ENCOUNTER by Hep Aldridge (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

at least for a while. Eduardo, I will put the charge together. All you have to do is place it in the right spot, flip the switch on the detonator, the red light will come on, and I’ll have the go boom button. Then, get the hell out of there; any questions?”

Hearing none, he said, “Good, Colt, the kid is going to need an earpiece, so I can direct his placement of the charge from down here.”

I reached in my pocket, pulled out the spare earwig I carried with me, and handed it to Eduardo. Dimitri was talking to him again as he was putting the C-4 charge together.

“Eduardo, this will be perfectly safe. Just don’t beat this around or bump it, and don’t touch the arming switch until I tell you; got it? When you’re done, tie off the rope and use it to climb down.”

“Si, Senor Dimitri, got it.” Joe handed Eduardo a pair of leather gloves, which he stuck in his pockets.

Eduardo placed the strap of the small canvas bag containing the charge over his head and across his chest with the rope.

I took him by the shoulders and said, “Are you sure you want to do this? We could find another way to get it done.”

He looked me square in the eye with a grim smile on his face and said, “There is no other way.” Then he turned and started climbing.

As before, the first fifteen or twenty feet went quickly. I checked my watch. Our preparations had taken fifteen minutes, but it seemed like an hour. We watched the boy climb slowly and methodically. I thought, eat your heart out, Spiderman, this kid is the real deal. About three-quarters of the way up, he slowed down dramatically as he tried to find a safe purchase for his hands and feet. Small rocks became dislodged and fell in a shower around us, but he kept climbing, reached the top without incident, turned, and gave us a thumbs up. I think we all started breathing again.

Joe had given the drone a station-keeping command, so it had been hovering silently directly overhead.

Dimitri said, “Okay, Joe, slowly move over that boulder field,” and then said over Comms, “Eduardo, you copy?”

“Si, loud and clear,” came the reply.

“Great, you see the large rock I showed you?”

“Si, I see it. I’m heading that way now.”

“Alright, move slowly and carefully. If you fall and get hurt, we’re all in serious trouble.”

“I understand.”

We followed his progress as he made his way across the rocks. I looked at my watch. We had been stopped for thirty minutes. Our lead was getting eaten up, and time was not on our side. He got to the large boulder, one of the Volkswagen-sized ones, and Dimitri directed him in the charge placement. We were watching closely with the drone. When Dimitri gave the order, he reached down and flipped the switch, and the red light came on, arming the charge. He climbed back on the boulders and started back to the edge of the gorge; that’s when he slipped. There was a sudden inhalation of air as we watched him fall, hitting his head on one of the large rocks and rolling in between two of them.

For a split second, the three of us stood there in stunned silence; things had been going perfectly, and now this. I guess one of us or all of us had cried out when we watched him fall because Doc and the others came running down the trail toward us.

“What’s the problem?” Doc asked breathlessly.

He looked down at the small video screen and could see Eduardo lying motionless in the boulder field.

“Oh, shit, what happened?”

I said, “He slipped and fell and hit his head; he’s unconscious.” Dimitri was trying to raise him on his Comm with no response. O’Reilly and Reggie had arrived and quickly assessed the situation, looking at the video screen and hearing Dimitri’s calls.

O’Reilly said, “Did the charge get set?”

“Yeah, that’s done; he was on his way back when he fell.”

Reggie was staring intently at the screen, “He’s got rope?”

“Yeah, plenty,” I said.

“Gloves?”

“Yes,” I acknowledged.

“Great,” she said as she laid her rifle down and shucked her tactical harness.

“Back in a minute,” she said as she hit the wall at a dead run and literally bounded up its face. I stood there with my jaw dropping while she scurried up the sheer wall. I had thought Eduardo had made good time but watching her was incredible. She dislodged more rocks than Eduardo on her climb, but that was because she was launching herself off her footholds and making unbelievable hand grabs, not slowing down for a second. The next thing we saw was her cresting the top and then disappearing.

Joe was following her movements with the drone as Dimitri kept trying to raise Eduardo on his Comms. Joe gave her directions to get to Eduardo, and within minutes, we could see her lowering herself down to where he still lay motionless.

Reggie’s voice crackled in our ears.

“He’s got a pretty good-sized gash in his head, and he’s getting a real goose egg. Doc, I think we may have a concussion on our hands. I’m going to try and rouse him.” She had pulled her canteen off her belt and poured a little water on his face while saying his name, washing the blood from the cut on his head. She reached in her pants pocket, pulled out a small field dressing, opened it, and placed it on the wound. The dressing came with a gauze bandage wrap, which she applied around his head to hold it in place. We heard her say, “Hey, I think he’s coming around; yeah, he’s opening his eyes.”

Doc said, “Check his eyes; are his pupils dilated?”

“No, I don’t think so; it looks like they’re responding to the sunlight. I think he’ll be okay. I’ve seen my share of head trauma, and this may not be as bad as it first looked. We’re starting back.”

We watched as