Blake read from his scanner. “Got it, loud and clear — five miles due east.” He looked up and frowned. “But that would put it near the water at that far rock face, or maybe, in the rock face.”
Casey exhaled through compressed lips. “Must be on the shoreline, then… still hidden.” She turned. “What, you thought it was going to be easy?” She lifted her scope again, moving it over the jungle. “If our Chinese friends survived, I’m betting that’s where they’re gonna end up.”
Rinofsky also waved a small box over the edge. “Whoowee, I’ve got so many life signs, I might as well be pointing this at the San Diego Zoo.”
“Great.” Casey turned to Aimee. “Good to be home?”
Aimee shook her head, her eyes focused on the water in the distance. Casey leaned out over the edge, and then whistled. “That is one helluva long way down.”
Hagel stood beside her, also leaning out. “Stuck up on a cliff wall.”
Franks looked up. “Make that, in a cliff wall.”
They were about half the way up the sheer wall of granite, with about a thousand feet to the jungle below. Further along the wall waterfalls fell slowly, most turning to mist before they ever struck the ground. Some had huge torrents pouring out and turning into rivers that wound their way towards the sea in the distance.
“Grab my belt.” Franks began to lean out even further, and Hagel hung on so she could gain an extra few feet.
Aimee watched as Hagel’s lips curled just a fraction, and saw Rinofsky look hard at him from under lowered brows.
“Okay,” Casey said, and Hagel pulled her back.
“Going to be tough, but doable.” She walked a few feet into the cave mouth and into the center of the group. “This wall is Swiss cheese. It’s riddled with holes and caves. It’s a sheer cliff, but with all the pockmarks in it, I reckon we can lower someone down to the next cave. Some places we can scale down.” She bobbed her head. “I’m sure we can ease the non-climbers down a bit.”
Jennifer Hartigan briefly stepped forward, before quickly stepping back. “I don’t think I can do that.”
Hagel nodded and confected a concerned look. “Good idea, you wait here for rescue team.” He lifted his brows in surprise. “Hey, I just remembered; we are the rescue team.”
“You can do it,” Aimee told her. “I’m scared witless of heights, but I’d be more worried about staying behind if I was you.” She turned to Casey. “Have we got enough rope?”
Big Ben Jackson shook his head. “I got nothing. Dawks, Jennifer?”
Both Dawkins and Jennifer shrugged.
“We’ve got a hundred feet, from each of us,” Casey said. “That gives us four hundred; maybe just enough.”
“Ah, boss, make that three hundred.” Rinofsky grimaced. “I never recovered mine.”
“What?” Casey’s brows went up. “You can fucking climb like a mountain goat. How the hell did you not recover that loop?”
Rinofsky hiked massive shoulders, looking pained. Aimee could tell he was concealing something.
Franks ground her teeth. “I ought to make you go back and get it. Why didn’t you climb back up like you were ordered? And why the fuck didn’t you even tell me?”
“Ah, shit.” Rinofsky stared off into the dark momentarily. “There was…” He grimaced. “There was something, ah, there was something that had hold of it. And I saw…”
In two paces Casey was in front of him, grabbing his arm and turning the huge man around, her eyes blazing. She grabbed his suit front and dragged him further into the cave and away from the others. She hung on, pulling him close, near nose-to-nose.
“Listen mister, you came back from the chute white as a fucking sheet. What the fuck happened back there?”
Rhino shook his head. “Bad shit.”
Casey gabbed him with both hands and shook. “Soldier, what… did… you… fucking… see?”
Rhino yanked himself from Casey’s hands, and held fists up on each side of his head.
“I dunno, I dunno what I saw. Something… nothing.” He looked up, his expression pained. “When I got to the bottom of the chute, I think there was someone still up at the rim.” He shook his head again. “They were just fucking with me.”
“Someone? Someone was just fucking with you? What the hell does that mean?” Her voice seethed with fury.
“Jesus.” He grimaced. “They pulled the rope up, slow like. And…” He grinned, confused. “And they rolled a freaking head down at me.”
There was a snigger from out of the dark. “Did you just say, they rolled a head at you?” Hagel, now listening, brayed with laughter. “Goddamn, now I’ve heard everything.”
Casey ignored Hagel to stare for several more seconds into Rhino’s face. “Ah, for fuck’s sake, you big moose. You thought this was best kept to yourself?” Casey’s teeth were bared as she stared up into the face nearly a foot above her. “Someone is jerking you round, and you run like a school kid? I oughta make you…”
She walked off a few paces before coming back in and glaring up at him. The big HAWC’s face was twisted in agitation. At last she just shook her head.
“Fuck it, we’re outta here.” She looked at each member. “We need to be down, and fast.”
Aimee took another peek over the edge and blanched.
Casey half smiled. “Now’s the time to stomach some risks.” She showed her teeth. “Because we don’t really have a fucking choice.”
She turned to walk back to the edge and then leaned out. “Unfortunately, the first part looks like it’s a real kicker with few handholds, then a straight drop for about eighty feet down to the next cave. Means we’re gonna lose a third of our rope straight up.” Casey eased back. “Blake.” She turned. “Find me a tie off.”
Blake quickly removed a rope from his pack, and found a jagged tooth of granite jutting from the cave floor. He tied it off and then tossed the end over the cliff edge. He then stripped off his backpack, and placed it on the cave edge, just under the rope.
Casey looked down, judging distances for a few seconds. She picked up the rope and yanked it a few times. She didn’t bother tying herself off, but instead turned and gripped the rope tightly, her heels now over the edge.
“Rhino, make sure people who need to be secured, are secured.”
The big man nodded. “Got it.”
Casey eased out. “Give me five to check the next cave and make sure there are no surprises.” She grinned. “And if there are, well, you all try another route.” She winked at Jennifer and began to walk backwards.
The group surged forward and some of them got down on their bellies to watch Casey descend. Aimee crushed her eyes shut, feeling her stomach flip and her head spin. Heights — she hated them. She blinked again and tried to focus just on Casey and not the hundreds of feet drop that she’d also be expected to scale down any minute.
Aimee brought one arm up to wipe her forehead. In another few seconds, Casey was already close to the end of the rope, and started to use her legs to push herself one way and then the other until she began to swing and run across the face of the wall. Just watching it made Aimee feel ill, but in another moment, the female HAWC stretched out and caught hold of the side of a new cave, and then pulled herself in.
Casey reappeared to lean out and give them a thumbs-up. Rinofsky stepped forward, and then turned to Ben Jackson, the equally big McMurdo soldier.
“That means you’re up next, big guy. We’ll need your long arms down there.”
Jackson simply nodded and walked to the edge, picking up the rope, turning, and then walking backwards. The rope popped and strained, and Rinofsky laid a hand on it, feeling the tension.