into a chair across the table from Harris and next to Sutherland, who returned to the seat with his back to the wall. In a concession to blending in, Sutherland was wearing only slacks, a button-up shirt with no tie, and a windbreaker. He still looked out of place in a room full of outdoors people in ball caps and fleece. Harris fit in nicely, his athletic frame covered in a forest-green fleece sweater, jeans, and hiking boots, and his cheeks and chin shaded with dark stubble.
“No problem,” Chip replied cautiously, increasingly curious as to what this was about. He’d expected Harris at the meeting after receiving his call last week, but Sutherland’s presence was a surprise. Authority figures sometimes made Chip uneasy, and the physically unimpressive Sutherland somehow carried an aura of command about him. He’d been told they would pay him five hundred dollars to look at some images of a river and give his opinion. He thought they might be taking this adventure race thing too seriously, but he would be happy to take their money for nothing. Maybe he’d even buy a new kayak to take to Ecuador. He couldn’t understand how these guys had so many funds to put toward a race, but he wasn’t complaining. There was no use trying to understand people with money. They existed in a world completely apart from Chip’s carefree, hand-to-mouth lifestyle.
Sutherland spoke quietly so that his voice wouldn’t carry to the other tables. “Before we begin, I need to insist that you keep what we’re about to discuss completely confidential. We’re willing to pay you twice what we offered, but it’s imperative that you don’t speak about this with anyone, not even your coworkers or river friends.”
Chip blinked in a moment of surprise. This wasn’t what he had expected. Now they were getting all cloak-and-dagger about an adventure race? They were definitely taking this thing too seriously. “Yeah, OK,” he shrugged. He would play along, especially if it meant more cash.
They paused for a moment as a waitress brought food for Harris and Chip. It seemed that Sutherland was sticking with coffee. Chip figured him for the type who ate a bran muffin at 6 AM.
The older man reached down into a briefcase next to his chair and extracted his laptop. He placed it on the table in front of him, opened it, and powered it up. He pulled his glasses from a pocket and put them on while Chip and Harris attacked potatoes and eggs. Sutherland waited patiently for the computer to boot then entered a password to gain access to the encrypted hard drive. He slid his finger across the trackpad and then tapped and tapped again, pulling up the same satellite imagery that he had looked at with Harris the week before. There it was: the green jungle with a ribbon of white meandering through it, the cliff walls, waterfall, and pool. He beckoned for Chip to scoot his chair around where he could see, conscious of keeping the screen hidden from everyone else in the room.
Sutherland pointed a slender finger at the screen. “We need to get our team down the river here, and then stop right here.” He indicated the point just above the white smudge entering the pool.
Chip was instantly intrigued. This was his kind of river: remote, steep, and obviously littered with waterfalls. His heart rate increased just looking at it. He immediately saw the problem. “How big is that falls?”
Sutherland zoomed in for a better view. “We think it’s about sixty feet.”
Chip tried to play it cool and hide his growing excitement. The landing of the drop looked clean. He had kayaked off a couple of waterfalls that tall—one in British Columbia and another in Chile. The idea of being the first person to run a new falls as beautiful as this one instantly had him wondering where it was and how he could talk his way into going along. He crammed a forkful of fried potatoes into his mouth to hide his excitement and peered harder at the screen while he chewed.
Then he
“No problem,” Chip replied cautiously, increasingly curious as to what this was about. He’d expected Harris at the meeting after receiving his call last week, but Sutherland’s presence was a surprise. Authority figures sometimes made Chip uneasy, and the physically unimpressive Sutherland somehow carried an aura of command about him. He’d been told they would pay him five hundred dollars to look at some images of a river and give his opinion. He thought they might be taking this adventure race thing too seriously, but he would be happy to take their money for nothing. Maybe he’d even buy a new kayak to take to Ecuador. He couldn’t understand how these guys had so many funds to put toward a race, but he wasn’t complaining. There was no use trying to understand people with money. They existed in a world completely apart from Chip’s carefree, hand-to-mouth lifestyle.
Sutherland spoke quietly so that his voice wouldn’t carry to the other tables. “Before we begin, I need to insist that you keep what we’re about to discuss completely confidential. We’re willing to pay you twice what we offered, but it’s imperative that you don’t speak about this with anyone, not even your coworkers or river friends.”
Chip blinked in a moment of surprise. This wasn’t what he had expected. Now they were getting all cloak-and-dagger about an adventure race? They were definitely taking this thing too seriously. “Yeah, OK,” he shrugged. He would play along, especially if it meant more cash.
They paused for a moment as a waitress brought food for Harris and Chip. It seemed that Sutherland was sticking with coffee. Chip figured him for the type who ate a bran muffin at 6 AM.
The older man reached down into a briefcase next to his chair and extracted his laptop. He placed it on the table in front of him, opened it, and powered it up. He pulled his glasses from a pocket and put them on while Chip and Harris attacked potatoes and eggs. Sutherland waited patiently for the computer to boot then entered a password to gain access to the encrypted hard drive. He slid his finger across the trackpad and then tapped and tapped again, pulling up the same satellite imagery that he had looked at with Harris the week before. There it was: the green jungle with a ribbon of white meandering through it, the cliff walls, waterfall, and pool. He beckoned for Chip to scoot his chair around where he could see, conscious of keeping the screen hidden from everyone else in the room.
Sutherland pointed a slender finger at the screen. “We need to get our team down the river here, and then stop right here.” He indicated the point just above the white smudge entering the pool.
Chip was instantly intrigued. This was his kind of river: remote, steep, and obviously littered with waterfalls. His heart rate increased just looking at it. He immediately saw the problem. “How big is that falls?”
Sutherland zoomed in for a better view. “We think it’s about sixty feet.”
Chip tried to play it cool and hide his growing excitement. The landing of the drop looked clean. He had kayaked off a couple of waterfalls that tall—one in British Columbia and another in Chile. The idea of being the first person to run a new falls as beautiful as this one instantly had him wondering where it was and how he could talk his way into going along. He crammed a forkful of fried potatoes into his mouth to hide his excitement and peered harder at the screen while he chewed.
Then he
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