Chapter 2
Now, nearly five years later Mark could hardly believe his ears. Was Sam actually planning a return to the chasm? Nobody had been back there since that day, neither of them could bring themselves to face the loss again. The pit claimed Victor’s life, but Sofia never recovered. As soon as they had reached the mouth of the cave and had signal, Sam radioed for a medivac and Sofia was rushed to the hospital where they made sure she didn’t have any physical injuries before whisking her away to University Neuropsychiatric Institute where she would be hospitalized while they helped her recover from loosing Victor.
“You’re not serious.” He demanded. “I know you’ve been having nightmares again, but he’s not down there. I saw it all Sam.” A tear formed in the corner of Marks eye as he allowed the memory to fill his mind. “I watched as Victor was hurled against the rock, I saw his neck snap.” He closed his eyes for a second, his jaw tightening. “Then I watched as his body was hurled into that… thing! And the cloud in the center of it swallowed him whole.” Mark shivered as a cold chill ran the length of his spine. “I watched the whole thing. He’s not there.”
“I know Mark.” Sam’s voice was sullen, almost hollow. “My doctor and I have been over it a thousand times and I know. Victor is not coming back…” Sam swallowed hard choking back a sob. “But if I can bring my camera this time, if I can strap the Go-Pro to my chest and let it record the whole thing.” She paused again as she gathered the courage for her next words. “Maybe I can trigger it again, from a safe distance this time and I can record it.”
“It’s too dangerous Sam.” Mark pleaded softly.
“It’s time Mark, don’t you think?” She put her hand on his shoulder, “Time to truly put Victor to rest? Time to do what is inevitable and go back into that hole, face the nightmares head on. It’s time to heal Mark.” She paused ever so briefly to let the weight of her next words land.
“And I’m bringing Sof.”
Marks mouth dropped open slightly as his brain wrestled with what she had just said.
“You’re bringing Sofia?” he repeated softly. “Do you think that’s wise?” he looked at his feet for a second as though ashamed of the thought itself. “She hasn’t even been out of the hospital in five years, do you think she can handle it?”
“Not just handle it,” Sam smiled, “it will heal her. She needs this as much as you and I do.”
“And you expect me to just call the board and handle the office while you and Sofia rapell back into that hole.” Mark sighed sarcastically. “Not a chance in whatever hell is at the bottom of that pit. It’s you and me woman, we are the team, do or die you aren’t going without me.”
Sam smiled as she leaned into Mark’s shoulder, “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“But we’re going to do it right.” Mark said resolutely. “No more haphazard bullshit like before, we were young and careless and it cost us everything. This time we investigate, probe, examine and then explore!”
“What about funding?”
“I think I can pull some strings.” Mark said thoughtfully, “My dad’s foundation still owes us the expected donation for this year, he usually gives us enough to fund nearly half the year himself.”
“You make some calls, I’m headed over to the hospital to see if I can get Sofia on board.” Sam smiled. “Dinner at Brick Corner?”
“Pizza’s always the right answer for me.” Mark laughed
Mark grabbed his brief case and paused at the mirror for a moment to straighten his tie before his big meeting. Traffic was light, which was a good thing since he was so distracted. Mark spent the entire drive to his fathers office building reciting his request over and over in his mind, but the anxiety never left the pit of his stomach. And the closer he got, the worse it was. He had never been close to his father, the man was always working and never truly seemed like Mark was anything but an annoyance especially when he was younger.
Mr. Halvorsen, or Mark Sr as was his given name never saw value in anything or anyone for that matter that didn’t produce what he referred to as a return on the investment of his time, and that extended to his only son, Marcus Sterling Halversen Jr. When Mark was a child he used to vy for his fathers attention with every waking moment, he was constantly asking him questions about the family’s business empire and trying to insert himself into his fathers life but his father always brushed his aside, profering his spreadsheets and team management over his family. Even when he was in college Mark struggled to get his fathers attention.
He had held a 4.6 grade average, only outshined by Sam and finished his senior year with the second highest average in CalTec’s history. When he announced it to his father all he got was “What, you want a prize for doing your job?”. It left him feeling lost as he wrapped up school and prepared to enter the corprate world, wondering if anything other than money ever mattered to his father. In reality it was this dismissal that made Mark decide to join Sam on the research team for project Parallax, and it was the constant dismissal that had his stomach in knots now as he eased his car into the space his father kept reserved for him.
“Mark Halversen Jr. for Mr. Halversen please.” Mark said as he rested his hand on the counter at the reception desk in the main lobby.
The building itself was monumental, spanning more than four city blocks at its base it stretched a total of one hundred fifty floors, one hundred thirty five of them that reached into the sky. The building’s pinnacle, that was where the family logo was forever perched, watching over the city as it grew. Mark Sr had his office on the top floor of course, three walls of solid glass while the fourth was not just separation between the CEO’s office and his receptionist, it was a statement.
Built from layered slate it became art rather than simply being a place to hang it. Using the rough edges of each slab, the designer created a breath-taking panorama of mountain ridge-lines and deep valleys. For that over-the-top touch that declared not just a business mogel but royalty, it was designed with a slight separation to allow for a back-lit stream of water to run in a built-in water feature that ended next to the door with a waterfall that allowed Mr. Halvorsen view of the lobby without compromising his privacy.
“Mr. Halvorsen Jr. for Mr. Halvorsen Sr.” Came a melodic voice over the receptionists intercom.
“Send him up, Mr. Halvorsen Sr. is ready for him.” Hannah Mercer said as a smile blossomed across her face.
Hannah had had a crush on ark Jr. since they were in high school, in fact it was on Mark’s recommendation that his father hired her to be his personal secretary despite what the rumor mill said about how she landed such a high profile job right out of college. Hannah always looked forward to seeing Mark Jr. anytime the opportunity afforded, rare as it was that he came to the headquarters office. The simple fact was that Mark made it a point to avoid his father unless it was absolutely necessary, so Hannah seldomely saw him. She straightened her skirt slightly as the elevator dinged to a stop across from her desk.
“Good afternoon sir,” the words came out with practiced ease despite the butterflies that had taken up residence in her middle. She couldn’t have guessed that Mark was feeling the same way about his meeting with his father.
“Oh, hi Hannah.” Mark stammered as her voice dragged him back from planning his impending meeting. “Is he in?”
“He is,” she paused before adding, “you look nice today.”
Mark stopped, his eyes snapping back up to meet hers as he instinctively straightened his tie for the hundredth time since getting out of his car.
“Uh… Thanks.” He muttered as he slid by her desk and through the massive double doors into his fathers office.
“Mark.” his father announced casually as he stepped through the door. “Well, come in then, don’t just stand all the way over there. Take your seat boy.”
The emphasis on the last word was a reminder to Mark Jr of exactly what his father thought of him, and it stung just as bad now as it did when he was a child. He instinctively hurried across the expanse to the chair opposite his fathers imposing oak desk.
“How much this time?” His father sounded almost dismissive were it not for the sarcasm that laced his words.
“Excuse me?” Of all the ways Mark pictured the first words of this afternoons meeting to go, that was definitely not it! “How much?, what?”
“Did I stutter boy?” His father quipped. “You never come here unless you want something, and that is usually money. So I will ask one more time, how much?”
Mark was caught flat footed, he couldn’t deny the truth of his fathers words. He avoided the corperate headquarters building like the plague that his family legacy was in his eyes, he never came to his fathers office unless it was for money. And typically it was for Project Parallax, the project he and Sam had been overseeing for just short of ten years. This time was no different, which is why Mark was left stuttering as he searched for the right words.
“The… I mean, umm. The foundation…” he stammered before finally gaining his confidence. “This years donation is late, two months. I’m sorry that I couldn’t get by earlier to remind you.”
“Too busy to show your face?” His father asked as he folded his hands and leaned his chin on them. “You need to at least make appearances so the employees will accept you when it’s time for you to take over.”
“Why would I want your job?” Mark retorted, “This place stole you from my childhood. I would rather have Rowen Hale take your place and continue my research career.”
“This place is what put you through that Ivy League school that got you started in your research career, boy!” his father snapped. “And I am still waiting to see a return on that investment too. And the board voted to stop your funding, no return on our investments. At all.” Mark Halvorsen Senior leveled his eyes at his son as he hurled those last words like daggers.
“That’s right,” Mark Jr started as he rubbed his right temple. “Return On Investment. The Halvorsen family motto.” Mark paused as he met his fathers glare. “And you can quit with the board, I haven’t believed in that since I was nine.”
“You didn’t even think to take a picture,” Mark Sr hissed. “You have presented no proof beyond your sensor data, which we both know can be easily faked.”
“We’re going back.” Mark said flatly.
“You’re doing what?” His father sounded intrigued.
“Sam and I are going back.” Mark repeated. “And possibly Sofia too.”
“That nut job?” Mark Sr. Quipped with a laugh.
“She is not crazy!” Mark shouted. “You don’t understand what Victor’s death did to her, he was her…” he paused to find the right word, “He was her everything, and she watched him die, then his body litterally got ripped out of her hands. I will be amazed if she is strong enough to go back, but Sam thinks it will help her heal. Eitehr way father,” Mark looked pleadingly at his father as he shifted to a softer tone of voice, “we need to go back.”
“I’ll make a deal with you son.” A chill ran down Mark’s spine as his fathers words slid through is ears. “I will personally fund you. What ever you need, yours.”
“What’s the catch?” Mark Jr. wasn’t even trying to hide his skepticism, he knew there was a catch. There always was.
“You do it my way.” Mark Sr. said with a smile. “Video everything, anything that comes out, we own. Whatever that thing you say is down there turns out to be, we control. No foundations, no board of directors, no school, no government, nothing. We own it, we brand it and once we learn how to use it we control it.”
“You mean market it.” Mark snapped
“Return On Investment!” His father shouted. “Life is a ledger boy, you’ll learn that eventually. Make sure yours is in the black!”
Mark sat for a long moment, silently contemplating his fathers offer. The words he chose to convey it were nothing new to Mark, his father had preaching return on investment to him ever since he was old enough to balance a ledger, right around kindergarten. And his father had never missed an opportunity to rub Mark’s face into the lack of a return he had given his father through the years.
“What exactly,” Mark began carefully, “do you mean by we do it your way?”
“You run live video feed of everything you do, every minute of your day, every test, every experiment, every sensor reading live. All the time.” Mark Sr. had been giving this conversation a lot of thought. “The feed will run directly here to headquarters, I’ll clear out the offices on the floor right below us, that way I can stay close to the action.”
“And what will you do with the feed?” Mark questioned.
“We turn that into the short term return we are looking for.” His father had dollar signs in his eyes as he barked. “Television! We put a crew down there with you, filming you and your teams all the time and we turn it into a best selling tv show.”
“No way. Even if I liked the idea, Sam would never buy it.” Mark said with a laugh.
“No deal, no cash.” His father leaned back in his chair as a sly grin crept its way across his lips. “And I hear your board of directors is planning to freeze your accounts if my board of directors does not give our typical donation this year. So really, no deal,” he dragged the moment as long as he could, enjoying watching his son squirm, “no career. Are you ready to come home and take your rightful place at my side or are we making a tv show?”
Mark sat silently eying his father, white hot fury blazing behind his eyes as his mind turned over and over again trying to imagine how his father could be so cruel.
He was enjoying this!
“I don’t seem to have many choices father,” Mark nearly whispered as he tried not to shout. “I will make the arrangements with Sam, you are responsible for the project charitable oversight board. They will not appreciate being replaced and I don’t want anything to do with that fight.” His words started flowing as his brain shifted into planning mode. “We will establish a base camp at the entrance to the cave complex, that is where you will receive your transmissions from so make sure you have whatever equipment you will need in place. Underground we will have another camp at every six hour point so nobody travels more than six hours at a time with supplies or personnel.”
Mark paused as he let his father finish the note he was taking, “At the site, the chasm we will set up our forward camp with all of our equipment. It’s a small area and it will get cramped quickly, and we will have a lot of equipment, so tell your crew not to get in our way.” Mark was about to get up to leave when he froze, a worried expression in his eyes. “One more thing. Nobody, and I mean nobody goes near the edge of that hole without either Sam or myself there to babysit. We cannot have another death on this site. Am I clear?”
His father smiled, approval gleaming in his eyes. “Now that is the CEO I have been looking for to fill my shoes!”
“I’m a researcher father,” Mark corrected. “Not a CEO, and I never will be.”
Mark Halvorsen Sr stood from his desk and crossed the room to open the door for his son. “We will see, son… and when we do, the world will finally learn what a Halvorsen is truly worth.”
Mark didn’t speak on his drive to Brick Corner, not because he was alone he often talked to himself, but because his fathers last words stayed loud in his head. ‘His true worth’ he thought. His father wouldn’t know worth if it bit him on the…
“What-chya thinkin’ ‘bout?” Sam held a silly, child-like expression as she slid onto the bench interrupting Marks thoughts.
Mark sat in the middle of several piles of papers, some spreadsheets, some geological survey information, some television contracts, he barely looked up as he scratched numbers across the spreadsheet he was working on.
“Planning, boss.” Mark announced with a slight laugh. “That’s what I do, especially when we have our funding.”
That last part made him smile as he continued to scribble. Sam reached for the stack of contracts, the television deal on top, but Mark reached out and snatched the stack from her hands before she could read the cover letter.
Shoving a stack of maps that showed the geological information of the cavern system at each of six camp sites that were marked in blue he said, “Here, map and routes is your job, contracts and funding is mine.”
“Not even going to ask about Sof?” Sam faked indignation as she picked up the first page, an over view of the cave system with camp locations marked. “Six relay camps? What kind of funding did you get?”
Mark froze, was this the right time to bring up the tv thing? He thought. “Yeah, six.” He said finally before adding, “lots of unexplored side chutes down there and we need to explore every shaft. We don’t know how many of those machines are even down there.”
“Right, but…” Sam started but Mark cut her off.
“So tell me about Sofia, she on board?” Mark said quickly, trying to change the subject.
“Sofia is actually good!” Sam bubbled. “She was in the process of preparing her for discharge actually, she’s been refusing to actually pull the trigger and do it until now. I told her about the expedition and how we’re planning a couple years worth of exploration before we drop into the hole again, so she’d have time to back out if things get too real.” Sam paused to gage Mark’s reaction. “The only other thing she needed was a place to crash, so she’s staying with me! We’re going to get her settled in the next week or so let her ease back into research work slowly, with the readings and stuff that I can bring home until she’s ready to go back underground.” She paused as her mind jolted back to the subject of funding. “How is your father?”
“He’s, uhh…” Mark knew her well enough to realize she had figured out his game. “He is doing well, still wants me to drop everything and take my place as the heir to the family legacy.”
“So I take it that you’re going to work for him then?” Sam prodded.
“What?” shock filled his eyes before he snapped back. “Hell no!”
“Then what’s the cost?” Sam was at ground zero as she deadpanned. “How much of our souls does he now own?”
“Well, he talked a lot about seeing a return on his investments on our project,” Mark stammered “and he’s figured out this way to make it pay off no matter long we take to study and explore the caves, the anomaly, the machine…” he paused thoughtfully for a long moment, “everything really.”
“I assumed as much,” Sam began with measured caution. “But what is it costing us?”
“Uh…” Mark was dreading this conversation. “He said that our board was cutting our funds because he was withholding our donation. So he offered to sidestep the foundation all together, so we are the board.” He paused as he locked eyes with her. “We call the shots, on… Everything!”
“All that sounds very good Mark,” Sam began using a stern voice as her hands instinctively dropped to her hips. “But what does that contract say?”
“We have to host a TV crew.” Marks eyes dropped to the floor as Sam glared, the fire behind her eyes was palpable.