[ WP ] Two guys travel to a foreign mountain range to find a the black box of an airliner that crashed years before .

What are the perfect ingredients for a disaster that everyone would forget? 
 
 11 years later, would the public still want answers? Give it enough time and mysteries become myths. People do n't want to know, it ruins the fun. 
 
 And yet, here we are. Me and a tech kid I hired. He's German, speaks English like Stephen fucking Fry and has that kind of new romantic haircut that no one from my neck of the woods has worn since the 80s. God, he's pissing me off. He thinks I *need* him, just because he's got that tracker round his neck. I can read a data blip too, Hans. 
 
 His name's not really Hans but I call him that because of his enormous hands. 
 
 `` We have to keep the pace up, Eoan. Pick up's 6 hours off.'' He pronounces my name perfectly, the prick. 
 
 `` I'm 50 years old, Hans. I'm not... 14, or whatever the fuck it is you are.'' 
 
 `` I'll take that as a compliment.'' He's got a grin you could happily take an electric drill to. 
 
 `` The signal reads beyond the tree line up there,'' Hans tells me for the third time. `` We'll make it within two hours if we keep pushing.'' 
 
 `` Fuck it.'' My legs are going a bit. 
 
 `` Ah, come on, Eoan, you Irish are used to a little adversity. One foot in front of the other, is that the saying?'' 
 
 `` No, you must have translated that from one of the other hundred languages you know, Hans.'' Hans sighed when I said this, as if to say he's an *engineer*, he does n't *come from a culture where learning is mocked*, he's to good to *read too much into other people's sighs*. Yeah, he's that kind of guy. But I always find it helps when you do n't like them. 
 
 What feels like 5 hours later is actually 2, and we are nearing the tree line. The views behind me are spectacular, presumably. Hans keeps looking behind him and gasping with typical Aryan vapidness. 
 
 `` Signal is strong here.'' Hans knows who I am. But he does n't know exactly why I'm here. He thought he'd be coming with another tech or with a grizzled explorer-type. Not a greying, internet-explorer-type like me. 
 
 We get up into the tree line and we see the ridge pretty soon. It's not as high as we thought, but the trees are huge. 
 
 `` How much further, Hans?'' 
 
 `` You know Eoan, you keep calling me that and it might just stick!'' Fuck you Hans, with your perfect use of idioms. `` About 40 yards beyond the ridge, we should find something.'' 
 
 `` Okay,'' I'm glad this will soon be over, `` the box will settle with sensors facing north, unless it is stuck in place. You're looking for a bright orange strip which will be facing upwards.'' 
 
 `` Yes, boss.'' Eurgh, why did he have to call me that. It's just going to make things harder. 
 
 Over the ridge is a nice little flat clearing and then beyond that is a huge fuck-off waterfall. 
 
 `` This place is incredible, man. I'm surprised there are n't a few hotels.'' 
 
 `` Just look around, Hans. You'll get room service later.'' I sort of feel bad for the kid. Whole life ahead of him. 
 
 `` Orange!'' He yells. Sealing his own fate. 
 
 I look where he's pointing and sure enough, there it is. LEDs still going and everything. Thank God we found it before anyone else. I trudge over and grab the thing - it's about 6 kilos, just lying in some fern things in the clearing. I pick it up and head over to the waterfall. 
 
 `` Eoan, what are you doing? We're headed the other way. Do n't go too close.'' 
 
 `` Come here, Hans, I want to show you something!'' I'm shouting a bit against the spray. 
 
 He hesitates. `` Come on, kid, I want you to be here for this.'' His eyes glance down at the water and he takes a step before stopping. `` Suit yourself, asshole.'' With that, I fling the box as far into the waterfall as I can, and it gets swallowed up instantly by the water. 
 
 `` No! What the hell?!'' Hans is going crazy like a fucking puppy. Eurgh... I do feel bad now. 
 
 `` It was my plane, Hans. So it's my box.'' 
 
 `` But, your wife. You'll never know what happened to her or all those other people? What is wrong with you? You'll never know.''. 
 
 `` I already fucking know what the box will say, Hans.'' I am so glad to get this thing out of my pocket. The barrell has been chaffing at my leg for the whole hike. 
 
 `` Sheize.'' The first time he's slipped out of English. It takes a fucking gun. 
 
 `` Do you wan na walk closer to the edge for me before I do this, Hans, or are you gon na make me drag you?'' 
 

