“Nothing else?” she whispered, unable to believe he could have just vanished like that.
“There were smears of blood along the passageway as if he’d been dragged away, but after about forty feet the trail just vanished at the base of the wall. I swear, I searched that wall from tip to toe and didn’t find any sort of passageway, trapdoor, not even a seam.” His voice was dull and he sounded understandably shaken. “I don’t know who is in here with us, but I don’t believe Bonebrake did that.”
“All we can do is go on,” Jade whispered. She did not wait for an answer, but turned and headed down the passageway. They continued for another five minutes until the tunnel gave way to a narrow staircase that wound around the inside of a deep pit. Grotesque gargoyles ringed the upper edge of the pit, each contorted into a different, agonized pose, all holding out their hands in supplication.
“Ugly,” Jarren observed, shining his light upon one particularly gruesome figure. “What now?”
“Obviously, we don’t know for sure that we’re in the right place, and we’re missing the fourth clue, but the fifth clue reads, ‘On the third terrace in the cave.’ And that,” Jade shone her light across the pit, “looks like the mouth of a cave to me.” As they crossed the pit, Jade noticed that the clover and cross insignia of Fray Marcos was embedded in the very center of the floor in polished marble. “This is encouraging,” she said. “We found this symbol everywhere one of the clues was hidden.” She shone her light around the room and saw that the insignia was also carved on the wall where the stairs began. “I have a good feeling about this. Let’s go.”
Chapter 26
“Get as close as you can!” the Elder shouted over the whir of the rotors. He looked down at the surface of Angel’s Landing, taking in every detail. There was no sign of his people or Bonebrake. They must have found the way in. Where was it?
“The wind has picked up.” The pilot looked nervously at the roiling black clouds sweeping toward them. “And I think it’s only going to get worse. Are you sure you want me to leave you here?”
“You have your instructions.” The Elder grimaced as fat raindrops spattered the windscreen. “I will contact you when you are needed. In any event, I want you out of here before the local authorities are notified of our presence. Hopefully this storm is keeping people inside and you won’t be seen at all.”
“Yes, Elder.” The pilot grimaced and took them down. Strong winds buffeted the craft.
“Hold it steady,” the Elder said. The rocky peak seemed to grow larger as they hovered lower and lower, until they were almost touching.
“Now!” the pilot shouted.
The Elder leaped out, followed by twelve handpicked men, all armed with Kalashnikov RPK 74M light machine guns. It was perhaps overkill, but he was finished allowing Maddock and Bonebrake to make a fool of him. First it had been the call from Bradley, gravely injured, telling him that Bonebrake had killed three of Bradley’s men and escaped in their car. That made the second time the Indian had managed to steal a vehicle out from under the nose of the Dominion. Unable to contact Jarren, the Elder had then called that fool Ryan, who pretended everything was all right before finally admitting he had been instructed to find an artifact among Saul’s possessions. Apparently he had held something back from Ihara, and now she, Jarren, and their party were apparently lacking critical clues to the treasure. It had taken a simple hacking of Saul’s e-mail to confirm it, and to obtain the translation of the missing clue. The icing on the cake had been when Jedediah reported seeing a man and woman matching the descriptions of Bonebrake and Barnes climbing the trail to Angel’s Landing. Of course, he had made no effort to stop them. The Elder had given Ryan the task of killing Jedediah. A fitting punishment for them both, as Jedediah and Ryan were brothers. Then the Elder had killed Ryan. Ihara had supposedly taken care of Maddock, but he no longer believed it. Too much had gone wrong to trust in any of his underlings anymore.
A jagged fork of lightning sizzled through the air much too close for comfort, and a deafening thunderclap seem to shake the very stone upon which they stood. He turned and waved his arm at the pilot, who gave him the thumbs-up and maneuvered the craft up and away. The helicopter had almost cleared the peak when the world was ripped apart. A blinding flash, and an explosion as lightning shattered a dying pine at the cliff’s edge. The helicopter, already heeling over from the heavy wind, was directly in the path of the explosion. Chunks of tree tore through the spinning rotors, shattering the blades and sending shrapnel hurtling out in all directions. One of the deadly missiles cleanly decapitated Reuben, who was standing next to the Elder, but he did not notice; he was watching his helicopter tumble over the edge of the cliff and out of sight.
Rage boiled inside him, but he was its master. He stared for a moment at the empty space where the craft had been, listening for the explosion as it hit bottom. The fiery fate of the craft seared his determination. He would succeed where the others had failed.
Dane clambered up out of the tunnel into a warm, dark chamber. A strong animal odor immediately assaulted him. It was a heavy, oppressive smell, like that of a great cat. He shone his light around the cavern. It was oval in shape, with many ledges, crevasses, and overhangs cratering the walls. A steady stream of water poured down from a crack in the ceiling above, pooling in a circular indentation in the stone floor, likely created by centuries of falling water. All around him was the smell of wild animal.
He inspected the chamber, finding small bones, mostly those of fish or snakes, and lots of scat. The droppings were long and cylindrical, and tapered at the ends like that of a wolf or mountain lion, but free of the bits of fur you would expect to see from an animal that ate deer and small rodents. He didn’t know what these creatures were, but he had found their lair.
An angry snarl filled the cavern, and he whirled around to see three beasts out of a nightmare come hurtling out of one of the crevasses. He opened fire with his Walther, bringing down the creature in the lead. The other two beasts kept coming.
He leapt up onto a nearby ledge, turned, and pumped three more rounds into the second creature. Another shot went wild, and the third beast was scrambling up onto the ledge. Dane kicked him twice in the snout, sending him tumbling back to the ground. As it crouched, ready to spring, he put a bullet between its eyes.
He leapt down from the ledge and dashed toward the only tunnel that looked large enough for him to pass through. He hadn’t gone ten steps when another of the beasts came hurtling down the tunnel right at him. He stopped and squeezed off three shots before bringing it down. Five bullets left in the clip. Jade had hurried him out of the hotel so quickly that morning that he hadn’t even thought to grab any reloads.
The tunnel opened up into a yawing cavern. A stone bridge no more than three paces wide spanned the depths. Dane didn’t spare a glance at the darkness below, but dashed across, keeping his light on the ground in front of him.
He was halfway across when he again heard the snarling sound that told him the beasts were coming again. One burst out of the darkness ahead, and he fired once, twice, but the creature kept coming. A third shot and it fell mere yards from him. He had no time to breathe a sigh of relief because now the sound was behind him. He whirled about, bringing his Walther to bear.
The creature was hurtling through the air, its gleaming white fangs shining in the darkness. He fell backward, firing as he went down. The beast hurtled past him, regained its feet, and leapt again.