The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 3

by Christopher Cartwright

  Her mind raced to the cowboy Sam and Tom had found wedged into a crevasse in the ceiling of the lava tube yesterday. The foreman, Gallagher, had told them that the cowboy wasn’t part of his construction team, or his mines rescue team.

  She scanned the report for a photo of the cowboy sucked into the old Anasazi ruin. It was a picture of a very white male, sitting awkwardly atop a horse, with a big hat. He looked more like he was dressed up for the picture than to go ranching. None the less, he had a nice smile, and looked proud of himself.

  Elise then brought up the pictures Sam had taken of the cowboy they’d found in the lava tube. She stared at the picture.

  No. Surely it can’t be possible?

  A few minutes later, her satellite phone rang.

  “What have you got for me?” The Secretary of Defense asked.

  “It’s a long shot and I’m not a hundred percent certain I believe it myself.”

  The Secretary of Defense liked immediate answers. “What did you find?”

  Elise sighed. “There’s one hell of a strange story in Colorado…”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Inside the Sipapu

  After Ben had left, the cartel thug had left Jenn and Brody in the dark cave. He hadn’t tied Jenn up, or taken her food and water. Apparently, he’d trusted that her concern for her brother would keep her where he wanted her. With no light, they wouldn’t have dared to try to find their way to the surface anyway, she supposed.

  As the dark closed in around her, she fought the nausea and panic that came with her fear of enclosed spaces. Brody had been here for more than a day. She could tough it out.

  However, the thug had left her with a penknife, which she prudently carried in her medicine pouch. When she told Brody, he laughed. “That’s not traditional,” he said through hysterical gasps.

  “Fortunately for you, I’m not very traditional myself,” Jenn answered. She hoped he could hear the smile in her voice, but it didn’t matter enough to force it. She reached for him, feeling for the bindings around his hands. Ben had cut through those at Brody’s ankles, but Brody hadn’t attempted to stand while their captor had been in the room with them, and the man must not have checked.

  Once she’d found them by feel, Jenn began patiently sawing through the cords, and before long she’d cut through them. A trickle of sticky moisture indicated she’d nicked Brody’s skin at some point, but he hadn’t made a sound. When she took her hands away, she felt the shift in the air as he stood and stretched.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

  “But we can’t see,” she objected. Her claustrophobia paralyzed her and she was reluctant to move, in case they took the wrong direction and got stuck.

  “It’s all right. I know how to get out. Hold onto my shirt, and follow me.”

  Jenn knelt to feel for her backpack. “Wait, let me get my things.” Finding it, she took a swallow of water and held the valve end of the water tube out, bumping it into Brody’s body. He took it and she heard the gurgle of the water as he swallowed some. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.” She slung her backpack over one shoulder and took hold of his shirt with the other hand.

  “You don’t by any chance have a flashlight in your pack, do you?” Brody asked.

  “I do, but the battery is dead. Sorry.”

  Brody led the way slowly, and Jenn had the impression he kept one hand on the wall of the cave always. She lost track of the turns they made, but made no protest. There was little to choose from, between getting lost and waiting for the cartel guy to come and kill them. She had no illusion that he’d turn them loose, even if Ben got their drugs back to them and returned for her and Brody.

  The thought led her to another. “Brody, are you still worried about Skinwalkers?”

  “I guess not. I’m more worried about the live evil ones.”

  “I agree. To be honest, I think Skinwalkers were our version of zombies. And I don’t believe in zombies.”

  Brody gave a bark of a laugh. “You’re probably right. But I do believe this. Sound carries in these caves. We should be quiet, in case that guy is still in here.”

  Jenn fell silent. It was eerie, following Brody in complete silence through deepest darkness. But before long, she saw a faint light ahead. She tugged on Brody’s shirt, and he stopped. “What’s that light?” she whispered.

  “I hope it’s the entrance,” he said. “We should be nearly there.”

  Relief flooded Jenn, and she gave Brody a push to get him started walking again. As the light grew brighter, she knew he’d been right. They were in the large cave room just next to the kiva. They’d escaped!

  Emerging into the kiva, they heard a sound she couldn’t identify. She was right behind Brody on the ladder, even though he cautioned her it might not hold them both. So, she heard when he breathed a soft curse.

  “What is it?”

  He didn’t answer, but climbed the rest of the way out and held out his hand to help her do the same. When her head cleared the top of the kiva wall, she echoed his curse. A few feet below them, water flowed where the lower levels of the pueblo had stood before.

  “We’ve got to climb!” she cried. She looked around for a way up the cliffside from the indentation where the pueblo had been built, and found nothing.

  “I think it’s as high as it’s going to get,” Brody said hopefully. “Look, it’s mostly smooth water. The head of the flood must have passed already.”

  “Are you prepared to stake your life on that?” Jenn asked.

  “There’s not a whole lot of choice. It’s either stay here and prepare to hide or defend ourselves if that guy comes back, or go back into the caves. What do you want to do?”

  Jenn had to agree. She didn’t see a third choice. “Let’s get as high as we can and hide. But we need to watch that water. If it starts rising, we’ll have to get to the cave and as far from the entrance as we can.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  They settled for a perch in a nearby part of the apartment-like pueblo, where they could watch the water and still see the kiva wall. It wasn’t a good hiding place, but they didn’t find anywhere else that met all three requirements. And they agreed that the flood represented the greatest certain danger.

  “I wonder when this happened,” Brody said. “Do you think Ben got out?”

  His innocent question flooded Jenn with dread. “Oh, my God! Do you think he might not have?”

  “I guess it depends.”

  “The helicopter pilot who brought us here said he was watching weather from the up-canyon direction. How long has it been since we found you?”

  “Three hours? Maybe four… I don’t know, to be honest.”

  “That’s plenty of time for the flood to have made it here, even if the rain hadn’t started when the pilot set us down,” Jenn mused. “I hope he made it out.”

  When Brody didn’t answer, she kept the rest of her thoughts to herself. She’d never stopped caring for Ben. If he’d died in the flood, she would grieve, assuming she had the chance. But it also meant he wouldn’t have made it to the ranch and returned the drugs. And that meant they’d better watch the kiva for the cartel guy to come out, too, and be prepared to meet him with deadly force.

  “Brody,” she said, after thinking it through. “If that guy comes out of the kiva, we have to kill him.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “If Ben didn’t make it, they’re going to kill us over the loss of the drugs. Even if he did, that guy didn’t cover his face. We can identify him. It’s him or us.”

  “You sure the law will see it that way?”

  “I’d rather take my chances with the law than with that man,” she insisted.

  Moments later, the discussion became moot. Their nemesis dropped over the ledge above them on a rope, but he was too far away for them to reach him before he’d turned a handgun on them.

  “I see you’ve discovered you can’t go anywhere but back into the cave,�
�� he remarked, using a sinister and superior curl of his lip to display his amusement at their predicament. “Come on over here. We’re going back in.” He jerked his pistol to hurry them along.

  Standing with his back to the wall of the structure next to the kiva, he waited until Jenn and Brody had complied with his order. Then he instructed Jenn to secure Brody’s hands behind him.

  “How will he climb down into the kiva, with his hands bound?” Jenn objected.

  “You let me worry about that, sweetheart,” their captor sneered.

  Swallowing her disgust at the endearment, Jenn did as she was told. As she did, she noticed the water was lapping at their feet. It had risen only an inch or two, but the significance wasn’t lost on her. It was still raining upstream, and the constriction in the canyon meant the flood couldn’t spread out, but would continue to rise for as long as the rain lasted.

  “Now you go on up,” their captor instructed. “Get inside the kiva and wait for me.”

  Jenn did as she was told, and then watched as the man climbed over the wall and down with her.

  “Go on into the cave,” he said.

  “But Brody…”

  “Will live if the water doesn’t come any higher. Go on, now.” He waved the pistol at her.

  Jenn sobbed as she understood. Brody was left to drown if the water got high enough. With his hands bound behind him, he stood no chance in the flood. And what awaited her was as bad or worse. She’d rather die than endure this vile man’s hands on her.

  She stumbled into the cave, wildly seeking a defense against whatever he had in mind. Before she could spot a likely rock with which to brain him, much less pick one up, he was inside and had crowded her against the wall.

  “Don’t even think about it, sweetheart. Lucky for you, your boyfriend came through. We might even give you back to him, if he stays away from the authorities. But if you show any more initiative, you and I will have a bit of fun before we kill you. You understand?”

  Jenn nodded, choking down the urge to vomit. His body curved against hers from her shoulders to her knees, with the evidence of what he meant unmistakable. At her nod, he backed away slightly.

  “Will you behave, or am I going to have to tie your hands up, too?”

  “I’ll behave,” she gasped. “You asshole.”

  “Now is that any way for a lady to talk?” He laughed as if they were having a flirtatious conversation. “Walk. Straight ahead.”

  A flashlight beam appeared, and she put one foot in front of the other, following it. He was leading her into the third tunnel, the one Brody had said led deep into the mountainside.

  Jenn wondered if she’d ever see Brody, Ben, or the sun again.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Inside the Russian Railway

  Sam checked his watch. It was two a.m. and a little over two days since he’d boarded the old steam train and headed east along the ancient lava tunnel. Matvei appeared to be sound asleep, resting on his back along the cold steel plate in front of the coal tender. The place was narrow, but wide enough that he could almost stretch his legs all the way out.

  On the side of the coal tender, Tom climbed along the outside edge – the only way to travel from the first carriage to the engine cab – and up to greet him.

  “Good morning,” Sam said.

  Tom’s eyes rolled from Matvei’s snoring body, and the powerful headlights that lit the otherwise pitch-dark tunnel ahead. He smiled. “If you say so, buddy.”

  “How’d you sleep?”

  “Like royalty.” Tom smiled and handed him a pack of chips and caviar. “Here, I found these in a small refrigerator back on the second carriage.”

  Sam took the chips. They smelled distastefully like something left over from the fish markets. Although they were more likely to be something highly expensive, more like a delicacy. “What are they?”

  “No idea. The package is in Russian.”

  Sam took a couple and dipped them in the caviar. “Not bad. I’ve eaten worse in first class before.”

  Tom asked, “How’s our guest?”

  “He’s all right. Loves his train.”

  “Did he tell you anything about who he works for and where this trains going?”

  “Not a word.”

  Sam fed some more coal into the fire chamber and the two men carefully went through the process of balancing the fire mass. Tom had a better knack for it, but both were starting to develop the finer details of its maintenance.

  Sam asked, “Have you heard from Billie since she came back from the Amazon?”

  “Once. I called her. We didn’t speak long. Not that that means anything. She was never a big one for long conversations or talking about her emotions.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  “Since she was abducted by an ancient race, drugged, and forced to work for the Master Builders?” Tom shrugged. “Better than you would expect, but not good.”

  “What’s she doing?” Sam asked, knowing that it was unlikely Billie would ever be the one to ask for help.

  “She says she keeps having recurrent dreams about her time in the Amazon. She feels like she was supposed to do something vitally important, but no matter what she does, she has the feeling like she’s forgetting something.”

  Sam nodded. “The neurologist said it might take months for her brain to readjust after the trauma she went through.”

  “Sure. But Billie keeps telling me this is different. She says she feels fine about what happened. Better than fine. She feels good. As though it was the closest she’d ever come to reaching her life’s ambition to prove current existence of the genetically blessed descendants of the Master Builder race.”

  “So, what’s the problem?”

  “She feels like she’s forgetting the most important memory she’s ever had.”

  “Like what?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “But she did ask me a question that’s stirred my sixth senses.”

  “What was the question?”

  Tom swallowed hard. “What if the Master Builders wanted to release her so that she would return to normal civilization for a very specific purpose?”

  “What was that purpose?”

  Tom took a breath. “That’s just it. Billie’s certain it’s somehow scarred into her brain and she just can’t work it out yet.”

  Chapter Sixty

  Inside the Colorado Cave System

  Jenn had lost all sense of the time that had passed and the distance or direction she’d traveled before her captor called a halt. She’d been stumbling along in the dark, but ahead there seemed to be a faint glow. Unable to see, she’d been afraid to fumble for the only weapon she had and maybe drop it. Now she had a chance, as her eyes adjusted to the faint light and she saw her captor remove his night-vision goggles.

  “We’re about to surface. You need to follow my instructions to the letter if you want to live. Comprende?”

  “I understand,” she said. Everyone in these parts understood a little Spanish.

  He shoved her forward again. “Walk behind me. Keep up. Keep your eyes and your questions to yourself, and don’t make me repeat myself again.”

  Obediently, she fell into step behind him. Now was her chance, though she feared a tiny penknife was not going to do the job. She felt for it in her medicine pouch while she mentally reviewed her moves. Finding it, she unfolded it without missing a step. Then she glided forward silently.

  At the last moment, he must have heard or felt her breath too close to him. He turned, but not fast enough. She lunged forward, grabbing him around his head and plunging the knife blade into his neck, hoping she’d hit the carotid artery. He bucked, and she got one foot and leg in front of him to make him stumble, digging the knife in. She held on as he fell to the ground with her on top of him. She could feel the blood running over her hand and making her grip on the knife slip, but she clenched it tightly until she felt him stop struggling.

  It was still too dark to see f
or sure, but she couldn’t hear him breathing. Cautiously, Jenn pried herself up to stand, and immediately felt faint. She’d butchered animals before, but never a human being. Giving little thought to what she must look like, covered in blood, she staggered to the wall and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

  She had to get out of here. She didn’t think to grab the night vision goggles from the dead man’s hand. Instead, she moved toward the faint light. It was only a few minutes before the tunnel turned slightly and she could see the bright opening beyond. Thank God!

  Her steps became firmer as she moved quickly toward the light, her eyes fixed firmly upon the end of the tunnel. Until she tripped over something in her way. She looked down, puzzled, at the length of steel that had tripped her. Her eyes followed it from one side to the other, into a tunnel set crosswise to the one she was following to the opening.

  Still in shock over killing a man, she thought vaguely that it must be an old mine, but her mind refused to follow the thought, focused instead on leaving the cave and seeing daylight again. She stepped over the rail and across the ties to the other rail, stepped over that, and then began to run toward the entrance.

  Moments later, she stumbled out of the tunnel and looked around. Where am I? Which way is the ranch? She’d turned almost all the way around when she spotted something coming toward her fast. She squinted against the light, her eyes not quite adjusted after hours in the darkness. What she saw made her blood run cold.

  Several motorcycles! Their riders wearing black body armor and matching helmets, were rocketing toward her. She’d never outrun them in the open. She turned and fled back into the cave system. Desperate to get out of sight before the motorcycles followed her in, she instinctively turned into the perpendicular tunnel where the tracks led when she reached it.

  Behind her, she heard the roar of the bikes echoing down the tunnel. She whipped her head around to see if they’d followed, and lost her footing. She stumbled, fell, knocked the breath out of her lungs. The shock slowed her responses, but she pushed herself to a sitting position. Looking back toward the entrance, she couldn’t see the bikes or anyone following.