction by the downstream current quickly, and they lost sight of him briefly before his head popped up and he instinctively grabbed a nearby branch, flailing for a grasp at anything. The second boat, nearly hitting into the back of the first, managed to steer to the side enough for the first boat to move in reverse to the left of it, but there was insufficient room to actually turn the entire boat around due to the narrow width of the river where they were in comparison to the boat’s length. They moved in reverse steadily, but the man was at least 400 meters away. Brian noticed the hippos open their mouths wide and tapped his sister. Rachel grabbed Kye’s vest and pointed. The entire boat watched as two of the hippos then turned around toward the man in the water. It was a race between the boat and the hippos and from the present speeds of both, it appeared the boat would lose by a narrow margin. Brian jumped up abruptly.