Page 53 of Freedom Mine
Jace’s jaw clenched. “We go with the assumption he did.” He set another map on top of the makeshift table. “See this,” he pointed to a double set of parallel lines on the map. “That’s the adit Bawson found. It’s a shame. It appears to be the best way in, if it weren’t so narrow.”
“Could we widen it?” Liet asked. “The opening at our end was wide. It didn’t narrow until about two hundred feet in. What’s that leave, another fifty or hundred feet maybe until it connects to the mine?”
“Hard to say. We could be facing way too many man-hours that Kayo doesn’t have, if he’s still alive.”
A short cry escaped Alli. All heads turned her way, including the group of men that had been gathering around awaiting orders.
“Sorry, Blue,” Jace said. “Maybe you should go back to the house. You’ve done enough here.”
She shook her head, afraid if she tried to speak again if would only come out as another cry. The men didn’t need her distracting them, but she wouldn’t leave Kayo.
“All we need is to get one man in to assess how far in the collapse goes, and if we’re lucky, to find out if Kayo is still alive and where,” Liet said.
Her stomach twisted.If Kayo is still alive...
“The adit is machine-made,” Bawson reminded them.
Jace’s face tightened.
“What does that mean?” Alli asked.
“It means the adit wasn’t meant as an access tunnel for people, but for water to drain. It’s really narrow.”
“If it’s like the adits in Freedom, Runner can squeeze through,” Tieg said.
“And Blue,” Bawson added.
She hated Bawson, but he was right. “I’ll do it,” she said.
“It’s too dangerous for you,” Masher said.
And suddenly she didn’t care for Masher.
“She’s worth more than the damn mine. Can’t let ‘er go in. May need to sell ‘er,” someone yelled, possibly Pabi given the twang she heard.
“Shut your trap,” Masher yelled back. He was back on her ‘like’ list.
“And Kayo’s worth all of you put together,” Jace said to the group of now nine men. Jace rolled the map and tucked it under his arm. “Blue, we may need you to go in. Runner’s not good in small spaces. If he panics at the wrong time and place, he could cause another cave-in, and then we’ll be digging out two people.”
“He’s afraid of tight spaces too?” she asked.
“It’s more common than you’d think with the men here,” Liet said.
Cave-ins, no doubt. “Tell me what to do,” she said. “I’ve squeezed through a lot of crawl spaces under houses and in hidden passageways behind walls.”
Jace quirked an eyebrow. “Do I want to ask?” he said as the group followed Bawson to the adit.
“No,” she said, her expression tight. It wouldn’t help Kayo if she dredged up those memories, especially when she needed to focus.
With a hodgepodge of clothing from the men on hand, Liet’s gloves, Runner’s pants, Jace’s belt, and Kayo’s long sleeve shirt she was already wearing, she had her mining clothing. After a few adjustments, which included Diggs burning additional holes into Jace’s belt so the pants would stay up on her, and wrapping a lightstick around her neck like a necklace, she was ready to go.
Jace explained the plan and made her memorize the map, quizzing her several times before deeming her ready. Ready was a stretch, by all of their imaginations, but time was critical. Kayo could be hurt and the mine could suffer additional collapses, including in the adit she’d be entering.
Only a hundred feet into the adit, Alli understood why they needed someone small. There was barely enough room for her to crawl. Unlike this particular adit, the manmade adits were large enough for men to enter the mine.
Despite each rock that dug into her knees, hands, and belly, Alli pushed on. The thought of him lying under a ton of rock, dead, was starting to overwhelm her. She had to think positively, or she’d never make it through.
The heat in the adit intensified the further she went. It was a good sign, one that Jace had told her to expect.
