“Don’t ‘baby’ me,” she snarled. “I thought we had that straight. I’m not your baby, and I’m going to find my brother.”
“I just meant, I mean—I’m sorry, Jenn. He’s probably dead.”
She felt tears spill over and roll down her cheeks. “Then I’ll find his body.” She turned back and felt blindly for where the passage led. Then she felt Ben’s hands on her shoulders.
“This way,” he said gently. He guided her to the right, where the passage turned, keeping his hands on her shoulders as her tears cleared and she led the way.
It was clear that the passage had been carved from the living rock. The sides were straight, the passage just wide enough for one person, and barely high enough for Ben to walk upright. They hadn’t gone far when a voice called out from beyond.
“Who’s there?”
“Brody?” Jenn whispered. Then more urgently. “Brody! Is that you? Please, God, let it be you.”
“Jenn, thank God. Get me out of here, before he comes back.”
Jenn stumbled forward, with Ben on her heels. “Who did this to you, Brody?” She found him lying on his side, his wrists tied together, and his ankles both tied and tethered to a ring set into the wall.
“I don’t know. Do you have any water?”
She fumbled for the tube from her camelback and fed it into his lips. “Here. Don’t drink too much at first. Take it slow.”
Brody sipped, then tongued the valve out of his mouth. “Get me loose.”
Ben was ready with a pocket knife. He stepped forward, knelt, and began sawing at the bindings between Brody’s ankles. While he worked, Brody told them what had happened, though he couldn’t remember much.
“Someone knocked me out. I woke up here. He’s been back twice, and gave me water and a little jerky.”
“This is a Zeta’s hideout,” Ben explained. “I wonder why they didn’t just kill you.”
“He told me they were going to ransom me. In return for you leaving them alone, Ben.”
“Over my dead body,” Ben snarled. “Their poison is killing our youth. As soon as we get out of here, I’m going to the FBI.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” a new voice answered. “You see, that’s a problem for us.”
Chapter Forty-One
Sam explained to Gallagher what they’d found inside the cathedral grotto, including the discovery of the Gordoye Dostizheniye, their need to retrieve the strange stone artifact, and that it would need to remain a secret. The foreman had agreed to provide the heavy lifting equipment and whatever support was required to remove the stone while his own crew were down there making plans to retrieve the Big Bertha drilling machine. However, he noted the machine would most likely need to be dismantled before it could be brought back to the surface.
It wasn’t until shortly after lunch time that Sam and Tom, along with a small convoy of three Humvees, made their way back down into the strange volcanic tunnel. Gallagher had decided to come, too, so that he could see first-hand what they were dealing with. At the front of the procession was a twenty-ton all terrain Lift King – something Sam decided was a cross between a forklift and a Sherman tank.
The Lift King made for a slow journey, but there was nothing they could do about that. It was a real stroke of luck they could even get such a machine in to retrieve the Death Stone. At the back of the convoy, a team of engineers ran a long line of phone and power cables along the side of the wall. Sam noted that Gallagher was already thinking ahead and recognized that any attempt to dismantle and retrieve Big Bertha was going to be a drawn-out process of many weeks. Therefore, he wanted direct communication lines set between the worksite and the surface.
It was three in the afternoon by the time they reached the small barricade of fallen stalactites that had blocked their Humvee from originally reaching the grotto. The Lift King operator made short work of the barricade and the team continued to the cathedral grotto.
Tom parked the Humvee to the side of the subterranean lake and switched its engine off, but left the spotlights shining to cover the volcanic vault in light. Sam climbed out into the water. He along with the rest of the crew all wore waist high wading pants to stop him from getting wet in the shallow water while they worked. He looked at Gallagher, who was getting out of the back of the same Humvee with a big grin on his face.
The rest of the convoy parked in a neat line to the side of him.
Sam said, “Well… what do you think?”
Gallagher looked up at the giant grotto. “I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve been working underground since I was sixteen!”
“Do you want to go see your beloved boring machine?” Sam asked.
“Yes please.”
Sam switched on his flashlight. “Follow me.”
Gallagher turned to his second in charge, who was getting out of the second Humvee in the convoy. “Let’s get the men to set up some external lighting. I want this place to look like it’s permanently daytime.”
“Understood, sir.”
Tom said, “I’ll go give them a hand.”
“Thank you.” Gallagher looked back toward his 2IC and said, “And tell Ross and Tim I want one of them standing guard on Big Bertha the entire time and the other at this entrance in case anyone tries to come or go without my permission.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sam looked at Gallagher. “You brought security?”
Gallagher nodded. “They’re armed, too. Both licensed and carry pistols, too. I’m not taking any chance of someone causing any mischief to my damned machine now that we found her – especially since you told me you’ve seen evidence of someone boarding that Russian ship since the accident.”
Sam watched Gallagher’s eyes light up like a father reunited with his only child, climbing up into the boring machine. The foreman ran his hands lovingly over the various instruments, checking what worked and what didn’t.
When Gallagher was finished Sam asked, “How is she?”
Gallagher smiled. “She’s in a better condition than I would have ever expected. Heck, there’s barely a scratch on her. Do you have any idea what this means?”
“That you saved your shareholders a fortune?”
“More than that. It means the construction of the Transcontinental World Link can continue. We’re barely meeting budget as it is. If we’d lost Big Bertha, the project would have almost certainly been scrapped.”
Sam grinned. “I’m glad we could help.”
“You have no idea how much you’ve done for us.”
Outside the boring machine the workers had gotten the external spotlights working. As they warmed up, the entire north side of the cathedral grotto lit up.
Gallagher stepped out of the boring machine and into the water again. The Gordoye Dostizheniye shined under the lights and the scattered shipping containers reflected the lighting. It must have triggered his memory, because a moment later, Gallagher turned to Sam and said, “Okay, let’s go see that ancient stone you’re trying to steal.”
Sam’s lips thinned at the suggestion. “I assure you what I’m doing is perfectly legal…”
Gallagher’s eyes narrowed. “You think salvaging an artifact off a recently sunken ship before anyone realizes it’s down here is legal?”
“All right. So, it’s not legal.” Sam made a show of a deep sigh. “But I can give you my word that it’s more important than anything else on earth that I remove the stone before anyone else finds it.”
Gallagher shrugged. “You found my machine and saved the company nearly a hundred million dollars. I don’t care one iota if it’s legal or not – I’ll help you get your stone.”
“Thank you.”
“Which one of these containers has it?”
Sam pointed at one about a hundred feet away.
“Do you know how deep it is out there?”
“Not very. Maybe one to two feet at most. No more than knee-deep.”
“Where does it get deep?” Gallagher asked.
“About twenty feet off the Russian cargo ship. Everywhere else appears to be the same shallow depth.”
Gallagher nodded and then made a sharp whistle that echoed throughout the grotto. He called to the all-terrain Lift King driver. “Follow me.”
Sam, Tom and Gallagher waded through the water toward the specialized shipping container, followed by the Lift King.
He checked the photo on his cell phone which showed the security code and then keyed it into the keypad and pressed enter. The hydraulic locks shifted and the door opened.
Tom stepped inside first. “Sam, you’re not going to believe this!”
Sam tensed. “What now?”
“The Death Stone’s been removed.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Sam’s reaction was visceral. “No! It can’t be.”
“I know. That’s three things we’ve lost this week. If you didn’t own the company I expect you and I would get fired over this...” Tom stopped, having noticed Sam’s face.
“I don’t understand. We covered the original outside note that had the code written on it so no one else could get in.”
Tom expelled his breath slowly. “That means whoever stole the stone was watching us when we went inside.”
“How can someone have gotten to it without us noticing?” Sam asked. “More importantly, how could anyone have moved it out of here?”
“All right. Let’s think this through. We know the damned thing didn’t leave the way we came in. There’s nowhere to hide a machine big enough to move the stone within the lava tube.”
“So, where is it?” Gallagher asked, his bushy eyebrows narrowing.
Sam said, “There’s only one place we’re forgetting…”
Tom asked, “Where?”
“The opposite end of the cathedral grotto.”
Sam climbed into the driver’s seat of the Humvee. Flicked the engine to start and dropped the handbrake.
“What are you doing?” Tom asked.
“I’m driving to the other end of the lake. They can’t have much of a head start on us.”
“You don’t even know if its shallow enough to drive across.”
He looked out past the Gordoye Dostizheniye out toward the lake. The cathedral grotto was so massive that it looked like a subterranean sea more than a lake. On the horizon, the still water blurred with the stone ceiling into one, giving the impression of a sea that went forever.
Sam grinned. “Sure we do. Unless someone put the stone on a ship, we know someone picked up the stone in a large vehicle and drove across that lake. I’ll keep to the sides.”
Tom shrugged. “You’re crazy.”
“Are you coming with me?”
“Sure.” Tom climbed into the passenger seat. “It wouldn’t be the first time I followed you on some foolhardy expedition.”
“Take this. If you get into trouble, we’re all on channel twenty. Also, I’ve got communications topside if you need me to get a message through to your crew.” Gallagher handed him a radio. “Do you two have a weapon?”
“No.”
Gallagher shook his head and climbed into the Humvee’s back seat. “Ah… all right. I better come with you. I brought a handgun down in case we had trouble.”
Sam planted his foot hard and nearly eight thousand pounds of Humvee accelerated through the water. He kept to the left-hand side of the lake and still the bumper created a large bow-wave as it forced its way through the shallow water.
It was another twenty minutes before they reached the lake’s far end. The cathedral ceiling had disappeared here. In its place was a giant circumferential opening.
Sam stopped the car and opened his door to look up. “I guess that’s the sinkhole that swallowed the Gordoye Dostizheniye.”
Tom stared at it. One of the largest sinkholes in the world. Now blocked by an avalanche with millions of tons of glacial silt from the seabed above. “The ship must have only just fit through the hole by going bow or stern first.”
“The question is, where did the water go?”
“You don’t think this lake is the remnants of that water?”
“I do.” Sam swept the horizon of the lake with his flashlight. “But the water’s no longer high enough to float the Gordoye Dostizheniye, let alone travel the few miles back to where it now lies. Also, I’ve been looking at the edge of the water. The waterline appears to be getting lower.”
“It must be draining somewhere.”
Sam sat back in the Humvee and closed the door. “And that must be where our Death Stone has been taken.”
He put the Humvee into gear and continued driving. Up ahead, there was movement in the water. Not much, but if you watched it for a few seconds, it became obvious that the water was slowly flowing further south.
Tom said, “Just slow down a little. Something’s changing up ahead.”
Sam dropped down into low. “I see the ripples. What? Are you worried we’re about to drive over an underground waterfall?”
Tom smiled. “It had crossed my mind.”
“Me too. But I think the gradient change up ahead can’t be that steep, otherwise we’d see more of a response from this water.”
“Hope you’re right.”
A few minutes later, Sam took his foot off the pedal and the Humvee slowed. The headlights were being swallowed by a dark opening in the volcanic grotto up ahead. The water near it had noticeably picked up its pace, now racing toward the mouth of the new lava tube.
Sam squinted to make recognition out of what he was seeing. “What is that?”
Tom swallowed. “I’ve believe that’s the subterranean waterfall that doesn’t exist.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Sam shoved his foot hard on the brake pedal.
The Humvee’s thirty-seven-inch Goodyear military tires ground to a halt on the bed of obsidian below. The now fast-moving water, being drawn toward the descending lava tube, had little effect on the vehicle’s nearly eight thousand pounds of steel.
The entrance showed that the new tunnel was smaller than the lava tube between the surface and the cathedral grotto, but still plenty big enough for the Humvee to enter. Sam lifted his foot off the brake and edged closer.
Tom asked, “What are you doing?”
“Getting my stone back!”
“Whoa… wait a minute. What makes you certain that thing doesn’t drop away to our oblivion?”
Sam gently stopped a few feet from the entrance.
His eyes swept from the top of the opening to the bottom. The original waterline mark was above the top of the tube, meaning that an enormous amount of water had already made its way through the tunnel. At the lip of the entrance, the water was less than a foot deep, but was flowing extremely fast, drawn by the steep gradient.
The headlights lit up the new lava tube and Sam followed it with his eyes until they quickly became lost in its depth possibly hundreds of feet below. Along its base, water, no deeper than five or six inches, flowed freely down the twenty-something degree slope, like a giant waterslide.
Tom said, “You can’t possibly be thinking about doing what I think you’re going to do?”
“Why not?”
“For starters, you have no idea how far down that thing goes or if the Humvee can even fit. And second, you have no idea whether or not the entire section below us is completely full of water.”
Sam took his foot off the brake and the Humvee crawled closer. “Sure I do.”
“How?”
“Look at the lip of the lava tube.”
A small set of tank-tracks – the sort found on a bulldozer – lined the otherwise smooth, black, gloss of the volcanic stone base. There were multiple sets of tracks, as though someone had driven up as well as down the tunnel a few times before, carving deep indents into the otherwise hard stone.
“That’s our thief!” Tom said.
And Sam eased the Humvee down into the tunnel.
Chapter Forty-Four
The Humvee cre
pt slowly down the ancient lava tunnel, while the shallow water raced by. Sam kept a firm, but gentle grip on the steering wheel. Allowing the heavy four-wheel drive to pick its course. The drop continued for at least a hundred feet and then leveled out into a new volcanic dome. This one much smaller than where they’d just come from, but still magnificent.
The new cavern appeared a little smaller than the field of a football stadium. The headlights were able to reach the opposite end, faintly reflecting back at them from the glossy volcanic stone wall. To their right the water followed a small river. In front, Sam could see the watermark had once flooded most of the volcanic plateau.
He imagined the enormous sinkhole opening up in the cathedral grotto and the unimaginable number of gallons of water flowing down through this tunnel, where it spilled out into the new opening, before flowing to their right, in search of gravitational equilibrium.
“Which way?” Sam asked.
“Keep to the left,” Tom said without hesitation. “Our thief will be trying to stay away from wherever that water’s heading.”
Sam continued to drive.
Up ahead, something else began to reflect his headlights. Something long and straight, spanning the width of the volcanic dome.
“What is that?” he asked.
Tom said, “Keep going. It looks almost like railway tracks.”
Sam drove the Humvee straight ahead to the very end, where a pair of railway tracks ran right across the field of obsidian.
He stopped at the railway tracks.
Sam put the Humvee in neutral and pulled the handbrake. He switched on his flashlight, opened the door and stepped out.
To the left the tracks disappeared into a straight tunnel that appeared to go on forever, with the steel railway eventually blending in with the horizon. He turned and faced the opposite direction. The tracks continued into a different tunnel that looked almost identical. About forty feet into the tunnel the tracks disappeared.
Sam shined his flashlight across the railway tracks, trying to see where they went, or if they simply reached their end. The light reflected back at him in a series of ripples.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3 Page 41
