Farraday Road

by Ace Collins

  “Fill it up!” Cathcart cried from the ground. “Give her everything she’ll hold!”

  As his fireman followed instructions, the engineer walked over to Lije, Janie, and McGee. “I want you to light all the lamps and place them along the sides of the track. They don’t have to be close to the rails, they just need to be there as markers to show me clearly where I’m going. They’ll also help me gauge my speed. You can leave the three that are burning down by the far wall where they are.

  “A word of warning, and you need to take this seriously. I know you want to watch, but you need to find a safe place in the cave that offers some cover. I’d suggest behind the wall and in the chamber where we first entered. If the boiler explodes upon impact, it could send sharp, hot metal flying all over the place.

  “Even if nothing like that happens, give it a few minutes before you rush down. I’ll yell when I think it’s safe.”

  In the background, Curtis hollered, “She’s ready! The pressure needle’s in the red!”

  “Be right there!” Cathcart said.

  McGee grabbed Lije’s arm to get his attention. “Lije, grab the lanterns from the cars and bring them down here. I’ll run the three from the boxcar down toward the far end. Let’s get these lined up! Let’s do it!”

  McGee’s orders brought a smile to Lije’s lips. Janie leaned over and said, “I think he’s starting to believe.”

  “I think we all are.”

  As they raced to position the antique lanterns, Lije had a memory of their college days, racing each other to the girls’ dorm. They were just as excited now as they were back then.

  Cathcart checked and rechecked Ole 74’s mechanics, and Curtis kept stoking the fire.

  Only Janie was still, satisfied to take in the ancient steam machine’s almost musical cadence.

  Lije dashed back to the cab and climbed up. “The way’s lit. Good luck, sir.”

  “Say a prayer,” Cathcart said with a grin. He glanced over his shoulder. “Diana, here’s where you get off. This run will be solo. No fireman or brakeman needed. Let this old man enjoy this ride by himself.”

  Curtis hugged him and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

  “Now that makes a bachelor’s day!”

  Lije and Curtis hurried down the ladder of the cab and joined McGee and Janie. Pointing to a spot on the other side of the train, Curtis took out her flashlight and led the way up and over the boxcar’s platform to the cave’s smaller front chamber room. Lije guided Janie to the safety point. McGee brought up the rear.

  The quartet stood where they could witness Cathcart setting the old iron horse into motion. The locomative groaned as the wheels fought for traction. This time, nothing could hold it in place. Steam and smoke billowing, Ole 74 started forward, slowly, too slowly, and then it began to pick up speed. From a walk, to a jog, to a run, Ole 74 was alive and racing.

  The noise of the wheels and the engine was now deafening, but no one covered their ears. The soot and smoke burned their eyes, but still they didn’t move. They remained anchored to the rock floor, three sets of eyes and one pair of very sharp ears monitoring each and every revolution of the wheels.

  Closer and closer it approached the wall, faster and faster it raced. When it was about a hundred feet from the wall, Lije glanced at Curtis, looking for a signal to move to cover. There was none. She seemed intent on peering through the smoke until iron met rock. McGee also had his eyes glued to the spectacle. Janie had cocked her head to one side, intent on following the action in her own way.

  Lije, his eyes stinging and watering from the smoke, turned back to Ole 74. In the dim light, the end of its sprint was nothing more than a blur.

  THE COLLISION UNLEASHED A BOMBLIKE CONCUSSION, shaking the walls and the decoupled train cars. Dust poured down from the ceiling. Chunks of rock fell, sounding like huge bowling pins bouncing against one another.

  Then came the flash of light.

  “Get down!” Curtis screamed, dragging McGee to the floor.

  Lije pulled Janie to the ground just as an explosion, followed by a blinding yellow flame, set the cave afire. The old cave shook as if it had been hit by an earthquake. Eyes closed, his head pushing into the rock floor, Lije listened to the clang of what had to be pieces of Ole 74 hurtling throughout the chamber and ricocheting off the walls and ceiling. The heavy rain of iron continued. Huge boulders rolled away from the walls. Two of the lanterns overturned, spreading oil in tongues of fire along the floor. A section of track lifted off the cave floor and buckled.

  Then it was over. After a final few volleys of metal against stone, the only sound was the faraway hiss of steam.

  Lije stood up and pulled Janie from the floor. Thick smoke filled the cave. He couldn’t see the point of impact, so he had no idea if Cathcart’s bold plan had worked. He was sure of one thing from the destruction he’d just witnessed: the professor had given his life in a final attempt to open the door to freedom.

  “Is everyone all right? ” Curtis asked, rolling slowly to her feet.

  McGee coughed a few times. “I’m fine. Do you know if it punched out the wall?”

  “Don’t know,” Lije replied. “Do you think it’s safe to walk down there?”

  Not bothering to respond, Curtis headed for the chamber. She reached into her pocket for the flashlight and walked into the smoke-filled nightmare that stretched out before them. Several pockets of flames flickered in the distance.

  “Come on, Janie,” Lije said. “Be careful where you step. The floor is littered with pieces of metal and rock.”

  The smoke was now so thick none of them could see much. It was almost like being blind.

  Almost, but not quite.

  McGee found the tracks, grabbed a lantern, and handed his flashlight to Lije. “Let’s go, buddy!”

  They picked their way through the chamber. Smoke filled their lungs and clouded their vision. With only the flashlight and the lantern, they picked their way as much by feel as by sight. With each step, stumbling over the littered terrain, they tried to penetrate the smoke to see if Ole 74 had broken through. They each had one prayer, one goal, one hope.

  Unwittingly, the four got separated in the smoke. Foot by foot, Lije and Janie moved toward the wall, using the track as their guide. They stumbled several times, but never fell. The smoke, like a thick London fog, gave up nothing.

  Lije began to panic. If they didn’t get out soon, the smoke would kill them. Where was the wall? Where was Ole 74? Had Cathcart’s death ride failed?

  JANIE WAS THE FIRST TO REALIZE WHAT THE PROFESSOR had done. “There’s a hole in the wall!”

  Lije still could not see a thing. “Janie, how do you know?”

  She coughed for a few seconds. “The smoke’s not as thick and there’s a new smell in the cave. I can hear the river over the hiss of the steam.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “There’s fresh air now mixing with the smoke. I’d guess the hole’s big enough to crawl through.”

  “Don’t rush!” he warned, all the while fighting the urge to race forward. “The closer we get to the wall, the larger the hunks of debris we’re going to run into. There could be a hole in the floor. Watch your step.”

  “I’ll do my best. Stepping’s easy, it’s the watching that’s always been a bit hard for me.”

  “Sorry.”

  Janie laughed. “Just trying to lighten the mood.”

  As they navigated through the litter in their path, Lije became aware of what Janie already knew. The smoke was clearing. The smoke was half as thick as it had been. A lantern was on the floor, still lit. He picked it up and held the flame aloft. There, just a few feet away, was the crumpled remains of Ole 74. The cab was still recognizable, but what now sat in front of the cab was a pile of scrap metal. When the locomotive’s boiler blew, it destroyed most of the engine. To one side sat the mangled smokestack and one of the locomotive’s huge drive wheels.

  “Where is the professor? ” Janie asked.

&n
bsp; Lije dropped her arm and headed toward the cab. “Stay here. I’ll climb up and see.”

  “Watch out for hot metal,” she warned.

  Moving to the bent ladder, Lije tapped the metal rungs with his right hand. They were warm, not hot. Lifting himself to the platform with his dominant hand, he held the lamp aloft with his left. He peered through the dissipating smoke into the cab.

  “Is he up there? ” Janie yelled.

  “No.” Lije looked ahead of the cab and saw no trace of Cathcart.

  Choking now as much from emotion as from the smoke, Lije set his focus toward freedom. His quest for the truth had now taken another life. How many more would die for whatever was on Swope’s Ridge? Or for the treasure?

  He jumped down from the cab. He couldn’t think about that now. There would be time later.

  The cave floor was piled with wreckage. Lije and Janie skirted the most tangled mounds and moved cautiously forward toward the wall, slipping on jagged pieces of metal and rock, catching their balance, and again inching forward.

  “Light!” Lije yelled. Sunshine pierced the smoke about a dozen feet ahead.

  From the other side of the locomotive, Curtis cried, “It’s the size of a garage door! It worked!”

  “We’ll be there in a second,” Lije called out. “Save some fresh air for us.”

  He found the wall. The light was now much brighter and about four feet above them. He turned Janie to face the wall and, with both hands on her waist, he lifted her toward the light and freedom. She reached forward, felt the jagged edge where the wall had been pierced, and grabbed on and pulled herself up. She was finally able to scramble through the opening. He climbed up and crawled through. Outside was a green meadow overlooking the river. McGee and Curtis, exhausted, were leaning against a large section of what, just a few minutes before, had been the cave wall.

  Five had gone in. Four had come out.

  Lije remembered what the professor had said. The choice he had made … for all of them. He stretched his arms above his head and took in a deep breath of fresh air—the first any of them had breathed in days. He wiped the soot from his eyes with his shirt and realized an almost forgotten sense of hunger. He said, “I could go for a steak.”

  “That’s not on the menu.” The voice was f lat, cold, and unfamiliar.

  Spinning to his left, Lije found himself looking into the face of a man he’d never met but knew very well. The man was holding a gun.

  “YOU’RE SMITH’S FRIEND.” LIJE SAID IT AS MUCH to alert Janie as to acknowledge he knew the identity of the man standing a dozen feet in front of him.

  The stranger smiled. “We thought you were dead. This time I’ll make sure you are.”

  “I remember you now,” Lije said. “I can see you just as clearly as if we were back on Farraday Road. Except you weren’t holding a gun then. Thought I was dead then too, didn’t you? And where’s your buddy?”

  The big man grinned. “Oh, he’s around.”

  “Help!” A man’s cry came from a stand of trees to the left of them. Surprised and confused, the gunman jerked his head in that direction.

  A shot rang out and the gunman dropped, hit in the shoulder.

  Lije spun around and saw Curtis with her ABI weapon out. She’d kept it on her the whole time. Then she started running toward the trees and the cry for help.

  From the ground, the wounded man fired a single round. Curtisfell. But her courageous sprint had given Lije just enough time to take two long strides forward and launch himself into the air.

  Swinging back, still on the ground, the big man managed to squeeze off another round, but it was well wide of its mark. Lije landed on the man and knocked the weapon away. Arms locked around each other, legs and knees seeking a weak spot, they rolled through the grass and down the slope of the riverbank.

  Like two evenly matched wrestlers fighting for a hold, for a few moments neither man could gain an advantage. Finally able to pull his right hand free, Lije rammed a short jab into the thug’s flabby gut. He managed three more quick blows to the bleeding shoulder before the two rolled to a stop on the edge of the riverbank.

  Lije was on top. He held his knuckles against the man’s wound and shook and punched him, finally venting the fury toward Kaitlyn’s killers that he had held back for so long. “What do you want with this place? What is worth so many people dying? Who are you?”

  The man lay still. Lije didn’t know if he’d given up or was just waiting for a chance to break free. The man winced and started to struggle, but Lije held him in place, increasing the pressure on his shoulder. Blood oozed through Lije’s fist.

  “It’s just a job,” the man said. “Whatever the boss says, I do.”

  “What’s so important here?”

  “I dunno … some World War II secret.”

  So it wasn’t the treasure on the train. “What’s your take? What do you get out of this?”

  “I get to retire.” He looked defiantly at Lije.

  “And your boss?”

  “He gets to control the world.”

  Lije couldn’t believe what he had just heard. And in that split second of hesitation, the man threw his head forward, bashing Lije’s nose, and, still holding him, rolled off the ledge, sending both of them into the cold water of Spring River.

  LIJE BOBBED UP IN A DEEP POOL ABOUT TWENTY feet above the rapids. Treading water, he spun in a circle until the head of the other man surfaced a few yards downstream. The big man gasped, taking in more water than air, and disappeared under the surface. Lije scanned the river, trying to see where the thug would next emerge. Finally the fleshy and frantic face appeared in an area just above the river’s main channel, where the current was the strongest. For a few seconds the man’s entire body was visible as he stretched out, searching frantically for something to grab on to. Then a whirlpool snagged him, pulled him back under, and spit him out into the rapids.

  Exhausted, Lije swam to dry land. He pulled himself up on the bank and stood up. McGee was standing on the bank, his eyes fixed on the rapids where the gunman had disappeared. Janie was a few feet behind him, picking her way down the slope. Lije saw Curtis farther up the hill. She was holding her shoulder and striding through the grass toward the river. And twenty feet behind her, limping toward the bank at an even brisker pace than Curtis, was the biggest surprise of all—Dr. Cathcart, clothes torn, face bruised and bloody, but alive.

  All were safe. All had made it out alive. He couldn’t believe it. No one else had died for Swope’s Ridge. Not today.

  Lije turned back toward the river. He scanned the white water, looking for a body, but saw nothing. He figured the locomotive had broken through the cave wall upstream from where he had discovered the rail. Probably three hundred yards or more. He could see the old post oak tree on the other side of the river. He made a second pass. Still nothing. The man had disappeared. With a sinking feeling, Lije jogged toward McGee, who had moved farther downstream, still searching. “Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know!” his friend hollered over the roaring water. “I lost him when he went through those first rapids.”

  Lije stood on the bank, not willing to give up. He knew that if the man didn’t panic and simply rode it out, he might have made it through the rapids. Still, as big as he was and no better swimmer than he appeared to be … Lije should have spotted him. But he saw no sign of the man. Not a hand holding onto a branch, an arm wrapped around a tree limb. Nothing.

  Lije had had him. And still the man had slipped through his fingers. And nothing was solved. “Come on, McGee, he’s gone.”

  The two walked back to the group, where Cathcart was the center of attention.

  “Professor, I’m sure glad to see you,” Lije said. “I thought you had been killed in the blast. What happened?”

  “I was so sure that Ole 74 was going to go through that rock that I locked the throttle down and jumped about fifty feet from the wall. I have some pieces of metal in my back and legs and more brui
ses than I can count, but nothing seems broken. And what a ride it was! That old engine went out in style!”

  Lije grinned. “It sure did.”

  “When the locomotive blew, I thought I might be too close. But I waited, hunkered down, and after things calmed down a bit, I crawled outside before you all had a chance to make it out of the cave. When I emerged I saw the two men coming down from the ridge. I slipped into the woods before they saw me and worked my way over to the one that was hiding in the trees. I clubbed him on the back of the head with a rock.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He’s gone. I took his weapon and ran down to tend to Diana. When I went back, he was gone.”

  Lije sat down on the bank and looked out at the river. Dog tired—where did that phrase come from? But that’s what he was. Dog tired. Bruised. Beaten. He had been through all of this and not nabbed the man he knew was responsible for Kaitlyn’s death. That failure trumped everything else that had happened. He had let her down again.

  Lije stood, observed the group that had been through so much together, and then, as a final reminder of the last few days, looked out at the rapids that had carried away a killer and brought them Janie. His eyes fixed on a single spot. He walked toward the water to get a better view.

  “What is it, Lije? ” McGee said.

  “I don’t know.” Lije pointed at the rapids. “That branch there. On the other side. There. Right there. See? Look at it when the water settles a bit. It’ll happen.”

  “What’s going on? ” Cathcart asked. “I don’t see anything.”

  Lije glanced back toward the professor, then looked back at the rapids. “There. See it? The guy’s arm. It got hung up on that tree branch when he went down the river’s main water chute. The pool held him under and that branch kept him from escaping. We never saw him because he never broke free.”

  Curtis put a hand on Lije’s shoulder. “That’s a pretty strong measure of justice,” she said. “Swift justice. Don’t you think?”