Chapter 8
Panthro and Ben-Gali had thawed out the sensors but the panther was concerned that the units should not have frozen. Yes, it was cold outside, but they knew it would get that way so they built-in battery-operated heat coils. The coils would activate once the temperature dropped below freezing. The batteries that they ran on had been checked only a few days before the weather hit and they had been in working order.
They still had an hour before the Evil Chasers arrived and Panthro was checking each sensor inside the mine. Ben-Gali and Marwa were helping him so that they could check all the sensors before their friends arrived with the much-needed equipment. Ben-Gali had gone the deepest into the mine and was starting to make his way closer to Marwa, who had taken the middle range of sensors.
"What did you find?" She asked.
"More like what I didn't find," he frowned.
"That's what I was afraid of," the reptile said.
"We have to be looking at an inside guy or gal. No way anyone outside the mine workers knows that the sensors had battery operated heat coils. Also, no way anyone else knows how to take them apart to take the batteries out," the white tiger shook his head and started heading to the front of the mine and Marwa quickly followed him.
"Ah there you two are. I'm at the end of my rope," the panther said.
"You're not the only one. All the batteries are missing," Ben-Gali told him.
"I figured as much. We've only got twenty minutes or so before the Evil Chasers arrive let's head back inside. I need to speak to Lion-O about this," Panthro frowned.
"What do we do here in the meantime?" Marwa wanted to know.
"We have to increase presence in the mine. The only way to force whoever it is to try and do something when people are around is to have the mine going on three shifts," the panther said.
"With the new equipment, that probably won't be hard," Marwa figured.
"Especially since we need to get the tracks fixed. Hopefully, Lea is having good luck getting what we need," Ben-Gali spoke up. His friends agreed and they headed off to round up some helpers for the Evil Chaser landing.
Lea slowly moved the tank in reverse down the path toward the hangar. The snow that had accumulated there was scraped away by hand and Lion-O had said that maybe it was time to come up with a better way to do it. That didn't mean that there wasn't ice that had built up from the non-salt ice melt that was thrown onto the pavement. The ThunderTank was great in many conditions but ice was always tricky.
"Ok, you've got about one hundred feet and then you need to turn," Cheetara directed from the Control Room.
"Roger. We're not taking any chances. Slow and steady wins the race," it was Mumm-Rana on the radio.
"I like her thinking," Mandora had come down from her chambers to see if she could help. Commander Tiberius had made his way to the hangar to see what he could do down there.
"I agree. That moat is a long way down," the cheetah said before speaking into the radio,
"Fifty more feet and then turn to the left."
"The tank is stuck," Mumm-Rana announced.
"You don't look stuck from the angles we have up here. Can you give me a visual of what you're seeing?" Cheetara asked.
"An empty fuel gauge," that was Lea. The ThunderTank was out of Thundrillium. There was an emergency supply inside the Lair and Cheetara quickly dispatched the hangar crew with the small container.
"Control Room, we can't access the fuel hatch. It's on the moat side of the Tank," Captain Samson radioed back.
"Well, that's not good," Mandora said.
To Be Continued…