The bear looked around and counted heads. “We’re all here right now…except the two who are missing.”
Julian and Spence stepped close to the river and assessed. The water was deep, and swift, and it wouldn’t be easy navigating.
“I’m glad we brought the DPV’s” Trask said, coming up behind them.
The Diver Propulsion Vehicles were a brand-new purchase, and currently looking like a timely one.
“Let’s hope they’re fully charged,” Julian added.
In these conditions, a topped off battery might last them an hour. Anything less would be unacceptable.
“I charged them myself,” Tabbi assured them, zipping up. “Now, how do you want to approach this?” She handed the authority over to Spence, who was their defacto boss.
“There’s five of us.” Spence said decisively. “I want three on the pile of wood that’s amassed on those rocks, and two heading downriver to see if there are any other obvious places those men might have gone ashore or become entangled.”
“I’ll head downriver,” Trask offered.
“I’ll go with him,” Buck spoke up.
“Good,” Spence nodded. “Tabbi and Julian, you’re with me. Let’s move.”
Tabbi ran to the van, then backed it as close as possible to the river, where the five of them swiftly extracted the DPV’s they’d packed. The units were incredibly small, 21 x 15 x 11 inches each, and they’d fit easily in the back of the pick-up.
“Everybody have their earpieces in?” Buck asked as they removed the underwater-scooters and positioned themselves on the bank.
“Affirmative,” they all responded, touching their ears.
The communication devices were another thing they’d sprung for after a few operations where they could have used them. Julian was happy to have them now, even if they wouldn’t work beneath the surface without full mask set-ups.
Spence turned to the local police chief on scene, and told them what frequency to monitor, for which the man nodded.
“We’ll keep you informed,” Spencer let him know.
With their DPV’s, along with a couple uninflated flotation vests for the two men when they found them, the group headed into the river; Trask and Buck going one way, and the rest of them pointed straight out.
Julian’s adrenaline was running high, but he breathed deeply to become calm as they reached shoulder height in the rapids, then let their hand-vehicles do the work.
They’d opted to keep their heads above water while scouting for the accident victims, hoping they were on the surface. Once they found them, they’d be able to use their breathing gear tosubmerge if the need arose to untangle them from anything below. And if they didn’t see any signs of them up above, they’d need their tanks for recovery.
Because of the rapid current, it took longer than Julian liked for them to reach the visible snag of logs and branches that had piled up against the rocks. If they’d been able to approach from the opposite side of the river, a much shorter distance, it would have made the swim a lot faster, but that bank was heavily treed, which would have been difficult for their vehicle to navigate, and besides, the only bridge that would have gotten them there was eight more miles upstream. They’d opted not to waste the time.
“I see a shirt,” Tabbi yelled into her comm device as they approached their target.
She was a few feet ahead of Julian and Spence, but it didn’t take long for them to see what Tabitha had spotted.
Floating material was waving around a still body, like a flag.
“One victim, caught between two logs,” Spence barked into his comm. “Possible head injury.”
Julian saw that the man was unconscious, but he was bleeding from a gash to his forehead.
Bleeding is good. It meant the man’s heart was still pumping, and he was alive.
At least for now.
As Tabbi made sure the victim wasn’t going to float away, Spence leveraged himself as high up in the water as possible, and took a good look around. “I can’t see the other man,” he said for everyone listening, then maneuvered next to Tabitha. “Tabbi, you and I will take care of this injured party; get him free of the debris and into a vest before bringing him back to shore.”
He turned to Julian. “Jules, dive under and look for signs of our other subject. If you don’t find him, surface, then navigate around this pile of detritus to make sure he’s not anywhere above.”
