53 Miles West of Venus Ch. 06

"No, I agree ... we're going to keep that situation as simple as possible. I've already had very quiet private words with a few select people about sneaking out right after the usual Sunday night 'family time'. Everyone with any sense has sensed that something is up, but I'd really like to pretend that everything is exactly as normal ... and that means board games tonight, starting in about an hour."

"Ok, then so it's just a few of us then crawling through collapsing innately hazardous tunnels in the dark for days? Good ... that was hairy the one time I did it three years ago and reminded me of some nastier exercises in back in Ranger School. It wasn't a 'safe' route then and who knows what happened since then! It's not for everyone. Ok then, I'll just hang out, play nice and act like fluff on my lovers' arms ... plural. So, if I whisper some really nasty suggestions into your ear, know that I mean them ... especially if we're soon going to be alone trapped together in the dark for quite possibly all eternity!"

Now that was a rather interesting and pleasant thought!

Game night in Ops was sort of a legacy carry-over from the earlier Littlejohn years in the crater when we had a much larger mining staff, many with dependent families living onsite. Sunday was 'family night' with desserts and a variety of games for the kids, a casual way for folks to relax and bond a bit together. Phyl still had her full staff of two deputy assistants plus the four security contractors and they now quite outnumbered the remaining mine staff contingent. Besides Fredericka, it was just Peggy, Cherry and Claire left now. None of them were really in the mood for board games, or even much in the way of conversation, but we played a couple anyway.

Peggy was jumpier than a cat trapped in a room full of running vacuum cleaners and Claire kept nervously emptying and resorting out the contents of her purse. Cherry just kept checking her watch and deep sighing every fifteen minutes or so as if she was missing her favorite TV program. As for Fredi, she knew that her hours here were numbered and that since her project was done that she was probably going home, once again unemployed early tomorrow morning. Frankly, she looked like she was on the verge of tears for the entire evening.

Claire is by far the most competitive of the women and always has to win, even at board games. Especially board games. We don't ever play Monopoly with her anymore ... it just gets too violent! Since the board games weren't distracting anyone tonight, we soon switched to card games, including her favorite Spades, but she wasn't her usual focused vicious self. She could sense I think that tonight we didn't much care and everyone was just going through the motions. We tried to let her win anyway, just to cheer her up but it didn't really work.

Early, even by our recent standards, folks began calling it quits for the night and began shuffling off. We switched to Hearts and Claire, Phyl, Fredi and I played alone four-handed for the next two hours with slightly more enjoyment. Claire soon didn't need our help to start regularly winning and even Fredi started to manage a faint smile on occasion. It helped that she and Phyl were playing footsie under the table with each other too.

About eleven o'clock we moved the card game upstairs to security and switched to Poker, alas not of the strip variety. I love the game and can bluff with the very best. I placed third once at a fairly major weekend poker tournament in Las Vegas, even with stone cold card luck plaguing me for most of the weekend. Phyl and Claire are both good too, but it was Fredi's skill at the game that really surprised me. She just had obscene card-luck, able to draw that third king or lucky seven needed to finish out a straight. If she could have managed a passable bluff she could have cleaned the table on us, but I could spot her tells nearly right from the start.

By one in the morning the geologist and the industrial chemist were nearly deadlocked, each holding the majority of the chips and the game was starting to get downright deliciously vicious when Adam Warlock let out a rather loud moan and started to murmur something about the 'wind spirits'. Yeah, he did this sort of thing all the time ... but that didn't mean that there weren't any evil air spirits out there!

Phyl took a break to try and settle down her flakey paranormally sensitive night watchman and Claire took the opportunity to run downstairs to the restroom. Security has everything else up here but not its own toilet. Fredi looked suddenly scared and nervous enough to piss her jeans, but she said she didn't need to go too ... well much anyway.

The Warlock let out another howl and Phyl swears that his eyes rolled back into his head showing just the whites and he growled in a voice that was not entirely his own, "The dark ones are approaching!" Then he pretty much fell flat forward and would have landed head-first right on his face if Phyl hadn't caught him.

"Well that was something completely different," I muttered, helping Phylicity carry her guardsman over to the nearest chair. "Do we have incoming?"

"Let's see," she muttered, stepping over to the monitors to refresh the security camera views. "Want me to go active for just a minute? I think there's something on the passive sensors but it's not definite. A bit too far out maybe. Just a ping or two?" Yeah, we'd all watched Hunt for Red October and Dune a time or two too many.

"Go for it, ping away ... just don't light up the whole sky like it's downtown Bagdad. Let's not announce that we've got the welcome mat all spread out for them just yet.

"One ping ... got it ... confirm Worm-Sign!" Yeah, we'd all watched Hunt for Red October and Dune together a time or two too many on movie night. "Two helicopters coming in together from the southwest with another about a minute or two behind them in reserve. Lead ones are about two minutes out, one's maybe a heavy lift bird with a probable loadout of six to ten operators, maybe some ordinance delivery or close support capability too. Don't want to find out..."

"Not going to happen. What's on the roads? They'll probably bring in some grunts too for a coordinated air-ground assault."

"Not in sight yet but the west view down the county road shows three sets of big headlights inbound. Big SUV's or maybe even a truck like a deuce-and-a-half. Probably still another minute or so down from the ranch road turn-off. Looking Code Red to you?"

"Bright fire engine red. Let's do it and blow this joint!" Phyl smiled evilly and Fredi just blinked at us with confusion. I'm sure that she thought my comment was merely figurative.

"Come-on sweet cheeks," Phyl said grabbing Fredi's arm to yank her up from the chair. "Time for one last trip down to Love Beach, for most of us anyway." I think it was then that she noticed that Phyl had a gun in her hand poked right into our spy's ribs. "Come on Adam!" she yelled, sparing a moment to slap the semi-faint Warlock's face rather sharply. It did get his eyes focused again.

"Adam, you know what to do?" I asked and he nodded. "Well, get ready to do it, then out the emergency basement security tunnel with Bryce, Roberto and Keno ... preferably before the roof comes down, so don't dawdle chatting with your spirit friends!" He nodded, and I think Phyl now had him focused for his last final tasks.

Phyl towed Fredi at gunpoint over to the elevator but I took the stairs down instead. I was pretty sure that I'd seen someone heading upstairs towards the roof earlier and while I was pretty sure that I knew who it was, I wanted a bit of confirmation. I got it. She was now up on the roof and she'd even wedged the staircase door tightly shut behind her, at least until her friends arrived.

I smiled. It had been a crap-load of work earlier this week clearing off most of the stuff from the rooftop to present a nice open landing area for guests. It was also a major pain hauling all of those old beer kegs upstairs now lined up in rows along the railing and I was glad to see that my efforts were unlikely to go to waste.

Hurriedly, I took the stairs down to first floor two at a time and met Phyl and her hostage Fredi at the Ops mine elevator, where they had been waiting for me. The doors shut and we started the long descent down to Level Two.

"Phyl, press that Express button and get this slow contraption moving. A lot of every seismically unfriendly things can happen in twelve minutes, so let's cut that down to half! Fredericka, that gives your ass about five minutes before we land and change elevators to explain a few things to us, like first of all why some far-future miner won't find your crushed body lying under tons of rock. I'd make that explanation, really, really convincing ... Phyl has shot other very pretty women before and probably for much less."

"They have my sister!" Fredi cried in genuine tears beating her fists in futile helplessness against my barrel chest.

"We knew that, right from the very start," Phyl stated, nudging the girl with her gun to be more forthcoming. "Within two hours after you first left here with the EPA team we had your home phone, cell phone and your internet access monitored. We know that AIS contacted you afterwards and made a series of threats, which increased in violence after you turned in your negative report."

"They said that they had my sister and they were keeping her until I gave them what they wanted. They wouldn't even let me talk to her! Just said that they'd kill her and then me if I didn't become their spy here."

"They wanted something, something that someone else here had ... what was it?" I asked, not unkindly.

"They wanted me to talk to Claire, get her to see reason and stop playing games with the negotiation. Or else I was to find her research files. They said that she had offered them everything she had, the Holy Grail for this entire project. All of the science, all of the research, all of the genetic code and techniques. All of it, complete with pretty wrapping paper and a fancy bow. She wanted a deal, but then when they immediately agreed she backed out and told them that she wanted even more. Then she wanted still more after that!"

That was Claire alright. The egotist, always wanting more or a better deal. A bigger slice of the cake and the biggest bonus. If they posted her name up in lights on Hollywood Hills, instead of the Hollywood sign, it still wouldn't soothe her massive ego.

"They did however finally make a deal though," I suggested, "and that Claire was supposed to have met them that Saturday alone in Aphrodite, but I messed that plan up by driving into town with her." She nodded. I'd finally figured out from the Wal-Mart video the small thing that was bothering me. The image was far from clear but Claire's head appeared to be glancing off towards another vehicle or someone while making subtle waves of her right hand by her knees, hidden from me at the time. She was waving them off, telling them not to pick her up. Probably she had already decided to up the ante yet again and demand still more for her secrets. I couldn't blame her, they were indeed nearly priceless ... and the product of nearly two decades of secret work and several decades more of prior research and planning.

"I couldn't find her files, but I didn't really try that hard. But I did try and get Claire to see some reason, at least for the sake of my sister's life. The cunt couldn't have cared ... she was asking now for 50 million dollars and safeguards for her life before and after the transaction and they agreed this week, making me and my sister both unnecessary ... and probably very inconvenient. She's dead already, I'm sure of it. Maybe she has been since when they first grabbed her. I'm dead now too, either by you or from them. I'm useless now and an unnecessary living witness. Do whatever you want with me."

"Why are you so sure that your sister's dead? Have you tried to call her recently?" Phyl asked, reaching over toward the elevator controls to activate a rarely used video screen. "Here, I even have her cell number already coded in, so let's dial her. She tapped a few keys on the screen and an internet dial-tone sound emitted followed by a screen covered with static. After a few rings the screen flicked to life and a video phone image of Fredi's sister Marta appeared, live apparently from Poravuvu. It had been a race but once we learned of the threat our security guys got to Fredi's sister first and put her on the first available plane to Hawaii, leaving behind an answering phone message and a few comments to neighbors that she'd gone for a few weeks to New York City for an art gallery showing and would be out of touch for a while. The AIS goons bought the story and were all looking for her there still in New York, believing that she was well and truly out of touch with everyone. This still gave them the necessary pressure they could threaten to exert over Fredi.

Now at least one sister was already safe on the island ... and we assured Marta that Fredi would soon be on her way there too. Our unknowing stalking horse had done her job, helping to find the other traitorous spy without anyone knowing that she had been manipulated right from the very start. I let the sisters briefly chat for another minute but when we reached Level Two it was time to cut short the goodbyes.

Led Zeppelin's 'Achilles' Last Stand' was playing out through the mine speakers as we emerged and that was a good sign that our Warlock had done his last few tasks, arming the stitches for the forthcoming big bang so to speak. Just to make sure I pressed the intercom to Security.

"Adam, if you're still there ... get gone now. We're counting to ten, slowly and after that you'll be living in interesting times, so run like hell ... if you're not already ... Ten ... nine..." and so forth.

Next to the security intercom right by the elevator down to Level Two there was another normally disused security tablet computer mounted into the wall and it didn't take Phyl long to power and boot it up and pull up a sequence of security screens, finishing with a listing of 20 various Code Red conditions. Each was the name of a Led Zeppelin song listed as touch screen options. She also pulled a pair of sub-screens with security camera footage, the top window displaying the rooftop, which showed Claire clearly waving her arms at someone above, probably one of the helicopters getting ready to now land. With only slight deliberation, Phyl pressed the button for "No Quarter", which required a pair of authenticating passwords, one typed and the other voice recognition requiring confirmations from both Phyl and myself. It was approved and the background window with the remaining 19 song menu tabs began to flash alternating red and white.

"Wait for it," Phyl laughed, "don't get too impatient. Wait for that chopper to land before you start lighting off the welcome lights!"

"Planning on it. This is one welcome mat that AIS and Claire are never going to forget!"

When the skids of the chopper, a smaller four passenger model, touched the rooftop the left passenger side door slid open and a hand appeared from inside to assist Claire up and inside. Her ride was here ... and so were the fireworks. I press the next tab, selecting "Night Flight', then a second one "Your Time is Gonna Come", giving the voice passwords for each. Both options were now flashing orange fast like a strobe light and as soon as I saw Claire's first foot step inside the chopper I pressed and held contact on the flashing "Night Flight" button.

You could hear the concussion from the rooftop explosion all the way down the elevator shaft. The blast, probably an unnecessarily excessive one, took out the rooftop camera of course, and the roof ... and most of Security too on the second floor. For an added bonus, the twelve old beer kegs full of military grade explosive and a crap load of shrapnel and good old fashioned ball bearings would have ripped the copter to shreds ... undoubtedly Claire too, but that was frankly a feature and not just collateral damage.

I pressed the final flashing tab for the last song now and it now flashed red. This next explosive charge was mechanically or motion sensor controlled once an intruder had forced open any of the downstairs doors. Then a silent countdown to ten would occur to allow the entire intrusion team to enter Operations before the next explosion imploded the entire building down upon their heads. Also with probably excessive force. That's what the Littlejohn and Roberts security teams had promised me when they completed their configuration of the system. Starting after that in five second intervals, various mining structures in the crater would start exploding too, culminating at the end with a massive chain of controlled implosions that would collapse the entire Level One of the mine, and the upper parts of the elevator shaft.

No one, they assured me, would ever be digging their way down here again without an entirely new mine shaft. Naturally, we'd be blowing up Level Two also and parts of Level Three, but later, well after we were out of range. Twenty years of work gone ... but it also gave us a secure twenty-year lead on our competitors ... assuming that even with all-new tunnels and shafts that they could ever find another hyper-compressed graphite vein to work with.

Just to add insult to injury, already a series of high-pressure water pumps were starting the slow but inexorable process of filling in this entire crater with well water, right up to the very rim. Littlejohn already had a pending deal with the Collins' next door to provide them with a big (huge really) cattle watering stock pond large enough for killer whale and dolphin shows. It would take time to fill, but after losing at least two-thirds of their mercenary intrusion team there was no way that they'd be able to react or take countermeasures in time to stop it.

I thought letting their bosses see their pipe dreams go up in smoke and then permanently flooded was a pretty good parting 'Fuck You and the horse you rode in on!'

Phyl and I already had our go-bags packed and parked down at Love Beach, but Fredi had just the clothes on her back. We gave her five minutes to get anything she wanted to keep from her temporary quarters but she only grabbed a quick change of clothes, her hiking boots and her favorite rock hammer and thrust them into a backpack that had all of her geologic field supplies. She popped her old mining hat on and gave us a cheerful smile. Not surprisingly Phyl found an empty gallon-sized water bottle and Fredi helped her fill it up with tea from Peggy's dispenser.

"For the road!" The women laughed.

Once we were all down at the bottom of Level Four, I coded in the last red code to start the countdown to implode Levels Two and the man-made parts of Three and then finally just the elevator shaft leading down to Four, each in 30-minute increments giving us an hour and half to be anywhere else but here.

"You're crazy!" Fredi insisted when she saw Phyl unfasten one end of the pool lane buoys and toss the end out over the spillway into the darkness below. "You said that's a fifty-foot drop!"

It is," I laughed, "and the rope with the floats is about forty feet long so there'll be a ten-foot jump into a deep pond at the end. Phyl's going down first and she'll have a life preserver float all ready for you. I'll be right behind you.

The spillway entrance through the cavern wall looked small and was rather tight for me with my barrel chest but we all made it. The rope float line was actually a pretty clever floating rope ladder and even Fredi didn't have too much trouble climbing all the way down. I think it was trickier for me but I've never been good about doing down wet ladders in near darkness. At the bottom Phyl had turned on a bright lantern and was beaming a powerful flashlight at our feet so we could see where we were stepping towards, but not much else. It seemed like a pretty big cavern down here, maybe larger even than Love Beach.