by T5
Several days ago:
The morning shift had just began at Tiatucurá in Uruguay, and the rain was pouring. The clay mine was doing surprisingly well. While others had to shut down, this little private mine had been going on without problems for five years now. The dripping, moist tunnels underneath the clay was the only danger they had have to look out for... so far.
Jon Baptiste, an environmental security consultant, took his morning stroll around the mining grounds.
The recent tremors had squeezed up some incredible clay into daylight. Geologists and miners alike were ecstatic. Never before had they seen clay such as this. It was Baptiste's job to ensure that the environment around the mine was not polluted or otherwise disturbed. No animals in the vicinity of the mine should have to suffer. At least that was the plan.
Walking along the truck support roads, he noticed a disturbance in the northern sector of the clay field. Something was frantically trying to move in the middle of the slippery clay. It looked helpless and crippled.
Jon decided to take a closer look. He slid down the steep edge of the field and walked very slowly toward the thrashing creature.
He took a deep breath as he thought the shape reminded him of an octopus. What a laugh; an octopus here?
Smiling to himself, he looked down on the slipping movements of what seemed at least to be tentacles, when suddenly from underneath another tentacle grabbed him around his waist and pulled him under the mud.
His screams were muffled with coppery clay filling his mouth.
The chief operating officer of TiatMining, Inc., Patrick Keith Richards, was worried. All the investigative teams that had been sent down to the tunnel that had mysteriously opened in the middle of his clay field had disappeared, and the authorities were demanding an explanation.
He needed to get facts, or his mining days were over. The shareholders would eat him alive. A more advanced and experienced team was apparently needed to get the answers that he could present to the local police.
A few days of searching in phone books and on the Internet gave him the result he was looking for. A fresh new group of investigators and troubleshooters were apparently willing to take on missions like this.
And if he kept his mouth shut, nobody would know anything about him hiring them, if they disappeared.
Richards grabbed the telephone and called MBL Consulting.