Note from Loth:
Thanks for being patient through my spell of writer's block. Please enjoy!
Edit'd by the Queen of Red Crayons, MacBeth, with my thanks!The Rainmakers, ch 11
The Screwball“At this time there is no other option,” Keele’s voice was as inflexible as his posture and as cold as the silver birds shining on his collar. He handed Burke a sheet of paper with an official-looking seal embossed into the letterhead. “The tankers are on their way and will be here in approximately five and a half hours.”
“That will destroy everything!” Burke objected, “as well as killing any survivors trapped by the collapsed stairwell! Sodium hydroxide
can’t be the only solution. We could use – “
“It’s the only solution we can arrange quickly enough,” Keele interrupted firmly. “My duty is to prevent that acid from reaching the Rio Grande .” Keele turned toward Pete, who had been listening and suppressing the urge to shout down both men. “Back me up, Colsen ...
are there any other options?”
Pete didn’t know what to say; the NaOH had been his own suggestion – sent in covertly through the Federal Department to the Army so that his undercover identity would not be revealed. But before he could speak to deny or agree with the colonel, Burke interrupted him:
“We have someone coming to help ... he’s due to arrive any second now! He might be able to do something from the inside if we give him enough time ... ”
Pete was taken aback. “You can’t
still seriously be considering sending that guy down ... the lower levels of the KIVA are a death-trap!” Pete gestured toward the ruin of the stairwell, where all excavation attempts had been driven back in failure. “Charlie, I’m sorry ... but nobody is coming up out of there alive, and only an insane man would try to go down there now – even
if he can find a way in!”
“It might not be as bad as all that,” Burke argued. “The generators on the Third Level are still operating – that’s where we’re drawing power from now. I take that as an indication that Steubens and Marlow could still be alive – the most sever damage must be on the Second Level. There’s a chance that they can be reached – there has to be some kind of access! We have to try!”
Colonel Keele regarded Burke evenly. “I have my orders, Director.” Then he turned on his polished heel and strode out of the command center.
Burke wadded up the paper containing the memo from Washington declaring the doom of the KIVA and threw it after him weakly, muttering something that sounded to Pete like “Stiff-necked jarhead!”
“When you sent for this man,” Pete said softly, “our timetable was based on air supply.” Pete regarded the wall clock solemnly. “That has been cut almost in half now. If he gets here in the next quarter hour he’ll only have about 5 hours – until the tankers arrive. We’ve got to start pumping that sodium hydroxide in as soon as they get here ... the ecological impact could be catastrophic, otherwise.”
“All right.” Burke said grimly. “This guy will have to do what he can do in 5 hours ... Gus, get me the paperwork on the expert that Gantner is bringing in.”
But Gus didn’t hear his request; he had one hand clamping a headset to his ear and was excitedly turning dials and knobs on a console with the other. “Dr. Burke! I think we may be getting through again!”
Burke grabbed the handset and pressed it to his ear. “Dr. Marlow? Dr. Steubens? Gentlemen, can you hear me?”
A long moment passed before a response stuttered from the speaker. “Yes, just-just a little. I-I-I think K-K-Karl is – regaining consciousness, but he’s-we do need a doctor down here –” The green lights on the console faded to red as the weak voice was overtaken by static.
Burke plugged his free ear with a finger. “Dr. Marlow? Hello?”
“Sorry, sir, we lost him,” Gus announced grimly.
Burke thrust the receiver into his hands. “Keep trying!” He turned to Pete. “Any chance that we have to get them out alive, Colsen, we’re going to try! And if Gantner’s expert is willing to go down there, then I’m not going to try to talk him out of it!” Burke leveled a glare at Pete. “And neither are you!”
⌂
Mac’s Voice-Over: I’d been glad of the warmth of my flannel shirt and jacket as we whipped through the air toward Bannon, but the helicopter hadn’t even settled onto the dusty ground before I was longing to rip them off. The heat of the desert reached up to catch us, and sweat was already soaking into the band of my baseball cap and starting to trickle down my back as I released the catch on my safety harness. The huge blades of the helicopter spun down as we waited, uncomfortably, for our military escort. Gant sat chewing on his lip until at last a man came running up, one hand holding his helmet in place as he jogged toward us.
Gant bailed out first, grabbing the soldier’s hand. I saw birds on the collar of his fatigues, but I missed reading the name printed on his breast pocket. If our military escort was a full colonel, then security was indeed still tight around this lab. I wondered how much red tape I was going to have to tunnel through before I actually got inside. Hopefully, Gant would be able to cut through the worst of it for me.
I grabbed my gamebag and stuck my head under the strap and followed them. It felt good to stretch my legs after being in the cramped helicopter, in spite of the oppressive heat.
From the outside, the KIVA Laboratories did not seem very impressive. In fact, it looked like an old radio station, abandoned and left to be swallowed by the desert. The colonel led us through the hustle of EMS people and soldiers, helping bruised and battered people into the fleet of ambulances that were squatting around the place, lights flashing with insistent impotency. Most of the injuries seemed to be superficial, but there were some in quite serious condition. I spotted one man who had a wicked burn on his arm – most likely electrical but I couldn’t be sure without asking the paramedic – but our guide didn’t slow down so I didn’t have time.
The brief walk to the lab left me sweating heavily; I took my cap off and shoved it into my bag. But as we stepped between the guards through the door that led into the complex, it felt like I’d walked face-first into a deep-freeze. Instantly the skin on my arms and legs were covered with goose bumps, and the sweat dripping down my back became an icicle. I decided to keep my jacket on for the time being!
On the blueprints this area had been described as a garage, but it was now a triage, filled with the victims of this disaster. Off to one side, with a single soldier standing guard, were several sad figures draped with white sheets.
Suddenly, the cold I was feeling didn’t have anything to do with the AC. I forced myself to keep moving.The garage area and the main computer control room beyond it were aswarm with people. Colonel Keele cut through the human tide like a knife, followed closely by Gantner. A team of firefighters rushed past; Mac fell back and let them pass while the other men went on ahead into the computer lab. Mac used the time to look around and get his bearings.
Most of the damage on this level seemed to have been done to the computers; overloads had blown out several panels, and there men and women were working diligently – some desperately – to coax information from the crippled systems. The indicator lights on many of the computers were flashing red or not working at all. As Mac watched, a pair of soldiers entered the computer lab and rounded up a few techs that had been unable to revive their stations, insisting firmly that they join the evacuation.
Mac’s Voice-over continues:Either they had had a lot of people to evacuate, or they were only just getting started. It made me wonder – oh yes it did – about what had changed since I had initially been briefed.
Oh, well… I hadn’t really expected it to be too easy …
As the people filed out, I received a mixture of stares; hopeful, confused, resentful – and one of pity that made my stomach twist.
Something kicked over in my mind and right then! – my fear and doubt evaporated. I had a job to do – lives that depended on me. I was determined to see this through.
A feeling of excitement and anticipation spread through me, driving away the last of my chill; I readjusted the strap across my shoulder and pushed through the stream of people to where Gant and the colonel were waiting.⌂
Over the susurrus murmur of people, a woman’s voice broadcast over the loudspeaker, demanding attention with the stilted tones of computer urgency. Mac was still looking around, comparing what he saw with his mental notes of the layout of the laboratory. Ahead of him, Gantner and Colonel Keele were speaking to a harried-looking man whose dark hair looked as if it had acquired shots of grey within the last few hours. Mac couldn’t quite hear what he was saying, but his body language made it clear that he and the colonel were not friends.
Then Mac saw something ... or rather, someone … that nearly made him stop dead in his tracks. Through a glass partition, he could see into another smaller office, raised a few feet above the floor of the computer lab. A familiar balding head was bent over a computer: Pete Thornton – in the flesh – right in the thick of things, as usual!
MacGyver felt his jaw drop open, but before he could utter any words of surprise he was jostled by a technician who couldn’t see over her armload of files. Mac steadied her with a hand on her arm. When he looked up again, he saw Pete looking straight back at him through the glass.
Pete didn’t look surprised to see MacGyver. He looked furious. As Mac watched, Pete took a cigarette out of his pocket and placed it in his mouth. With unnecessary force he struck a lighter, lit the cigarette. But instead of letting the lighter die, he took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew out the flame – like a birthday candle. Then he turned away before anyone else noticed.
MacGyver took a deep breath and continued forward to catch up with Gantner and Keele. No one in the busy room had noticed the wordless exchange between the two men.
Mac’s Voice-over:My mind was racing like crazy ... which I think would be normal under any circumstances, but seeing my friend Pete Thornton here – it kind of solidified my suspicion that there was something going on here below the surface of things. No pun intended.
What was Pete trying to tell me? He knew I wouldn’t blow his cover, whatever it was, but I could tell he wasn’t overjoyed to see me here, at this time.
My pulse was racing as fast as my mind now. I still had a job to do ... and by the look of things, it was going to be dangerous.
As dangerous as any crazy kid from Minnesota could hope. ⌂
Mac caught up with Gantner and Keele just as the colonel said, “I better keep things moving outside. I’ll check in with you later.”
Burke gave a curt nod and said, “Good.” Mac wondered if it was supposed to convey approval of Keele’s vigilance, or relief at the man’s absence from Burke’s immediate presence.
Gantner performed introductions. “Charlie Burke, this is MacGyver. Charlie’s director of the lab,” he added as Mac leaned forward and shook Burke’s hand.
This time, Burke’s relief was genuine. “Thank you for coming.”
Mac’s eyes were drawn to the rows of indicator lights flashing upon the various computer terminals. The unit that Burke was standing beside appeared to be in the best repair of all the others. From where he stood, he could see that it was monitoring the lower levels with a row of dials, showing power readings, pressure, heat, and oxygen. Level Two seemed to be in the most trouble; the dials were mostly laid over in the red.
Glancing around to soak up as much information as he could – and deliberately not looking toward the booth where Pete was working – MacGyver asked, “How’s it stand right now?”
“Well, Marlow’s fine; Steubens was unconscious for a while, but he’s coming around, and we’ve been unable to maintain any communication for more than two seconds at a time.” Burke’s voice delivered this news in a flat-businesslike rush. He was watching MacGyver closely, wondering if the man was actually paying attention to him. Would he refuse to attempt the rescue, or was he simply too distracted to realize how much danger he was placing himself in? He looked young and tough, physically able to face a challenge of this magnitude, but mentally – ? The jury was still out, Burke decided.
“You got any idea what set it off?”
“An explosion on the Third Level somehow made its way to the First, but past that, we’re guessing.”
“Any chance it could have had anything to do with their research?” MacGyver asked matter-of-factly.
“No, no, no no no…” Burke was quickly dismissive of the suggestion. “Steuben’s research had to do with magnetic fields in the ozone layer.”
Mac perked up as he heard this. “Rainmakers?” he asked, thinking back on the ‘message’ that Pete had left for him.
“Yup.”
Umbrella, huh, Pete? Clever old son of a gun ... MacGyver kept his thoughts off of his face and asked, “You
sure this was an accident, right?”
Burke gave his answer with a touch of heat. “Given the security of the KIVA laboratories, I don’t see how it could be anything else.”
“Yeah, right,” MacGyver breathed softly. “Ah, you got somebody I can talk specifics with?” He waved the roll of schematics he had tucked under his arm.
“Andy Colsen is our Chief of Operations,” Burke answered.
“Awright, let’s have him!” Mac announced with a touch of gung-ho. “That ten hours can’t be gettin’ any longer.” He turned and began to unroll the sheaf of papers on a table.
Burke hastily cleared more space for him, before papers and objects could be shoved onto the floor. “Get Colsen down here.” Gus nodded and hurried off. “Now, we started to drill an air hole from the outside, but we had to stop.”
Gantner frowned up from the drawings. “Why’s that?”
“We hit sulfuric acid.” The look on Burke’s face showed clearly that he wished he didn’t have such bad news to report. He was afraid that he was going to inadvertently talk MacGyver out of the rescue attempt. “The explosion must have ruptured one of the tanks, and that’s – well, it’s – it’s leaking into the ground.”
“Has it reached the aquifer yet?” Mac asked quickly.
Gantner had no clue what the men were talking about. “Whoa, whoa – what’s – ”
Burke explained patiently, “The aquifer – it’s a layer of underground water – in this case, it leads into the Rio Grande. Now, if the acid hits the river, we’re going to poison most of this state, Texas, and Mexico.”
“What can you do about it?”
“Well, we can neutralize it – but in order to do that, we have to flood the entire complex with sodium hydroxide.”
Gantner frowned again. “What’s that?”
Mac, his face sober from what he was learning, said quietly to his friend, “Let’s just say that it’s the same stuff they use to clean the flesh off of skeletons.”
“You’re kidding.” Mac shook his head slightly. To Burke, Gantner said, “Is that true?”
“Yeah. There’s a convoy of tankers on the way right now.”
Mac turned and gave Burke a pointed look. “So it’s
not ten hours any more.”
Burked glanced up at the clock. “No – ah, given the rate of flow of the acid, I’d say you have a little under five hours, my friend,” he said bluntly.
“Why, you’re just taking all the fun outta this, Charlie.” Gantner gaped at him, but Mac ignored him. He drew Burke’s attention back to the drawings. “Can you show me where that tank is?”
Burke was relieved that MacGyver hadn’t run screaming out of the KIVA. He indicated a spot on the schematic drawing. “Right there. Third level – 300 feet below ground.”
Mac felt a familiar presence. He turned in time to see Pete ambling toward him, lighting a fresh cigarette.
Of all the people in this place ... could it be…? Mac felt a smile growing up inside. “You Colsen?”
If Pete is ‘Colsen’, then things are better for me than I’d hoped.Pete took the cigarette out of his mouth to say, “That’s right. You must be the screwball.”
Mac’s smile broke across his face; he couldn’t help it.
Burke misread the situation, luckily. He admonished his Chief of Operations with a gentle, “Andy, c’mon.”
MacGvyer recovered himself quickly, though he couldn’t quite wipe his expression of relief entirely away.
Still grinning, Mac turned back to Burke and the schematics. “It doesn’t make much sense to go over every level right now. If you can wire me for two-way, you can fill me in as I get to each one. First problem, though, is to get me inside.” Mac dragged his glance from Gantner to Burke, then he swung and spoke directly to ‘Colsen.’ “You got any ideas on that?”
“The only way to get down to the First Level is through the elevator, and we can’t even open the doors up here. The whole shaft is protected by laser.” The whole of Pete’s bearing and voice communicated his displeasure and reluctance in sending his friend down into a hell-pit.
“Infrared or gas-discharged?” Mac expressed only curiosity in his voice, but the sobriety and negativity that had gripped him before seemed now to have evaporated – in a puff of cigarette smoke. With Pete on his side, Mac knew his chances of success had increased exponentially.
Pete regarded him levelly, his own expression geared to conveying to everyone in the room that he thought that he was talking to a lunatic. “Gas. CO2. Ten thousand watts.”
Mac let out a whistle and winced. “You boys take your elevator shafts pretty seriously.” He paused, his eyes caught by something in Pete’s shirt pocket. “Spare a cigarette?”
“Oh, sure.” Pete took the pack out of his pocket and tapped them loose to offer one to MacGyver.
A last cigarette for a condemned man, he thought morosely.
Mac closed his hand around the pack and took it from Pete’s hand, slipping them inside his bag. “Thank you.”
Pete regarded him with annoyance. “Take the pack, why don’t you? Want my lighter, too?”
“No, thanks ... I carry my own matches,” Mac replied absently, already refocused on the plans. Burke and Gantner had been watching the demonstration; Burke turned back to work with a wry grin on his face. “Now, this wiring duct here – it looks like it runs into the elevator shaft. Does it?”
“Yeah, it does. And it’s got a grate on the opening; but that’s not gonna do you any good. You’re still gonna draw the laser there.”
“That’s what I’m countin’ on. Can you get me inside?”
Pete stared at Mac, wondering at the man’s nonchalance. “You know, you’re not gonna be able to
see that laser!”
“Can you?” Mac repeated, a hint of a challenge in his voice.
Pete began to nod. This
was MacGyver he was talking to ... he should have known he would not be easily dissuaded. “Yeah, I can get you in. You know, it’s gonna take a lot more than you can carry in that knapsack to get you through
all this.” Pete indicated the plans spread before them with a wave, cigarette smoking in his fingers.
“Well, the bag’s not for what I take, Colsen –” Mac responded confidently, “ – it’s for what I find along the way.” Mac took one last look at the plans and permitted himself another grin.
Pete’s Voice-over:I can’t imagine what he thinks he’s got to smile about.
I thought I was going to have a heart-attack when I saw him, rolls of paper tucked under one arm, a knapsack strung over his shoulder like he was a Boy Scout going for a hike … sometimes I think that MacGyver has more than a few screws loose.
I mean – just look around! This building is in ruins, half of the systems don’t work, the power is running on habit – and he’s standing here, grinning like fool as I’m telling him that there is no possible way in … which to any normal
person should suggest that there is also no possible way out.
But I’ve always known that MacGyver wasn’t normal.
And I’m standing here watching him, pretending not to know him… pretending not to be preparing to send my good friend down to his likely death. The odds are against those people down there, against MacGyver, against time. It is an impossible task. It is a hopeless task.
And I know that it is equally impossible and hopeless to try to talk him out of trying.
I guess the best I can do is help him get through, and trust Mac to keep himself alive.
I’ll tell you frankly, though … if I wasn’t already bald, MacGyver would make me go gray!~~~
Link to Chapter 12
Everyone, sometimes, needs a camel.
Old troubleshooters never die...
They just wait til the last moment and then rescue themselves!
