The Five-Day Dig

by Jennifer Malin

  “A bandage and a splint for Amara,” Hank said.

  “Yes.” Dunk relayed the request into the mouthpiece, then looked around the room. “Batteries – a couple dozen D-cells, if possible. Toilet paper. And hand sanitizer.”

  “You will have it shortly,” Domenico said. “Also, the rescue-squad captain wants me to tell you to stay clear of the area where we’re drilling. Is that possible?”

  “Easily. We hear and will comply.”

  The rescue team started sending bottles of water down immediately. Next came batteries.

  Winnie breathed a sigh of relief and got to work restocking lanterns and flashlights. Chaz did the same. Within minutes, the room looked brighter.

  Amara and Enza walked back in as the medical supplies were sliding down. The former let out a squeal of joy at the sight.

  Enza still looked worried, but once Dunk put her on the walkie-talkie with her father, her face brightened, too. Unfortunately, Domenico mentioned Farber’s condition to her, and her tears flared again.

  Chaz leaned close to Winnie’s ear. “I realize that Dr. Farber is in danger, but I wouldn’t think he had touched Enza’s heart enough to warrant her tears after such short acquaintance.”

  “She’s a bundle of nerves. I hope they get us out of here soon.”

  The Fates ignored her wish, but soon sandwiches and additional drinks rained down from above, and she figured food was the next best thing. While the group wolfed down their makeshift dinner, they chatted and even tossed out a few jokes.

  Once the meal ended, they staved off claustrophobia and panic by keeping busy – marking labels, sketching diagrams and taking notes.

  As the hours passed and the muffled sound of big machinery didn’t change, the emotional strain of the long day began to get to them. Eventually, everyone reclined next to the big pool, looking grim.

  Winnie sensed Chaz’s focus on her and met his gaze. With a smile, he patted the spot in front of him on the floor.

  She had spent the day trying to act platonically toward him in front of the others, but now she had lost her willpower. Scooting closer to him, she lay down on the dirty floor where he had indicated and let him spoon up behind her.

  No one gave them a funny look, so she relaxed. Being able to touch him after so much denial was bliss. His body felt warm and wonderful. She began to wish they could sneak off into one of the smaller rooms and be alone, even for a few minutes, but she would never be that brazen.

  How long will it take the rescuers to get us out? she wondered, suddenly focused on getting him alone as well as being safe. She wished she had him in her room again. On this trip, they’d had so much time alone and not taken advantage of it. Now that they needed it, they were trapped here with a group.

  Twisting her neck to look over her shoulder at him, she gave him a wistful look. His eyes reflected the same smoldering need she felt. Stretching to reach each other’s mouth, they kissed quietly but sensually.

  “Get a cubiculum, you two,” Dunk said. An uncharacteristic edge to his voice made it hard to tell whether he was amused or annoyed – maybe both. “The apodyterium is open.”

  Winnie shrank in shame, but Chaz laughed at him. “You’re just miffed because no one wants to snog you.”

  “Touché. And it’s going to be a long night.” He stood up. “I think I’ll survey the library again, in case the rest of you missed something.”

  “Don’t be daft.” Jack sounded tired. “A bomb went off over there. Another one could be ready to blow.”

  “I’m willing to take that risk. Our work here is internationally important.” He turned to Hank. “Want to help me record a few more details?”

  Lying on his back with his hands behind his head, Hank didn’t budge. “I’m about as eager to do that as snog you. We got what we could. Leave the rest for a future excavation.”

  Dunk put his hands on his hips. “I can’t believe how willing you all are to give up our chance to make the find of the century.”

  Jack sat up. “Hank is right, Dunk. There will be other digs here.”

  “Not for us. Maybe not even in our lifetime. Look at Herculaneum. We’ve known about the library there for two centuries, and it’s still not completely excavated.” He spun around to Hank again. “Give me the camera. I’ll get some more footage on my own.”

  A moment passed, then Hank sat up and reached for the camera. “Just let me change the memory card first. Then if you need to run out of there and you drop the camera, at least we’ll have what we recorded earlier.”

  While he switched out one camera card for another from his pocket, Jack massaged his forehead as if in pain. “Dunk, please. Don’t do this.”

  “I won’t leave without seeing everything down here.”

  Hank closed up the camera again, and Dunk grabbed it from him. As he started walking out of the room, Enza called, “Wait!”

  He stopped and looked back.

  She scrambled to her feet. “I’ll go with you.”

  A collective gasp sucked the air out of the room. But Dunk grinned. “That’s my girl.” He put his arm around her, and the two of them walked out.

  “This is getting strange,” Amara said. “First Enza is a wreck. Now she’s fearless? Do they have cabin fever? Post-traumatic stress disorder?”

  Jack shrugged. “I suppose she reckons we’re as good as rescued. Personally, I won’t rest until I’m on the surface.”

  “But why are they always together lately? Is something going on between them? She’s one-third his age.”

  Her eyes strayed to Winnie, and Winnie cringed. “I’m in not in a position to comment, since Chaz is much younger than I am.”

  “Not much younger,” he said. “I’m almost three-quarters your age.”

  An embarrassed laugh slipped out of her. “How nice to have it calculated.”

  “And the fraction will increase with each year,” he added.

  She grimaced. “I’ll look forward to that.”

  A muffled boom interrupted the conversation. The room shook. They all jumped to their feet and ran for the arches, shielding their heads. A small avalanche of rubble slid down the slope, just missing Jack and Amara as they dove out of the way. The pipe from the tunnel loosened and rolled down, clanking on the tile at the bottom.

  Everything went still. They looked around at each other. No one seemed to be, but they all looked pale and shaken.

  Winnie brushed dust off her shoulders. “I’ve had about enough of this.”

  “Are you all right down there?” Domenico shouted from above.

  She looked up. He and a rescue worker knelt within a large opening where the original tunnel had been. Beyond them stretched a starry sky. Relief flooded her.

  Jack scanned the room. “Not everyone is in the room.”

  “Is Enza with you?”

  “No, but I’ll find her.” He looked at the others and said in a softer tone, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “I will be right down with a paramedic,” Domenico called.

  Jack rushed out toward the library. Hank and Chaz hurried after him. Winnie hesitated. She had a bad feeling, too. “Be careful!” she called after them.

  She and Amara moved aside as the rescue team lowered a ladder down the slope. A paramedic climbed down, and she hoped they wouldn’t need him, but her fears grew as seconds ticked by and the others didn’t return.

  The rescue worker reached the bottom with Domenico following him. He looked around the main room. “Where are the rest? Can you show us?”

  She nodded. Feeling numb, she hurried toward the library with them trailing her. As they got closer, the air grew thick with dust. She covered her face with the hem of her shirt. At the door to the room, she stood back, gesturing for the men to go in ahead of her.

  “Dio mio!” Domenico rushed inside. “Enza, where are you?”

  Winnie peered in to see Jack, Hank and Chaz digging through a pile of broken bricks and rubble. Part of the ceiling had collapsed, co
mplicating their task. The newcomers began digging, too. Horrified, she did what she could by moving the closest debris into the corridor. Seeing what she was doing, Hank joined her.

  “Oh, no!” Jack’s interjection drew their attention to a hole he had just exposed. A man’s hand and wrist with watch stuck out from the rubble. “Hank, Chaz, help me!”

  The three of them pulled bricks off the arm, while rubble kept tumbling down on it. When the paramedic had room to get his fingers around the wrist, he checked for a pulse. His shoulders slumped. “He’s dead.”

  “We must find Enza!” Domenico shouted.

  They dug frantically, each person working in a different area.

  “Here she is!” Chaz pulled a chunk of plaster off the rubble and exposed Enza’s scratched and bleeding face. Her nose wrinkled with pain. “She’s alive!”

  Her father rushed to her side. “Enza, carina! Speak to me.”

  “Be very careful.” The paramedic knelt beside her and put a stethoscope to her chest while the others continued pulling chunks of brick and plaster away from her. “Stay still, signorina. We’ll get you out.”

  Her eyes flickered open and focused on her father. “Papa. Have we uncovered great treasures?”

  A tear rolled down his cheek and splashed on her face. “You are my treasure, carina. Hold on while we get you out of here.”

  “Her blood pressure is very weak,” the paramedic said. “She’s going into shock.”

  “I mean real treasure,” she said dreamily. “Jewelry, silver serving pieces, gold coins ... scrolls with lost texts.”

  Domenico picked up her hand and held it. “Those things don’t matter. Stay awake, tesorina.”

  “They do matter.” Her eyes closed. “This is why we exploded the grenades.”

  Her father’s jaw dropped.

  For a second, everyone stood still, looking at each other in disbelief.

  “You’re dreaming, Enza. Stay awake for me.”

  Her eyes opened briefly and closed. “Is Dr. Farber doing better?” she murmured.

  “He is being treated at the hospital.” His voice cracked. “You’ll see him there.”

  “We didn’t intend to hurt anyone. We just wanted to explore more ... and we only had one day left.”

  “You may dig as long as you like, Enza. Stay with me.”

  “The curse caught up with us.” Wincing, she lifted her head and looked around the room. “Did you get Dunk and Samuelo?”

  Domenico frowned at her. “Who is Samuelo?”

  “The engineer.” Her head dropped back. “He helped with the explosives.”

  Hank and Chaz exchanged alarmed looks. Turning to opposite sides of the room, they started digging furiously again.

  “We’ll find them,” Domenico said. “You rest now.”

  The paramedic looked at Winnie. “Can you go tell the squad we need a back board? In fact, you better make it two – or three.”

  She nodded and ran out of the room. On the way to the main chamber, she met with Amara leading two more paramedics carrying a board toward the library. “Your colleague says you’ll need three of those,” she told them. “Abbiamo bisogno di tre di quelli.”

  One of the men returned to the main room with her and climbed back up the ladder for additional boards.

  Figuring that the library held too many people already, she stayed in the main room. She probably could have climbed the ladder but didn’t want to leave without Chaz. Pacing back and forth, she tried to absorb the fact that Dunk was dead. It didn’t seem real. She wished Chaz would come out. She hoped Enza would be all right. What would Domenico do without his daughter?

  As it was, she supposed the girl would face some kind of charges after this mess, though maybe the brunt of the blame would fall on the engineer. He and Dunk must have cooked up the plan to start blowing things up. A teenage girl wouldn’t come up with an idea like that, but she might well be influenced by a strong personality like Dunk’s. Winnie almost felt sorry for her; then she remembered that people’s lives were still at risk, and the conspirators lost her sympathy.

  Amara returned from the library, her face wet and swollen with tears. “I can’t believe Dunk’s gone. That stupid, stupid man. I knew he was mad, but not quite as mad as this. I’m so angry with him – and with myself for not seeing this coming.”

  Winnie put an arm around her. “You can’t blame yourself for not preventing someone else’s insanity. Even if you had known how bad he was, you couldn’t have controlled it anymore than he could.”

  Fresh tears rolled from her eyes. “I should have known that Dunk and that engineer were up to something. They were always pulling each other aside and talking quietly. It struck me as odd, but Dunk has always had his eccentricities. I never imagined he was dangerous. That other lunatic – and that spoiled brat Enza – must have egged him on until he went over the edge. Why didn’t I stick my nose in and find out what they were up to? If I had, Dunk might still be alive.”

  As Winnie patted her on the back and murmured reassurances, two paramedics entered carrying Enza on a board, Domenico behind them. Her eyes were closed, and her jaw slack.

  While they painstakingly pulled her up the ladder, her father wrung his hands. “Why did I deny her?” he asked Winnie. “If I had allowed her the run of the estate, she and the others would be fine now.”

  “You were right to limit the dig,” she said. “You were right about there being grenades here.”

  His face etched with pain, he watched as the medics passed his daughter out into the night. Then he scrambled up the ladder after her.

  Chaz entered and walked up to them. “They’ve got the engineer. He’s alive but delirious – not making sense.”

  Two more medics came out carrying a second board. The engineer lay on it with his slick head immobilized in a neck brace. His sunglasses were missing. When Winnie saw his profile, the familiarity of it made her gasp. “Sam?”

  Her brother slid his gaze her way and winced. “Hey, sis.”

  She froze in shock, but it really was him. Fear for his life, mixed with disbelief that he could be involved, wrung her chest so tight she could barely breathe. Turning to one of the medics carrying him, she croaked, “How bad are his injuries?”

  The man shook his head. “He will need tests, but I do not see any obvious cause for alarm.”

  She gulped and looked back down at Sam, still not willing to accept the evidence. “What are you doing here?”

  As the paramedics maneuvered him up the slope, he smiled weakly at her, then grimaced in pain. “I did it for Dad. And you. So your work could truly be a tribute worthy of him.”

  “That’s insane. Sam, a man is dead. Your life could be in danger, too.” As the enormity of his recklessness sunk in, she choked on a sob. “You could have killed us all.”

  He made a face at her. “We didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. Things got out of hand. But to accomplish great things, you have to take risks. Dunk knew that – just like Dad. If we hadn’t tried the explosives, that’s what Dunk would have regretted.”

  She stared as they pulled him toward the hole above. He’s that far out of control, she thought. Soul-crunching grief weighed down on her. This is how Dad must have been in the end.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t bear the pain, another emotion broke through: anger. For the first time ever, her father’s suicide infuriated her. If he didn’t care enough about himself to maintain a respectable life, why couldn’t he at least have considered how his behavior affected the rest of the family? If he hadn’t deserted them, maybe Sam wouldn’t be this bad off now. Mom wouldn’t be a recluse, Christina a holy roller.

  And I wouldn’t be such a mess. She clenched her fists.

  Only when Chaz put his arm around her did she realize he was beside her. “That was your brother?” he asked gently as Sam disappeared into the darkness above.

  “Yes.” She looked at the sky through the hole. “He’s responsible for Dunk’s death, and he do
esn’t even care.”

  He frowned. “We don’t know the whole story yet. And it’s clear Dunk played a big part in this scheme, perhaps led it.”

  She held back a sob. “How could I have let this happen? How could I not have recognized him around the dig site?”

  He just held her, saying nothing.

  Amara stepped up beside them. “Winnie, you just told me that we can’t stop someone else’s madness. Heed your own advice. Somehow, Dunk and your brother found each other and validated each other’s madness until it spun out of control. You and I couldn’t see it, because we’re dwelling in the realm of the sane.”

  “Are we?” Winnie blinked at her. “Am I?”

  Chaz smoothed down her hair. “Of course you are.”

  Lifting her chin, he made her look him in the eye. He pinned her gaze, confirming his confidence in her, assuring her that he cared about her regardless of her crazy brother. Then he kissed her.

  Kissed her really well.

  Letting her body relax in his arms, she kissed him back. Dizzy with gratitude and love for him – yes, it felt like love – she actually began to believe him.

  VENTUNO

  WHEN THEY GOT back to the villa, Winnie asked Signora Vaccula to call a cab for her. “We’ll pick up the Punto tomorrow. I can’t impose on Domenico’s hospitality one minute longer. Please tell him I’m horrified by the role my brother played in the explosions. I’ll offer my apologies in person in the morning at the hospital.”

  “No, no, no!” The housekeeper held up both hands in a stop gesture. “I will not hear of your leaving. It is the last thing Signore Rentino would want.”

  “You’re too kind, but I can’t stay.” She dragged her exhausted body onto the staircase. “In fact, I’ll call a cab myself. I don’t want to trouble you further.”

  Chaz took her arm and climbed slowly with her. “Are you sure about this, Winnie? We’re all knackered, and it’s late.”

  “After what my brother did, I don’t know how I can face everyone again.” She leaned into him, shaking from the trauma and lack of sleep.