The tunnel veered to the left, and Rebecca realized they had to be incredibly close to the ocean; the walls seemed to tremble and shake from a muted thunder beyond, and the tunnel was thick with a damp and fishy smell. Parts of the floor seemed too smooth to have been created by human hands, and Rebecca wondered vaguely if the tunnel opened up ahead somewhere, perhaps had once been flooded by the sea—
“Bloody hell,” David whispered angrily. “Shit.” Rebecca looked up. When she saw what was ahead, she felt her last flicker of hope for Karen die. We’ll never find it in time.
The tunnel did open up, a few hundred meters ahead of where David had stopped. It widened con-siderably, in fact—and was connected by five smaller tunnels, each branching off in a slightly different direction.
“Which way is southwest?” John asked anxiously.
Karen leaned against him, her head rolling forward. David’s voice was still angry, frustration raising his words to an echo that bounced through the five stone corridors, circling back to fill the cavern. “I don’t know, I thought we were already headed southwest—and yet none of these is in direct align-ment, and none head directly east, either.” They moved into the rough-hewn cavern, staring helplessly at the smooth tunnels, each of them strung with lights that disappeared around turns and bends. They had obviously been carved by water, perhaps had once been connected to the sea caves that David had originally meant for them to find. The tunnels weren’t as wide as the one they stood in, but were wide enough to accommodate human passage com-fortably enough, and at least three meters high. There was no way to guess which one was used to get to the lab—
• or if any of them lead to the lab, we don’t even know for certain that it’s down here. . . . “If none of them goes east, then we have to pick the one that looks the most likely to go southwest,” Steve said quietly. “Besides, east of here is water.” Karen mumbled something unintelligible, and Rebecca stepped forward worriedly to see how she was. Though John and Steve still steadied her, she seemed to have no trouble standing on her own. Rebecca touched her clammy, sweating forehead and Karen’s rolling eyes fixed on her, glassy and red, the pupils dilated.
“Karen, how are you doing?” she asked softly. Karen blinked slowly. “Thirsty,” she whispered, her voice bubbling and liquid sounding. Still responsive, thank God. . . .
Rebecca touched her throat lightly, feeling the rapid, thready pulse beneath her fingers. It was defi-nitely quicker than before, up in the lighthouse. Whatever the virus was doing to her, it wouldn’t be much longer before Karen’s body gave out. Rebecca turned, feeling desperate and angry, want-ing to scream for somebody to do something—
• and heard the pounding footsteps, echoing up through one of the tunnels. She grabbed for her Beretta, saw John and David do the same as Steve held onto Karen.
Which one, where’s it coming from? Griffith? Is it Griffith?
The sound seemed to circle, coming from every-where at once—and then Rebecca saw him, appearing from around a comer in the passage second from the right. A stumbling figure, a flapping, dusty lab coat—
• and then he saw them, and even from fifteen meters away, Rebecca could see the stunned and almost hysterical joy that swept across his face. The man ran for them, his short brown hair wild and disheveled, his eyes bright and lips trembling. He wasn’t holding any kind of weapon, though Rebecca kept hers raised.
“Oh, thank God, thank God! You have to help me! Dr. Thurman, he’s gone mad, we have to get out of here!”
He staggered out of the tunnel and nearly ran into David, apparently oblivious to the pistols trained on him as he babbled on.
“We have to go, there’s a boat we can use, we have to get out before he kills us all—“ David shot a glance back, saw that Rebecca and John still had him covered. He tucked the Beretta into his side holster and stepped forward, taking the man’s arm.
“Easy, calm down. Who are you, do you work here?”
“Alan Kinneson,” the man gasped. “Thurman kept me locked up in the lab but he heard you coming and I managed to get away. But he’s crazy. You have to help me get to the boat! There’s a radio, we can call for help!”
The lab!
“Which way is the laboratory?” David asked quickly.
Kinneson didn’t seem to hear him, too panicked by whatever he thought Thurman might do to them. “The radio’s on the boat, we can call for help and then get away!”
“The laboratory,” David repeated. “Listen to me—did you just come from there?”
Kinneson turned and pointed to the tunnel that was next to the one he’d come from, the one in the middle.
“The lab is that way—“
He pointed back the way he’d come. “—and the boat’s down there. These caves are like a maze.” Though he seemed to have calmed slightly as he pointed to the tunnels, when he turned back to face them, he looked as hysterical as he had before. He seemed to be in his mid-thirties at first glance, but David noticed he had deep lines etched at the comers of his eyes and mouth and realized he had to be much older. Whoever he was and however old he was, he was caught in the grip of an almost mindless panic. “The radio’s on the boat, we can call for help and then get away!”
David’s thoughts raced in time with his pounding heart. This was it, this was their chance—
• we get to the lab, make this Thurman give us the cure and then get out of this place, before anyone else gets hurt—
He turned to look at the others and saw the same hopeful looks that he knew he wore, John and Steve both nodding sharply. Rebecca didn’t look as en-thused. She jerked her head back, motioning for David to move out of Kinneson’s earshot. “Excuse us a moment,” David said, forcing a politeness that he didn’t feel. Kinneson was one of the researchers from Trent’s list.
“We have to hurry!” The man babbled, but he didn’t follow as David stepped back toward the others, the four of them leaning together to talk, Karen resting against Steve’s arm.
Rebecca’s voice was hushed and worried. “David, we can’t take Karen to the lab if Griffith—if Thurman is there; what if we have to fight?”
John nodded, shooting a glance at the wild-eyed researcher. “And I don’t think we should leave this guy alone, he’s likely to take off with our ride home.” David frowned, thinking. Steve was a better shot, but John was stronger. If they had to force Thurman to give them the T-Virus cure, John could probably intimidate him more easily.
“We split up. Steve, you take Karen to the boat, keep an eye on Kinneson. We’ll go to the lab, get what we need and then meet you there. Agreed?” Tight nods, and then David turned, addressing Kinneson.
“We need to get to the laboratory, but our friend Karen isn’t well. We’d like for you to take her and an escort to the boat, and wait for us.”
Kinneson’s eyes seemed to blank out for just a second, the strange, vacant look there and gone so quickly that David wasn’t even sure he’d seen it. “We have to hurry,” he said quickly, then turned and started back down the passage he’d appeared from, walking at a brisk pace.
David felt a sudden worry, staring at Kinneson’s rapidly receding back, his dirty lab coat floating out behind him.
He didn’t even ask who we are,. ..
As Steve and Karen started to enter the tunnel, David touched Steve’s arm, speaking softly. “Watch him carefully, Steve. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
Steve nodded and moved off after the strange Dr.
Kinneson, Karen stumbling along next to him. John and Rebecca were already standing in front of the middle passageway, weapons still in hand. The chamber shook as outside, a muffled thunder roared. Without speaking, the three of them started down the gloomy tunnel in a tired but determined jog, ready to face the human monster behind the many tragedies of Caliban Cove.