“And how do you plan to do that?”
“I’m an Indian. I’m going to track them.” He had been a skilled tracker in his youth, and the knowledge had served him well during his military service.
“Right.” Amanda sounded skeptical. “You’re going to track on rock.”
“It’s not all rock,” he said. “Look over there.” He pointed to a small patch of dirt that had gathered in a low spot on the rock. “See that curved imprint on the left side? That’s the edge of a shoe. Whoever left it went that way.” He led her across the rock, pointing out an occasional scuff, bent patch of dried grass, and even an occasional footprint, finally coming to a halt on the southeast edge of the cliff.
“End of the line,” Amanda patted him on the shoulder. “Sorry. You did a good job on the tracking.”
“Oh, it’s not a dead end,” he said, grinning broadly. Had they more time, he would have let the suspense build before explaining, but that was a luxury they did not have. “See this smooth patch here? Someone hung a rope over the edge and climbed down. Their weight, plus the rubbing of the rope smoothed out this patch. I’ll bet if we get a good look down below…” He lay down on his belly and hung as far over the edge as he dared. He immediately spotted what he was looking for. “There they are!”
“Seriously?” Amanda hauled him to his feet and leapt into his arms, crushing him in a hug and almost sending them both tumbling over the edge. “You are amazing,” she whispered in his ear before giving it a playful bite. “Okay, Mr. Indian, this time you get to be the cavalry.”
They used a nylon rope he carried in his pack to reach the steps. Once they were down in the rocky cleft that hid the rough staircase from sight, they immediately spotted the tenth step where someone, obviously Jade and her companions, had uncovered what looked like a large, square stepping stone. Bones pried it up, revealing a tunnel down below.
“It looks like one of those playground slides,” he said, peering into the round, curving tunnel. “Should be fun. Got your gun ready?”
“Got it,” Amanda said. Bones had lent her his snub-nosed .22.
“Good. We’ll go down as quietly as we can. Keep your flashlight turned off for the time being. Whoever is ahead of us will have lights of their own. We want to see them before they see us.” He turned on his own flashlight and cupped his hand across it, spreading his fingers just enough to allow a sliver of light to illumine their path.
He had been correct when he compared the tunnel to a playground slide. It was smooth and round, corkscrewing in a sharp, downward spiral. Gravity pulled him inexorably downward, and he had to use his heels as brakes. I hope my pants still have a seat when I get to the bottom, he thought as he skidded downward. Their dizzying spin through the darkness seemed to go on forever, but finally, without warning, the tunnel dumped them out into an open space. He grunted as Amanda tumbled onto him.
“Where…” Amanda began, but Bones clapped his hand across her mouth and whispered for her to remain quiet.
They lay there in the deathly black silence, ears straining to hear any sound that might indicate danger. The roaring of his own blood filled his ears, and the rapid tattoo of his heartbeat seemed so loud that he was certain it would bring the mountain down on top of them. After a minute, he relaxed and let go of Amanda. He stood and helped her climb to her feet. Playing his light around the room, he found that they were in a cavern about fifty paces across. Vaulted passageways stood to their right, and directly across from them. The wall to their left was unnaturally smooth and regular. Amanda turned on her light and went over for a closer look.
“It’s some sort of plaster,” she whispered. “This must be how they brought the treasure in. Nothing of any size could have come in the way we did.” She turned away from the wall and consulted her notebook. “Okay, the next clue reads, “under the black stone at the western entrance.”
Bones consulted his Pathfinder watch, which included an altimeter, barometer, thermometer, and a digital compass. “We’re almost a thousand feet down. Still four-hundred feet above the canyon floor.” He switched the watch from altimeter to compass. “And the western passageway is over there.” He pointed to his right.
Directly in front of the passageway lay three paving stones similar in shape and size to the one through which they had accessed the tunneclass="underline" one gray, one reddish, and the third black. They raised the black stone to reveal a vertical shaft with handholds carved into the wall.
They descended another twenty-five feet and found themselves in a narrow tunnel with a squared-off roof. The ceiling was scarcely high enough to permit Bones to stand upright, and he had to resist the urge to duck as he walked. The pathway sloped down in a gentle incline. He kept moving his light back and forth, up and down, looking for any potential hazard.
“What are you doing?” Amanda asked in a soft voice. “That’s driving me crazy.”
“Looking for booby traps or falling rocks or whatever. I don’t know. I guess I read too many pulp novels as a kid.”
“What do you think would have happened if we had not known about the black stone and just gone down the tunnel?” she whispered.
“Hard to say. Might loop back around on itself, or maybe come to a dead end, or even something worse. The last time I was in a place like this…” He paused, forcing down the memories of what had happened then. “Never mind. Looks like we’re coming up on another chamber.”
This chamber was smaller than the previous one. Two massive caves, each flanked by ornate pillars hewn directly into the rock, gaped dark and forbidding directly in front of them.
“Okay,” Bones said. “These are the clues Jade doesn’t have. What’s the first one?”
“Above the pillar of the northern opening of the cave that has two entrances. Okaaay.”
“Both caves are set in the west wall of the chamber, so the northern opening would be the one to the left.” They shone their lights on the cave wall above the pillars that stood on either side of the northernmost cavern. “I see something,” Bones said. He had picked out a spot of deep blackness above the pillar to the left of the cave. Had he not been looking for it, his eyes would have passed right over it, dismissing it as nothing more than an irregularity in the rough stone. As he moved closer, he could make out a small shaft a few feet above the pillar. He began to search the wall for the best way to climb up when Amanda gasped and clutched his arm.
“Bones, look!” She pointed into the mouth of the cave. Thirty feet back, the passage was blocked by a pile of rubble. At the bottom of the pile of stone, her light shone on a human leg sticking out from beneath the mass of stone. “You don’t think…”
They moved cautiously forward, their lights playing off the ceiling, but it appeared solid. Reaching the scene of the cave-in, Bones knelt and touched what was obviously a man’s leg. It was cold. He hastily stripped off the man’s hiking boot and wool socks, and placed his fingers on the dorsalis pedis artery atop the foot for a pulse, but there was none.
“He’s dead,” he said, rising to his feet and inspecting the pile of rock. “It’s not Maddock. This dude’s foot is way too big.”
“Do you think they’re all buried under there?” Amanda whispered.
“No way of telling,” he said. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to try to move this rock. That is unless…” He left the rest unspoken. Unless we find the treasure, but don’t find Maddock and the others. “Let’s just assume that one of the Dominion guys bit the big one. Score one for our side.”
Something stirred in the darkness. The creature did not see it. Generations of its kind living in complete darkness had rendered it and those like it blind. It did not smell it… yet. It did not hear it, though its sense of hearing was easily its most acute. Rather, it felt something moving. The creature and its pack were one with these caverns, perfectly attuned to their environment. Not a stirring of dank air escaped their notice. And nothing moved in these halls of stones without alerting the pack with both the sounds and the vibrations that rang through the walls of stone. Yes, something was stirring.