Chapter 19
Dominic had decades of experience running large-scale construction projects, but he had never faced anything like this. He had never had men buried alive. He had never lost one. He had never stood in the dirt not knowing where his men were, or whether they were still breathing. The enormity of it hit him like a wave, hard enough to make his knees wobble. He scanned the rim of the pit, desperate for search and rescue — somebody who actually knew how to save his men. And even as the rescuers started pouring over the edge of the lower pit like spiders dropping on invisible webs, a plan began to solidify in his mind.
"Paul, come in!" He mashed the talk button on his radio. "Paul, you there?"
"Go for Paul," the reply rang out of the tiny speaker. "What happened down there, boss? Is everyone OK?"
"Found Frank and Dan," Dominic said, rushing through it. "No idea what happened. Seth and Tom are still missing. Dan's critical."
"What do you need, sir?" Paul's voice was laced with concern as he took notes.
"Get the big crane down to the upper floor, swing out the boom, and drop your hook down here to me. We need to lift this loader to get Dan out, and it's still three-quarters buried."
"That's gonna take me a hot minute, boss," Paul warned. "She's parked in the storage yard right now, but I'm on it." He paused. "ETA forty minutes."
"Ten-four." Dominic sighed. Then, looking through the cab at the man clinging to life inside it: "Hold on, Dan. Help's on the way."
Dan was silent, drifting in and out of consciousness as the minutes ticked by. Finally the first rescue worker scrambled over the top of the dirt and slid down into the hole they had dug around the cab of the machine.
"Hi there — I'm Maya. What's your name?"
"Dan." He said it weakly, eyes fluttering as he fought to stay conscious.
"Hi, Dan." Maya smiled. "This thing got you pretty good, but don't worry — my team is on the way, we do this every day. You're in good hands."
She turned to Dominic and whispered, "He's lost a lot of blood. How long has he been down here?"
"Less than an hour," Frank said. "Is he gonna make it?"
"We'll keep him alive, that's for sure," she whispered, "but I can't guarantee he won't lose his legs if we can't get him out soon. We need to secure this machine so it doesn't shift while we finish digging him out. Any thoughts?"
"I've got a crane coming," Dominic said, "but it's half an hour out." He looked around the macabre scene, thinking. "What if we run a cable from the D-Eleven? She'll hold two hundred thirty thousand pounds — that should take the weight easy, keep things stable till the crane gets here."
Dominic mashed the button on his radio again. "Hey Joe, is the D-Eleven still on the upper floor?"
"Sure is, boss," Joe called out. "You need me in it?"
"Grab the longest heavy cable you can find, throw one end down to me, hook the other to the ripper, and stand by."
"On it, boss!" Joe's disembodied voice assured him.
Fifteen minutes later Dominic heard a shout from the rim as Joe rolled a thousand pounds of cable over the edge. Dominic and Frank connected the hook to the highest part of the loader's frame as fast as they could before Dominic grabbed his radio again.
"Ready, Joe. Ease into the load — nice and slow till I tell you to stop."
The slack pulled skyward as the roar of the bulldozer engine filled the bowl. The dozer strained and the cable groaned in complaint as the weight started pulling back. Joe revved the engine, redlining the RPMs as the tracks dug into the earth.
"AHH!" Dan's cry echoed through the excavation as the loader pinning him down started lifting and the steel plates gripping his legs pulled slightly apart.
"Easy now!" Dominic shouted into his radio.
Blood streamed down the loader's scoop from the open wounds in Dan's legs as rescuers scrambled into the mass of twisted metal and rock, fighting to tourniquet his legs.
"Quickly," Maya hissed, tightening the band. "Get some pads in here — I can't get a grip. We need to stop this bleeding."
She wiped her hands on her pants, reset her grip, and pulled with all her strength. The flow slowed, dripped — then stopped.
Maya moved to the second leg.
Rattle, clang, BOOM!
The cable slammed into the floor of the pit just feet from where they were working.
"Crane's ready, boss!" The radio exploded as the cable hit.
Frank scrambled to it, dragged it to the back end of the loader, looped it through the frame, and hooked it back on itself.
"Ready," Dominic shouted. "Lift slow and easy until I tell you to stop."
"Roger! Lifting on three." Paul shouted into the radio. "One, two… THREE!"
The crane engine howled its complaint as the cable tightened and the loader lifted out of the dirt, raining rocks and dust down on the first responders as they shielded Dan from the landslide it made.
"Get clear!" Maya commanded. "I don't want anyone else getting hurt."
Maya clung to the lift arm of the loader with one hand, pressing herself against the bucket as she tried to stabilize Dan.
"Just another foot, I think!" Maya shouted over her shoulder.
"Slow ahead!" Dominic called into his radio. "Just about another foot, then hold."
"Ten-four!"
"Joe," Dominic ordered, "keep the tension on that cable — let's lock this thing down!"
The dozer eased forward as the cable tightened, the twisted steel stretching as the loader bucket dangled beneath the crane like a clock pendulum about to strike twelve. The cables strained under the load, the crane and the dozer holding the whole rescue frozen in time.
"Hank," Dominic was shouting into his walkie-talkie again, "fire up the telestick and drop the boom down here. We reserved that thing to clean up the bottom — might as well use it to dig these guys out." He scanned the cavernous lower pit. "Start in the north corner. Looks deepest over there."
"On it, boss!" The reply was clipped and sharp.
Dominic keyed his radio again. "Sit-rep, anyone else listening?"
Silence.
"Urgh." A garbled voice groaned through the radio speaker. "Seth here."
"Seth!" Dominic shouted. "Are you hurt?"
"I don't think so." Soft, shaky. "Got knocked out when my truck fell. It's dark in here, boss."
His voice was shaky and weak, pushed through the radio — and despite a lifetime built on control, hearing the fear in it left Dominic completely unmoored. His knees buckled; he thought he might faint.
"Sit tight, my friend," Dominic said softly. "We're coming — we just have to figure out where you're at."
"I've got a trail marker," Seth's tone shifted. "Dan and I were messing around with them this morning." He trailed off, then added, "If I can find it — I had it on the dashboard when I fell. It's in here somewhere."
"Keep looking," Dominic commanded. "Let me know the moment you find it."
He looked up at the enormous telestick deep-reach excavator as its boom arm slid out like an antenna, reaching the full distance to the debris pile with the grace of chopsticks picking up food. The bucket stopped a foot above the dirt, poised — then sank deep into the loose dirt and rock, rotating as it scooped its massive haul. The engine roared above them, echoing off the smooth walls of the lower pit in a deep, guttural moan.
As Hank worked the north corner, the medevac helicopter slid over the edge and into the excavation. The deep thud of the rotors knocked rock and debris loose, whipping it around the funnel-shaped hole. The helicopter slowed to a hover; a rescue basket dropped from its side and began lowering toward Dan.
"OK, Dan." Maya brushed dirt from his cheek. "Time for a helicopter ride. You ready to move?"
"Just get me out of here." Dan hissed through gritted teeth. "Please don't let me die down here."
"I've got you. You're not dying today, my friend. This next part's going to hurt, though — brace yourself."
Maya turned to Dominic. "Have that crane take it up another ten feet — and can we pull the bucket away? I need him free, and that thing's not letting go on its own."
Dominic glanced around, searching for the answer. "Frank — you think you can get your loader moving?"
Frank looked over at the still half-buried machine. "I don't know, boss. She's in pretty deep."
"Try. I'll hook a cable — you only need a couple feet."
The two men scrambled out of the hole — Frank dashing for his loader, Dominic hauling a fresh cable. Frank's engine roared to life, spitting coal-black smoke from its stack. He worked the wheel left and right, trying to clear the front end, all four tires tearing through the dirt and throwing dust and rock into the air. Dominic wrapped the cable around the bucket of Dan's loader and dragged the other end to Frank's machine.
"Can't break free!" Frank shouted through the open door. "Hook it to my bucket — I think I can pull far enough from there."
Dominic wrapped the cable around Frank's bucket and closed his eyes as he said a short prayer.
"Pull!" Maya shouted. "Give me just a few inches and I can get him out."
The loader roared. Its lift arm strained, groaned, popped in complaint — and as Frank pulled the controls, the twisted steel holding Dan began to stretch.
"Easy does it!" Maya shouted. "Just a little more!"
The ruined machine squeaked — then crack! The bucket broke free and slammed to the ground.
"AAH!" Dan screamed as feeling flooded back into his lower body, numbness giving way to agony.
The paramedics slid a backboard into the wreckage to catch Dan as he came free. The moment he was far enough onto the board, the team prepared to move.
"One, two, three, lift!" Maya commanded.
They carried him ten feet to level ground and strapped him in for transport. The medevac's rescue basket touched down, its cable uncoiling from the hoist. They secured the board into the basket, and Maya twirled one finger in the air — winch up.
"Hank," Dominic shouted into his radio again, "Dan's clear, on his way to the hospital. Let's get serious about digging—"
The radio squelch whined over his voice, drowning the end of the command. He released the talk button to listen.
"Dom!" It was Seth. "Boss, I got it put together and on — but I got no dirt to stick it in. I'm gonna break a window. Stand by."
The silence stretched into what felt like an hour. Seth kicked out the window of his rock truck, shattering it — dirt slid into the cab, covering his legs, filling the floor.
"Pog's in the dirt, boss. You see me?"
Less than a second later, an excited voice broke over the airwaves: "Dom — I've got another signal!"
"Pin it and send it to me, STAT!" Dominic commanded.
A minute later the image flashed onto Dominic's phone screen: Seth was in the deepest corner, twenty feet under. Hank tipped the controls inside the cab of the monolithic excavator. The massive boom swung around and drove the bucket deep into the muck — over and over, one bucket at a time, piling dirt against the exposed side of the gateway cube as he worked feverishly to find his coworker.
One state away, Sam and her team had spent the week scouring the canyons around the hogback peaks below the Wasatch Plateau, hunting a safe route to the mineral deposit near San Rafael Knob. Three solid days of round-the-clock drone patrols, flying at night when the lack of solar noise let the sensor arrays pull cleaner, deeper scans. They'd found a path to the site — to call it rugged would have been an understatement, and the site itself was worse.
According to the coordinates they'd brought back through the gateway, the deposit sat about fifty feet below the Plateau's surface — and ten feet in from the sheer face of a cliff that dropped into the slot canyons threading the region. Digging from the top meant weeks hauling equipment in, then a month of digging. Going in through the cliff face meant figuring out how to go in through a cliff face. Either way, the planning was proving brutal.
"We've got a remote-operated drilling rig back at the main site," Sam said, pouring her morning coffee. "I can have Avery send it by messenger — have it here by tonight."
"How heavy?" Jaxson asked.
Sam frowned, considering. "Around a hundred pounds? Can your drones handle that?"
"One hundred twenty-two point five pounds, actually," Sofia corrected with a laugh.
"We'll link three together — they've got a cooperative flight mode, so that's not an issue," Jaxson said.
"Perfect." Sam turned to the team gathering for the morning briefing. "Get your coffee and listen up. Load out for a ten-day trip — two days in, two days back, six days on site. We get eyes on the mineral, set up a forward ops camp, determine the safest, fastest extraction path, then lay out claim coordinates for Mr. H. in New York so he can start buying the property. The four of us will be loaded heavy with computers and sensors, plus a drone or two — everything else is on your guys." She looked at Gideon. "Sound good?"
"It's a solid plan," Gideon said. "My guys haul the bivouac setup, mining tools, anything your people can't fit." He looked at Jaxson. "Link three drones for the drill, set the rest for the extra gear — autopilot, so it's all waiting when we get there."
"Aye, boss." Jaxson grinned at the thought of his drones running as autonomous ferries for the extra gear. "Haven't done that in a few years!"
"Good." Gideon announced, abrupt. "We move out no later than twenty-two hundred tomorrow — this isn't the kind of place to wander in the heat. Till then: rest, and load your gear."
The afternoon passed quietly — each of them laying out their load, weighing every item's usefulness before packing and staging backpacks at the head of the road down from the airstrip atop the mesa.
"Finally got hold of Avery," Sam announced, filling her plate with scrambled eggs, bacon, and diced fruit. "This'll be the last decent breakfast for a while — she's got the drill packaged and on a flight now. Should land before sunset."
"That's amazing news!" Mark Jr. said, adding with a wry laugh, "I'm tired of camp already."
Once the drill arrived, they spent their last hours at camp securing extra gear to the drones and pairing them for the flight — Jaxson doing the real work, the drone specialist who knew the weight loads and balancing. With the final pieces in place, they gathered at the mouth of the road down, each of them anticipating an easy night hike thanks to Sofia's goggles.
At least, that's what they expected.
At the bottom of the road they turned the corner — and heard it. Water roaring over rocks where a trickle usually flowed: an ominous warning of the trek to come. It wasn't deep, but the creek had swollen past its usual ten-foot width, covering the entire shelf as it gushed toward the slot canyons below.
"Creek's up," Sam said, low and brooding.
"Not deep, though," Devon laughed. "Should be fine."
Sam stood still, considering. "I don't know. I can't get a feel for how fast it's rising. That first slot canyon is three hundred yards of sheer cliff on both sides." She met their eyes. "No escape."
"Shouldn't take but ten minutes to get from one end to the other," Devon countered. "I say we go for it."
"I don't know, Devon," Mark Jr. said softly. "Sam's got an instinct about these things. Her gut's saved us more than once."
Sam thought another few seconds, her expression resolving into determination.
"We go now, we risk lives. We wait, we're stuck here another week before we start — and we miss our window with Mr. H." She double-checked her math. "No. We go now."
"You heard the woman!" Gideon's voice shattered the silence. "Move out, team!"
They moved into the middle of the creek, each of them searching blindly for footing as the rocks turned under their feet in the churning water, picking their way in silence into the slot canyon. Sheer walls of rust-red sandstone clawed at the sky as they descended the creek bed.
They were about halfway through when Sam froze.
"Water's halfway to my knee!" she shouted, barely audible over the roar.
She stared past the surface, into the water itself, gauging the silt load.
"Sof?" she called over her shoulder, fear edging her voice. "Filter E-nine — look at the silt!"
Sofia flipped a finger through the air, sliding the virtual dial in her HUD as she scanned the water.
"Suspended silt load — call it fifty thousand ppm? Base flow's only three hundred… that's a hundred and fifty times normal!" she muttered, her finger tracing numbers in the air. "There — that mark on the wall. Two and a half centimeters… six seconds… times ten… twenty-five a minute!"
She froze, fear running down her spine. Turning to the team, she shouted, "Eighty-two seconds!" Surprise etched across her face. "RUN!"
"Where?!" Gideon shouted, scanning the river ahead.
"There!" Tessa's arm shot out toward a narrow shelf. "Maybe fifty meters!"
The team ran, the water quickening, the promise of safety driving them past their limits.
"Knee-deep — too slow!" Sam shouted.
Devon reached the ledge first. He braced against the wall where the ledge jutted out — where the current ran weakest — and turned to help the next man through. Gideon. The two latched onto each other's forearms as Devon hauled him to a stop opposite him, in front of the shelf. Both men dropped to a knee, making a step for the others, as Gideon shouted, "That ain't gonna be big enough!"
Devon scanned the shelf, then looked down at the water — already chest-deep on the kneeling men. "No choice, boss! Nothing else!"
Victor skidded in and vaulted off Devon's knee, landing and spinning in one fluid motion, his hand shooting back for Sofia, just a step behind him. One by one they plucked each other from the water until only Devon and Gideon remained.
"You next!" Gideon shouted.
Devon was, above all else, a loyal soldier — and Gideon had proven himself a worthy leader too many times to count. Devon fought the waist-deep current, positioning himself for the already overcrowded shelf, the water making it nearly impossible to stand unaided. One foot on the knee, and — he hauled himself out and rolled onto the shelf as Gideon fought his way to his feet.
The two men locked eyes.
Devon's hand shot out — he'd seen the wall of mud coming behind his boss. His closest friend. The water had nearly taken Devon, but Gideon forced himself upright, letting the current press him against the shelf as he set his footing.
"Almost there!" Devon shouted, fingertips just brushing Gideon's.
A boulder the size of a cooler bobbed through the churn, rolling along the bottom as the torrent shoved it downstream. Gideon saw it a moment too late — he'd just started shifting his weight off the leg it was coming for.
He wasn't quite quick enough.
The rock did what the river hadn't — it took Gideon off his feet. In one last desperate moment he stretched as far as he could. Not far enough. His fingers slipped from Devon's grasp.
"NO!" Devon's voice cracked into a shriek as he dove for the water — for his boss.
"TOO LATE!" Victor shouted, jerking him back by the collar.
As Devon staggered upright, Sam fought to make herself heard over the roar. "The bank's failing!"
Every head snapped down as if connected to the same neck.
The river was eating the bank, the flood breaking off grapefruit-sized chunks with every surge.
Devon's eyes lit. "I have an idea!" He flipped a finger through his virtual HUD, pulling up the drone fleet controls. "I loaded a rescue raft on two of the drones for the river crossings," he shouted. "I can air-drop them to us — the trick is what we do next!"
"Grab the fill strap!" Kira shouted. "It'll start inflating as it falls — we jump on before the current rips it away! We trained for this in the SEALs!"
"She's right," Caleb shouted. "Get in order — the order you need to be in to control the raft. Jump as a single unit before it's fully inflated, and stick your landing — stay where you land!"