The Investigators, Inc. The Strange Case. Chapter 3. The Hike.

We had to work fast, but our mountain climbers, Sigurbjorn, Astrid and Catalina had to give us some very basic tips for climbing. However, each one in the group I picked did have some experience with climbing, except Kat and myself. That will make things a bit interesting, but all of us need to make that climb to get the job done.

We quickly got everything we needed for our trip, and made sure we did not forget anything at all, that was important. We cannot afford to forget something, then we might have to abort the mission completely. Then off we went, Aari and Miles dropped us off at our departure spot while it was still dark and off they went.

We waited until it was just getting daylight and then we began our journey through the forest. It was much harder going for the first hour than we had thought it would be, but then it opened up more, but still giving us good cover if any plane or helicopter flew over the area.

Sky would be coming in tomorrow with one of our more “special” cars, built like an armored vehicle and possessing some interesting additions. But it looks just like any normal, large vehicle. Sky has a cover of a wealthy insurance agent so it would not be unusual for her to have such a large car. Even at that, it will be a bit crowded on the way back, if we all make it out alive. And hopefully we do.

Nelson and Rock decided that it would be too dangerous for Sky to be alone, so Kristina was picked to go with her. Kristina knew the language too, which Sky did not, so that would be a big help. They both had the same cover, working for the same insurance company, which Mandar owned, so he put everything in place just in case someone checked on their story.

The car would be a company car that they had permission to use for their vacation. They arrived the next day and booked into a very nice hotel and began their tourist vacation. Unknown to them, the border guards had checked on their story and he was satisfied everything was in order. Meanwhile, we arrived at our destination a little later than expected.

The journey became hard again the last couple of hours, so we arrived, hot and tired from our hike. We did not come in too close just yet, just in case guards patrolled the area at the base of the cliff. We did not see anyone, however, so we just relaxed and ate our meal, which had to be something cold. We could not cook on this trip.

But since we were hot anyway, it did not really matter. Our 3 climbers surveyed the whole back cliff for quite some time, trying to find the best possible way to climb up. “Looks higher than in the pictures,” said John, shaking his head. “That is not so bad,” said Mac, “I have been in buildings a lot taller than that.” “Yeah, but you were inside the building,” John reminded him.

“Heights are the same inside or out,” he said as he ate, “makes no difference to me. Just concentrate on what you are doing, watch the person ahead of you and no problem.” John just looked at him. “Want to walk back John?” I asked, “it is okay if you do, no one will say anything.” “John is no quitter Steve,” he said, “I came here to do a job, and I will do it.”

“I knew you would,” I said smiling. The 3 girls came back then and gave us the news. “There are 2 places we can go up,” said Sigurbjorn, “we were hoping for 3, but no way for that.” “It will take some time to climb that cliff though,” said Astrid, “the longer it takes, the more chance of being seen, all it takes is for a helicopter to fly around once and we are dead.”

“Yes,” agreed Catalina, “it would take too long to be safe, so…” “And, so… what does that mean?” I asked. “It means the best time to do the climb would be at night,” said Sigurbjorn. She said it so casually I actually thought she was joking. But she was serious. I just looked at her.

“We are going to climb that cliff at night?” I asked. “You know, that is not such a bad hike back,” said John chuckling. “I like the idea of a night climb,” said Mac, “cannot see how high we are, so no reason to be scared.” Mac was amazingly casual about all of this.

I was beginning to think he was a mountain climber too, but did not admit it. “You have been quiet Lars,” I said. “It is a pile of rock, no different than any other pile of rock to me,” he said shrugging his shoulders, “does not scare me.”

Both Bridgette and Crystal admitted to being scared, however, but they were not going to quit now after hiking all this way. “Good,” I said, “then it will be a night climb, so we can take some time to sleep now.”

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.