Spirals Read online

  Chapter 1

  April 5

  4:00 a.m.

  Waza National Park, Cameroon

  Gabrielle Chambers sat motionless in the tall grass for over thirty minutes, while the lioness approached from the distance. The ends of her dark hair danced on her shoulders in the gentle breeze, while her narrow face remained fixed on the animal's movements. The near full moon allowed her excellent visibility, and she had been able to watch the lioness for almost the entire time. Now the lioness was within a hundred yards from where she was sitting and she was beginning to get nervous. She started to twirl her gold crucifix that dangled from her neck between her thumb and forefinger. She wondered how she would fend off an attack if the lioness came at her. "A hundred and twenty-five pounds of food, that's what I'd be," she thought. Gabrielle had never shot a lion of any kind before. But she had enough experience shooting other animals, so there was no real reason to worry. She worried anyway, about a variety of potential problems. Was it still too dark out? How close should she let the lioness get? She even began to wonder what had possessed her to beg Alex to let her come on this trip anyway. "What about Alex," she thought. She glanced over her right shoulder and saw Alex wrapped up in a blanket at the base of the tree that was providing cover for them both. " Too late," she thought. She would not have enough time to go over and wake Alex up and shoot the lioness. She would simply have to shoot the lioness by herself and hope everything went well.

  The lioness came to a clearing in the grass and paused. Gabrielle saw the moment she was waiting for, she took aim and shot. Again she shot, and again. The lioness paid no attention. Gabrielle was ecstatic. The lioness simply waltzed around the clearing while Gabrielle shot it repeatedly. Before she knew it she had gone through the entire roll of film, and was quickly rewinding it. She took out the spent roll and stuck it in her shirt pocket. Then she frantically searched her other pockets for more film. She found none. Gabrielle remembered Alex insisting on carrying the film. "Well," she thought, "nap time is over."

  Gabrielle started to get up. When she realized her legs had fallen asleep, it was too late. She had already stood with her whole weight on them before she felt the infamous pins and needles. She cringed and stumbled forward knocking over the tripod in the process. She looked up to see if the lioness had taken off after being startled, but it had not. It was shitting. Gabrielle could not help but to laugh. "Here I am all worried about being stalked by this lethal beast," she thought, "and it was really just looking for a good place to crap!" After her legs had woken up, and the lioness had gone, she made her way over to Alex.

  "How could anyone sleep through all that?", she asked.

  No reply, Alex was still not conscious. Gabrielle crawled up closer to Alex and repeated.

  "How could anyone sleep through all that?"

  Slowly a hand emerged from the six foot long blanket cocoon. Alex's left hand grasped the blanket at the very top and began to slide it down. First it revealed hair, dark brown hair with a serious case of bed head. The blanket slid further down until it revealed an eye, also brown and fighting to stay open.

  "Did I miss something?", came the mumble from beneath the blanket.

  Gabrielle lunged forward grabbing the blanket and yanking it off him.

  "You sure did," she said.

  Alex sat himself up and began to warm his hands together, it wasn't cold out. He just wanted to show Gabrielle that he wanted his blanket back. Alex let loose a huge yawn and stretched his hands skyward, then out to the side. Whether he liked it or not, he was beginning to wake up. He rubbed his finger across his large unshaven chin. The fatigue was slowly wearing off , at about the same rate as the lines the blanket had created on his face. He looked up at Gabrielle, and all he saw was excitement. She was just waiting to blurt something out. If she were any more elated she would have been bouncing up and down, and he wouldn't have to say anything in order to find the cause behind her frenzied state.

  "And what might I have missed?", he asked.

  "I saw a lioness," Gabrielle said anxiously. Blurting it out exactly as Alex had pictured it, though the news still caught him off guard.

  "And what happened, did you get any good pictures?" Alex asked, now fully awake at the news.

  "I did everything right," she began, "the lioness was within a hundred yards, in a clearing. The moon was providing excellent light. The lioness was prancing around. She'd go back and forth, not moving too fast. Everything was perfect."

  Alex took a deep breath of the morning air, and paused.

  "Did the lion sniff the ground a lot?", he asked.

  "Yeah, why?", she said.

  "Oh, nothing," he said, "I just wanted to know if you took any pictures of lions that weren't taking a dump."

  With that Gabrielle threw the blanket back at him. It caught him off guard, and hit him in the face.

  "I couldn't get any other pictures," she said.

  "And why not?", Alex asked.

  "Because somebody was sleeping with the film," she said.

  Alex thought for a second, yup. He had insisted on carrying the film, and he had assured Gabrielle that he was not going to fall asleep.

  "What are you, Jealous?", He asked playfully, egging her on. It was enough to do the trick. Gabrielle pounced on him and pushed backwards until he was lying down. Then she sat on his firm stomach and began to question him.

  "What did you say?"

  "I said," Alex paused, "How many pictures did you get with the lens cap off?"

  Alex began to laugh even before Gabrielle started to tickle him.

  "I don't think I heard you correctly," she said as she continued to tickle him, relentlessly.

  "Now what was it you were saying?", she asked again.

  Alex was laughing so hard that he was finding it very difficult to reply. He thought for a second as she continued the onslaught.

  "I said let me sleep until noon, and stop squashing me you cow." With that Alex started laughing uncontrollably, even to the point where no sound came out but the laugh was still there. Gabrielle leaned over him and grabbed the pillow from behind his head. His head hit the ground with a dull thud, and he didn't even notice what had happened. At least not until he saw Gabrielle beating him with the pillow. Even then it did 't fully register, because he reached behind his head for a pillow to fight with.

  "Uh, Duh, there is just the one pillow," Gabrielle said as she struck his unprotected head. Alex fended off enough shots to get his hands firmly on her small biceps, preventing any further blows. Gabrielle still began to squirm in a frenzy, still trying to swing the pillow. Alex rolled her off to his right, as he did she flung the pillow off into the distance. Then when she landed on her back Alex sat down on her hips, pinning her hands at her sides with his knees. Alex knew the weight wasn't too much for her to bear. Granted, it might be a strain for someone to support a hundred eighty-five pounds, but Gabrielle had done it several times. They had wrestled before, and afterwards she had told him that it was no problem. She had even gone as far as to say that she thought he hadn't been resting his full weight on her.

  "Now what are you going to do?", Alex asked, still out of breath.

  "No, what are you going to do," she began, "you know I'm not ticklish, and the pillow is too far away to reach. Since I am pinned down, the question is what are you going to do?" She was right the pillow was no closer than six feet. Any attempt to get it and she would be released. No, this situation would require something else. Alex starred at Gabrielle, and she starred back at him. Then he saw her green eyes widen and begin to glow in the predawn light. In an instant she turned her head to the right and her long brown hair obscured his view of her face. He had heard it too, there was no doubting it. The pride was heading their way. Alex stood up off her, then gave a hand
to help her up. She took his hand and stood to a crouch, the same as Alex. Then they proceeded to sneak toward the tripod. The lions were at least two hundred yards off, and they weren't moving toward them, they were eating. Gabrielle reached down and grabbed hold of the tripod and stood it back up. Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out a fresh roll of film, and handed it to Gabrielle. She looked back at him with surprise.

  "You're not going to take the pictures?" She asked.

  "Not today," he said, "today it is all yours."

  Gabrielle took the film and loaded the camera. She thought about what it meant, for her to have total control. Alex Taylor was one of the leading photographers of lions, and he was letting her run the show.

  "OK," she said, "you're the boss." But to Gabrielle he was more than just her boss or her friend, he was her mentor. Gabrielle had not expected to do much of the actual photographing when she was told that she would be making the trip to Cameroon. She had only hoped to watch and learn from Alex, as she had done before. Now it appeared that he was taking her to a new level, and she liked that very much. Gabrielle began to photograph the lions as they fought for dominance, and it had made her think. Here she was barely twenty-four years old, and she was being handed the torch to carry on. No, that wasn't it. Alex was far too young to be passing up the limelight. Thirty-two is hardly over the hill in this industry. She was being allowed to enter the group, much like the lions that she was now photographing. She had completed her struggle for dominance. Not the wrestling that had occurred earlier, but something before that. She had dared to photograph the lioness without waking Alex up. Although she was forced to do it, due to her own mistake. She had let the lioness get to close before thinking to wake Alex. But, Alex didn't know about that part. In Alex's mind Gabrielle had attempted to venture out on her own. That had been enough to earn his respect on this shoot. If Gabrielle felt that she was ready to take the lead, then he was willing to let her. He would be there to help her in any way he could.

  As dawn rolled in, the lions finished their feast and the pride moved on. Alex and Gabrielle lay on their backs watching the moon drop out of sight and the day begin. Gabrielle played with the spent rolls of film and wondered what she had achieved. The contents of her hand certainly wouldn't break her career, but it could make it. Alex just lay there thinking of all the potential the fresh new day had in it. Alex was never much of a morning person, by the time he usually got sight of the new day it was already many hours old. Whatever they lay there thinking, neither one of them could have imagined what the new day would truly bring. They could not have imagined, in their wildest dreams, the chain of events that were about to take place. A chain of events that would take them on a fantastic journey and change their lives forever.

  Chapter 2

  April 5

  6:00 a.m.

  Near Lake Nyos, Cameroon

  The two ruts that the old jeep had been using for a road were at an end. The jungle had become over grown due to years of neglect, and Thomas LaRue could drive no further. From here he would have to travel on foot to a place where very few ever bother going. Thomas turned the jeep off and reached into the back. He pulled out a large sized duffle bag with his favorite team emblem on it, the Orlando Magic. After a quick inspection of its contents he zipped it up and climbed out of the jeep with it. It would be a bit of a hike, but he was more than prepared. "I don't know," he thought, "I'm not that young anymore." This was true, since he was forty-one. Though, he was a fit as anyone his own age, and many who were younger. His body never seemed to show any signs of aging, but his face made up for that. His face made him look well over fifty. This didn't bother him though, he saw it as a benefit. Most people would automatically assume he was older than he was, and therefore expect him to be less able to do certain things. It always came to a shock to them to see him lifting two hundred pounds, and he always enjoyed seeing the look on their faces. Not only did he look older than he was, but his medium sized frame gave no clue to the strength than lay underneath.

  The hour long hike through the jungle was a breeze for him. Most of the journey was just through open plains, due to the higher elevations and rocky terrain. Far below him and hundreds of miles off was the type of thick dense jungle that truly forbids passage. He knew that he would not need to deal with anything that difficult today. Today he would have to deal with something much more delicate.

  Thomas crossed over one last rolling hill and found himself on the shores of lake Nyos. To call any edge of this lake a shore would be kind. The lake was formed out of lava flows that cooled during the rainy season and forever trapped the water. The lake still had an active lava flow underneath its water. This was part of the reason Thomas decided to come here. The lava under the lake constantly released carbon dioxide gas into the water. The water should then release the trapped gas into the air when the lake temperature changed, and the water in the lake shifted to different depths. However, Lake Nyos is unique, because it never changes temperature. The carbon dioxide gas is never released, or almost never. In 1986 the lake cooled a couple of degrees and the lake released less than twenty percent of its carbon dioxide gas. The result was that the gas swept down the valleys to the north and killed more than seventeen hundred people. As the cloud passed through scarcely populated farmlands, it sucked the oxygen right out of the air. People in its path suffocated and had the skin burned off their bodies. As Thomas continued around the edge of the lake he continuously saw the remains of cattle, at least he thought they were all cattle. He had no doubt that many of the remains were from this incident. Thomas looked out across the twenty-mile lake and was thankful that he didn't have to walk the entire was around. Up ahead he could see his objective. Thomas eventually reached the natural dam that held back all of the water within Lake Nyos. It was a thin dam only a dozen meters thick, and about thirty meters long. It was also very weak looking. He saw several sinkholes in the dam that were big enough to twist an ankle in. Thomas looked over the drop off on the far side of the dam. It fell away several hundred feet, maybe even be a thousand feet. He could clearly see the path the water used to carve when it would work its way down these mountains.

  Thomas set his Magic duffle bag down and opened it up. First he pulled out a small shovel, and a hammer. Then Thomas pulled out a metal box that was about the size of a basketball. He walked a few steps away from the bag and gingerly set the box down. Thomas went back to the bag and pulled out two smaller metal boxes and placed them next to the first. Then he began to dig. First he took handfuls of water from the lake and poured them into one of the sinkholes. The water was absorbed instantly and he could see how soft the ground was. Thomas hardly need the hammer, since most of the work was done with the shovel. After more than an hour, Thomas had completed digging. Where the sinkhole used to be there was now an eight-foot long crawlspace into the heart of the dam. Thomas set down the shovel and rolled onto his back to rest before starting the next phase. He felt a poking sensation in the small of his back. Thomas reached around and removed a large razor sharp Bowie knife from its sheath. "Well," he thought, "I won't be needing this today after all." The knife was a precautionary measure, in case any local police questioned him. Months of preparation and planning were not about to be wasted on a curious policeman. "Curiosity kills more than just cats," he thought, "but not today." There was no one around for miles, and no real civilization for a hundred miles.

  Thomas got up and walked over to the metal boxes, and opened them. The largest contained eight full sticks of plastic explosives bound together and held in a safe housing. The second contained four detonators. The third contained a small satellite dish, a small black box, and twenty feet of wire. Thomas carefully picked up the explosives and carried them over to the hole. He set them at the edge then went back for the detonators. Thomas carefully brought the detonators over to the explosives and inserted them. Then he attached one end of the twenty-foot wire to the detonators. He gently slid the armed device into the hole and slid o
n his belly behind it. Afterwards he filled the hole and packed it tight with dirt and rocks. Now all that was exposed was the wire that led into the hole and to the detonators. Thomas' ten years in the demolition business had taught him a lot about explosives and he was sure that this device would surely do the trick. He had even dug the hole with a right angle turn and a small drop off at the inner end, insuring that more of the blast would be sent through the weak dam structure and not out the hole. The amount of explosive was at least ten times more than he needed. It was a necessary amount, since he had no idea how strong the dam was. He had never seen it, or been here before.

  Thomas carried the small black box over to a nearby tree and set it at the base. Thomas then used the hammer to nail the satellite dish to the tree. Then he ran a cable from it to the black box, and the wire from the detonators was connected to the box as well. He went on to cover the box and wires with dirt and twigs. The system was now completed and in place. All it needed was a signal sent, via satellite, to the dish. Then the dish would pass the signal to the descrambler, and the descrambler would pass the signal on to the detonators. "Now all I need," Thomas thought, "is to get really far away from here, because the destruction will be massive." Thomas had seen all of the figures on the lake many times before. Even as he looked out over the valleys that lay in the path of destruction, he could not fully grasp what it would be like.

  Fifty thousand people would be killed in Nigeria and Cameroon by flooding alone. Then there is the cloud of lethal gas that would be released. If the low level wind currents carried the three hundred million cubic meters of gas off in a different direction, the death toll would be far higher. If the cloud were to reach any major cities, the death toll could reach into the hundreds of thousands. Possibly even a million people would die as a result. The likelihood of the death toll reaching that high was slim. The nearest major city is nearly a hundred miles. While the cloud's destruction could easily reach that far, there would be plenty of advanced warning. The cloud would move slowly and it would take more than a day, ample time to evacuate the nearby cities and possibly some towns.