Down Deep

Chapter Sixteen

Scratching at his bandaged ear, he looked on in awe at the massive air pump sitting before him. Grady smacked his hand.

'Stop it.' The man chuckled amused. 'Your go'na be tearing it open again.' Grant gave him a sheepish grin before looking back to the air pump.

'I cannot believe they actually sent it.' He said before looking to Zdana and Jeriff who were looking into the electronics frowning. 'It is broken, isn't it?' He said not felling surprised. He would be less surprised to hear it was not functioning then if it blew up in their faces.

'It works.' Zdana growled. 'It is a brand new unit.'

'Aye, brand new.' Jeriff added annoyed. 'It be more powerful then we be even ask'n for.'

'This is bad?' Grady said confused.

'No, it is good.' Zdana said scowling at them. 'We asked dozens of times for pumps to keep our people safe in the mines and we are ignored.' Grant nodded his understanding.

'They would not send them unless it was their idea.' He said and Jeriff nodded.

'They probably wouldn't even be send'n this one if'n their people didn't die.' The man gained a hard smile and Grant chuckled. The Capitan and his guard had taken Orick's advice. He demanded Grady lead him to the cavern so a scan could be run. Stine offered to take him instead to let Grady rest.

The fool had ignored Orick's warning and sent three of his men into the opening. They did not return and did not answer to the calls of the Capitan. The group had left and returned with oxygen mask going into the gap. They found their men dead of asphyxia. They had however managed to scan the walls before they dropped and tried to crawl their way back.

The readings they got must have been amazing. Two days later, the new pump and a ton of equipment they had not asked for arrived. In the pile was a set of five advanced rebreathers with full mask and transmitters, and a handcar with a supply cart hook up. It would make taking all this to the lost city much easier.

'What about that?' He asked motioning to the rails stacked off to the side.

'You no be worry'n bout those.' Jeriff said 'We be use'n those for the new caven.'

'As soon as we get what we need up to the lost city,' Zdana told him 'they will take what we do not need for the Grotto.' She frowned to the pile. 'Which will be most of it. We will take two of the rebreathers after I check to make sure they only transmit to each other.' He frowned not thinking of that. It would be like the council to insert transmitters into them so that they could listen in on all the miners.

As soon as they decided enough time had past, Grant went up to the secret room in processing. He had to stop carrying the signal device because it had been shaking nonstop since they exposed the Grotto. Mores had been angry it took him so long to answer his call. The councilman had not said as much, but Grant could see it in his face. Grant told him Stine's version of what had happened, and told him he came as soon as he woke up. Mores wasn't pleased with the loss of the transmitter, but to Grant's relief, the councilmen thought it was far too risky to pull Grant out to put in a new one. Grant promised to report everything he heard. Yesterday, he had gone up telling Mores he was being sent out to the south to check on a new section to mine. He had assured them that the Fens was as excited to start digging in the Grotto and would start as soon as they could breathe in there.

'What are we waiting for?' Let's be get'n this stuff up there.' Grady said heading for the pump. 'Zdana you be checking the equipment. We be getting the pump up and set.' She nodded and went to the pile.