Solitaire

Damn it! She had suffered a worse head injury than he had first thought. “Okay,” Slade soothed, keeping his voice steady. “How’s your ribs?”

“If I don’t breathe, I feel great.”

She had spunk, he’d give her that. “And when you do?”

“Feels like someone’s shoved a knife up under my right rib cage.”

“Think you’ve got compound fractures?” If she did, the broken bone could conceivably puncture the lung if she moved around too much.

“I can feel blood there. I don’t know. It hurts too much to touch the area and find out.”

“Stay still if you can.” It was either busted ribs or a punctured lung. Or both.

“Right.”

“Do you have a water source?” If she had oxygen and water, Cat could last a long time. But if she had undetected internal injuries, time could prove to be their enemy. Cat needed immediate medical attention.

“Y-yes, a small stream along the left wall. All the amenities, Donovan.”

“Except you don’t have me. And I intend to remedy that situation shortly. Tell me, how many posts are in your chamber?” There was a post for every ten feet of spacing.

“One, Donovan. And it’s not looking very healthy.”

“You know enough to place yourself under it, with your back up against it, don’t you?”

“Y-yes. Once I feel up to crawling over there, I’ll do it.”

“Can’t you walk over to it?”

“Too dizzy. I’d fall and skin my knees.”

He almost smiled. “Wouldn’t want you to skin up those pretty knees.”

“You’re full of Texas baloney, Donovan.”

He laughed. “I told you before, Cat, with you, I’m honest.”

“Sure, an honest geologist. That’ll be the day.”

“Guess I’ll have to prove it to you, won’t I?”

“Right now I need a knight on a white charger. Come and get me, Donovan.”

“Would you settle for thirty firemen, fifty miners and some drilling equipment instead?”

“Sounds wonderful.”

He heard the sudden wobble in Cat’s voice, as if she were close to tears. Slade tightened his grip around the radio. “Look, it appears that about ten feet of earth and rock are separating us, Cat. Unless we run into some limestone sheets weighing a ton or more, we ought to be able to reach you within twenty-four hours.”

“Slade?”

Slade blinked the sweat from his eyes, hearing the fear in Cat’s voice for the first time. “What is it, sweetheart?”

“C-could you contact my parents? Tell them what’s happened? Especially my brother Rafe? They live in Colorado. The Triple K Ranch. If I give you the phone number, could you call them? Please?”

“Sure, anything you want.”

Relief cracked her voice. “T-thanks. Here’s the number.”

Slade committed it to memory. “I’m signing off, Cat. The miners will be here any minute. I’ve got Graham’s permission to organize and run this rescue operation. If you need anything, call. Otherwise I’ll contact you in about an hour.”

“Just let me know if you can reach my family.”

“I’ll personally make the call. Graham’s got a phone in his car.”

“Thanks, Slade. It means a lot to me….”

“I can tell.” As he left the dankness of the mine, his mind shifted to another matter. Slade knew very few geologists or mining engineers who had sunk roots and had a family or children. He also knew from reading articles on Cat Kincaid that she wasn’t married. As Slade got to his feet and began his trek to the adit, he wondered what man in his right mind would let someone as rare as Cat Kincaid out of his sight, much less out of his life. There was a special quality about her that he longed to explore. She was like an emerald mine waiting to be discovered: enticing, mysterious and filled with rich promise.

Gray light filtered through the adit, telling him he was near the opening. Well, he’d discovered one thing about Cat: family meant a great deal to her. Rafe was obviously a brother she could look up to, admire and lean on in times of trouble. Lucky guy, he told himself enviously.

As Slade walked out into the pall of rain, he glared at the gray sky overhead. They didn’t need more water; it would loosen more dirt and the rain would trickle through the weakened limestone, making the rescue effort even more precarious than before. Slade had good instincts, and his gut sense had often saved his life in the past. Now, that voice screamed out that another cave-in was near. His instincts also warned him that if this was Cat’s first cave-in, she would need emotional support to get back the courage to someday walk into the darkness of another mine.

* * *

Cat could barely move her head. She sat with her back against the rough, splintered surface of the post. Five hours had elapsed. Slade had called once an hour and sweet God in heaven, how she came to rely on him; he was her support system against the fear that threatened to consume her. Each passing hour made it become harder to control her rising panic.

Her spirits had plummeted when Slade had not been able to raise anyone at her parents’ ranch right away. Cat felt alone and vulnerable in a way she’d never before experienced. Rafe–she needed Rafe’s steadying presence. He was always the one to get them out of a jam when they were kids growing up in the Rocky Mountain wilderness. There had been times when she was scared to death, but because Rafe reassured her that it would be all right, she took dangerous chances with him. When Slade informed her he couldn’t reach anyone at the Triple K, her fears loomed up again.

Slade had told her he had the first shift with the miners clearing away the debris. Cat couldn’t hear the strike of pickaxs or the grind of huge auger drill bits boring holes to loosen the soft base so it could be shoveled away. The wall, Slade had said, was at least ten feet thick, perhaps twenty. It could, at worst, be days before she could be rescued.

At 10:00 a.m., Slade was able to make contact with the Kincaid Ranch. After a tense conversation, he made his way to the wall and called Cat. After four tries, she still didn’t answer and Slade grew worried. Another five calls. Nothing. Had Cat passed out? Was she sleeping because of the concussion? Slade tried to contain his apprehension.

* * *

Cat finally floated out of unconsciousness and weakly raised her left arm. The luminous dials on her Rolex told her she had been asleep for nearly six hours. She lay on the hard pebbled floor on her left side to ease the pressure on her right. Experimentally, Cat lightly ran her fingers over her ribs, feeling how swollen her flesh had become beneath her damp canvas jacket. Not good, she thought blearily. The radio clicked, telling her that Slade was trying to contact her.

The radio lay near her head and she depressed the button. “S-Slade?”

“Cat? My God, are you all right?”

A grimace pulled at her lips. “Fine. Went to sleep, didn’t I?”

“Yeah. Six hours. You scared the hell out of me.”

“S-sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. Listen, I got hold of your family and everyone’s flying out here to see you. They’ll be landing soon and I’ve arranged to have someone meet them at the nearest airport. Your parents, brother, sister and her husband are coming.”