chapter 49
TEAM 1 & 2, YEAR: 1200
Time Remaining: 1 hour, 53 minutes
When the group from the lake returned to camp, it was to cheers and applause. Tyler held the gun he had recovered over his head like a well-earned prize.
A flicker of cautious hope returned to the team, despite the acute awareness of the numerous obstacles that still lay ahead. The tripod from the gun that Tyler had retrieved was still missing, as was the remote control. And the guns still had yet to be tested. After choking down a quick breakfast of oatmeal with leftover nuts and dehydrated banana chips, the teams broke out again in pairs to search for the last tripod and remote.
The morning progressed with little success, and at eight o’clock, Riley called off the search; there was still a lot of work to be done. The tunnel still needed to be prepped for the post-op blasting. In addition, Riley worried that creating a new tripod and remote control would take more time than they had left.
Jake, Clint and Lexi began prepping the tunnel for blasting, relieving Ben and Maya from their sentry duty. Ben returned to the camp with a plan in mind for the construction of a replacement remote control and the pair dove into the snacks that Darren had brought to the work shed. Ben grabbed a stack of sandwiches, stuffed several rice cakes into his mouth and watched as Tyler carried out his instructions for disassembling Mole2’s control console to scavenge pieces for a new remote control.
By ten o’clock, Finn had two of the three guns working again. The guns Riley and Tyler had retrieved from the water sustained no lasting damage and worked after a thorough drying. Finn had repaired the broken cartridge clip of the third gun; however, the gun now ran intermittently. Unsure of what else may have been done to it, he disassembled and reassembled the gun three times with no hint of where the problem lay.
After poring over the gun’s schematics for what seemed like the tenth time, Finn located the issue. As he was explaining to Riley how he needed to adjust the cartridge contact, Darren burst into the work shed carrying the last tripod. She had never seen the quiet and laid-back, gourmet chef move so quickly outside of his kitchen.
“I found it in the bushes behind the food pantry. I thought I’d go through the pantry one last time to see if I missed anything good and something shiny in the bushes caught my eye. I took a closer look and there it was.”
Riley, Finn and Owen set up the three guns and the three tripods in the testing tank. The vandalized tripod sported metal splints that reinforced the legs that had been bent back into shape. After a quick test, the output capacity of all three registered as fully operational. Riley heaved a sigh of relief.
As they entered the testing tank to collect the guns, Ben emerged from the work shed limping along slowly with Tyler in tow, his hands black and his face smudged. Ben tossed Riley a small, black metal box with a square, faded red button on the top that read “Emergency Stop” encased with a clear plastic cover to keep the button from being pressed accidentally. She recognized it as one of the Mole’s kill switches from inside the control room.
“Is this what I think it is?”
Ben nodded. “We had to scavenge some parts from Mole2, but I suspect we’ll be forgiven.”
Riley found the new remote control in the menu of her Icomm contacts and chuckled when she saw the name Ben had given it, “Ben & Tyler’s Boom Box.” She synced the guns to the remote control and they prepared to run one final test. She held the remote control out to Ben. “I think you should have the honours,” said Riley.
Ben took the box but handed it to Tyler. “I just gave the orders. Tyler’s the one who had to crawl around in the Mole’s grubby console for an hour.”
Tyler laughed and wiped his hands on his pants. He took the remote control from Ben. “You’re right about that.”
On Riley’s count, Tyler hit the button and all three guns fired. Finn let out a whoop when the MultiMatter Scanner reported that all three guns were properly synced and still operating as expected.
The two teams journeyed down the tunnel to complete the final set-up before the timeshift. Riley, Owen and Finn each took a zeno ray gun and spread out along the perimeter of the white stones that lit the underground space with its pulsing, snowy-white glow. They steadied the tripods on the jagged floor and trained the weapons on the heaping mass. Finn set the testing tank on the floor at the base of the incline. He propped up the MultiMatter Scanner on the inside the tank, ready and waiting to record the blast.
With all of their work now complete, with the exception of the detonation itself, Riley expected to feel a small sense of relief at this stage, but anxiety gripped her unlike anything she had ever experienced. She looked at Jake and saw her sentiments mirrored back in his eyes. The rest of the morning had progressed alarmingly well. No bizarre occurrences, no strange visitors. Now at crunch time, the tension was palpable.
Finn passed Riley the remote control and she dropped it into one of the many utility pockets on her cargo pants. She slid the zipper shut and tapped the bulge twice for good measure. “I guess all we can do now is wait.”
“We’ve got a few minutes to kill before the timeshift. I thought that before we head up to Mole Control to watch the action, I’d say a few things,” said Jake, “I know I’m a man of few words, and the ones I do say aren’t always the right ones,” he looked at Lexi, who smiled warmly. “But I wanted to tell you all how great you’ve been, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of…”
“Jake, sorry to interrupt,” said Riley, looking around. “Where’s Clint?”
Everybody looked around as if on cue, Clint would pop out from behind the pile of Elevanium.
“Maybe he’s packing his stuff?” Lexi asked.
Riley swore under her breath. “No one was supposed to be alone.”
“We got split up when Ben pulled me away to build the remote control,” said Tyler. “The last time I saw him, he said he was going to help Jake and Lexi set up the explosives.”
“Which he did, and then he left. He said he’d forgotten some tools. He said he’d call you and Ben to meet him at the tunnel entrance,” said Jake.
Both Ben and Tyler shook their head. “I never heard from him,” said Ben.
Jake called Clint repeatedly over the com-sys. No response.
“Ben, Maya, Darren, stay outside the entrance of this tunnel. If anything comes near it, I want it incapacitated. I don’t care if it’s a freaking squirrel.” Riley stormed up the long ascent toward the camp. Owen zipped up behind her on his crutches, following in her wake.
Jake felt uneasy as he and the others caught up with Riley leaving the tunnel. Something felt wrong, and his mind flooded with every possible scenario imaginable. Had his decision to let Clint out of the cube been a mistake? Had Clint been biding his time until this very moment to sabotage the operation after all? Is he in on it with this other person? Is that how they’ve been able to survive here for six months? No. Clint’s honesty has been proven time and time again. This is just a coincidence. He wanted to believe there was a logical explanation, but a nagging feeling tugged at him and his mind circled back to the worst possible scenarios.