“All good.” He sized up the remaining team members. Still to go was the wiry Dawkins, Blake, Soong, Aimee, and Jennifer, and…
“Hey!” Rhino yelled as Hagel leaned out, and then disappeared around the outside of their cave. Aimee looked across to see the young HAWC just using his fingers and toes to scale the sheer face. He looked back and grinned.
“Haven’t got all day, losers. See you down there.”
“Break a leg,” Dawkins whispered, his mouth turned down, his chipped tooth resting on his bottom lip. They watched Hagel clamber out and across as if he was only a few feet from his back lawn.
Rhino gave him a minute, and then motioned to Jennifer. The woman grimaced, and Rhino removed a length of material from his pack, and tied one end of the material around the rope in a looping knot. “This is an arbor knot.” He tied the other end around Jennifer’s wrist. “You should be able to climb down by yourself, but if you slip,” — he tugged on the material and it immediately tightened and gripped the rope — “then this will catch you. You can’t fall. You’ll be fine, okay?”
She nodded jerkily. Rhino grabbed her and looked into her face. “Just concentrate on the rope, the rock wall, and Lieutenant Franks… and nothing else. Got it?”
Jennifer nodded and he pushed her out. It took ages, but she eventually made it level with Casey. Then it was Soong’s turn and then Aimee’s.
“You’re up, Doc.” Rhino held out one big hand.
Aimee exhaled and got to her feet, but felt her legs wobble. Rinofsky looped the slipknot over her wrist. He placed large hands on her shoulders and looked into her face.
“Just on the rope, just on the wall, and just on me — nothing else.”
And then she was over the edge — one hand after the other, concentrating on the rock face. She noticed the fine grain in the rock, the spots of lichen and mosses like tiny corals embedded in tiny cracks. In a damp pocket, there was something that looked like lice that scurried in and out of the moisture. She focused on the rock wall as she descended, one hand after the other, over and over. There was a piece of crystal embedded in the rock, or maybe it was diamond. A crazy thought of stopping to dig it out entered her head. Forget it, keep going, and don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop, she kept repeating.
Her shoulders screamed and her hands were becoming slick. Aimee chanced a look back up — Rhino was just a dot above her now, but he had started to swing her. Her stomach flipped as she yawed against the cliff face.
“Reach out… nearly got you.”
“Huh?” Aimee spun her head. Casey was only a few feet away, reaching out. Aimee pushed with her legs, one way and then the next, until Casey grabbed her and dragged her in.
Casey slapped her on the back, and Aimee staggered away from the edge to sit down. Jennifer held out a water bottle that she took gratefully.
In another few minutes Blake swung in, followed by Rhino.
Ben Jackson stuck his head out. “Yo, Dawkins, hustle it up.”
John Dawkins, the smallest, was the last to go. He nimbly started down the rope.
Jackson grinned as he continued to watch his smaller friend. “Hurry up, Dawks… no time for sightseeing.”
Still fifty feet up from the new cave mouth, the McMurdo soldier just seemed to hang for a moment, his head tilted upwards as if watching something. Then, while they watched, he lifted back up a few feet.
“What the hell?” Casey leaned out further.
“What’s he think he’s doing?” Big Ben Jackson turned to the group and then leaned out past Casey. “Dawkins, John, you okay up there, buddy?”
The man just hung on, his neck craned as he stared up the rope.
Jackson shook his head. “Something’s up, he wouldn’t freeze. He knows how to climb, and he ain’t scared of heights.”
Aimee hung onto Jackson’s arm and peered around him. Unbelievably, Dawkins started to rise.
“Is he climbing back up?” Jennifer rose up on her toes, trying her best to see.
“Fuck no, not again,” Rinofsky said softly.
Casey Franks turned to glare at him for a second, before watching the McMurdo soldier rise slowly on the rope.
“Is it the Chinese?” Jennifer asked.
Casey edged out further, lifting an arm and looking like she planned to try and make a leap for the tip of the rope.
“Don’t.” Blake grabbed her and held on.
Dawkins suddenly seemed jolted into action, and began to climb down as fast as the rope was being reeled in. But in a few moments he came to the end, and hung on, looking across at the sheer granite wall, searching for something to grab onto. There was nothing, and no choice but to let himself be pulled to the upper cave mouth.
Dawkins soon reached the lip and stuck there, staring for several seconds, seeming to look deep into the cave, and then he simply pushed backwards, into space, and just… fell.
The soldier didn’t make a sound, but as his body passed them, gathering speed, the split second glimpse of his face showed wide eyes and teeth grit in a rictus of pure terror.
They watched his body plummet to the ground. Casey blinked several times, her mouth open. “He fucking jumped?” She shook her head. “Why the fuck would he jump?” She backed up, her fists balled.
Aimee saw that Hank Rinofsky had turned away, one fist held up to his mouth. She looked back down at the jungle that had swallowed Dawkins’s body. There was no trace. After another moment, she turned away.
“He jumped because he decided it was better than facing what he saw in the cave.” Aimee felt ill. The cold knot was in her stomach again. “God help us.”
“Dawks is no coward.” Ben Jackson grimaced as he stared down into the vegetation hundreds of feet below. “No way would he kill himself.”
“Yes, he would. Anyone would… anyone.” Aimee folded her arms tight against her body, and shut her eyes. “You guys read the report, but didn’t actually learn a damned thing, did you?” She turned to look at Casey. “This is no dumb animal. It’s playing with us. It’s probably known mankind for years, maybe hundreds or thousands of years. The people who used to live here had a name for it. They called it the Qwo-to-oan.”
“I think I heard of that,” Hagel said.
“We need to wake up, real quick,” Aimee said, looking at each of them. “Because this thing is big, smart, and we’re right in its home.”
“Jesus Christ.” Hagel glared at Casey Franks. “We’re fucked.”
“Shut the hell up.” Casey glared right back.
“Oh, okay, we’re all fine then.” Hagel’s face twisted as he walked away shaking his head.
Casey’s face was furious, but it relaxed and she exhaled long and loud. “So, this is our job. This is what we do. We’ve had to deal with worst case scenarios before.” She looked along their faces. “And this is one of them.”
“I musta missed that briefing,” Ben Jackson said. He sighed and shook his head. “Fuck it, we’re all in the same boat now.”
The group, bar Hagel, crowded in tight, all eyes focused on Casey Franks. Aimee looked over their heads and into the cave depths. There was no light, and no end to its impenetrable darkness. For all she knew there was something back in there, edging forward, sliding silently, its leviathan strength compressed, coiled, and waiting to flex out and then snatch them up.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said softly.
Casey looked from the group to Aimee, and then into the tunnel depths. She nodded. “Blake, tie us off again. This time, I go last.”