Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (10 page)

15

L
acey furiously swam around the log; she dove under every few feet and looked around to see if she could locate Ben, she saw nothing. As she popped up the last time she saw a green and white boat approaching quickly. She raised her arms waving for help, the boat slowed down and drifted to her.

“Help! My nephew was down there, and then all the sudden the log popped up and now I can’t find him!” The two men pulled her out of the icy water. Then immediately radioed for help. Lacey determined from their matching uniforms that they were park rangers.

“What was he doing down there?” One ranger asked.

“We were geocaching, one of the geocaches was connected to the Old Man, when he saw that there was a chain around the bottom holding the log, he said he was gonna go down and try to release it so that it could float free again.” She was now sobbing and shivering severely.

“How old is he?” The one holding the radio asked.

“Nine.” Lacey said with an ashamed tone, she couldn’t believe she had let him go in alone. She sobbed even harder.

The ranger with the radio keyed in a different code then said, “Station 1, have divers on site look for nine year old boy, in the vicinity of the Old Man, over.”

“Divers?” Lacey shivered as she spoke.

“Yeah, the divers were trying to release the Old Man today, it’s been stagnant for over a month now.”

“I thought they were coming out tomorrow.” Lacey said with a confused tone.

“Who told you that?”

“The tour guide, on the boat.”

“Oh, he doesn’t know what he is talking about, we tell these guys and they just let it go in one ear and out the other.” The ranger said as he shook his head. “Don’t worry; if your nephew is down there, these divers will find him, they even have a mini submarine equipped with medical equipment in case of emergencies.” He patted her shoulder trying to reassure her.

A diver in a bright yellow wet suit approached Ben quickly; he had spotted his bright blonde hair from about thirty feet away with his diving light. He grabbed Ben by the back of the neck, then took the respirator from his own mouth and shoved it into Ben’s. Bubbles started coming out of Ben’s nose sporadically. The diver held Ben tightly and tapped his face, trying to rouse him. Not having any luck he took his dive light and turned it on and off three times, signally to the mini sub that he had an emergency.

The sub sped over to them; it looked like a large silver missile in the water. An electric door on the sub’s side slid down into the frame of the unit. The door didn’t lead to the inside of the sub, but to a compartment that was waterproof. The diver pushed Ben through the door and into the small space. As the main door slid back up and locked into place a sudden pressure came from the floor and all of the water was sucked out through the floor panels. From the outside of the sub the water shot out of the bottom with amazing force. As soon as the water had drained an interior door opened and the diver pulled Ben into a small room with a table. He slipped out of his dive gear. As another man ran over with an oxygen mask and placed it on Ben’s face. He grabbed his arm.

“Any vitals?” he asked the diver.

“Couldn’t tell, this kid has been in the water too long, might be going hypothermic on us.” The diver began to strip Ben’s clothes off and started putting warm dry blankets on his body, while the other man checked Ben’s pulse and blood pressure.

“He’s got a good pulse, looks like you got to him right in time; let’s get this kid warmed up.” The diver continued to cover him with blankets, while the other man radioed to the surface.

It took over a half an hour for the submarine to surface the lake; they had to advance slowly in the water to prevent dangerous pressure changes. As the sub emerged it glided on the water’s surface. Lacey looked up from her seat on the ranger’s boat; the captain of the sub gave the ranger thumbs up, indicating that Ben had regained consciousness. Both vessels headed toward the mainland and docked.

Ben’s mom ran to the phone and answered it, “Hello.”

“Hi, Mrs. Conner?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“This is John, I’m a ranger at the Crater Lake National Monument, we have your son here, and wanted you to know that there has been an incident.”

“Okay, what happened? Is he okay?” She began to panic.

“Well, he is now, but he nearly died. Our problem is that his aunt says she has permission to take him, but considering her poor judgment we would like you to come and get him.”

“Poor judgment? Is she there? Can you put her on the phone?” She demanded.

“Um, well, yes, I suppose.” He handed the phone to Lacey.

“Hey Sis.” Lacey said sheepishly. “So don’t get mad, but Ben almost drowned, in Crater Lake, but he’s fine…and this is the last clue, we are so close…please, please can I keep him another day?” She begged as if she were asking for an ice cream cone.

“So he is okay? Why don’t you put him on the phone.” Ben’s mom didn’t know what to do, every motherly instinct she had said to drive up there and get him, but she also knew that this wasn’t just a game, this was huge and they were so close.

“Hi mom.” Ben said quietly. His voice was scratchy, and he was completely exhausted. All of the tests came back fine, he was ready to go, he just needed to convince his mom that his aunt wouldn’t let him get hurt again. “It was my fault, not Aunt Lacey’s, and we just have one last place to go, please…we are just so close to winning that ten thousand dollars.”

“Well, okay. But please be careful!” Ben’s mom smiled at the thought of the money,
if he only knew,
she thought to herself.

“What?” Ben was shocked that she had said yes. “Yeah, I’ll be careful okay, I love you mom.”

Now Ben’s mom was the shocked one, “I love you too, Ben.” She hung up the phone and cried; he hadn’t said ‘I love you’ in three years.

“Okay, she said yes.” Ben said to the ranger. He shook his head, clearly frustrated that Lacey would be allowed to supervise this child, but there was nothing he could do, so he opened his office door and led them out to the lobby of the ranger station. They waved and thanked the man again for rescuing Ben, then practically ran out the door.

Lacey pulled the green cell phone from her pocket, she showed Ben that it was in fact waterproof; she just needed to listen to the voice mail. She went through the prompts, and then put the phone on “Speaker” just as the man began to talk.

“Congratulations, you have made it so far, the journey is almost over! Just press the blue GPS button that has a globe on it to see your next destination.” Lacey pressed the blue button on the phone’s keypad. Instantly the screen lit up and an aerial photo came up. The picture was incredibly clear, they could even see trees and bushes on the ground. On the screen there was a red dot with coordinates next to it, they read “42 degrees 05’44” North, 123 degrees 24’21” West” Under the coordinates was a screen button option that said “Find Route” Ben pressed the button and instantly a step-by-step list of instructions came on the screen. He scrolled through the instructions; they began at their exact location by the ranger’s station at Crater Lake and led them all the way to the Oregon Caves National Monument in southern Oregon.

“Cool, that’s close to home.” Ben said as he started to walk back to the car, they climbed in, started the car and were on their way.

“Why don’t you get some sleep, you’re gonna need your rest.” Lacey said. She looked over, Ben was already asleep. Lacey turned the radio on low and turned the temperature up, just in case Ben was still feeling cold. She looked at him and smiled, then thanked God one more time for allowing Ben to survive. She grabbed a tissue from the console and wiped the tears off her face, she looked in the rearview mirror to see how puffy her eyes were, she looked horrible. She readjusted the mirror just in time to see a familiar vehicle behind them. It was staying back off her tail, but as it rounded a corner she knew immediately that they were in trouble. How did he get away from the police? More importantly, how did he find them?

Lacey increased her speed, she didn’t want to make any sudden moves, and she definitely didn’t want the freak in the blue van to know that she knew they were being followed. She looked at Ben and decided for the time being she wouldn’t wake him. He needed to recuperate, and adding more fear to his stressed body would only make matters worse. She continued to increase her speed, trying to be mindful of the road, but also wanting to get away from the blue van. After fifteen miles there was a junction for Diamond Lake, Lacey made the turn and sped down the road following the signs for the lodge.

As she pulled into a parking spot Ben woke up, “where are we?” He asked.

“Just a little detour,” Lacey said. “I don’t want to freak you out but the blue van is back.” She pointed to the far end of the parking lot, where the van was idling.

“Oh my gosh! What are we gonna do?” Ben began to panic.

“Okay, let’s think about this. This guy obviously wants to steal the treasure from us, and somehow he knows exactly where to find us. I mean nothin’ else makes sense, right?” Lacey said as she stared at the blue van.

“Yeah, but how does he know?”

“Beats me.” Lacey said, “but we could act like we are gonna stay here tonight. What if we get a room at the lodge, then we’ll unload a bag or two, make it look like we are just gonna stay. He’ll probably get a room too, and then when he’s in his room, we can sneak out. I wonder if there is another way around the lake.” Lacey grabbed the map from the console and unfolded it. She found Diamond Lake and just as she was about to speak Ben said,

“Yeah, look right here.” He pointed to the screen of the cell phone.

“How did you find that?” Lacey asked.

“Well it showed me where we are now, so I just zoomed out on the map, and see right here, we were on highway 230 that would take us south from here to highway 62, but highway 138 goes west. He would never think that we would go that way.” Ben smiled, this new cell phone made things so easy!

“Okay, so let’s do that, one of us will keep watch on the van, as soon as he’s out of it and not paying attention we’ll get out of here.” Lacey opened the car door, stretched then met Ben on the other side. “Ready?” She asked.

“Yep, let’s loose this guy!” They headed toward the lodge office and checked in.

The man in the blue van picked up his cell phone, it rang only once before the man on the other end picked up.