The newspaper said that police in Reno had raided a hotel room where it was believed Brody Prince was being held by his captors, but the raid had produced nothing except some scribbled notes that police would not comment on. No one but the Owls seemed to think for a moment that the young peewee player might still be in Utah.
The teams tried to keep their minds on the tournament. Nish continued to suspend his Gross-Out Olympics, but there were still the scheduled activities and a lot of free time available for the Owls to do other things.
When most of the Owls headed off for a morning of skiing and snowboarding on the mountains surrounding the town, Sarah suggested to Travis that they try the toboggan run behind the hotel – and that they invite Nish along for a specific reason.
“We’ll need the weight,” she said, giggling.
Nish, of course, was keen to try anything with even a hint of danger in it.
The toboggan run had been made by hotel workers with banked-up, ice-covered snow. It reminded Travis of the track he once received at Christmas and set up on the basement stairs to shoot tiny metal cars from one side of the basement to the other. They generally crashed into the far wall and, as intended, burst into numerous parts that could then be put back together.
The toboggan run at full speed was no game, though, and Travis was quickly convinced, as the sled flew down the groomed and iced run, that if they ever hit a wall at this speed they would indeed burst into parts – never to be put back together again.
He was frightened and thrilled at the same time, grateful to be wearing a crash helmet in case they somehow flew off the track. Nish loved it, screaming as the wind cut into their faces and even volunteering to lug the heavy toboggan back up for a second and a third run.
Travis was happy that Sarah, not Nish, was steering. Sarah kept cool and calm, guiding the hurtling vehicle perfectly in and out of the corners, never once flying free of the run.
In the evening they all gathered again in the lobby while Muck and Mr. Dillinger met with tournament officials in preparation for the finals.
Data and Fahd had been busy. When Fahd pushed Data into the lobby, he was carrying two large battery-powered lanterns on his lap.
“What’s that all about?” Sam wanted to know.
Data picked one of the lanterns up and turned it on, the flash spreading across the darkened lobby.
“It’s time for the Owls to go underground.”
14
Travis had that familiar uneasy feeling.
He hated enclosed spaces. He hated the dark and still slept with a night light whenever he could. But now he was headed down into the narrow pitch-black tunnel beneath Park City, with nothing but a single lantern and a desperate urge to grab Sarah’s sleeve and hold on for dear life.
Data had assigned the tunnels higher up to Travis, Sarah, Dmitri, and Nish. Fahd, Andy, Sam, and Simon would take the lower tunnels.
Data, with the help of Willie’s amazing memory, had mapped out all the twists and turns Ebenezer Durk had shown them. He had also used his laptop to get into the town archives and had linked to a state-university paper on the rum-running scheme that included maps of the original tunnel structure. Data had then used his laptop to overlay the tunnels on a current chamber-of-commerce map of the downtown, and each team now had a printout of where the tunnels ran and their relation to the streets above.
Data had come to the conclusion that the police could not possibly have searched all the tunnels. The investigators said they had checked all the passageways, but Data’s research showed numerous branches that were now blocked off from the main tunnels. There seemed to be no direct route to the series of tunnels Ebenezer Durk had shown the Owls, and Data insisted that the police would not have checked Ebenezer Durk’s secret passages beneath the old stable.
Travis was impressed, but he was also desperate to get out of these dark, dank caves as quickly as possible.
Sarah led the way with the lantern, heading along a corridor below the stables that ran, according to Data’s map, up Main Street towards an old hotel.
It was tough going. Some of the passages were blocked off, some seemed to have caved in. The tunnel they were following was the one Ebenezer Durk had shown them, and, thankfully, it had been buttressed with beams and wooden planking.
Travis could hear water dripping, which made him puzzle over how water could run down here when all was frozen above. He thought, too, that he heard something scurrying.
Rats?
He decided to say nothing to Sarah; the last thing he wanted was for her to panic. If she was frightened, she was not showing it, moving ahead carefully in a crouch, seemingly ready to react to whatever might be around the next turn.
But around the next turn there was only more darkness, and more turns to come. More darkness. More blockages. More dead ends.
“This is useless,” Nish grumbled from behind. “There’s no one here.”
“We have to check everything out,” Travis whispered. “You never know.”
But Travis, too, was losing heart. In a way, he was grateful for the growing sense that there was nothing down here but a musty smell, pitch black, and the odd rat. But in another way he was disappointed they hadn’t found anything to support Nish’s surprise theory that the kidnappers had faked their own escape and were still in Park City.
Travis was beginning to doubt it.
He wasn’t even thinking of the possibilities when, in the poor light, he walked into Sarah’s back.
She had stopped fast.
Nish stepped into Travis.
“What –?”
“Shhhhhhh,” Sarah hissed.
Simon crouched down low and ducked under Nish’s arm to move into the front, but Sarah reached back and caught him by the collar.
Travis leaned out around Sarah to stare down the narrow tunnel.
At first he saw nothing. Then, slowly, a pinprick of light became visible in the distance.
It couldn’t be Sam and the others – they had gone in the other direction.
They had no choice but to try to get closer.
15
“Maybe we should go back,” Nish said in a whisper that shook.
“It might be our only chance,” said Sarah. She swiftly killed the light and pressed on.
They moved in silence, their feet sure along the rock paths, their hands out to one side so they could run their fingers along the shored-up walls.
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, the light in the distance slowly took on a new brilliance. Travis could see that it was steady, not moving, and presumed it was either a bulb or an electric lantern someone had hung up on a wall. He could detect no movement around it and was grateful for that.
They drew closer, increasingly afraid of stumbling or even breathing too hard.
Sarah held her hand back, touching Travis, then Nish, indicating that they should stop. She whispered so low they could hardly hear her. “I’ll go on my own from here.”
She handed Travis the lantern. There was no arguing with her. It was too risky to talk, for one thing. But neither was there any point: she had her mind made up.
Travis felt helpless as Sarah disappeared into the near-total darkness. A few times she cast a long shadow as she moved quickly up the tunnel and was caught by the distant light, but most of the time he could detect nothing. She moved in complete silence.
Travis tried to control his breathing. He could hear Nish breathing hard beside him and once or twice Simon stifled a cough. But none of them said a thing.
Travis squinted hard, trying to force his eyes to see more clearly.
There was more movement nearer the light now. The light blacked out entirely as Sarah moved from one side of the tunnel to the other.
Then Travis heard her fall.
Sarah never said a word, but it was clear she’d skidded on loose gravel or a board and had gone down hard.
“HEY!” a voice boomed from far off, the sound seeming to grow as it hurled down th
e tunnel.
None of the Owls said a word.
“Who’s there? What’s going on?”
The voice sounded frantic.
And then came the most terrifying sound Travis Lindsay had ever heard.
KAAAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
16
In the tunnel, the gunshot sounded like a cannon going off inside Travis’s ear.
Nish hit the ground beside him and Simon screamed.
Travis heard Sarah scrambling back towards them.
Thank heaven – she hadn’t been hit!
The tunnel, so silent a moment ago he could hear water drip, now thundered with sound: the echoing gunshot, Sarah stumbling as she ran back to them, Nish grunting as he got to his feet again, the shouts that came from the far pinpoint of light where the gunshot had come from. There had not, mercifully, been a second shot.
Travis knew he would have to show his mettle. He was captain, after all, and Sarah had already upstaged him by advancing alone and unprotected towards the light. He had to do something.
There were lights moving now, the dance and skip of flashlight beams coming on and sweeping frantically for the intruder.
Travis felt around on the tunnel floor until he found a rock. He picked it up and tossed it as far as he could up the tunnel, past the dark, crouching, running shadow that he knew to be Sarah. He hoped it would serve as a distraction and confuse them as to which way she had run.
The rock made a lot of noise, but its echo was instantly crushed by a much louder sound.
KAAAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
A second shot, echoing down the tunnels.
“Run for it!” Sarah gasped as she came into sight.
Simon and Nish were already scrambling to get away. Travis grabbed the lantern from Sarah and pushed her on past him, shoving her hard to make sure she joined them. Sarah paused momentarily, then darted to join the others.
Travis flicked on the light. He knew it was dangerous, perhaps even foolhardy, but he had to get his bearings, had to know what he was dealing with.
There was an old, rotting sawhorse to the side, with boards leaning on it. Likely it had been left over from the last efforts at shoring up the old walls of the tunnels. He flicked off the light immediately and went to work, feeling in the dark as he grabbed the sawhorse and whipped it around to block the tunnel at waist height. The boards he scattered about the barrier at random.
Then, with the light still off, he turned and bolted into the pitch dark after his friends.
Travis had no idea where the turns were. He smacked a shoulder into the rough wall, then ricocheted over to the other side and scraped his cheek. He felt dizzy, felt his knees buckle, but knew he could not go down.
There was light flickering in the tunnel behind him. It bounced wildly along the dark walls. One moment, he was sure he’d be seen, the next he was sure his pursuers – there seemed to be two of them – had no idea where they were heading. He could hear them cursing and grunting, their voices magnified as if through loudspeakers down the narrow tunnel.
Travis used a brief sweep of light to dart farther ahead towards the others. He could see Sarah’s white face – terrified – looking back for him.
“Uhhhhhhhnnnnnnn!”
“Owwwwww! What the hell!”
The cursing was accompanied by a clattering of heavy boards as the two chasers hit Travis’s barricade. It had been too low and too dark for them to see it as they scrambled after the intruders. They had hit it full-force.
One flashlight went out – broken, Travis hoped, in the fall. He had no time to find out. He hurried on, quickly switching on and off his light as he rounded turns in the tunnels and caught up to the other three.
KAAAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
A third shot echoed, but seemed more distant, less terrifying. It seemed, in fact, to come from another tunnel, and Travis hoped the pursuers had taken a wrong turn after their fall.
He switched his light on.
“Hurry, Trav!” Sarah gasped. “They’re coming!”
With the lantern lighting the way, they raced through the tunnels as if they were on wheels and the tunnel were a downhill track, their legs burning as they never did in a hockey game. Nish, who hated having to walk, who once said he wished he could drive from his living room to the refrigerator, was flying out in front, with Simon right behind him and Sarah and Travis bringing up the rear.
There were no more gunshots.
Three more turns and Travis could make out the faint light that came from the stables. There was a ladder there, and if they reached it in time, they’d soon be out and onto Main Street.
Nish was already up the ladder when Travis and Sarah reached it. Sarah pushed Simon up by his rear end and then she scrambled up and away.
Travis took one look back – nothing, no sound, not even a flicker of light – and drew a deep breath before climbing up and out.
They broke into the light streaming into the stables, instantly blinded by the forgotten brightness of the day.
It took several seconds for their eyes to adjust, and by the time they had there were sounds of people moving coming from the foot of the ladder.
17
Travis’s panic lasted only a moment – as long as it took for Sam’s head to pop up from below.
It was the second group of Screech Owls.
“What was that sound?” Sam said as the second group climbed out, blinking and squinting into the intense light.
“Sounded like thunder,” said Andy. “Or an explosion.”
“It was gunshots!” Nish hissed, his face steaming red. “They were shooting at us!”
The second group stopped, eyes open wide despite the glare.
“You joke?” said Sam.
Nish shook his head.
“No joke,” said Sarah. “They were shooting.”
“Who was?” Andy asked.
“We couldn’t see them,” said Simon, “but it must have been the kidnappers – tourists don’t suddenly start shooting while they’re on a tour.”
“How’d you get away?”
Nish looked up, his face glowing. “I led the way.”
Travis glanced at Sarah, who was already rolling her eyes.
“We’d better get the police,” said Simon.
“There’s no time!” said Sarah. “Look!” She was pointing up the alley, the finger of her glove shaking.
A large black car was sliding to a halt on the greasy snow. Then out of the back door of a rundown old building came several men in dark coats and hats.
It was impossible to recognize any of them at this distance, but Travis saw at once that surrounded by the group of men was a smaller body with a black tuque pulled tight over its head.
Brody Prince?
“They’re making a run for it!” shouted Simon.
The burly men shoved the smaller figure into the back seat of the vehicle, and the big dark car fishtailed wildly as the driver floored the gas pedal and the rear wheels spun helplessly in the slush of the back alley.
The car fishtailed again, bounced off an old delivery truck parked nearby, and spun off onto a side street, heading down from the mountain towards the interstate.
“They’re going to get away!” screamed Sam. “And they’ve got Brody with them!”
“Not if we can help it!” shouted Sarah. “Nish … Trav – follow me!”
Sarah began sprinting through the snow towards Main Street and the Screech Owls’ hotel.
She must be racing to get Muck, Travis thought, and ran to catch up, unsure what else to do. Nish hurried along behind them, panting heavily as he ran through deep snow that had drifted against the side of the stables.
But Sarah had no intention of going into the team hotel. She flew down a side entrance towards the back where the toboggan run headed downhill.
Sarah didn’t even look for a helmet. She raced up to a toboggan, freed it from the snowbank, and signalled Travis to jump on behind her.
“Nish!” she sho
uted. “Hurry!”
Groaning and grumbling, a puffing Nish piled on behind Travis.
“What’re we doing?” Travis yelled as the toboggan began slipping downhill and gathering speed.
Sarah shouted something back, but Travis only caught pieces of it:
“… car … hill … cut them off!”
18
There was no point in asking Sarah to say it again. The wind blocked out everything but the hiss and scrape of the toboggan as it gained momentum under the weight of the three teammates.
They flew down the toboggan run, and then, with a sudden twist of her weight and a loud scream from Nish, Sarah forced them off the track and onto the fresh snow of the hill, heading straight down.
Travis could feel his heart pounding and knew that Nish was still screaming helplessly. He prayed Sarah knew what she was doing. Everything around them was a blur. They had no helmets. And they were hurtling straight towards the back road that wound its way to the highway and then to the interstate.
There were few cars on the twisting road, but Travis was still terrified. They could hit a car, a truck, a light standard. They could flip going over the bank and be left sprawling on the tarmac while cars and trucks skidded into them.
“WE’RE GONNA DIE!!!!!!!” Nish howled into Travis’s ear. “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”
Travis tried to shake off Nish’s wailing. He looked up the road where it snaked down from Main Street and saw what Sarah was planning. The big black car, with dents along one side, was slipping and sliding down the hill, barely under the driver’s control as he fought through the still-unploughed snow and slush from last night’s fall.
Sarah’s timing was almost perfect, and with a couple of twists of her body to take the toboggan on a slightly longer route, she quickly had toboggan and car lined up to meet just where the road dipped down and headed for the larger highway out of town.
“JUMP!!!” Sarah yelled back. “JUMP!!!!!”
Sarah and Travis left the toboggan at exactly the same time, Sarah spilling off to the right, Travis to the left.
The Complete Screech Owls, Volume 5 Page 14
