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

the rocks, but we had no way of telling how broad or concentrated this barrier was. I decided to deploy the drone to see if we could get some answers.

Joe finished the preparations, and the drone lifted off. We had a clear picture of the rock face in front of us as the drone climbed. As it was getting to the top of the barrier, the video signal started to drop in and out, and the picture became fuzzy. I was looking intently at the laptop screen when the movement of the video became erratic, and Joe started having trouble controlling the flight of the drone.

“That’s weird,” Joe said as he gingerly worked the two joysticks controlling the drone’s flight. “It’s not responding to all my commands; it’s never done that before.”

We all looked up and could see the drone bobbing and weaving around as Joe fought to control it. It had reached a height above the rocks to give us a glimpse of what lay beyond, but only for a split second, and then the screen went all snowy. The video signal was lost, and the drone began falling. Joe fought to regain control and finally stopped the fall about twenty feet from the ground and brought it in for a rough landing. He immediately went to it and brought it back to where we were standing.

“Now, that is bizarre. It has never given us any problems since we’ve been using it.” After a quick inspection, he continued, “And I don’t see a thing wrong with it.” Joe set the drone down next to the laptop and said, “I’m going to run its diagnostics program; maybe that will tell us something.” A few minutes later, as he stared at the screen, he said, “It says it’s fine, no glitches or problems detected… weird.”

“Okay, play back the video, and let’s see if that can tell us anything,” I said. We were all watching the screen as the drone took off and began climbing. As it reached the top of the rockslide, the video signal began dropping out, and the horizontal and vertical stability of the video started jumping around, so much so that we couldn’t get a clear picture of what lay beyond, except for one split second when the signal stabilized and then winked out.

“Did you see that?” O’Reilly asked. “It looked like the road was gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” Dimitri asked.

“Play it again and watch closely; just before the screen goes black, it looks like there is nothing on the other side.”

We watched it three more times and couldn’t tell if what we were seeing was real or part of the camera’s glitch, but it looked like where the road should have been, there was nothing but blackness. That made no sense whatsoever.

Joe gave the drone another once over and then stowed it in its case, having found nothing unusual. Darkness was descending rapidly. It got dark in the canyon quicker than usual as we gathered more wood and sat around our fire, discussing the drone’s weird behavior and enjoying the fire’s warmth. Dimitri broke out his bottle of vodka and passed it around. This round finished the bottle.

Doc said, “So, what’s the plan, Colt?”

“Everybody, get some rest tonight, and tomorrow we’ll get to the top of this pile of rocks and see what’s really on the other side.”

Chapter Seventeen

We were halfway up the rock barrier that blocked our way. It was a tough climb but doable. We just had to be very careful; falling in amongst these huge, jagged rocks could be fatal. It was a very technical climb, and our hand and foot placements had to be precise. I had given our resident “mountain goat,” Reggie the lead; I was next, followed by Dimitri and Joe. The others waited below as our rescue team, should we need it.

Reggie was doing great; we were all belayed, and Reggie made sure her main tie-off point was secure before we followed her. It was slow going but necessary. She finally reached the top and tossed another line down for us to use as an additional handhold on our climb. It could also be used by the team below on their climb.

As I crested the rocky summit, I saw Reggie, standing, hands on her hips, staring at the far side of the barrier some forty to fifty feet wide.

“That was some climb,” I said to her as I stood up.

“Yeah, pretty cool,” she responded in the tone of someone who could care less about the question and kept looking to the far side of the rock fall. When I got to where I could stand up straight and looked in that direction, I understood why she responded the way she did. Her mind was elsewhere, as was mine when I saw the vista before us. Dimitri and Joe had made it to the top and came over to stand next to us.

“Holy crap,” Joe said.

“What the hell…” Dimitri started and then stopped.

Before us lay the canyon, but where the road had been, there was a huge gash in the earth, a crevasse that covered the entire width of the canyon. We slowly made our way to the other side and looked down into the gaping maw that appeared at the base of our rock barrier. It was a dizzying prospect, looking down into the nothingness. Our gaze followed the crevasse through the entire length of the canyon as far as the eye could see. There was nothing there; the earth had swallowed up everything.

What had happened and when? The road had vanished, and we were left with no option for moving forward. The sinking feeling in my gut must have been felt by the others as Dimitri said, “All this way, for nothing.”

Joe responded, “I don’t freakin believe it,” as he plopped down on one of the large rocks.

“Looks like the road may have been built on a fault line that opened up,” I said, “but when did