PRECIPICE Read Online Free PDF Page A

challenged by the swims back to the raft, and thus the most wide-eyed in the boat all day. The amount of power the bushy-black-bearded behemoth had brought to their paddling had been a huge asset, however, and he certainly hadn’t uttered a word of complaint about the swimming.
    “Naw, that’s pretty rare,” Chip answered earnestly, his serious tone another affirmation that today’s adventure had been above and beyond what most whitewater enthusiasts would tackle. “That’s the most water I’ve ever seen here. When I was in South America we skipped over to Peru to explore a creek that nobody had done before. We had to hike seventeen kilometers carrying our kayaks just to get to it. We ran a few nice waterfalls on the creek, but on the second night it poured rain. When we paddled out into the bigger river the next day, the water was cranking high. We had to run about twenty kilometers of huge rapids way down in a canyon. We managed to look at most of the bigger rapids from shore before running them; but there were three or four where there was no way to walk around due to cliffs, so we had to paddle ‘em whether we wanted to or not.”
    Carrying the boat around rapids had not even entered their thoughts yet, and the men suddenly realized there was a lot more to this whitewater business than was obvious from their limited experience, just like there was much more to their jobs than simply pulling a trigger. Judgment and experience could mean the difference between life and death.
    “Whoa,” Roberts responded softly, nodding. These four men who had seen and done things beyond the comprehension of average people were still unaccustomed to a civilian regularly telling stories that gave them pause.
    “How much does that kayak weigh?” Mendez wanted to know. The sleight man was the smallest of the crew at five-foot-eight, though you would never know it—he always gave two hundred percent effort in compensation for his size.
    “It’s forty-five pounds empty,” Chip explained. “But with all of my gear and food for four days it’s more like ninety.”
    The men all nodded at this. Hauling heavy loads for long distances over uneven terrain was certainly something they could relate to. The conversation quickly turned to tales of the heavier loads that the SEALs had carried through uncomfortable places, with Chip often wincing at the suffering that these guys seemed to get off on. In that way they were different—carrying the kayak was Chip’s least favorite part.
    They wheeled into the gravel parking lot where the day had begun. They all hopped out to help Chip shift his kayak and gear over to his well dented and scratched dark green Toyota. They tied his boat back in place on its perch on a couple of two-by-fours that were bolted directly onto the fiberglass topper as makeshift roof racks.
    They said their goodbyes, and Harris handed Chip a wad of twenty hundred-dollar bills.
    “Great working with you. Thanks for the trashings,” Harris smiled, gripping Chip’s hand in a bone-crushing handshake.
    Chip grinned and stuffed the wad of money in his pocket.
    “Good luck in Africa!” He was jealous. He’d heard of the fabled whitewater of the Dark Continent but had not yet had an opportunity to take on that adventure.
    The men climbed back in the SUV and pulled away as Chip slid into the creaking driver’s seat of his truck. He turned the key and the old engine puttered to life, accompanied by the grumbling of an exhaust leak. Only two more weekends of work to go, he thought. Time to start shopping for tickets to Ecuador.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    2
    Tuesday, October 4th
    THE THREE-STORY brick office building was nondescript, a relic of past times nestled on the edge of a quaint, historic downtown. Located about a half hour outside the DC Beltway in Virginia, it was a nice compromise of being close to the action without the annoyance or danger of being right in the middle of it. As Harris pulled open the door and