Boooooooom! An explosion shook the earth and blasted dust from the cave floor in all directions.
As the reverberations died down, the contestants turned on their lights, but could not see much since the dust
limited their visibility to a few feet. In the panic and confusion, they again heard the sinister but familiar
laugh and snicker.
At length, the dust cleared, the figure of Anthony appeared, and with this new surprise they momentarily forgot
about the explosion. Maria was the first to declare, "I knew it…I knew that snickering voice! You worm!"
Since cavers can take that as a compliment, Anthony replied "Why, thank you!"
"What was that explosion?" Roger questioned.
"A carbide bomb. I learned to make one a few years ago at a regional cavers convention. Cool, huh?
"So you're the new secret cartographer?" Roger inquired.
"Yup. They figured out that I could find my way in & out of any cave and read any map. Now I get to work
in caves for pay, make up challenges for y'all, and I get all the beer I want! But for now, you have an opportunity
to work for me, on a dig project. I dye-traced some water from the stream passing below this room to a resurgence
a few miles from here. The resurgence emits a lot more water than is running through this stream. On the surface
there are sinkholes all over the place, obvious from a helicopter. I think there's a lot more cave around here."
Jennifer replied, "So you've been taking helicopter rides and dreaming up slave labor for us? You egotistical
maniac! Dare I ask what you propose that we get in return for working on your pet project?"
"A date with me," he replied. "And if one of you twins succeeds, I'll take you both out."
"Ugh" they replied, unaware that they had both agreed on the issue.
"OK, would you do it just for the sake of increasing the mapped footage of this cave? I could include your
name on the map, and you might become famous in the caving cartography circles." This caught Roger's attention,
being the compulsive data organizer that he was; but no one else showed any interest in Anthony's project. Anthony
looked straight at Roger and continued, "Remember, I get to vote in the final elimination." All of the
members gathered together, discussed the issue, and quickly agreed to a unified position: they would not help Anthony. |
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"How 'bout this," Anthony continued. "I'll give each of you 1% of the profits if you connect to
a cave I found further along the ridge we're under right now."
"Profits?" their puzzled faces asked.
"Yup. I made an agreement with the leader of a village there to commercialize the cave and to split profits.
We're not too far from Akumal and Cancun; some of the sunbathers there are bound to get bored and come for the
great underground adventure.
Roger replied, "But this is a caver's cave…lot of crawling with your face in the mud, and all that. Your average
sunbather isn't going to pay money to come here; you'll lose your shirt if you invest too much in this effort."
"OK. Never mind. You've all had your last chance. You'll be sorry, all of you," he said before disappearing
into a crevice.
"I still don't see how a connection to this cave has anything to do with his greedy project," Sally remarked;
but she had barely finished her comment when a series of explosions again shook the earth.
BOOM! BOOM! Rumble…BOOOOOOOOM!!! Rumble…rumble…the explosions were distant but obviously many times more powerful
than the carbide bomb blast. The brief quiet spell that followed was broken by another series of rumbles from falling
rocks. To make things worse, the sounds were coming from area where they had surveyed on their way to their present
location. Roger and Sally made a short reconnaissance trip back through the way they came, and reported back the
unthinkable news: the passages they had come through and mapped were blocked with fresh breakdown!
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