The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3

by Christopher Cartwright

  Rigor mortis had firmly set in and both his hands were clenched shut across his chest. In his right hand was a single piece of paper.

  Tom swore. “Good God, it’s a note!”

  Sam picked it up and read it out loud.

  *

  If you want the human race to survive, you need to convince the Secretary of Defense that this container was empty. The Death Stone needs to be removed in secret and examined by an Astronomer who has no connection with the U.S. Government. He or she will be able to work out what the stone means and what needs to be done.

  THEY are watching the Secretary of Defense.

  What she did twenty years ago must be kept secret if you want her to live.

  If you want anyone to live, you need to look to the stone for guidance. It has all the answers. Particularly the greatest one of all, for which THEY have killed to hide – how to save the human race from extinction.

  Ryan Balmain.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Jenn watched as the two hands who’d come out of the kiva headed down the canyon. They’d told her that the cave had split into three, and Brody had sent them and two others down the smaller passages just to be sure there was nothing there. They’d found the end of theirs, and so had the other two, who volunteered to go after Brody and his companion.

  She’d told them there was no sense in waiting and sent them back to the ranch along with the man who’d been with her. She assumed Brody and the others would be out soon, and then they could all go home.

  Jenn was as anxious to establish her brother’s innocence as to understand what had happened to Malcom. Brody’s story was so far-fetched that even she had trouble believing it. She couldn’t imagine what the authorities would make of it.

  While she waited for Brody and the other three to come out of the sipapu, she ruminated on what she’d learned from her grandmother, and softly hummed an atonal chant to settle Malcom’s spirit, if indeed it roamed as she assumed it did. She hadn’t known Malcom well, but from what she’d seen of him and the fact that her brother considered him a friend of sorts, she thought he was a good enough guy. He hadn’t deserved to die this far from his family.

  At the same time, she was annoyed with him for disrupting the sanctity of the kiva and drawing her brother into a potential legal situation. Brody had always been special to her. The only child younger than she in an extended family consisting of her father’s four natural children and his sister’s three, not to mention their extended families, she was closer to him than to her older sisters and brothers. As his babysitter until he went to school, she’d protected him from bullies both inside and outside the family. She was determined to protect him from the consequences of Malcom’s disastrous disappearance in any way she could.

  She sat alone with her thoughts for another couple of hours as night fell and the air turned cooler, and she’d begun to be concerned about the four men who were still inside the sipapu. Should she wait for them? Or had they made shelter somewhere inside? Already it would be unsafe to attempt to scale the canyon wall, but she wasn’t prepared for a night under the stars.

  She was still debating and leaning toward seeking a less exposed position somewhere inside the ruins when a noise alerted her to people emerging from the sipapu.

  “Brody?” she called.

  “No, he’s not with us,” came the answer. It was too dark to see who’d answered her.

  In a moment, the head of one of the hands appeared at the top of the ladder. “Brody isn’t here?” he asked.

  “I thought you went to find him?” Jenn answered.

  “We did find him. We went on to explore a bit more, but he headed back. He should be here.”

  Jenn jumped to her feet, alarmed. “How long ago?”

  By now, the hand who was conversing with her had climbed out, one of his companions was on the way down the ladder, and the third man was at the top of the inside ladder, waiting for his turn to climb down the outside. The second man reached the bottom and shrugged. “Two and a half, three hours?”

  The others agreed. “More like three,” the third man said.

  “Could he be lost?” Jenn was trying not to panic, but with dark falling she couldn’t help but worry about the drug dealers who might be back tonight. She firmly pushed away old superstitions about spirits, though. That was the last thing she needed, and she didn’t know who among the three men with her might hold to the old ways despite their modern education.

  The others exchanged looks. “Don’t think so,” the first man finally said. “It’s pretty much a straight shot. There are two other tunnels, but one didn’t go far, and the other one got really narrow. Even if he’d gone down one or both, he’d have turned around. And we’d have seen him if he came back our way.”

  “Then what could have happened?” she asked. “And what do you mean by tunnels?” The others hadn’t said tunnels.

  “There are three narrow passages off the main room after you get into the sipapu. They’re long, more like tunnels than caves. I guess he could have gone into one of those other tunnels, and then maybe his batteries died and he’s waiting for someone to find him and lead him out,” one said.

  “Can you go back in and check?” she asked, knowing it was asking a lot. She was still worried about the drug dealers, too. They had to be on the minds of the three ranch hands as well.

  “Sorry, Jenn. Our flashlights are just about dead, too. We don’t even have enough light to get up the cliffside,” the first man answered. “I think we’re going to have to bunk here until morning. Brody should be all right. There’s nothing in there that could hurt him.”

  Jenn was worried, but the others were calm enough to help allay her fears. She still didn’t want to encounter drug dealers, and she didn’t want Brody to, either. But if he wasn’t in the main tunnel, he’d probably be okay until they could reasonably get to him. She just hoped he hadn’t somehow injured himself.

  “Okay, I guess there’s nothing else we can do. We should probably find a place to bunk besides right here, though.”

  Agreeing to stick together, they explored the nearby structures with the last of the remaining light from the flashlights, and found a room with a soft layer of sand deposited inside. It was a tight fit, but they all managed to settle in. Jenn lay awake until the others’ steady breathing told her they were asleep. When she finally drifted off, her last conscious thought was to hope Brody didn’t get too thirsty or hungry before they found him.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Brody woke to utter darkness with a pounding headache. He’d never known so profound a lack of light, and at first thought he was dreaming. Then a voice interrupted his thoughts and confirmed he was indeed awake.

  “What are you doing here?” The voice was rough, the tone accusatory.

  “I’d like to know the same thing,” he answered.

  It was a mistake. A slapping blow to his face whipped his head around halfway, and made his head throb.

  “I’ll ask one more time. Don’t be a smartass. What are you doing here?”

  Brody answered cautiously this time. “I don’t really know where ‘here’ is. I was inside the sipapu to find the body of my friend, Malcom. He got sucked in by some kind of weird wind. That’s all I know, honest.”

  A grunt was all he got in return. In the silence, he was left to wonder how the other person, a man he assumed, had known he was awake. He started to lift his hand to feel and make sure his eyes were actually open, but found he couldn’t. Another attempt let him understand that his wrists were restrained somehow. He couldn’t reach as far as his face.

  As the fog lifted from his brain, he remembered the drugs they’d found. They must have belonged to this guy, or a group he was part of. He considered saying something about it, and thought better of the idea. Better not to let his captor know he had any knowledge of the drugs. Maybe he’d get out of this alive, since he hadn’t seen the guy’s face.

  A hiss, a click, and light suddenly blinded
him. So much for not seeing his captor’s face. It leered at him from across a small cave-like room, fully visible in the light of the lantern the man had lit. Brody averted his face and shut his eyes, but it was too late.

  “You were walking toward the entrance. I didn’t see a body,” his captor accused.

  “We didn’t either,” Brody explained, continuing to hold his eyes shut. “I thought it was useless to keep searching. I was just leaving.”

  “We? How many?”

  Was this the time to lie? Had the guy already captured the others? Were they all out of the cave by now? Brody had no sense of the length of time he’d been unconscious, but a hollow stomach told him it had been hours, at least. He decided his own health demanded the truth. “I left three others deeper in the main tunnel. Two had already gone out.” He didn’t mention Jenn.

  “Did you see anything unusual?”

  Brody thought the guy must be talking about the drugs. He would lie about that. He’d already decided. “No. What do you mean?”

  “Never mind. We’ll see about your story, and you’d better be telling the truth. Why did the two leave?”

  “They’d already found the end of their tunnel, and so did the other two men. Two came to find us in the third, and I left them with the guy I was with because they wanted to know where that one led.”

  “Third….” The stranger stopped himself. “Okay. Wait here.” He chuckled and doused the lantern, leaving Brody in pitch black darkness again.

  Brody waited, hardly daring to breathe. After what seemed like a long time, he strained all his senses, hoping to detect anyone else’s presence with him. Finally, he concluded he was alone. He tried to stand, only then understanding the guy’s chuckle. His legs were also restrained, and he couldn’t get them under him, no matter what he tried. Eventually he stopped trying and accepted that he might die in this dark place. Unless his captor came back with even worse plans for him.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Tom removed his backpack and threw it into the back seat of the Humvee, before climbing into the driver’s seat. He flicked the ignition switch to the start position and the powerful 6.5L turbo diesel turned over and rumbled into life. He switched the headlights on and made a sharp three-point turn before heading back the way they’d come.

  Sam was silent in the passenger seat. Tom guessed he was most likely thinking over the complications of the note they’d discovered inside the shipping container and the logistics of removing the ancient megalithic stone.

  Content in the silence of his own thoughts, he concentrated on maneuvering the cumbersome vehicle through the constantly undulating and twisting ancient lava tube. He was able to drive faster on the returning trip, no longer having to take into account any unexpected obstacles.

  Twenty minutes into the trip he spotted the short and steep forty-foot hump in the tunnel they’d climbed and dipped down into earlier on the drive in. It reminded him of a short roller coaster with its sharp upward section, short narrow crest and steep descent. He planted his foot down hard on the accelerator and the heavy Humvee picked up speed for the approach.

  He hit the steep section at speed and the Humvee rapidly cruised to the top, slowing down as it reached the crest. Tom grinned. It was hard not to enjoy the ride. And then everything changed – because a pool of dark liquid had formed on the road.

  “Stop, stop!” yelled Sam.

  Tom jammed his foot on the brake, and the Humvee slid to a stop. “What did you see?”

  “Back up, back…”

  “What is it?”

  “You didn’t see it?” Sam asked. “Back up to the peak, just before the crest.”

  Tom shoved the Humvee into reverse and planted the accelerator again. The engine whined under the restraint of the lower gearing ratio.

  “Okay. Stop!” Sam said.

  Tom stopped the Humvee and pulled up the handbrake. “What do you see?”

  It was unlike Sam to get so rattled all of a sudden. His eyes studied the ground in front of the hood. It was covered in more of that strange reddish-brown dirt they’d found at the base of the volcanic dome. In the middle of the tunnel, a small patch of dark liquid had been soaked up by the soil. At a guess it could have been anything from water to oil.

  “Well… how do you suppose that occurred?” Sam asked, unclipping his seatbelt.

  Tom shrugged. “The liquid could be anything.”

  “Liquid? What liquid?”

  “On the crest of the hill, there’s a darkened area of soil. I thought that’s what you were getting so excited about. What were you looking at?”

  Sam opened the door and pointed to the ceiling above. “That!”

  Tom followed him. His eyes darted to the volcanic ceiling above, where two sections of the lava tube had come together to form a rocky gap. Wedged into that crevasse were the remains of some unfortunate individual.

  His eyes narrowed and his mouth opened as he turned to face Sam. “How in heck does anyone get stuck up there?”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  It took an hour for Sam and Tom to remove the body from the crevasse, using the cabin roof of the Humvee as a climbing platform. Sam studied the body with a cursory glance from the head down. It was covered in so many grotesque bruises that it almost appeared inhuman. What was recognizable was the man’s torn jeans and cowboy boots. They seemed somewhat out of place given their location.

  “What the hell happened to him?” Tom asked.

  Sam said, “I don’t know. It looks like he’s been thrown around this tunnel system like a moth caught in a vacuum cleaner, bouncing into every edge until his body finally became stuck.”

  “The strange wind that Gallagher told us about that brought with it all that red dirt?”

  “Exactly. But where the strange air vent had come from and how one of Gallagher’s men got caught up in the wind this far down the tunnel, I have no idea. He looks more like a cowboy than a machine operator.” Sam looked at the body and then back to Tom. “Come on. Give me a hand to move him into the tray and let’s go give the bad news to Gallagher so he can identify him.”

  It took another hour to reach the surface. Tom stopped the Humvee just outside the entrance to the main boring tunnel. Sam stepped out and met Gallagher as he approached.

  Gallagher asked, “Any luck?”

  Sam nodded. “We found your machine. It’s a long way down, but it looks intact.”

  “Really. That’s great news!” Gallagher then tensed and held his breath. “Any news for my men? Or the mine rescue team?”

  “I’m sorry. Your men must have been separated from Big Bertha during the accident. It was completely empty when we found it. We found the remains of one person in the tunnel, but I’m not sure whether it belongs to one of your machine operators or a member of the rescue team.”

  “Can I have a look?”

  “Yes. Of course.” Sam led him to the back of the Humvee and pulled back the blanket they’d used to cover him.

  Gallagher took off his hat out of respect and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

  “Did you know him well?” Sam asked.

  “No. I’m sorry I have no idea who this man is. He definitely wasn’t one of my men – and he definitely wasn’t one of the men from the rescue team.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Cloud Ranch

  On the morning after their chilly night in the ruins, Jenn and two of the three hands set out to return to the ranch house for supplies. They left the third to guard the entrance, in case Brody finally stumbled out. When they got to the ranch, Ben Whitecloud was not in his office.

  “Where’s Ben?” Jenn demanded after looking everywhere in the immediate vicinity. No one answered the question, because no one was around to hear it.

  She was anxious to accompany whoever was going back to look for Brody. She went into the ranch kitchen pantry to retrieve as many flashlight batteries as she could find, and then went back out to recruit some help. She found one of the two hands
she’d sent home the night before in the barn, saddling a fresh horse.

  “Ben went into town. Why?”

  “Oh. Come with me. I need someone to help me find Brody.”

  The hand tilted his head. “Find Brody? What do you mean?”

  Jenn realized he may not have heard. “Brody never came out of the sipapu last night, and everyone was out of batteries for their flashlights.”

  “Oh, man,” the hand answered. “Okay, wait here. I’ll round up a few of the others and go with you.”

  Jenn went back to Ben’s office, and for the first time, thought about what they might be up against. She called Ben on his cell phone.

  “Ben, are you still in town?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Something bad is going on, and I think it has to do with the drugs Brody found inside that ruin. We’re in over our heads. Can you get a helicopter?”

  “Why do we need…”

  “Listen. Brody’s missing now. When we find him, he may be hurt and unable to climb out of that canyon. I don’t want to risk another delay.” She didn’t mention they hadn’t found Malcom, assuming the hands had already told him.

  “I’ll do my best. Wait for me there.”

  It was less than an hour later when Jenn heard the distinctive sound of the police helicopter overhead. She ran outside. If she could hitch a ride in the helicopter, she could get to Brody even faster. She’d go into the sipapu herself if she had to. The others could bitch about sacred kivas all they wanted. It was her brother in distress, and she was going after him.

  She ran back into the kitchen on that thought and collected some food and water to carry with her. Brody would be hungry. Thirsty, too. By the time she got back outside, the helicopter had landed in the broad swath of mown desert scrub that served as the front lawn for both the ranch house and the bunkhouse.