Read Chapter 25: — COME OUT ALIVE

The access route broke through after nineteen hours.

Rescuers entered one at a time.

The injured workers came first.

Then the rest of the crew.

Graham insisted on leaving last.

When he emerged, covered in dust, grey with exhaustion and furious about the attention, Maya ran straight into him.

He staggered but held her.

Then he saw Daniel.

For a second neither knew what to do.

Daniel stepped forward.

Graham opened one arm.

Daniel went into it.

The embrace lasted perhaps two seconds.

It was enough.

Graham spent two nights in hospital for dehydration, fever and observation. No one died. The injured workers recovered.

The investigation concluded that the collapse had been triggered by seismic movement in an already fractured geological zone. The support had been installed in accordance with the design, but the event still produced lessons: improved redundant communication, additional refuge provisions and revised seismic response procedures.

Daniel led part of the technical review.

He refused to let relief become complacency.

“Zero fatalities does not mean zero failure,” he told the team. “We were lucky in places. We need to know where.”

Graham, listening from the back of the room, said nothing.

Afterward he stopped Daniel outside.

“You sounded like me.”

“That is becoming a recurring problem.”

Graham smiled.

“Could be worse.”

Daniel looked at him.

For the first time he answered without discomfort.

“Could be.”