Aegis Rising (29 page)

Li smiled. “Why thank you, Al.”

Dr. Bertram returned the smile and looked at Black. “Good morning to you, Adrian.” His voice had a trace of a German accent.

“Mmph. It would have been nice if you all arrived on time.”

“We are on time.
You
chose to come early, my friend.”

“Where are the other two? We need to begin.”

Just as he spoke, the executives of two subsidiary companies walked into the boardroom, greeting the others as they took their places around the table. Dr. John Tabrizi was the head of Quest Chemicals, the chemical research and manufacturing arm of Phoenix Corp., and Luigi Dattalo headed the armaments division known as Quest Defense; he’d just flown in from Nevada for this meeting.

The three men by the window went to take their respective seats. Black tapped something on his touchscreen computer. “Linda, do we have Vlad on conference yet?”

A woman’s voice replied over the intercom. “We’re trying to establish the satellite connection, Mr. Black. It might take a little while. We’re not getting through for some reason.”

“Keep at it, Linda. This is important.”

“Yes, of course, Mr. Black.”

The men conversed quietly for the next few minutes until the voice came back over the intercom. “We have Mr. Ajajdif on line three, Mr. Black.”

“Thanks, Linda.” Black tapped his computer again. “Vlad, you there?”

There was some static for a couple of moments, but then a deep voice, tinted with a heavy Russian accent, came on the intercom. “I am here, Adrian.” Vladimir Ajajdif was to be the sixth person in the meeting. He was the head of Quest Mining, one of Phoenix Corp.’s subsidiaries, currently on assignment at a distant location with his team.

“Alright, good. Jerry, Dr. Bartram, Dr. Tabrizi and Luigi are here with me.” Black looked at his watch. “It’s nine-thirty. Let’s get started. Vlad, give us a status update.”

“I’m assuming you received my weekly report?”

“Yes, I have. But we need to know what the latest situation is.”

“Well, as you are aware, we have run into several challenges over the last few weeks. We’ve been having problems with the equipment and getting the parts. The weather has been unpredictable and the visibility has been horrible some days, so much so that we can barely see past our noses up in this altitude. It’s hard to get a chopper flying out to us from Mayo.”

Li jumped in. “But we are willing to pay the premium to get the flights out to you. Why can’t you convince them to bring it in?”

“Out here in this godforsaken land, not everything is about money. This place is shrouded in thick clouds most days. We’ve tried talking to different companies, but it’s hard to find a pilot who will fly in.”

Black rubbed his forehead. “We can’t just sit on our hands and wait for something to happen. We are running far behind schedule as it is . . . and you know the boss doesn’t take these things lightly.”

There was a moment of icy silence. Finally, Ajajdif sighed. “Trust me, it’s not like I haven’t been trying. We are in the middle of this remote place and our options are limited. Which reminds me, Dr. Tabrizi? We are running out of the leaching compounds at the mining site. Without those chemicals, the mineral extraction comes to a standstill.”

Dr. Tabrizi was stunned. “I sent two hundred barrels of the chemicals and you’ve
already
run out of them? How much do you need to extract the darn fenixium?”

“We have used up most of it and there is about fifty barrels sitting in Mayo that the pilots won’t fly out to us, but even those will not suffice. The soil here soaks it up like a sponge and we’re getting very low yield of that mineral.”

“I thought you said this place was supposed to be saturated with fenixium, Vlad,” Black said sharply. “And you and your team were supposed to be in and out of there within a hundred-and-twenty days. Ninety days have gone by and you’ve only extracted six kilos. At this point you should be at nine kilos.”

“I only report what my geologist tells me. And yes, we were planning to complete the mining operation within four months, but I need one month’s extension, just to be safe. Listen, I’ve got a great team of mining engineers and crew who are willing to put in their blood, sweat and tears to get back on schedule—and believe me some of them literally have—but . . .” Static crackled over the intercom, cutting him off.

Black sat up straight. “Vlad? Are you there?” He was answered by more static. “Vlad?”

“Did we lose the connection?” Dattalo asked.

A few seconds later, their colleague’s voice came back on the intercom, agitation and a bit of anger in his tone. “You just need to get me the tools I need and I’ll get the job done.”

Black leaned back in his seat. He rapped the table with his knuckles, fighting to get his anger under control. “Alright, I’ll give you another month. But that’s that. No more extensions.”

“Thank you.”

Dattalo cut in. “Vlad, Luigi here. Look, I know you and your team are putting in your best effort, and I know this mineral is extremely difficult to extract, but I need you to understand that at the Defense division, we are invested heavily in making sure our research and production moves along as scheduled. Without the mineral, we simply cannot proceed.”

“
Da
, no pressure there,” Ajajdif responded coldly.

Trying to deflect the tension, Black asked, “What about the supplies for your crew? I know it’s tough running a group of eighty-five people on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Is there enough food and supplies for them? And how’s their morale?”

“Yes, and they’re fine,” he answered curtly.

“Speaking of being out there,” Dr. Bertram cut in eagerly, “Dr. Deol at Biotech wants to know what you thought about the hybrids that she sent.”

“God, those beasts are unbelievable.” Ajajdif’s voice picked up for the first time during the meeting. “Thank the good doctor for me, will you, Al? And let her know that all five of her babies are just fine. The Marauders have been a great benefit here at the site. Just the other night, a grizzly wandered into the camp and two of them brought it down within minutes. Neither one of them got a scratch. I got one of my guys to cut the grizzly up, and you can trust that the Marauders fed like kings.” He chuckled. “There’s enough meat from the kill to feed them for the next couple of days.”

As the two conversed, Black leaned over to Li. “Do you know if our two Ospreys are back from their assignment in Asia?” he asked quietly.

Li nodded. “One of them arrived this morning, actually. I spoke with the pilot and they’re not scheduled for any activity for the next week.”

“Good. If those bush pilots out in Mayo won’t do the job, we’ll do it ourselves. I want those birds heading to the mining site ASAP. They’ll be delivering the chemicals and spare parts.”

Li nodded again and turned to his computer to confirm the request. The V-22 Osprey, built by Bell and Boeing for the United States military, was capable of vertical takeoff and landing. They had been recently made available for the commercial market and Phoenix Corp. seized the opportunity to purchase two units. At sixty feet in length, and with a cargo capacity of twenty thousand pounds, the non-military version of the aircraft was an obvious choice for Phoenix Corp.’s operations in remote locations.

Black looked back up and interrupted Ajajdif’s and Dr. Bertram’s conversation. “Vlad, I’m arranging to send one of our planes out to you with all the supplies. They will also do a loop to Mayo to get the remaining compounds.”

“Sounds good. How many more barrels will I get?”

All heads turned to Dr. Tabrizi. “I’ll have another hundred prepared before our plane takes off from here,” he assured them.

“Thanks. So when can I expect the—” A distant boom sounded over the conference system, bringing the meeting to an abrupt halt. Someone could be heard calling out to Ajajdif urgently in the background. When Ajajdif’s voice came back on, he sounded rushed. “I think we’ve had an accident over here. I have to go. Just send everything as soon as you can.” There was a click, and then silence on the other end.

The men sat there, stunned at the unexpected end to the call. Li finally spoke up. “Should we try dialing back?

The chief executive ran a hand through his dark hair. “No,” he said wearily. “Let him deal with the situation there. I will call him later. In the meantime, let’s get things in motion over here.”

“You got it, chief.” Dr. Bertram stood up, followed by the others, leaving Black to sit alone in the boardroom as the men quickly filed out. Black waited a moment before calling out to Dattalo as soon as the others were out of sight. Dattalo came walking back in, curious. “Yes?”

“I got a call from the boss yesterday.”

Dattalo stared at Black and noticed beads of sweat appearing on the other man’s forehead. “What happened?” he whispered, as if he were afraid someone was listening in.

Black rested his head in a hand and closed his eyes. “I was told in unmistakable terms that we need to get this whole thing back on schedule right away. I need to know if you have everything under control at Quest Defense.”

Dattalo patted Black’s shoulder. “I can assure you that everything is set to go on my side,” he replied. “We just need to ensure that the mineral gets here on time. The amount we’ve received from the mining operation so far has been barely sufficient for research purposes alone. To move into testing and production, we’re going to need a whole lot more.”

Black nodded. “Let’s get it done, then.”

33

A
s soon as Ajajdif hung up the phone, he grabbed his black trench coat and hastily threw it on as he rushed out of his office to investigate the boom he’d heard. He headed for the tunnel where a group of workers in orange and yellow coveralls with hardhats stood peering into the entrance of the shaft.

“What’s going on?” Ajajdif barked, coming up behind his employees.

“There was an explosion!” one of the workers called out.

“What?” Ajajdif shoved his way past the gaggle and into the tunnel, grabbing a couple of workers to go with him. The workers turned on the mining lights attached to their hardhats and hurriedly walked along the steel tracks that the tunneling machine used. Thick dust and smoke hung in the air. About two hundred feet into the tunnel, they found that the machine had been thrown off its track.

The large diesel-driven engine with massive rotating drills was designed to dig through the toughest material. Painted bright red, it had all the capabilities of a standard tunnel-boring machine, only it was smaller, about the size of a Greyhound bus; it was meant to be mobile and used in remote areas.

Coughing from the smoke, Ajajdif instructed the workers to inspect the damage. After a few moments, one of them called out. “Sir! The machine operator’s assistant is here. He’s got burns and he’s unconscious.”

Ajajdif hurriedly made his way around the machine. The two workers were crouched beside a man who lay motionless. He knelt on one knee next to them and carefully removed the unconscious worker’s dust-covered safety goggles and singed respirator mask. He gently patted the man’s cheeks. “Can you hear me?” he asked loudly.

The worker didn’t move. He tilted the man’s head back to open the breathing passageway and placed his ear close to the man’s mouth, watching for the rise and fall of his chest. “He’s breathing,” he confirmed. He turned to one of the men with him. “Get a stretcher and get him to the medic right away.” The worker nodded and rushed out of the tunnel, the sound of his hard-toed boots echoing into the distance. Ajajdif gestured to the other worker. “I want you to find the operator.”

Ajajdif stayed with the unconscious man while waiting for the stretcher. A few minutes later, he heard the worker call out. “I found the operator, sir, but I think he’s unconscious too.”

Ajajdif hastened to join the worker on the support platform at the back of the drill. As he looked around, he found the operator slumped over a railing. When the worker removed the operator’s safety goggles and hardhat, they saw blood matted over his entire face. Ajajdif gingerly checked for the man’s pulse. He felt nothing. He felt for the man’s pulse a few more times but still nothing. Ajajdif was livid. He could not believe that one of his employees was dead. “How did this happen?” he spat.

The worker, pale with the realization that his colleague had been killed, looked around shakily. “There was an explosion,” he stammered. “Don’t know what caused it, sir.”

Ajajdif stayed silent. As he scanned around the dark tunnel and gazed through the lingering smoke, he began to suspect what might have been the cause and felt a pang of guilt.

Judging from the damage, he guessed that there had been a gas explosion. His chief geologist had warned him of methane buildup from carbonaceous rocks and insisted that the miners check for this danger regularly. Ajajdif had provided his men with two handheld gas detectors but both were broken. He had requested replacements but was yet to receive them.

He turned to look at the dead man and vehemently badmouthed the company, although he knew he was to blame for pushing his workers to keep going in hazardous conditions. After a few moments, he snapped, “Take care of everything here.” He stormed out of the tunnel. “Someone get the equipment engineer over here,
now!
”

The workers scrambled to find the engineer, and when they did, they shoved him at Ajajdif, almost as if to say, ‘
Here, take him and spare us.
’

The equipment engineer peered down at his shorter boss. “Yes?”

“I want that machine brought out of the tunnel and repaired. We only have that one, and it’s crucial that we get it fixed as soon as we can.”

“Sir, I just took a quick look. The machine is quite far into the tunnel, and it’s off its track. We’ll need to devise a way to put it back on its tracks first before it can be pulled out. That is going to be tough with the limited equipment we have.”

Ajajdif glared at the engineer. “It needs to be fixed. I don’t care how you do it. Just get it done. We are way behind schedule and if we don’t clear this mess up, things will go to hell in a hand-basket very quickly.”