Arriving at the yurt, Scott surveyed the structure. "We've got to tear this thing down."
"Is she going to let us?" Virgil asked doubtfully.
Scott glanced over at his brother, then said thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what, Virg. We'll let her know the bad news. Then you can take her over to the infirmary while I take down the yurt."
Scott sensed Virgil freezing next to him, but his voice was mild when he replied. "Sure thing, Scott. But you know, I'm the engineer, and you've already established a rapport with her. I'll take down the yurt and you take her to the infirmary."
The hint of insubordination caused Scott to bristle, and he turned on Virgil with narrowed eyes. "It doesn't take an engineer to tear down a felt tent, Virgil."
"Maybe not to tear it down, but to take it down without destroying it? Face it, I'm better qualified to do it than you." Virgil met his brother's eye unflinchingly. After a moment his own voice took on a diamond hard note. "Let me tell you what's not going to happen here, Scott. I'm not going to sit tamely by in Thunderbird Two while you take on this mine by yourself. Either we go in together, or we don't go in at all."
Caught out, Scott looked away. "I never said that was my plan."
"Good. Then why don't we just stick to the original plan, and not say anything to the woman until we've brought the bodies up?"
Scott took a deep breath. Virgil was probably the only person in the world that Scott would back down for. And even then, he only felt he could do so because he hadn't actually put the plan in words. Still, he felt he had to assert his position. "Fine. I'll introduce you, and you can tell her we're going to dismantle her home."
Obviously unwilling to push his luck, Virgil replied mildly, "Sure, okay, Scott."
Scott moved to the flap of cloth that marked the entrance. "Mrs. Orizova? Mrs. Orizova, my teammate is here, and we're ready to start operations." Scott called.
The two men stood waiting a few moments. Virgil raised an eyebrow, as Scott frowned. "Mrs. Orizova?"
When his call went unanswered, Scott tentatively lifted the door flap and peered into the dark tent. There was no sign of the woman. Virgil glanced around, then pointed. "There she is."
Scott looked, and saw, sure enough, the woman was sitting on the ground at the edge of the meadow. With a softly puzzled grunt, Scott unclipped his tether and headed over, Virgil trailing a few steps behind. "Mrs. Orizova?"
The woman was sitting quietly, gathering tiny wildflowers from amidst the grass, humming a tuneless song. Scott felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck. Moving to face her, he squatted down, and reached out to touch her hand. "Mrs. Orizova? Nazira? Are you okay?"
The woman looked up with a beatific smile, and handed Scott the small nosegay she had gathered, then returned to plucking the flowers. Virgil, who had remained standing a few feet away, muttered, "Oh boy."
Scott stood, running a hand over his face as he moved away, pulling Virgil with him. In a low voice, he asked, "What do you think?"
"I think she's a few beets shy of a full bowl of borscht."
Scott grimaced, "Not helpful, Virg. She's gone from weeping and wailing to calm to belligerent to this. She's definitely unstable."
"You would be too if your family was down a hole. She probably suspects the worst, Scott. It's enough to send anyone around the bend." Virgil shook his head. "The question is, how do you want to handle it? Should we sedate her?"
Scott stared at the oblivious woman for a few moments before saying decisively, "No. She's quiet enough. Let's just get on with it, and see how it goes."
Virgil shrugged, "Okay."
Scott led the way back to the yurt. "So, okay, Mr. Engineer, how to we do this?"
Virgil paced around the tent, looking it over. "Thing's practically falling apart, isn't it? Well, first things first. See this seam here? What we do is, we sort of roll the roof up, like a rug."
Scott looked at the seam in question. It ran the from the edge of the roof all the way up to the smoke hole at the top. He asked, skeptically, "And how are we supposed to do that?"
With a challenging grin, Virgil lowered interlaced fingers in invitation for Scott to climb up. Scott backed away. "Whoa! Are you kidding me? You said yourself it's practically falling down! There's no way it'll hold me!"
"Yeah, you need to be careful, but these tents are very structurally sound. C'mon Scott, you're willing to go down the rabbit hole for this woman. Don't wuss out on me now."
With a frown, Scott shucked off his harness and accepted the boost onto the roof, grumbling, "If it's so sound, why aren't you up here?"
"I weigh more than you. Besides, you're the field commander, aren't you supposed to do anything you'd ask your men to do?"
Inching his way up on his hands and knees, Scott had to admit, it seemed sturdy, but he wasn't telling Virgil that. Letting out a snort, he replied, "You've got me mixed up with the Navy. Every good Air Force officer knows he's worth any ten grunts."
"Come back down here and call me a grunt."
Smiling as he reached the smoke hole, he tugged at the felt of the roof. To his surprise, it lifted easily. Moving to one side, he looked down at his brother. "Ready?"
"Yeah. Let's do it."
Together, the brothers started folding the felt over, working their way around. Scott was a bit surprised to find the roof consisted of several pieces of felt rather than one consistent roll. It was also in layers, so that they worked there way steadily around the structure several times before Scott was sitting on the underlying lumber.
As Virgil pulled down the last folded section, Scott asked, "So, do I need to do anything else up here before I come down?"
"No, it…"
Virgil was cut off by an ungodly shriek that startled Scott so badly that he almost slipped. The two brothers both looked up to see Mrs. Orizova, who'd been sitting so peacefully, streaking across the field heading straight for Virgil, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Scott started carefully climbing down, but the woman got there first, and started pounding on Virgil's chest, shrieking with outrage. Fortunately for Virgil, she was a small woman, and not particularly strong, and he was able to contain her after a few moments by simply wrapping his arms tightly around her.
When Scott dropped lightly to the ground, Virgil looked over at him, asking mutely for help. Scott once again pulled out the translator device, and as soon as he flipped the switch, the woman's ongoing screaming rant became intelligible. "NO! You must not uncover the mine! The gold is ours, we need it! Please, please, please, you must put up the roof! My husband will be so angry! Please, Allah help me! Please!! Put it back! Put it back!"
Scott frowned, "Mrs. Orizova, calm yourself. Listen to me. Mrs. Orizova, Nazira… Nazira, calm down and I'll explain."
It took several minutes for the woman to settle down enough for Virgil to risk letting her loose. When he did, she dropped to the ground, seemingly exhausted by her exertions. Virgil barely caught her in time to prevent a hard landing, but then crouched down next to her, a reassuring hand on her arm.
Scott squatted also, speaking in a calm quiet voice. "Nazira, in order for us to recover your family, we must use equipment that would burn your tent down. And we must have room and light to use it. We are taking down your tent because we must. All right?"
The woman stared at Scott, eyes glittered with unshed tears, but again she seemed unfocused and just laid on the ground in a listless lump. Virgil shook his head. "Okay, that's it. I'm taking her over to the infirmary. Next step in taking the tent down is to untie and pull down the felt on the side walls."
Virgil easily scooped the woman up, and stood, Scott standing with him. "You got her?"
"Yeah. I'll be back in a few minutes."
