Дэвид Балдаччи - Long Road to Mercy

“Okay, we need to get going,” said Kettler, firmly taking charge.

He ran over to the dead men and relieved two of them of their M4s and extra ammo clips. “You got optics?” he asked Pine. She nodded. “Keep a watch on the chopper and the light. They’ll make several passes. If they don’t see anything, they’ll move on to another grid.”

“Based on your experience?” said Pine.

“The Army has a way of doing things, the same way.”

Pine rushed off to do this.

Roth said to Kettler, “But we can’t climb out of here with the nuke. It’s too heavy to carry all that way. It was hard enough taking it from the other cave to this one.”

“We can do it if we all take turns,” said Kettler. “And use the lifting thing you brought.”

“But what about Agent Pine?” said Roth.

“Hell, she’s probably stronger than both of us put together. Now come on.”

They raced back into the other space, and Kettler helped Roth enclose the nuke in a large camouflage bag Roth had brought down. Kettler took off his go pack and said, “I’ll carry it first. Show me how the lift thing works.”

Roth helped Kettler into the apparatus and then had Kettler back up to the nuke and squat down. Roth strapped in the nuke to the lifting pack.

“Okay, the pack’s pulley and weight redistribution systems and the exoskeleton’s battery-powered features will carry about fifty percent of the load. That makes what you’re carrying about seventy pounds or so. It’s not that bad.”

“My ruck in the Army was eighty pounds. So, no problem.”

Kettler slowly stood and steadied himself. “Okay.”

They moved back out into the main cave area.

“What’s the status?” he called out to Pine, who still stood by the opening.

“It’s starting to make one more pass,” she said. “Hold on.” About thirty seconds elapsed after the sounds of the chopper materialized once more. Then, the engine and prop noise started to filter away.

“Okay, it looks like they’ve moved on.”

Kettler explained the plan to Pine.

She glanced at her watch. “It’s two in the morning. There’s no way we’re going to hike out of here before dawn, especially carrying that thing. And they might be waiting at the top of every trail anyway.”

“Every corridor trail, but probably not every threshold or primitive trail,” said Kettler, using the Park Service’s technical designation terms for trails in the canyon.

“What’s that mean?” said Roth.

Pine looked at him. “They’re not maintained. So they’re a lot more difficult.”

“Harder than the trail I came down on the mule?” he said.

Kettler nodded. “Yes, by quite a factor. And the one closest to us is actually a combination of two trails. The trailhead lets off on the North Rim. Near a Forest Service Road. It’s not a primitive trail, it’s a threshold, but, it’s still very challenging. At least it’s not the Nankoweap Trail. I’ve done that twice and it’s a bitch. A lot of the trail is like inches away from thousand-foot-or-more drops. Definitely not for the fainthearted. But the trail we’ll be going on has some of those, too.”

Pine said, “Do we have the necessary equipment to do that?”

He held up his go pack. “In here I have climbing ropes and D-links. If we rope all three of us together?”

She looked at Roth. “You good with that?”

“I’m good,” he said. “Like I said, I’ve hiked these trails before.”

“Right,” said Kettler. “But not like the one we’re going up.”

Roped together, they hiked east to the trail and started up. Roth was roped in between Pine and Kettler, who knew the trail and was thus in the lead.

“You good with that load?” Pine asked Kettler.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, but we’ll switch out every two hours.”

They followed the contour of the Colorado until they reached a creek flowing directly into the river. Kettler located the first cairn, a stack of stones wired together, marking the entrance to the trail. They had not gone very far before they reached a climb point where the creek was quite high. Pine could see that Roth was struggling with both the pace and the terrain.

She jogged ahead and caught up to Roth.

“Okay, this might get a little dicey, so we’re going to do this the smart way.”

She called out to Kettler, who quickly joined them. Despite Roth’s objections, they used the rope to help him over the ascent and also to make it through part of the creek overflow. Pine grabbed his belt and pulled him over the final hurdle, where he lay wet and breathless at their feet.

“Okay,” said Roth. “I might have overestimated my climbing abilities. I’m not in my twenties anymore. And, to be honest, the hikes I did with Ben kicked my ass.”

Pine said, “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of here.”

They started climbing a half hour later, after Roth was sufficiently rested and Pine had taken over carrying the nuke pack. The trail was crumbling in some parts and nonexistent in other parts.

Pine noted the growing anxiety in Roth’s features as the path became steeper and increasingly twisty. She patted him on the shoulder as they finished a particularly vicious part. “You’re doing fine, Mr. Roth.”

“I’m David. With the situation we’re in, I think we’ve earned the right to use first names.”

“I’m Atlee and he’s Sam.”

Roth managed a weak smile, but the anxious look remained on his features.

They made good time. Pine checked her watch. Dawn would be coming soon.

“What’s that sound?” asked Roth anxiously.

“The falls,” replied Kettler. “Coming off the river up here. The river turns south into the creek we crossed, and then it ends at the Colorado. Watch your footing. It gets a little slick up here.”

They made their way across a broad valley. After that, some nasty switchbacks appeared, which they had to traverse.

Pine called out, “Sam, I think we need to stop and rest.”

Kettler looked back at Roth, who was looking exceedingly unsteady on his feet. “Right.”

They made camp, digging into the cliffs as much as they could. They set the nuke pack against the side of the mountain, as far away from the edge as possible.

After they’d eaten and hydrated, Roth fell asleep on a thin sleeping bag that Kettler had laid out for him. They were on the northwestern side of the Canyon, so the dawn would be coming to them more slowly than if they’d been on the eastern end.

The pair sat there with their backs against the rock, the M4s in hand.

“You think he’ll be okay?” asked Kettler.

“I don’t know. I figure he’s about fifteen or maybe even twenty years older than us, and he’s not used to this. And he’s been down here a long time. It takes it out of you, as you well know. But he did carry that pack all the way to the other cave. That was no mean feat.”

“Right.”

“You want to get some shut-eye, I can keep watch,” offered Pine.

Kettler shook his head. “I’m good.”

They fell silent.

“So, the fate of the world hangs on, what, us?” said Kettler.

“Apparently so.”

“Really not what I signed up for, joining the Park Service.”

“Well, it’s what I signed up for,” replied Pine.

He turned to her and smiled. “I’m glad you’re here, Atlee. If it were just me and Roth, I might be freaking out.”

“No, you’d be doing just what you’re doing: what it takes to complete the mission.” She paused. “But if you weren’t here, I think I’d be freaking out.”

Kettler stared out at the rock walls surrounding them. “You know there are five ecological life zones in the Canyon? The same number you’d get going from Mexico all the way to Canada.”