The Number 8. Joel Arcanjo
of them hadn’t realized that before they abseiled down into the caves they would of course have to practice, or risk plummeting into the icy waters below. Dante knew this. While the rest of them were stood around waiting for instruction, Dante had dragged Asmir over to the area where they were meant to be. He would’ve told the others too, but he wanted to be in the first group and, preferably, the first to abseil into the darkness.
Two instructors were waiting for them as they rounded the corner into the sloping training area. One was wearing a harness and prepping himself for a demonstration. The other was older and stony-faced. He was clearly the guy in charge.
He spoke first. “Where’s the rest of ya’ then?”
“I’m sure they’ll work it out soon. What you see here is the smart people on the bus,” Asmir replied.
“There’s only two of ya’.”
“Exactly,” Asmir said proudly. Admittedly he had set that up quite well.
Moments later, the other passengers appeared. But when they saw what was waiting for them they quickly forgot about all of that and fell silent. Some out of fear, others out of excitement. The practice area was on an incline with the passengers at the bottom and the two instructors at the top. The younger one was connecting his harness to a rope that extended from their position to the observers. Each end was held to the floor by a system of carabiniers.
“OK, listen up. Jimmy here is gonna show you how to work the equipment. It’s pretty simple really. We’ve only ever had two accidents. Unfortunate really, nice kids, just didn’t listen.”
“What do you mean by accident? Did they die?” Carl shouted from the back.
“I just told you there was an accident. Isn’t that enough for you? You wanna know the gory details? You wanna know that one girl broke her back and never walked again? Or maybe that the other guy fell 40ft and hit his head so hard that he was in a coma for four months? Yeah, you could say they survived. I wouldn’t.”
That was the last thing he said before walking off to one side and letting the young guy take over. All the eyes followed him trying to detect a hint of deception or even hoping that he would turn to them and say “I’m just kidding.” But he was unreadable and clearly it wasn’t a joke to him. There was an uneasy feeling in the air now. Even Dante could not quite believe what he had heard. Two seriously injured and he just admitted to his customers that they could also be in danger. Not a great strategy.
Dante and Asmir were there first so the younger guy brought them up. Dante had been abseiling before and easily completed the training in under two minutes. Asmir was naturally well co-ordinated so for him the training was also easy. Lean back, feed the rope through the carabinier and repeat. Dante was on alert after the older man’s admission, so he carried on until he felt completely comfortable with the action. It took no more than five minutes. After he was released from his harness he felt better. He had the action down pat. But he was still thinking about the two poor souls who had come to see the glowworms and left in an ambulance. The likelihood was that it was someone who was on a similar trip to him. Here from other countries trying to see New Zealand for the first time. The accident would’ve ruined their trip and as the older guy had said, ruined their lives too. Dante wanted to know more, the details of what had happened in each case and what specifically to avoid doing down there, so he edged closer to the older guy. By now he was entirely uninterested with what was happening in front of him. He was clearly there just to oversee the progress of his apprentice. He was glancing at his watch, then at his phone, then back at his watch. A pointless action as every phone has a built-in clock these days. So if he was open to a conversation, this was as good a time as any. But he had to get the opener right.
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