The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3

by Christopher Cartwright

  Tom’s brown eyes were wide and focused with steely determination. His jaw was set hard, but at the same time he wore a genuine smile, baring a full complement of evenly spaced, white teeth. It made Tom appear insane. Almost eager for a fight where he held the unfair disadvantage. It was the happiest and most alive Sam had seen his friend in a number of weeks. The first time in a long time Tom had been given a real enemy to take out his anger and frustration. He’d almost forgotten how fearsome his friend could become when it was necessary. Tom’s façade of being a gentle giant dissipated instantly when the need to fight arose, and all other options had been ruled out.

  Sam said, “He doesn’t look like he wants to surrender. I’ll take the guy on the left, and you take the one on the right.”

  “Okay, that seems fair.”

  Sam reached into his right cargo pocket and withdrew his handgun. The Glock 31 was an extremely reliable weapon. He fired two shots before the first guy with the shotgun even lifted his weapon. The loud report of shots being fired from both Glocks echoed simultaneously.

  His eyes darted toward the ringleader in the middle. Sam aimed directly at the man’s chest. He was close enough he was certain he would hit it. Famine fidgeted with his right hand, as though he was contemplating reaching for the gun. It would take extraordinary reflexes for the stranger to get a shot off, let alone two before Sam or Tom killed him.

  “I wouldn’t,” Sam said.

  The tunnel echoed with the sound of footsteps running heavily in the distance. “My men are coming. You’ll never get to keep me prisoner. You may as well hand yourselves over to me now.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  Famine shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  Famine feinted resignation, and then reached for his gun.

  Sam puts two bullets into the man in an instant. Famine man fell backward, landing hard. Tom picked up one of the dead guy’s sawn off shot guns. He fired a round down the tunnel, instantly stopping the progression of more attackers who were following the sound of gunfire.

  Sam placed a firm hand on Tom’s shoulder. “Come on let’s go. You’re not going to win the fight like this.”

  Tom pumped another shell into the gun in his hands, and then bent down to pick up the second shotgun. His eyes were now wild, like a possessed fiend released into the battlefield. “You got a better idea?”

  Sam nodded. He pointed the Glock at Sadik’s head. “You’re coming with us.”

  “Where?” Sadik asked.

  “Back to the washroom.”

  Tom fired another round down the tunnel. A second later he heard shots being returned. Tom moved quickly and followed Sam and Sadik back into the washroom.

  “Now what the hell are you going to do?” Sadik asked.

  Sam looked at the entrance to the small chamber. “Can you close that stone door?”

  “Sure, but I don’t see what you’re going to do. What are you going to do, wait forever?”

  Sam pointed the Glock back at Sadik’s head. “Close it or I’ll kill you myself.”

  Sadik nodded. He undid the steel locks, more recently installed to prevent the accidental movement of the gigantic rolling stone. He tried to shift the heavy stone, but it didn’t move. Hundreds of years fixed in the one position had caused it to sink a miniscule amount into its stone cradle.

  “Hurry up!” Sam shouted.

  “I can’t move it!”

  Shots whipped past him inside the washroom. “Tom, give him a hand.”

  Tom fired a blast out the door from each of the shotguns and then ran toward the stone door. It was shaped like a giant wheel. He placed his shoulder on its edge, while Sadik pulled from the front of it.

  It still didn’t move.

  An attacker stepped into the room. He fired a single shot from his shotgun, without aiming. The spray went wild. Sam stepped forward and placed two bullets in the man’s head before he could reload. Another man started to climb down the ventilation shaft up ahead. Sam waited, watching the man climb down, until he was completely visible before firing at him.

  He felt a stabbing pain right through his chest, as though he couldn’t breathe. With whatever breath he had left, he swore – because it was the man in black robes. Sam fired another two shots right in the middle of the man’s chest and still he kept walking towards him. He must have been wearing a Kevlar vest underneath his black robe.

  The man laughed hysterically. “I told you, you can’t kill me – I am forever… I am above death – I am Famine!”

  Sam turned and retreated inside the chamber. “Tom! Close that fucking door!”

  He joined Tom and Sadik, who were pushing the edge of the stone wheel with all their might. Sam’s additional weight was just enough to start the movement. It rolled slightly.

  “Don’t let them close the door!” Famine said to one of his men.

  Sam saw the man running. He’d taken the opportunity to move fast, while none of them were shooting outward. The door kept rolling.

  The attacker dived.

  He was too late. The door rolled across his chest and the weight of the stone sliced him in two from his upper chest downward. The man’s eyes stared up at Sam in horror for an instant, before rolling into the back of his head.

  Sadik quickly wedged a heavy stone next to the wheeled door, to make it impossible for someone on the outside to roll the stone back into its cradle again. Sam slowly walked over to the door, and tried to move the wheel. It didn’t budge an inch. He breathed out deeply.

  Sadik said, “Now we’re trapped, what are you going to do about it?”

  Sam smiled. “You can wait here if you want, but I think I’ve seen enough of Derinkuyu for the time being.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sam leaned over the edge of the well and glanced at the stilled water looking back up at him. Behind him Tom still gripped the twin shotguns, as though he expected someone to break through the thousand pound stone door at any moment.

  Sadik looked into the well and then back up at Sam. “I bet you wish you hadn’t dropped your diving equipment already?”

  Sam shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. We’re still getting out.”

  “How do you plan to do that?” Sadik’s face was covered in sweat, as he studied the well as though he was only truly seeing it for the first time.

  “There’s a ventilation shaft about fifty feet north of here,” Sam said. “It’s not a particularly difficult swim.”

  “Do you know where it leads?”

  “No,” Sam admitted.

  “You might be walking straight into them,” Sadik pointed out.

  Sam checked his compass, making a mental note of the direction where the ventilation shaft ran. “If we can’t get through, we’ll come back here and start again.”

  “If you can’t get through there’s always the front door,” Tom said. He spoke with indifference as though he was just as happy to open the door and fight his way out, as he was to swim through to another exit. “There can’t be more than twenty of them left?”

  Sam glanced at Sadik and smiled. “See, we have lots of options.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Sam dropped like a pin into the well. He floated to the surface and looked up. The plan was that when they were all ready, he would dive down and start swimming toward the ventilation shaft to the north. Sadik would follow twenty or so seconds later to make sure he didn’t land on Sam. Twenty seconds after that, Tom would follow last. So long as his navigation was correct, he would reach the ventilation shaft in under a minute. Sadik would then follow his light, and Tom would follow Sadik’s light.

  He looked up at Sadik and Tom. “You ready, Sadik?”

  “Ready as I’m going to be,” Sadik replied.

  “Okay.” Sam hyperventilated for about thirty seconds, before turning and diving head first down to the ancient water cistern below.

  Without a facemask the water was an obtuse blur of refracting light. Sam squinted and tried to focus on the small arrow of
his compass. He concentrated heavily, but his mind couldn’t discern the shapes as an N for north, or S for south. He closed his eyes and opened them again. The image wasn’t any better. It was a fifty, fifty gamble – with death awaiting all of them if he got it wrong.

  Sam had checked the compass before descending into the water, so that he started out facing north, but it was impossible to know his current direction after spinning round to dive. Years of free-diving and SCUBA had given him an uncanny knack for navigation. His additional senses in his gut told him that he was facing north. It was good enough for him. He knew that he would become more disoriented each time he dived, and that his first instinct was usually the right one, even if he couldn’t explain how he had reached such a conclusion.

  He kicked hard, focusing on maintaining a straight line. He swallowed gently to equalize his ears, and relieve the slightly painful pressure. Sam started to feel heaviness in his chest as he fought the autonomic muscles of his diaphragm from contracting and forcing him to take in a deep breath. Time was running out quickly.

  If he’d made the wrong choice, he knew there was no way he could reach the original well. More frightening still, was the knowledge he had no way of telling Sadik and Tom if he’d made a mistake. Unable to go backward, he continued to swim harder. He could hear his heart pounding in the back of his head. He normally had no trouble holding his breath for sixty seconds, but the situation, the cold, and the vigorous swimming were taxing his capacity. He knew that if he could make it, Tom easily could, also. They could only hope Sadik was fit enough and a good enough swimmer to keep up.

  Thirty seconds later, he saw a darkened opening ahead. His only recognition of the image was that his flashlight no longer stopped at the ceiling, instead it was swallowed by a roundish vacuum. Sam kicked harder until his hands gripped the opening and pulled himself inside the ventilation shaft. He looked up and kicked harder until he reached the surface.

  Gasping for air, Sam quickly turned his flashlight downward to highlight the opening for the others. There was just enough room for two people to squeeze into the ventilation shaft. He waited another forty seconds for his breathing to settle, and was about to dip down to make sure Sadik had followed his light, but instead Sadik broke the surface and gasped for air.

  “You okay?” Sam asked.

  Sadik nodded, unable to speak because he was breathing so hard.

  Sam dipped his head into the water for a moment and saw Tom’s light approaching. He started to climb the ladder to make room for Tom. Sam climbed about ten feet up and then waited for Tom to surface.

  “You okay?” Sam asked.

  “Never better,” Tom said.

  “Good. When you guys catch your breath, come on up.”

  He climbed to the top of the ventilation shaft and waited for Sadik and Tom to follow. By the time the other two men reached the top, Sam was waiting at the crossroads about thirty feet down the tunnel. Sadik was breathing hard after the swim and the climb, but he studied the room as though he was trying to place a mental image of his location.

  “Do you know where we are?” Sam asked.

  Sadik took a deep breath and settled. “Yeah, we’re standing in the old Ottoman tunnels.”

  “The Ottoman tunnels?” Sam asked.

  Sadik looked around at the two large store rooms to the east and west. “During the Ottoman invasion in the fifteenth century, these tunnels were built by the Cappadocian Greeks as a secret means of entering and exiting their underground refuge.”

  Sam shined his flashlight down the northern tunnel, where the light eventually trailed off to nothing. “How long is this tunnel?”

  “Roughly three miles.”

  “And where does it come out?”

  “Somewhere beneath the Fairy Chimneys.” Sadik shook his head. “I’m not sure where exactly. It was closed years ago. It might not even be passable anymore.”

  Sam turned to the southern direction. “What about that way?”

  “It comes out close to where we entered Derinkuyu.”

  To the south, the sound of voices speaking rapidly echoed toward them.

  Sam turned to Sadik. In a whisper, he said, “Can they get into here?”

  “No. Not unless they have a key,” Sadik said.

  A moment later, almost in response to the question, the tunnel echoed with the sound of a small explosion.

  Tom withdrew his Glock, looking as though he regretted not making the effort to carry the shotguns. He looked at Sam. “It appears they found a key.”

  Sam said, “Run!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sadik was the fastest, with Sam and Tom following just behind. All three of them ran down the northern tunnel. It was the quickest three miles Sam had run in a long time. His breathing was hard and his chest burned from the effort. They’d run the entire trip without stopping. On two occasions, Sam had considered resting for a moment, only to hear the sound of shotguns being fired at them from behind. The spread of shotgun pellets were still a long way off from hitting them, but it was a good incentive to keep moving.

  Sam turned the corner and the tunnel came to an end. The wall in front had been sealed with some sort of mortar long ago. He quickly studied the dead end, shining his flashlight in all directions, looking for any other ways out. There were none.

  Sadik looked like he was about to collapse with exhaustion. His face was flushed and he was unable to speak because of the effort being used to keep breathing. Behind them, another shotgun fired. It was getting closer.

  Tom took up a firing stance, aiming his Glock down the tunnel. “I guess we’re back to square one. We’re going to have to fight our way out.”

  “Forget it,” Sam said, removing his dive knife and stabbing at the wall. “Give me a hand to break through this wall.”

  The soft, volcanic rock broke away and crumbled with each movement. It had been cemented up using a mixture of mortar made from volcanic rock and lime to make cement-like glue. Sam pried at the mortar that held a large stone in the wall. It was made using ground up pumice and lime, making it brittle and weak. The stone came free easily enough and Sam pulled it out. Tom threw his weight into the wall, and tried to pull out another stone using his bare hands. The wall started to move under his strength.

  Behind them, another shot fired. A few pellets embedded themselves on the wall about ten feet away. Sam dropped his knife and started kicking the wall. Tom joined in, too, while Sadik fumbled away pulling at the remaining stones.

  Another shot fired loudly.

  It sounded like it was less than a hundred feet away. Sam turned and fired three rounds from his Glock down the tunnel, giving his attackers the tiniest of pauses. When they fired again, Tom ran toward the wall, putting all two hundred and sixty pounds of his weight into it. The entire wall shook and began to fragment. He hit it again, and more stone and mortar fell to the floor. Sam joined him on the third attempt, and both men fell through the wall.

  It opened into the dining room of a cave hotel. The walls showed the classic stone formation found throughout Gerome. At least fifteen people were eating dinner, and stood up at their intrusion. A waiter still held a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice.

  “Sorry,” Sam said, as he glanced at the waiter.

  The room was suddenly filled with the reports of multiple shotguns being fired. Tom fired several shots back into the opening he’d just created. He yelled, “Everybody out!”

  Pandemonium engulfed the quiet restaurant as people fled. Sam emptied the remaining rounds from his Glock into the opening. He looked at Sadik and Tom. “Let’s go.”

  They ran up a series of stone steps, passing four levels before reaching the ground floor and entrance to the hotel. Two waiters blocked their exit. Tom pushed through the two waiters who tried to stop them, sending them flying onto their backs. He didn’t apologize. Instead he kept running. They pushed through the large glass doors, and ran out into a world right out of the mind of Walt Disney when he conjured up Disn
eyland.

  The Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia appeared magical as they were lit up with thousands of fluorescent lights. The ancient stone towers looked perfectly suited for a fantasy ride in the Magical Kingdom. But this was no one's fantasy, and the ride they were on was starting to no longer be any fun.

  Sam heard more shots being fired. The shotguns sounded like they had been replaced by handguns. He hoped his pursuers hadn’t spotted them yet, and were just firing into the air to get his attention. A moment later several bullets whirred through the air next to his head – okay, they got it all right.

  Tom fired back while Sam was still trying to work out where the shots were coming from. The report of multiple shots went quiet, and Sam spotted two men falling down a set of stone stairs about forty or fifty feet away.

  He turned to Tom and smiled. “Nice shooting.”

  Tom loaded another magazine. “Thanks.”

  Sam swept the landscape in a single glance. A series of stone stairs and walkways mingled around the brightly lit and colorful Fairy Chimneys through heights ranging from thirty to a hundred and twenty feet. Florescent lights lit up various aspects with deep blues, purples, greens and reds. A tall man with a barreled chest ran out of the Aria Cave Hotel, where they’d just left, holding a shotgun. He fired straight toward them. Sam and Tom ducked.

  Sam heard the loud click of the pump-action ejecting the spent round and chambering a fresh one, over the sound of bystanders and tourists fleeing. It was instantly followed by the massive report of the weapon firing again and the soft volcanic rock above their heads was splintered into a thousand pieces.

  Sam and Tom stood up simultaneously and sent two rounds each into the man’s chest. His vacant eyes looked at his shotgun, unable to accept his fate, before rolling down the stairs – dead before he struck the pavement below.

  “Sadik’s run off without us!” Sam said.

  Tom shrugged. “Can you blame him? We nearly got him killed. He’s got a better chance of hiding without us.”