Episode 216 · Across the Gap

Krista stared at Maxim from the far side of the broken steps.

— Sunday morning?

He nodded. The ladder rested against his knee, folded between the outer chamber and the little landing behind the slab. His left palm remained on the stone.

— We can work that out upstairs. I need you to catch the end of this.

She put her phone down, light pointing across the gap, and crouched well back from the broken lip. Tesa stood beside her, watching the far landing.

Maxim eased the ladder onto the landing. The near end stayed against his boot while he pushed the folded sections toward the girls. When he had gone as far as he could, Krista reached out and caught the end.

— Don’t pull. Hold it while I open the next section.

He worked the catch with his right hand. The extended section slid toward her. She guided it onto the round floor. Tesa put her hand beside Krista’s and helped them move it farther back, beyond the loose stone.

The ladder lay across the hole, rising from their floor to his landing.

Maxim lowered his knee onto the near end. Something shifted below him, and all three stopped.

He moved the flashlight with his foot. A small fragment had fallen from beneath the landing’s edge. The ladder’s feet were still on sound stone, close to the slab. He brought them back another inch and settled his weight again.

This time nothing moved.

— The rope’s tied outside, he said. I’m sending a loop over. Put it around you before you get on.

He fed the loose end through the air between them. It fell short. Krista drew it toward her with the toe of her boot, keeping her weight on the flat floor.

His left hand was going numb. He pressed it harder against the stone, then forced himself to ease it. Wanting the opening wider had brought it wider. Holding it there was already enough work.

Krista fastened the loop and checked it with both hands.

— Tesa first?

— You first. I need you here to hold the door. Then I can use both hands.

Tesa took the ladder’s far end, bracing it with a knee and her right hand, the taped one held clear. Krista lowered herself onto the first rungs. She kept her body close to the metal, looking at the place where she would put her next hand.

The ladder bowed slightly beneath her.

— Keep coming, Maxim said.

He kept his boot against the ladder foot and watched her cross the middle. The rope moved through the opening beside him, running back to the pier in the outer chamber.

When she reached the landing, he caught her sleeve and helped her bring one knee onto the stone. She stayed there until she had room to stand without touching the broken edge.

— Hand on the slab, he said.

She set her palm beside his.

He took his away slowly. The opening held. Krista leaned her shoulder against the wall while the effort settled into her arm.

With Krista holding the slab, Maxim freed the rope from her waist and sent the loop back across the ladder. Tesa caught it, fastened it around herself and knelt at the first rung.

Maxim flexed his fingers and gripped the ladder in both hands.

— I’ve got the near end, Maxim told her. Stay low.

She started across on her hands and knees. At the middle the ladder flexed beneath her weight, and she stopped until it settled.

— Give me a moment.

He held the ladder still. Behind him, Krista’s breathing had become audible. Dust ticked onto the fallen steps beneath them.

Tesa moved one hand to the next rung and edged forward on her knees. Maxim waited until her shoulder was within reach before taking her coat; pulling sooner would have lifted her from the rung.

She came onto the landing with a hard breath and sat against the wall.

For a little while none of them tried to speak.

Maxim backed into the outer chamber and helped Tesa through the opening. She caught the pier with her good hand. Krista followed last, keeping her palm on the stone until she was beside them.

When she let go, the slab settled shut, hiding the broken route and the round room beyond it. Krista reached for the notebook on the crate lid, then sank onto the lid beside it instead.

— I left that there a few hours ago.

Maxim looked at the rope around Tesa’s waist. His hands were not ready for the buckle. He sat beside the ladder and let her work it loose herself.

— Lucky’s been asking for overtime, he told her.

— Doing what?

— Nothing. Same job, higher rates.

Tesa rubbed her face with the back of her good hand. A small laugh escaped her, followed by a breath that took much longer to finish.

Maxim nodded at the tape on her knuckles.

— What did that?

— A floor, she said. It was in the way.

At the first bend of the passage, Krista stopped to look back. Maxim waited until she turned away from the darkness herself. Then they went up, slowly, with the folded ladder scraping the wall behind them.

Daylight reached them beneath the bridge. Tesa stood in it with her eyes shut, her taped hand held against her chest like something borrowed. Krista’s phone found a signal and began vibrating in her hand.

She looked at the date. Maxim watched her read it twice.

Among the missed calls there was one message from Soles, sent on Saturday evening. She read that twice as well, and did not say what it said.

— Friday, she said. It was Friday when we came.

— I know.

She sat on the low wall above the opening. He put the ladder down and made room beside her for Tesa. The river moved below them at its ordinary speed, as if nothing had been missing.

Maxim took out his phone. He had promised himself he would call Soles as soon as he found them. He pressed the name and waited, looking at the women on the wall.

It rang without an answer. He left a message asking Soles to call him, then put the phone away and stayed with them until they were ready to stand.