The chunk from the mountain hit again...
Randall felt his rope shudder.
...lifted into the air and sailed over the agents, grazing Randall’s helmet before continuing its downward trajectory.
Randall glanced up before getting off Devlin. “You okay?”
She cast upward and downward peeks. “What the hell was that?”
He scanned the area above. “A rock.”
“I know it was a rock. But where did it come from?”
“I’m not sure. My best guess is my rope knocked it loose when I swung over to you.”
“Does that happen often...boulders coming loose?”
He sidestepped back to his original place, ten feet on her left. “I’ve heard of it happening, but never before experienced it. Come on. Let’s just keep moving.”
Devlin settled her nerves with a couple deep breaths, got into position, released the brake, and eased herself down the cliff.
At thirty feet, seeing the cliff go completely vertical, her foot in the air, she hesitated before swallowing and making the transition.
Forty feet down, noticing he had eclipsed his climbing partner, Randall stopped.
Devlin drew even with him.
He gestured. “Probably only another sixty or seventy,” a tremor from the rope raced through his right hand, up his arm, and registered in his brain, “feet.” He looked up. “Uh-oh.”
She let go of her brake and spied him. “What do you mean uh-oh? I don’t like to hear—”
He cursed and headed down the mountain, picking up speed. “I think my rope’s been cut.”
“What? How do—” trying to keep up with him, she worked the brake handle and lowered herself as fast as she could. “How do you know that?”
Tossing upward and downward looks, his heart rate tripling, his mouth going dry, he quickened his pace. “Trust me. It could break at—” he felt a second spasm in the line and let out a vulgar term.
Hearing the tone in his obscenity, Devlin faced him.
Randall was five feet below her, ten feet over, and still moving.
She gritted her teeth. He’s too far away. I’ll never get... she looked down, found an open area, and gulped. You got this. Squatting closer to the mountain, she pushed off with her legs and squeezed the brake at the same time.
He felt another jerk.
Fast-roping fifteen feet in a single bound, Devlin let go of the brake handle. Her body wrenching at the sudden stop, her head rocking backward, she threw out her legs and touched down at the spot she had eyed earlier.
Sixty feet from the ground, observing his partner zipping by him, Randall frowned. What is she do—
His lifeline broke.
∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞=∞
.
Chapter 26
Heroic Acts
Hearing a snap from above pierce the tranquility of the night a split-second ahead of spotting Randall surfing through the air, Devlin crouched, pushed off again, and leaped toward him.
Free-falling backwards, his hands grasping at nothing, he cranked his head toward his three o’clock.
Her right hand on the rope, Devlin landed, leaned, Only one chance at, stretched out her left hand, and got five fingers around his shirt sleeve near his elbow.
Randall clutched her forearm, contorted his upper body, and managed to get his left thumb and two fingers on the line above her right hand.
Their bodies collided.
His legs flung away from the rockface.
Her torso and left arm absorbing the force, her grip on his shirt slipped an inch.
They spun counterclockwise and slammed into the cliff, his helmet smacking off the hard surface.
“I can’t,” grunting, Devlin made a face while clenching her teeth, “hold on much...”
“Let me go.”
“I’m not,” she dug fingernails into fabric, “letting you,” another groan, “fall.”
“No. You’re keeping me from using my arm. Trust me, Devlin. Just let go.”
Two ticks later, she released his arm.
Randall dropped a few inches.
She latched on to his collar.
He grabbed her chest rig, hoisted himself higher, got two hands around her rope, wrapped his legs around her hips, and locked his ankles behind her back. “I got it. I’m good.”
Devlin grabbed the rope with both hands.
Fifty feet from the ground, both breathing heavily, they took a few moments to replenish their oxygen stores.
She tipped her head backward and stared at the sky through intermittent visible clouds coming from her mouth. “Now what?”
“Now,” he drew saliva into his parched mouth, “now we descend to the bottom.”
She expelled a blast of air. “How?”
“As one. You keep going like I taught you, and,” he filled his lungs, “I’ll go hand over hand.” He exhaled. “That way you won’t have to support my full weight. Just let me know when you’re releasing and braking. Got it?”
“I think so.” Facing his chest, she walked her boots up the cliff to maneuver into a squatting position. “You ready?”
Randall squeezed the rope. “Ready.”
“Releasing.” Devlin pulled on the brake handle and stepped backward.
Tightening his legs around her body, his hands alternating down the rope, he moved with her.
Forty feet from the ground, she faced him. “Braking.”
“Braking.”
They spent thirty seconds sucking wind and letting their muscles recharge.
She gripped the brake handle. “Releasing.”
“Releasing.”
She walked down the hill.
His legs around her butt, his groin mashed against hers, Randall kept pace with her.
They repeated this procedure, stopping every ten feet to rest, until Devlin’s boots touched down on a barren-of-snow patch of horizontal terra firma. Her rubbery legs buckled, and she fell backward.
Off-balance, Randall caught her, but ended up toppling to the ground with her, his knee sinking into her midsection before he rolled onto his left hip.
She gasped and hugged her belly. “I don’t know which was worse...the flight,” she coughed, “or the landing.”
“Sorry.” He laid down on her right and lifted his NVGs away from his face. “You okay?”
After doing the same thing with her goggles, she patted the earth beside her left hip and coughed again. “Never felt better.”
A minute of gazing at the sky passed.
He glimpsed Devlin out of the corner of his eye and went back to staring at the spot where she had rescued him. “That was one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen, fast-roping down and jumping over to snag someone out of midair.” He paused. “And one of the most foolish I’ve seen, too...as most heroic
