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

“Reggie, what’s going on?” No response. “Reggie, can you hear me? Do you copy?” Nothing. We still felt pressure on the rope as we began pulling it up.

“Doc, do you see anything? Can you see her?”

“No, nothing, Colt, for a split second, I think I saw her step out from under the rock down there and pitch forward, nothing after that.”

“Okay, give us a hand. Dimitri, let’s pull her up.” We all three were slowly pulling on the rope when we felt a couple of sudden jerks as if someone was pulling against us. We pulled harder, two more jerks, and then we almost fell backward as the rope came free. We all began calling Reggie’s name as we moved to the edge of the precipice. There was no answer to our voices or over the Comm link. As unbelievable dread gripped us, we quickly pulled the rope up to find the end had been cut.

We were now all standing looking down into the black maw of the abyss as the realization hit us… we had just lost Reggie.

Chapter Eighteen

The silence was deafening as we stood there staring at the end of the rope at our feet. Everyone had rushed to the edge as we had pulled up the rope and were looking over the edge. O’Reilly called out, “Reggie, Reggie, are you okay?” No answer. Dimitri and Joe shouted her name; all we heard was the forlorn echo in the canyon. My God, I thought, she can’t be gone, she just can’t be as I peered over the edge with the others.

I heard what can only be described as a choked sound of expletives emanating from O’Reilly and saw Eduardo throw his arms around her, his body shaking.

Dimitri called out again, this time in an angry voice that cracked as he finished, “Reggie, dammit, this isn’t funny; where are you…?”

Joe put his hand to his forehead. “This can’t be happening. She can’t be gone; she just can’t be,” followed by a sharp intake of breath, his voice cracking into a muffled sob.

Doc walked up to me and said in a low voice, “What the hell just happened?”

I stood there, choked up, feeling like I had just been gut-punched by a semi-truck. “I don’t know, Doc; I can’t explain it. She was on rope, in trouble, and we were pulling her back, and then she was… gone.”

I asked him, “Did you see anything? Did you see what happened?”

His voice quivered as he said, “No, one minute I caught a glimpse of her, and then nothing.”

I staggered back to the nearest large rock and sat down. We have to do something; there’s got to be something we can do. Think, think, my brain was screaming while feeling paralyzed by shock.

I heard Joe say, “We’ve got to go look for her.”

“Yeah, I’ll go down,” Dimitri said as he picked up the rope.

“No,” I exclaimed, much louder and harsher than I expected.

Dimitri stopped and looked at me, “What do you mean ‘No?’ We can’t just stand here and do nothing.”

I looked him in the eye and said, “That’s exactly what we’re going to do until we have a better idea of what happened. I’m not risking anyone else’s life.”

O’Reilly turned to me, red-eyed, and said, “We just lost our friend, our comrade, a member of our family, and you want to sit there doing nothing?” Her voice rose in pitch and anger as she finished her outburst. Everyone was staring at me now like I was some seven-headed beast from Hell.

“Stop and think, people. I’m as sick inside as every one of you, but I will not risk more lives until we figure out what we’re dealing with. That was a four-thousand pound, working load rope. It could lift a small vehicle and not break, so what happened? Right now, we need brains, not emotions, as our driving force if we’re to have any chance of getting to Reggie safely.”

Dimitri and Joe were staring at the rope end, and Joe said, “Well, this didn’t break; it’s obviously been cut.”

There was silence as we stared at one another, trying to make sense of what happened. My head and heart were pounding.

Suddenly, there was a static crackle over our Comms, and all our heads snapped up. Another crackle and then a familiar voice said, “Hey, you guys still up there?”

I bolted upright off my rock seat. “Reggie!” I literally shouted into my Comm as I headed for the edge of the rock face.

Dimitri and Joe echoed my call into the Comm link, “Reggie,” as they turned and scrambled to the edge.

O’Reilly, Doc, and Eduardo were all making their way to the edge as O’Reilly said, “Reggie, what’s your status—are you hurt?”

We got to the edge and looked down as Reggie said, “Yeah, I’m good, got some bumps and bruises, but good.”

We stood there in astonishment, elation, and relief as we saw her standing below us… in the middle of the black abyss!

“What the hell happened?” I sputtered. “How are you standing there?”

She looked around, spread her arms, and said, “Yeah, pretty amazing, huh? This is really neat down here. There must be some kind of cloaking device or optical veil, kinda like the Romulans used on Star Trek. I can’t explain it, but what a trip.”

“What?” I think we all exclaimed in unison.

“A cloaking device?” Doc said. “So, what are you standing on, and why can’t we see your feet?”

I now realized that Doc was right. She was not visible from the knees down. It looked like she was standing in a shallow pool of black water.

“Oh,” she said, “I’m standing on a stone platform, a stepped platform. It has about ten steps down to the ground. I should know; I tumbled down them headfirst.”

So that was the tugging and pulling we felt on the rope, I thought.

“I was doing okay until you guys started pulling me back up. I had already smacked my head