by Terrence Aym

Created on: September 28, 2009

The Tunnel

Jeffrey Gordon had just signed off for another consignment of TNT trucked in from Punta Gorda when Harry Tamber, his Chief Foreman dashed up to him. Sweat glistened across Tamber's sunburned face. The rangy foreman bent at the waist and clutched his knees panting hard.

"What's up Harry?"

"Boss," the foreman said while struggling to catch his breath, "the crew just broke through on level five. You know they were making inspection tunnels down deep under the main level for water runoff. Jeff, you got to see this to believe it. They opened up some kinda giant underground cavern or something, but it's weird."

"What do you mean weird?" Gordon handed the clipboard with the paperwork back to the truck driver and nodded him in the direction of the dynamite shack set back against the foothills of the Maya Mountain range.

"Well, it looks weird that's all. I mean it don't look natural, Jeff, not like a regular cave. It kinda looks artificial, like somebody built it."

Gordon smiled. "Well, if someone already dug another tunnel in there it might save us some work. Has anyone gone into it yet?"

"No sir. We're all waiting on you."

"Alright. How big is this tunnel, Harry?"

"Oh, it's huge. I mean really huge. The lights we have aren't strong enough to illuminate most of it. But we can see it reaches far back into the range and heads downwards, so I don't think it's gonna save us any time digging the tunnel bypass for the trains."

Gordon nodded digesting the information. "Well that's a crying shame. We're already running behind schedule and since we got a performance contract it'll cost us five thousand a day for each day we go beyond the completion date."

"Yeah, I know that boss."

"Find Griffen and Gonzalez and have them get all the lighting gear they can round up. The three of you meet me at this mystery tunnel and we'll see what we can see." Gordon pursed his lips. "By the way, the men did test for methane, didn't they?"

"Of course, sir, they're professionals. They know what they're doing."

"Do they Harry? We're already two days behind."

Tamber chose not to answer.

"Okay, I'm heading for level five. Get the lighting equipment there as soon as you can."

"You got it, Jeff."

Gordon stood surveying the mysterious tunnel when Tamber arrived with Griffen and Gonzalez in tow. The three of them pulled a work wagon crammed with loops of cable and lighting equipment.

"I told Miguel to bring one of the auxiliary generators down here, Jeff. He should be here any moment," Tamber

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