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Paige answered her phone as the others discussed their plans for the so-far case-free day.
“Oh my God, Drew,” Paige said, sounding distressed, and drawing the rest of the team’s attention.
“Paige, is everything okay?” Walter asked.
Paige didn’t answer him, continuing her conversation with Drew. “We’ll be there as soon as we can. I’m putting you on speaker, Drew.”
“Paige, the team is great, but what are they going to do that Search & Rescue won’t have already been doing for hours by the time you get here?”
“They think like Ralph,” Paige answered shortly.
“Ralph?” Sly asked. “Did something happen?”
Paige nodded. “Drew and Ralph were hiking and fell while they were off-trail. Drew fell further and though he found the trail again, he hasn’t found Ralph.”
“I’ll get us a flight,” Cabe announced.
“Paige, you know Ralph’s going to be okay,” Toby told her. “He’s smart. He’ll find his way back to the trailhead.”
“What if he’s hurt?”
“Then he’ll shelter somewhere easy to find him. Toby’s right,” Walter agreed. “He’ll most likely be safely recovered before we even get there.”
🦂
“Not good,” Happy announced half-way through their flight. “Hey, Walt? You need to see this.”
“What is it?” Walter asked, even as he made his way to her. She handed him the tablet she’d been browsing.
Walter looked at it and then handed it back.
“What is it?” Paige demanded as he returned to his seat. “Walter, what?”
“It’s…. You shouldn’t worry about it, Paige. Most likely, Ralph will be found before we get there.”
“And if he’s not?” When Walter didn’t immediately respond, Paige glared at him. “Walter O’Brien, this is my son we’re talking about. You will tell me what’s going on!”
Walter considered a moment and then spoke. “There’s a blizzard coming in. Current estimates call for a foot of snow. The storm will ground Search & Rescue.”
“When?”
“Within an hour of our arrival.”
“We have an hour to find and rescue my son before he spends a night in the woods in the middle of a blizzard.”
“We’ve been in worse situations,” Happy said.
“Not with my son.”
“Even with Ralph. Paige, even if we don’t find him today, we’ll find him tomorrow and he’ll be fine.”
“It was 50 and sunny when I talked to him this morning. He’s not dressed for spending a night in the middle of a snowstorm, and they weren’t carrying a lot of gear, and most of it was in Drew’s backpack, anyway.”
“And in a single day, neither lack of food nor water will harm him,” Toby reminded her. “If this was a normal eleven-year-old, I’d be worried. But this is Ralph. If he can’t get off the mountain before dark or the storm, he’ll hole up somewhere and start a fire.”
“With what?”
“A concentrated beam from the sun,” Walter answered.
“Concentrated by what?”
“Watch face,” Walter, Happy, Sly, and Toby answered in almost the same breath.
“Alright, alright. I’ll try not to have a complete meltdown until we get there and see what the situation really is.”
“That’s always wise,” Walter said.
🦂
“Okay. Toby, you and Sly narrow down the probable search area. Happy, find out what Search & Rescue has for gear and vehicles. When we figure out where Ralph is, we need to know what the options are for getting to him. I’m going to talk with the forecaster over there and see how long she thinks we have before the whiteout hits.”
Paige was already B-lining for Drew. The rest of the team dispersed to their tasks, putting in comms as they went.
“Hi guys.”
“Ralph, hey, buddy. Good to hear your voice. How are you doing?”
“I’m okay. Is my Dad okay?”
“Yes; he’s here. Where are you?” Toby answered.
“Well, if I knew that, Toby…”
Happy snickered.
“Ralph, details,” Walter suggested.
“West side of the mountain, altitude approximately 10,000 feet. I haven’t made a thorough study of geolocation strategies yet.”
“Sly, you get that?”
“Got it. Ralph, you know there’s a storm coming in, right?”
“I see the clouds. Search & Rescue is grounded for the day, hunh?”
“They’re calling them in now. Sorry, buddy. They’re expecting a foot of snow in the next couple hours. How are you situated?”
“I don’t think a helicopter could land in the clearing I’m at the edge of, but I think they’ll see me if they fly over. There’s an outcropping. I can shelter under there.”
“You need a fire.”
“Working on it. Tell my Mom I’ll be okay, Walter.”
“You can tell her yourself,” he answered. “Paige!” She turned to look at him from across the base lodge. He showed her the case with the remaining two comms. “Comms are up. You and Drew.” He tossed the case to them.
“Habit,” she murmured when Drew gave her a strange look as she handed him one of the earbuds. There was no other explanation for why Walter wanted them on comms when they were all about to be snowed into the same cabin.
Walter smiled. “Someone wants to talk to you.”
“Hey, Mom.”
“Ralph!” She looked at Walter. “How did you get comms to him if you don’t know where he is?” She demanded.
Walter shook his head. “He was already on when I put mine in.”
“Scorpion 101: Never leave home without your comms,” Ralph reported.
“That’s my boy.”
“Technically, my boy,” Drew muttered.
“Sly, how much wood do I need for this fire?”
“At least a dozen cubic feet.”
“Um, Sly, I don’t think he has a measuring tape in his pocket,” Happy put in. “Ralph, waist-high, four logs deep, as wide as your arm-span. Should be more than enough.”
“You have to start with dry wood to get it burning, but then you want wetter, harder woods to keep it going,” Walter reminded him.
“It’s burning,” Ralph reported.
Paige pulled Walter away from the others, removing her earbud and indicating he should turn his off as well. “Walter, it’s supposed to drop into the teens tonight.”
“I saw that.”
“Once again, I’m going to remind you that’s my eleven-year-old son out there with a blizzard coming on and nothing but a fire and a rock-face for shelter.”
“Once again, Paige, that’s plenty. He’s going to be fine.” Walter looked across the room. “Sly, Paige wants to know the odds.”
“No, I don’t,” she whispered.
“The odds? Of what? Oh, right. 96.7%.”
“We’ll figure out where he is, and go get him first thing in the morning,” Walter promised.
“What if you don’t figure it out?”
“Have we ever not figured it out? Paige, even if we can’t give Search & Rescue exact coordinates, the smoke plume from Ralph’s fire will be visible for miles once the sun comes up. And, with snow covering the ground, anywhere Ralph goes from his fire will leave a clear trail, and he’ll stick out as the one not-white thing on the mountain. That’s assuming we can’t figure out exactly where he is. Let us do our jobs; we’ll bring Ralph home safe.”
Paige nodded. Walter walked back over to Toby, Happy, and Sly, putting his comms back in. “Toby, Sly, where are we on the probable search grid?”
“Still not tight enough,” Sly answered. “This is the topography on the west side of the mountain between an altitude of 9,000 and 10,800 – that’s our margin of error for Ralph’s guess about his altitude.”
“That’s fine. He said there was an outcropping and a small clearing, probably not enough for a helicopter to land.”
“Right,” Toby said. “Focusing in the 9,500-10,500 band, the red circles indicate areas with those features.”
“There were too many to be useful to Search & Rescue before they grounded for the storm,” Happy explained.
“Okay. What else do we know?”
“They were hiking,” Toby said.
“Welcome back, Captain Obvious,” Happy replied.
“No, think about it. We don’t know where Ralph is right now, but we know where he was. We can narrow down our search from there.”
“Right. Drew and Ralph went off-trail, but they were on the trail originally. Where is it on this map?”
“Here,” Happy said, indicating a line up a shallower grade of the mountain.
“Drew, where did you two leave the trail?” Walter asked.
Drew and Paige joined them around the map. Drew shook his head. “This isn’t exactly what the trail looked like when we were on it,” he said.
“Ralph? You still with us? Any thoughts?”
“We left the trail about ten minutes after we left the summit.”
“Assume normal foot speeds over uneven, vertical terrain; that’d put the departure point… here,” Sly calculated.
“I thought I saw abislae rebumi off the path,” Ralph offered.
“Definitely under 10,500 feet then,” Toby said.
“That fungus doesn’t grow on soft woods, right?” Walter asked.
“Right,” Toby confirmed.
“So rule out the birch stands here, and all this coniferous growth. The closest hardwood stand to that part of the path is – there.”
“Walt, there’s no way Ralph and Drew could get to that stand from the path without climbing equipment. That’s a fifteen foot sheer drop a hundred yards off the trail.”
“We didn’t get to it,” Drew said. “And it didn’t look quite so sheer from on top of it.”
Walter tapped the ridgeline. “So this is the last place you saw Ralph. Now, if we can track your route back down the mountain, we can rule out everything along that route, since you never found Ralph,” Walter explained to Drew. “So, after you fell off the drop, what happened?”
“When I came to a stop, Ralph wasn’t with me. I figured he was somewhere above me; caught up sooner, since he’s lighter.”
“Newton’s laws; that’s logical.”
“I followed my skid path back toward the drop. I called out for Ralph, but he never answered. I didn’t see any sign of where he’d gone so I tried to get back to the trail.”
“How?”
“I went downhill along the ridgeline.”
“The ridgeline is at a steady altitude, so you were angling away from it as you moved downhill. At what angle?”
“Not much of one—I knew it was the only thing keeping me from getting lost.”
“Can you be more specific?” Drew shook his head. “Okay, so that’s not going to help us. How far did you go before you found the path again?” Drew shrugged somewhat helplessly. “100 feet? 150 yards? A quarter mile? 10 minutes? An hour? Anything?”
“Twenty or thirty minutes.”
“Twenty? Or thirty?” Walter asked, his frustration rising.
“I’m not sure.”
“Are you sure of anything? We’re trying to find your son, here. A little assistance would be appreciated! If we’re going to narrow this down, we need facts, not ‘maybe; I’m not sure’! I thought you cared about finding Ralph!”
“Don’t you dare tell me I don’t care just as much as you do about finding Ralph! He’s my son!”
Paige moved between the two men. “Cut it out, both of you! Yelling at each other definitely isn’t helping us find Ralph.”
Walter leaned against the table, pushing his hands into his hair for a minute. “Paige is right. It was unfair of me to expect you could come up with exact measures. The normal human brain isn’t equipped. We’ll have to come at this another way.”
“If it were me out there, and Ralph here, he’d have the numbers you need. I’m failing him. Again.”
“Not yet,” Toby said, jumping down from the table he’d been sitting on. “The normal human brain sucks at exact measures, but it’s really good at relative measures. We’re geniuses. We can work with relative measures. Drew, let’s say that ridge you fell off is the foul ball line. If you started at home plate, where did you leave the diamond? Between 2nd and 3rd, or 1st and 2nd?”
“2nd and 3rd.”
“Closer to 2nd or 3rd?”
“3rd.”
“10°, with a 5° margin,” Sly told them.
“Alright…now, the distance involved is greater than a baseball field. What other big things do you know really well?”
Drew shook his head, trying to think of something.
“Forget the distance; all we care about is the line,” Happy reminded them. “Two fixed points will do.” She looked at the map. “Drew, after you got back on the trail, did you cross a bridge?”
“No, but I jumped a stream on the way.”
“And was the trail straight, or winding where you got back on it?”
“Straight, but there was a sharp curve up ahead—about the distance from the pitcher’s mound to midfield.”
Toby stuck two pins in the map, running a string between them.
“Safe to assume you were calling for Ralph and didn’t see or hear him as you hiked.” Drew nodded in response to Walter’s statement. “So we can rule out anything on or near this route, and above the ridge. Okay, Ralph, you’re up. After you slide, did you make it back to the ridge?”
“No. I made a fifteen foot loop from where I stopped, looking for the path, the ridge, and Dad. I found none of them.”
“So you must have gone at least 15’ while you were falling,” Happy said. “The only topology in the area steep enough for that is… here.”
“Okay, Ralph. After you made the loop, then what?”
“I went downhill as straight as I could. I had to bear a little north to find footing.”
“How far?”
“At least a hundred meters; not more than 150.”
“The overhang you’re sheltering under, what direction is it facing?”
“West-northwest.”
“Has to be this one,” Happy said, sticking a tack in one of the red circles.
“Ralph, good news, buddy. We know where you are.”
“Bad news, we don’t know how to get to you,” Happy observed, looking at the topology.
“Not helping,” Toby muttered.
“Ralph, you hang tight. By morning, these guys will figure out how to get to you, or for you to get to us,” Cabe told the boy.
“Ralph and I fell from the same point. Why can’t we go back the way I came down, and then follow Ralph’s route to his current location?”
“The chute he fell through is too steep to go on foot. It’s a wonder he didn’t break anything as he went down.”
“Young bones, still growing, are more flexible. Bendy. Ours aren’t. We won’t be so lucky,” Toby put in.
“Even if we could get to Ralph, that just leaves more of us stranded. There’s no way anyone’s climbing back up that chute with a foot of snow making everything slick.”
“So he has to come down to us,” Paige summarized. “Where’s the nearest place one of the search helicopters could land?”
“Here,” Happy indicated, “500 meters north-northwest.”
“Less than fifteen minutes’ hike from where he is now. What’s the problem?”
“See this thick line? That’s a fifty foot drop, straight down.”
“So he can’t get down without help. Can’t someone hike up to the bottom of the cliffs with gear?”
“That’s a no-go,” Happy said. “The cliffs on this mountain are all loose shale. It’s probably why Ralph and Drew fell in the first place. It probably gave under them. You can’t rappel up or down these cliffs.”
“So, that’s it. We’re just going to leave Ralph out there,” Paige accused.
“Paige, you know us. You know we all care about Ralph. We’ll find a way. We just need time to think.”
“You had better.” Paige turned and started to walk away. Drew put an arm around her, but she immediately shrugged it off.
Walter watched them for a minute. “Okay, Paige is right. We’re not leaving Ralph out there. Loose shale cliffs on all sides, except the chute.”
“Can you bring down the shale cliffs, to make it less steep?” Cabe asked.
“We don’t know the ground composition under the ledge Ralph is on. There’s no way to know the whole ledge won’t collapse out from under him,” Happy said.
“Aren’t you just a ray of positive energy today,” Toby remarked.
“I don’t see you having any brilliant ideas, either, Doc.”
“Happy, is there any possibility of getting Ralph down those cliffs? That’s the most logical approach.”
“None that I can see. Any cliff descent would need to be anchored, and we don’t know where the bedrock is to anchor into. Finding out would take equipment we don’t have here, and about a week.”
“What if we anchored on the trees?” Toby asked. “They’re obviously rooted in sturdily enough, and Ralph’s weight won’t strain them the way our weights would.”
“Two problems. One, Ralph would have to get right up near the edge to anchor them. How do we keep the edge from crumbling under him, like it did on the ridge? Two, once he starts to descend, he’ll swing if the ropes aren’t anchored into the cliff face. How do we keep him from slamming into the cliff face every two feet? Especially since he’s not an experienced rock climber.”
“So the chute is the only option?”
“I think so.”
“It’s not much of an option,” Sylvester said. “The grade’s too steep.”
“So lessen the grade,” Cabe said.
“With what?” Walter asked him. “A small charge could start a landslide down the chute, but we’d have no way to control it, and the most likely outcome would be that it would clog the chute, not provide a climbable pathway. We can’t exactly get dump trucks up there.”
“You’ll have a foot of snow to work with by morning,” Paige reminded him, coming back to their worktable.
“Wet snow. He’ll fall right through. And that’s another reason why we can’t use a charge. An avalanche is the last thing we need.”
“It still sounds like you’re leaving my son out on the side of a mountain. Normally, by now, we’d have tried half a dozen approaches.”
“I ignore sentences that begin with ‘normally’ because they never contain relevant information. Furthermore, trying something just to try something is inefficient. So is stopping to remind you that, though we haven’t found a solution yet, we haven’t given up. We won’t.”
“Walt, what if Toby was right?” Happy asked.
Walter turned back to the table. “Tree-anchored descent? You were right on the mechanics. It’s too risky.”
“Too risky for Scorpion?” Drew said. “You’re joking, right?”
“Taking a calculated risk with our own lives to save others is the Greater Good Theory in practice. There’s no gain to offset the loss if Ralph risks his own safety—at least not this early.”
“Walt, back on track, here. The tree-anchored descent is out,” Happy agreed. “But what about a tree-anchored ascent through the chute?”
“All of the scenarios coming to my mind involve an even higher probability of Ralph getting bashed around on rocks. What are you imagining?”
“Creating artificial terrain, with a lesser grade by way of webbing.”
“Even if it only has to hold Ralph’s weight, we’ll have to anchor it on branches, not just the trunk, for stability. How are we getting this thing 15’ off the ground?”
“Angular momentum,” Happy answered, as though it should be obvious.
Walt considered. “This could actually work. Happy, work with Sly on the dimensions. Toby and I are going to go find rope, webbing, and whatever else we can scrape together that will work for this.”
“A lot of rope,” Toby agreed.
🦂
As they were scouring the base lodge for supplies, Happy’s voice came to Walt and Toby over the comms. “Walt, if this is going to hold, we’ll have to anchor it every 10’ or so.”
“That’s about what I figured,” Walter answered.
“That means building this thing in sections and assembling it on the fly.”
“Why do you think that’s a problem?” Toby asked.
“We may be a team of brilliant minds, but hitting 50 plus targets that may be less than a foot square from at least a dozen feet away?”
“We need a pitcher,” Walt summarized.
“He’s not going to know where to aim and this thing won’t hold two adults, not if we want to keep it light enough to carry.”
“Ralph will know the targets,” Walter replied.
“You want to build this from the bottom of the chute? How are we getting him down there?”
“As Paige reminded us, we’ll have a foot of snow to work with.”
“You’re insane, Walter. You hear me? Insane,” Toby diagnosed.
“You have a better idea?”
“I didn’t say it was a bad idea. I said you are insane. Let’s face it. If anyone will be able to calculate a survivable sledding route through that chute, it will be us.”
“It’ll be Sylvester,” Walter answered.
“Wait, are you really thinking what I think you’re thinking?” Sylvester demanded.
“Yes,” Happy answered.
“There’s nothing to calculate, Walt. He’s going to fly right through, with very little control. Any control he has will depend on how Happy packs the gear in the sled. The only calculable quantity is how long it will take him to stop at the bottom.”
“If there’s no snow at the bottom of the chute, the change in surface will increase friction on the sled, slowing it. If the snow that used to be at the bottom of the chute was all in one place, preferably in the path of the sled….” Ralph chimed in.
“Exactly,” Walter agreed. “Ralph, you’ll be ready for us, by the time we hike up in the morning?”
“With time to spare.”
🦂
Toby and Walter returned with a pile of rope, webbing, and two tarps. “This enough, Happy?”
“Depends on the accuracy of the pitching tomorrow. It’ll be fine. Let’s get to work.”
As Toby, Sylvester, and Happy started to work sorting the pile, Walter walked over to where Paige and Drew stood at the edge of the room. “Drew, Paige, it’s late and all the interesting work’s done for the day. You should both try to get some rest. We’ll hike up as soon as there’s light.”
“I won’t rest while my son is out there in that,” Paige replied as the storm rattled the windows of the cabin.
Walter reached out, putting a hand on Paige’s arm. “Paige, he’s fine and he will be fine in the morning. There is nothing more you can do tonight. But, in the morning, you being rested and alert will be an asset. That’s when your son needs you, not right now. Try to rest.”
“He’s right,” Drew seconded.
“Almost always,” Paige replied. “That’s beside the point.”
Walter ran his hand down her arm to her hand. “In twelve hours, you’ll have Ralph back and you can get some real sleep tomorrow night. In the meantime….”
“Okay, okay. I’ll try to rest.”
Paige and Drew went into one of the other rooms, where there were bunks with thin mattresses. Cabe had already claimed his mattress, once it was clear nothing else that needed his attention would happen that night.
“Well, look at you, 197,” Toby said as Walter returned to the work area. “Actually recognizing an emotional situation and answering with an emotional response.”
“The response was 100% logical. Paige needs to rest. Nothing valuable will come from her pulling an all-nighter.”
“Did you actually send her to bed because her staying up isn’t valuable, or did you send her to bed because you care about her wellbeing?”
“Doc, more work, less psychobabble. We all know Walt’s fallen,” Happy said.
Toby grinned and continued working. Walter also began assembling one of the networks of rope that would allow Ralph to climb back up the chute. “We finish half of these and you’re going to rest, too,” Walter told Toby. “If anything doesn’t go according to plan tomorrow, it’s likely to go off-script in a way that requires a doctor. You need to be alert and rested, too.”
“Walt, I did most of my clinical rotations on less than three hours of sleep. I can handle it.”
“You could, if you had to. But you don’t, and you know sleep deprivation clouds cognitive processes. Just because you at 80% is better than most MDs at 100% doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be better at 100%.”
“There you go again, with the emotional attachment. You really are evolving, Walt.”
Happy punched him in the arm. “Shut it or go to bed now, Doc. Ralph’s a good kid, and yeah, he’s going to be fine physically, but genius or not, spending a night lost in a blizzard at 11 years old is not something we joke about.”
“Hey, you know me. Walt knows me. Ralph knows me. When I get stressed, I become more of an ass than usual. I’m worried about our youngest scorpion, too.”
“I know,” Walter said. “Let’s just focus on this, and we’ll get him back on the trail safely first thing tomorrow. Then we can all relax.”
🦂
They reached the top of the chute by midmorning. “Ralph, are you ready for us?” Walter asked.
“Yes.”
“We’re confirmed that Ralph’s smoke plume is coming from the expected coordinates,” Sly seconded. Walter had asked him to stay at the lodge and coordinate with rescue personnel. He had particularly wanted a fly over to confirm the coordinates, not because he doubted the logic they’d used to deduce Ralph’s location, but because he knew sending Drew drown a chute that didn’t have a snow bank at the other end would probably kill him and Walter didn’t think Paige and Ralph would approve of that. It also let Search and Rescue feel like they were helping, which kept them from getting too nosy, and starting arguments about the risks or starting useless “this isn’t how we normally handle these situations” discussions.
“Okay, Drew, you want to kneel down low in the sled and hold on tight. It’ll be a quick ride,” Happy explained.
“Me? Why? You three are the geniuses.”
“High IQ, low hand-mind coordination. We’re the people who got picked last in gym classes. The anchor lines for each segment need to be thrown with some precision, so the lines wrap around the trees and branches securely. Any of us, including Ralph, can figure out where the lines need to be secured, but there’s only one person in this group who can reliably hit a small target from 12 to 20 feet,” Toby explained.
“It’s our best chance,” Paige told Drew. “They wouldn’t be suggesting it otherwise.”
Drew stared at her for a long moment and then got in the sled.
“Hold on tight. If you come out of this sled in the chute, you’ll be injured,” Happy warned, before giving the sled a shove into the chute.
“What are the odds?” Paige asked.
“Of him making it through the chute in one piece, or of this working if he does?” Walter asked.
“Either. Both.”
“72.4 and 89.8,” Sly answered.
“100%, Mom,” Ralph replied. “He’s here.”
For a few minutes, there was silence, then Drew spoke. “Okay, Ralph, now that you’ve unpacked the sled into our backpacks, what is it your friends are expecting me to do?”
Paige turned off her comms and looked at Walter. “Are you sure Drew was the right person to send down there?”
Walter turned his comms off as well. “Yes,” he answered quietly. “Remember the day we met? You told me Ralph needed to see you help us, to see that someone like you had something valuable to offer someone like him. Drew needs the same opportunity.” Walter turned his comms back on.
“…that branch, three feet from the trunk,” Ralph directed.
“Okay, first one’s up. Now what?” Drew asked.
“We climb up there and set up the next one,” Ralph explained.
“Ralph, hold on. Are you sure that’s going to hold both of us?”
“Happy is,” Ralph replied.
Toby leaned over to Happy. “That moment when he realizes his life is in the hands of someone who doesn’t even seem to like him.”
“If the webbing wasn’t going to be enough to hold them both, Ralph would go down with Drew. He shouldn’t be worried about what I think of him.”
“Come on, Dad. Mom’s worried.”
“Safety over speed, Ralph,” Paige cautioned.
Soon they were back to hearing Ralph direct Drew’s pitching.
They were working on anchoring the third segment when Ralph and Drew’s teamwork started to fail. “Which branch?” Drew asked.
“That one,” Ralph repeated.
“The higher one, or the lower one?”
“The middle one.”
“The one behind the higher one?”
“No. That one.”
“Ralph, did you find that bag of snacks your mom snuck into the sled?” Walter asked.
“Since at least one of you saw me do it, I’m not sure I’d call it ‘sneaking’,” Paige protested.
“Check the bottom of that bag,” Walter advised. Paige stared at him. He shrugged. “I anticipated this sort of communication issue. Your bag proved a handy place to transport the solution without it getting lost.”
“What solution?” Toby asked.
“Laser pointer,” Ralph reported. “That one,” he told his father again.
🦂
Drew and Ralph worked their way through about half of the chute without further issue or delay. “Damn,” Drew said.
“What’s wrong?” Walter asked.
“Overthrew it. It’s over the branch but it didn’t loop around and snug up like the others.”
“It’s looped once around a deeper, lower branch, Walter.”
“Can you pull it back in?”
“I’ve tried. It’s caught up.”
“Okay, Ralph. How much line between the web and the first branch?” Happy asked.
“2’6”.”
“How far between the two branches, and how much of a drop?”
“18” drop, about 3’ of line.”
“How far below that is the weight caught up?”
“10’.”
“Drew, how do you feel about making these pitches at 25’ instead of 15’?”
“I can do it.”
“Ralph, do you have the visibility to target the next segment?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” Happy advised, “Set up the next segment, and then cross the compromised section one at a time. It’ll hold each of you, but I’m not sure it will hold both. Stick to the half of the web secured properly.”
“Got it,” Ralph replied.
Within a minute, Ralph reported the next segment was hung. “You first,” Drew told Ralph.
“You know—” Toby started to say, but Happy elbowed him in the gut.
Once both Drew and Ralph reported they were safely past the compromised segment, Paige turned off her comms and looked at Toby. “You started to say something.”
Walter, Happy, and Toby all turned off their comms. “If that section was going to give, it would have given under Ralph just as easily as Drew,” Happy explained.
“And if it gave, whoever was on it would have had an unfavorable encounter with the rocky terrain below. However, we, band of brilliancy, would have figured out something for whoever wasn’t on it,” Toby continued.
“Short version, Paige? Going last sounds like chivalry, but going first was the greater risk,” Walter explained.
“And you just let that play out?” Paige demanded.
“Drew already thinks I have it out for him,” Walter replied. “And Ralph knew the risk.” He turned his comms back on. Happy and Toby followed suit.
🦂
Ralph and Drew were most of the way up the chute. “Another segment and we should be able to see them,” Walter told Paige.
“Shh,” Toby said. “Ralph, everything okay?”
“I’m fine. I missed my footing. All four appendages are back on the net now.”
“Keep it that way, mister,” Paige informed him sternly.
A few minutes later, it was Drew’s terrified shout. “Ralph, what’s going on?” Walter demanded.
“Dad fell; he’s hanging from the net.”
“Not good,” Happy said. “Wrap anchoring won’t hold up to that kind of drag on it forever. Ralph, how many more segments in his pack versus yours?”
“He’s only got two left in his pack, but one of them is the other segment with the ladder.”
“Drew, you need to lose weight. Get rid of that pack,” Happy advised.
“I can’t exactly let go of these ropes to take it off.”
“You need to figure it out, fast, Drew, or you and the pack are going to fall into that chute, and if I’m not mistaken, you’re hanging over a very jagged patch of terrain.”
“Happy, will the network hold up if I—”
“No,” Happy interrupted. “It’s already straining from your Dad hanging on it. You stay off that segment.”
Aside from a few gasps and grunts, and what might have been a very quiet “Dad,” Comms were quiet until Drew told them he’d lost the backpack. “Okay, Drew. You need to swing forward and hook both legs over one of the crossing lines.”
“I don’t know…”
“We do,” Toby answered. “So try it anyway, because this not working does not end well for you. Sometimes the truth sucks.”
“And someday, I’ll teach you how to soften even hard truths,” Paige retorted. “Drew, it’s just like the monkey bars when we were kids.”
“There was dirt under those. Less than six feet under those.”
“But you imagined you were way up in the sky, didn’t you? I did. And my friends and I used to imagine pits of lava and other horrible fates awaited us if we fell off. Now it’s real, but so is the muscle memory. You can do this. I believe in you.”
“Me too,” Ralph chimed in. “You can do it, Dad.”
“Okay, here goes.” A moment later, “That was easier than I expected.”
“Good. You’ll love the next part,” Toby said.
“And what’s that?” Drew asked.
“Let go,” Walter answered.
“How does that help?”
“Because then you can grab the cross line your legs are hooked over. It’s still monkey bars,” Paige said soothingly.
“Oh, God. The network is slipping.”
“Too much strain on the network,” Happy agreed. “You need to get off that segment before it pulls free entirely.”
“Can we do anything? You said they were getting close.”
“This is the steepest part of the chute. I’m sorry, Paige. Drew’s got to do this for himself,” Happy explained.
“Ooh. Okay. I can do this.”
“Yes, you can,” Paige agreed.
There was a yelp and then a sigh of relief. “I’m still here.”
“It’s not over,” Happy started to say.
“Damn! It’s slipping again.”
“And will continue to,” Happy seconded. “You have to get off that segment.”
“Ralph, you’ve got extra coils of rope in your pack, right?” Walter asked. “Cinch the segment you’re on to the one Drew’s on. That’ll buy Drew a couple minutes more. Only, a couple, Drew, and you two still need to string up the next segment and get off both segments. You’ve got to get back up on the network and get over onto the next segment.”
“Done,” Ralph said.
There was, again, silence on the comms. Even Happy, Toby, and Walter were nearly holding their breaths. Paige was trembling. Walter reached for her hand. “Okay,” Ralph reported. “We’re free of those two segments.”
Everyone sighed out a breath of relief. “Rest a minute, and calm down,” Toby advised. “We don’t need mistakes, and there’s probably adrenaline coursing through your bloodstreams. You’re close, guys. Four more segments.”
Happy frowned, looking down the chute, to where they could just make out Drew and Ralph, 35 feet away.
“Happy,” Walter said. She raised three fingers. Walter looked down the chute, judging the distance. He nodded understanding.
“What?” Paige hissed.
“Later,” Toby said quietly. “They’re close enough.”
Ralph looked up as he pulled the third segment out of his backpack. “This is the last one.”
“We’ll figure out the last couple of feet once you’re here,” Toby told him.
Ralph nodded. Paige looked at Walter. “This is what you and Happy were communicating about five minutes ago?”
Walter nodded. “There were two more segments in Drew’s pack. More than enough, we thought.”
There was a brief silence and then Drew looked over at Ralph. “Alright, Ralph, bottom of the ninth and the bases are loaded. Let’s do this.”
“There,” Ralph said, indicating a branch about twelve feet from the end of their current segment.
“Ralph?” Walter questioned.
“We’ll cinch up this segment and that one – not too tight, but some,” Ralph explained.
“And make a ten foot segment into a twelve foot one. Smart thinking, Ralph,” Happy agreed. “It will work.”
“I know,” Ralph replied. “There, Dad.”
🦂
Drew looked down from the edge of the final segment. “It’s not going to be as easy as just dropping down from here, is it?”
“No. If you were standing on the ground directly under your current position, we could easily reach out and pull you up the last three feet, but there’s no way you’ll get traction on a drop,” Walter agreed.
“You need to swing before you let go of the ropes.”
“This just keeps getting better. I’m going to land on my a—back, and probably have a horrible case of rope burn to show for it.”
Toby moved to the side so he was out of the way of Drew’s trajectory, as the others had already done. “Ready when you are.”
“If I don’t die today, I’m buying a lottery ticket,” Drew announced as he grabbed the final crossline and dropped from the net.
“Waste of money,” Walter said as he started to swing. “Statistically…”
Drew let go of the rope. Angular momentum and gravity pulled him toward the edge of the chute. Walter and Toby broke his fall a little, and managed to keep him from tumbling backward into the chute. As all three got back to their feet, Drew looked at Walter. “Statistically, I’m pretty sure I should have died at least three times today. I’m buying a lottery ticket.”
“Your money to lose,” Walter replied before turning back to Ralph. “Okay, Ralph, time to come down.”
“I have an idea. Look, Dad barely made it far enough. Less mass; I won’t generate as much angular momentum. I don’t make it if I try to swing the gap like Dad did. But if you combine a pulley with a pendulum, you get potential energy converting to kinetic energy as angular momentum.”
Happy was already looking at the branches immediately above them. “This one,” she said.
“I thought so,” Ralph agreed. “But I need something to weight my backpack down, and it’s empty.”
“Small heavy things. On it,” Toby said. “Start with this.” He tossed a water bottle up to Ralph and headed off, muttering to himself about rocks.
Ralph tied the last coil of rope around the water bottle. “I hope I do as good a job as my Dad did,” he said before throwing the water bottle. It sailed over the branch, circled once, and swung back toward Ralph, who leaned out dangerously to grab it. He untied the water bottle and dropped it into his backpack, tying the backpack to one end of the rope.
While Paige was distracted by Toby’s return, Walter watched as Ralph fashioned a harness around himself at the other end of the rope. “Guess the inning isn’t over yet?” Drew said, taking the first stone from Toby. “Ready champ?”
Ralph nodded.
“You’ve been practicing,” Drew observed as Ralph caught nine of the ten rocks.
“That’s twenty, twenty-five pounds,” Toby said. “Is that enough?”
“If we can do this in one shot,” Happy said. “But we can’t fail.”
“Okay, Ralph,” Walter said.
“Here comes,” Ralph seconded, tossing the backpack. It swung toward them.
Happy braced her feet and caught it, hanging on. “Now, Ralph!” She said as soon as she had it.
He dropped from the network, falling almost straight down before the harness line ran right and caught him up. Happy threw the backpack with all her might away from her. Walter grabbed Ralph, pulling hard on the rope. As the backpack at the other end swung higher up in the air, the flap came open, dumping its load of rocks down the chute. With the weight gone, the drag on the harness dissipated and Walter set Ralph down and helped him untangle himself from the ropes. As Walter crouched down, he said, “You were great, Ralph. I’m glad to have you back with us. You okay?”
“Cold and wet,” Ralph replied cheerfully.
Walter, Paige, and Toby started laughing.
“Is that supposed to mean something?” Drew asked Happy.
“Officially, it was our reason for why Paige and Ralph shouldn’t move to Portland with you. It’s cold and wet here,” Happy explained.
“I’d be insulted, if it weren’t so true,” Drew admitted. He turned to Paige. “Is this what your job is like, every day?”
“More or less,” Paige answered. “Usually it’s less personal, but more lives on the line. And countdowns. Lots of countdowns.”
“Countdowns?”
“She means the incessant reminders from Sly that we have 43 seconds left before we all die,” Toby said drily.
“If you’d get out of danger faster, I wouldn’t have to be incessant,” Sly told him.