Beyond Eagleridge Bluffs
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Risking it all.
Miriam is forty and frustrated. In an attempt to enhance her living-just-to-breathe life she joins some neighbours protesting a highway bypass that will destroy Eagleridge Bluffs. Not only are the Bluffs her special sanctuary, they’re also the beautiful home of rare and endangered plants and animals.
The protest gains the support of environmental organizations including the attention of a group of eco-radicals lead by an enigmatic younger man named Zaahir.
Miriam is mesmerized by this charismatic leader and sees him as someone that can save her as well as the Bluffs. But is Zaahir just using Miriam to help him further his radical political agenda?
As legal channels fail and civil disobedience falters, Miriam is seduced into the murky world of eco-terrorism.
Prologue
The January night air was thick with an icy fog tinged yellow by neon vapour lights. On the far side of the expansive open pit mine a gigantic excavator and several monstrous trucks rested from the their labours in a compound fenced on the three sides that weren’t open to the quarry.
Beyond the guardhouse, a road traversed carved slopes leading down into blackness and finally to the pool of chemical sludge. This was the toxic brew, seeping from the settling ponds and leaching into the ground that was suspected of poisoning the drinking water of the residents in the valley below.
Everything was as still as death.
In the forest opposite the site, the darkness was so impenetrable Zaahir couldn’t identify his team members.
“Sound off,” he whispered into the void.
“Bam-Bam.”
“Tim.”
“Caelum.”
“Luna.”
He waited. “Where’s Terra?”
Silence.
Zaahir fought to contain the rising panic.
“I’ll find her.” It was Caelum.
“Stay put, there’s no time.”
“No way, I’m going back.”
“Someone’s coming,” rasped Luna. “It’s her.”
“Terra?”
“Sorry,” Terra said, “I twisted my ankle.”
There was a beep from the timer.
“Thirty seconds,” warned Bam-Bam.
“Can you make it back to the vehicle?” Zaahir said.
“I’ll help her,” Caelum said.
“Did you locate the third security guard, Tim?”
“Nope. Maybe he didn’t come into work.”
“Ten, nine, eight…” Bam-Bam continued the countdown.
Zaahir swallowed, fighting down nausea. Something wasn’t right.
A blinding flash ripped the winter night and a ball of orange flame swallowed the giant excavator. The concussion swept over their hiding spot on the opposite side of the huge quarry like a blast of wind, the sound arriving seconds later.
“Far out!” exclaimed one of the team.
A huge cloud of smoke mushroomed above the destruction. Zaahir hunched down as the clatter of debris landing in the surrounding pit filled the air. But there was something else, a high, thin keening. Someone screaming.
Then Zaahir saw him tumbling from the cab of the excavator. The exploding diesel fuel had soaked his clothes. Flames hungrily fed on his jacket, pants, and hair.
“He’s on fire! He’s on fire!” Terra screamed.
“Shut her up!” ordered Zaahir.
The fiery figure got up and ran, which only encouraged conflagration. A human torch, he fell over the edge of the open pit mine and rolled, bumped, and finally flew down the steep embankment until he was out of sight.
“There’s the third security guard,” Bam-Bam said, breaking the shocked silence.
“He must have been sleeping in the cab, probably drunk or stoned,” Tim said, his voice shaky.
The other two guards appeared, coming from the security trailer, running toward the destruction. An alarm wailed.
“Let’s get out of here,” Zaahir said.
The van pulled into the parking lot and stopped in a darkened corner. The rank smell of sweat and fear permeated the interior of the vehicle. After previous successful actions the team was always in a triumphant mood, not unlike victorious soldiers after battle. Tonight they were shocked into silence.
All except Bam-Bam.
“I still can’t figure out how that guy survived the initial blast,” he was saying to nobody in particular while rubbing his palm over his shaved head. “If the blunt trauma of the concussion didn’t collapse his lungs, the shrapnel should have filleted him.” Three years as a US Marine demolitions expert had left him with a morbid fascination for explosives.
“Spare us the details,” said Luna. She nestled a sobbing Terra against her ample bosom.
“This is war, and there’s bound to be collateral damage.”
Bam-Bam’s insensitivity worried Zaahir, but there were more important things at hand. “Here are your tickets and cash,” he said, as he passed around large, brown envelopes. “Bam-Bam rides with Caelum, Luna goes with Terra, and Tim’s on his own. Get in your rental cars and go directly to the airport. Once you’re out of the country, take connecting flights to wherever you like.” They all knew the drill, having performed it numerous times before, but still he worried. There was no room for mistakes. “After two weeks, set up email accounts and I’ll get in touch.”
He looked at them all intently and with concern. The words of Master Sun, author of The Art of War, came to him;
He regards his troops as his children
And they will go with him into the deepest ravine
They certainly had been there tonight.
“Remember that what we do, we do to protect the earth and all the living things that call it home. Terra defendo.”
“Terra defendo,” they all repeated solemnly.
“On your way then.”
As Terra left the van, Zaahir gently touched her hand. “Are you all right?” She was so young, too young for this kind of life.
“I’m fine, Zee.” She flashed her breathtaking smile. She was lying. She always lied. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Miss me,” she said, as she ran to her designated car.
The last to exit the van was Luna. “Don’t worry,” she said in a motherly tone, struggling to extract her considerable girth from the back seat. “I’ll look after her.”
The members all had their strengths, but Zaahir relied more on Luna than the others. Intelligent and pragmatic, she had the ability to be the person he needed her to be at any given time. Intuitively she knew when to be strong and decisive, warm and understanding, bitchy and condescending, or charming and wickedly funny. She was also unquestionably loyal and totally committed to the fight. Yes, Luna would look after Terra.
As their vehicles pulled away into the night, Zaahir knew he would miss them intensely. He’d grown up in a small village where everyone knew one another. It was a place where people were related by blood, choice, or circumstances. As a child he’d roamed freely among the huts, his care and well-being had been a concern to everyone.
All that was gone now, cut down like the ancient tropical rainforest that had provided the inhabitants with everything they needed including sanctuary from the corruption of modern civilization.
His team had become his family. After having already experienced the loss of one, he could not bear the thought of losing another.
