“Oh, there’s gonna be.” Alicia wiped the water from her eyes and shook herself, grateful now for the blazing sun. “Right after this mission’s finished.”
Crouch timed the fountain. It erupted again a few minutes later. After the second time he crawled forward with a flashlight and studied the shaft. Too narrow and dangerous to climb or jump into, he fell back to his haunches, disappointment written across his face.
“It’s bloody useless.”
Healey joined him. “We can hardly use the same way in they did.”
“Of course, I realize that.”
Caitlyn squatted at their side, face turned downward, balancing hard on the uneven surface so as not to get her blue jeans wet.
Alicia turned to Russo and mouthed: “Twenty seconds.”
The big man grinned.
Crouch started to rise. Caitlyn took hold of his hand and pointed at an angle, right under the surface of the blowhole. “What’s that?”
Crouch drew them all away as the blowhole exploded, sent Alicia a crafty look and then returned. “What did you see?”
“A natural tunnel running away from the blowhole,” she said. “Doesn’t seem terribly steep but it is narrow.”
“And slippery,” Healey added.
Crouch got down on his stomach to view it properly. “Guys,” he said presently, happily. “I think we found our way in.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The passage was narrow at first. Alicia made her way down the blowhole, holding onto the sides to keep her balance and then angled her body into the offshoot of rock. She made her way down a few feet, careful of the water-drenched surfaces and then called the next person. This way, they could send in two people safely between each eruption of water and allow those two to get a firm hold to ward off the weak jet of water that fell into the new hole. The entrance was angled away from the blowhole spout, which was helpful, and warded off most of the powerful water. Alicia climbed steadily down, a foot at a time, grateful that the going was relatively easy. A rocky tunnel provided hundreds of hand and footholds. The way below was dark and unsure, though, and Alicia didn’t want to use her flashlight.
No telling where the enemy were.
Surrounded by hard, dripping rock and the smell of seawater, they made their way downward in some kind of muted shadow realm. They could hear the lap of water from below, the rumble of thunder shooting up the other shaft. They could feel the wash of seawater passing them by. The minutes they spent in there felt like hours.
Near the bottom of the shaft everything opened out, the rock falling away. Alicia hung suspended for a moment before letting herself drop into two feet of standing water. Ahead lay an arrow-straight tunnel, whilst behind stood a mountain of rock.
There was enough room for everyone so she waited for the team to join her.
“Onward and steady,” Crouch finally said.
Alicia led the way, stepping through the water and using one side of the tunnel for balance. It was a feat just walking in the dark; there was never a time when she knew the next step was safe.
“It’s getting lighter up there,” she said.
“Not sunlight though,” Crouch whispered. “That’s a flashlight.”
Even more carefully they crept forward, approaching the artificial light and the end of this particular tunnel. Alicia hugged the left hand side of the passage as much as she could, approaching the last few feet of rock.
She stopped, checked the preparedness of the crew.
“We good?”
The nodding was perceptible, just. Alicia then bent low and put her head around the corner, letting her eyes adjust. The scene was a surprise, even worse than she’d been suspecting.
Jensen stood in shallow water at the center of a sea cave. The roof vaulted high above and the walls were lost behind wedges of jagged rock. Largely inhospitable then, it did have a wide rocky shelf to the far side upon which men, even now, were piling several packs of explosives.
Alicia swallowed drily. “Oh crap, that can’t be good.”
“What?” Crouch came up behind her. “What’s going on?”
“It looks like they’re getting ready to blow the far wall. And if I’m being honest it’s not really a wall, just a pile of rocks.”
“Fucking Neanderthals,” Crouch growled. “There’ll be nothing left.”
Jensen watched impassively as half-a-dozen of his men scurried back and forth, laying small but full packs of dynamite, and unspooling wires. The men were rushing as if in answer to Jensen’s urgency. The wall in question was over nine feet high and just as wide, a latticework of boulders fitted together like a bad jigsaw puzzle, held by time and weight and a build-up of growth.
“If you’re gonna do something, make it quick,” Caitlyn breathed.
“I don’t think we have the time,” Crouch said. “Jensen’s already got his finger on the trigger.”
The man clutched a black box in his fist. Alicia beckoned the rest of the team forward to look, since every single mercenary was involved with Jensen’s new plan. She wondered why they had decided to blow this particular wall, though in truth it was the only one that appeared to be man-made.
“Is that his thinking?” Crouch wondered aloud and then softly intoned the script: “To the leeward I resolve to stash that which sorely plagues. This time the rocks will tell their story and the rising tides a tale. But rarely when they’re high, never again under sail. Never again. It is here, but fear you must. Peril awaits.”
“That which sorely plagues?” Alicia said. “Doesn’t sound at all like treasure to me.”
“As we said, maybe it’s the locals’ stash. He wants us to find that first.”
“Well, he’d better hurry up appeasing himself,” Caitlyn said. “Because this is the penultimate map. We’re almost out of time, folks.”
“Speaking of out of time…” Alicia watched as the mercs started scrambling away from the ledge, packs set in place. Jensen barely gave them enough time before shouting, “Fire in the hole!” and squeezing a button on the little black box.
An enormous explosion rocked the cave. Everything from huge chunks to small shards of boulder erupted from the wall. The shelf before it exploded too, spraying rock, and a curtain of water swelled around the cave. As the rock wall disintegrated, a huge wave of seawater poured in from the underwater sea cave next door. Alicia swore and moved backward in a hurry, tripping over Russo. The big man just wasn’t fast enough, stumbling as the wall of water smashed into them. The team flailed and fought to hold on. Alicia went down to one knee, fingers grappling desperately to the rock wall. Caitlyn started to be swept away, but Healey snagged her, lost his grip and then they both skidded away amidst the swirling waters. In a few moments the great wave began to subside as it found the exits, and only ankle deep eddies were left churning around their legs. Alicia pushed Russo aside and struggled back down the passage.
Healey was leaning over Caitlyn, holding her up, the two cut and bruised but otherwise unharmed. Alicia hurried over to them.
“Ya picked a right time for a shag, guys.”
Healey could barely speak, but handed Caitlyn over and collapsed onto his back. Crouch then waved down the passageway and made a hurry-up gesture.
Alicia hefted Caitlyn to her feet. “You okay? Talk to me.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just give me a minute.”
“Sorry, no can do. We gotta go.”
Alicia helped Caitlyn back up the passage and Healey followed them to Crouch’s side. What they saw ahead widened their eyes more than any underground explosion ever could.
A ragged hole now existed where the wall once had. Even as they watched, several more rocks gave in and fell from the top of the pile, shattering below. Mercenaries waited in a row as Jensen pushed past them, approaching the new cave. From her vantage point Alicia could see it was about the same size as their own, but quite dark, the only illumination leaching from their own. Jensen held out a hand.