Kill Zone

41

Climbing the crane’s high boom toward the cavern ceiling, Adonia gripped a horizontal strut as she paused to catch her breath. They were nearly to the end, high enough now that the elevated metal walkway ran ten feet below.

“We can lower ourselves and drop safely to the catwalk,” she said.

Garibaldi paused, looking down and breathing hard. “It’s a narrow target. If we miss, that’s a long way to fall.…”

Shawn sounded encouraging. “After what you’ve done today, Dr. Garibaldi, this will be a piece of cake.”

“Yes, piece of cake.” He sounded intensely weary. “I prefer cookies.”

Though he shouldn’t be feeling direct effects yet from the severe radiation exposure, he already looked weak. His red and blistered hands grew more inflamed by the minute, making the rigorous climb an excruciating activity. But the older scientist did not complain. He flexed his fingers and winced. “After all this effort, it would be embarrassing for us all if the pool wall failed and a random neutron set off one of those warheads anyway.”

Adonia forced a smile for his sake. “Are you suggesting we’re unlucky?”

“We’ve already used up all our bad luck for one day,” Shawn said. He looped the rope around the metal lattice, secured the line, and handed Adonia the doubled end. “Wrap it around your waist, and I can lower you to the catwalk.”

Adonia shook her head. “It’s not that far, and we don’t have time. I’ll just shimmy down the line, and then I can hold the rope steady from the catwalk. Dr. Garibaldi may need the help.”

The scientist heaved a deep breath and also waved the rope away. “If I fall, I fall. It’s only ten feet to the walkway — unless I miss. Then it’s a lot farther to the floor. I’ll take my chances.”

Grasping the rope, Adonia swung out above the catwalk and kept her focus on the corrugated steel walkway just below. She worked her way down the rope, and then let herself drop the last two feet, rattling the metal as she landed barefoot on the grid. She winced, but after climbing the crane’s boom for so long, it felt good to stand on a flat surface rather than trying to balance on metal struts. She held the end of the rope steady. “Come on, Dr. Garibaldi.”

He painstakingly lowered himself, finally sliding the rest of the way down. His knees buckled as he landed on the catwalk, but Adonia grabbed him, steadied him. He brushed himself off to recover his dignity.

Shawn followed, hand over hand, joining them on the metal grid, before he pulled the doubled rope down and coiled it over his shoulder. “Head for the ladder.”

Adonia used the diagonal catwalk as a switchback to move across the cavern, padding gingerly along. She did not look down through the open gridwork to see the empty gulf below them. Garibaldi plodded forward, keeping his head down, and she worried how he would be able to climb the vertical shaft into the ceiling once they got up the ladder. She hoped the actual exit from the cavern wasn’t too far above.…

If nothing else, Shawn could climb swiftly ahead, get out of the Mountain, and sound the alarm. Adonia doubted he would be willing to leave the two of them behind, but what mattered most was that someone managed to get out and alert the response teams to the looming disaster inside the massive grotto.

She reached an intersection with the next catwalk and climbed the connecting stairs, heading up toward the middle of the ceiling. Far below, she could see the half-finished in-ground cooling pools amid construction supplies, everything blanketed with a yellowish mist of knockout gas. She reassured herself that the above-ground pool remained plugged with its macabre patch.

Even though water was no longer draining out, the fallen and damaged fuel rods had substantially increased the ambient radiation levels in the chamber. Maybe their efforts minimized the possibility of setting off the Velvet Hammer warheads, but the risk still remained. It seemed like weeks ago that Mrs. Garcia had given her spontaneous tutorial of how neutrons could be reflected, absorbed, and re-radiated until they struck a critical target.

Adonia stopped at the ladder that hung down from an access hatch in the rock ceiling, the only way to reach the shaft drilled up toward the top of Hydra Mountain. They would have to climb the thirty feet on the open, unsupported metal steps. “I feel like we’ve all joined the circus. I knew I should have taken those trapeze lessons.”

Shawn grasped a rung at shoulder height and rattled the hanging ladder. “I’ll climb first and open the hatch. Adonia, help Dr. Garibaldi up the ladder.”

“I’m fine,” the scientist protested unconvincingly. “Don’t let me slow you down. This is too important.”

Adonia lifted her eyebrows. “Shawn, you know I don’t have the strength to haul him up, rung by rung, if he needs it. Let me open the access hatch while you secure him with the line. I’ll take the other end of the rope with me, as security.” She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “You know I’m right.”

Shawn pushed her gently forward after handing her one end of the rope. “You usually are.”

She tied the rope around her waist. “I’ll secure it to something stable once I open the hatch.” She grasped the ladder’s thin metal sides and gave it a shake, not impressed with its sturdiness. “On top of everything else, I’m going to have Rob Harris write up a safety violation for this ladder once we get out of here.”

Garibaldi coughed as he tried to stop laughing.

With the rope trailing at her side, she climbed the ladder, didn’t look down, didn’t look back. Staring only at her hands, she relaxed into a clockwork motion of reach, step, reach, step, and soon found herself at the granite ceiling. The round access hatch rotated up into the shaft; a lever on the door served as a handle.

Keeping a hand on the ladder, she reached up and grabbed the lever, tried to turn the handle — and the lever didn’t move at all. She grunted and tried harder, but still nothing. Her heart pounded. After all this, they were stymied by a stuck handle?

Trying not to panic, she inspected the area around the lever, dreading that a padlock might secure the hatch — which made no sense at all, but considering the intersecting red tape of the classified SAPs, she wouldn’t have been surprised if some mid-level clerk had added a lock for “extra security.”

She struggled again to turn the handle, and in the process, pushed straight up. A spring-loaded mechanism popped, released the latch, and the metal hatch swung up into the shaft, recessed into the rock wall. “Oh,” she said, embarrassed as she realized that the handle was only necessary to pull the hatch back down into place.

She climbed two more rungs and poked her head into the vertical shaft bored up through the rock ceiling. Four metal ducts vented into the shaft, directed upward. She could smell the residue of stale, oily fumes; this must be where the diesel exhaust from the crane engine and other heavy machinery was vented.

LED lights ran up opposite walls of the shaft and disappeared high above, showing an endless line of steel rungs that went up to a vanishing point. Safety mesh lined the shaft’s inner walls to keep dislodged rocks and debris from tumbling into the cavern. The walls and rungs were covered with layers of grime, dust, and dark grease. Adonia couldn’t guess the last time anyone had entered the shaft.

Shawn called from below. “Everything all right?”

She untied the rope around her waist, looped it around the lowest two rungs in the shaft, and securely tied it. She gave it a quick yank and climbed back down far enough to poke her head out. “Ready. The line’s secure.”

From below, Shawn gave it a tug, then turned to the weary scientist, securing him with the rope. “Up you go, sir. Hold on to that ladder.” With a grunt, Garibaldi began the thirty-foot climb on the open ladder toward the rock ceiling, rung over rung. Keeping two rungs behind, Shawn called up. “I’ll follow him, Adonia. You keep climbing, and we’ll be right behind you. I’ll close the access hatch after I’m inside.”

Adonia started up the metal rungs, giving the other two enough room to follow her. The lines of LED lights converged high above her head, but since she had no points of reference, she couldn’t gauge how high the shaft actually went. Somewhere up there the shaft had to vent to the outside. When she’d first arrived at the guard gate that morning, she remembered how high and rugged Hydra Mountain had seemed.

They might really have some climbing to do.

A loud feedback noise squealed throughout the underground cavern, a clicking sound, then another sharp staccato of feedback boomed from old-fashioned facility loudspeakers mounted on the rocky walls.

Garibaldi hung on to a rung, pausing. “The intercom system must be active now. Harris is trying to contact us.”

“About time,” Shawn said. “If the intercoms are working again, maybe the reboot is almost over.”

But none of them were prepared to hear the voice that came over the loudspeakers.