“Curtis, I just remembered something!” I yelled. My urgency startled him, but he relaxed when he saw my smile. “Here, take some of this for the pain.” I pulled the vial Fiona had given me from my bag and administered a small dose of the tincture with the dropper. Curtis sighed immediately once the drug took effect.
“Thank God, it really works,” he said gratefully. The stress furrow between his ginger eyebrows had vanished. “I owe Fiona a thank you note. Any maybe some flowers. It still hurts, but I’ll be able to move a lot easier. We might actually make it before the storm if we go now.”
“Don’t overdo it,” I warned, and he nodded. Although some of the ruddiness had returned to his face, erasing the awful ghostly pale, he still looked pained. He winced as he straightened his ankle and tried again to bear weight on it but nodded as if it was now at least workable.
“I won’t.” He looked at Trevor apologetically. “Sorry you drew the short straw to walk the old man back to town.” He shook his head ruefully.
Trevor shrugged, but I knew he was putting on a brave face. He was taking one for the team, which I didn’t realize was something that he was capable of. Trevor wasn’t the person I thought he was at all. He had come out of his shell considerably on this trip. I could almost imagine that we’d become friends over the last few days. “It’s a real adventure, right?” he said eventually. “Plus, maybe we missed the fern on the way up. Maybe we walked right past it? Imagine how pissed these two will be if we find it on the walk back down?”
Trevor laughed at his own joke, proving that he hadn’t totally become a different person. Curtis grinned, David scowled, the wind shrieked, and I prayed that I’d made the right choice. There was only two hours left for us to search.
32
David
The clock was ticking, and our numbers were dwindling. Zing, Daphne, Trevor, and Curtis were gone. Now it was just Casey and me. Us two against the world.
The storm clouds, which we knew foreshadowed not just an afternoon shower, but an extremely dangerous typhoon, were black and menacing. They rolled across the deep, dark ocean toward our tiny island with astounding speed. Ordinarily, you never notice clouds moving. These clouds were fucking booking it. The wind seemed to have died down for the moment—the literal calm before the storm.
At my side, Casey was serious and focused as we hiked. Her warm, brown eyes had turned determined and her soft lips were drawn into a pout. Without Curtis and Trevor, along with most of our equipment, we were going a lot quicker up the slopes of the sleeping volcano. The camera hung off her left shoulder, off now to preserve the dwindling power of its batteries, and the radio was looped over her right.
“David, someone’s following us,” she whispered as we walked. “Don’t look back,” she snapped in her soft voice when I paused to check. “Just keep going like normal, I’ve got a bad feeling.”
The low steppe had disappeared as we climbed higher this morning. We were now walking along a three-foot-wide path, with the wall of volcano on one side and a sheer drop on the other. The pathway was cut into the side of the volcano and twisted in dangerous switchbacks. Sea level was a distant memory. I was glad neither of us had a fear of heights.
“Are you sure it isn’t just Curtis and Trevor?” I asked her softly, pulling her hand into mine. I wasn’t sure if it was to comfort me or her. Both I guess. “Maybe they changed their minds and decided to catch up with us instead of going back to the village.”
She shook her head and kept her voice low. The pink streaks in her hair danced. “Not unless they found a couple of friends. I saw them when we turned at the last turn. I don’t think they know I saw them.”
“Fuck. Is it Klaus do you think?” We could probably deal with Klaus if we saw him again. We could just play dumb. “He seemed… friendly enough.”
“No. Not Klaus. There was a woman in this group. A white woman. They aren’t native to the island. I didn’t get a perfect look, but the woman is a redhead.”
“How much time do we have before we need to turn back?” I looked down at my watch.
“An hour. Assuming a perfect walk there and back, we can reach the summit, turn around, and we’ll still get to town before nightfall.”
“It’s probably Verité Labs following us.” It was the only logical alternative.
“Maybe, yeah. It definitely could be them.”
I looked up at the path ahead of us. We were only about a mile still to the summit of the volcano, our best chance and finding the flame-leaf fern. From where we were now, I could see a plume of smoke rising from the cone, invisible from lower altitudes. The vegetation around us, the few sprigs of green that were able to eke out a living up here, were low grasses. Not the flame-leaf fern. I shook my head in frustration.
“Ok, I’m calling it,” I said. It hurt my heart to say it, but we’d reached the end. Casey’s safety meant more to me than finding the fern. “We’ve potentially got mercenaries on our tail, an active volcano up ahead, a typhoon behind us, and virtually none of our equipment. We need to admit defeat. Let’s hide and let them pass by and then head back.”
“No.” Casey’s voice was resolute. “We’re almost at the summit. We aren’t turning back now.”
The voice that answered Casey was feminine, British-accented, condescendingly cold, and definitely not mine.
“Yes, I’m afraid you are.”
We both froze like we’d been shocked by a live wire. Ahead of us, a tall woman stepped out from a notch in the rock wall. She was perhaps forty, and had the lean, hungry look of a woman that did too much Pilates and had the sort of ‘friends’ that met up to drink chardonnay and tear one another down. She was wearing camouflage, which also maybe explained part of her stealth, although it looked out of place on her. How she’d gotten ahead of us when she was supposed to be behind us was a mystery. Behind us, three more people dressed similarly filed up the path to cut off our exit.
“Who the hell are you?” Casey asked, turning the camera on and aiming it at the woman in front of us like it was a gun.
“You already figured it out, didn’t you? I’m with Verite Labs.” The redheaded woman nodded at one of her henchman and barked out an order, “Ivan, take the camera.”
A tall, whippet thin man stepped forward and extended his hand imperiously. I stepped in front of him before he could touch Casey, staring him straight in the eye. He looked shocked by my brazenness, but only momentarily. He grinned. I noticed that he had multiple broken teeth. If I had to guess and based on the fact that his eyes also didn’t track well, this guy had taken more than a few blows to the face. He was a brawler, if I’d ever seen one.
“What the fuck?” I asked the woman. I’m sure I sounded belligerent and rude, but that was precisely how I wanted to sound. I was furious. “Don’t you dare.”
“I tell you what,” the woman said in a mocking voice. “Maybe I’ll let you keep your camera if you tell me exactly who you are and what you’re doing up here. Start talking.”
Let us keep the camera? I was on the verge of losing my temper, but the numbers were not on our side. There were four of them and two of us. I gritted my teeth, drew myself up to my full height, and sneered at her. I could probably deal with being threatened, but I wouldn’t let anyone talk down to Casey. If being imperious was my only weapon, I’d use it. I could do it much better than this redhead.
“Well that’s just rude, but since I actually have manners, I’ll answer your question. I’m David. We’re Americans, obviously. I’m filming a reality television show. This is my producer, Casey.”
“Bullshit.” It was Ivan, the scrawny scarecrow man who said it, but the single raised eyebrow of the blonde said she agreed.
“Let’s try this again,” the blonde said. “You want manners? Fine. I’m Alicia Monroe, VP of emerging markets for Verité Labs. In front of you is my asset recovery team. They’ve got what Liam Neeson would call ‘a particular set of skills’. Who are you?”
Did she just make a Taken joke? Seriously
? This was neither the time nor the place.
Casey jumped in before I could mock her pop culture reference. “He just told you. We’re a film crew, at least what’s left of one. Our other two members turned back an hour ago because our main camera operator twisted his ankle. We wanted to get panorama footage before the storm.” She sounded perfectly convincing, since it was the truth, but the woman wasn’t buying it.
She rolled her eyes. “Right. Christ. I really didn’t want to do this. Liam, Ivan, Trent, let’s go ahead and help our friends find shelter before the storm.”
The guns appeared in the men’s hands faster than I could track. We were backed into a culvert we hadn’t seen before, a deep hollow in the rock. The entrance to the cave, I realized too late. At my side, Casey whimpered as we were pressed forward. The barrels of the pistols reflected the light in a way that made me feel lightheaded.
“What are you doing?” Casey asked the men. One of them sent her a pitying glance but didn’t answer.
“Move,” the woman—Alicia, said coldly. “I gave you an opportunity to identify yourselves. Your lie is all the confirmation I need that you’re after the fern.”
“What fern?” I tried. “What are you talking about?”
“Just move,” Alicia barked. “You lie even more poorly than her. Start walking.”
We were backed into the cave by the men, and the other members of the group turned on flashlights. The black, volcanic rock absorbed almost all the illumination created by the flashlights, but there was enough light to see that we were in a creepy fucking cave.
We were forced about a hundred paces into the cave. As we walked, Alicia talked at us.
“Did you know the locals believe these caves are cursed?” she asked.
“Yes, I’d heard that,” I replied blandly. She leveled a scathing look at me.
“That was a rhetorical question!”
I shrugged, and she sneered at me before continuing with her villain monologue.
“Anyway, like any folk tale, there’s a reason behind the story. These caves, while useful for sneaking up on people like I just did on you, are extremely unstable. It’s so easy to get lost in here. We’ve spent some time exploring them for shortcuts up and down the volcano as we searched for the fern.”
Casey looked over at me as if to ask: ‘what the fuck is this bitch talking about’? I shrugged. Apparently, she felt the need to fill the silence. Alicia continued to talk, unaware of our confusion.
“There are a number of tunnels that lead nowhere. Little inlets with no exit. It’s perfectly plausible for people to get lost in here and have their paths collapse.” She paused before a small inlet. “This will do.”
The men with guns waved us inside the small passageway. It was about fourteen feet deep, with a ten-foot ceiling. Basically, it was the size of an extremely generous walk in closet.
“No,” Casey breathed, figuring out what they were going to do.
“Rig it up,” one of the men said, and another two pulled squares of something grey out of their backpacks. Alicia watched them work with satisfaction. Casey and I watched them in fear and helplessness.
“Is that an explosive?” I barked. The man giving the orders nodded at me and smiled.
My blood ran cold. I imposed my body between Casey and the man. It was all I could do. The other men continued to point guns at us while the explosive was set.
“Stay where you are,” The guy giving the orders said when I moved. His voice was flat. He fiddled with one of the little grey squares on the wall for a moment and then nodded at his friends. They backed out of our closet-tomb entrance with eagerness. Two of the henchmen nodded at one another and handed something to Alicia. She waved goodbye to us with a smirk.
“Wait!” I screamed at the same time Casey cried, “Please!”. But it was too late.
The whole world went blindingly white and deafeningly loud.
Then silence.
33
Casey
The next thing that I knew, David was rocking me desperately in his arms.
“Casey, please,” he was saying over and over as he held me. His voice broke. “Please wake up.”
“David?” My voice sounded weak and tiny in my ears. “David, what happened?”
I cracked an eyelid while he exhaled in obvious relief. “Thank god,” he breathed. “Casey, can you hear me ok?”
My head felt tremendously heavy and I was dizzy. I was laying across David’s lap, my shoulders supported by his arm and my face cradled up to his chest. We were surrounded by darkness—in the cave, I belatedly remembered. It was so thoroughly deeply, ink-black that my eyes could find no purchase. I couldn’t focus my eyes at all, even to see my hand in front of my face. The only thing around us was velvety black shadow. I ran my fingertips along David’s skin in the blind darkness, finding comfort as I mapped his features. He was doing the same.
“I can hear you, but either I’m blind or it’s totally dark.” Panic colored my voice into a breathy whisper. I touched around my own face to see if my eyes were open and managed to poke myself square in the eye. I winced away, feeling foolish. My eyes were indeed open, I just couldn’t see anything.
“I think it’s just dark,” he said, and the guilty tone of his voice made me think he’d poked himself in the eye as well. A moment later, I heard but couldn’t see him fumbling around in his gear. An electric click went off, followed by a glow so bright it that made me look away with a wince. David had lit the small electric lamp he was carrying, and it provided a little pool of light that probably wasn’t all that strong but hit our starved corneas like a miniature sun. It took almost a full minute before I could stand it. We stared at one another in wonder when our eyes adjusted.
We were alive and unharmed. It was a miracle if there ever was one.
I hugged him for a long moment, inhaling his scent and feeling his heartbeat booming against his ribs in a steady rhythm. I won’t lie and say that I felt totally safe, but I did feel better in his arms. He clutched me to his chest and held me back for a long moment.
“Are you alright?” he asked, drawing back to get a better look at me. His voice sounded muffled and fuzzy, and I realized that the high whine I heard was my ears were still ringing from the noise of the explosion. It was probably a miracle I could hear at all.
His question took me a moment to answer because I wasn’t entirely sure yet. I wiggled my toes, shifted a bit in David’s lap, and evaluated myself. Nothing hurt per se, but I definitely felt strange. Being blown up will do that to a girl.
“Yeah, I think so?” I answered dubiously. “But I think I hit my head on something. I feel odd.”
I pressed my palm to the back of my skull. Although I felt no wound beneath my messy, matted hair, there was an area on the crown of my head that felt slightly tender and raised. I must have bumped it when we got tossed in the explosion.
David’s expression, first awash with relief, turned worried. His blue-green eyes sparkled in the low light, but his skin was pale and clammy. “I wish I knew… god Casey, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to tell if you’re hurt and I think we’re trapped in this cave.”
I swallowed. My mouth felt dry, dusty, and grimy. I think there was a layer of ash coating my teeth. “How long was I out?” I asked, smelling a curious chemical tang in the air. It must be whatever remained of the explosive. It made the air taste unpleasantly metallic and smoky.
David had pushed my hair back and carefully examined as much of my scalp as he could. His was so focused on evaluating me, I had to repeat my question. Even though what he was doing felt like a delightful scalp massage, I was in no mood to be soothed at the moment. My adrenaline was still much too high.
“David?” I prompted, pulling my hair out of his reach when he still didn’t reply.
He blinked at me and slowly shook his head. “I don’t know. Um, I think you were only out for about thirty seconds, but I might have lost consciousness, too. The guy was rigging up the ex
plosive and then the next thing I was aware of, you were in my lap and everything was dark.”
“Are you alright?” I asked him, running my fingers down his arms and inspecting him. “You aren’t hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine as far as I can tell. I’m a horrible person for putting you in this situation, but I’m fine.”
I ignored the second part of his answer. I had a chance to turn around and chose to stay. My choices weren’t his responsibility.
“Why would they lock us in here? Do you think they’re going to leave us in here?”
Even as I was posing the question, I knew that it was a silly thing to ask. Of course, they were going to leave us in here to die. They’d just freaking blown us up.
“They must think we’re from their competition. They probably think we’re with Klaus.”
“Well in a way we are their competition. They’re after the fern, too.”
“Neither Klaus nor that Alicia woman deserves to get their nasty mitts on the fern,” David said, but his statement was without malice. We were both too frightened for any bravado.
“I hate that red-haired bitch,” I heard myself saying, locating some pathos beneath my fear. I had plenty of anger, I discovered. Oceans of it. That woman had tried to murder me. “I really, really hate her.” I felt my composure beginning to crumble. We were trapped. We were going to die here, trapped in a cave, on the side of a volcano, on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from home. No one would even find our bodies. Our families would never know what happened to us. It would be like we’d just disappeared.
David didn’t immediately reply, and I looked at him to find him staring blankly to our right.
“If it makes you feel any better, they must have seriously fucked up with the explosives,” He replied. His voice sounded eerily calm and it cut through my rising hysteria.
“Huh?” I asked, I followed his gaze and my breath seized painfully in my lungs.
Lost and Found (Scions of Sin Book 4) Page 18
