What if I ain't no violinist?

52. Twoset Geologists

The ear-piercing sound of the siren quickened the already racing heartbeat of Eddy and it made the situation feel even worse.

"Brett !!"

Upon sighting Brett in the massive dust cloud in front of him, Eddy dashed towards him.

"Eddy, is everyone out ?! Am I the last one ??  Please say that I am.."

Eddy grabbed Brett around the shoulders and lead him into the portable site office.

"Yes, you are !! They're all out, they're all good.  Are you okay ???"

"Oh thank f*cking goodness."

"Brett.. they're calling off any further digging."

Brett looked up and glanced at Eddy.

"What!?!  What the hell for ??!?"

"We're having too many setbacks..."

"But we haven't finished our projected excavation yet...! C'mon Eddy!!"

"Yes I heard you.  But they said they're gonna can the project."

Brett looked pained.

"..Why!?"

"Oh my god I already explained it to you!!!"

Eddy opened the door to the site office and let Brett in first.

Brett removed his mask, goggles and helmet and shoved them all into Eddy's hands.  His hair and face was drenched and dripping with sweat.  He unbuttoned his orange mining coveralls and got his arms out of the top, showing his torso in a sweat-drenched T-shirt.

Eddy dumped Brett's protection gear on the table and stepped over to the small bar fridge in the corner of the site office and took out a chilled bottle of water. He twisted and removed the water bottle cap and handed the bottle to Brett. Brett nodded and immediately downed the contents of the whole bottle, Eddy watched Brett's throat pulsing with each gulp.  When he finished, Brett threw the empty plastic bottle into the bin as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Eddy, do you think I enjoy being down there !?  It's soooo f*cking hot in the mine and not only do I have that helmet on, I've got that dust mask on as well, that thing almost chokes me to death!!  I'm not even asthmatic and I'm having breathing difficulties."

"Oh my god Brett, more the reason to quit now then. C'mon, please."

"NO!!!"

"...why are you so adamant about this??"

"Oh my f*cking god, maybe because we made a commitment to do it!?!??! What's gotten into you to quit like this ? C'mon Eddy, I know you're the site manager but you were just as passionate about this project as I was."

"Brett... the initial analysis of the soil was completely off.  This stuff we're trying to drill through is hard as f*ck.  We have completely stuffed up our assessment.  This is the 4th time our drill has broken down.  And we're not talking about a little chip on the drill or a little bit of overheating.  We are talking about our chassis getting completely fried and f*cked, we've never tried to dig through anything as hard as this."

"Oh for f*ck sake, Eddy!!!  I'm the one that picked up on the soil analysis being stuffed. I annotated it in our final report before we started the digging, remember?  But no one listened !!"

"Yes I've received countless copies of that report with your annotation highlighted... There were even copies left for each executive and board member in their meeting rooms!!  That was you, Brett, wasn't it!?".