Both ropes parallel. 8 in spacing. Anchor high on both trees. Chest height for the crossing members. You go first.
Set the far anchor. Come back. Then you bring people across one at a time with the rope as a balance line. A silence. Derek was processing it.
I've never done a tension traverse. She said, "I know, Rebecca said. I'm going to talk you through it. " What followed was 12 minutes of radioguided instruction that Rachel would later describe as the most precise thing she had ever heard. Rebecca's voice, steady and specific, breaking a technical rope technique into sequential physical actions, clear enough that a woman standing in the rain in deteriorating conditions with 21 people counting on her could execute it correctly. The first time, Derek asked three questions.
Rebecca answered all three before Derek finished asking them. At the end of 12 minutes, Derek said, "Traverse is set. I'm going across to anchor the far side. " "Go," Rebecca said. 2 minutes later, far anchor is set. Coming back.
Good. Start your crossing. Smallest person first. That's Morris. Then start with Morris.
4:16 in the afternoon. 21 people across a flooded 30-foot crossing in deteriorating weather conditions. It took 23 minutes. Every one of them made it. When Derek's radio check-in came at 4:19, all 21 personnel across mobile continuing return.
The operations room exhaled collectively with the particular release of people who have been holding something very carefully for a long time. Rachel put her radio down for 4 seconds. Just 4 seconds. Then she picked it back up. But in those four seconds, her face showed everything she had been managing since 217.
Rebecca watched her do it. She did not give her space for it because the situation did not permit space, but she noted it and filed it under the category of things she would address when there was time, which would be later, and she would make sure later arrived. 4:29 in the afternoon. The encrypted radio on the table activated. Not loudly.
A single pulse of indicator light, the kind that signals an incoming query on a frequency. Everyone in the room went still. Rebecca looked at it. He looked at Gerald. Gerald looked at the radio and said nothing.
Rebecca picked it up. She looked at the frequency. She looked at the activation code displayed in the indicator window. She processed what those two things together meant in terms of the operational context she understood from her years in naval special warfare. Then he set the radio back on the table without responding.
"Rebecca," Gerald said carefully. "Someone just queried this device," Rebecca said, checking if it's been activated. "Do you know who? " "No, but I know what frequency they're using. " He paused. "It's a coordination channel, not a command channel, which means there's more than one person, and they're lateral to each other. You're not going to respond. " "Not yet. " He looked at the device.
If they think the device is unactivated still in the cache, they'll assume their position is unchanged, they'll continue whatever they're doing. And if they figure out we found it, then the situation changes, Rebecca said, and we deal with the new situation. He looked at Frank. I need a quiet inventory of every face at this event that you don't personally recognize from prior Iron Ridge contact, he said. Participants, contractors, visitors, anyone you can't place.
Frank nodded. He went out the door. 4:41 in the afternoon, Derek came back. All 21 people, every single one. He came through the main tent door with Morris over two volunteers shoulders and Crawford studying a woman who had twisted her ankle in the final/4 mile and Ricky Salazar, who had somehow ended up in the South team without Derek noticing until they were already moving, carrying a pack that was not his on top of his own gear.
Derek walked into the operations room and put both hands on the map table and breathed for 20 seconds. Then he straightened. She looked at Rebecca. 21, he said. All 21.
Rebecca looked at her. Good, he said. Derek nodded. She looked at the map, then at the encrypted radio on the table, then back at Rebecca. What's that?
She said. A complication we're managing. Derek looked at it for a moment. Is this situation over? She said, "The weather situation is beginning to moderate, Rebecca said.
External response is approximately 90 minutes out. We have everyone accounted for sheltered medically stable. " A pause. The weather situation is manageable, but Derek said. Rebecca looked at her. But someone wanted this event to become what it became, he said. and I don't yet know if they got what they were looking for.
Derek absorbed that. What do you need from me? He said, "Right now, stay visible in the main tent. Talk to people. Keep energy calm.
People are tired and stressed. And the next 90 minutes of waiting are going to be harder emotionally than the last 2 hours were physically. You want me to be a presence. I want you to do what you're actually good at. " Rebecca said, "You connect with people. use it. Derek looked at him for a moment, then he nodded.