Chapter Thirty-Six
ANGEL SINCLAIR
“Excuse me?” I looked at him incredulously.
Jax spread his hands to include the entire group. “Everyone take off your shirt and give it to me. We don’t have a rope, but we can make a rope out of our shirts. I’ll get up there first. If Bo gives me a boost, I should be able to pull myself up. Throw me the rope made of our shirts and I’ll be the anchor at the top. Among us, we should be able to get everyone up.”
All of the girls had sports bras on, so it was kind of like wearing a crop top, not that I’d ever worn a crop top in my life. Regardless, all the essentials were covered, and there was no time for modesty.
“I’m an Eagle Scout,” Wally offered. “I’ll tie the knots.”
“Hurry,” Kira said.
Bo was already standing at the wall. He bent down and Jax climbed on his shoulders, steadying himself against the wall. He was still shy of reaching the ledge, so he warned Bo he would have to jump to make it. Bo nodded and braced himself with one hand against the wall. Several of us stood behind Bo, bracing him from the back.
We held one collective breath as Jax bent and jumped up, his fingers barely gripping the edge. With a grunt, he pulled himself up onto the wall and rested. We cheered as Bo rotated his shoulders.
“Throw me the shirt rope,” Jax shouted.
Wally was frantically tying the last of the knots, and Kira had been helping by handing him the shirts. When Wally was done, Kira threw it up to Jax. It took four tries, but Jax finally caught it.
Kira went first, bracing against the wall and using the shirt rope to pull herself up. Once she was up, the two of them helped the rest of us get up. We slid down the other side, pumping a fist when we finished.
“Keep going,” Bo said as soon as Jax met us at the bottom. He slapped Jax on the back. “Good thinking.”
We followed him, but the truth was we were beyond exhausted, and we had no idea how many more obstacles we had. We left our T-shirts behind, as it would take too much time to untie them, and ran to the next obstacle. We had to go around the KIT building before we came to an area with a flagpole about twenty feet high, surrounded by air-filled, bouncy exercise mats.
“What’s this?” Hala said in astonishment.
We all exchanged puzzled glances with each other.
Bo picked up the instruction card. “It’s the final obstacle.” He glanced at his watch. “We have thirty-four minutes to complete it. The goal is to get whatever is at the top of the pole. The only thing we get to help us is, apparently, this coil of rope and those bouncy mats, presumably in case we fall off while trying.”
“Where was the rope when we needed it for the last obstacle?” Mike grumbled.
“Let’s go,” Wally said, clapping his hands. “Let’s shimmy up the pole and get the thing. It looks like an oversize hockey puck.”
Jax grinned at him. “Slow down, cowboy. Let’s see if we can knock it off first.”
“Oh.” Wally paused. “That’s a good idea.”
“Everyone find a rock and try to dislodge it,” Jax said. “The instructions didn’t say how we had to get it, just that we get it.”
“What if it’s something dangerous inside like a bomb or something?” Frankie asked.
“I would think the instructions would have told us to be careful with it.”
We glanced over at Mr. Donovan who stood in the shade, watching us.
“I’m with Jax,” I finally said. “Let’s see if we can knock it off.”
We scattered, looking for some rocks. I carried back several, as did everyone else. We all stood to one side and threw the rocks at the object, hoping to dislodge it.
Jax was the first to make a direct hit. It didn’t budge. “It must be attached.”
“Attached?” Kira said. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Bo shrugged.
“So, we have to climb to get it?” Kira looked agitated.
“No, not climb.” Mike now stood next to the pole examining it. “It’s too big around for one person to shimmy. Even if it wasn’t, it’s greased.”
“Greased? Ah, come on.” Jax blew out a frustrated breath and walked next to Mike, rubbing his fingers on the pole. “Mike’s right. We’d slide like a greased pig trying to shimmy this thing.”
“Even with the rope?” I asked.
“Even with the rope,” Jax confirmed. “It’ll slide, just like my feet would if I tried to climb by bracing my feet against the pole.”
Bo was silent as he circled the pole, considering.
“Maybe we could wipe the grease off,” Frankie offered.
“No time or materials to do that,” Bo said. “We’re going to have to stack.”
“Stack?” I repeated.
“Climb on each other’s shoulders until we reach the top,” Jax explained. “I bet that’s what the mats are for.”
“What?” Frankie said in horror. “Stand on each other’s shoulders?”
“Yes. Bo and I will anchor at the bottom, standing side by side in order to better distribute the weight. There will two people on top of us and then two more on top of them. Then one person will stand single and the lightest person will stand on that person’s shoulders to reach the object at the top. We can do this.” He turned to me. “Red, can you calculate our heights against the length of the pole? Are we tall enough together to reach it if we do it that way?”
I looked up at the pole and then asked everyone for their heights, reminding them not to lie. “It’ll be close,” I said when I finished the calculations in my head. “I could be off by a foot, and that would be a problem. It’s all estimation at this point.”
“We don’t have another choice,” said Bo. He looked between Hala and me. “Between the two of you, who weighs less?”
I gave my specs first followed by Hala. She outweighed me by a measly two pounds.
“Angel is on top, then,” Bo said. “Wally and Mike, you stand on top of Jax and me. Frankie and Kira, you’re to stand on them.”
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Frankie said.
“It’s the only idea, and we’re short on time,” Bo countered. “Hala, you stand single on Kira’s shoulders. Angel, it’s up to you to climb onto Hala’s shoulders and retrieve whatever’s at the top. You’ll have to climb over most of us to get up there.”
“Right.” I gulped. “No pressure.”
“Take the rope in case you need it,” Bo said, tossing the rope to me. “Just don’t drop it.”
I caught it and wound it around my neck and shoulders. “Okay, but before we stack, I would suggest asking Mr. Donovan the one question we’ve been permitted.”
For a moment, everyone just stared at me. I guess between exhaustion and stress, the question thing had slipped their minds.
“What do you have in mind, Red?” Jax said.
“We need to know how whatever is up there is attached. If I’m tasked with getting it off, I need to know exactly what I need to do to remove it. I don’t want to be standing precariously on all of your shoulders trying to figure it out.”
“Good thinking,” Wally said. “She’s right.”
I glanced at Bo and he looked at the group. “Are we in agreement that Angel should ask the question?”
Everyone nodded, so he swept out his hand toward Mr. Donovan. “Ask away.”
I walked over to Mr. Donovan, who was watching us from the shade of a tree, his arms crossed against his chest.
“Mr. Donovan?” I said. “We have our one question ready.”
“Go ahead, Ms. Sinclair.”
“How is the object we’re supposed to retrieve from atop the pole attached?”
Mr. Donovan smiled. “It’s snapped in and rotated once.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“Satisfied?” Bo asked me.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
One by one, we climbed up on top of each other, a human pyramid of sorts. Those of us who were climbing last helped get everyone below us in place. Climbing last had its advantages, as I could watch how everyone else did it before me. When it was my turn, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Still, I watched where I stepped and didn’t look down even once.
Climbing up Hala was the hardest, because she was so small. She crouched the best she could, and I carefully put each of my feet on her shoulders. She steadied my ankles with her hands as I stretched myself up. I was trembling. My fingers nearly touched the top, but I was still a few inches too short.
“I’m just shy of reaching it,” I announced.
A collective groan came from below me. I inadvertently glanced down and saw a crew had blown up and arranged the mats closer around us, presumably to protect us if we fell. I looked straight ahead as my stomach flipped in anxiety.
I leaned slightly against the pole to steady myself, but it was greased, even up this high up. I had to be careful not to put too much of my weight against the pole for fear of slipping off.
“Don’t worry. I have an idea.” I carefully removed the rope from my shoulder and began forming a knot. “I’m going to tie a noose with the rope and slip it over the object. I’m close enough to do that. I think. Then I’ll tighten it and pull. Hopefully, it will pop off.”
“Hurry up,” Mike called up. “We have eleven minutes.”
I fought the urge to rush. Rushing meant mistakes, and we didn’t have time for even one. I drew in slow, careful breaths as I tied the knot, eyeballing the opening to ensure it was smaller than the pole so it wouldn’t slide down.
“Okay, knot is tied,” I yelled. “Stand by.”
I reached up, carefully pushing the noose up to the top of the pole. Using my arm to toss or throw it was out of the question, as the movement could topple me off. I’d have to use my wrist to flick it as hard as I could over the object.
When I had gone as far as I could reach, I flicked my wrist and gently pulled. The noose came right back to me, landing on my back. It hadn’t gone over the object.
I tried twice more, but no success. Sweat dripped down my temples and blurred my vision. My shoulders and back were screaming from the strain. I could hear whimpers from Hala below and knew my weight had to be digging into her shoulders.
I closed my eyes, took a breath.
“How’s it going, Angel?” Bo shouted up.
“Stand by,” I answered, reaching up and giving the noose another wrist flick. This time when I pulled, the noose didn’t come back. I carefully tightened it. I pulled as hard as I could, but I wasn’t at the right angle to twist it.
“Guys, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is I’ve got the noose around the object. I’ve pulled, but from my vantage point, I can’t rotate it enough to pop it off.”
More groans came from below.
“We’ve got only one option,” Bo called up. “We’re going to have to move.”