A STRONG TOWER

PART ELEVEN: INTO THE SEA CAVE

It had happened again. Almost six more months had bitten the epi dust and Biebe was still firmly bestucked in the blowhole. "Can't you DO something about that?" Bud complained to Himself as the two of them stood near the edge of the Bight, Jack, East, Terry and Zack nearby. "Just look," he continued, "she has to recap who's here. No one could possibly remember. It's been since March and now we're in late September."

"I have," Himself smiled, "done the one thing in the world that will change the rate of current epi production."

"And what would that be?" the cop asked.

"You shall see soon enough," Himself grinned.

"Something has...changed?" Jack wanted to know. "Your hair looks just the same as it did in the last epi."

Himself ran a hand briefly through his just-now-long-enough-to-begin-to-wave locks. "Much," he said enigmatically.

"You're not going to tell us, are you?" Zack sighed.

"Come," was all Himself would say and began going toward a tiny path that would lead them down the sheer face of the Bight's cliffs with the ocean crashing 200 feet below.

"Down...there? You mean to take innocent characters down THAT?" Zack gasped in disbelief.

"It is our path, the way we must follow. There is no other," Himself shrugged, dislodging a large chunk of cliff-face that plummeted downward.

"Why, why is there no other?" Zack persisted.

"Because."  Himself was now halfway down, a grim smile fixed on his face. Jack, who was never bothered by heights, quickly followed, as did Terry, who was never bothered by anything except bluntness. East, quietly determined, had begun his descent.

Bud looked at Zack. "You comin'?"  Then the cop turned and began carefully picking his way down what might laughingly be called a path, for it bore little actual resemblance to one.

Zack stared for a moment back toward the interior, where he knew the rest of the cast, except for the missing Broch, were waiting. Would she make them, make them all, even the two children, come this way? Who knew?

About 40 feet above where the surf crashed relentlessly onto rocks beneath them, Himself suddenly disappeared, greatly startling and discomfiting those above him, who had been gripping the least bit of rocky protuberances with their fingernails so intently they had not noticed his goingness until he was gone.

"Himself!" Jack shouted, terribly concerned.

"In here!" Himself hollered back up, poking his head out of the entrance of a sea cave which could not be seen from above.

When he'd been joined by the other five, he produced a torch from a pocket in his jeans. That would be a flashlight for the Americans, who might express some concern over Himself having fire in his pants, though, truth be untowardly told, most of the female members amongst them already were fully convinced of that.

"Where's this lead?" Bud asked, peering into the depths of the darkness looming endlessly before them.

"Back under the Nullarbor," Himself explained.

"Toward the blowhole, Biebe's very blowhole?" Zack asked hopefully.

"Indeed, so it would seem," Jack stated. He looked at Himself. "Shall we? After so many months I would presume there is not a moment to lose."

"Poor Biebe," Zack sighed. "I wonder what's left of him by now?"

"Is this where Broch disappeared?" East asked, curious as to where the Scot might be.

"Probably not," Himself said, looking inwardly in that way he was so good at. "The last of the Outlander books is in the mail to her even as we stand here. She needs to read that before she feels she can get in the swing of writing Scottish again."

"Perfectly understandable," Jack nodded, delighting the author's heart.

Himself led the way, a long and difficult way, full of pitfalls, large bones, strange noises, beeping horns.

Beeping horns?

In not more than an hour and with very little loss of blood, our half-dozen intrepid spelunkers found themselves looking up at Biebe's dangling leg. "Damn squirrels!" Himself snapped, grabbing by their tails the three who were using the sheriff's leg as a jungle gym and flipping them off to the side of the cave where, unseen in the darkness, they quietly began regrouping with many of their fellows.

Himself handed the torch to Zack, motioning to Bud and Terry to help him grip Biebe's leg and on the count of three, yank down with all their strength.

"Um, might that not result in...amputation?" Zack pointed out.

"It's only an epi," Himself replied. "It'll grow back."

"He's not inside Sid," Zack tried again. "Maybe not."

"What must be done, must be done," Himself retorted, beginning to count..."One...two..."

"Something's happening!" Biebe moaned, his blood pressure now soaring from the 12 over 5 where it had hovered for months to 782 over 466.

"What, my darling? What's happening?" Buggie cried.

Both Cort, holding Biebe's right arm and Egan, holding his left, tensed and not just because of the need for recapping.

"The...the...things...brushing against my leg. They were gone. For just a moment they were

gone. Now...oh, God...now something...else...something much worse...is gripping it!" His bloodshot eyes found his Buggie's. "I fear this is good-bye, my love. I want...."

But he managed no more words as whatever was gripping his leg yanked him downward, the edges of the blowhole crumbling with him. Cort and Egan were both pulled downward with

him, as was Colin, whose sideburns had been tied around Biebe's waist. Indeed, most
conveniently and epi-ishly, a wide crack opened across just that section of the Nullarbor wherein our characters had been so fruitlessly encamped for so long and ALL of them found themselves on the floor of the cave, the younglings safe in the arms of their Pappas.

"Where ARE we?" Marshall gasped, glad he'd not lost his grip on Wadsworth's harness during the plunge.

"Watch OUT!" Himself bellowed, pulling those near him sharply off to the left just as a large dump truck whooshed past.

"Dump truck? There's a DUMP TRUCK in a Nullabarian sea cave?" Jeffrey spat.

"Um," Joimus spoke up helpfully, "perhaps we're, um, not in Oz any more?"

"I thought people went from Kansas TO Oz?" Sid remarked snidely.

"Epis don't work like that...not in normal ways like that," Joimus said in a small voice.

"That was...normal?" Sid snarked.

"Compared to this, yes," Joimus added.

"What IS this?"

"WHERE is this?"

"WHEN is this?"

"WHY is this?"  The questions poured out of character mouths.

Himself turned his torch so that it shown upwards, illuminating his own features. "It is because

I need to be here."

"You need to be...here? Where is here?"  Steve wanted to know.

"WATCH OUT!" Himself jumped atop those nearest him, knocking them away from the Mazda.

"Squirrel Hill tunnels," he explained, when he managed to get his breath back.

"The sea cave is a tunnel?" Lachlan felt confused, despite his many years trapped in epilife.

"It's no longer a sea cave, Lachlan," Himself said, rubbing his elbow where it had smacked against the tile walls. "It is only a tunnel."

"But WHERE, dammit, Himself. WHERE?" Colin growled, desperately trying to reel in his stretched sideburns.

Himself rubbed a hand across his chin and mouth before answering. "Pittsburgh. I need to be

in Pittsburgh."

A tear gas canister rolled into the tunnel, knocked toward them by a milk truck. "RUN!" Himself hollered.

Clutching one another, some like Ben taking untoward advantage of the current need for

other-clutching, they half-ran, half-staggered out into a light drizzle where a row of helmeted riot police with shields locked in a perfect turtle formation were waiting.

"The G-20?" Alex gasped. "You've taken us to Pittsburgh during the G-20? Why would you

DO that?"

"Movie starts filming next week," Himself shrugged.

"You're...not?" Sid snarled. "Another new and useless character?"

"I am," Himself smiled. "Goosebumps. Hadda make the guy."

"We don't even have Cal or Ed in epis yet and you're making another new guy?" Jeff asked.

"I'm here, too," a different American voice spoke up.

"Who're you?" Andy asked.

"John," came the reply.

"I'm John," Nash said, narrowing his eyes at the mustached newcomer.

"Me, too," Biebe gasped as Buggie rubbed his leg, trying to get his circulation going again.

"I'm the new John. She promised to write me as soon as she knew my first name wasn't just Lieutenant."

"A lawman?" Ben growled. "Ain't we got more'n enough of them already?"

"Hello, John," Bud said, shaking Cristofuoro's hand. "Welcome to epis."

"What about Cal and Ed?" Marie asked. "What about them?"

"Oh, I'm sure they'll show up along the line somewhere," Himself smiled.

Lady Meggie was busy. She was busy staring at Robert in the first daylight she'd ever seen him in. He was not only solid, but his outfit had changed and even had a worn look about it. "Robert?" she asked tentatively.

"Please call me Robin, Lady Meggie, for I am fully made and only awaiting the addition of CGI."

"What happened to the name Robert?"

"It was left by the wayside, my dear, as were all things Tornhamish."

"You...you get to stay then...for certain sure?"

"I do, indeed."

"I have a problem with that," Sid remarked. "Himself was in Australia all spring and summer."

"It was dark," Himself pointed out with a grin, "and no chapters were written. How do you know where I was?"

"You didn't go to Provence," Max rejoined, remembering Himself's captivity at that time. "How do we know you went to England?"

"You don't," Himself smiled. "But Robin is fully Robin. Leave it at that."

"We didn't get to go to the greenswards of rural England nor the beaches of Wales, yet you

have brought us to the tear-gassed tunnels of PITTSBURGH?"  Sid was outraged.

"What's so bad about Pittsburgh?" Joimus asked, insulted.

Just then the line of riot police began to move in their direction.

ON TO PART 12

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