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PART FOUR(4)
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"We were getting worried about you," Two Dash One told OLie
Three, as his superior appeared around one of the surprising number of corners
in the passage, fifteen feet farther down.
The man ignored his comment, however, and addressed the divers urgently.
"Which one of you Dees has the most air left?" he asked, pointing at
the oxygen cylinders standing between their knees, in case they shouldn't grasp
his meaning immediately.
Experienced men, both of them, they had already checked their psi gauges
and compared notes on their mission reports, using diver's signals.
The gangly man ~
OLie Three stabbed at him with his finger and unclipped one of the
poke`balls from his E-belt. "Take the badolphi and go back down; Find the
drain mechanism!"
Dee One was studying him with some surprise, so he added reluctantly,
"That chamber down there was designed to be a sort of keep. I'm betting
our lives, that if you scraped away the hard packed silt still covering the
stone walls of this passage, that at the angled corners of it, you would find niches
a good sized poke`mon could fit into ~ Defensive positions."
He was wrong about the hiding niches, because he didn't know the
unusually dark history of the ruined castle they were trapped in the bowels of.
But he was right were it counted at that moment; that deepest chamber had been
built for to be the last defensive refuge, during the final, invasive stages of
a siege.
Contented with OLie's line of reasoning,
Dee Two rose to follow his partner, but OLie shook his head and indicated
the man should sit back down on the granite stone he had been upon. The brawny man
obeyed, but he didn't look too happy.
"I'm feeling giddy," OLie explained to him, trying his hardest
not to giggle hysterically. It came out as an odd sounding chuckle, instead.
Understanding that he couldn't very well go back down below, if his air
tank was needed by OLie Three ~ to keep his mental faculties running on an even
keel ~ Dee Two relaxed his unhappily hunched shoulders. He offered his tank to
the OL willingly, who accepted it from him gratefully and took several
restoring breaths from it.
His mental fog cleared now, OLie Three registered that the seven grubbles
he had assigned the forgeers to release earlier, were clustered around the
beacon rig, which was tilted slightly on a little mound of hard pack, about ten
feet farther on in the passage.
He bit his tongue, to keep himself from demanding reflexively why the
grubbles were still loose and using up valuable oxygen ~ He had their
poke`balls on his person.
As he recalled them one by one into their poke`balls, something else occurred
to him. This point in the cleared passage was about halfway up to ground ~ or
rather ~ ruin level. If all went well ~ if
While he was thinking with relative clarity, he tried to think of any
angles which needed consideration immediately; Were they ready to move out of
this seeping tunneled passage?
OLie Three tapped
Just to show he trusted his partner's smarts,
"About two feet up?" OLie Three ventured with his eyebrows
raised, wondering if
"Thereabouts," the thick-set man agreed generously. "If
the height of the island is any indication."
OLie saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to face Three
Dash Two, who was waving to get his attention. He nodded for the man to speak ~
or signal ~ his piece.
"Uh, Sir?" he began uncertainly. "Shouldn't we move back
down the passage a ways? I think the negative pressure all that escaping water
will create in here, could be dangerous; The passage might be inclined to take
a breath ~ especially if the rainfall has loosened the rest of that hard-packed
silt, just ahead of us."
From his position in front of the others, casually leaning against the
right side of the tunnel, he stirred and turned on his Lowi-light, and shined
it up the tunnel. It wasn't easy to miss the generous seepage from the
seemingly solid wall of fine soil before them ~ Even though they were all
standing at least ten feet away from it.
Anyone who had been sitting or squatting down, was on their feet by the
time OLie responded to Three Dash Two's valid point. "He's right!" he
barked forcefully. "Rendal may have even psy-shifted lightly all the way
to the surface! Grab your stuff and head down to the last dungeon level ~ we
may only have until
All the loose equipment was snatched up hurriedly, and they all
double-timed it back down the passage.
[:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:][:^:]
When they were settled again, a good ways from the passage's through
arches on the deepest dungeon level,
He was caught by surprise, however, as he turned the corner at the
through arch leading to the chamber's steps, to see his mate mounting the last
few of them, in a flaming hurry.
"They are, and due for some real air ~ not this canned stuff,"
he affirmed cheerfully, tapping the tank on his friend's back.
The thin man chuckled dryly ~ another good sign he was in high spirits ~
and assured his friend, "I would almost guarantee they'll get it, when I
open the drain ~ That is one hell of a drain system built into the
island down there!"
He spun on his flippered heel, and descended the stairs to the water's
edge ~ now about halfway up the stairs, and rising two inches every thirty
seconds.
"What sort do you think it is?"
Dee One called back over his shoulder, about to stuff the regulator back
into his mouth. "At a guess, I'd say that island caps off a plummet
retainment shaft, with its drain-route hewn out by poke`mon, to link up with
an underground river system, somewhere nearby." He shrugged uncertainly.
"Perhaps all this water will come out in that ravine to the south?"
he suggested carelessly, and in a few short seconds, he was gone.
Dee Two headed back to the others thinking to himself, 'So the drain
grates are set in the sides of the island? No wonder Kevin just found them ~
It's the last place I would have looked !'
Up ahead, he could make out the relieved smiles on the faces turned
towards his approach ~ They had heard his good words with Kevin, of course.
"Hold onto anything that isn't clipped to you," he advised them
with a chuckle. "You heard the good news: We're bustin' outta here shortly."
OLie Three motioned with his hands, and the other two teamers stood with
him, and pressed their backs against the cold stone walls of the dungeon
level's hall, to await the expected backwash.
Two Dash One grinned at the others goofily, and stepped jokingly into one
of the dungeon cells ~ which were impressively enough, iron plated. He
disappeared from their sight, and he was heard to speak a moment later, with
mock-distressed tones in his voice. "Let me outta here ~ I'm gettin' stir
crazy I tell ya!"
This derived heart felt amused laughter from his team mates ~ they could
identify with that feeling now, more than they ever had in their lives before.
And this laughter served to top off the mood lifting effects of having their
hopes in this escape Plan C confirmed by Dee One's upbeat report of a minute
ago.
"We haven't got a key to that cell," OLie Three pointed out to
him dryly. "I wouldn't want to be in there when the backwash hits; that
door might possibly get sucked closed."
Two Dash One popped back into sight with a collected motion.
"Possible," he agreed, "but not likely." He stood next to
"The height of folly, mate,"
"What's buggin' you, Dee?" he queried
the beefy man firmly.
The man's reply was immediate, like a dam bursting wide open. "I
think my mate needs help down there. It shouldn't take this long for him to
open the drains!" His look was one of pleading question.
"Go then!" OLie shouted furiously. If something needed doing,
why must his men hold back until they had his permission? Time was of the essence
here! There was no worry of the
Not wanting to stumble,
But once more, he rounded the corner , and caught sight of
Dee Two heard Kevin's jaw snap shut audibly, and then his partner said
sourly, "Those drains aren't designed to equalize. I'm taking it for
granted that the rest of the passage won't cooperate and suck loose on the
present lean-pressure ratio." Raising his voice,
"How many grates?"
"Four," came the reply. "All
open."
Kevin pointed at the passage wall, where the water line reached.
"It's still bloody rising!" he commented needlessly, gritting his
teeth.
While they were making this short exchange, both of them were aware of
OLie's urgently speaking voice bouncing off of the dungeon walls and reaching
their ears with fair clarity ~ their Operations Leader was giving the seznak,
Reith, orders and safety cautions about his task. OLie Three's last spoken word
to the seznak could not be misidentified. "QUICKLY!" they heard him
say with a vehemence born of desperation.
Five seconds later, the slithering water type was caught by Dee Two's
searching flash, as it turned at the intersection, to head in the opposite
direction speedily.
"Go Reith! Get us all out of this mud hole, buddy!" he cheered
after the poke`mon, reflecting that the wet hard pack on the passage's surface
was good going for the reptile. He honestly hoped Reith would be alright, but
he feared that if the poke`mon could not ride the down wash’s force just right;
he would not survive his mission.
At his friend's cheer, Dee One mounted the rest of the stairs, and together
they joined the trio standing tense, a quarter of the way down the dungeon
level's hall.
"Gonna tell OCley what's about to come down?" Two Dash One
inquired of OLie Three disinterestedly, not realizing the pun.
His vision blurring slightly, OLie blinked at his subordinate, and
pronounced, "After I have some more oxygen."
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