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“Rappelling can be the most dangerous part of climbing. It doesn’t have to be. With adequate gear and correct form, it can be a safe and enjoyable form of recreation. Bad gear...incorrect form...and you risk being injured or killed.” Tom waited to make sure he had their attention, then he pulled ropes, several carabiners, a harness, and a helmet from his pack.
Nora and Randall did the same.
Whoever had supplied their packs apparently knew what they’d need, because their equipment was nearly identical to Tom’s.
“Basically, you use friction for a controlled descent.” Tom demonstrated how to rig their rope to the anchor at their feet with a double-rope system.
What he was saying sounded familiar, and Randall remembered standing at the climbing wall during their training exercise going through a similar process. So why was his heart racing and his hands sweaty?
The first rappel was an easy backwards walk down a ninety-five-foot wall. That first moment of stepping off, leaning backwards into the harness and hanging in the air...it was something he wouldn’t forget. It was also completely different from what they’d done on the rock wall at the agency. There was no net or padded mat to greet them at the bottom if they fell. There was no soft place to land.
Once at the bottom, Tom explained, “A single-rope system is a little easier, a little faster even...but you leave the rope fixed to the anchor and re-climb later to retrieve it.”
“Not sure we’ll be coming back this way.” Nora actually looked in her element—she was breathing deeply and smiling.
How was that even possible?
She didn’t rock climb for a hobby.
She didn’t have any hobbies that Randall was aware of.
“A double rope system allows us to retrieve our line by pulling on one side of the rope.” Tom demonstrated as he spoke. When he tugged on one side of the line, it caused the other side to snake up and through the anchor.
The second rappel was nearly twice the height of the first, and their rope anchored around a large ponderosa pine.
“Everyone having fun?” Tom asked.
“I can’t believe you do this for a living.” Nora adjusted her helmet, then went over the lip and straight down a one hundred fifty-foot drop.
“Actually, it’s kind of cool,” Randall admitted. “Beats chasing the bad guys on the internet.”
He followed Nora, his mind flashing back to Mario Morelli, a twenty-six-year-old kid left to die in Zion National Park. He’d love a few minutes alone with Ivan Karvatsky once they found him. He slapped the wall to slow his descent and landed softly on his feet next to Nora.
“You okay?”
“Sure thing, boss. Just taking my frustration out on this rock face.”
“Hey.” She waited until he looked directly at her. “Good call on bringing Tom along.”
“Did someone say my name?” Tom landed beside them, unclipped his rope, and pulled it down.
“Nora and I were discussing what a great tour guide you are.”
“Glad to hear it.” He nodded toward the edge. “We’re still a hundred and ten feet above the canyon floor. This time we rappel off two bolts near the edge.”
“Why are we going down again?” Randall shook his head in confusion. “Wouldn’t our Ukrainian friend want to be at a high point to set off his rocket or EMP device or whatever he’s carrying?”
“They’ve picked the best spot for operational overlap.” Nora turned in a circle, hands on her hips. “You can bet they’ve thought this one out. It’s not just how high you are. It’s where you are. Think Venn diagram and overlapping circles.”
“We can put up the ropes after this, at least for a little while.” Tom wiped his arm across his forehead. The temperature had risen considerably, and it was only half past eight in the morning. “Once we cross the canyon, there’s three more rappels totaling four hundred feet.”
“I can hardly wait.” If Nora was uncomfortable with their current position, she was hiding it well, but then Randall had never seen Nora in a situation she couldn’t adapt to.
Top of Reunion Tower.
Middle of Puget Sound.
Chicago, New York, even a nightclub in Miami.
They’d always gone where they needed to go and done what needed to be done. Rappelling down a rock face wall wasn’t going to stop her.
The director’s update had not brought any good news. If anything, the situation was worse than it had been when they arrived at Zion National Park.
Jericho had upgraded the possibility of a major coordinated EMP attack to 89%.
Randall clipped his carabiner to the rope, tugged once to confirm the hold was solid, and followed Nora over the edge.
When Tom joined them at the bottom, they packed up the ropes. Each drank a third of a liter and consumed a protein bar.
“We made up a little time on that section.” Randall studied the tablet, somewhat surprised it still showed a solid signal. That was the cool thing about satellite devices. They really did work almost anywhere. “Two hours and forty-five minutes until high noon.”
“Someone bring along Gary Cooper’s movie?” Tom asked.
“Yeah, and Nora packed popcorn too.”
“High Noon is the mission name,” Nora explained. “From what data we’ve managed to intercept, that’s also the time of the attack.”
“Why noon?”
“Why not? It’s when the highest number of people are at work, taking a lunch break, picking up the dry cleaning...”
“Not here,” Tom pointed out.
Nora glanced at Randall. He nodded in tacit agreement. Tom was in this operation now. He deserved to know the truth.
“There are a dozen EMP attacks planned, if our intel is good, and it usually is. Randall and I were sent to stop this one, because it may be the largest.”
“Largest?”
“It appears to have the biggest range as far as destruction.”
“Destruction...you mean...” Tom stopped, unable to find or voice the words.
“I’ll be honest with you, Tom. We don’t know. If it’s a non-nuclear electromagnet pulse, then there will only be damage to devices and the grid. On the other hand, if it’s a nuclear device and depending on how high of an altitude they’re able to achieve...”
“Yeah. Okay. I get the picture.”
“If you want out, we certainly won’t judge you. There’s time to put some distance between yourself and whatever Karvatsky has planned.”
“Leave you two out here alone? And miss all the fun? Not going to happen.” His cheerful façade slipped, and Randall saw a determination in the man that he hadn’t noticed before. “This Karvatsky left another man to die in my canyon. I’d like to be there when you apprehend him.”
“There’s another reason Karvatsky might have picked midday—the stock market is still open.” Randall slapped the cover shut on the tablet. It was heavier than what he usually carried, since it was a hardened cover which would supposedly withstand an EMP. Randall hoped they didn’t have to test that. “Cyber bugs love to mess with the stock market.”
“It’s possible you two have been doing this too long.” Tom pulled his hat off and resettled it on his head. “You’re entirely too nonchalant about things.”
“You never get used to it,” Nora admitted. “But you learn to deal.”
The open canyon had a sandy bottom. They picked their way around several large, unusual potholes.
“Our next rappel is only ninety feet, going into a slot canyon. Like before, there are two bolts on the right in the rock floor...”
“I hear a but coming.” Randall had been peering down into one of the potholes. Now he jogged to catch up with Nora and Tom, who had stopped well short of the edge.
“The rappel itself is straightforward, but over the years, several people have fallen. They misjudge how steep the slab is.”
“Let’s not misjudge then.”
Again, Nora went first.
Randall peered down at her. They were repelling into a narrow stretch of canyon. It was beautiful, and it also looked like the perfect spot for an ambush.
“You okay?” Tom waited, watching him, and probably misinterpreting his hesitation.
“Yeah. I’m good.” He went over the edge. He was halfway down, had glanced first down at Nora, then up at Tom who was peering over the edge, when he looked to the right and saw something shiny. He grasped a rock in that direction and snatched at a necklace that someone had probably lost long ago. Stuffing it into his shirt pocket, he pushed off gently, swinging left and down.
At the exact moment he pushed into that swing, three things happened at once—so close together as to seem almost simultaneous.
He felt a sudden, searing pain in his left arm.
The crack of a rifle shattered the canyon’s silence.
And Nora shouted for everyone to “Get down.”
All of those things seemed to happen at once, though of course they didn’t. Split seconds separated the perp pulling the trigger, the bullet ripping through Randall’s arm, and Nora’s shout of caution.
One part of Randall’s mind understood what had happened.
Another part insisted that perhaps he’d managed to impale himself on a sharp rock. Then the perp fired again, and he understood fully that they were under attack.
🙛
Nora knew she was completely exposed, but there was no way she was letting go of Randall’s rope. He didn’t need her to rappel down, or he wouldn’t if he had two good arms, but even from where she was standing, she could see the blood seeping through his sleeve.
Tom peeked over the top of the ledge, pointed to his eyes with two fingers, then to the north with one. She gave him a thumbs-up.
But now she had a real dilemma. Leave Randall and take off after the perp? Or stay and risk both of them being shot by the creep? She decided to put faith in Randall’s common sense, training, and athletic ability.
She took off after the perp.
Due to the narrowness of the canyon, she could only see a few feet ahead. She opted to keep her back against the opposite canyon wall, since that was the only direction Karvatsky could have shot from. Nora pulled her weapon, chambered a round, and began creeping through the narrow canyon. Small pools of water glistened on the canyon floor. The walls were so close together she could have reached out and touched the opposite side.
The occasional hardy tree sprouted out of the rock, forcing her to duck down or lean out. She chose to duck.
She continued a little over a quarter of a mile, and then the trail turned down a narrow, 50-foot chute into a lower section of the canyon. She didn’t like the looks of it. Too easy to get ambushed again, which wouldn’t help Randall at all.
And suddenly she needed to know Randall was okay. She holstered her weapon and jogged back to where she’d left him. Randall was propped up against the opposite wall of the canyon from where he’d rappelled. Tom had pulled out his first aid kit and was applying a pressure dressing to Randall’s upper arm.
“How bad?”
“Through and through. Tore through some muscle, but missed the bone. He’s lucky.”
“I’m lucky. That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.” Sweat dripped off Randall’s forehead, but he offered a smile. “Help a guy out and fetch my pack?”
Nora ignored the request, though she took it as a good sign that he was still focused on the mission. Instead, she turned to Tom. “How did you get him down?”
Tom grunted as he checked the dressing, then began to wrap the arm. “Randall managed to rappel with one arm and his feet, something I have never seen before.”
“Yeah. He’s always been an overachiever.”
“Thanks, boss.”
“You got it, Randall.”
Their eyes met, and Nora felt a lump in her throat. Why couldn’t it have been her? This man had too much of his life in front of him to be killed now. Her resolve to see this through and see them safely home hardened as she accepted for the first time how much she’d come to care for her partner.
“You getting sentimental on me, boss?”
“Stop calling me that.”
Tom finished with the wrap and picked up the bloody compresses, bandage package, and a good length of Randall’s sleeve that he’d cut to access the wound. He stuffed it into a small trash bag and zipped the bag into a separate pocket in his pack.
“You let him cut your shirt?” A smile played across her lips in spite of her worry.
“He didn’t ask.”
“It’s new.”
“And from REI—the very best of active wear.”
“Not to mention based on what you told me earlier, I’m estimating it cost around two hundred dollars.”
“Maybe the agency will reimburse me.”
Tom shook his head. “You two are something else.” He repacked the first aid kit, then offered Randall a bottle of water and two pills for the pain.
“Morphine?”
“Tylenol. Wouldn’t want your reactions impaired.”
Nora fetched Randall’s pack and handed him the tablet, which he opened, accessed his program, and then stared at in surprise before tapping more keys.
“So, he’s the tech side of the team.”
“He is. MIT-certified and everything.”
“No sign of Karvatsky when you went up canyon?”
“No. But you saw him?”
“I saw someone...he was using a rifle with a scope, which explains how he made the shot from that distance.”
“Why didn’t he kill me?” Randall continued working on the tablet, but he sounded genuinely curious.
Tom plopped onto the ground and took a swig from his water bottle. “I think he tried.”
“You moved, Randall. Remember?” Nora replayed what had happened in her mind. “I was looking up and saw you move to the right, hesitate, then move back left.”
“Oh, yeah.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pendant on a silver chain.
Tom took it from his hand. “We find stuff like this all the time. Maybe it gets snagged and someone doesn’t realize they’ve lost it. Maybe it gets dropped from above.”
“What is it?” Nora asked, as goose bumps cascaded down her arm.
“St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals.”
“Hmmm. Well, if that’s a sign, I don’t get it.”
Tom handed it back to Randall. “That pendant might have saved your life. You might want to keep it. As for St. Francis, I think one of his most popular sayings applies here.”
“I’m all ears.” Nora regretted the cynicism in her voice. She was trying to get back on emotional solid ground. She’d humor Tom while they were resting, while they figured out what to do with Randall, then she planned to capture or, if the situation warranted, kill Ivan Karvatsky.
“Let’s see if I can remember this right.” Tom recapped his bottle and pushed it into an outer pocket of his pack, then adjusted the camouflage netting. “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
His eyes met hers, and Nora was suddenly back on an Amish farm in Indiana. She’d been chasing a cyber punk then, too. The op had resulted in her partner being killed. And the time with Benjamin Lapp had caused Nora to think about the spiritual side of her life—which she hadn’t been apt to do before that.
“Are you a believer, Tom?”
“I am.”
“Huh.”
“You’re not?”
“Verdict’s still out.”
“That’s okay. I’ve heard that God is a patient fellow.”
Yeah. He reminded her of Benjamin Lapp a lot—that same calm certainty. What must that feel like?
Randall had been typing with only his right hand, which wasn’t a problem since he was right-handed, but it had slowed him down a bit. Not to mention the pain was probably messing with his concentration. But now he cleared his throat. “You guys need to look at this.”
Nora and Tom sat on each side of him, and together the three went over the video three times.
There was no denying what was on the screen. Randall had backed up the video that was focused on Karvatsky’s position, or what had been his position for the last eighteen hours. As they watched the single red dot split into two, one moved toward their position, and then rejoined the first.
They weren’t dealing only with Ivan Karvatsky.
There were two different terrorists...at least.
Which changed everything.
🙛