Operation Rock of Ages: Triumphant Illumination

ORA: TI Chapter 31 & 32

Chapter 31

Sasha helped unload the lift and went up with Duncan. The room was nearly empty except for the desk the computer that was following the bug with the translator still listening and a laptop. "Jensen, we have talking," the translator said. Jensen, Duncan and Sasha quickly made their way to the computer. The translator hit a switch and started recording what she said as she deciphered what was being said. The gist of the conversation was cussing about the delay. "It's going to take us an hour to dig out. Why can't they build a better phone network to work during these storms? I can't get anyone at the Jordan facility to answer me. We can't get a read on the Jensen place and I just know that Jeremiah is going to skin us all alive if we can't tell him what is going on at both facilities! At least we know they couldn't have gone anywhere in that storm." The translator took a breath and smiled at Jensen. He nodded happily. They had more time than they had thought.

"We need to do test flights with pilots on board to keep from crashing prematurely. As soon as it is safe to fly we will do just that." Jensen pulled up the weather map tracking the storm. "Fifteen to thirty minutes should do it, if they got the devices onboard installed correctly." Sasha watched the storm. She could hear more than she could see it. The windows were a solid sheet of sand. The sound was muffled but it was still loud. She went over and touched the glass. If felt like it was flexing and vibrating beneath her hand. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Jensen said to Sasha. "If that glass blows out it would cut in you shreds and bury you before we could even get close to you. Duncan, have they switched over the venting system yet?"

"Should be done tomorrow morning..." he looked at his watch, "well in a few hours. They worked around the clock and said they should be done in a couple hours from now."

"They have time, but don't tell them that, they may slow down. I left all the cow manure spread all over the sand. It will be buried a bit without the building there but they won't investigate all that close for at least half the day. The storm may have blown it all into the mountains but I think enough would remain to stink, or at least they would think so. I am more worried about them seeing the venting system. That needs to be rerouted immediately."

"That was done first," Duncan said.

"Good. The power cables have all been disengaged and everything that had been buried was under deep sand so we didn't dig anything but that one hole to put the cables down. That should be puttied but I doubt they ever find that. We need to figure out the lift. We can pull all the wiring and push it down, but it isn't going to hide it from above. We need a way to get the wiring down long enough to make the lift go back up and engage. Once the lift engages, all evidence of it needs to be destroyed and the ceiling below needs to be reinforced so that not even an earthquake could split the ground and give away the caves."

"For now, we are going to reinforce with columns and eventually backfill it from the tunnel that was to the base, which has been done, to the storage place in the next cave over. Is it possible to push the lift up once it's down?" Duncan asked.

Jensen thought about it, "I think it can be done. Is there gas left in a few of the forklifts?"

"I believe so, if not we still have a bit in barrels."

"Ok, so what we are going to do is rip all the electrical wiring out of this building as soon as we lower the lift for the last time. We will use the columns and the forklifts for lifting into place. I will show you, but just know it can be done. Seems like the storm is abating, let's go check on our crews and see if we can get the birds in the air for a test flight," Jensen said hurrying out the door. He ran down the line and banged on each door. Sasha smiled, for an older man, he could still get up and go. The tail hatches all started down and Jensen hollered, "Pre-Flight ready?" Down to the last one they hollered "Yes, Sir!" in a loud voice. There was a cheer and Jensen said to hold for testing, everyone but pilots off the birds. People poured out of the tails and the hatches went back up. The people came slogging through the sand mounds near the office and came into the office. Jensen got his laptop and pulled up a program and started all the engines on the choppers, "So far so good," Jensen said. He entered a few more commands and pressed enter. The first chopper went up, hovered, set back down and then up again it flew outside the gate and sat down again. He did this test with each one of the choppers. The Dragon didn't respond at first but then started the same routine the other before it had completed.