D. L. Thomas

Backlash

To Heidi, Madison, and Quentin for their never-ending love and support.

Chapter 1 — LEWIS

Quinn Lewis’s lean, muscular body exploded from the water like a trident missile launched from a barely-submerged submarine. His lungs went into overdrive as every muscle in his body screamed for more oxygen. The thundering just behind his heels told him that his pursuers were right with him, and wouldn’t be giving up. Lewis’s legs pumped harder and harder as he sprinted the last ten yards to the river bank and through the finish line in a new record time of 3 hours, 28 minutes. Second and third place were less than ten seconds back — the closest Lewis had come to relinquishing his title in the last seven years of the Cascade Downriver Challenge.

The Challenge is an adventure race from high on Washington’s Mt. Adams to the south bank of the Columbia River. The race begins with a treacherous downhill mountain bike course, which has enough blind, hairpin turns to destroy dozens of bikes as they fly off course into century-old pines. The competitors who survive the bike course must jump into their whitewater kayaks to navigate Cyanide Creek. Dropping quickly through seven distinct class IV+ rapids before disappearing into a lava tube, racers must then paddle a half mile to locate a roped section, where they harness up and climb to the surface. A six-mile run down an old logging road leads to the final test: swimming across the frigid waters of the Columbia River.

Lewis was happy to have edged out the Williams Brothers, Terry and Jerry — they had beaten him a couple months before in Vancouver’s 24-hour Crest to Coast. “You two sure don’t make it easy on an old man,” Lewis said as he shook their hands.

“Old man? You are a year younger than us,” Terry answered back. Or was that Jerry? Lewis had a hard time telling the twins apart.

Lewis grimaced as he tried to rub the pain from his left knee, which he had injured in an accident while setting up an emergency communications system in Antarctica the month before. “I’ve been feeling at least twice my age lately,” he quipped. “Next year I’ll be doing this thing with a cane.”

Lewis hung out at the finish line for the next two hours to cheer on fellow competitors as they completed the race. He knew many of them and quite a few were close friends. The barbeque after the race was a great place for catching up with people; delicious burgers and ice-cold beer turning into tales of adventure from the past year. Some of Lewis’s stories were actually true. Unknown to most of those who listened, the fabricated parts were actually added as a matter of secrecy, or due to national security. In many cases, the truth was simply too terrifying to tell.

The festivities came to a halt when one of the race officials began speaking through a blow horn. “Thornton Williams! Are you here?” He paused and scanned the small crowd. When nobody came forward, the official continued. “Has anyone seen Mr. Williams since the race began this morning?” A few people, including Lewis, raised their hands.

Lewis had seen his friend, who most knew as Thorn, a couple times on the bike leg as they worked down through the switchbacks. At that point, Lewis was in fourth place while Thorn was dueling it out for fifth with a competitor Lewis didn’t recognize. Two others remembered seeing him towards the end of the bike, noting that he was looking pretty tired when they passed him. Thorn was usually one of the top competitors and Lewis thought it odd that he would have dropped back so early in the race. The race log confirmed he had completed the bike leg nearly 45 minutes after Lewis, almost in last place. Another competitor, who had only recently been introduced to the sport of adventure racing by Thorn himself, remembered passing him early in the kayak section. Thorn had not checked in at the top of the rope section.

Race officials took down the details, assuring everyone they would pass the information on to Search and Rescue personnel, who would arrive in the next couple hours. That wasn’t good enough. Lewis knew it would be well past dark by the time a proper search was mounted, and his friend was in need of help. He was going to get started now.

Lewis retrieved a 100-foot section of climbing rope and a few other supplies before heading down to the waterfront to look for a way across the river. He immediately spotted a trailer renting out stand-up paddle boards. Lewis paid the kid manning the trailer for a two-hour rental and, after quickly signing a few forms, headed straight to the water, promising to be back before nightfall.

The paddle board was designed for racing, making the river crossing much faster and less tiring than the earlier swim. Lewis had spotted a couple of race volunteers on ATVs, cleaning up on the other side of the river. He paddled hard, straight towards them. It took only ten minutes to cross the river and another four to convince one of the volunteers to loan out his ATV and walkie-talkie.

After throwing his gear into the storage compartment on the back of the ATV, Lewis set off up the narrow trail at nearly full speed. The trail looked surprisingly different going up than it did coming down. Lewis had to slow at a couple of intersections to make sure he was going the right way. Most of the trail was narrower than the ATV but Lewis barreled on, branches whipping his face and body as he bounced up the trail, fighting to keep the vehicle on the path. He slid around a familiar-looking corner and nearly launched right into Cyanide Creek before skidding to a stop, less than a foot from a sheer, 40-foot drop to one of the gnarliest rapids of the entire run, Skull Dropper, which immediately preceded the pool at the entrance to the underground lava tube.

Lewis looked up and down the creek as he shook the feeling back into his hands after the harrowing ride. Up or down? Lewis debated on which way to look first. The rapids above were certainly technical, but Thorn was an excellent kayaker. If he had made a serious mistake, Thorn should have either gotten himself out or drowned by now. If his friend was still alive, it was more likely that he was trapped in the cave.

With the decision made, Lewis radioed in his intentions, confirming that the cave’s exit system was still in place, and that assistance would be ready if he found Thorn. He grabbed the climbing rope and a small waterproof flashlight from the ATV. Jogging along the top of the cliff, he followed the creek downriver for 200 yards before jumping towards the calm pool below. The weight of the climbing rope pulled his body slowly off-kilter as he descended, causing Lewis to stick out his left leg in an attempt to maintain balance. This seemed like a terrible mistake the moment he hit the water — his legs were nearly ripped off before he could force them back together. The ice-cold water quickly numbed away the pain, allowing Lewis to efficiently side-stroke into the mouth of the cave.

Total darkness enveloped him as the current pushed him around the series of S-turns that he remembered from the race. Lewis turned on his light and began scanning ahead. “Thorn!” he called. There was no answer. The current made it an easy swim to where the underground river formed a final pool, ending at a caved-in section of the lava tube. It was at the rock pile on the other side of the pool where he and the other racers had exited their kayaks, and climbed the fixed ropes up to a narrow chute that led to the surface above. Only now the ropes were gone for some reason.

Something else was different too. The opening to the chute looked larger; it also didn’t seem to be as high. Suddenly, Lewis understood what had happened. “Thorn!” he yelled again as he swam to the rock pile, lugging the waterlogged climbing rope he’d packed from the ATV. He climbed onto the rocks and quickly confirmed his fears: A semi-truck-sized chunk of the wall above had sheared off and was now crumbled atop the original pile of rocks. Lewis could only hope that his friend hadn’t been standing here when it happened.

A quick scan with the flashlight revealed the smashed remains of a red kayak. The stenciled tribal artwork near the back confirmed that it was Thorn’s. “Thorn! Are you in here?” Lewis called out again, yelling towards the rock pile.

A couple of coughs followed by a very weak, “Here,” made Lewis’s heart jump.

He whipped his light towards the sound and spotted Thorn’s tattered red and blue paddle jacket protruding from the rocks. “Help is here, Thorn. We’ll get you out of here,” Lewis said as he hurried over to his friend. It was a miracle that Thorn had survived the rock fall at all, but he wasn’t out of the woods just yet. There were two problems. First, a large rock, weighing at least a ton, had Thorn’s leg pinned under the water. And that compounded the second problem: The small landslide must have partially blocked the outflow of the creek below because the water was rising. Thorn was perhaps 30 minutes from drowning.

Lewis had to get the rock off Thorn’s leg, and fast. He tried to lift it off, which was a natural action, but futile. He needed a jack or at least a lever of some sort, but he had only brought the rope and the flashlight. Lewis pulled the pummeled kayak out from under some smaller rocks and tried using it to pry the boulder from his friend’s leg. It was awkward and ineffective; the rock didn’t budge. The water had risen almost an inch and was now lapping at Thorn’s chin. Half an hour may have been an overestimate; Lewis’s friend appeared to be within a few minutes of going under.

“Stay with me, Thorn,” Lewis pleaded as his friend drifted towards unconsciousness. Lewis was chilled from his short swim, and Thorn had probably been in the frigid water for at least a couple hours. It was a testament to his fortitude that he hadn’t succumbed to hypothermia long ago. Lewis needed his friend to hang on and keep his mouth out of the water, staying alive until a plan could be worked out.

Thorn wasn’t looking good. “I’m not going to make it,” he mumbled. “Tell my wife-”

“Tell her yourself.” Lewis cut him off. “We’re going to get out of this together.” Lewis kept talking, keeping Thorn attentive. “The only thing we have to get you out is this flashlight and rope. Lucky for us, that’s more than we need.” Lewis made sure to keep a positive tone as he continued, “Did I ever tell you about my high school physics teacher, Mr. Anderson?”

Thorn shook his head and spit at the water that was now to his mouth.

“Mr. Anderson believed in learning by doing,” Lewis went on as he frantically tied one end of the rope to the boulder that had Thorn pinned. He then raced across the rocks to the other side of the slide, securing the other end of the rope to the largest boulder he could find, making sure that the span was as tight as possible. Lewis kept talking to Thorn as he worked; trying to sound calm, but the overload of adrenaline was becoming increasingly obvious in his voice. He returned to Thorn just in time to see his friend’s final breath exit his nostrils, which were now under water.

“We’re almost home,” Lewis said with conviction before taking a deep breath and breathing it into his friend’s mouth. Thorn’s ears were still above water, and Lewis fought the urge to yell at his friend, knowing that he needed to remain as calm as possible to conserve oxygen. “I’m going to need your help.” After another round of underwater mouth-to-mouth, Lewis added, “When the rock moves, you’ve got to get out from under it. Okay?”

Thorn nodded, panic obvious in his eyes. He looked like a man who knew he was about to die; and yet, he was going to fight to the end.

“You are going to have to hold your breath for a bit. I’ll give you two more, and then we’re going for it.” Lewis blew a deep breath into Thorn’s mouth, letting his friend slowly exhale, getting ready for a good breath hold. One more large breath and then Lewis jumped up, sprinting to the middle of the outstretched rope. He gripped the rope and began pulling it sideways, working up the rock pile away from the water, as if he was an archer drawing a giant bow. Lewis struggled, using every muscle in his body to pull the center of the rope as far to the side as possible. Bit by bit, he could feel the boulder starting to move. Finally, he heard the sound he had been waiting for — Thorn was coughing as he gasped for air. “Are you clear?” Lewis shouted, unable to see his friend.

“Yes,” came the weak but relieved reply between coughs.

Lewis eased the rope back down and ran to check Thorn’s condition. The leg was badly bruised and most likely broken, but the biggest problem was that Thorn was extremely cold. Lewis helped him get out of the water so he could begin warming up while they figured a way out of the cave. The two huddled together, conserving body heat.

Thorn looked Lewis in the eye and said, “What did your physics teacher have to do with kissing another guy underwater?”

Lewis burst into laughter. “First, that was mouth-to-mouth so don’t be getting any ideas. Second, Mr. Anderson showed us how he could move a pickup by himself using a long rope tied to a tree — if he pulled sideways from the middle rather than tugging on the end. Apparently the principle works on rocks too. It had something to do with vectors, as I recall. We rearranged many a parking lot with that bit of knowledge.” The friends shared another round of laughter, finally interrupted by the thumping of a coil of rope behind them. The rescuers had found them.

It took the rest of the night and into the morning to get Thorn out of the cave and back down to where a helicopter could pick him up. Lewis was exhausted by the time he began walking down Main Street to find his favorite motorcycle: a brand new BMW R 1200 GS Adventure he had purchased just before the Antarctica job. Yesterday’s trip down had been his first chance to ride it since bringing it home. The bike’s excellent on-and off-road capabilities had renewed Lewis’s dreams of touring back roads around the world, and taking the interstate to the race’s start had been painfully mundane.

As Lewis crossed between Adams and Jefferson, he noticed a beat-up Mercedes Benz with tinted windows rolling along about 20 yards behind him. The Benz itself wasn’t really remarkable; it was the driver’s slight jerk to the left when Lewis first glanced back that caught his attention. There was no reason for the car to be going so slow, and Lewis was the only other person on the street in either direction.

A couple of blocks later, the Mercedes was still hanging 20 yards back. Lewis stopped and bent down to re-tie his shoe. A glance to the side revealed the driver quickly jerking the vehicle into an available parking spot a few cars back. Lewis turned his head to wink at the driver then sprang up and bolted down a side alley like a hungry cheetah that had spotted a day-dreaming gazelle. The sound of squealing tires told Lewis that his hunch was right. His muscles ached and Lewis knew he couldn’t make it far, so he sprinted to the first door he saw. Luckily, the door was unlocked and Lewis darted in, finding himself in a bridal boutique swarming with the female half of a wedding party and a dozen saleswomen. Lewis did his best to keep moving forward as he bounced from display to display, trying to get out front as fast as he could. He nearly knocked over the soon-to-be bride but was able to catch her in his arms and offer a quick, “I do,” before continuing.

As soon as he got out front, Lewis ran the final few feet to his motorcycle and jumped on. He threw on his helmet and launched down the street, immediately spotting the persistent Mercedes Benz in his side mirror. Lewis swung the bike across the road towards a narrow set of stairs that climbed the hillside between a pair of aging brick buildings. The bike shot up the stairs with Lewis barely able to hang on, his weakened muscles causing him to twist the throttle back and forth, making the climb bumpier that it needed to be. Thankful to have reached the top of the stairs, Lewis pulled onto the next street and made a few quick turns before heading back for the interstate. He watched the mirrors and, to his relief, didn’t see the Benz again.

Lewis still yearned to get his motorcycle onto some secluded dirt, but the previous 36 hours had sufficiently tired him out. It was only a 20-mile ride down I84 to the small town of Rowena where Lewis lived. The wind was already picking up in the Columbia River Gorge and Lewis enjoyed watching the kite-boarders soar off the waves as he passed by. Maybe he would get his kite and board out later today, after he got some much needed food and rest. Lewis’s house was on the river so he could easily get out and play whenever he wanted.

Lewis parked the motorcycle in the fourth stall of his newly-remodeled garage and headed into the house. With no regard for the mess he would have to clean up later, Lewis started shedding his filthy clothes the moment he was inside. At this point, he was driven solely by the thought of his new custom shower, which was nearly an exact replica of a small, secluded waterfall he had found in Thailand during a six-month consulting job a few years ago. The stones that made up the shower were actually brought in from Thailand to match the texture that he remembered so fondly. Forty minutes later, the waterfall shower had worked magic on his aching muscles.

After the shower, Lewis wrapped himself in a towel and headed to the kitchen to get something to eat. As he entered the living room, he noticed a large man sitting in the corner recliner. Quinn Lewis prided himself on his ability to remain calm under pressure so instead of jumping and screaming like a frightened schoolgirl, he continued towards the kitchen and offered, “I’m making a sandwich. Can I get you anything?”

“Not now,” was the only reply.

Lewis turned and smiled at the man, who was even bigger than Lewis first thought. More like a rhinoceros with a crew cut — like a “Rhino Man,” Lewis thought to himself. Then Lewis noticed that Rhino Man had a partner, who was sitting in the rocker over by the fireplace. “What about you?” Lewis asked Rhino Junior. Junior probably weighed only 275 pounds so he was slightly smaller than Rhino Man.

Junior’s dark eyes never left Lewis as he responded, “You need to come with us. Our boss needs to talk to you.”

“I’ll get you my card and he can call me on Monday,” Lewis shot back. “Although I should warn you that I’m pretty booked up.”

Lewis earned his degree in computer programming from Caltech. He started out writing computer code for various video game development companies and gradually became more involved with the overall design and architecture of the games. Eventually, Lewis became what the industry calls a solution engineer — it was his job to design the software to get the most difficult jobs done. While working as a consultant, Lewis designed software for numerous platforms outside the gaming industry. Lewis was so good at designing and implementing solutions to complex computer problems that other industries began seeking him out to solve their real life problems. It turns out that solution engineer was a perfect title for Quinn Lewis; the guy was naturally good at problem solving. Lewis did a lot of contract work for large corporations, various government organizations, and all branches of the military; as well as others with less distinct positions in society. The Rhino Brothers seemed to belong to this latter group.

“Am I overdressed?” Lewis questioned calmly as he looked down at his towel.

“Two minutes,” Rhino Man grunted.

Lewis quickly got dressed in a pair of cargo pants and a white t-shirt, rejoining the Rhino Brothers in the living room. As they headed out the door, Lewis stopped to grab the Carhartt jacket, which he knew still held his Leatherman multi-tool; simple things like that had a sneaky way of coming in handy.

Lewis was motioned into the backseat of the familiar-looking Mercedes Benz. He climbed in, buckled up, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Chapter 2 — BREIFING

Lewis was fully awake and alert within a half second of the car engine being turned off. He was still in the back seat of the Mercedes, which now sat in front of one of the many warehouses along the waterfront just west of downtown Portland. Junior opened the back door and pointed to an open bay on the dilapidated warehouse.

The smell of diesel fuel and cigarette smoke met Lewis as he slowly worked his tired body out of the back seat. The wind had died down and the sun was setting across the river to the west. It would have been a nice night if only his companions made better company.

“Thanks for the ride, gentlemen,” Lewis said as he offered to shake hands. “It is nearing my bedtime though, so I should probably get back home soon.”

Junior simply continued to point towards the waiting doorway with an angry grimace on his face. Lewis walked through the bay door with his new henchman friends on either side as an electric motor started to lower the massive steel door. The interior of the warehouse was filled with row after row of 20-foot tall shelves, each absolutely loaded with identical wooden boxes bearing 5-digit numbers stenciled on all sides. No labels were visible, however, to reveal the contents.

In the far corner was an impromptu meeting area with a large table and eight office chairs. Only one chair remained unoccupied, and Lewis was guessing it was for him. As he casually took his seat, the Rhino Brothers turned and left. Lewis took a quick glance around the table to find a diverse group staring back at him. Not recognizing anyone, Lewis’s gaze returned to an attractive woman seated across the table; she looked to be of some sort of Caribbean descent. Maybe this meeting wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Lewis started to introduce himself, “Hey there, I’m-” before he was cut off by a short, somewhat stocky man who was now standing at the head of the table.

“Welcome everyone!” the apparent ringleader boomed. “I’m Michael Stonewood.” Mr. Stonewood paused after introducing himself as if he expected everyone to clap or something. There was only silence. Stonewood continued. “I’d like to thank you all for joining me on such short notice, and I apologize for the abruptness with which some of you were brought here; however, as you will soon see, time is critical.”

As Stonewood spoke, a young blond with shapely legs walked around the table, handing each of Stonewood’s “guests” a 24-page packet of paper. The older, academic-looking man seated next to Lewis quickly thanked her and immediately began reading the packet. The others glanced at the packets but left them on the table, their looks remaining skeptical while their eyes stayed on Stonewood. Lewis had been to these sorts of gatherings before — a bunch of experts from a variety of fields getting together to help some big wig figure out some sort of problem. Lewis hoped this wouldn’t take long so he could get back to something more important.

Stonewood continued. “The first page in your packet is a photocopy of a portion of my great uncle’s journal. As you can see, Uncle Pete was a trapper and prospector throughout the Oregon Territory during the early 19th century. During a near-deadly prospecting trip along the Snake River in Hell’s Canyon, Uncle Pete slipped into a rain-swollen creek, where he was washed over a waterfall and into a cave that contained some sort of secret treasure horde. The inventory from my uncle’s journal mentions two tons of gold bars, 16 kegs of gold coins, and piles of gems. Uncle Pete spent the next two weeks building a huge wooden raft to transport part of the treasure to the territorial outpost in Lewiston. Unfortunately, a massive thunderstorm sparked a landslide that drastically changed the flow of the creek and completely buried the cave. Uncle Pete drowned a month later while trying to locate an alternate entrance he believed to lie beneath the Snake River.” Stonewood paused and surveyed the room as everyone began flipping through the first few pages of their packets, studying and reviewing the maps and diagrams within.

Lewis, who liked a good treasure hunt as much as anybody, couldn’t help but do the math: Two tons is 4000 pounds, which would be nearly 60,000 troy ounces, current market price of $1,700 per ounce would make a little over $100 million, just in the gold bars. The coins could be worth even more depending on exactly what they were and where they came from. Lewis noticed that the area around the edge of the journal photocopy looked a little smudged — like maybe part of the list had been altered or maybe this was actually multiple journal pages put together. Lewis shook the numbers and questions from his head and asked Stonewood bluntly, “Was Uncle Pete a liar, or just another drunk?”

Stonewood’s glare made it obvious that he wasn’t accustomed to anything but respect and conformity from his subordinates. He recovered quickly and continued with his monologue. “Last year, some of my people were finally able to acquire Uncle Pete’s journal. Using the few geographical clues from the entry you have before you, my archeological team located a cave entrance concealed beneath the Snake River, less than 100 yards from what is believed to be a 200-year old landslide. Ground-penetrating radar has confirmed a large cave inside the western wall of the canyon at this location.”

Lewis scanned the other faces at the table and noticed their expressions had flipped from skepticism to excitement. Treasure Fever is a powerful beast and it can be hard to perform the proper analytical thinking when faced with the possibilities of striking it rich. Treasure hunting has claimed the lives of many because people became so fixated on the dream, they forgot to pay attention to the details. Few people are immune to Treasure Fever, and Lewis had to fight the urge to blindly press ahead. Not wanting to ruffle any more feathers just yet, he flipped back through the first part of the packet, looking for anything important he may have missed.

The well-tanned brunette seated across from Lewis cleared her throat and then stated bluntly, “I know why I’m here, but I prefer to pick my own team on all expeditions.” Her voice had a harmonious tone that caught Lewis off guard; there was a faint hint of an accent, maybe Jamaican, that he enjoyed.

The subtle snorts from some of the other members indicated that they too were used to being in charge. Lewis was almost never in charge until things started going wrong, so he sat quietly and tried to take it all in.

Stonewood chuckled. “Ms. Gonzalez, as you will see, you were each selected for specific purposes for this rather unique situation. Continuing on to the next part of your information packet, you will find a brief dossier on each of you. Please follow along as I review them and then we’ll get to the specifics of our mission.” This seemed a little like story time in kindergarten, but Lewis played along, reading with Stonewood as he read the short summaries that had been prepared:

Michael Stonewood

As the owner of Stonewood Enterprises, Mr. Stonewood has built a shipping empire worth billions of dollars. His philanthropic activities in recent years have earned him the respect of leaders and dignitaries from around the world. A self-educated man, Mr. Stonewood believes in hard work, persistence and dedication; which he demands from those around him.

Jennifer Gonzalez

Ms. Gonzalez is a renowned expeditionary cave diver who currently operates her own training center in the Bahamas. She is credited with the discovery and exploration of the Vostok Cave, a massive cave network connecting Antarctica’s Lake Vostok with many other of the continent’s frozen lakes. Ms. Gonzalez has led the exploration and mapping of hundreds of other submerged caves throughout the world, and is routinely sought out for her expertise in planning major expeditions. She is also a well-respected instructor, having trained over a thousand new cave divers.

Scott Miller

Dr. Miller is an internationally-respected archeologist from Stanford University. He performed much of the research and translation that led to the unraveling of the famous Money Pit riddle on Oak Island, a treasure mystery that had stumped the world for 200 years. A brilliant theorist and respected linguist, Professor Miller has written dozens of books that have revolutionized anthropological code-breaking.

Pierre Dubois

Mr. Dubois is the most accomplished and well-rounded mountaineer of his generation. He has documented numerous solo first ascents on some of the biggest walls throughout the world. Mr. Dubois also holds summit speed records on the Matterhorn, the Eiger, and Everest; among others. His online videos are legendary, inspiring climbers everywhere.

Samantha Sinclair

Ms. Sinclair is the mastermind behind Canada’s diamond mining efforts below the city streets of Toronto. She started as an explosives expert, working for her father in the northern mines, and after only two years, she was considered by most to be the best in the world. With no formal training, she is now the chief engineer for Maple Mining International and has drilled and detonated shafts on all seven continents as well as at the bottom of the ocean.

Quinn Lewis

Mr. Lewis is an expert problem solver with experience in a variety of fields. Mr. Lewis was the mastermind behind the plan to use the Hubble Telescope to save the International Space Station from its impending collision with the T32-Hull asteroid. He recently made headlines as the leader of the team that rescued a group of Japanese tourists who became stranded when their submersible became entangled in the Titanic. Mr. Lewis’s unique skills have been used by governments and corporations everywhere from the South Pole to the North Pole, and from the bottom of the ocean to outer space.

Stonewood finished reading Lewis’s bio then added, “We will also be joined by two of my employees, Craig and Lou.” He gestured to the two ex-military types seated by his sides.

Miller, who was the older gentleman seated next to Lewis, asked nervously, “Am I supposed to be actually going on this expedition?”

Stonewood nodded. “Yes. Ms. Gonzalez will assist you through the short underwater section of the cave.”

Lewis saw Miller turn even paler than before. “I’m not a field researcher.” He shook his head slowly then added, “And I can barely swim.”

Stonewood smiled. “You’ll do fine, Professor. You’re all welcome to back out if you like but I assure you, this trip will be worth your time. Each of you will find a brief contract at the back of your information packet, which includes the financial terms of our expedition. I’m confident you will find the agreement quite lucrative. Are there any other questions before I outline the specifics?”

Gonzalez spoke up first. “Let me get this straight: We’re going to enter an unmapped cave through an entrance in the bottom of a remote river? With inexperienced people?”

The smile only widened on Stonewood’s face; he was obviously happy to be pushing people around. He looked into the eyes of everyone seated at the table before answering. “Yes, Ms. Gonzalez, we will be entering the cave through the river entrance tomorrow morning.”

There was shock and murmuring around the table. Stonewood raised his hand to silence the protests before they could begin. He continued. “I realize things are moving fast but, as I said before, time is very critical. I’m afraid we are now in a race with another group who has figured out the location of the treasure. If anyone wants to leave, now is the time; however, I should warn you that you will remain my guest until the rest of us return — due to secrecy concerns.”

Lewis did not like being a prisoner. His eyes narrowed as they met Stonewood’s gaze but he said nothing. He didn’t like his hand being forced, but he didn’t want to miss out on a great adventure either, so he reluctantly gave Stonewood a slight nod of acceptance.

Miller looked nervous but he simply stared at his papers and nodded.

Pierre, the climber, had a wild smile and looked like a man who was up for anything. His wiry frame looked like a tightly-wound spring, ready to explode as he leaned forward in his seat, waiting for things to get started. He nodded rapidly and said, “Pierre is ready.”

The ladies, who were seated together, looked at each other then across to Lewis before they turned to Stonewood. Each offered a quiet but confident, “I’m in.”

Stonewood’s face transformed from that of a happy boy on his first camping trip to that of a serious coach addressing his team before the big game. “We leave in 10 minutes. We’ll fly to Lewiston, Idaho, where we’ll board a jet boat that will take us up the Snake River to a beach just above the rapids concealing the cave entrance. All necessary gear and provisions are being ferried to the beach as we speak. We’ll spend the night on the beach making final preparations before entering the cave first thing in the morning, when the outflow from Hell’s Canyon Dam is the lowest. I must remind you that secrecy is of the utmost importance. Craig and Lou have been instructed to make sure things remain a secret, so please make their job an easy one.”

Lewis didn’t like the look he got from Craig or Lou, but gave them his best good ol’ boy smile and said, “Who could ask for better buddies on a fishing trip?”

Chapter 3 — FISHING TRIP

The team was immediately led back through the warehouse and out front to a white Ford Econoline 12-passenger van. Lewis reached the barn-style swinging doors first, opening them for the others as he stood aside like any good doorman should. Gonzalez and Lou headed to the back seat. Pierre and Miller climbed into the next row, which was already partially occupied by a pile of tackle boxes and assorted fishing gear. Stonewood climbed into the front passenger seat, while Samantha and Craig climbed into the remaining bench seat. Lewis made his way to the back, managing to work his way between the glaring Lou and the beautiful smile of Jennifer Gonzalez.

Being an avid cave diver himself, Lewis was truly interested to hear some of Gonzalez’s stories. The fact that she was easy on the eyes was an extra bonus, and getting under Lou’s skin was the cherry on top. Lewis struck up a conversation with Gonzalez as the van worked its way through the city towards Portland International Airport. “I’ve always been intrigued by Lake Vostok, and I’m curious to know how the diving is there,” Lewis began.

“Cold. Really, really cold, but once you get past that, it’s absolutely beautiful.” Gonzalez involuntarily shivered with the recollection.

“How did you even access the lake beneath the ice sheet?”

“That part was tricky to set up. The Russian scientists there feel it is very important to avoid any sort of contamination in the lake. I don’t think they’re worried about pollution in the conventional sense so much as that they want to preserve the lake in its sealed state for future research. They see the lake as an indicator for extraterrestrial life in places like Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons that houses a frozen ocean.” Gonzalez shrugged as if she didn’t necessarily subscribe to all that science then continued. “The Russians bored a perfectly vertical, two-meter borehole completely through the entire two miles of ice. They have built an encapsulated elevator that functions as both a transportation vehicle and a way to effectively plug the hole to avoid contamination. Due to the extreme pressure, all diving was done in Newtsuits, which were completely decontaminated, and now remain in an airlock at the bottom of the hole.”

Lewis could feel his heart rate quicken just thinking about descending a two-mile ice tunnel into total darkness. A trip like that was true bucket list material. “What about the cave? How does it compare to the cenotes you dive back home?” Lewis asked, referring to the underground river system that was legendary among divers visiting the Bahamas.

“Vostok Cave is absolutely huge!” Gonzalez almost shouted as the excitement filled her eyes. “It’s impossible to truly put into words. Most of the tunnels are over 100 yards across. It’s like swimming through a series of football stadiums. The visibility is truly limitless. It’s just amazing!”

Lewis and Gonzalez continued talking about caves and diving for the rest of the 30-minute drive to the airport. Lewis learned that Gonzalez actually grew up in the United States before moving to Puerto Rico and then the Bahamas. The other passengers talked amongst themselves, mostly nervous exchanges as the reality of their upcoming journey began to sink in.

The van was ushered quickly through a security checkpoint by a pair of guards who obviously recognized Stonewood. The driver pulled up next to a massive silver hangar and everyone exited the van. Stonewood’s Gulfstream 5 was warming up as the pilots prepared for a prompt takeoff. “Everyone get on board!” Stonewood boomed, leading way up the ramp.

The interior of the Gulfstream was organized like an opulent living room. Three leather couches ran along the left wall, with beautiful end tables set between them. The right side had five well-spaced recliners, each with its own end table and reading lamp. A curtain was pulled across the hull after the last couch, preventing Lewis and the others from seeing what lay beyond. Everyone stood in awe as Stonewood spoke up. “Please make yourselves at home. We will be taking off immediately and landing in 38 minutes, so this is going to be a short flight. I have some business in the back, and I will rejoin you here in the guest area before we land.” With that, he walked through the curtain with Lou close behind. Craig made sure the curtain was secure before turning to face the group. He tried to appear relaxed, but it was clear he was there to prevent anyone else from going beyond the curtain.

“This plane is amazing,” Samantha said, beaming as she sat in one of the plush recliners.

Miller took one of the seats next to her and nodded, wistfully adding, “I may have gone into the wrong line of work.”

Lewis took the couch across from Miller as the jet began to taxi onto the runway. He was immediately amazed at how soft the leather was. “This stuff must come from some sort of magic cows,” he said with a wide smile, adding, “I can’t believe how good it feels.” The others nodded in agreement.

Lewis looked over at Pierre, who was gently caressing the arm of his chair. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have the daintiest hands I have ever seen. Not what I would picture for such a hardcore mountaineer,” Lewis offered as he nodded towards Pierre’s hands.

“Ah, yes. I routinely work my hands through very fine sand, removing any calluses that may affect my ability to feel the finest details in a rock face,” the climber replied. “They don’t disappoint the beauties of Paris when I’m back home either,” he added with a sly smile.

Lewis chuckled. “I wonder if that is what’s holding me back. Maybe I can borrow some of that sand when this is over. I may even try swimming in the stuff.”

Pierre laughed as well. “Women, they like us climbers, you know. You must let the great Pierre teach you some climbing moves.”

“I’ll take all the help I can get.”

Lewis next turned to Miller, who still looked quite nervous about this whole trip. Wanting to help ease the professor’s mind, Lewis said, “I followed the Oak Island Treasure for years, and I always wondered if there was anything at the bottom of the Money Pit. It sounds like the rune stones were the key after all.” Lewis was referring to a collection of carved stones that had been discovered around the island, seemingly as some sort of markers.

Miller seized the opportunity for his brain to switch tracks for a while. “Yes, I too began to wonder if it was simply an elaborate hoax. There is still debate as to who actually hid the treasure, but one thing is for certain: they were certainly knowledgeable in ancient forms of communication. Some of the symbols on the stones actually had to be combined, forming Egyptian hieroglyphs. Some were simply decoys and others were true runes. I can’t imagine keeping track of it all without the aid of modern computer-imaging software.”

“Interesting…” Lewis replied, rubbing the top of his head in thought. “I’ve heard some suggest that the Money Pit was the work of Blackbeard, but pirates don’t strike me as brilliant linguists for some reason.”

Miller seemed delighted at Lewis’s interest. He formed a tent with his fingers, glancing briefly towards Craig before responding. “The pirate theory seemed popular in the beginning, but has lost a lot of momentum over the past twenty years or so. Many of the symbols seemed to point at the Freemasons.” Miller paused then asked, “Are you familiar with the Freemasons?”

Lewis nodded. “In general, they are an ancient brotherhood often associated with bizarre conspiracy theories and secret plots.”

“That’s probably accurate enough for now,” Miller replied with a soft laugh. “Many of our founding fathers were Freemasons. A lot of my colleagues believe the Money Pit to be some sort of historical archive set up by the Freemasons.” Miller shrugged before going into his own theory. “I believe the archive angle is correct, but I don’t believe the Freemasons were behind it. I wish I was allowed back to Oak Island to finish my research.”

Lewis was taken aback. “Why can’t you go back?”

“After discovering the treasure chamber, we were notified that the land was under new ownership, and we were requested to leave immediately.” Miller did not elaborate, but the slight tilt of his head towards the back of the plane told Lewis a lot.

The rest of the short flight was spent listening to Miller lecture on secret societies and the roles they played in history. Miller was embracing his return to that of teacher and seemed to have almost forgotten his fears.

The Gulfstream touched down at the Lewiston Airport and quickly taxied into a hanger. The massive hanger doors were already closed by the time Lewis made his way down the stairs. A white van with a large logo for Hells Canyon Fishing Charters was waiting for them.

After climbing aboard and finding their seats, Lou and Craig passed out the fishing gear Pierre had sat next to in the first van. Stonewood informed everyone, “I believe our competitors may be trying to follow us; we will therefore be posing as a fishing party for the jet boat leg of our journey. Your safety may very well depend upon your acting ability.” Lewis didn’t like the sound of this but chalked it up to Stonewood’s overabundance of drama or paranoia, or both. Either way, Lewis was always up for a fishing trip.

It was a short drive from the airport to the docks where the team quickly boarded a 32-foot Customweld aluminum jet boat. A strongly-built man in his 50s introduced himself, saying, “I’m Captain Bob, and I’ll be your guide today.” He paused to ensure he had everyone’s attention before going on. “Now, listen up while I run through some safety information then I’ll get you on some fish.” Captain Bob proceeded to point out the locations of PFDs, fire extinguishers, and first aid kits, as required by US Coast Guard Law. After casting off, they headed up the mighty Snake River, cruising along at about 20 MPH.

As they went under one of the bridges spanning the Snake, Lewis noticed a small black helicopter just over the ridge on the Washington side of the river. The same helicopter popped into view a few more times as the boat made its way past the small town of Asotin and on up towards Heller Bar. Every few minutes it would climb just enough to be visible, then quickly descend back below the ridge. After the fifth round of this, Lewis walked forward to where Captain Bob sat at the center-console with Stonewood to his right. Lewis gestured towards the chopper as it started to descend into hiding again. “It might be worth a stop up here at the confluence with the Grande Ronde to see what’s biting.”

Stonewood and the captain each turned their heads just enough to catch a glimpse of the chopper. Captain Bob spoke first. “We tried to keep a low profile as we ferried gear up the river yesterday, but it’s hard to move that much stuff without someone taking notice. I think they shadowed me on the return trip last night.” The apologetic yet menacing look he gave Stonewood made it clear that Captain Bob was no ordinary fishing outfitter. “How did you know about the Grande Ronde River up ahead?”

Lewis tilted his head and grinned. “A couple of buddies and I chartered a boat to fish for sturgeon on the Snake a few years ago. We had a great time and I’ve wanted to get back ever since!”

Captain Bob asked, “Fishing good?”

“We landed a few nice sturgeon up in the canyon. Fighting one of those monsters while backing the boat down some of those huge rapids is about as fun as it gets. I remember stopping here to fish for steelhead on the way back. The steelhead seemed a little small after reeling in eight-or nine-foot behemoths, but it was the best steelhead fishing I’ve ever seen. The Grande Ronde seems like one of those rivers that a guy needs to explore a little more before punching his ticket.”

Captain Bob nodded in agreement as he worked the boat towards the far bank of the river, playing with the throttles to keep them in the optimum place for casting. Lewis pulled two of the pre-rigged rods off the ceiling mounts. He held them up and asked, “Who’s ready to catch some fish?”

Samantha jumped up first. “I spent a summer fishing with my grandfather around his cabin near Yellowknife when I was four. I’ve been addicted ever since.”

Lewis handed her an 8-foot Shakespeare with a large silver spinner. “This should be a good setup to start off with.”

Miller was the next to step forward. He started with another of his shoulder shrugs then quietly said, “I’m not much of a fisherman, but maybe it will help calm the nerves a bit.”

“Good idea, Doc,” Lewis replied as he handed over the other rod, a 6-footer with a nice pink and blue colored rooster tail. “Why don’t you take the nice seat up on the bow.” Lewis pointed to the newly-upholstered fishing chair mounted on the front of the boat, knowing it would give the best angle to the fishing hole. Miller looked like he could use some luck.

There were no other takers so Lewis grabbed the next rod, another 6-footer rigged with a rooster tail, and moved back just behind the cabin enclosure. Before Lewis could even cast, he heard Miller yelp as a 12-inch rainbow trout took his lure and ran for the current. “Way to go, Doc,” Lewis cheered. “You’re a natural!” Miller wore a nearly permanent grin, forgetting about his worries as he reeled in one fish after another.

It didn’t take long before everyone but Lou and Stonewood were taking turns catching fish. Nobody caught anything huge, but there were plenty of 10-to 12-inchers to keep people happy. They stayed for almost an hour, much to Stonewood’s displeasure. The helicopter had made three more appearances just over the horizon, but now seemed to have left. Maybe the plan had worked.

Shortly after Stonewood announced that it was time to go, Captain Bob had the boat moving up the river once again. Passing only a few other boats, nobody seemed out of the ordinary, mostly fishermen, much like they themselves appeared to be, and nobody spotted the black helicopter again. It took almost three hours to work their way up the canyon to the site marked on Stonewood’s GPS: Granite Rapids. Captain Bob matched the speed of the current to hold them just below the rapid. The water was running high, roaring as it cascaded down past the huge boulders marking the left side of the run.

Lewis mentally mapped out the route he would take if he were kayaking the rapid. Captain Bob followed Lewis’s gaze as he examined the water’s flow, noting, “It’s a class IV at this flow. Not extremely technical, but definitely big water.”

Lewis scratched his chin then replied, “I get the feeling the surface is easy compared with our planned scuba approach.”

Stonewood was visibly excited as he quickly glanced from his GPS to the paper maps he had, and back to the river. “The entrance is right over there on the upriver side of those two boulders,” he said as he waved his fingers in the direction of two house-sized rocks just to the left of the main rapid.

Stonewood’s enthusiasm was a little contagious, but Lewis worked to keep a level head. He waved Gonzalez over, relaying what Stonewood had just told them. “He says the mouth of the cave is upriver of those boulders, along the fault line.” Lewis pointed to an area snaking down the canyon wall that appeared to be lifted four or five feet higher on the downriver side than it was on the upriver side.

Gonzalez looked a little worried and immediately voiced her concern. “This current is ridiculous. The flow is way more than I was expecting.”

Lewis was growing apprehensive about tomorrow’s dive as well. He turned to Captain Bob and asked, “Do you happen to have sonar on your boat?”

“Just the fish finder,” the captain responded as he gestured towards the screen on the dash. “The transponder is mounted on the stern. The good news is my brother has customized it. He’s an electrical engineer who builds nuclear submarines for the Navy, and this is the best fish finder you’ll ever see.”

“Do you think you can get the stern positioned just up from those rocks?” Lewis asked, already knowing the answer, based upon the captain’s excellent handling of the jet boat thus far.

Captain Bob gently increased the throttles and eased the boat into the center of the rapids. He moved up until he was roughly parallel to the rocks then began edging towards them. At this particular part of the rapids, the waves were larger than the 32-foot boat. As the boat worked its way through the troughs, the passengers had to look up at a steep angle in order to see anything other than frothy green water. Captain Bob worked the throttles as the boat climbed back up on top, where the view was more like that from atop a sky scraper. Repeating this multiple times, the boat was finally positioned perfectly, less than a yard in front of where the current pounded into the boulders.

Checking the fish finder, Lewis could see where the boulders were jammed against the jagged fault line. The jostling of the boat made it tough to make out the details, but Lewis felt a surge of adrenaline when he saw the outline of a 4-foot hole dropping under the raised rock of the fault. There was a problem though. Grabbing one of the aluminum supports that ran across the top of the cabin, Lewis steadied himself then pointed at the screen and said, “There’s our entry. The problem is that.” Lewis pointed to the grayish smudge in the center of the hole. “I believe that’s a tree trunk blocking our door.”

The others stared at the screen, trying not to become seasick as they bounced around in the raging current. “I think it’s just interference,” Gonzalez said hopefully, rubbing her eyes after squinting at the screen.

Captain Bob was working hard to keep the boat in position, and couldn’t spend much time focusing on the fish finder’s screen. After a dozen quick glances, he gave Lewis and Gonzalez each a grim look before turning to Stonewood. “I’m afraid Mr. Lewis is correct. I believe we are looking at the gnawed end of a western red cedar.”

Stonewood looked heartbroken. “Can we pull it out with the boat?” he asked hopefully.

Sweat was pouring down the captain’s face from fighting the controls in the heavy current. “I doubt it. Even if we could somehow lasso it, I suspect it would get wedged in there when we started pulling.” Stonewood hung his head in defeat then motioned the boat up the river. Captain Bob pushed the throttles to their stops, which rocketed the boat through the leading edge of the rapid and across the relatively smooth water to a small beach. He pulled onto the sand and killed the engines, just as two more of Stonewood’s men jogged across the sand to secure the boat.

It looked like the adventure may be over before it started. Everyone stood staring at the defeated Stonewood. Everyone except Lewis; he had leapt from the boat the minute it reached shore, and was now examining the supplies brought up by Captain Bob and the two men. He found a nice selection of climbing gear laid out in the main supply tent.

Lewis was far from an expert climber but he occasionally climbed with friends, making him familiar with the equipment involved. The first item he selected was a spring-loaded camming device, or cam, which used pivoting metal teeth to grab hold when inserted into a crack. Cams were indispensable when you needed to anchor yourself to a rock wall. Lewis also grabbed a locking carabineer and a coil of 9mm climbing rope before heading back to the boat.

Pierre jumped from the boat to the shallows next to the beach when he spotted the familiar gear in Lewis’s hands, exclaiming, “I’m always up for a climb. You’re missing a few important things though.”

Lewis shook his head. “No climbing just yet, Pierre. I was thinking we should fish that log out of the hole.”

Stonewood perked up at the thought. He looked to Captain Bob then back to Lewis. There was a renewed sparkle in his eye when he asked, “You really think you can do it? How?”

Ignoring the questions, Lewis threw the gear into the back of the boat and jogged to the tent one more time, heading further back to where the dive gear was laid out. An 80-cubic foot tank, already fitted with a diving harness, along with a Dive Rite regulator and mask, were all he needed. Lewis leapt back into the boat, grinning at Stonewood. He patted Captain Bob on the back, saying, “If I can borrow your speargun, I think I can spear the log and then you can yank it out.”

Gonzalez, who had done her share of spear fishing, spoke up. “The line on there is nowhere near strong enough to pull that log out.”

“That’s where this climbing gear comes in,” Lewis said, pointing at the first pile he had loaded onboard. He then cut the standard line from the spear, temporarily re-attaching it by simply doubling it up through the eye on the end. Lewis continued. “The gun’s elastic sling isn’t powerful enough to sufficiently propel the spear with the rope attached; instead, we’ll shoot it into the log with the doubled line, then use the line to pull the climbing rope through.” Lewis used a series of gestures as he acted through his plan, even recoiling when he pretended to shoot the spear. Gonzalez giggled when Lewis held his breath as he demonstrated his swim, despite the fact he would be using scuba equipment. Lewis held up the cam, saying, “I don’t think we can pull the log out by just tugging it up the river; we need to use this to establish an anchor point near the top of the rocks. Hopefully, this will allow the boat to pull the log up instead of sideways.”

Captain Bob nodded in approval, telling the men to untie the bow and shove the boat back out. Miller and Samantha jumped to the beach, joining Pierre as the engines came to life and the boat eased back into the water. Powering back down the river, they bounced through Granite Rapids before making a sharp U-turn to work back up into position.

Lewis had the speargun ready and the dive gear assembled by the time the boat was in the right spot — a little further up river than before, giving Lewis room to work. It was only 15 feet down to the opening, but the current was going to make this a rough ride. Lewis placed the scuba regulator in his mouth then jumped from the back of the boat, aiming a little to his right to avoid the wash from the jet. He was immediately tumbled as the current spun him around towards the boulders. He fended off a large rock before being turned upside down and shoved against the bottom. Lewis felt first his foot then his head hit a rock, making him see stars. He fought hard to stay alert, trying to grab on to something to stabilize his spinning body. After a couple more hard thumps and a wild flip, the tank on Lewis’s back banged hard into the rocky wall, the strong current keeping him pinned there. Lewis realized he was nearly vertical in the water, upside down, staring straight at the butt end of the tree. “Finally some good luck,” he thought, smiling around the regulator in his mouth.

Lewis aimed the speargun and fired. He saw the line rapidly uncoil as the spear shot forward, the first six inches boring into the log. Lewis gave the line a tug and, after deciding it felt solid, he wiggled to get himself free, letting the current wash him over the raised wall and down through the rapids. The line on the speargun’s reel was unwinding rapidly as Lewis sped down the river, rocketing up and down with the waves. Just before the reel was completely emptied, Lewis saw the boat pull up directly to his right and Gonzalez’s hand reached out, grabbing his tank valve. With surprising strength, Gonzalez yanked Lewis from the water and into the back of the boat. Lewis spit the regulator out and gave her a huge smile. “Thanks! That was one wild ride,” he said, between heaving breaths of air. “I’m glad the professor wasn’t here to witness the action.”

Gonzalez returned the smile. “Well done. It looked like you almost knocked yourself silly down there.”

“I was fairly silly to start with,” Lewis replied after giving his head a quick shake. “We’d better get that log out before it gets too dark to work.” The sun had disappeared behind the canyon wall a while before and was now barely shining on the top of the east side.

Captain Bob worked the boat back up as Lewis reeled in the extra line. When they were back in position, Lewis fastened the speargun’s line to the climbing rope with some duct tape, which was one of favorite tools. He worked to make the joining as smooth as possible, wanting the rope to slide through the eye of the spear without catching. As Gonzalez helped ease the climbing rope out of the boat, Lewis worked on reeling in the standard thin line. It took a little jiggling to work the rope through, but in less than a minute they had the climbing rope fastened to the spear. Lewis couldn’t help himself so he turned to Gonzalez and sang, “The rope is tied to the spear, that’s embedded in the log, that’s stuck in the hole, that’s blocking the entrance to the cave…”

“You are possibly the worst singer I have ever heard,” came Captain Bob’s voice as he kept the boat as steady as he could, “but well done, my friend!”

Lewis thanked the captain, saying, “I had a great driver running the boat. Thanks for not running me over or sucking the line up into the impeller.”

“We’re not out of the woods on that one yet. Let’s get this done, and then you can thank me.”

Lewis nodded and turned back to Gonzalez. “Try to keep this line as tight as possible while I use it to descend to the rocks, so I can set the cam.”

Gonzalez nodded as Lewis put the regulator in his mouth and slid off the back of the boat. This ride was much smoother, thanks to the steadying effect of the rope. The current spun him around so his feet were downriver, whipping him around like a flag during a hurricane, but he was able to get to the rock outcropping fairly quickly and without banging himself up. Lewis kept one hand on the rope while scanning the rocks above, looking for the perfect spot for the cam. Once he found what he was looking for, he quickly slipped the cam into a narrow crevice near the top of the wall, then released the spring to lock it in place. He ran the rope through the carabineer’s gate, verifying that everything was in place before climbing against the current, hand-over-hand, back up the rope.

“You almost looked like you knew what you were doing that time,” Gonzalez said as she helped Lewis into the boat.

“I just may earn my Underwater Ninja Merit Badge after all.” Lewis winked.

Stonewood, who had remained quiet so far, was now eager to get things moving. “Tie that to the boat and let’s get that thing out of our way!”

Lewis tied a quick hitch around one of the back cleats and Captain Bob slowly increased the throttles. The boat eased forward with Lewis, Gonzalez, and Stonewood watching the log from the back railing. “It’s coming out. Keep going,” Lewis shouted, guiding the captain. Everything worked perfectly until the log itself got up to the cam and things jammed up. Lewis shouted to the captain, “Hold there!”

“Now what, Einstein?” Stonewood said, condescendingly.

“Well, I’m not quite sure actually,” replied Lewis. “I still don’t know how long the log is, so my first thought is to try gunning it to see if we can pull it free.”

Stonewood and Gonzalez shrugged as Lewis gave them a half smile and moved forward to explain the situation to Captain Bob. He returned after a minute and said, “I’m going back in to unclip that carabineer.”

Gonzalez grabbed Lewis’s shoulder. “Give me the gear, you don’t get to have all the fun.”

Lewis was about to argue but realized having the more experienced diver in the water was probably a better idea anyway. He removed the gear and helped Gonzalez suit up.

Gonzalez rolled off the side of the boat and slid smoothly down the line. Lewis stood admiring her grace, watching her swim away like a fish. Captain Bob increased the throttles, preventing the log from dropping all the way back in when the line came free. Unfortunately, the pressure on the line made it impossible for Gonzalez to get the rope out of the carabineer’s gate. Lewis noted the struggle and grabbed some duct tape, making a loose loop around the rope. He then used another stretch of tape to attach his Leatherman with the knife already extended. As he released it, the current pushed the knife right to Gonzalez. She pulled it free and cut the webbing from between the cam and the carabineer. The rope almost popped out of her hand when the boat lurched forward, but somehow she managed to hang on.

Lewis let out a cheer as the boat began pulling the log free. Then it stopped. “The angle must be too much now; the log is wedged again,” Lewis said, pounding the rail in frustration.

Captain Bob pushed the throttles all the way forward, but no luck. The log was jammed. He eased the throttles back a bit, keeping just enough pressure to keep the rope tight.

Lewis spotted Gonzalez fighting her way back up the rope. Her mask was gone and the regulator was no longer in her mouth. As her head bobbed above the surface, Lewis helped her into the boat.

She glared at him. “What’s up with the pressure wash back there?”

Lewis couldn’t help but laugh. “I hadn’t even thought about that. You must have been right behind the jet when we gunned it.”

“Yeah. It almost washed my eyeballs right out of my skull.” She was already back to her relaxed self.

Lewis was even more impressed. Ms. Jennifer Gonzalez was one cool customer, a very desirable trait in a cave diver. He laughed again and shot back, “I’ll give you my Underwater Ninja badge. If I didn’t, you’d probably just karate chop it out of my hands anyway.”

Stonewood was getting agitated. “What the hell are we supposed to do now?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Lewis replied, as if it had been hours rather than a mere 30 seconds since they got to this point.

“We could wait until morning when the current is down,” Captain Bob interrupted from the front.

Lewis shook his head. “No, I think we need all the water we can get. It isn’t the current that’s the problem; it’s the angle of the log in the hole.” Lewis smiled confidently, noticing a pair of inflatable kayaks tucked into a large cubby up front.

Lewis pulled both kayaks, also referred to as IKs, out of the cubby and turned to Gonzalez. “I can fasten these to the log with the climbing rope, inflate them; and they should lift the log the rest of the way out.”

Gonzalez opened her palms in defeat. “The tank’s out of air.”

“If we work together, we can get it done on a single breath.”

“Even if we could, we still wouldn’t be able to inflate the kayaks without the tank,” Gonzalez replied, as dejected as ever.

Lewis scanned the cabin area and grabbed the fire extinguisher mounted next to the left window. “This should do the trick.”

Captain Bob spoke up. “You better hurry, the current is shaking the log and the spear is working lose.” Glancing back nervously, he added, “Plus it’s almost dark.”

With that, Lewis and Gonzalez each picked up an IK. Gonzalez used Lewis’s knife to cut a few sections of rope for tying the kayaks to the log. Lewis still held the fire extinguisher in his right hand, but was able to use his thumb to snatch the roll of duct tape, just in case. With Lewis leading the way, they stepped onto the back deck and jumped in.

It was hard to follow the rope down while keeping a hold of everything. The IKs unrolled themselves in the current and acted like parachutes, trying to pull the pair off the rope. It took almost 30 seconds just to get down to the log. Lewis tucked his IK between his legs and the fire extinguisher under his arm, allowing him to use his free hands to pull himself down the log. Gonzalez did the same. By the time they reached the bottom, Lewis’s lungs were already burning.

Gonzalez looped one of her sections of rope around the log, tying it off using a quick cinch knot. Lewis tied the loose end to the front handles of both kayaks — he didn’t have the brain power for anything more than a sequence of granny knots that he hoped would hold. Lewis’s lungs were screaming for air, but he couldn’t leave until he and Gonzalez had the IKs tied down well enough that they wouldn’t simply float to the surface. Gonzalez’s face was beginning to show signs of strain as well. Just as she was about to tie another section of rope to the log, one of the kayaks fluttered up, knocking the remaining rope from her hands.

Lewis handed over the tape and Gonzalez looped it around the log a couple times before passing it back to Lewis. He wrapped the tape around both IKs a number of times in different directions, forming a kind of net. Lewis brought the fire extinguisher up to the valve on the first kayak and squeezed the handles to quickly inflate it. He felt like he was about to black out, but the one kayak wasn’t enough to lift the log, so Lewis headed for the valve on the second. Just as he got it close, the fire extinguisher slipped from his hands, the current hurtling it down the river. Somehow, Gonzalez was able to catch it with her feet before it was completely lost. Tucking her legs up, she passed the extinguisher back to Lewis, who used the last of his strength to fill the second kayak. The moment the log started to move, both divers swam out of the way, tumbling down the rapids as Captain Bob and the IKs worked together, finally lifting the log out of the hole.

Lewis sucked in mixed gasps of air and water as he tumbled down the rapids for the second time today, but choking had never felt so good. He and Gonzalez shared a high-five and a jubilant embrace. They floated along together, happy to be back in the land of the breathing.

Chapter 4 — GATEWAY TO HELL

Lewis woke as the first hints of daylight began to wash away the brilliant stars above, erasing the majestic display which was the last thing he saw as sleep overcame him the night before. The steady sound of the churning river continued to tug at Lewis’s eyelids, making it hard to fully wake up. He felt some aches and pains as he propped himself up on his elbows, recollecting yesterday’s events while watching the water flow by.

It had been a busy night. Captain Bob had taken a while to deal with the log before he could turn downriver to pick up Gonzalez and Lewis, allowing them to bob along with the current for almost a mile; it was completely dark by the time they heard the boat’s engines coming for them. After returning to camp, everyone ate a prepackaged meal, also known as an MRE, while warming up by a small driftwood fire. Before anyone could get too comfortable, however, Stonewood demanded that everyone begin getting things ready for tomorrow; he was agitated about the time wasted removing the log. Gonzalez worked on getting the dive gear organized and setup. Pierre packed climbing gear into two dry bags, which Lewis added lead weight to until they were neutrally buoyant, meaning they would neither sink to the bottom nor float to the surface when placed underwater. Samantha did the same with some sort of surveying equipment, along with a pair of heavy drills and a case of carefully-packed explosives. Stonewood’s men had already packed numerous bags of food and emergency supplies, which Lewis and Miller worked to get neutrally buoyant as well. Including three special black duffels which were exclusively for Stonewood and his men, the team laid out 34 bags before calling it a night. The final preparations would have to wait until morning. While the others found a spot in one of the tents, Lewis preferred to lie on the beach, where the rumbling river and beautiful night sky could ease his mind, ensuring a peaceful night’s sleep.

Lewis was brought back to the present by sounds of someone moving around near the boat. He quietly got to his feet and crept through the sand to check it out. As he got closer, he realized it was Gonzalez, going through the dive gear. “Good morning, dive buddy,” he called, inadvertently startling her.

“I didn’t realize anybody else was up,” she replied after her heart returned to a normal rhythm.

Lewis smiled. “I just woke up actually. I was lying on the beach thinking we should get together for a more enjoyable swim one of these days, then I heard you over here sabotaging my dive kit.”

Gonzalez laughed, playing along. “Based on yesterday’s performance, I set you up with a pair of fire extinguishers duct-taped to a snorkel.” She giggled at her own joke as Lewis feigned a hurt look. “Actually, I modified my usual checklist last night after seeing the equipment we have to work with. We’ve got some inexperienced people and I want to keep things as simple as possible.”

Lewis was also nervous about the level of experience, and planned on bringing up the ridiculous time crunch with Stonewood after the morning practice dive. For now, he looked at the gear spread out on a bunch of blue tarps, and asked, “How can I help?”

“There are eight empty tarps over there, one for each member of the dive party. Will you help me make sure that each tarp contains everything on this list?”

Working together for about an hour as the sky brightened, they finally got each person’s tarp labeled and ready. Lewis was admiring the organization when the blast from an air horn made his heart skip a beat.

“Good morning to you too, Michael — Mr. Stonewood,” Lewis said, after turning around to find their pushy little boss standing 15 feet behind him.

Stonewood had a fresh scowl for the morning. “Time for everyone to get up and get ready,” was all he said before walking back to confer with Craig and the two other men who had been waiting for them at camp yesterday.

It took some more barking by Stonewood but within 10 minutes, everybody was gathered around Gonzalez for a dive briefing. “I’ll give you a quick overview, and then I can address any specific questions,” Gonzalez began. Everyone had done some diving except for Miller, who had at least worked with divers on underwater archeology projects, giving him some familiarity with the basic equipment. Gonzalez explained that they would be using a side-mount setup, which allowed each person to carry two tanks, one along each side, rather than a more conventional setup where the tanks were strapped to their backs. This configuration would make it easier to fit through tight spaces, especially if it became necessary to remove one or both tanks to fit through an exceptionally small restriction. She explained the underwater lights and went over basic light communication signals: move your beam in a circle if you were okay or shake it up and down if you needed help.

Everyone seemed to be paying attention, and nobody had puked, so Gonzalez moved on. “The most important rules in cave diving are: don’t panic and don’t lose the line,” she said as she held up her cave reel of braided nylon cord. “Whenever we move in the cave, I will go first and let out line from this reel as I go. You will follow me, gently looping your fingers around the line. Don’t grab the line! Don’t pull on the line! Just follow it! If you break the line or the line gets cut because you are messing with it, people may die!”

Miller was not looking so good. Lewis could see beads of sweat streaming down the professor’s face despite the early morning chill. Caution was important, but extreme apprehension could make the situation worse. “You’ll do fine, Doc,” he whispered, giving Miller a pat on the back. “I’ll be right behind you if anything goes wrong. Like Jennifer said: just stay on the line.”

“Let’s get everyone down to their tarp,” Gonzalez continued. “We’ll make final adjustments and I’ll answer any questions before we try a test dive.”

As the team members spread out to find which pile of gear was theirs, Lewis heard the thumping of rotor blades coming up the canyon. Seconds later, the black helicopter from yesterday appeared; the doors were open and a dark silhouette leaned out each side. Stonewood cursed then yelled to his men, “Get ready!”

Lewis was about to ask what that meant when he heard the distinct sound of automatic rifle fire coming from the helicopter. Seconds later, the boat’s windshield erupted into shards of glass as bullets pounded the boat randomly, eventually concentrating on the engine compartment. Lewis and most of the others dove behind some rocks for cover; Craig used his body to shield Stonewood.

Lou had followed Stonewood’s other men to the tents, and his rapid pistol fire from the doorway of the largest tent drew the helicopter’s attention. Lewis could see Captain Bob and another of Stonewood’s men working their way behind the tents with pistols drawn. The situation was out of control, but Lewis felt this might be his only chance.

Samantha had pure terror in her eyes as she crawled up to Lewis, asking in a pleading voice, “Do you have a weapon?”

Lewis was able to stifle his rising fears, putting his mind to work. As he peeked over the rock at the helicopter, he replied, “Well… I used to have a speargun, but I used that to shoot a log.” Lewis’s eyes settled on the boat less than 20 feet away; it should have what he needed. “I’m going for the boat!” he hollered over the mayhem as he sprang from their hiding spot and sprinted off. Pierre and Gonzalez followed right behind, each diving into the back of the boat and scrambling into the perceived shelter of the cabin.

Lewis went right to the flare gun he’d seen in the side cubby. He opened it, making sure it was loaded before grabbing two additional flares out of one of the cup holders. “This may not be the safest place,” Lewis said, tilting his head towards a series of bullet holes in the ceiling.

Gonzalez looked a little skeptical when she noticed the flare gun. “Signaling for help? I don’t think anybody will make it in time.”

“I agree, but I figured being armed would improve our odds a bit.”

Pierre seemed to be enjoying the adrenaline but his eyes showed true fear. “A flare hardly evens things up.”

Lewis winked, and then peered out the side window, noting that Lou and two others were down — dead or injured, he couldn’t tell. At that moment, Captain Bob leapt from behind one of the tents, firing at the tail rotor. It was a valiant effort, but the gunman on the left side was too quick; a short burst of gunfire toppled the captain in his tracks.

Lewis knew that it was now or never. He shot the first flare straight into the air as a distraction, before quickly reloading and diving through the remains of the front window onto the bow. The helicopter pilot followed the movement of the flare, rotating the aircraft towards the flash, giving Lewis just the angle he needed. The left gunman spotted Lewis as he began to raise the flare gun towards the open doorway. The gunman raised his rifle, lining the sights up with Lewis’s skull. His eyes widened in a final surprise as Lewis’s flare beat him to the punch, bouncing off the gunman’s forehead before erupting against the ceiling of the helicopter’s cabin.

The explosion startled the pilot, causing him to jerk the helicopter back over the river. Smoke filled the entire cabin, obscuring the pilot’s view as he struggled to regain control. The tail rotor barely missed Lewis, who was still standing on the bow of the boat, as the helicopter circled wildly. Lewis jumped from the boat and watched as the wounded chopper’s next circle was wider and more out of control. The third loop brought it directly into the opposite wall of the canyon, where it exploded into a giant fireball, knocking everyone to the ground and raining flaming debris into the river.

Lewis rolled onto his side and sat up, scanning the scene around him. Gonzalez and Pierre were peering over the side of the boat; both looking a little shell-shocked, but basically okay. The group that had remained hidden behind the rocks was now on the move. Miller and Samantha were leading the way to the boat, with Stonewood following a ways back in a low crouch. Craig had gone the other way and was approaching the tents.

Lewis got up and ran across the sand to meet Craig. Exchanging a worried glance, they approached the first body. It was Lou. Lewis checked for a pulse but found none. It didn’t take long to confirm that Captain Bob and the others were dead as well. Lewis and Craig were outraged at the needless killings, but the target of each man’s outrage was markedly different. Craig cursed the flaming black helicopter and its former occupants. Lewis turned back towards the boat.

“Stonewood!” Lewis bellowed, “look what your ridiculous timeline and greed have done!”

Stonewood remained in a state of total shock, huddled against the side of the boat, staring at the remains of the helicopter and unable to speak. His gaze slowly shifted towards Lewis, who had grabbed him by the shoulders, shoving him against the side of the boat. Lewis felt like strangling the idiot who had gotten them all into this, but paused when he heard a new sound coming from down the canyon.

Craig’s head whipped around as he heard it too. Jet boats were coming up the river fast; it didn’t seem likely they were a welcoming party. Craig checked his pistol, finding it out of bullets. Lewis released Stonewood, who collapsed back into the sand. There wasn’t much time.

“Gas cans!” Lewis shouted to Pierre and Gonzalez, pointing to two metal jerry cans bungeed to the back of the boat. Gonzalez was quick to react. She unhooked the cord and lifted both cans out to Lewis, who immediately removed the caps and tossed the cans into the river.

At that moment, two jet boats, with gunmen already in firing positions on the front decks, rounded the bend in the river. They would reach the beach in a matter of seconds.

Even if the boat itself was no longer functional, Pierre didn’t understand the logic behind throwing away the extra fuel. Was it that Lewis just didn’t want to share with the assassins after they had killed everyone? The plan made sense, however, when he saw Lewis raise the flare gun, firing his last remaining flare into the spreading pool of gasoline. The approaching boats had no choice but to turn and retreat as a wall of flame chased them back down the river.

Pierre let out a cheer, jumping from the boat to give Lewis a crushing bear hug. The little guy was amazingly powerful, Lewis thought, but he wasn’t quite as jubilant. “That fire won’t last long. We’ve got to get into the cave immediately.”

Miller was the first to protest. “The boat may still work-”

Lewis cut him off. “Even if it did, we have nowhere to go.” The stern look on Lewis’s face made it clear there wasn’t going to be a discussion. “Grab your gear now!”

Stonewood had regained enough of his senses to stammer, “I have money. I can buy my safety; I mean, safety for all of us.”

Lewis, still fuming at Stonewood, shot back, “Yeah, you should definitely stay behind and give that a try! Those guys seem very interested in working out some kind of deal.”

Craig looked directly into his boss’s eyes. “He’s right,” he said, before donning his own gear and then helping the sluggish Stonewood get ready as well.

“Grab one of the dry bags,” Lewis instructed as he made sure the stunned pair of Samantha and Miller had their air turned on and were ready to go. Like a pair of overweight zombies, they each grabbed one of the smaller dry bags and waddled to where Gonzalez was already waiting at the edge of the river. At the same time, Craig snatched one of the special black bags as he practically threw Stonewood to the river.

Lewis turned his attention to Pierre, who was struggling to get his arms into his harness system. After loosening the straps a bit, Pierre was ready to go. He lumbered over to grab one of the bags he knew contained climbing gear before getting in the river. As he heard the engines of the jet boats working their way back up the river, Lewis was thankful he and Gonzalez had set everything up beforehand.

“Go!” he shouted. “I’ll be right there!” Lewis quickly slipped into his own gear, grabbing a pair of dry bags before sprinting into the water. He slipped beneath the surface just as the boats rounded the corner. Hopefully they didn’t see him — he needed their confusion to buy everyone some time.

Lewis turned the valves on each of his tanks, confirming he could breathe as the current swept him along the bottom of the river. Using a scissor-lock, he pinned the dry bags between his legs, enabling him to use his hands to fend off the rocks that were now cruising towards him like asteroids. Barely avoiding a particularly jagged-looking boulder, Lewis noticed six pairs of legs dangling in the water above him — the others had surfaced. Lewis poked his head above the water, noting they had already drifted around the corner and out of sight of their camp; apparently, the boats had passed by without noticing the escape.

Gonzalez had somehow had the presence of mind to throw everyone’s fins into a mesh bag, and was now quickly distributing them to the group. “Put these on,” she instructed. “They’ll make it much easier to maneuver against the current.” She handed a pair to Lewis before putting on her own. “If you have a dry bag, you will want to clip it off to one of the D-rings on your harness to free up your hands,” she said, as she demonstrated clipping off her own bag. “Now listen up! We have about 20 seconds before we need to head to the bottom to catch the hole. There is short rock wall directly behind the entrance, and everyone needs to work together to make sure we all grab that wall. I’ll secure my reel and head inside then you will each follow like we talked about before.”

Craig had already lost his bag, and Stonewood never grabbed one, but the others quickly clipped their bags on, following Gonzalez’s example. Thanks to their neutral buoyancy, the bags were essentially weightless in the water, which was a good thing. Unfortunately, they were still affected by the current, tugging the divers around in all directions as they drifted along. Lewis hoped his bags contained something more useful than toothbrushes and pillows.

Miller’s mask was filled with water and he was rapidly losing any semblance of composure. “I can’t do it,” he gasped. “Can we just find a place to hide along the river?” The sound of one of the boats restarting put an end to any hope of an easy getaway. There was no time left for other options.

Lewis helped drain the water from the professor’s mask before quickly adjusting it to a better fit. “You’ll be fine,” Lewis said as calmly as he could. “Put your regulator back in your mouth and take a couple of deep breaths. I will keep a hold of you and guide you into the cave, and then I will be right behind you the rest of the way.” Lewis was impressed to see a steely resolve come over Miller as he replaced his regulator. Blinking a couple of times, he gave Lewis a quick thumbs-up before promptly changing his fingers into an “OK” as he remembered the thumbs-up meant “go up” in scuba talk. Lewis couldn’t help but smile.

Everybody looked ready. Even Samantha, who had seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown moments before, appeared confident and ready. Gonzalez glanced ahead and gave a quick, “Let’s go diving,” before turning and heading under. The others quickly followed.

Within seconds they were in the main part of the rapid, getting spun and bounced along at a much faster rate. Thankfully, the flow was less than half what it had been the night before, allowing Gonzalez to control her movement by crawling along the bottom. Following her example, everyone worked their way down the river feet first, gripping the rocks as if climbing down a mountain during the worst rain storm ever.

Finally reaching the cave opening, Gonzalez placed her left foot flat against the wall, letting her right foot drift into the cave so she was kneeling next to the entrance. Using the cave opening itself to hold her body in position, Gonzalez was able to work with both hands. She tapped Pierre’s fins and motioned him to the other side of the opening. He scrambled by with obvious enjoyment on his face; underwater rock climbing was right up his alley. Samantha slipped and ended up spinning around before colliding headfirst into Pierre. His grip strength made it easy to hang on with one hand, catch her arm with the other, and spin her around so that she landed next to him. He continued to steady her until she found a good place to hold on. Meanwhile, Stonewood’s arms were waving in a fit of panic as he bounced along the bottom headfirst; Craig holding his boss’s legs as he did the climbing for both of them. As Miller moved clumsily into place next to Gonzalez, Lewis helped Craig get Stonewood situated on the far side of Samantha.

With everyone accounted for, Gonzalez worked to tie off her line to a rock that was the size and shape of a recliner. The force of the water made it difficult to work the light cord around the rock without it being pushed downstream. Finally getting the line secure, she turned to Pierre and signaled that she was heading in. Turning on her light, she prompted the others to do the same and, without hesitation, Gonzalez smoothly somersaulted around and swam headfirst into the cave. As she descended into the darkness, she slowly began to pay line out from her reel.

As Lewis moved closer to the opening to better assist the others, he could see Gonzalez’s light sweeping from side to side. Lewis motioned for Pierre to enter next. The climber wasn’t nearly as smooth as Gonzalez, but he managed to get turned around, banging his tanks a few times as he squirmed in.

Samantha appeared surprisingly relaxed as she worked her way towards Lewis, taking her time to make sure she didn’t slip. Lewis checked her gauges and helped her ease feet first into the cave’s entrance. She gave him a final OK before turning around and following the line out of Lewis’s sight. He could still see Gonzalez’s light shining towards the hole, only now it was accompanied by two additional beams which were panning all around. At least he knew everyone was still alive and they weren’t scrambling to get back out… yet!

Perhaps he was just exhausted but Stonewood seemed much calmer as Craig began pushing him feet first into the hole, with a little help from Lewis. Their supposed leader paused until a hand grabbed his harness and pulled him into the darkness. Lewis was worried that Stonewood was going to become a serious problem and, judging by the look in Craig’s eyes, he was not alone. The bodyguard could only shake his head before clamoring into the entrance after his boss.

Lewis moved to the other side of the hole, motioning Miller over. The professor seemed to be doing fine — right up to the moment he looked into the darkness of the cave. Lewis, worried Miller might let go, placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. It didn’t look like letting go was going to be a problem, as Miller’s knuckles turned white with the force behind his grip. It took all of Lewis’s strength to wrench the archeologist’s legs out from under him and push them into the cave opening. Miller gradually released his grip, sliding into the cave with the others.

Lewis tried to emulate Gonzalez as he somersaulted into the cave, mentally chiding himself for scraping his left tank on the wall as the outside current caught his fins. Despite numerous cave dives, Lewis was always taken aback by the complete darkness and otherworldly beauty to be found in each new cave. Like the others had done, he shined his light around his immediate surroundings and found they were in what appeared to be a relatively smooth lava tube, approximately 20 feet in diameter. Lewis found it surprising that there was no current inside the cave, allowing silt to accumulate along the floor while permitting excellent visibility ahead.

The other team members were kneeling or standing on the floor of the tube, their lights shining on Lewis as their movements gradually stirred the silty bottom. Instinctively, he had looped his fingers around the white cave line as he entered and now he followed it forward and down to meet up with the team. Joining the others, Lewis traced a circle on the wall with his light and was pleased when the other six other lights did the same. At least people were alert, even if they were lying about being okay. Even Stonewood looked much better now that he was out of the river, away from the men who were trying to kill them all.

Gonzalez waved her light, getting everyone’s attention as she pointed forward to indicate it was time to press on. Just as Gonzalez started to turn, Samantha began frantically waving her light back and forth, signaling that she had an emergency. Lewis kept his eye on the others while Gonzalez moved to help Samantha, who was now waving her pressure gauge, indicating she was almost out of air. Gonzalez showed her the regulator connected to her left tank, and assisted in making the swap.

Lewis checked and found that Stonewood too had nearly emptied his first tank. Things didn’t go as smooth for him, however. As soon as he removed his right regulator, Stonewood absolutely freaked out, swimming for the surface with all his strength. Instead of the surface, the severely-panicked Stonewood found the ceiling of the cave; nearly knocking himself unconscious with the collision.

In Stonewood’s uncontrolled quest for real air, he kicked Miller in the face and dislodged his mask. The rush of cold water into the already-nervous professor’s eyes and up his nose was enough to make him let go of the line to bolt for safety. Instead of the unreachable surface above, Miller had the presence of mind to remember the entrance, and plowed full on into Lewis as he spun and kicked towards the dim light. Reduced to his basic survival instincts, Miller began clawing his way towards safety, his waving arms hitting Lewis in the face, knocking both his mask and regulator into the darkness. Miller’s kicking fins quickly tangled the line around Lewis’s legs, making both men essentially blind and bound together. To make matters even worse, they currently had only one regulator between the two of them, and it was in the mouth of a completely panicked man.

Samantha had instinctively moved away from the flailing Stonewood, remembering to keep track of the line as she pushed Pierre forward until they reached Gonzalez. Gonzalez knew things were quickly spiraling towards total catastrophe. She had seen panic kill even experienced cave divers, but she had no choice but to stay with Pierre and Samantha, keeping them from contributing to the chaos. Gonzalez kept a strong grip on the reel and pulled the line as tight as she could, trying to control some of the tangling.

Lewis had attached his second regulator with a thin bungee necklace that now allowed him to grip the mouthpiece with his teeth, working it into his mouth. As long as he could breathe, he knew he was okay. Taking a deep breath, Lewis grabbed the light which had been knocked loose in the mayhem. The light’s beam helped a little, but he still needed to find his mask to be able to really see. Lewis felt around for his mask as Miller continued to kick and claw, rolling the two around in the cave.

Meanwhile, Craig wrapped his strong arms around his boss, fighting to get him under control. He had gotten the second regulator into Stonewood’s mouth, but the crazed man’s continued flailing was stirring up silt from the floor, making it harder to see. Finally, Craig had had enough. He thrust the butt of his light down on the top of Stonewood’s head, knocking him unconscious.

Almost simultaneously, Miller’s tank was empty. His rapid breathing had increased his oxygen consumption tenfold and he had breathed the last drop of air from his initial tank. Typically, this would have only compounded a panic situation but, for some reason, in Miller’s case it actually calmed him down. He understood that he had a simple task to complete in order to stay alive, bringing clarity back to his mind. He snatched the regulator right out of Lewis’s mouth and placed it firmly in his own, taking a couple deep breaths before straightening his mask and clearing the water out.

Lewis was unable to breathe for the second time but, without having to fight Miller, he easily traced his hand along the right tank and down the hose to the regulator he had started with. Placing it back in his mouth, Lewis returned to feeling around for his mask. As Miller tried to wiggle loose from the guide line, Lewis quickly put his hand up in front of the professor’s mask, signaling him to stop moving. He then pointed to his exposed eyes, hoping to get his point across. It felt like a month, but was probably more like 30 seconds before he located his mask lying on the bottom. After replacing the mask, Lewis found he still couldn’t see anything; the water was completely clouded with the silt stirred up by all the commotion.

Lewis worked by feel alone, carefully removing the guide line from around his legs, freeing the tangled professor at the same time. Keeping one hand on the line, he helped Miller ease forward, hoping to find clear water ahead. After just a few feet, Lewis felt something soft brush across his leg. He was about to turn to investigate when the soft-something latched onto his leg, pulling him backwards. Visions of Jaws took over Lewis’s mind as he kicked at the mysterious creature that was trying to drag him to its lair. After the fourth or fifth awkward kick with his finned foot, Lewis realized it was a human hand on his leg. The hand wasn’t dragging him away at all; it was just trying to hang on.

Moments later, Lewis and Miller emerged from the silt cloud and were greeted by three lights shining towards them from the passage ahead. Lewis turned and could now see that Craig was the one holding onto his leg with one hand while supporting the unconscious Stonewood with the other. Now that Craig could see, he released Lewis’s calf and moved forward to his place on the line.

Miller’s eyes looked like those of a scolded puppy. Lewis gave his arm a gentle squeeze and formed an OK sign with his hand, holding it in front of his light to make it easier to see. Miller nodded slightly and returned the sign as Lewis breathed a sigh of relief. They had been in the cave for less than five minutes, and he felt like he had almost died a dozen times. This whole idea seemed more insane with each passing moment.

Not wanting to waste any more time or air, Gonzalez immediately turned and continued down the tunnel. After approximately 100 feet, the cave began to angle upward for a short distance before emerging into an air-filled section. There was nowhere else to go underwater. Lewis raised his head above the surface, spitting out his regulator as he breathed in the cool cave air. He could see at least a hundred yards ahead before the passageway made a gentle turn to the left and disappeared out of site.

Everyone slowly crawled out of the water while Craig drug Stonewood’s limp body up the rocky bank, laying him in a level area. They exchanged hugs and subdued high-fives, all thankful to be alive. Their celebration was cut short by a massive explosion reverberating from behind them. The rumbling of rocks told them they wouldn’t be going back the way they came.

Chapter 5 — HOME SWEET HOME

“We’re going to die down here!” It was a thought shared by many, but first spoken out loud by Craig. Silence followed.

Finally, Lewis spoke. “There’s sure to be another way out of here. Let’s get out of this gear and see what we’ve got for supplies, and then we’ll make a plan. We should probably use one flashlight at a time to conserve batteries. Samantha, let’s use yours for starters.” Samantha didn’t look like she was doing too well, and Lewis hoped having control of the light would help.

As Samantha held the light, the group moved from bag to bag, each person opening the bag they brought. The simple task of opening the dry bags and sorting the gear worked wonders for morale. It is amazing what the mind can cope with when it’s distracted.

Gonzalez’s bag contained four sleeping mats and a small camp stove. While the items weren’t useless, they weren’t the silver bullet Lewis was hoping for either. It was clear that the others had hoped for more as well. Lewis rubbed his hands together as he said, “Comfort can go a long ways down here and, if we end up being stuck here for a while, that stove will allow us to purify our drinking water.” There were a few nodding heads but it certainly wasn’t the best pep talk.

Gonzalez also had a small mesh bag strapped diagonally over her shoulders. She unclipped it, laying it next to her harness as she explained. “These are some tools and special valves for servicing the dive gear. Most are fairly specific, but I suppose some could come in handy for other jobs.”

Pierre opened the top of his bag a little sheepishly. “I already know mine is full of climbing gear because it’s one of the bags I packed myself. May not seem important now, but it may be essential if this cave goes vertical.” Samantha’s light revealed a variety of gear, including two large bundles of rope.

Lewis gave the climber a firm pat on the back. “Nicely done, Pierre.” He noticed a glimmer of hope on some of the other faces as they eyed the equipment, which Pierre left in the bag. “Even if we don’t have to climb out of here, that rope certainly may come in handy.”

Miller was next to lift his bag, saying in an apologetic tone, “I only grabbed one of the little ones.”

Craig, who was standing directly behind the professor, immediately squashed any hard feelings as he said, “Don’t feel bad, Doc, I lost mine and ended up with nothing.”

That seemed to buoy the elder man’s spirits a bit as he quickly opened his bag, revealing a pair of LED lanterns along with four extra lithium-ion batteries. A separate pocket on the inside of the bag contained 8 LED headlamps. Lewis breathed a sigh of relief. The most immediate enemy in the cave was darkness, and the team now had a weapon to keep the darkness at bay for much longer.

A soft cheer went up as Craig turned the first lantern on and set it on a small rock, bathing the entire chamber in a gentle glow. “Each of these should last 18 hours,” Craig said as he picked up one of the battery packs from Miller’s bag. “That gives us over four days of constant light if we use one lantern at a time. I’d say at least a week with the headlamps and our underwater lights figured in.”

Pierre gave Miller a slightly awkward high-five. Samantha turned off her dive light and embraced the professor in a long hug, quietly saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

The first bag Lewis opened was one of the bags Stonewood’s men had packed with general provisions. Lewis was happy to find an assortment of MREs and dehydrated meals; as well as a 4-quart pot for cooking. There was also a nicely-stocked first-aid kit and eight brand new water bottles, each with a built in straw that was supposed to make it possible to drink from any position. Lewis closed his eyes and breathed a second sigh of relief, knowing they now had the necessities to buy them time, and time was a solution engineer’s greatest weapon.

Stonewood was becoming alert again, groaning as he rubbed his head. Craig was immediately at his side. “Take it easy, sir. You bumped your head pretty good back there before you blacked out.” Craig looked to Lewis, who responded with a wink as Gonzalez nodded slowly behind him. Craig helped Stonewood sit up, filling his boss in on their situation. “We’ve reached an open chamber and we’re going through our supplies to see what we’ve got.” Stonewood only nodded and groaned again — he wasn’t fully awake just yet.

Lewis moved on to his second bag, which contained Samantha’s survey equipment and explosives. As his parents and childhood neighbors learned, Quinn Lewis liked a nice explosion! “Ms. Sinclair, I believe these are yours,” Lewis said as he turned towards Samantha.

Obviously relieved to have some tools to help the group, Samantha’s eyes twinkled and her beautiful smile beamed as she stared into Lewis’s bag. As she reached for the bag, she calmly stated, “If we can find a thin enough wall, I can blast us a doorway out of here."

A devilish grin crossed Lewis’s face as he said, “A word of warning: One of those duct-taped to a telephone pole will not impress the utility company, or the police.” He laughed, thinking back to the Fourth of July when his crazy uncle gave him some weird putty and told him to be careful because, “You could blow a telephone pole in half with this stuff.” Uncle Dennis had hit the nail on the head with that prediction.

“Let’s see what you’ve got in your bag Samantha.” Gonzalez spoke up over Lewis’s laughter.

Samantha looked to Miller, then down to the red bag lying near the water, still clipped to her harness where she’d taken it off. Her dry bag was about the size of a typical grocery bag, definitely the smallest of the group. She knelt down to unclip the bag, speaking softly. “I’m afraid I grabbed the smallest bag of all. I was just so scared.” As she moved the bag into the lantern’s light, she added, “It doesn’t feel like much.”

Lewis let out a loud cheer when he saw the bag. “Yes! I had forgotten all about my little red goodie bag. That’s got to be it though!”

The others looked at him as if he were insane, shocked by the outburst. Samantha summed it up nicely. “Quinn, you are crazy. I still like you, but you’re crazy.”

“Believe me, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that. Well, maybe not the likable part, but I have been accused of being off my rocker more times than I can count. I think it’s the hair.” Lewis pretended to straighten imaginary strands of hair on his shaved head.

Gonzalez rubbed his bald head, laughing as she replied, “I think there may be a little more to it than that.” Then, drumming on his head like a bongo drum, she added, “I’d say this one sounds ripe though!” Everyone howled at the joke! Well, Stonewood’s was more of a polite chuckle, but at least he was coming around.

Once the laughter died down, Lewis pointed back to the red bag still in Samantha’s hands. “I’m afraid that probably won’t be terribly exciting to you but believe me, it will come in handy.”

Samantha started to hand the bag over to Lewis but he waved her off. “No, you did the work, you should enjoy the opening. Even if you aren’t excited, you’re still a hero in my book.”

Samantha brought her hands to her hips and straightened up, doing some sort of Superman pose before opening the bag. She scrunched her eyes at the odd contents inside: a roll of duct tape, a small bundle of wire, a few feet of parachute cord, and a Leatherman multi-tool. “Hmm,” she said, unable to hide her disappointment. “Well, you were right: not too exciting.”

“Nothing flashy, but those items have saved my life on multiple occasions. Simple, but effective,” Lewis said solemnly, a faraway look in his eyes. He hated to go anywhere without a similar kit; it was the first thing he had scrounged together after dinner the night before.

Stonewood was standing up now. He still looked a little woozy and he spoke softly, saying, “Thanks for helping me get this far. I feel like I have the worst hangover ever.” He looked towards Craig, giving him a little nod before continuing in a more forceful tone. “I’m assuming this is the chamber with my treasure, so let’s stop this chatting and find it. I want to be back on the river tonight.”

Samantha’s anger towards Stonewood immediately returned. She screamed, “We’re stuck in here, thanks to you! They sealed us in!” Her eyes filled with tears as her rage boiled over further. “I don’t care about your stupid treasure; all the gold in the world is worthless to us if we die in here!” Samantha’s entire body was shaking.

“Listen here you-” Stonewood began before Lewis stood up, placing a hand on the shorter man’s chest.

“Calm down.” Lewis spoke calmly but forcefully. “Everyone calm down.”

Stonewood was infuriated. “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down!” His entire head had turned beet red with anger as he went on. “I’m in charge of this enterprise, and I will not tolerate this insubordination, especially from you!” Stonewood pushed Lewis’s hand aside and tried to shove the bigger man back, finding that Lewis was far too firmly planted to budge. “Craig! Teach this man some respect,” Stonewood boomed.

Craig spoke from Stonewood’s side. “They’re right, Mr. Stonewood. You need to calm down before you get hurt.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Stonewood yelled as he spun on Craig.

Lewis had had enough. Grabbing Stonewood from behind in a firm bear hug, he pinned the much weaker man’s arms to his side then spoke directly into Stonewood’s ear. “This stops now! We are in this together. If you jeopardize our lives further, I will drown you.” His voice almost returned to a normal level as he added, “We will look for the treasure on our way but you need to understand: this is about survival now.”

Lewis released his grip and Stonewood stumbled away, spinning around so he could see everyone. Hatred filled his eyes but he showed restraint. “Fair enough,” he spat. “Just don’t forget who’s in charge here.”

“Of course, Mr. Stonewood,” Lewis said, a little more mockingly than he probably should have. “May I suggest getting our gear organized into some sort of base camp before proceeding with the exploration?”

“Okay,” Stonewood responded, trying to ignore Lewis’s tone. “I want to be moving in five minutes.” Stonewood then motioned Craig away from the others for a private conversation.

Gonzalez moved in closer to Lewis. “I liked that guy a lot more when he was knocked out,” she whispered.

“Agreed. He needs to understand our situation so he doesn’t get us all killed.” Lewis looked to where Stonewood and Craig now stood. “Do you suppose Craig is in time-out for the rest of the trip?”

Pierre turned towards the private conversation, watching the interaction for a moment before speaking up. “I think the big guy is fed up with his boss. Stonewood better tread lightly.”

Craig and Stonewood rejoined the group as the others finished laying out the supplies. Stonewood had calmed down, seeming almost human as he spoke. “I apologize for the outburst. You’re all correct, this is now about survival, and we need to work together to get home safely.”

Lewis had not expected such a turn of character and was at a loss for words for a moment. Finally, he managed to reply, “We’re all under a lot of stress here.” He extended his hand for a handshake, adding, “How’s your head?”

Stonewood gingerly moved his finger down the left side of his head from his temple to his chin. “This whole side of my head feels like it was hit by a train.”

Lewis opened the first-aid kit and handed Stonewood a small bottle. “Here’s some ibuprofen. Take two and call me in the morning.” After grimacing at his own joke, Lewis spoke to everyone. “Let’s leave everything here for now, and do a quick exploration of this passageway before weighing our options. How does that sound?”

Everyone, including Stonewood, agreed to the plan. Lewis transferred his survival kit items to the pockets of his cargo pants, smashing the roll of duct tape to get it to fit. Each member put on a headlamp before starting off, following the lava tube for a few hundred feet to where it made a gradual turn, eventually opening into a large chamber.

They all stopped, staring in awe as they looked around the chamber that lay before them. About the size of a football field, the floor was formed like a shallow bowl with an evident water mark extending around the chamber, at approximately waist height. The walls were made of smooth black rock that seemed to absorb every drop of light, giving the chamber an otherworldly feel.

Stonewood’s shoulders slumped after he finished scanning the room. No treasure here. Gonzalez broke the silence. “It looks like this becomes a small lake when the water’s up. If the water can get out, maybe we can too.”

“I like your optimism,” Lewis commented. “How about if we work our way clockwise around the room and see if we can find the drain?”

“Please let us find a way home,” Miller whispered before stepping forward, leading the way around the giant cavern.

Gonzalez shrugged and smiled, locking eyes with Lewis before they both turned to follow Miller. They all moved slowly, looking high and low for any break or gap in the smooth walls. Pierre paused a couple times to examine irregularities high on the domed ceiling but moved on each time, deciding the abnormalities were merely areas of different shaded rock.

The group was fairly spread out as they worked their way around the corner at the far end of the room. Samantha called excitedly from a ways back, nearer to the center of the room. “There might be something here!”

When Lewis reached her side, he found Samantha staring into a narrow crack running across the flattened part of the floor. It was probably 20 feet long, starting out less than an inch wide but expanding to nearly two feet at its widest. Sticks and other debris were piled in the deeper area at the widest part of the crack. “It looks like you found where the water gets out,” Lewis said with a warm smile. “Doc, could you help Samantha and I clean the junk out of here while the others finish searching the rest of the room?”

“I think I can handle that.” Miller agreed with enthusiasm, obviously excited by the chance for an escape.

Gonzalez could see that Lewis was working to elevate the morale of the team’s weakest members. She admired the effort, knowing that keeping everyone involved as much as possible would improve their ultimate chances for survival. “We’ll see what else we can find,” she said before adding, “Good work, Samantha, and good luck everyone.” Stonewood, Craig, and Pierre followed as Gonzalez led off towards the far end of the chamber.

Lewis and the others worked together, pulling bundles of smooth branches from the crack, revealing a short trench about 20 inches wide and 6 feet deep. It didn’t take long before they uncovered a nearly circular opening, about the size of a manhole, angling downward through the bottom of the trench-like area before leveling off and extending into the distance. Soon, Lewis was lying on his belly at the bottom of the crack as Miller stood in front of him. Lewis reached deeper into the hole, passing bits of the blockage up to Miller, who lifted them to Samantha at the lip of the crack. After 30 minutes of work, they had removed the last of the debris. Lewis looked up to see Gonzalez now peering down on him. “How’d the rest of your search go?” he asked.

“Nothing.” She sounded dejected. “This is our only hope.”

Lewis gave her a wink. “I think we’re in luck. It looks a little tight, but I can see that it opens back up after a short squeeze. And there’s a strong wind coming out.” Lewis was no caving expert, but he knew that wind often signaled a way to the surface.

Stonewood’s head was the next to peek over the edge, the worry obvious in his voice as he asked, “How tight are we talking?” Claustrophobia aside, Stonewood was the least likely to fit through any small passages they came across.

Lewis didn’t want to cause additional stress but he didn’t want to lie either. He kept his tone neutral as he replied. “It stays plenty wide but flattens out to around 12 inches. It might squeeze a little, but we can all make it through.” Lewis boosted Miller out of the trench before climbing out himself.

“Now what, boss?” Pierre asked, intending the question for Lewis.

Stonewood answered immediately. “Craig, you and Quinn go check it out. We’ll wait here.”

Pierre flinched when Stonewood responded instead of Lewis. Turning to face the billionaire, he asked, “I think I can be useful — may I go too?”

“Whatever.” Stonewood shrugged as he motioned Pierre towards the opening.

Lewis felt that Gonzalez would be a much better choice than Craig, but got the impression that this was more of a trust issue with Stonewood. Not wanting to set the man off again, Lewis climbed back down to the hole, preparing to enter. “We’ll be right back,” he said to nobody in particular before getting down on his belly and squirming into the hole.

The first ten feet were fairly easy for Lewis; there was plenty of room to crawl along using his knees and elbows. The last of the debris had been in this section so he had been here before. Next came the tight area he had seen, but never actually tried fitting through. The tunnel got lower, requiring Lewis to drag himself forward a few inches at a time, pulling with his outstretched hands while pushing with his toes, timing his movements with his exhaled breath — the rocks gripped his upper body too tightly to move when his chest expanded on an inhale. The low ceiling made it difficult to lift his head enough to see very far forward, forcing him to crawl with his neck twisted at an awkward angle. Gradually, the space widened out again, opening into a new passageway, three feet wide and at least ten feet tall. It felt like a stadium compared to the tight crawl. Craig and Pierre joined him almost immediately, having an easier time with the restriction since they were both smaller than Lewis.

The trio followed this new passage as it snaked its way down a gentle slope. The walls remained just a few feet apart while the ceiling got gradually higher and higher until it was no longer visible with a single headlamp. The floor of the passage was relatively smooth and the group made steady progress for the next 30 minutes. Walking single-file, they continued until the passage dead-ended in another chamber with a small pool of water in one corner. This new room wasn’t nearly as large as the previous chamber, but was still big, nearly the size of a gymnasium.

Lewis shined his light into the crystal clear water of the pool, revealing the bottom perhaps 40 feet below. The sides were nearly vertical for the first 30 feet before angling out of sight, like an inverted funnel, near the bottom. The three men stood beside the pool, staring into its depths, each temporarily lost in their thoughts or fears about another underwater passage.

Pierre looked up to scan the ceiling once again before his gaze returned to the hole. He folded his arms, cursing quietly as he shook his head.

“We need Gonzalez,” Lewis stated plainly.

“Do you think it actually goes somewhere at the bottom?” Craig asked, sounding awfully pessimistic about their only possible route for escape.

“It definitely goes somewhere,” Lewis answered with a little sarcasm. “Going out of sight doesn’t necessarily mean it goes anywhere we want to be though.” Lewis looked from Craig to Pierre before adding, “We’ll know more after we get Gonzalez down here with some dive gear.” Lewis didn’t want to sound overly despairing, but he didn’t want to further false hopes either. Better to wait and see how things played out.

It took another twenty minutes to walk back up the narrow, meandering passage. Lewis found it easier to squirm through the tight restriction this time; maybe just because he had a better idea what to expect. The group that had remained behind had transferred all the gear to the large chamber, laying it out near the crack. They had finished a while before and were anxiously waiting when Lewis emerged.

“Can we get out?” Samantha asked immediately upon seeing Lewis’s light.

Lewis exchanged glances with Pierre and Craig before answering. “Well, maybe. There’s a passage on the other side of the restriction. We followed it for almost a mile to where it dead-ended in a room with a deep pool of water. The water may offer a way out.”

Samantha and Stonewood were both visibly shaken by the prospect of another trip under the water. Miller’s expression remained blank as he simply nodded his head, possibly more worried about being stuck than about braving another swim. Nobody was jumping for joy.

Gonzalez looked at Lewis as she said, “I’ll get my stuff together and suit up.” Her voice was calm and confident, the traits of a cave diver ready to go to work.

Lewis followed Gonzalez over to where the team had laid out the scuba equipment. “Mind if we buddy up?” he asked.

Gonzalez gave Lewis a sly smile. “I guess you’ve proven yourself to be mildly competent in the water.” Her expression turned serious before she added, “I hope this underwater passage is fairly short — some of these guys used a lot of air on the way in. Those three tanks are empty.” Gonzalez was pointing to three tanks that were grouped together off to the side. “Over here are four that are basically full. The other seven, I’ve evened out to where they are about half full.”

“So basically,” Lewis started while kneeling next to some of the tanks, “we already used almost half of our air on the short swim in here.” Lewis rubbed the top of his head with his hands. “That’s not good.”

“We really need people to be calm and breathe smoothly on the way back out,” Gonzalez agreed. As she picked up one of the half-full tanks, she said, “Let’s each bring one of these to explore your pool. If it’s more than a short sump, we may need to weigh our options before proceeding.” Lewis was nodding, so Gonzalez continued. “I think we should save the full tanks in case we run into something major, requiring serious surveying or exploration to get through.”

The two gathered their gear, recruiting Craig and Pierre to help carry it down to the pool. The entire group would be going down this time. Samantha stuck close to Pierre as he led the way, followed closely by Gonzalez and Miller. As expected, Stonewood had the hardest time maneuvering through the tight passage but he remained calm, making it through with a little pushing and pulling from the others. Craig and Lewis carried the tanks as they took up the rear, following in the near darkness behind Stonewood’s light.

Gonzalez was noticeably excited as she examined the pool with her dive light. Talking faster than normal, she exclaimed, “I can’t believe how clear this water is! This is totally different from where we came in; it must be some sort of spring.”

She stood up and began assembling her gear, this time attaching the tank to the back of her harness like a traditional scuba diver. Gonzalez was ready in record time. She looked over to Lewis, who was replacing a broken buckle on his harness, and then back to the pool, speaking over her shoulder, “I’m going to tie off then drop straight down, just to take a look around. We’ll know more about what’s down there so we can put a better plan together when I get back.”

It sounded like a good idea to Lewis; although, deep down, he knew Gonzalez just wanted to get in the water as soon as possible. “Sounds good to me. I’ve got my strap fixed so I only need to set up my tank — I’ll be ready when you get back up.” Lewis thought for a moment and changed his mind. “Actually, I’ll watch you; I can set up my tank while you fill me in when you get back.”

Gonzalez tied the loose end of her cave line to a nice-sized rock next to the pool. Waddling to the edge, she took a giant step, letting line spin off her reel as she rolled forward and descended. She looked like a skydiver dropping towards the bottom, arms and legs slightly spread as she glided downward. Once again, Lewis admired her grace underwater, watching her descend below the lip where the walls angled out of view. Suddenly, she vanished.

It took Lewis a moment to figure out what had happened: one second Gonzalez was slowly gliding towards the bottom, and then she was gone in the blink of an eye. This calm pool was simply a window to a fast-moving underground river below.

Lewis acted fast. “Pierre, get that rope off your shoulders and tie one end to that boulder over there,” he commanded, pointing to a huge rock sticking out of the ground. “That thin cave line isn’t going to hold her for long!”

As Pierre expertly tied off one end of the 100-meter long rope, Lewis tied the other around his waist. Grabbing his dive mask and the tank he had not yet set up, he jumped into the pool, plummeting to the bottom. The instant he dropped below the lip, he was thrust down the wildest waterslide he had ever seen — and this one was completely filled with water. He must have been moving at least 30 miles an hour! Luckily, the tunnel was again a relatively smooth tube so there weren’t any large stalactites or other deadly obstacles to avoid.

Lewis could see Gonzalez’s light up ahead. She must have caught hold of something because he was catching up fast. Lewis put his mouth up to the tank and turned the valve a little, drinking in a quick shot of air. He was about 20 feet from the light when Gonzalez lost her grip and began tumbling away. Lewis’s momentum allowed him to close the gap before Gonzalez got up to speed. He was able to grab a fin and then her harness, pulling her to him just as the rope went tight, jerking them both to a stop. Gonzalez instinctively latched on to Lewis as his grip almost failed.

With Gonzalez hanging on to his waist, Lewis tried pulling them both back up the rope but the current was too strong. To make matters worse, the turbulence was whipping them around like flags in the wind. Gonzalez kept slamming her back into the walls, almost losing her grip twice. Finally, she was able to get her harness clipped through the loop of rope tied around Lewis’s waist; now they were bound together. It was only a matter of time before a sharp rock would cut through the rope, allowing the water to sweep them away. Lewis took a few long hits of air from his tank to sooth his burning lungs.

If only they had some of Pierre’s climbing gear, they might be able to ascend the rope. Lewis again tried to pull them along against the current, this time using his feet against the sides for added propulsion. With her hands now free, Gonzalez added her strength, pulling alongside Lewis. Again, they got nowhere.

He could see the fear in Gonzalez’s eyes each time their masks banged together as their bodies whipped around. Her look of fear was joined by bewilderment as Lewis took another sip of air before he began undoing the laces on his shoes.

Back when he was a Boy Scout, Lewis had learned the basic techniques for rock climbing and roped rescue. His Scout leader had demonstrated a special knot called a Prusik knot, which was tied by wrapping a smaller cord, like his laces, around a fixed rope. The Prusik knot is unique because the loops can be slipped forward with your fingers, but the entire knot is locked in place when weight is applied to the loose ends of the cord.

It was difficult to hold the tank under his arm as he worked, but Lewis managed to remove his shoe lace without losing his only source of air, or his shoe. Lewis used the freed lace to tie a Prusik knot around the climbing rope, leaving a loop on the end as a sort of stirrup for his foot. After taking a short break for a few badly-needed breaths, Lewis started the unlacing process with the other shoe. The exertion was getting the best of him, making his lungs ache between the bursts of air. He wanted a break but knew that it was only a matter of time before the rope wore through, spelling their certain doom. As Lewis took another breath, the current whipped him hard into the wall, knocking the tank from his hands before he could tighten his grip. Panic nearly overtook him but Lewis calmed himself, quickly tying the second knot. His lungs burned like they were on fire by the time he signaled Gonzalez to share her air — they would have to buddy breathe from here on.

Just like he remembered from Scouts, Lewis was able to advance a knot with his fingers as he released the tension by lifting his foot. That same knot would lock in place when he pressed his weight back into the stirrup. This process, referred to as Prusiking, allowed the pair of divers to essentially climb the rope against the current, inching their way towards safety. After every two deep breaths, Gonzalez would pass the regulator to Lewis, taking her turn on the knots while Lewis took his breaths. They were steadily working their way forward when Gonzalez noticed that her tank was almost out of air.

Unsure of what to do, the rest of the team watched the fraying rope in horror, their lights shining into the pool. The divers could see the light ahead; it looked like they were actually going to make it out. After gaining a couple more feet, Lewis took the regulator offered by Gonzalez. He was able to get the tank’s final half-breath, feeling his mask tighten on his face as his lungs attempted to pull in the additional air he needed through his nose. He and Gonzalez worked the knots together, doing their best to conserve the last bit of oxygen in their lungs. Lewis’s vision began to blur, his brain starving for fuel. They both fought to avoid blacking out, pushing the knots further along as their movements got slower and slower.

Gonzalez shined her light on the base of the pool ahead, illuminating the path back up, now less than five feet away. The short distance was too much: her head fell to Lewis’s chest and her arms dropped to her sides as her body shut down. Lewis fought on for two more of the strange steps, mentally cursing the cave as darkness overcame his vision and his body went limp.

Chapter 6 — UP, UP AND AWAY

The next thing Lewis knew, he was lying on his side next to the pool, coughing up water. Gonzalez was still clipped to his waist, doing the same. “I hope to never do that again,” Lewis spat between coughs.

The others had spotted the beam from Gonzalez’s light and were able to work together, tugging the bound pair out of the current and up to safety. A stiff pat on the back from Craig had gotten each of them coughing and on their way to normal breathing. Later inspection of the rope revealed three regions within millimeters of being severed. A few fibers and some watchful friends had saved the divers’ lives.

The overall mood had definitely soured after the failed attempt to find a way out through the pool. Everyone slowly returned to the large bowl-shaped cavern where they’d left their supplies. Sitting on the ground, they all quietly ate some chili, which Pierre had sped ahead to rehydrate and heat on the small camp stove.

After he finished eating, Lewis gathered the water bottles and the pot, deciding to take the stove back to the water where they had all entered the cave earlier. Samantha and Miller were done as well, and both volunteered to help purify a round of drinking water. Lewis found a level spot to light the stove while Miller filled the pot with water. It was the dancing flames of the stove that brought him back around — air flow. Air was blowing out of the hole, and it was blowing from somewhere; they just had to figure out where.

Samantha came over to help. Her time spent in underground mines around the world helped her to immediately grasp the significance of the flickering flame. “Wind…” she whispered.

Lewis nodded, excitement spreading across his face as he elaborated. “Remember how strong it was down in the tunnel? That air is coming from somewhere — it sure isn’t coming from the Toilet Bowl of Death.” A quick shiver passed through his body as Lewis thought back to the near drowning. “We must have missed something up high somewhere.” They finished purifying the water then headed back to camp.

The others gathered around, soaking in the fresh optimism while Lewis went over his theory behind the wind. Pierre smiled as everyone looked to the small climber. “It’s my turn,” he stated, his French accent seeming even more pronounced than usual. “I’ll try to lead us all to safety!”

“I sure hope so, my friend,” Lewis offered, giving Pierre a light punch on the shoulder. “We’re ready for some French luck.”

It was decided they would explore the ceiling area of the last passage as a group. Each person would use their headlamp as well as their dive light to provide as much illumination as possible, hoping nothing would be missed — this was not the time to save batteries. Anything that looked promising would be explored by Pierre. With a basic strategy in place, they got moving, Samantha and Pierre in the lead once again.

They all stuck fairly close together, stopping every few feet to further check some shadow or outcropping that someone spotted. It took over two hours for the group to work their way down to the pool, finding only one 2-foot indent that was even high enough for Pierre to do any climbing. Exhausted and frustrated, they decided to take a break before trying the search again from the other direction.

“My neck is killing me from looking up for so long,” Gonzalez mumbled as she lay on the ground.

Pierre agreed. “Same here. My eyes too, they feel dry and tired from staring.” With that, Pierre shut off his light. One by one, each person turned theirs off as well, and the chamber became completely dark.

Lewis let his mind rest as he embraced the sensory deprivation of total darkness and absolute silence. It didn’t take long before he started dozing off. Just as his last neuron was about to give in to sleep, Samantha’s high-pitched scream nearly launched his heart out of his chest. Lewis and the others immediately turned their headlamps back on to see what was wrong.

“Turn those back off!” Samantha yelled. “Turn your lights off and look up, absolutely straight up!”

Everyone did as they were told. It took a while for Lewis’s eyes to adjust but then he saw it too. “There’s some sort of light up there,” Lewis stated. Sure enough, something was glowing on the ceiling 150 feet over their heads.

Samantha giggled as she responded. “At first I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me. It reminds me of the AllGlow paint my dad uses for marking passages in the mines. I think somebody used something similar on the ceiling up there.”

Stonewood’s voice was boiling over with excitement as he exclaimed, “That’s Sigurd’s head!”

Before anyone could ask a question or Stonewood could elaborate, Miller cut in. “Oh my God! You’re right!” He took a breath and calmed his tone. “Sigurd was a Norse god — the Dragon Slayer. I’ve never seen a drawing of only his head before though…”

Lewis was next to get excited. “I don’t think it is just his head! See the dim glow forming an almost straight line, right through his neck? That doesn’t look like part of the painting to me. I think there’s a ledge there, we just can’t see it from our angle!”

Lewis turned his light back on, jumping straight into the pool of water at the back of the chamber. “Yes! You can see it from here, there’s a gash in the ceiling right there!” Lewis shouted as he pointed upward. The others turned their lights on and walked to the edge of the pool near Lewis, each leaning to try to get a look. Only Gonzalez braved the water, playfully cannon-balling into the pool next to Lewis.

Pierre had a nervous expression as he scanned the walls of the chamber, his beady eyes jumping around as he focused on different possible hand-and foot-holds. Mentally testing different routes, his eyes moved from one hold to the next until he would shake his head, starting over again from a different location. To Lewis, it looked impossible. He wasn’t one to give up easily but the walls seemed so smooth, plus they curved backwards near the top until a climber would be practically walking on the ceiling. Finally, Pierre’s expression transformed to a smile. He rubbed his hands together before repeating his earlier promise. “Pierre will lead us all to safety!”

Lewis followed along as Pierre pointed out his chosen route, describing key moves along the way. He slowly shook his head as he addressed the small Frenchman. “That’s pure Spider-Man material there.” Pierre’s smile grew at the compliment. This was his realm and he was obviously excited.

Stonewood’s renewed energy helped transform him back into full boss-mode. “Miller and I will stay here to study Sigurd and look for other runes. I want the rest of you to go back and get the gear.” He locked eyes with Craig before adding, “Don’t waste time.”

Gonzalez gave Lewis a questioning glance but he could only shrug in response before he played along, walking back up the passage without a word. Getting the gear was the obvious next step anyway, and there was nothing to gain by fighting with Stonewood now. Lewis felt like he knew Craig well enough to speak candidly with him, so he waited a few minutes until they were out of earshot then asked, “So Craig, what’s the deal with your boss?”

Craig’s response was telling yet guarded. “Mr. Stonewood isn’t as monstrous as he seems. Once you get to know him, Mr. Stonewood is a reasonable man. He has worked hard to get where he is, and he expects hard work from his employees. Like you said before, we’re all under a lot of stress here.” Craig gave Lewis a stern look and a curt nod, indicating that this line of questioning was over. He then added, “Let’s keep moving.”

Working together, everyone got the gear repacked into the dry bags and ready for transport back to where they hoped to escape. There was no reason to bring the three empty scuba tanks any further so they were left in a pile, but everything else was brought over to the crack Samantha had found. Pierre and Samantha crawled through the tight area to the other side while Lewis climbed into the crack, waiting on his side of the narrow hole. Craig and Gonzalez worked together, handing gear down to Lewis, who would then push it through to Pierre. Pierre pulled the equipment through before passing things on to Samantha, who then organized everything along the side of the passage. This assembly line system went very smoothly, and it wasn’t long before everyone and everything was through the restriction for what they hoped would be the last time.

There was too much gear to carry in one trip, so everyone worked to bring the dry bags and smaller dive gear down first, then returned for the ten remaining tanks. All told, it took nearly five hours to get the gear moved to the new chamber.

Miller and Stonewood had managed to locate the remains of another glowing rune symbol on a large boulder near the pool. This one was worn or weathered somehow, making it much harder to discern the original image. Stonewood felt it resembled some sort of serpent, but Miller was not convinced. What they had determined was that the runes had been created a long time ago with some sort of phosphorescent paste. Light from their headlamps excited the phosphorescence, causing the paste to glow. The purpose behind creating the symbols in such an obscure location, however, remained a mystery.

Pierre was not even slightly interested in the runes or any sort of ancient glow-in-the-dark magic paste; his focus was on the climb ahead. He had gathered the gear he would need and was now meditating at the base of the wall, near the spot he selected as the starting point for the climb. Lewis stood back and waited. The solution engineer liked to get outdoors and occasionally went rock climbing with friends, giving him enough experience to belay Pierre — meaning it was his job to feed the climber rope as he scaled the wall, and to stop him from falling to his death if he slipped. Lewis was staring at the ledge overhead when Pierre stood, giving him a single, shallow nod. It was time.

Pierre turned around and stated boldly, “Climbing.”

Lewis gave the standard reply, “Climb away,” signaling that he was ready to do his part.

Watching Pierre scramble the first twenty feet was simply amazing. His movements were quick and fluid, like he was a spider. Lewis was confident that he himself could not climb even the first pitch, and yet Pierre ascended like he was climbing a ladder. Everyone watched as Pierre grabbed one of his smallest cams from a sling looped over his shoulder, sliding it into a tiny crack. Spacing the cams out as he climbed was what kept Pierre from falling all the way back to the ground if he were to slip.

After a few more feet, Pierre came to the first tricky move. He was now six feet above where he had left the cam, meaning he would fall twelve feet if he slipped — six feet back to the cam, then another six until the rope went tight. “Slack,” Pierre called down. Lewis responded by letting out an extra three feet of rope; enough for Pierre to lunge up and to the right to a long vertical crack, just wide enough for someone’s fingers. The increased length of rope would also increase the length of a possible fall, but there was simply nowhere else to anchor any protection. The team had originally packed a drill and some specialized caving bolts, which would have allowed them to rig the cave for a more permanent climb, but those items were in one of the many dry bags that remained behind on the beach.

Pierre steadied himself, focusing his eyes on the narrow crack he was targeting with his upcoming jump. He rocked on his legs to build momentum: one…two…three! Pierre lunged for the crack like a frog for a fly. His left hand couldn’t reach but he was able to get the first two fingers of his right hand into the bottom tip of the crack. That was enough. He hung there for a moment, looking up at the thin crack running up the wall. With a quiet groan, Pierre pulled with his right arm, lifting his body just enough to reach the fingers of his left hand into the narrow crack as well. After three more pull-ups, alternating his hands upward, the amazing climber was high enough to get the toes of his climbing shoes into the crevice as well. Finally able to take some of the weight off his arms, he paused, resting for a minute after slipping a new cam into the crack. The other team members, who had breathlessly watched every move from below, gave Pierre a round of applause.

“Very impressive, Monsieur Dubois!” Lewis thundered.

Pierre grinned as he looked back down. “If you liked that, you’re going to love what The Amazing Pierre’s got coming up in a few minutes.” He followed the crack upwards as it slowly angled away from the ledge, quickly gaining almost 40 feet of elevation before the crack disappeared. There was nothing but smooth rock above; it appeared Pierre had climbed to a dead end. The Frenchman set another cam as high as he could, clipping his rope through the carabineer before calling for Lewis to lower him.

Stonewood became instantly nervous. “That’s as far as he can get?” he asked Lewis.

Lewis smiled down at the shorter man before responding. “That’s as far as he can get in that direction. Sometimes you have to take a step back before you can go forward again.”

Stonewood was about to ask for more detail when Pierre called, “Hold!”

All eyes were on the climber once again. Lewis held Pierre in position, allowing him to turn sideways and essentially stand on the wall with the rope supporting him. He seemingly defied gravity jogging across the wall to the left a few feet before turning and running back to the right. When he had made it as far to the right as he could, Pierre turned a final time, sprinting to the left. It was amazing to watch the magic running man as he followed the arc of the rope; down and then back up again, the rope swung, guiding him across the wall. As he neared the end of his momentum, Pierre twisted his body, diving for a decent handhold that protruded from the wall. He was met with loud gasps from below as he caught himself, his body whipping violently to the side.

Gonzalez blinked forcefully a few times then shook her head, hardly believing what she had just witnessed. “Wow!” was all she could manage in her bewildered state.

Craig and Stonewood both agreed. “Yeah… Wow!”

Pierre was now almost 75 feet up — approximately half way there. From here, the wall slowly curved into the ceiling, requiring Pierre to climb in an ever more inverted position. The next part of the route again angled up and to the right, away from the ledge. The good news was that Pierre had found a nice section of cracks, allowing him to use his hands and feet together, quickly gaining an additional 60 feet of height. He was now almost as high as the ledge but was a little over 50 feet away. He was also completely upside down, somehow clinging to the ceiling as he scanned ahead.

Everyone on the floor focused their lights on the ceiling, trying to help him see as much as possible. “Hold me tight,” Pierre called after running the rope through another cam he had just fastened in a small hole. Lewis was now able to take his weight, allowing Pierre to dangle from the ceiling while resting his aching arms.

“You’re looking great!” Lewis hollered up for encouragement. Lewis could hear Pierre’s labored breathing from the exertion of the climb. His muscles had to be on fire.

Pierre scanned the area ahead multiple times before looking down to Lewis. Everyone could hear the dejection in his voice when he said, “I thought this was another crack, but turns out it’s just a vein of different colored rock. I can’t go any further.”

Stonewood almost collapsed at the news, and Samantha moved next to Miller, who put his arm around her. Lewis was at a loss. “Do you see any other routes from up there?” he asked.

Pierre paused, looking around again. “Nothing…”

Lewis didn’t like the sound of that one bit. This climb was the only remaining option for escaping the cave alive. He had an idea. “Do you think you could do another pendulum trick, but through the air this time?”

Pierre looked down at Lewis then back to the small cam that was supporting his weight. “I’ll give it a try.” Pierre added two more cams for extra support, knowing that the force would be greatest as he swung through the bottom of the arc.

Lewis looked straight down, rubbing some of the pain out from the back of his neck before looking up again. “Whenever you are ready, I’ll try to guide you back to a spot that will hopefully line you up with the ledge. Then all you have to do is push off the ceiling, ride the swing across, and work your magic when you reach the ledge at the other apex.” He paused then added sarcastically, “I would do it myself but I’m at the wrong end of the rope.”

Pierre got a firm grip on the ceiling before replying to Lewis, “You get the next turn.” With that, he started working backwards, away from Sigurd and the ledge that the Dragon Slayer seemed to be guarding.

Lewis hoped he never had the opportunity for a next turn, knowing there was no way he could actually pull off any part of what Pierre was doing. “It looks like you’re almost there. Maybe a couple of feet to your… right.” It took a second to figure out directions for an upside-down man who was dangling over your head. Lewis eyeballed the distance from Pierre to the cam, and from the cam to the ledge: the distances looked the same, and the three points were lined up. Lewis tried to sound as confident as possible as he said, “That looks like the spot — I’m ready when you are.” This time he added, “And, by the way, there is nobody else in the world qualified for a turn in your shoes, my friend.”

Pierre took a deep breath before releasing his grip and pushing himself away from the ceiling. Since he was dangling, there was no wall to run along this time and the climber had simply become a human wrecking ball soaring through the air, picking up tremendous speed as he dropped nearly 50 feet. He could feel the G-forces build as he swung through the bottom of the curved path. There was so much force that the first cam was ripped from the hole overhead — immediately followed by the second. Somehow, the last cam held as Pierre arced upward towards the first glowing rune, approaching from behind the curve of the ledge, which blocked his view of the target. His speed slowed as he climbed closer and closer. It looked as if gravity might win out, but just as his upward momentum stopped, Pierre stretched his right hand out, catching the lip of the ledge.

The others gazed up from below as Pierre hung from the ceiling by one hand. Nobody dared speak as the French climber slowly shifted his weight, pulling himself up enough to grab a little higher with his left hand. Once he had a hold with both hands, he quickly powered himself up and over the ledge. Lewis led an eruption of cheers from below.

As soon as the pandemonium calmed down, Stonewood yelled up, “What do you see? Is the treasure up there?”

There was no response.

“Are you okay up there?” Lewis bellowed.

Silence was all that followed until, finally, they could hear the scraping of boots on rock. “Pierre has conquered the cave!” echoed the Frenchman’s proud response. “There is more cave up here. No treasure and no exit, but there are two huge passageways that each seem to go a long ways.” His breathing sounded labored when he added, “And there’s enough wind up here to fly a huge kite.”

Lewis turned to a distraught Stonewood. “We may still find the treasure, and I have a feeling we’re on the right path to at least getting out of here.”

Lewis unclipped his end of the rope, allowing Pierre to pull it up; freeing it from the various cams he had set on the climb. Pierre then tied off his end, dropping the rest back down to provide a static line for the others to climb. Craig and Lewis showed everyone how to use the specialized ascenders Pierre had brought. The angled teeth on the ascenders would slide up a rope in one direction, but grip it tightly in the other; essentially providing the same functionality as Lewis’s Prusik knots but in a more robust and user-friendly format.

After finishing with the instructions, Craig headed up first to assist the others at the top. Lewis and Gonzalez waited until everyone else was up, then began sending up the gear, simply securing it to the rope and letting the others reel in the load. Finally Gonzalez, and then Lewis, ascended to the new section of cave.

The ledge appeared to be a sunken chunk of the ceiling that had fallen perhaps two feet, leaving a slim opening for the team to crawl through. Miller spent some time examining the drawing of Sigurd and found that the rest of his body, which was riding some sort of dragon, was drawn above the lip. The artist had apparently lain on his back to draw the rune on the ceiling, part of which extended over the edge, becoming visible from below.

Meanwhile, Pierre suffered through multiple rounds of hugs and high-fives; almost everyone was jubilant to be moving forward and optimistic about their chances. Yet again, Stonewood was the exception. His focus had returned to the treasure and the treasure alone.

“How far did you search?” Stonewood barked at Pierre while pointing down the tunnel representing the only exit from their current perch.

Pierre was surprised by Stonewood’s intensity, visibly flinching with the suddenness of the change in mood. He quickly looked to the others before answering. “I only went to where the tunnel splits right there.” He pointed ahead 40 feet to a fork in the path. “I looked each way; both passages continued as far as I could see.”

Stonewood’s focus was renewed. He was shaking as he nearly shouted his orders. “Quinn, you take Samantha and Scott. You guys check the left tunnel. Craig and I will lead the others down the right passage.”

Lewis almost chuckled at the idea of Stonewood leading anybody anywhere. Splitting up did not seem like a very prudent decision but he knew that questioning the businessman’s authority again would only infuriate him. Instead, Lewis calmly looked towards where the paths separated and said, “I think your idea of a quick recon down each path is a good one. Do you think we should meet back here in ten minutes?”

The play worked. Although Stonewood clearly intended on a much longer excursion, he seemed proud of himself for what he thought of as a win over Lewis. A small smirk snuck across his face as he looked Lewis in the eye and responded. “Yes, we’ll meet back here in ten minutes so I can decide what to do next.”

Stonewood told Gonzalez to grab her dive gear. She was about to protest when she caught an exchange of sideways glances from both Craig and Lewis. Lewis whispered as he bent to help her, “Just humor him. On the off-chance anybody finds any water, we’d meet back up before an actual dive.” Gonzalez nodded, quickly throwing together a minimal dive kit.

Lewis grabbed a similar setup before turning to Stonewood, remarking, “Another good idea. I’ll bring some stuff too in case there’s water this way.” Lewis swung the tank onto his back, making it much easier to pack. He turned back to Gonzalez, saying, “You be careful. We’ll see you in a few minutes.” He exchanged a silent thumbs-up with both Miller and Samantha before turning down the left tunnel, quietly singing, “Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, It’s off to work we go…” as the trio marched off into the darkness, using only Miller’s light for illumination.

The professor’s light still had plenty of power, illuminating well ahead as Lewis’s group followed their passageway. They found the going pretty easy thanks to the constant ten-foot diameter of the lava tube, allowing a good pace as the path gently sloped upward while meandering left and right in a strange snakelike pattern. The tunnel continued in this manner for the full six minutes Lewis felt they should spend on the way in.

“It’s time to turn back and report to the boss man,” Lewis said, coming to a halt. The moment the words left his mouth, Lewis was met by the sound of a massive rockslide behind them. Instinctively spinning towards the noise, all three explorers turned just in time to be met be a rush of dust-filled air.

Lewis pulled his shirt over his nose, trying to limit his intake of the suspended particles. “Is everyone okay?” he asked as he coughed into his shirt.

“Oh my God,” Samantha managed to stammer in return, shock and fear etched on her face.

Miller stood speechless, eyes staring blindly towards Lewis. “Okay,” he finally whispered.

Lewis dropped his gear to the ground and sprinted back down the tunnel, turning his headlamp on as he went. It took only a few turns to get back to where a pile of rubble now completely filled the tunnel. He began throwing rocks to the side in an effort to find a way through, but soon found that this was a massive collapse, effectively creating a permanent roadblock. “Can anybody hear me!” Lewis shouted multiple times without a response.

Lewis stepped back from the pile, realizing that Miller and Samantha were standing behind him. Samantha had been quick to recover from the initial shock, and was first to speak. “That felt like an explosion.”

“It certainly was intense,” Lewis agreed.

“No.” Samantha quickly elaborated. “I mean that the cave-in was caused by an explosion. I could swear there was a small pop preceding a second cracking sound, just before the rumble of the rocks. That’s a textbook detonation sequence.”

Lewis looked from Samantha to the rock pile, and back again as he pondered the ramifications of an intentional explosion. “Who would do that?” he asked. Shrugs from both Samantha and Miller were his only answers.

Miller asked the obvious question. “What do we do now?”

There was only one answer. “We move on and hope to find a way to the others, and then a way out,” Lewis stated calmly, as if he were discussing his plans for a typical Sunday afternoon. “We should probably get moving.”

“We should leave a note in case the other group gets through,” Miller offered.

Lewis picked up a softball-sized rock, scratching it against the wall. It left white streaks against the dark gray in this section of the lava tube. “All right, Doc, what should the note say?”

Miller looked to Samantha then said, “Maybe list our names and put an arrow pointing that way.” He pointed down the tunnel in the only direction they could possibly go.

Samantha giggled. Lewis cracked a smile as well then started to laugh. Soon all three were laughing uncontrollably at the absurdity of the whole situation. Lewis could barely breathe when he added sarcastically, “Maybe we could draw them a map too. It would be easy: just a line.” They all held their stomachs as they laughed even harder. Lewis was liking these two more and more all the time — they were turning out to be his kind of people. Running from death like a scared chicken would only make you die tired; better to embrace your situation and make the best of it.

Once he regained control, Lewis did inscribe Miller’s suggested message in the cave wall. It was better than nothing and would at least let the others know they were still alive — if they did somehow manage to get this far…

The trio returned to their gear, gathering it up before continuing along the passage in silence. All three took turns lighting the passage ahead, following the twists and turns for the next two hours. There were no forks or side passages, just a monotonous ten-foot wide tube winding left and right, waving up and down. The numerous turns and slopes had Lewis far too disoriented to even guess their overall direction of travel.

Finally they came to an area where the tunnel widened and formed another domed room that was a near-perfect circle, almost 50 feet in diameter. More important than the size was the presence of two exits on the opposite side, one stacked on top of the other. About the same size as the passage they’d been in for the past few hours, the top exit was nearly twenty feet off the ground, angling gently upward. The lower exit was narrower, and was right where the floor began curving to meet the wall.

The other obvious feature of the room, and the one that held Lewis’s attention, was a thirty-foot crevasse separating their side from the side with the two exits. Samantha had salvaged a 100-foot section of rope from Lewis and Gonzalez’s pool dive, but they didn’t have any way to get it hooked to anything on the other side. The ceiling was much too smooth to climb across, even if Pierre was here. Miller joined Lewis and they both looked over the edge into the crevasse. It looked to be bottomless and actually extended sideways beyond the walls as far as their lights would shine.

“Hmm,” Lewis grunted, his eyes focused on the chasm. Neither Samantha nor Miller said a word, but fear was spreading on their faces as they looked at Lewis. They stood in silence, watching the beam from Lewis’s light dance around the room. After three agonizing minutes, Lewis finally spoke again. “Either of you hold any world records in the long jump?”

Samantha slowly shook her head. Miller mumbled weakly, “None that are good.”

Lewis grinned. “Okay, I see only one option given our resources — hopefully we don’t run into any more underwater swims.” He chuckled at the confused looks on his companions’ faces then disassembled his dive gear, laying the tank to one side. As he worked, he explained. “The air in this tank is under extreme pressure. I’ve heard stories where a tank falls over, hitting something that knocks the valve off; then the tank becomes a missile as the compressed gas shoots out the back. I remember a story of one going completely through a fire truck.”

Samantha’s eyes grew wider as she began to understand. “You’re going to try to launch that thing across, letting it pull the rope. Do you think it will embed itself in the wall over there?” She was beginning to talk faster as fear took over. “What if it just bounces around in here until it kills us?”

Lewis put his hands up in a calming gesture then elaborated. “No, I don’t think shooting the tank across and hoping it sticks is a good idea, although there is a reasonable chance of getting it lodged in the narrower tunnel over there…” Samantha breathed a small sigh of relief before Lewis continued. “That is why I’m going to ride it.”

Samantha looked as if she might pass out. Miller reached to steady her as he exclaimed, “That is insane!”

“Possibly, but I don’t see any other way.” Lewis paused, almost hoping for a good reason not to do it. Nobody responded so he went on. “We need to dig some kind of trench to control the initial launch. We’ll also need to build a ramp near the edge to help make sure I get to the other side.”

Samantha still looked worried, but seemed resigned to this crazy plan. All three got to work building a launching track. The dirt on the ground wasn’t very deep, but they were able to gather enough to construct a two-inch trough leading up to a sloped jump that was maybe 12 inches higher than the ground. It would have to be good enough — everything else was solid rock.

While Lewis positioned the tank for launch, Miller found the biggest rock he could lift. Lewis then tied one end of the rope around his waist, handing the other to Samantha. She gave him a quick but firm hug then stepped back, saying nothing. Lewis gave Miller’s rock a quick inspection then looked the older man in the eye, saying, “Hit the valve as hard as you can. If it just cracks, we’ll lose all the air but won’t go forward much — there are no points for making it halfway.”

Miller swallowed hard then simply said, “Good luck, Quinn.”

Lewis could not think of anything poignant to say so he just shook the professor’s hand before climbing onto the tank. Like a giant trying to ride a little kid’s bike, he gripped the base with his hands while clamping his feet to the sides the best he could. “Okay Doc. Do it!”

Miller hefted the beach ball-sized rock over his head and heaved it down with all his might. Lewis gritted his teeth at the sound of Miller’s grunt as he powered the projectile downward. There was a loud bang as the rock reached the bottom of its flight; and then, nothing happened. Miller had missed the tank valve.

Lewis looked back to see the rock sitting a foot behind him. “I almost wet my pants for nothing,” was all he said before turning back around. “Let’s actually do it for real this time,” he added after re-securing himself on top the tank. Not wanting to add to the already palpable anxiety, he skipped the speech about keeping your eye on the ball.

Miller repeated the process, this time thrusting the rock directly onto the tank’s valve, immediately severing it from the tank. Lewis and his new rocket shot down the track leading to the ramp, quickly accelerating to 40 MPH. The tank followed the track onto the ramp then launched across the gap with Lewis hanging on for all he was worth. His trajectory wasn’t quite enough to clear the crevasse. Lewis could see the opposite wall approaching far too fast. As the tank descended lower, Lewis lunged upward, mostly resulting in him shoving the tank deeper into the massive crack, but also gaining a little altitude. His continued forward momentum, combined with the little height he gained from his well-timed jump, proved to be just enough to send Lewis tumbling onto the other side of the crevasse and thudding hard into the wall.

Lewis didn’t move at first, but a low moan let the others know he was alive. It seemed to take a while just to figure out which limbs he was supposed to move, and in which direction, to slowly untangle himself. “Don’t try that one at home,” he finally stammered, getting to his hands and knees.

Miller still stood directly behind the rock he had thrown down, staring across with his mouth open and his eyes wide. He slowly closed his mouth and swallowed, probably the hardest swallow of his life. He spoke in a trembling voice. “Son, I think you owe me a new pair of pants.”

Lewis let out a hearty laugh. Miller immediately joined in. Soon, Samantha, who still had a white-knuckle grip on her end of the rope, was doubled over in laughter too, easing the stress that was pent up inside her.

“We want to be able to retrieve this rope so let me secure my end to something, then you wrap yours around that huge boulder back there,” Lewis said as he indicated the only large rock on that side of the crevasse. “After you get it wrapped around, throw the slack over here and I will tie it off again.”

It didn’t take long to get the rope setup. Samantha was first to make the crossing, easily scooting across on her stomach, hooking the rope with her feet to maintain her balance. Lewis helped her clear the sharp edge of the wall, then looked across to Miller, who had already donned Lewis’s dive harness and tied the regulator onto one of the loose straps. The scuba tank was gone but Lewis knew that anything had the potential to become a tool in a survival situation. “I like the way you think, Doc,” Lewis offered. “Red rover, red rover, send the professor on over!” Like Samantha, Miller made the crossing with no problems. The trio shared a series of high-fives before Lewis untied one end of the rope, pulling the other to retrieve the rope from around the large boulder. Soon, all the rope was coiled at his feet.

With the latest obstacle out of the way, everyone turned towards the two exits on this side of the chamber. Samantha and Miller each stared at Lewis expectantly. Pantomiming the flip of a coin, Lewis pointed at the lower entrance and said, “Tails. Let’s check the basement first. Hopefully, it will be a total bore — I’ve had enough excitement for a while.”

Nobody argued as Lewis got down on all fours and crawled through the opening. It was smaller than anything they had seen in a while but easy to scoot through. The passage dropped steadily for a short distance, then ended abruptly at the site of a cave-in. There was just enough room for Samantha and Miller to squeeze in next to Lewis and look at the rubble pile.

“At least we still have the upper tunnel to try,” Samantha said in a hopeful voice.

Miller was a little further back than the other two so he turned first, leading the way back. His absence made it easy for Samantha to spin around and follow. Lewis began to turn as well, stopping suddenly. “Quiet!” he hissed at the others. Everyone froze. Lewis whispered, “I thought I heard a voice… There! Did you hear that?”

Samantha’s eyes widened as she squirmed back around, rejoining Lewis. “I hear something too,” she said as she quietly worked closer to the pile of rocks that ended the narrow tunnel. She moved her head back and forth like some kind of charmed snake, suddenly exclaiming, “It is coming from here!” She frantically pointed to a narrow hole near the bottom of the pile.

Lewis leaned in closer. She was right. He shouted into the hole, “Can you hear me!” Hearing no response, he tried again, “Is anybody there!” This time they all heard their friends’ voices answering back. The problem was they couldn’t understand what was being said because there was too much echoing. Lewis tried shouting, “You. Need. To. Talk. Slower,” slowly enunciating each word.

The reply was unmistakably Gonzalez’s, and she was pausing after each word, but Lewis still couldn’t understand the message. Lewis turned back to Miller and asked, “Does your communication expertise include Morse code by any chance?”

“Afraid not,” the professor replied, slowly shaking his head.

Samantha clapped her hands together loudly, saying, “My father served in the Navy. He thought it was imperative that I know Morse code, so he made the entire family spend a week each summer with no other form of communication. I’m a bit rusty, but I can manage.” Lewis moved aside, allowing Samantha to edge up to the hole. “What should I say?” she asked.

Lewis thought for a moment before answering, “Try ‘Do you understand?’”

Samantha removed her headlamp, reaching it as far into the hole as she could. As the mining engineer began quickly switching her light on and off, Miller and Lewis extinguished their lamps, watching her form the dots and dashes of Morse code. As soon as she finished, Samantha turned her light off and peered into the hole, looking for a response. They heard a muffled male voice, but again the words were impossible to make out. Samantha tried her message again. Nothing…

Lewis whispered to the others, “Maybe they can’t see your light. Sound would travel around bends much better than light: try shouting the dots and dashes, slow and steady.”

Samantha repeated the message, this time yelling out either a quick, “dot,” or a slower, “daassshhh.” A quick garbled response could be heard, followed by a few seconds of silence. Then came a muffled but patterned reply. Lewis couldn’t make out either of the words, but one was clearly longer than the other. Samantha translated, “Understood. Four at bottom of pit. Stuck.” She then turned her light back on and looked back to Lewis.

Lewis wasted no time. “Let them know help is on the way, but we have some rocks to move first.”

Samantha passed the message along before examining the rock pile with a trained eye. She pointed to a band of larger rocks. “I believe we could remove everything below here without causing a collapse.”

Lewis trusted her judgment and did not hesitate, gripping the rocks closest to the communication hole, prying them lose. After ten laborious minutes of hard work, the hole was big enough for Miller to work as well. Samantha remained back in a position to keep an eye on everything, twice halting the process to point out areas requiring extra caution. Ten more minutes and the hole was big enough to squeeze through. Lewis went first, exhaling all his breath to get his chest to fit.

The others followed more easily. “We will have to widen that for our friend Stonewood,” Lewis said to the others with a sly smile. “And, let’s keep your explosion theory to ourselves until we know more about what is going on,” he added, looking at Samantha.

Now that they were past the cave-in, they were able to crawl along the small tunnel past several gradual corners before coming to a dramatic turn: a turn leading straight down. Lewis crept to the edge and peered over to see a pair of headlamps shining back up at him. “Is everyone okay down there?” he asked.

Gonzalez was looking back up, “Quinn! Thank God! We’re fine. Stuck, but fine.” It was good to see her beautiful face and hear her exotic voice again.

Stonewood pushed his way into view, elaborating, “We have reached a dead end. This vertical shaft is the only way out but the opening is twenty feet over our heads.”

He paused, allowing Pierre to add, “The surface is like polished glass. It’s too smooth, even for the great Pierre.”

Lewis was already working. “Give us a few minutes and we will get a rope down to you. Do you have the gear?”

Gonzalez was back. “Yeah, we’ve got it all here. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything we could use.” As she finished speaking, Lewis lowered the rope to the ground at her feet.

Craig was the first one up. Under Samantha’s supervision, he and Miller worked to widen the gap through the cave-in rubble while Lewis worked with the others, getting the gear hauled up before assisting the remaining team members up as well. He watched for any signs pointing to a possible saboteur, but nothing stood out. Gonzalez was last up the rope. She and Lewis shared a long hug, both surprised at how close they had become in such a short time.

“Thank you, Quinn,” she whispered in his ear, a slight tremble still in her voice.

“I didn’t want you to miss our dinner date,” Lewis replied with a grin.

Gonzalez smiled back. “I don’t remember accepting any such date.”

“I was waiting for the right time to ask. I figured it would be hard for you to say no at this point,” he said, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

The gorgeous cave diver tapped her lips, pretending to be deep in thought. “Tell you what, if we survive this mess, I’ll cook you dinner on a friend’s yacht in the Bahamas.”

“Deal!”

Chapter 7 — VICTORY

Once the hole through the caved-in area was large enough for Stonewood, it was fairly easy for the others to slip through as well. Everyone, even the billionaire boss, worked together, shuffling their remaining equipment to the room with the crevasse running through its center.

While everyone was taking a break along the wall, Gonzalez carefully walked to the edge and looked down into the large crack. Lewis moved up beside her and said, “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I emptied another of our tanks.”

Her eyes lit up as she asked, “You found somewhere to dive?”

“Not exactly,” Lewis began cryptically. “I think I was closer to an astronaut than a scuba diver with that one.” His expression quickly turned serious as he quietly whispered, “Did you notice anything unusual about anyone’s behavior while we were separated?”

Gonzalez had a puzzled look on her face, “Well, they are a rather unusual bunch…”

Lewis shook his head, then quickly went through the highlights of Samantha’s theory, ending with, “Let’s keep our eyes open.” Lewis trusted Gonzalez, but really wasn’t sure about anybody else. Perhaps Samantha or Miller had set the explosives to seal off the others. Perhaps it wasn’t actually an explosion at all, just a freak accident. Perhaps a lot of things; Lewis reminded himself to stick to the facts.

Gonzalez and Lewis turned to find the others gathered around Samantha as she retold the story of their group’s adventures from the past few hours, referring to the “freak cave-in” without any hint of suspicion. Pierre turned to Lewis with a wide grin upon hearing about his wild trip over the crevasse. Gonzalez stared at him, slowly shaking her head as she muttered a single word. “Loco.”

Stonewood was clearly impatient but listened intently to the entire story, possibly out of respect for the people who had saved his life, once again. The moment Samantha was done, the man who started this whole endeavor cleared his throat loudly, getting everyone’s attention. Before he could say anything, Lewis interrupted, asking, “How did the four of you end up at the bottom of that pit?”

Gonzalez was quick to answer, further agitating the already-upset Stonewood as she replied. “The bottom of that pit is actually only 100 yards from the intersection where Mr. Stonewood led us away from you. We ended up there because there was nowhere else to go.”

Pierre took over from there, adding, “I saw the shaft leading upward but couldn’t find a way to climb into it. We started back to meet up with you when we heard the rockslide that blocked your tunnel.”

“We were thinking about building a human pyramid with help from the three of you,” Gonzalez cut back in. She did not sound pleased when she added, “We spent most of the rest of the time searching for more of Stonewood’s symbols instead of figuring out how to save ourselves.”

Stonewood raised his hands and cleared his throat once again before taking over the conversation. His initial focus was on Miller. “Just after leaving you, we found another symbol — this one etched into the wall. It looked like a slithering serpent, and there was a Roman numeral IX under it, along with what looked like Chinese writing. I was sure the treasure lay just ahead, but then we hit the dead end, and soon heard the collapse of your tunnel. Ultimately, we found no more clues to the treasure.”

Miller asked, “Did the serpent have some sort of key tied around its neck?”

“Actually, it had a key for a tail,” Stonewood replied after a quick glance at Craig.

Miller seemed a little shocked by this. He stared off into the distance, eventually saying only, “The tail; now that is interesting.”

This appeared to be enough to make Stonewood happy. He smiled and nodded quickly before pointing to the upper exit on this side of the room and issuing a new order. “We will explore that way together.”

It took some pushing and pulling to get everyone up and into the top passage. Stonewood and Miller led the way with the others following close behind. Only Stonewood’s headlamp was on so Lewis, who was last, occasionally stumbled but found the going relatively easy thanks to the large passage. After angling up for the first hundred feet or so, the tunnel leveled off before beginning a gradual decent. The downhill continued for almost a mile before the passage opened into another huge room. Again, this one was about the size of a football field. The major difference was that this time, the room was filled with row after row of well-organized treasure.

Everyone switched on their headlamps and gazed around the room in wonder at what lay before them. Lewis started from the left, noting that the first row appeared to contain thousands of ancient scrolls neatly organized on a series of dusty, wooden shelves. The scrolls would undoubtedly prove invaluable to historians, but it was the remaining items that really caught Lewis’s eye.

The next few rows housed a variety of ancient weaponry and items of battle. There were easily recognizable items like swords, crossbows, and shields; as well as more complex systems of destruction that involved spring-loaded launching devices and tightly-coiled ropes. Lewis gazed at close to a hundred suits of armor, standing shoulder to shoulder; each suit was of a distinct design, some encrusted with decorative jewels, others strictly utilitarian.

Facing the suits of armor stood an army of terracotta statues, seemingly depicting a variety of oriental figures from all walks of life. The largest statue was that of a life-sized samurai warrior on a horse. A royal procession of the figures was organized along the far end, the apparent emperor standing before his bowing disciples, many of whom were adorned in beautiful silk clothes.

As far as sheer item count, the main part of the treasure was displayed in another set of large wooden shelves laid out in ten rows. These shelves were laden with a wide variety of relics, neatly grouped so that items with a similar function could be found in the same section. Much like the weaponry section, items here ranged from utilitarian cooking utensils made from wood and stone to golden crowns decorated with sparkling jewels. There were shelves containing goblets, knives, jewelry, everything — items spanning thousands of years.

Stone carvings and engravings, many of which must have weighed close to a ton, took up two rows by themselves. Paintings and other artwork were staged on easels or displayed on massive stone tables near the right side of the chamber. The final row was the one that held everyone’s attention the longest; it contained the gold bars Stonewood had mentioned, thousands of them, arranged in twelve distinct piles. There was treasure everywhere; some was even leaning up on the walls of the cavern, apparently after the rows had become full.

Stonewood needed Craig’s support to remain standing. Miller sat on a rock, lightly fanning himself with both hands. Everyone found themselves at a loss of words, silence prevailing for five minutes. It was truly overwhelming.

It was Stonewood who finally spoke. “We’ve done it,” he said, walking up to each member of the party he had put together, seeming genuine as he thanked them one by one.

Miller stood and pointed to the left wall, saying, “Look over there.” The others followed his finger to where someone had once used some sort of chisel to carve a sequence of panels depicting various scenes. Miller gave his insight into the meanings of the panels as he walked the others through the depictions. The first panel contained three large sailing ships at sea. Looking at all the panels in order told a story of these three ships sailing across an ocean to a new land. All three ships were unloaded and their cargo moved to an underground storage area over a period of months. Next, a great battle ensued and most of the men perished and the ships were destroyed. The survivors solicited the help of a large group of natives, removed the original cargo from the underground vault, and then hauled everything across land over a period encompassing two winters. Finally, everything was placed in a new underground vault, far from civilization.

“I saw a similar story engraved in a cavern on Oak Island,” Miller added, after getting through the last panel. “The main difference is that the Oak Island sequence ends with the battle. The field team found the emptied vault, but there were no clues as to what had happened to most of the contents.” Miller then did his best game show host impersonation, gesturing towards the items laid out throughout the room like he was revealing the prize behind door number one. “I give you the true Oak Island Treasure!”

Miller was adamant that nothing should be touched. He would need to get a team down here to carefully document everything before anything was moved. They could all be prosecuted as grave robbers if they didn’t go through proper protocol. With the professor’s blessing, everyone was allowed to walk between the rows in pairs and look. Stonewood practically dragged Craig towards the suits of armor, where they began their tour. Samantha and Pierre paired up, zooming around the room like two wide-eyed rats in a maze. Lewis and Gonzalez strolled along together, going up and down the aisles as if shopping in a very extravagant market. They would stop from time to time to discuss a particularly interesting piece before moving on. The quantity of items was overwhelming.

This was clearly meant to be something more like a museum than a traditional treasure horde; no items were duplicated, and each category of treasure had numerous examples spanning long periods of time and covering multiple cultures. There must have been close to a thousand swords: from wooden to steel; medieval broadswords to Japanese katanas. Like everything else, the scrolls varied by apparent age and the material they were written on, but their actual content would remain a mystery until properly-trained archeologists could process the rolled documents.

As he looked at the treasure, Lewis kept a watchful eye on the others, looking for any odd behavior. Nothing stood out. He was becoming ever more certain that Samantha had been simply jumping at shadows. They were all tired and stressed, and it was getting to them.

As each pair finished their journey around the room, they joined Miller, who had stayed at the entrance, overseeing the group. Lewis could tell that the professor was mostly worried about the site from an archeological perspective, but he knew Miller was also keeping an eye out for any suspicious behavior. A subtle shrug indicated he had come up empty as well.

Once everyone was reunited at the head of the chamber, Lewis delivered the sobering news they had all pushed to the back of their minds. “We are still trapped down here.” He paused to confirm he had everyone’s attention before continuing. “Finding this is great and it provides meaning to the struggles we’ve been through, but now it is time to really focus on our survival before we become another part of this archive.” He hated being the kill-joy, but it wouldn’t do anyone any good to sit around wasting time and batteries.

Stonewood had spent countless months preparing for this expedition to find the treasure. Now that his primary focus was accomplished, jubilation gave way to exhaustion. His voice sounded tired and shaky as he said, “Quinn is right. I have been particularly blind to the perils as I pushed everyone to come here, and I will do everything in my power to make things right. Are there any objections to a short rest before we push on?”

Lewis thought a break was a perfect idea. Having learned early in his college days that working on a tough project all night long rarely produced great results, he had found it was almost always better to get a little rest and attack things with a fresh mind. Rather than answering Stonewood’s question, he simply sat against the wall and turned out his light. The others followed suit and soon there was nothing but blackness. Lewis closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly.

Chapter 8 — THE PITS

Lewis felt a moment of panic when he first woke; he feared he had gone blind. He knew he had opened his eyes and yet he still couldn’t see. Slowly remembering the living nightmare of the cave, he covered the lens of his headlamp with his hand before switching it on. The dull glow escaping his fingers was enough to survey his surroundings without disturbing the others just yet. Samantha had laid out one of the sleeping mats, but everyone else had more or less collapsed in place.

Lewis stood and stretched, taking care to keep one hand covering his light. That’s when he realized that Stonewood was missing. He could see some scuff marks where the billionaire had sat against the wall just a few feet from where Lewis had slept; now the spot was empty. Lewis shut off his light again, scanning the area for any sign of another headlamp. There was nothing, only blackness. He whispered Stonewood’s name into the darkness, waiting a few minutes in case the man had just gone off to relieve himself or something.

Lewis’s heart rate began to quicken as he forced his tired mind back into action. He gently shook Craig awake to see if he knew anything about where Stonewood had gone.

Craig wakened immediately and was instantly alert — a good trait for a soldier. “He was right next to me when I fell asleep,” the bodyguard said. “Maybe he had to pee.”

“I thought of that. I quietly called his name a few minutes ago, but haven’t heard another sound since. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“Me neither.”

They woke the others, explaining the situation to their groggy teammates before deciding what to do. Everyone shouted for Stonewood, but there was no response. Lewis tried checking the ground for footprints, but the floor in the area was mostly solid rock; the few places where footprints were visible had prints from everyone in the group, going in all different directions.

Pierre shouted from on top a boulder on the left side of the room. “Over here! I think I found something.”

Between the boulder and the wall was a very small opening. There was a piece of torn red fabric hanging from the top of the opening. Lewis examined the fabric closer. “I think you found a piece of Stonewood’s shirt,” Lewis said as he looked up to where Pierre still stood atop the boulder.

Samantha shuddered as she looked at the small hole. “Stonewood couldn’t fit through there.” It was a statement, but there was some skepticism to her voice as she said it.

Lewis shrugged, tilting his head to the side as he examined the hole. Laying down on his belly in front of the small opening, he responded, “It would be tight, but I think he could get through if he worked at it.” Inching forward, Lewis worked into a position where he could attempt to wedge himself through. The shape of the opening required Lewis to tilt his shoulders a bit, placing his right side slightly higher than his left. He had to turn his head to the side so he wouldn’t smash his face on the floor. With his arms stretched out in front of him to make his shoulders narrower, Lewis used his legs to force his body into the opening. He had to fight for every inch. Soon, his arms were pinned to his head by the tightening of the hole, making it harder to breath and impossible to see. Going by feel, Lewis inched his way further, concentrating on keeping his breathing under control as the rock walls restricted the expansion of his chest. He was just about to ask the others to pull him back out by his feet when the short passage finally opened up.

Lewis took a couple deep breaths and sat up. Not claustrophobic in normal situations, Lewis did not like being squeezed by rocks like that. He gingerly probed the new scrapes and bruises that the crawl had given him before looking on with his headlamp. There were three tunnels leading away. Lewis called back to the others. “There are multiple choices in here. They all look bigger than that last spot.”

“I’m coming in.” Pierre’s accented voice rang out from behind him.

As Lewis waited, he noticed something in one of the passages. At first he thought it was a blurry spot in his vision but he gradually realized there was a light coming from one of the tunnels. Shutting off his own headlamp, he confirmed there was a light in the leftmost passage, and it was moving towards him. “Stonewood!” he yelled.

“Did you find him?” came the voice behind the light. It was Miller. “We found an easier way to get in here.” He grinned, shining his light back on the others, who were lined up behind him.

“Your timing could have been better,” Lewis said with a grimace as he rubbed his bruised ribs again.

“Our way was just fine,” Pierre said from behind Lewis. “Not really elephant material, I suppose,” he joked while slapping the much larger Lewis on the back. Lewis laughed, giving Pierre a fake glare.

“What about Stonewood?” Samantha asked worriedly.

Lewis looked at the others before answering. “We need to conduct a search; hopefully he hasn’t gone too far. One of us should stay in the treasure chamber in case Stonewood comes back while the searchers are out looking.”

Miller volunteered immediately, saying, “I found some mysterious runes I’d like to work on some more — they may help us get out of here.”

“I’ll stay too,” Samantha said as she raised her hand. “I think we just passed the site of the old waterfall entrance described by Stonewood’s uncle. I may be able to find a way through.”

It was decided. Samantha and Miller would stay behind while the others worked their way through the newly found passages. They would search for an hour, then return — one way or another.

Having learned that the left tunnel looped back to the main cavern, Lewis led the way down the middle tunnel with Gonzalez, Pierre, and then Craig following behind. It was decided that the third person in line would be the only one to use their light when they were traveling down a simple pathway, so Pierre lit the way for everyone as they walked. The passage was mostly tall enough that even Lewis could have stood upright but the closeness of the ceiling caused everyone to walk in a slight crouch, just to be careful. Lewis called out to Stonewood every few minutes, but received nothing but echoes in response.

The makeshift search and rescue group followed the winding tunnel for fifteen minutes before it terminated at a large round boulder. The boulder appeared to be just the right size to fit into the tunnel. Further inspection revealed tooling marks at the edges, indicating that this huge rock had in fact been placed here on purpose. Lewis scratched his head at the new mystery. “I don’t know who put this boulder here, but it looks to have been here for quite a while.” Turning his back to the road block, he added, “At least we know Stonewood didn’t come this way.”

There was no reason to shout for Stonewood, or stop to listen for a response, on the return trip, allowing the group to make better time. They went all the way back to where Samantha was examining a rock pile, just before the passage joined the treasure chamber. “Any sign of Stonewood?” she asked.

“Not behind the first door,” Lewis responded. “I assume that means he didn’t make it back here either.”

She shook her head. “Nope. Miller was just here asking if I’d heard anything, so he hasn’t seen him either.”

Lewis looked to the pile of rocks. “Any luck with this?” he asked.

Samantha smiled. “Maybe. I think I may have found something. I’ll know more in an hour.” With that, she turned and got back to work. Lewis and the others did the same, heading back for the last unexplored passage.

Pierre took the lead into the final tunnel. Gonzalez lit the way in the third position with Craig in front of her and Lewis behind. This passage was different than the others: it was a tight oval, much like the doorways on a submarine. The ceiling was low enough to require everyone to walk hunched over. Lewis found the walls to be just close enough to be annoying, requiring him to walk a little sideways, or repeatedly bump his arms and shoulders.

Craig took over calling out to Stonewood at regular intervals as they moved along. Lewis took to counting the calls as a strange way of tracking their progress. After eleven calls, the passage’s shape began to flatten out and widen. By the thirteenth, everyone was crawling on their bellies with less than six inches of clearance. Pierre and Craig turned their headlamps on as well, scanning back and forth along the now 50-foot wide passage, which was now more of a horizontal crack, each looking for a taller path or any possible offshoots. Craig made only one more call to Stonewood before the passage entered a large, dramatic chamber.

This chamber was over a hundred feet across and unlike anything they had seen so far. The most obvious trait was that the room was nearly spherical, even the floor was rounded. The walls were shiny and smooth like glass — probably obsidian, Lewis guessed. The final oddity was a trio of pits near the center of the room, 70 feet below. Lewis felt that the pits combined with the round shape and glossy walls gave the chamber the feeling of a huge bowling ball that had been turned inside out.

The passage they had come through opened near the center line of the giant sphere, meaning it was essentially a vertical drop for the first fifteen feet or so before the wall gradually rounded into more of a floor. The four members of the search party were now lying shoulder to shoulder with their heads protruding into the ball-shaped cavern, while the rest of their bodies remained inside the crack they had been crawling through. Lewis slowly worked their salvaged stretch of rope off his shoulders. “We don’t have any actual rappelling gear, but this rope should be enough to get somebody down to those three holes to check them out,” Lewis said.

“I’ll go.” Craig was the first to volunteer.

Lewis looked for a boulder or outcropping of some sort to anchor the rope, but found nothing. They would need Craig’s strength on this end. Lewis was about to address his concerns but Pierre beat him to the punch. “Why don’t I go?” the French climber offered. “The person who goes will have to be lowered then raised back up by the others. Craig is a lot of muscle for us to haul back up. Besides, we don’t know what kind of climbing may be required once I get to those wells down there.”

Craig couldn’t argue with the logic. The fact that they had to remain laying down was going to make it hard enough just to lower the small mountain climber. Gonzalez nodded her silent agreement to the plan. Lewis didn’t want to go all the way back to get additional equipment, so lowering Pierre seemed like the most logical choice given their situation.

Lewis handed one end of the rope across to Pierre, who had to roll around a bit to get it tied under his arms. Lewis then removed his shoe and handed it to Gonzalez, who recoiled at the stench.

“I didn’t mean for you to smell it,” Lewis said with a chuckle. “I was thinking you could hold it on the edge to give the rope something less abrasive to slide over.” Gonzalez made a quiet comment in Spanish. Lewis caught something about dead monkey guts, but missed most of the words.

With everything ready, Lewis and Craig moved back up the passageway a bit. They turned around then pushed their knees and feet against the ceiling, wedging themselves in place as best they could. Gonzalez helped Pierre climb over the edge, careful to keep the rope from being cut on the sharp lip. Lewis groaned as he and Craig took the climber’s weight.

“I’m glad it’s not me on the rope,” said Gonzalez. “You two would give me a weight complex with all the noise you’re making.”

“Tell me about it,” Pierre added from just below the ledge.

“Ready?” Lewis asked.

“Ready, lower me on down.”

Gonzalez kept the protective shoe in place as the big men slowly let out more rope, allowing Pierre to walk down the slick wall in a controlled manner. He was down about ten steps when a rumbling explosion shook the cavern, knocking Lewis and Craig from their perch. Pierre’s weight wasn’t much, but it was plenty to drag everyone from the crack as the Frenchman quickly accelerated down the slippery walls.

Pierre was still moving at least 20 miles per hour when he shot over the edge of the first pit, dropping headfirst into the darkness below. Gonzalez was sliding sideways on her back a little ahead, and to the left, of where Craig still clung to the rope. Lewis brought up the rear on his stomach, clutching the rope with one hand while frantically groping for some sort of handhold with the other. The surface was just too smooth and slippery, causing Lewis’s hand to squeak as it rapidly slid along.

“Grab her!” Lewis shouted to Craig as he tried to increase their drag by digging in with his toes. Craig was able to snag Gonzalez’s hand less than ten feet before they were to plummet into the hole after Pierre. The large bodyguard almost lost his grip on the rope as it began bouncing violently behind him. He looked to see that Lewis had somehow gotten to his feet and was now skiing along behind them like a water skier cutting hard to get away from the boat’s wake.

Lewis quickly realized he wasn’t going to be able to stop their descent before they all sailed into the hole with Pierre. Instead of trying to slow down, he chose to roll around and get to his feet so he could at least try to steer. He angled his feet hard as the floor nearly leveled off, fighting to drag everyone to the right. His single shoe was squeaking as the rubber slid over the polished surface, the socked foot slipping along silently, useful only for balance at this point. Lewis’s only hope for saving everyone was to aim for the next pit over, hoping to get there in time to balance out Pierre before the Frenchman pulled all the rope in after him, or plummeted to the bottom of his pit.

Moments before the rope ran out, Lewis plunged into the second pit, pulling Craig and Gonzalez in with him. The rope sprang tight the instant Craig fell into the hole, the abrupt stop causing the bodyguard to lose his single-handed grip on the rope. He still clutched Gonzalez with the other hand as they both pounded into Lewis like a runaway freight train. The collision almost knocked Lewis from the rope as well, but provided enough of a pause for Craig to quickly renew his grasp. They all swung for a moment, on the verge of slipping into the void, before Gonzalez was able to get a hold of the rope just below Lewis, allowing everyone to readjust their grip.

“Remind me not to hang out with you two again,” Lewis said, cringing a bit at his own pun. Gonzalez simply groaned. Lewis then shouted upward. “Pierre, are you okay?” The groans and curses told Lewis that at least they were all alive.

Lewis awkwardly rubbed his head against Craig’s hip, trying to spin his headlamp back around after being knocked to the side by their tumble.

“Whoa! I’m not that kind of guy,” Craig said when he felt Lewis nuzzling his hips.

Lewis laughed then explained, “I’m just fixing my light.”

“Are you two done?” Gonzalez asked, the strain noticeable in her voice. “I can’t hold on for much longer.”

Lewis could also see the stress on her face. His own hands were in serious pain from gripping the rope. He also knew that they had to work carefully or they all might still be pulled in on top of Pierre.

“Okay, Jennifer,” Lewis said calmly, “can you use Craig and I like ladders to climb out of here?”

Gonzalez didn’t answer. Instead she just began crawling her way upward. With her feet on Craig’s shoulders, she was able to grip the top of the pit and drag herself up and out. Gonzalez could see that the sharp edge of the pit was quickly cutting through the rope like a warm knife through butter, as the rope slid towards Pierre’s side now that the weight was unbalanced. “The rope is splitting! Brace yourselves!” she screamed seconds before the rope was severed.

Craig and Lewis had just enough time to turn back to back, pressing their legs into opposing sides to wedge themselves in place. Pierre wasn’t tall enough to accomplish the same feat by himself, instead he plummeted helplessly to the bottom of his pit. The good news was the bottom was only another 15 feet down. Unfortunately, the 80 feet of rope that was attached to him tumbled into the hole as well. As Pierre looked for any possible climbing route out, Craig and Lewis worked together to essentially walk out of their predicament by keeping pressure against the other’s back and alternating small steps towards the top. When they were close, Gonzalez was able to reach out and grab both their hands to pull them over to solid ground.

Pierre remained trapped. He wasn’t able to find a way up, and he had the only chunk of rope long enough to effect a rescue. Despite multiple valiant attempts, Pierre was unable to throw the rope up to his would-be rescuers.

Ready to try a different tack, Lewis removed the 15-foot section of parachute cord from his front left cargo pocket. He wished he could have found more back at the boat, but this would have to do. Gonzalez eyed him like he was crazy, but said nothing. Next, Lewis pulled out his Leatherman multi-tool, using it to slice open the outer sheath on the short section of cord, revealing seven smaller strands inside. He then outlined his plan. “If we tie these strands together, we should have a long enough string to fish Pierre’s rope back out of the pit.” Both Craig and Gonzalez smiled their approval.

They all worked together to transform the inner workings of the parachute cord into a string approximately 100 feet long. It was then just a matter of lowering their new string to Pierre, who tied it onto the end of his rope. Lewis and Craig pulled the string up to get the rope, and the rope up to get Pierre. Pierre actually had to untie the rope from around his chest, gripping a smaller loop in the end to make it long enough to reach. If the pit was even a few feet deeper, he would have been really stuck. The French mountaineer was a little battered but nothing appeared broken and he seemed to have avoided serious injury.

“Did you find anything interesting while you were down there?” Lewis asked Pierre.

“No. It just ends.”

“Ours too,” Lewis said with a shrug. “Although we didn’t investigate the bottom as closely as you did.”

“Actually, I did find this,” Pierre said, handing Lewis the shoe he had taken off earlier.

Gonzalez called from the third pit. “Guys, come look.” The solemn tone in her voice told Lewis what he would find before he even looked: Stonewood. The man who had brought them all together now lay in an awkward heap at the bottom of the third pit.

“Must have fallen in like I did,” Pierre said. “Only he didn’t have a rescue crew in tow.”

Lewis looked closely. “Odd, he doesn’t have a flashlight.” Lewis’s thoughts jumped back to the earlier suspicions of foul play in the cave-in.

“I bet he’s lying on it,” Craig offered. “Do you think we can get down to him?”

Lewis shook his head. “I don’t think so. This pit looks deeper than Pierre’s. We can try the rope to be sure, but I don’t think it’s long enough.”

Pierre gave it a test and found that Lewis was correct: the rope was a good twenty feet short. As Pierre coiled the rope, he said, “After we get back to camp, we could come back with the longer rope.”

Lewis had forgotten about their current predicament. They were still stuck at the bottom of the giant ball. There was also the question of what caused the explosion that sent them all sliding into the pits in the first place. “I had forgotten about Miller and Samantha,” Lewis said as he placed both hands on top of his head and let out a sigh. “We need to get back and make sure they are okay after that blast.”

Nobody argued. No one offered a solution as to how to get back out of this strange chamber either. They knew they couldn’t just climb up; it was far too slippery. They could wait for Miller or Samantha to find them with another rope, but that wouldn’t work if the others were in need of help themselves.

“So Quinn, do you happen to have a folding motorcycle in one of your pockets?” Gonzalez asked, adding, “Maybe you could ride it up there like those circus guys in the round cages.”

Lewis chuckled. “Those guys are insane.” Then he had an idea! He reached into his unopened cargo pocket and pulled out his smashed roll of duct tape. “Tape-Man, on the other hand, is a true hero!” he exclaimed, lifting the roll over his head and doing an awkward dance.

“What was that?” Craig asked, indicating Lewis’s dance moves.

“That was supposed to be Tape-Man’s signature superhero move.” He shrugged before offering, “I’ll work on it.”

Gonzalez couldn’t help but laugh. “I think maybe you should just stop doing it,” she said. “Can Mr. Tape-Man get us out of here or is he solely for entertainment purposes?”

Lewis feigned a hurt expression before he sat down and went to work, explaining the highlights of his plan as he wrapped some tape around each foot, sticky side out. He then did the same around his left hand, before looking from his untaped right hand back to his taped left hand, then to Gonzalez with a somewhat defeated look. “Tape-Man needs his faithful sidekick to tape his other hand,” he said quietly.

“First, if anybody is the sidekick around here, it’s you,” Gonzalez said while slowly shaking her head, “and second, you’re insane.”

Lewis’s plan may have been insane but it was also simple. With the rope tied to his waist, he would use his sticky feet and hands to crawl up the wall like a tree frog. The others would have tape on their feet only, and would follow as far as they could, holding the rope in case Lewis fell, hopefully saving him from sliding into one of the pits.

With a little experimenting, Lewis was convinced he might need more tape to make it on the steeper section so he asked Gonzalez and Craig to wrap his midsection and legs as well. Once everyone was ready, they set off, gradually working their way up the freshly polished path they had created on the way down. The strange sound of the tape coming unstuck echoed loudly in the big round chamber as they walked, making for a very weird scene.

They stopped once they were about half way up. Lewis eyeballed the distance ahead before saying to the others, “This should be close enough for you to wait. Hopefully the slope isn’t too steep for you to hold me if I fall.” He added a fresh layer of tape to his feet before passing the last of the roll to Gonzalez, marching onward again while everyone looked on. The others reapplied fresh tape of their own and tried to plant themselves as best they could, offering quiet encouragement as Lewis got to where he had to start using his hands.

Soon, Lewis had to incorporate his knees and shins as well. This crawling technique got him to within twenty feet of his destination. From here the wall was nearly vertical. Having never climbed the inside of a giant glass ball before, Lewis had to learn as he went, adapting his technique with each near fall. As the climb steepened, Lewis discovered the best method was to press his torso against the wall, using the tape there to hold him in place while he moved his arms and legs higher. The key was to roll the taped body part away from the wall rather than trying to pull it directly away.

The stickiness of the tape was wearing out with each move. By the time Lewis was two feet below the ledge, the tape was worn to the point that he could no longer remove even a single hand without sliding back down. The others watched fearfully from below as Lewis fought to stay on the wall, his arms and legs trembling from the strain. Craig braced himself, preparing to anchor the rope if Lewis slipped.

Realizing that a fall was inevitable, Lewis pushed away from the wall with his right arm and leg. The others gasped from below as their hero began to plummet towards them, watching him fight to get on his back like a confused turtle. As he rolled away from the wall, Lewis pulled almost all the tape away, resulting in a dramatic increase in speed. His quickness proved sufficient, allowing the runaway man to spin around and get the fresh tape on his back adhered to the wall, halting his plummet within ten feet of where it started. Gonzalez had to laugh at the sight of Lewis as he performed a strange backstroke, using the still sticky tape behind him to finish climbing up the wall to the ledge.

Getting over the ledge and into the short crack proved to be easier than Lewis had anticipated. Once he was high enough, he placed his elbows on the ledge like a cowboy backed up to the bar, then used his forehead as leverage against the top of the crack to keep from falling as he swung his leg up. All that remained was an awkward roll to get his whole body in.

It was then laborious, but straightforward to pull the others up, one at a time. Lewis was careful to keep his body secured between the floor and ceiling to prevent a repeat of the super-slide performance.

Possibly the toughest challenge was removing all the matted tape once everyone was up.

Pierre took a last look into the spherical room before saying, “You just let me know if Tape-Man ever needs a sidekick.” He then crawled over to Lewis, shaking his hand as he added, “That was some mighty fine climbing… especially for a big, ape-sized American.”

Lewis laughed as he shook the mountaineer’s incredibly strong hand. “Thanks, Pierre.” He paused, adding with a smile, “I think it’s time for Tape-Man to retire.”

Gonzalez gave Lewis a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek, adding a dramatic, “Thank you Tape-Man!”

“Then again, being a superhero does have its perks,” Lewis said dreamily. “I wonder if Captain Jetpack would be a better choice.”

Everyone laughed the type of hysterical laugh that can only come from a poor joke after almost dying. Knowing they still had to get back to camp, the search party didn’t waste any more time before crawling back through the flattened crack to the passageway beyond.

Chapter 9 — RUNE RIDDLE

When the search party returned, they found Samantha and Miller anxiously waiting near the mouth of the tunnel. Both groups were clearly excited to be back together and to see the other safe. After an exchange of hugs, Craig shared the terrible news that they had found Stonewood dead.

Samantha could not resist asking, “Was he murdered?”

Craig was visibly shocked at her question. “Not as far as we could tell,” he stammered, “although we couldn’t really get close enough for an investigation.” He then looked around to the others before asking, “Do you have reason to believe there is a murderer down here chasing us?”

Samantha said nothing, instead shooting a questioning look to Lewis, who pondered the implications of a possible witch hunt for a moment before gently nodding his approval. Taking in a deep breath before addressing everyone, Samantha said, “I definitely think there is something mischievous going on.” She elaborated by explaining her suspicion that it was an explosion that started the earlier cave-in. Lewis watched for a telltale reaction from the others, but saw nothing. Samantha continued with her theory, saying that some items had been removed from her survey bag, including all the explosives. She finished with the awkward suggestion that perhaps the murderer was actually someone from within the group.

This sparked a heated debate about who had seen who doing what. Paranoia had people rapidly jumping from one suspect to another. Things got heated to the point that Miller ended up shoving Craig, who then punched the professor in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

Lewis wrapped his arms around Craig to restrain him. He turned to the others, who were still yelling at each other, before shouting, “That is enough!” Lewis was a little surprised when the fighting actually stopped. “Everyone needs to calm down,” he continued in an even tone. “Nobody really knows what happened, and there is no use pointing fingers or arguing about it right now. Perhaps Stonewood just had an accident. Perhaps some of the gear was spilled in all the transporting. Perhaps the cave-in was just a natural collapse. Perha-”

“What about the explosion that knocked me into the pit?” Pierre interrupted.

Samantha was quick to answer. “That last one actually sounded like a natural collapse. Based on my experience, that tremor was caused by the rupture of a gas pocket, probably near the site of the earlier cave-in.”

Lewis raised his hands, regaining control of the situation before going on. “I’m sure there are a lot of what-ifs, but right now we need to focus on getting out of here alive. Let’s try not to leave anyone alone, and everyone should watch each other’s backs.”

The speech worked to at least calm everyone down. Craig immediately went to Miller to check on him, saying he was sorry multiple times, and Miller apologized for starting the physical altercation. Lewis realized a change of subject was in order so he asked Samantha, “Did you find anything in the rubble pile back there?”

The mining engineer’s eyes lit up. “Yes!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t find a way out of here, but I did find where Stonewood’s uncle entered.” She proceeded to describe the outline of a narrow tunnel she had found, revealing that it was now buried deeper than she could measure with her tools — certainly deeper than they could possibly dig, or even blast if they still had the explosives. Samantha finished with, “The other thing I don’t understand is how they got the treasure in through that narrow passage — I think it would be a tight fit for an average-sized person, let alone some of the larger artifacts.” Lewis thought of a pair of 6-foot shields leaning together amongst the antique weaponry; one was slender and might fit if the tunnel was fairly straight, but the other was a large circle.

“I believe I can explain that,” Miller offered. “I found some encoded engravings over by the story panels. The people who brought all the treasure here belonged to a secret society known only as the Curators; a small group that has existed for thousands of years, striving to preserve our civilization’s history. I haven’t figured out the details yet, but I believe the engravings are a sort of user manual for what the Curators called, ‘The Archive,’—this cavern.” The professor smiled when he saw that all five pairs of eyes were firmly focused on him. He began pacing back and forth as he continued, as if he were in front of a classroom of students. Miller retold the initial tale of the treasure’s transport across the ocean; and later, across the continent to the Snake River Canyon, this time filling in some information about the Curators.

As Miller described it, the Curators had scoured the Earth for centuries, gathering samples of culture and technology in an effort to preserve a record of our world. The threat of the planet’s impending doom prompted the society to transport their archive of humanity to a secure location. Miller had not yet puzzled out the full motives, or the expected cause of this doomsday event. He had found vague hints and obscure clues to the secret society during his linguistics research, but it wasn’t until his work on Oak Island that Miller had even found any hard evidence that the Curators actually existed.

Craig was losing his patience with the wandering history lesson. “I don’t see how any of that helps us,” he said rather gruffly.

“I’m getting to that,” Miller said softly, like a magician about to reveal his next illusion. “You see, I believe the engravings also describe a sort of map of this whole cave, along with the route the treasure came in and was to leave through when the time was right.”

Lewis felt a renewed energy overcome his drained body. “Nicely done, Doc!” he exclaimed.

“Not so fast,” Miller went on, remaining calm. Walking everyone over to the engravings, he outlined exactly what he currently knew, and what remained to be figured out. Miller’s rendition took almost an hour as he moved between various drawings and engraved texts, none of which appeared to be written in any recognizable language.

Lewis managed to distill Miller’s lecture down to a few key details. Most importantly, there was a network of underground rivers that the Curators had used to move the treasure into the cave, and it was this river system they had planned to use to get everything back out — the passage that Uncle Pete found didn’t seem to exist at the time the Curators were here. Second, the Curators had some sort of control system for the underground rivers, allowing them to change which underground channels flowed in which direction; and to raise and lower the water in various chambers. The final highlight was that Miller believed the river which had almost drowned both Gonzalez and Lewis was actually flowing towards the control room, located at the center of the entire system.

One of the lanterns died while Miller was giving his explanation, reminding everyone that time was critical.

Based on what he had deciphered, Miller believed a diver could follow the river to the control room and use the controls to turn the water off, allowing the others to walk through the now dry passage. This clearly wasn’t part of the Curators’ overall scheme, but they didn’t plan on being trapped inside the system.

Lewis and Gonzalez discussed the underground river and what it would mean to dive it again. A solo dive under those conditions was beyond dangerous. They discussed bringing Miller to decode any instructions found with the Curators’ control system. Although he was willing to go, in the end, the dive would simply be too much given the professor’s lack of experience. Lewis would go with Gonzalez and hopefully he could figure out the system based on the overview he received from Miller.

Gonzalez was skeptical. “Crazy cave drawings and mysterious symbols don’t exactly make a good dive plan,” she said to Lewis.

“That much water has to go somewhere,” Lewis responded, trying to sound hopeful despite his own reservations about re-entering the deadly tunnel.

“Yeah, probably to hell,” Gonzalez shot back.

“At least we’ll get there fast!”

Bantering aside, both Gonzalez and Lewis were serious as they assembled their gear and went through their mental checklists. Each double-checked the other’s setup. They were as ready as they were going to get.

The plan was to dive together, with each diver using two of the full tanks in a side-mount setup, like when they first entered the cave. That would leave only four half-full tanks behind. The logic being that if this dive to the control system didn’t work, they were all dead anyway. Besides, just because they were bringing four tanks, didn’t mean they had to use all the air. Better to be safe than sorry.

Everyone pitched in, transporting the gear from the treasure room all the way back to the chamber with the pool of water. Gonzalez and Lewis each carried their own harnesses and the smaller dive equipment. Craig and Samantha worked together on the tanks. Pierre packed the climbing equipment necessary to set up the rappels, both into the room his group had been stuck in earlier, as well as the big room with the pool. Miller’s hands were busy the entire time, waving around as he talked to Lewis, trying to educate him as much as possible. All in all, the journey took over four hours. Two of the headlamps died on the way, leaving the entire group with just three working headlamps plus the dive lights, which wouldn’t last long, and a lantern back at camp that was probably about to give out. Clearly, they hadn’t been as conservative as they’d planned.

The divers reassembled their gear at the edge of the pool, both thankful they had tested everything before so they wouldn’t have to return for any missing items. The others planned to watch the pair descend, then make the return trip to the treasure room to get the remaining gear. Hopefully, the second trip would go much faster now that Pierre’s ropes were already set up.

Without any further ado whatsoever, the pair of divers slipped into the pool and peacefully descended towards the bottom. The tranquility ended the instant they got near the bottom and were ripped downstream by the powerful current. A short rope joined the two, preventing a separation as they once again rocketed through the tunnel, doing their best to keep their feet in front of them, hoping to cushion any upcoming impacts.

The first few minutes were actually better than Lewis remembered. Being better prepared for the conditions helped both divers remain calm as they were able to gently push off with their hands, maintaining their distance from the sides and any protrusions that stuck out. The speed was still fast, but their lights did a great job of penetrating the crystal clear water ahead, giving ample warning of approaching obstacles. Lewis found himself enjoying the experience. That was about to change.

As Gonzalez and Lewis rounded a gentle left-hand bend, a second underground channel joined from the right. The current from this new channel caught Gonzalez first, shoving her ahead of Lewis and spinning her around. The short rope kept them together, but also made for a more violent spin the instant it got tight. Before Lewis could react, he was slammed against the wall face first, shattering his mask and bloodying his nose.

Once they lost control, there was no getting it back. Both divers ricocheted off the walls, ceilings, and floors, as well as each other as they tumbled down the underground river. Lewis was unable to regain his bearings, or even tell which way was up, as he rapidly flipped around, seeing searing flashes from the powerful dive lights followed by absolute darkness in rapid succession. Much like on the last venture here, Lewis’s body was developing an array of cuts and bruises at an alarming rate.

After a few more flailing rotations, Lewis found that their rope had become wrapped around his neck. Now he was spinning out of control while being strangled. The wrapping of the rope around his neck had taken all the slack out, pinning his head against one of Gonzalez’s tanks. The battering was making him see stars, and Lewis fought to avoid total panic while coughing violently from the water being shot up his nose.

Someone hit him in the chest with a sledgehammer! At least that’s what it felt like when Lewis collided with a massive wooden beam. Before he could really figure out what had happened, Gonzalez’s momentum yanked him onward, almost ripping his head off as he shot past her as if launched from a giant slingshot. The next collision didn’t feel much better. This time, though, the opponent was a set of metal bars, like the door to a prison cell.

The prison door, as Lewis thought of it, presented two new problems. First, the sudden stop caused a two-diver pileup, with Gonzalez immediately ramming Lewis the moment he stopped. This chain reaction knocked Lewis’s regulator out of his mouth and pinned his arms behind his back. The second major issue was the fact that the bars created what river rafters and whitewater kayakers refer to as a “strainer” — something that stops you from moving, but lets the water run by, pinning you in place. Being caught in a strainer is a common way to drown in a river. Adding to the dilemma was the fact that Gonzalez’s back was firmly pressed against Lewis’s face, totally blocking his vision, and putting unwanted pressure on his aching nose.

Gonzalez did an amazing job of remaining calm. She quickly slid off of Lewis’s face, then pushed her second regulator into his mouth with one hand while untangling the rope with the other. All told, Lewis was without air for only three or four seconds. The divers now formed a sort of T, both still stuck on their backs facing upstream with Gonzalez’s hip right above Lewis’s head, the powerful current plastering them in place. At least the battering tumble had stopped, and they could both breathe.

Lewis fought hard to get his arms out from behind his back, promising himself he would start doing yoga if he survived this. Finally, he managed to wrench his arms free, but it was still very hard to move them against the strong current. He could tell by Gonzalez’s light that she was scanning the area looking for a way out. Lewis did the same. The ends of the bars were somehow cemented into the walls of the cave, forming a strong grate that spanned from side to side, all the way from the floor to the ceiling. Suddenly, Lewis realized that the smoky reflection from above wasn’t the ceiling. It was the surface of the water — just three short feet away.

The proximity of the surface was exhilarating, but Lewis still couldn’t move because he felt super-glued to the bars. It felt like his arms weighed a ton as he struggled to reach down, trying to grab one of the bars. He eventually got a hold of a bar and shoved against it, hoping to lift his body upwards, but he didn’t budge. Fighting to bend his legs, Lewis got his heels dug in above one of the lower bars. With the combined effort of his arms and legs, Lewis was able to push his body upwards a couple inches, his head now firmly pressed into Gonzalez’s right hip. Her right tank was now up against the side of his head and pressing into his shoulder. Lewis could think of many more-comfortable positions to be in.

Gonzalez could see what Lewis was doing and she did her best to time her efforts with his so they achieved maximum force. It was much tougher for her because she was parallel to the bars, making it difficult to position her limbs in a way that provided much leverage. Halfway to the surface, she ran out of air. Normally she would just do a quick regulator swap. The problem, in this case, was that Lewis still had her second regulator in his mouth.

Lewis saw, and then felt, Gonzalez’s hand tap on the borrowed regulator. Immediately realizing her other tank must be empty, Lewis took a quick breath then relaxed his jaw, letting Gonzalez reclaim her source of air. The cave diver’s calm was infectious, helping Lewis keep his emotions under control as he retrieved his own regulator that was flapping in the current behind him. Once again, they were both able to breathe.

The struggle for the surface continued, Lewis pushing from below while Gonzalez scooted sideways above. Soon, Gonzalez’s left arm broke the surface and was free of the strainer, allowing her to move it much more easily. It took only three more rounds of pushing before she was able to climb all the way out onto a narrow ledge above where the river disappeared into the next section of tunnel. She was then able to grab Lewis under the arms, dragging him out while he pushed with his legs.

Lewis lay panting on the ledge next to Gonzalez, completely exhausted. They remained there for a few minutes before Lewis finally sat up, speaking loudly to be heard over the roar of the rushing water, “That was not fun.” Looking around, he found that they were at one corner of a triangular room. Their river surfaced along one of the walls before disappearing through the bars just three feet from the corner. “What’s up with the jail cell down there?” Lewis asked.

Gonzalez sat up as well. As she unclipped her harness, she said, “I have no idea. I thought we were goners for a while.”

After they had both removed their dive gear, Lewis and Gonzalez stood to investigate the rest of the room. The three walls were each roughly 40 feet long and perfectly straight up and down. The walls extended overhead for approximately 100 feet. A thin, rotting rope hung from the third corner, away from the river. Lewis tested the rope, finding it broke with perhaps 20 pounds of force.

The noise from the river was dramatically reduced when the pair stood directly in the corner, allowing for a more natural conversation.

“This rope is garbage,” Lewis stated plainly. “We’re trapped if we can’t find another way up these walls.”

“I think you bruised my hip with your hard head,” was all Gonzalez said at first, gently rubbing her aching side.

Lewis smiled and massaged the top of his head. “Sorry about that. You make such a cute hat though.”

Gonzalez blushed, then pointed to a small pile of ancient lumber near the center of the room. “Any chance we could build a ladder with that?”

“I left my hammer and nails in my other pants,” Lewis said as he patted his pockets.

Gonzalez’s eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “I know what the bars are for!”

Lewis followed her gaze to the pile of lumber. He was about to ask what she meant, when he finally caught on as well. “You are a genius!” he half-shouted as he patted her on the back.

They hauled the boards over to the corner where the river disappeared through the bars. Then, as neatly as possible, they slipped the boards down into the water, letting the pressure of the current hold them in place against the bars. The bars and boards together now formed a dam.

The water level quickly rose past the banks of the short section of river and began filling the room. By the time Lewis and Gonzalez had their diving gear back on, the water was already up to their knees. It was quiet now that the water was above the area where it poured through the bars, allowing the pair to converse quietly as they waited for the water to float them upward. Much of the next hour was spent talking about past diving experiences, passing the time as they slowly worked their way towards the top of the triangular shaft.

Two of the three walls continued straight, all the way to the ceiling, but the third opened into a small alcove about ten feet before meeting the roof. The moment they were high enough, Lewis reached up, grabbed the ledge and pulled himself into the alcove, straining with the weight of his dive gear after floating weightless for so long. He quickly removed the heavy equipment and turned to help Gonzalez, who had already pulled herself up as well, and was now standing next to her removed gear, tapping her foot and staring at an imaginary watch as if she had been waiting for hours. Lewis laughed then turned towards the back of the alcove, shining his dive light all around, hoping to figure out how to turn the water off before the entire chamber filled up and they both drowned.

Lewis’s light revealed four distinct serpents engraved in the rocks forming the back wall. Four hemp ropes ran through holes in the floor and ceiling next to each of the serpents. The first snake had a keyed tail, matching what Stonewood’s group had found back before the cave-in. Two of the four ropes next to that carving were cut. The bottom of each of the cut ropes must have been pulled into the floor below. The second and third serpents were similar, except that they had their keys sprouting from their back and head, respectively. The final one had no key at all; instead it had two heads breathing fire at each other.

“Wow,” Lewis said quietly. “The snakes look exactly like Miller said they would.” He gave the first rope a gentle tug. “The good professor didn’t say anything about these ropes though.”

Gonzalez remained quiet as Lewis took in the details. She silently followed Lewis from one station to the next, eventually noticing she was standing in an inch of water. “Quinn,” she said with a calm voice, “we may be running out of time.” She looked back towards the triangular shaft that was now under water, worry evident in her voice as she asked, “Do you suppose there is any hope in diving back down to remove the boards?”

Lewis looked down at his feet and shook his head as he replied. “I doubt they’d budge with all this water pressing them in place. Besides, we may need our last tank of air to get out of here.”

Lewis then gave a running narrative of the four serpents as he went back through them, trying to figure out what to do next. According to Miller, these were special symbols he had seen only once before, in the Money Pit at Oak Island. They weren’t traditional runes at all, but rather encodings meant to look like simple cave drawings to the average passerby. The first serpent coincided with the locked state of the Archive, which appeared to be the active mode given the fact that they couldn’t get out; and, it was the only one with some of its ropes cut. Nobody had seen the next two anywhere in the cave, but Miller had found them in his strange map of the system. He believed one would reverse the flow in the main channel, while the other could be used to control the flow somehow, allowing items to be shipped back to the pool where Lewis and Gonzalez had entered. The water level could then be increased to float the items all the way up to the top of the domed ceiling where Pierre had climbed. The final engraving represented the unlocked state of the Archive.

Miller had also warned that the control system was designed to be used by Curators alone, and was undoubtedly set up to trap and kill anyone who wasn’t familiar with its proper use. Based on the way the ropes felt, Lewis believed each supported a large rock hanging somewhere below their feet. Cutting the rope would allow the rock to drop, setting things in motion. The important part was cutting the correct rope.

The key-tailed serpent had the first and last ropes cut. As he described this part to Gonzalez, Lewis suddenly bolted to attention, his brain finally grasping the fundamentals of the system. He talked rapidly and excitedly. “Miller said the Curators were very intelligent, and even adopted a sort of computing system from the Phoenicians based on wound strings inside a box.”

Gonzalez stared blankly before saying, “This may not be the time to geek out on me about some old nerds and their archaic computer.”

“No, that’s not what I was getting at. I think the computer is the solution to this whole system. Computers speak using a series of ones and zeros, which is called binary. The drawing you saw with the serpent had the Roman numeral IX beneath it, which we know as the decimal number 9. In binary, this would be represented as 1001. I believe the ones correspond to the ropes that need to be cut.”

Gonzalez slowly shook her head. “So, what ropes do we cut to get out of here?”

Lewis had a quizzical look on his face as he responded. “Well, that’s the tricky part.” He went back to rubbing his head as he waded through the now waist-deep water to the final serpent. “Miller told me something about a thirteenth astrological sign written next to the two-headed beast. Thirteen is 1101. The part I’m unsure of is which direction the number should be read. Traditionally we go left to right, of course. However, the engravings seem to me like they go right to left if you think of them as “open the door”, then “load the treasure”, and then “close the door.” The 1001 doesn’t help us however, because it reads the same in either direction.”

Gonzalez was not convinced and was about to get back into her dive gear when Lewis pulled out his handy multi-tool and quickly sliced through the first and last ropes. She inhaled sharply, hearing the scraping of rolling rocks reverberate through the wall. “Quinn…” quietly escaped her lips at the end of the inhale.

“The first and last parts are the same in either direction, like with the 9. The fact that we aren’t covered in boiling oil or punctured with a thousand flaming arrows lends support to my theory.” Lewis smiled a quick smile then returned to the ropes. He was sticking with his right to left hunch. Gonzalez squeezed his left hand as he raised the knife in his right. He returned the firm squeeze as his knife sliced through the old rope. A loud clanging sound echoed through the cavern, followed by a splash as the boards floated to the surface. After a dull thud somewhere behind the wall, the water started to drop.

“You did it!” Gonzalez hollered as she gave Lewis a warm hug.

He let out his breath and enjoyed the embrace before finally speaking. “Easy peazy lemon squeezy.” He tried to sound nonchalant, but his trembling hands gave him away. Nothing in life was a guarantee.

The water drained quickly, dropping a foot every ten seconds or so. The suction below would make it much too dangerous to get in the water as it drained, so they simply stood on the edge and watched the water go down. In a matter of minutes, the cave was empty. Now the question was how to get back down from the alcove.

Lewis re-examined the stretch of rope he had tested from the bottom of the pit. It had certainly seen better days but maybe it would hold if he could find some small foot-holds to support some of his weight. Slowly working to pull the entire length of rope up so he could inspect it, Lewis was disheartened when Gonzalez burst out laughing after the rope simply fell in half under its own weight less than halfway up.

Lewis laughed at himself as well. “Maybe we could tie our clothes together to form a rope,” he said with a sly smile.

“Then I’d have to wear this for the rest of the day,” Gonzalez replied as she pulled her backup cave reel from the pocket on her dive harness. “The cave line might be hell on the hands but it will hold 300 pounds if we keep it away from any sharp edges.”

“You are my kind of woman, Gonzalez!”

Gonzalez un-spooled the braided nylon cord, making sure it would reach the bottom. Meanwhile, Lewis looked for a way to tie off the end of the line. There were two anchor point options: the loop of metal in the floor that currently supported the rotten rope Lewis had just tested; or, one of the thick ropes that were part of the control mechanism. Lewis tested the metal and found it to be sturdy. He didn’t really like the idea of trusting something he knew so little about, but he didn’t want to risk setting off a trap by messing with the ropes either. Lewis tied off to the ring and mentally crossed his fingers.

“It comes to within a couple feet of the floor,” Gonzalez said as she turned away from the edge. “That should be close enough.”

Lewis looked over the edge to see for himself, and then picked up the thin cord and looked at it in his hands. There was obvious skepticism in his voice when he asked, “Won’t this cut our hands in half?”

Gonzalez held up her index finger, signaling Lewis to wait one minute. Lewis just watched as Gonzalez pulled the cave line back up into the alcove. She then made three neat loops between two of the metal D-rings on her dive harness, creating a makeshift rappelling device.

“You really are a genius,” Lewis said with a whistle, clearly impressed with Gonzalez’s ingenuity.

Gonzalez smiled back, replying, “Not all the caves back home have ladders.” She paused to look over her harness again. “Getting back out of those caves is a whole different story though.”

Lewis grabbed his harness and set it up in a similar fashion, adding a fourth loop to account for his extra weight. “It looks like I have to go first,” Lewis said, noting the fact that Gonzalez’s harness threaded on first, making it further up the line than his.

“I initially figured you would wait and watch me go, then rig yours up and follow,” she responded with a shrug. “This way does seem to enhance my genius status though.”

Lewis could only nod. He slipped his harness on and worked the cord through the D-ring system as he walked backwards to the edge, tanks banging into his legs as he moved. When he got to the lip, which Gonzalez had padded with the remains of the old hemp rope, Lewis leaned back and let his body pivot until he was completely horizontal, essentially standing on the wall. He then walked backwards down the wall, letting the friction of the rope through his harness control his speed. The descent turned out to be incredibly smooth, and didn’t have any of the near disaster aspects that Lewis was half expecting. Once Lewis’s weight was off the rope, Gonzalez repeated the process, even adding a couple dramatic jumps from the wall just for show.

The underground river was now just a trickle, and the floor of the triangular room had somehow sunk almost 8 feet, matching the bottom of the river channel. The lowering of the floor had revealed a new exit that Lewis hoped would lead to safety, but first, it was time to go get the others.

Chapter 10 — PAGING DOCTOR MILLER

Lewis and Gonzalez left their dive gear near the newly-exposed tunnel and began walking back towards the others. The walk was much less exciting than the wild ride that brought them down. Impersonating a boring tour guide, Lewis pointed out multiple large protrusions he believed he had hit with various body parts on their initial trip. It took almost an hour to hike back up something that had taken them just minutes to rocket down.

They rounded the final corner to see Samantha rappel down through the pit that once housed the calm pool, smoothly landing in the tunnel. The mining engineer quickly unclipped from the line and ran to hug both Gonzalez and Lewis. “You saved us!” she screamed.

Pierre’s head immediately appeared in the opening above. “Thank goodness you’re back,” he said with apparent relief. “We were about to come searching for you. Did you find a way out?”

Lewis and Gonzalez described what they had been through, ending with the new passage that was revealed when the Curators’ control system lowered the floor of the triangular room. Lewis also noticed that a slab of rock had slid into a carved groove on the other side of the pit where they now stood, blocking the inflow of water except for a few small leaks. The whole system was a true engineering marvel.

By the time the dive team finished their story, Craig had joined Pierre at the top of the pit. “All our gear is ready,” he announced. “Where’s Miller?”

Lewis and Gonzalez exchanged a dumbfounded stare before Gonzalez replied, “How should we know?”

Samantha looked stunned. “We thought he went to find you after the water drained,” she stammered. “You haven’t seen him?”

Gonzalez shook her head. Lewis did the same, saying, “Not since we left him with the three of you.” It came across sounding more accusatory than he intended so he quickly added, “When did you last see him?”

Craig and Pierre went back and forth, describing what they knew. They had all been working on transporting the remaining gear. At some point Miller mentioned something about solving part of the mystery and ran ahead, leaving the others to jockey back and forth transporting the equipment. When they finally got everything here, they found that the pool was empty and the professor was gone. The discovery of the rope hanging to the bottom of the pit led everyone to assume Miller had found the water drained, and descended to check on Lewis and Gonzalez.

“Did you search for him up there?” Lewis asked when they were done.

“He couldn’t have gotten back past us in the passage,” Samantha offered. “Craig and I searched back towards the entrance a ways, but we didn’t find any sign of him.”

“We’re down to Samantha’s dive light and Pierre’s head lamp for lighting so we couldn’t search too far,” Craig added.

Lewis had noticed that his dive light was getting pretty weak as well. They had traveled back with Gonzalez’s turned off, but hers couldn’t have much left either. “Maybe he went by while we were rigging up the rappel,” Lewis said hopefully. “Either way, we need to get moving before we are out of light.”

They decided to leave most of the gear at the top of the pit, including supplies and a note for Miller in case he somehow came back from the other direction. Pierre brought down the last chunk of their climbing rope: a 60-foot piece. They would have to come back and de-rig some of the rappels if they needed more. Craig and Samantha grabbed the first-aid kit and a small sack with some climbing hardware. Lewis and Gonzalez were famished, so they concentrated on some food and water supplies. With no further time to waste, they headed off in hopes of finding both Miller and a way home before their batteries ran out.

The group traveled with only the dim illumination from Lewis’s dying dive light until it finally gave way, just as they reached the triangular room. Gonzalez switched her dive light on and helped Lewis retrieve their final full tank along with its regulator, leaving the dive harness and other gear behind for now. Samantha marveled at the straightness of the walls before following to the newly-revealed exit Gonzalez and Lewis had described.

The opening was roughly circular, matching the basic lava tube formation they were all used to by now. It was approximately twelve feet in diameter, making it easy to walk along without hunching over. It was also big enough to have transported even the largest of the artifacts. The tunnel sloped gradually downward, still wet from all the water which had drained this way.

Craig led into the passage with Pierre and Samantha right behind him. Gonzalez followed next with the light, while Lewis took up the rear. The passage was fairly straight for the first hundred yards, before taking a gradual left-hand turn. Samantha let out a shriek at what lay ahead. Gonzalez saw it too and quickly shut off her light. There was a dull glow coming from around the corner. They were almost out!

Gonzalez turned her light back on and they all moved onward at a hurried pace, fighting the urge to take off running. When they finished rounding the corner, they all saw what they had been yearning for: daylight. The tunnel opened into the outside world less than 200 yards away, straight ahead. Samantha let out a new shriek, but this time it was not at the light. Twenty feet ahead of them, tangled in a pair of fallen rocks, lay the pale, wet body of Doctor Scott Miller, PhD.

Lewis knelt beside the professor’s limp body, checking for a pulse then listening to his chest, despite the fact that Miller looked to have been dead for quite some time. Lewis looked up to the hopeful eyes of the others and slowly shook his head. Samantha began to sob, and everyone seemed visibly shaken by Miller’s death, all having become close to the endearing, older man.

“He must have fallen in while watching the water drain,” Craig offered, sounding defensive.

Lewis couldn’t tell if Craig was trying to avoid blame for not keeping a better eye on the professor, or because he was more directly involved in Miller’s fate. While checking for a pulse, Lewis had noticed that Miller’s neck was broken in at least two different spots, a possible but unlikely injury for a drowning victim. The professor’s hands were wrinkled from the water, but his fingers didn’t exhibit the sorts of scrapes Lewis had seen on cave divers who had tried to claw their way through solid rock after becoming trapped. The look on Gonzalez’s face confirmed that she too was skeptical about this being just another accident; the fact that she subtly distanced herself from Craig confirmed that they shared the same prime suspect.

“What do we do with him?” Samantha asked, regaining control of her emotions.

Everyone looked to Lewis for an answer. He looked back to Miller before replying. “There’s nothing we can do for now.” He didn’t want to sound cold, but the reality was that they were in no position to transport a fallen teammate. “The best thing we can do is get back to civilization and get the authorities in here.”

The others nodded their agreement. Lewis stood, leading the way towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Even before they got there, Lewis could tell this wasn’t going to be the type of exit that a person simply walked out of. Their ordeal was not over yet.

The tunnel suddenly opened into the middle of a vertical shaft. The mouth of the cave where they now stood was 40 feet above the rocks littering the bottom of the pit below. Looking upward, it was approximately 50 feet to where the rock walls gave way to some overhanging tree branches, and the sky above. The shaft itself was nearly a perfect square, twelve feet wide. The sides appeared to be hand carved, like the triangular room, making them incredibly smooth and probably impossible to climb.

The others stepped to the side, letting Pierre move to the opening to look for a route up. He stayed quiet as he looked around, examining various possible hand-and foot-holds that would have forever remained invisible to Lewis. Much like when he scouted the route to Sigurd’s ledge, Pierre moved his eyes from one location to the next, visually scaling the walls. For the first five minutes, Pierre tried a number of different routes, none of which made it more than ten moves before Pierre shook his head, starting over after finding another dead end. Before long, Lewis could see that Pierre was making progress, the climber’s focus remaining much higher up the shaft, never retreating all the way to the start. Finally, after nearly half an hour, Pierre nodded, but he didn’t sound overly convincing when he said, “I found something that might work.” These were not encouraging words coming from someone who was normally close to bursting with confidence.

Like before, Lewis prepared to belay Pierre in case he fell. Pierre warned that the first move was going to be one of the trickiest — the route really began with a narrow crack running up the right corner of the opposing wall. There was no choice but to run down the tunnel then leap diagonally across the shaft, hoping to dig his fingers in when he got to the corner. Lewis could only shake his head in wonder as Pierre shared the rest of his daring plan.

After a very short meditation period, Pierre grabbed just a few cams and carabineers, and was ready. The reasons for the limited kit were two-fold: First, it was all they had left without going back to the supply dump; second, there were only two places Pierre saw that would hold any form of protection anyway.

Lewis let out slack as Pierre backed down the tunnel, trying to keep the rope on the left side so it would be as out of the way as possible. Everyone but Lewis moved behind him so they wouldn’t be obstacles either. Pierre counted down, “3…2…1!” The moment he reached one, he sprinted down the center of the tunnel, eyes completely focused ahead.

As Pierre ran, Lewis retrieved rope as quickly and smoothly as he could, trying to reduce the slack and, therefore, the distance Pierre would fall if he failed to latch on to the corner. The Frenchman was at full speed when he passed Lewis, launching himself through the air towards the far corner. His trajectory took him on a perfect collision course, the last of the line trailing out behind him as he flew directly towards the small crack. Lewis had left the perfect amount of rope, just enough for Pierre to reach the corner. As he collided with the wall, the climber quickly scrambled with his feet, fighting for some sort of traction as he tried to force the tips of his powerful fingers into the tiny crack he had spotted. His left index and middle fingers went in exactly where he wanted. His right hand, however, missed the mark and ended up scraping down the wall. Without the opposing force of both hands, Pierre fell a short distance before the rope got tight and swung him back against the near wall below Lewis’s feet. Luckily, Lewis was ready, arresting Pierre’s fall without being pulled from the cave himself.

Lewis immediately towed Pierre up, expecting him to be upset. Instead, Pierre had a beaming smile. “I was so close,” he said with a shake of his fists. “This is going to work!”

They repeated the process. Pierre backed to the exact same spot while the others got themselves and the rope out of the way. He counted down and then rocketed off with a burst of speed, passing Lewis and lunging for the crack once again. This time, both hands got a hold and he was able to cling to the corner like a super-human fly.

Cheers and encouragement erupted from the mouth of the cave as everyone moved forward, excited to watch Pierre climb. The first ten feet looked easy as he somehow wedged his toes into the tiny crack, quickly scaling upward like he was climbing an invisible ladder. The crack ended there, but Pierre was somehow able to grip two tiny protrusions on the far wall, keeping one foot in the crack as he muscled himself up and to the left, primarily with his fingertips. Next, he somehow stretched for a single tiny hole, just big enough for Pierre to insert the first half inch of his middle finger. He steadied himself before slowly swinging his entire body further to the left by that single finger, before doing a quick jumping pull-up, switching from his left to right hand. He then stretched across the final span to another tiny crack running up the left corner of the far wall.

This new crack was only a few feet long, but deep enough for the first cam. Once Pierre had the cam secured, he asked Lewis to hold the rope tight. Lewis easily took the small climber’s weight, allowing him to rest for a few minutes before continuing. “You are doing great!” Lewis hollered up in encouragement. “You’re already almost halfway there!”

Lewis knew this next part was going to be tricky. Pierre gripped the webbing on the cam he had set in the crack, asking for some slack. Lewis let out the 15 feet he knew the climber would need. Pierre then pulled his feet up near his hands, rocking back and forth a couple times before lunging backwards across the shaft, spinning in the air as he flew. His eyes were huge as he focused on the remains of an ancient chisel groove left in the rock, 20 feet above Lewis’s head. Pierre’s fingertips locked into the narrow slot as his body slammed into the wall. The climber’s powerful grip held.

Everyone down below exhaled the breath they had been holding since Pierre first got into position for the jump. Samantha was about to shout up additional words of support, but instead she gasped as Pierre began slipping back towards them. Lewis could hardly believe his eyes when, instead of falling, Pierre actually moved upward, his arms and legs flailing like a cartoon character, somehow finding enough grip to propel himself upward and to the left. Samantha covered her eyes, unable to watch. Craning their necks, the other three followed Pierre as he scampered upward to within twelve feet of the top, reaching another small hole just big enough to insert his hand. Pierre thrust his hand into what looked almost like a gopher hole in the solid rock, then formed a tight fist, his expanded hand now holding him in place.

Pierre’s breath came in labored gasps as he hung by his arm, trying to regroup from the wild scramble. “I’ve never done anything like that before,” he finally whispered.

“I don’t think any human has ever done anything like that before,” Lewis offered. “You looked like the Roadrunner for a few seconds. Very nicely done, Pierre!” There wasn’t much else to say; the act defied words.

The others offered their own praise as Pierre transferred his weight to another small handhold, allowing him to place a cam in the gopher hole-like pocket. He again asked Lewis to hold him in place while he rested and re-evaluated the final moves above. Everyone was getting excited, seeing how close they were to finally escaping the cave. Craig was already rigging up the ascenders so they could begin following Pierre up as soon as he had the rope secured.

“Slack,” Pierre called down after a few minutes of rest. He had wedged his left foot into the hole with the cam, and had his right foot pressed against the other wall to keep his balance as he again prepared to lunge back across the pit. This time would be different though because there was nothing on the other side to grab a hold of.

Lewis gave Pierre the final 15 feet of rope, steadying himself and preparing to hang on to the very end if Pierre fell. Pierre counted himself down once again, “3…2…1!” He let out a wild grunt as he shoved himself towards the other side, this time remaining upright in the air but pivoting slightly so that his right hip was directly facing the far wall as he sailed towards it. This was the crux move of the entire climb. As Pierre neared the far side, he stuck out his right leg to absorb the impact, letting the leg bend before quickly straightening it to bound back in the other direction, like a parkour runner, jumping off the wall to gain further elevation.

Gonzalez let out a high-pitched shriek as she realized Pierre’s jump wasn’t enough to get him all the way back to their side of the pit. It didn’t matter, because that wasn’t Pierre’s plan. The extra height he gained by springing off the far wall was enough for him to grasp the top edge of the pit. He hung there for a moment with his smiling face pressed firmly against the wall. As he began pulling himself up, the unthinkable happened. A 20-foot section of the wall, including the part Pierre was hanging from, broke loose and started to plummet into the pit, taking the small Frenchman along for the ride.

At first, it looked like Pierre might still scramble over the falling slab of rock in time to grab something stable, but he ended up just inches short as he dropped too fast. Things got worse when the rope got pinched between the sliding rock and the far wall, severing Pierre’s link to safety as if it had been cut by a sharp knife. At least Pierre had gotten above the large chunk of rock so he wouldn’t be smashed by it; however, he still found himself falling almost flat on his back in the middle of the shaft, with no way to stop himself before the rocky bottom below.

Lewis reacted immediately the moment he saw the rope being sliced in two. He handed his end to Craig as he tightly gripped further along with his left hand. In an instant, he spun and lunged just over the plummeting rock to where he collided in midair with the falling Pierre, sending them both spinning towards the opposite wall. Pierre latched on to Lewis like a cat clinging to a swaying branch in a tall tree. With a solid thud, they both crashed into the wall.

The impact with the wall almost caused Lewis to lose his grip on the rope, which was now tight between he and Craig back in the mouth of the cave. Lewis was comforted that they wouldn’t follow the large slab down to their deaths, but still dreaded the swinging impact with the other wall. He tightened his grip just in time; instead of swinging downward, he was jerked back across the gap.

Like Lewis, Craig had also been quick to react, taking the rope and running towards the back of the cave the moment Lewis and Pierre collided. He moved with such speed that he pulled the pair directly into the cave behind him, saving them from another beating against the wall. Lewis landed on his back with his arms extended, Pierre still gripping him around the rib cage. Craig dragged them both across the floor for a few feet before Lewis’s brain could tell his hands to let go of the rope.

“Thanks,” Lewis said, looking up to Craig. “Both for pulling us in and for not ripping my arms completely off.” He smiled as he rubbed his shoulders. “Reminds me of a time I lassoed a big bull on my grandfather’s farm, and then got my arm tangled in the rope as he took off.”

Craig laughed as Lewis extended his arms and shook his body like he was being dragged across the bumpy prairie. “I’m glad you two are all right,” he said, helping Pierre to his feet.

Pierre dusted himself off before saying, “I have fallen thousands of times, but never anything like that.” He shook his head as he looked from Craig to where Lewis still lay on the ground. His expression was plain and serious when he added, “Thank you both for saving my life.”

Samantha and Gonzalez joined the boys for a round of awkward embraces and high-fives, before they all moved to the mouth of the cave to marvel at the slice of rock that now lay below them in a pile of rubble. Lewis followed Pierre’s gaze back up to where it had broken loose. He could see the Frenchman’s eyes already probing for a new route to the top. The lower cam was still anchored in the corner across from them, but the hole where the other had been placed was gone, having been part of the wall that gave way. After examining the walls of the shaft for an hour, Pierre delivered the bad news. “There is no longer a route.”

The news was a blow to morale, but everyone remained calm and turned to look at Lewis. He shrugged as he looked into their expectant faces. “I did catch a glimpse of something that might help us,” he said. Lewis went on to describe the trunk of a ponderosa pine tree he had spotted just after he and Pierre collided with the opposing wall. The tree was directly above their heads.

Samantha was clearly hoping for something more. “I don’t see how that is going to help us,” she said dryly before a spark of excitement suddenly lit up her eyes as she guessed at Lewis’s intentions. “Do you think you can lasso one of the branches?”

Lewis smiled at her enthusiasm. “Unfortunately: no, there aren’t any branches that are even close to within range.” He then patted the scuba tank he had packed along and said, “But, I do have an idea for this.”

Samantha shook her head. “Not another rocket ride I hope.”

Lewis’s smile widened. “It is your turn,” he joked before explaining his real idea. “Actually, nobody is going to ride the tank this time. I think we can use the pressure in the tank to shoot a homemade spear into the tree. If we tie the rope to the spear, I think I can climb the rope then haul everyone up.”

Lewis got right to work. First, he opened the knife blade of his Leatherman and sliced through the regulator hose from the scuba tank. Next, he removed the thick straw from one of the water bottles, confirming that it slid almost perfectly into the open end of the regulator hose. “Time for our first test,” Lewis said as he taped off the exposed end of the straw with a piece of athletic tape from the first-aid kit. Pointing the hose down the passage, he gave the tank’s valve a quick twist. Even Lewis was shocked when the straw flew all the way back to the rock pile and shattered on impact.

“You must have been a true neighborhood terror growing up,” Gonzalez said with a large smile.

Lewis smiled back. “I must admit, more than one parent banned their child from playing with me.” He waved the hose around like a cowboy in a shoot-out. “If we loaded this thing up with firecrackers, we’d really have something!”

Lewis retrieved a new straw and taped his open Leatherman to the end, choosing the serrated blade to form a sharp spearhead he hoped would grip the tree. Gonzalez found a pack of dental floss in the first-aid kit. She handed it to Lewis, who looped the entire 100 feet of floss through the keychain loop on the end of his favorite multi-tool. The titanium keychain had seemed like a gimmick when he purchased the knife, but its added strength was about to be put to the test. Conceptually, this would be similar to the log-spearing endeavor at the beginning of their expedition: the floss would be light enough to leave the spear’s trajectory unaffected, but strong enough to pull the climbing rope through after the spear was lodged in the tree. Lewis looked over the strange contraption then asked Pierre, “Are you up for one more climb?”

As he rubbed his hands together, Pierre said, “As I believe you once said, ‘Easy squeezy cheese!’”

Laughter erupted from everyone but the confused Frenchman. Lewis gave him a hard pat on the back. “I don’t think that’s quite what I said, but I like it! I think you just discovered yourself a catchphrase.”

Lewis took up his position at the cave mouth while Pierre clipped back into the rope and moved to the start of his runway. Once again, the others helped by organizing the rope as they got out of the way. With renewed focus, Pierre counted himself down then ran towards Lewis at top speed, his eyes constantly focused on his target on the other side of the approaching shaft. Lewis mentally willed the leap to work as Pierre passed him and rocketed skyward. As on the previous attempt, Pierre soared across the gap and latched his strong fingers into the small crack. It was now only a matter of a few seemingly easy moves to get back up to the remaining cam, locking in the rope once again.

Less than a minute after he jumped from the mouth of the cave, Pierre was back by Lewis’s side, the rope now ready for the next phase of the operation. Pierre removed his climbing harness and passed it to Lewis, who had to lengthen the straps but eventually got it on. He tucked his new spear launcher under his arm before asking, “Everyone ready?”

“All we have to do is hold the rope,” Gonzalez replied.

The next part of the plan required the others to hold the end of the rope while Lewis swung across to the other side, where he would attempt to harpoon the trunk of the pine tree. Seeing that everything was ready, he stepped to the edge, pausing for a couple of seconds before gingerly stepping into the void.

Everyone held the rope tightly as Lewis swung towards the other wall, raising his legs in preparation for the upcoming collision. He bent his knees as he reached the other side, smoothly decelerating from the swing as he came to an easy landing. Lewis then leaned forward, grabbing the narrow crack to climb upward as best he could, relying heavily on help from the others. “How in the heck did you climb this?” Lewis asked Pierre through gritted teeth, knowing this was the easy part for the amazing climber.

Once he was high enough, Lewis clipped his harness directly to Pierre’s cam. Gripping the tank between his legs, he pointed the homemade spear launcher at the tree above, being careful to let the attached dental floss hang freely where it wouldn’t get tangled. He held still, waiting for the swaying to stop. A quick turn of the tank’s valve sent the spear flying towards the tree, miraculously remaining right on target despite its poor aerodynamics. The spear hit the tree trunk dead on, but the knife simply bounced off, flying a few feet higher before the floss got tight.

“Watch out!” Lewis warned as the spear sped downward, following the wall towards where the others were watching. Everyone ducked back inside in time to avoid being impaled. Lewis reeled the spear back in and inspected it for damage. Everything looked fine for another try.

“What happened?” Gonzalez asked from the tunnel.

Lewis looked up to the tree before answering. “I think the angle is too steep from here, the blade glanced off. I need to get higher.” The problem was he was already hanging about as high as he could go — Pierre required wild acrobatics to climb further, which wasn’t a realistic option for Lewis. He gripped the narrow tip of the crack with his fingertips, carefully pulling himself higher as he stretched to get his left foot into the cam’s loop of nylon webbing. Slowly extending his leg, Lewis fought his body’s tendency to topple over backwards as he stood up, directly facing the sheer wall. This was as high as he was going to get while maintaining a direct path to the tree.

Lewis had been sent to the corner many times in kindergarten, but that did little to prepare him for aiming a homemade spear at an unseen target while his nose was firmly pressed into the cold corner where the rock walls met. Still, he did his best, extending the hose as far over his head as he could before giving the valve a sharp twist, launching the spear towards the tree once again. The shot caused Lewis to lose his balance, sending him tumbling towards the bottom of the shaft. His mouth formed a wide smile as he fell, hearing the loud thud of his knife stabbing solidly into the tree above.

Craig and the others kept their tight hold on the rope, stopping Lewis’s fall just a few feet below the cam where he once stood. The violent halt ripped the tank from under Lewis’s arm, sending it crashing onto the rubble below. “Thanks,” Lewis offered as he hung upside down, peering up between his legs to the tree above. “I think we got a direct hit that time.”

Pierre tossed Lewis some of the slack at the end of the rope, allowing the group to winch him back into the cave like laundry on a high-rise clothesline. Everyone eyed the dental floss with excited eyes, the thin minty string representing their lifeline out of this whole ordeal.

Next came the most straightforward part of the plan: using the floss to pull the climbing rope up. The only tricky part was that the rope wasn’t long enough to make the whole loop and there wasn’t anyone up top to tie it off to the spear. Lewis’s idea was simple. He tied the floss to one end of the rope, and tied a large knot in the other end, hoping to pull the rope up and through until the knot got stuck at the keychain loop. The plan proved to be as successful as it was simple.

Lewis refused to let Pierre be the one to risk his life climbing to the speared tree. He could not bear watching someone die if his wild plan failed. Lewis clipped an ascender to his harness, but hoped to use the rope to support as little of his weight as possible, climbing as much as he could. At least the ascender would keep him attached to the rope, making it possible for the others to pull him to safety from their end if the makeshift harpoon pulled free.

Lewis could hear the knife blade creaking in the tree as he started out, relying heavily on the rope after Craig lifted him as high as he could. He clawed at any imperfections in the rock that he could find, struggling to support even a few pounds of his weight. He worked his way towards the corner to a possible route Pierre pointed out from below. He could never have climbed it alone but, with the assistance of the rope, Lewis was able to work his way up Pierre’s route to within a dozen or so feet of the top. There was nothing but smooth rock ahead.

Fear and fatigue combined to make his legs and arms tremble as he clung to the final holds. This last stretch would rely solely on his knife’s grip in the trunk of the tree. He released one hand, sliding the ascender as high as he could before letting go with the other hand. Having only the single ascender meant he had to use his arms to pull himself up then hang by one arm while he slid the precious device up to match. He inched along as calmly as possible, trying hard not to wiggle the spear more than necessary. Looking up, he could see the blade working its way out of the tree.

Lewis was less than three feet from the top when the Earth’s gravity finally won the battle, tugging the Leatherman’s blade from the tree. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Lewis. He heard the gasps from below as if they were the steady drone of a worn-out ceiling fan. He watched his own arm reaching upward like a slow wave in a parade. Another rocket ride on a tank seemed like it may have been a better plan.

The seemingly slow straightening of his arm was actually a lightning fast grasp for the lip of the shaft. The first two fingers of Lewis’s right hand barely caught their target, providing just enough grip for him to swing his left hand up for a stabilizing hold. Lewis wasted no time pulling himself up, not wanting another fracture of the rock to cost the group their freedom. And that was it: Quinn Lewis was safely out of the cave at last.

“I’m up!” Lewis yelled back down as he stared at the rope that had made it to the surface, only because it was still threaded through his ascender. A mixture of cheers and sobs met him from below, the weight of the ordeal having taken its toll on everyone.

Still not wanting to risk another collapse or some freak accident, the team worked quickly to get everyone hoisted out of the shaft. Craig was the last one up, remaining in the cave until the end to help make sure the others were properly secured. Pierre stretched his arms to the sky, vowing never to go underground again then turned to remove a small gear bag attached to his harness. That is when Lewis saw it: Stonewood’s headlamp was in Pierre’s bag.

Pierre followed Lewis’s questioning gaze. Unable to come up with a quick excuse, the French climber instead thrust his hand into the bag and came out with a compact .38 revolver. Without hesitation, he aimed it at Craig and shot the bodyguard in the chest, sending the large man sprawling backwards where he plummeted to the bottom of the shaft.

Chapter 11 — OTHERS

Lewis was shocked by the sudden death of Craig at the hands of a man he, until moments ago, considered a friend. The realization that it was Pierre who had murdered both Stonewood and Miller lit a fire of rage within Lewis. He quickly mapped out the two steps it would take to cover the distance to the Frenchman, hoping to get there before Pierre got off another shot.

“Stay where you are!” Pierre shouted, yanking Gonzalez in front of him and putting the barrel of the revolver to her head.

Lewis froze. Pierre was smart to grab Gonzalez as a human shield. Lewis would willingly risk his own life for a chance to save everyone, but he could not bring himself to take the same gamble with Gonzalez’s life in the balance. “Take it easy, Pierre,” Lewis stated calmly. “We can work this out.”

Pierre stared at Lewis, trying to gauge the true intentions of the man he had gotten to know fairly well over the past few days. He released Gonzalez but kept the gun trained on her as he said, “Actually, Quinn, I could use your help. I need help contacting my people.” He paused as if pondering something before continuing. “If you help me, I’ll let all three of you go free.”

“What do you need?” Lewis asked. He knew there was no merit to Pierre’s proposed deal; after all, this was a man who had pretended to be their friend while slowly killing those that got in his way, one by one.

“I need this to work,” Pierre said as he tossed a small satellite communicator to Lewis. “It is supposed to send and receive text messages but it appears to be damaged. I’m not good with electronics but, as you Americans like to say, I suspect this will be right up your alley.”

Lewis nodded, looking over the Delorme inReach SE device Pierre had thrown to him. He was familiar with the functionality of the communicator, having used one in a solo wilderness race a while back, but didn’t really know much about its inner workings. Needing to buy some time, he looked back to Pierre and smiled, playing like they were friends again. “You promise you will let us go?” he asked. After Pierre nodded, Lewis added, “This shouldn’t take too long. I sat on the review board for the design of the Indiogram firmware that’s used in this version of the inReach.” That seemed to put Pierre at ease, despite the fact that it wasn’t even close to true: Lewis had only just now made up the name Indiogram.

The device’s screen was on and showing 80 % battery life, but none of the buttons seemed to be working. As if he were working on a ticking bomb, Lewis made a show of carefully probing various parts of the communicator. Pierre may not have understood electronics, but he knew better than to give the solution engineer too much space, knowing that Lewis could activate the communicator and send off his own message for help. The climber-turned-saboteur stayed just far enough away to avoid a surprise rush, keeping his gun trained on the girls while he waited. Lewis took advantage of the extra time, scanning the area to take full stock of their situation as he worked to formulate some sort of plan. One thing was for certain: he would have to make his move before Pierre’s friends arrived.

Twenty minutes later, the sun was setting as Lewis continued to work, talking to himself as if working through a mysterious problem. In reality, Lewis suspected the inReach simply needed a reboot, a common solution to many issues with electronics. Pierre was clearly getting impatient, but Lewis still needed to buy some more time.

Lewis looked forward to the darkness, knowing it could be helpful camouflage for an escape attempt. His hopes were tampered; however, when Pierre instructed Gonzalez and Samantha to gather a pile of the dead tree limbs littering the area so he could make a fire using the fuel canister he pulled from his little sack. The fire would chase the darkness from the immediate area, but there was still hope that it might divert some of their captor’s attention.

Pierre was careful to keep an eye on everyone as he worked to light the fire, but the initial burst of flames allowed Lewis to quickly snatch up a 12-guage flare that had fallen from Pierre’s pack. Pretending to slap at a mosquito, Lewis slipped the flare into the top of his sock. He wished he had the gun to go with it, but was determined to formulate a plan using what he did have. With the fire burning bright, Pierre told the girls to move over next to Lewis, keeping everyone grouped together in the open area, bathed by the fire’s light.

“Your time is up, Quinn,” Pierre said after a few more minutes, obviously agitated by the slow progress.

“I almost have it,” Lewis replied, acting as if he was equally frustrated with how things were going. “Somehow this thing thinks it’s in the southern hemisphere,” Lewis lied while furiously tapping the buttons.

“Maybe it is time to shoot one of your friends.” Pierre pointed the gun at Samantha and squeezed the trigger, the bullet stirring up dirt next to where she sat. “That was your only warning,” the Frenchman stated boldly, his cold stare telling Lewis he would not hesitate to kill them all if he didn’t get his way.

“Just 30 more seconds,” Lewis pleaded as he pressed the X and down-arrow buttons, performing a soft reset of the inReach. He did his best to act as nervous as he could, hoping Pierre wasn’t ready to give up too much leverage before he had what he wanted. Lewis willed Gonzalez or Samantha to make some sort of small distraction, giving him the time he needed to race to Pierre and pile-drive the tiny Frenchman into the rocky ground. His mental telepathy didn’t work, the satellite communicator beeped back to life before Lewis found an opening.

“Gently set it on the ground there,” Pierre said, pointing in front of Lewis’s feet, “then all of you move over to that rock and have a seat.”

Having no choice but to comply, Lewis and the girls soon found themselves sitting on a large rock, a few feet from the fire. Pierre kept his focus trained on them, slowly sidestepping over to the inReach and picking it up. His eyes skipped back and forth between the screen and his captives while his fingers worked the buttons, typing out a message. It took nearly half an hour for the reply to come back. The worried look on Pierre’s face gave Lewis hope; they might still make it out of this.

Pierre slid the inReach deep into his front pocket, keeping the gun pointed directly at Gonzalez the entire time. “It looks like we’ll be spending one more night together,” Pierre stated flatly. “The rest of my real team will be flying in as soon as it gets light.”

“He fixed your thing,” Samantha pointed out. “You said you’d let us go.”

Pierre’s expression remained neutral, not giving anything away when he said, “That is the recommendation I will make to my business partners when they arrive. Besides, I may still need your help to guide our choppers in.”

Lewis put his hand on Samantha’s leg, stopping her from a hasty reply. “Let’s get some rest,” he said to the others. Lewis knew from the start that Pierre had no intention of honoring his promise, yet he wanted to lull their captor into a false sense of confidence, while staying alert for any opportunity to take advantage of his complacency. Both Samantha and Gonzalez followed Lewis’s lead, scooting down off the rock, using it as a backrest as they closed their eyes and tried to sleep.

Despite the fear that coursed through their bodies, exhaustion first overcame Samantha and then Gonzalez as they each fell sound asleep. Lewis knew that getting some rest would greatly improve everyone’s chances of survival, giving their minds and muscles a renewed sharpness that could prove to be their only advantage against their adversaries. He too managed to get some sleep, forcing himself to wake up a couple times each hour to check on Pierre. The small Frenchman’s resolve never faltered, keeping his attention, as well as his gun, fixed on Lewis and the girls.

Lewis detected the sound of the approaching helicopters soon after the first rays of light began to brighten the night sky. He made an exaggerated effort of stretching and groaning, making sure he woke the still-sleeping girls. There was no more time to wait for an opportunity; they would have to create their own. “What do you suppose our chances are with these partners of yours?” he asked Pierre.

Pierre shrugged then pulled the inReach from his pocket, checking an incoming message. He was momentarily distracted, allowing Lewis to secretly palm the flare as he removed it from his sock, pretending to continue his stretching routine. Pierre grinned wickedly as he tossed the messaging device into the shaft twenty feet away. “The truth is,” Pierre hissed, “I don’t have any partners. My employees just sent a message saying they found a safe place to land, just down the hill from here. That means I no longer require your assistance.”

At that moment, a pair of black helicopters flew directly overhead, stirring up dust. Pierre instinctively ducked his head, turning slightly to check the path of the incoming choppers. The diversion was too short, and the distance to Pierre too far, preventing Lewis from rushing the gunman, but the distraction did provide the perfect cover for Lewis to throw his flare into the waning fire. Gonzalez and Samantha tensed their muscles, each recognizing Lewis’s plan.

Pierre turned back to his waiting victims, leveling the .38 at Lewis’s chest. Lewis began to worry that the flare was going to be too late, and prepared to make a last desperate lunge towards Pierre instead, hoping to at least give the girls a running chance. Just as Lewis lifted his foot, the flare exploded in a burst of blinding light and billowing smoke. “Run!” Lewis shouted over his shoulder, sprinting through the cloud of smoke towards Pierre. Gonzalez had already grabbed Samantha’s arm, pulling her up the hill, angling away from the fire.

The deception worked. It took almost a second for Pierre to recover from the initial shock of the explosion. He fired two quick rounds towards where Lewis had been standing before being blindsided by a freight train. The train, of course, was actually Lewis, who had taken a slightly circular route to disguise his path of attack before simply lowering his shoulder while running at full speed. The impact knocked Pierre to the ground, sending the revolver skidding into the bushes. Pierre’s eyes rolled back in his head, apparently knocked out from the punishing tackle.

Lewis took advantage of Pierre’s unconscious state and ran for the bushes to get the pistol. Pushing the first few fronds aside, he spotted the revolver just a couple feet away. Before he could grab it, he was clobbered from behind by a stick. Pierre had recovered incredibly quickly, grabbing the first weapon he found then breaking the large tree limb across Lewis’s head. The stick was now only half as long, but the wiry Frenchman lifted it again and took another brutal swing at Lewis’s skull. Lewis recovered from the initial strike just in time to raise his right arm, blocking the second attack. He ripped the stick out of Pierre’s hand, throwing it back towards the fire before punching the climber hard in the throat. Pierre collapsed to his knees, clutching his throat as he gasped for air.

Pierre’s men were on their way up the hill, alerted to potential problems after seeing the flare’s explosion. Lewis wasted no more time, scooping up the .38 before bounding up the hill after his fleeing friends. He ran through a small thicket, stopping when he heard Gonzalez whisper from a large thorn bush growing along the dried banks of a seasonal stream. Lewis spotted Samantha and Gonzalez hidden deep within the bush. They were visible now that he knew they were there, but suitably hidden from someone passing by. Lewis raced up the hill and hung a torn fragment of his shirt on the jagged limb of a fallen tree, 100 feet above the girls’ hiding spot. He returned quickly, hiding alongside his friends while trying to calculate their next move.

“Is Pierre dead?” Samantha asked in a quiet whisper.

Lewis returned a slight shake of his head, saying, “No, he is going to have a sore throat for a while though.” He then put his finger to his lips, indicating quiet, before pointing back towards the smoke from the flare. Pierre’s voice sounded different, but his accent was clear as he explained the situation and ordered his men to hunt down their prey. “Stay still and keep quiet,” Lewis whispered. “Here they come.”

They heard the approaching footfalls before they actually saw the team of mercenaries stalking through the trees. Their pursuers all wore camouflage fatigues and carried assault rifles, giving the initial impression of a military background; however, their clumsy movements and lack of teamwork gave them away as paid amateurs. Either way, they were well armed and appeared ready to kill.

One of Pierre’s men was walking directly towards the bush where Lewis and the others were hiding. Lewis tightened his grip on the .38, ready to lift it and fire, knowing he had only two rounds remaining to somehow fight their way out of this canyon. As he walked, the gunman searched the rocky ground for tracks and scanned the steep hillside for clues, seemingly unaware of his proximity to his targets. Lewis held his breath as the assailant approached to within 10 feet of their hiding spot.

Suddenly, the gunman nearest Lewis began shouting for the others as he pointed up the hill. He had spotted the torn piece of Lewis’s shirt and was taking the bait. Lewis counted seven more armed men, all running up the hill towards the false clue. A wild-eyed Pierre soon followed, hungry for revenge, with an AK47 in his hands. The group momentarily convened around their newly-found evidence, scanning the hillside above. Lewis and his friends hit some luck: the dry creek bed curved up the hill, past the torn shirt fragment, all the way to a huge boulder pile at the base of a V-shaped cliff, about a quarter mile away. With such a perfect trail to follow, Pierre and his goons wasted no time, every one of them running up the hill in search of an easy kill.

Lewis waited until their pursuers were out of sight then whispered, “We don’t have much time. Let’s work our way back down and see if we can find a way out of here.”

Gonzalez and Samantha looked terrified, but each nodded their understanding. All three did their best to remain undetected while creeping back down the hill towards the fire where they had spent the night. Pausing next to the shaft they had escaped from less than twelve hours ago, Lewis tried to decide if they should hide there, or keep moving.

Gonzalez read his mind. “If we go back down now, we may never make it out again,” she said, shaking her head.

She was right. Lewis nodded his agreement while searching for a good escape route. It looked like an easy hike to the river from here, but Lewis knew that the canyon was layered with impassable cliffs, hidden from this angle. They would be easy targets if they got caught on one of those. Then he heard something.

Excited conversation was drifting through the trees; the helicopter pilots were discussing their share of the treasure while waiting with the choppers in the clearing below. Samantha and Gonzalez heard it too, each crouching lower as they looked to Lewis. “It’s the pilots,” he whispered, a wide grin filling his face as a thought occurred to him. “We should see if they’ll give us a ride.”

Without another word, Lewis turned and led the way through a small stand of pines to the edge of the clearing. Two men, hopefully they were actually the pilots, stood about twenty feet away, looking up and a little to the left, watching their comrades up the hill. Lewis hated to waste one of his two remaining bullets on what appeared to be unarmed men, plus he needed one of them to fly them to safety. Instead of shooting, he picked up a nice-sized rock and threw it at the nearest helicopter, cracking the front window.

As expected, both pilots wheeled around at the sound of breaking glass behind them. At that moment, Lewis burst from the pines, sprinting towards the distracted men. They heard him coming but it was too late. Lewis tackled them both, quickly landing a powerful punch to the first’s temple, knocking him out cold. The other man tried to squirm free, but Lewis gave him a quick forearm to the chest before grabbing the revolver from his waist band, and pointing it directly at the man’s head. “Can you fly that?” Lewis asked, gesturing towards the helicopter that still had an unscarred windshield.

The man looked to the chopper but didn’t answer. Lewis punched him in the stomach and pushed the gun hard against his temple. “Yes,” the pilot finally answered through clenched teeth.

“Let’s go then,” Lewis said as he stood, heaving the pilot to his feet and shoving him towards the helicopter.

Samantha and Gonzalez came running up, both yelling, “They’re coming!”

Lewis turned to see that someone above had spotted them, and there was now a trail of gunmen streaming back towards the clearing. There wouldn’t be much time. Lewis practically threw the pilot into his seat, telling him to get ready for takeoff before he climbed into the copilot’s seat, the girls jumping in the back. It took continued monitoring and occasional prodding but the pilot actually had the helicopter off the ground and rotating towards the open canyon before the gunmen were even halfway to the clearing. It looked like an easy getaway until gunfire erupted from the hillside above, bullets occasionally striking the fuselage of the defenseless helicopter.

Some of the gunmen had given up negotiating the steep, rocky terrain and had instead taken up firing positions among some large boulders dotting the creek bed. The gunfire provided the extra motivation the pilot needed to really get things going. He quickly pulled up on the collective to gain altitude as he pushed forward on the cyclic, tilting the rotor to get the helicopter moving.

As they accelerated, Lewis spotted Pierre amongst the main bolder pile near the base of the cliff. The two locked eyes as Pierre raised his gun and fired ten quick, wild rounds in Lewis’s direction. Most of the bullets simply sailed into the canyon, but a pair struck the nose of the aircraft. The final round did the most damage, flying through the fuselage before hitting the pilot square in the head, killing him instantly.

The dead pilot slumped forward, pinning the cyclic to the side and sending the helicopter crabbing sideways directly towards the cliff. Lewis tossed the revolver back to Samantha then pushed the pilot off the controls, assuming command from the copilot’s seat. He fought with the cyclic, trying to steer the chopper away from the wall of rock that now took up his entire forward view. Unable to stop in time, he yanked up on the collective and twisted the throttle to its limit, hoping to get higher than the cliff before running into it.

The rotors came within inches of shattering on the rocks, the helicopter lurching upward just enough to clear the top of the cliff. The left skid, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. It was bent and nearly torn off against the top edge of the wall, tilting the helicopter sideways and knocking a large boulder loose. The tilt of the chopper was just enough for Lewis to see the loosened 5-ton rock tumble, slowly spinning almost a full rotation before crashing down directly on top of the fleeing Pierre. “That’s why they call him ‘Easy Squeezy Cheese,’” Lewis said, both smiling and wincing at the same time.

“Thank God you know how to fly a helicopter!” Gonzalez shouted over the cabin noise.

Lewis returned his full focus to the controls before replying, “I wish that were true. This is actually my first lesson.” Lewis had ridden in a number of helicopters and tended to ask a lot of questions, but had never actually touched the controls until now. Gonzalez and Samantha shared a worried glance before each swallowed hard, slowly sitting back in their seats and tightening their seat belts.

Chapter 12 — THE CHASE

Lewis looked like he was fighting a massive swarm of flies, his arms zipping around the cabin between the controls as he struggled to regain some sort of equilibrium in the helicopter. He finally got the throttle and collective adjusted to the point that they weren’t shooting skyward, even managing to slowly descend towards the ground. Lewis figured, if nothing else, it would be better to crash from a lower altitude.

It did nothing to increase the confidence level in the back of the cabin when Lewis yelled back, “Do either of you see any sort of instruction manual back there?”

Gonzalez looked around then replied, “Here’s a maintenance manual for a Bell 206.” She leaned forward to show the manual to Lewis. “Is this a Bell 206?”

“Maybe… Bell does make helicopters.” Lewis glanced at the picture on the cover of the manual; it did look similar to the craft they were sitting in. “But I think that is a manual for how to change the oil and stuff like that. Does it happen to have a section titled, ‘How to land without crashing’?”

Gonzalez was terrified and didn’t appreciate the joke one bit. Thumbing through the greasy pages, she confirmed there was nothing about actual operation of the aircraft anywhere in the book. However, it did appear as if the Bell was current on its inspections. “Do you have any sort of plan?” she asked.

The situation wasn’t looking good but Lewis did his best to remain calm. Practically yelling to be heard, he filled the girls in on their flight status. “I was hoping to just fly back to the Lewiston Airport where somebody could talk us through a landing.” Both of his passengers seemed to relax a little at this idea. “Unfortunately,” Lewis continued, “we have acquired a couple of problems that are going to necessitate a new plan. First, we must be leaking fuel because we are almost out. Second, it looks like Pierre’s friends want their nice helicopter back.” Driving home this last issue, Lewis pointed over Samantha’s head, indicating a black apparition quickly advancing towards them.

Gonzalez gulped loudly at the sight of the approaching chopper. The other pilot was on a perfect intercept course, aimed almost directly at the open door of Lewis’s lumbering craft. Gonzalez tried to do a quick count and believed all seven of their armed pursuers, along with their pilot, had somehow packed themselves into the five-passenger aircraft. “Can you shoot them?” she asked Lewis, pointing to the .38 still in Samantha’s hands.

Lewis shook his head but didn’t otherwise answer at first. His full concentration was required to fly the chopper. Lewis was nearly overwhelmed as he used the foot pedals to pivot away from the other helicopter, adjusting the other controls to keep the aircraft as level and stable as possible. Once they were generally pointed away from the approaching helicopter, he pushed the cyclic forward, causing the helicopter to tilt and gain speed. The forward tilt also caused the helicopter to lose lift since some of the force was now being used to go forward rather than up. This had to be balanced by adjusting the collective again to increase lift.

After gaining some semblance of control, Lewis finally elaborated on their predicament. “There are only two bullets in the revolver. We might get lucky and hit the pilot, but we would have to wait until they were far too close before we could shoot accurately. Their gunmen would turn us to Swiss cheese with their rifles before we even had a chance to fire back.” Lewis continued with the bad news, saying, “It looks like we have about five gallons of fuel left, and it’s dropping fast. Their pilot is obviously more experienced, but I am hoping their overloading will affect the performance enough to give us a chance. We need to try to stay ahead of them and find a place to land before we run out of fuel.”

Samantha was already too panicked to respond. Gonzalez took in the information then quietly steeled herself before responding, “Okay, what can I do to help?”

“To be honest: I don’t know.” It was taking everything Lewis had just to control their helicopter. He was trying to go forward as fast as he could while easing down towards the ground, sweat pouring off his face from the exertion. “Can you look back and see how far away they are?”

Gonzalez leaned her head out the door, checking for the other chopper. It was gone. She unbuckled to check the other side, finding it now a few hundred yards back and off to the left. Gonzalez shouted out position information to Samantha, who had regained her composure enough to relay it on to Lewis. Each update had their pursuers approaching, but staying out to the side.

Suddenly, Gonzalez screamed, “Look out!” as she rolled back into the cabin.

It sounded like they were inside an old-fashioned popcorn popper on top of a hot stove as bullets struck the helicopter, punching holes but luckily not hitting anybody, or taking out any vital components. At least they made a tough target, the helicopter naturally flying in a zigzag pattern while Lewis fought to maintain his heading. Lewis awkwardly banked to the right, trying to get the shooters behind him so they would have a tougher time getting a good shot.

The steady slalom that resulted from Lewis’s attempts at flying straight was becoming too predictable for the shooters. He was starting to develop a better feel for the controls but needed to work at being a tougher target. Lewis jerked the stick from side to side while stomping on the pedals to steer. This “drunken hummingbird” approach to flying actually seemed to work fairly well for evading bullets, but it did little for keeping the passengers calm.

Gonzalez was nearly thrown from the cabin multiple times as she bounced around, struggling to return to her seat next to Samantha. She finally managed to get a firm grip on a handle next to the seat, holding herself down long enough to fasten the lap belt. “I feel like this is a race to see who can kill us first!” she yelled up to Lewis.

Newly-minted Captain Lewis was still swinging the helicopter around somewhat randomly, his primary focus was on getting closer to the ground. They had actually doubled back and were about to cross over the Snake River Canyon once again. Hoping that a watery crash was more survivable than a rocky one, Lewis dropped into the canyon, working to get as close to the river as possible.

He managed to get down to within 20 feet of the water, and had gotten the helicopter turned so that he was able to follow the river’s course as it flowed downstream. Sweat poured down his face as he concentrated on the controls, the helicopter still swerving back and forth as he tried to stay away from the canyon walls and above the water. At least the bullets had stopped. Maybe their pursuers were happy to just sit back and watch Lewis crash. “Any sign of our guests?” Lewis asked through gritted teeth as he jockeyed the cyclic from side to side.

“We’re looking,” Samantha responded as she and Gonzalez leaned towards their doors to look for the other helicopter, neither wanting to unbuckle their seatbelt ever again. “I see them! They’re right behind us!”

He hadn’t really expected to lose the other helicopter, but it was still a little disconcerting for Lewis to hear that the opposition seemed to be having such an easy time of keeping up, all while he was struggling just to survive. The canyon was fairly narrow, at least making it difficult for the other pilot to pull alongside to give his gunmen easy shots. Lewis began to think that maybe his ploy to dive into the canyon was a good move.

As they rounded the next bend, Lewis looked ahead to a terrifying sight: the canyon ahead narrowed to perhaps 40 feet, with soaring cliffs lining each side. He knew the gap was wide enough for the helicopter itself, but the added swerving was going to make it a tight fit. They were too close and moving too fast for Lewis to do anything but fly straight into the chasm ahead, the light quickly fading as the walls blocked out the sun.

Lewis threw the helicopter from one side to the other as he tried to stay away from the walls. He knew that a smoother approach would be much better than constantly overcorrecting back and forth, but the adrenaline had completely taken over and there was no stopping it now. It was a miracle that the rotors had not hit the walls already. Squinting ahead, he tried to make out the turns in the dim light of the gorge.

The river made a slow left hand turn followed by a short straight section. Lewis prepared for the gentle right hand turn that followed. At nearly the last second, he realized the right turn went nowhere. The river actually made a nearly 90 degree turn to the left, leaving the helicopter rocketing towards a sheer wall. Samantha let out a loud scream as they hurled towards impending doom.

“Watch out!” Gonzalez shouted, involuntarily leaning to the left as if she could help steer the helicopter away from the approaching wall.

Lewis nearly threw the helicopter completely on its side as he banked, hoping to somehow make the turn. An alarm began to sound as they narrowly missed the wall. Multiple alarms actually, and the instrument panel lit up with little red lights. Lewis had managed to set off every warning system the chopper had. There was one particular gauge that caught his eye: fuel. “We’re out of gas!” Lewis yelled to the back. “Unbuckle and get ready to jump!”

Gonzalez and Samantha were both clearly terrified but quickly unbuckled and crawled to the door, trying to steady themselves as Lewis continued his bumper car approach to flying. “Jump!” Lewis yelled from the front as they entered another short straight stretch of the river. All the girls really did was let go, allowing Lewis’s driving to fling them out the door into the river below.

Lewis had unbuckled as well and was preparing to jump. He turned to the dead pilot and said, “She’s all yours,” before pushing him forward, using the deceased man’s body to pin the cyclic in position to keep the doomed chopper moving down the river. Lewis also pulled the collective all the way up as he leapt out the door, hoping that maybe he had given the helicopter enough lift to act as a decoy for a while.

Lewis bicycled his legs for the entire 50-foot fall, fighting to maintain his upright position. He was thankful for the forward momentum from the flight, as it carried him past a section of jagged rocks, allowing him to splash down in the center of a large pool. He pushed off the bottom, resurfacing in time to see his abandoned helicopter as it nearly cleared the canyon wall.

It was an impressive show really. The pilotless aircraft was climbing upward at a reasonable rate, flying much smoother than when Lewis was at the controls, slowly turning to the left. Had the turn been to the right, the chopper would have made it. Instead, the bent left skid caught on the rock wall, sending the helicopter cart wheeling onto the small plateau above as the rotor blades shattered, sending fragments flying in all directions. A loud explosion followed by a rising plume of black smoke confirmed the final demise of the Bell 206.

The helicopter carrying Pierre’s men had pulled up before entering the extremely narrow part of the canyon, and was slowly circling the wreckage above as Lewis back paddled in the current, waiting for the girls to catch up. The gunmen were on their fourth circle when Lewis spotted one of the men hanging from the doorway, pointing frantically as Samantha and Gonzalez swam across the far side of the pool. The two other gunmen who shared the doorway raised their rifles, but were unable to fire as the helicopter’s continued circle took them back out of view for a moment.

“Other side!” Lewis shouted, waving his friends towards a grassy bench ahead, bordering the river where the narrow gorge widened out into the more typical canyon topography. They would be sitting ducks in the river. While the bench itself wouldn’t provide much protection, there was a small log cabin not far from the bank. The thick grayed walls of the dilapidated cabin were far from ideal, but they represented the only available shelter in the area. “Get to the cabin!” Lewis added as he put his face in the water and began powering across the growing current.

Samantha and Gonzalez had also spotted the gunmen and neither needed any further encouragement to seek shelter. The helicopter had reappeared over the rim of the canyon as the girls reversed course and swam away from Lewis towards shore.

Bullets splashed all around the final three members of Stonewood’s original team as they neared the gravel bank of the river. Lewis caught the others, allowing all three to exit the water together, ducking and sprinting to the abandoned homestead they hoped housed some sort of miracle. Otherwise, it would become their crypt.

Chapter 13 — LAST STAND

A bullet grazed Lewis’s left shoulder as he dove for the open doorway to the log cabin, shoving Gonzalez and Samantha through ahead of him. Additional bullets tore into the old logs around the doorway, but none were able to penetrate the hand-cut behemoths that must have been floated down the river to build the cabin over a hundred years ago. The roof too, though partially collapsed, was made of the same giant logs, providing temporary protection from the gunmen.

“Is everyone okay?” Lewis asked as he rolled off Samantha’s legs and stood up to look for something to block the open doorway.

“I was fine until someone tackled me,” Gonzalez began before noticing the wound on Lewis’s shoulder. “My God, you’ve been shot!” she exclaimed, getting up and moving towards Lewis.

Lewis glanced at the blood on his shirt sleeve then quickly probed the injury. “It’s actually just a scratch,” he said. “I have never been a big fan of being shot, but I guess that’s what I get for not properly carrying you across the threshold,” he added with a wink. Gonzalez could only roll her eyes and shake her head.

Samantha groaned as she got to her knees, rubbing her forehead. “I hit my head on the corner of this stupid board,” she said with disgust, kicking at the sharp edge of a partially buried piece of wood. A hollow echo sounded when she stomped her heel down on it.

Lewis glanced back in the direction of the hollow sound before returning his attention to a pile of logs that must have once been a large table. “Let’s get these up against the doorway,” he said to the others. “They should buy us some time to figure out some kind of plan.” He still had Pierre’s revolver tucked into his waistband but with only two bullets, it didn’t seem like it was going to be much help. He needed to think of something fast.

The three worked quickly, stacking the logs across the opening where the cabin’s door once stood. Bullets continued to pepper the walls and roof of the old structure but none made it through. Lewis began to wonder if their attackers might simply run out of bullets and go home. As the last bits of the broken table were placed in front of the door, Lewis could hear the helicopter land in the meadow outside. Seven armed men were about to swarm the cabin.

With their stronghold secure for the moment, Lewis surveyed the rest of the small cabin for anything they could use as a weapon. The only items he found were a couple of rusted cans of soup and a short metal pipe — not exactly an arsenal.

Lewis turned his focus to the hollow-sounding board Samantha had discovered in the corner. Perhaps it was a buried box of assault rifles. Some quick digging with the pipe revealed the board Samantha hit was actually just one of three boards making up some sort of wooden lid. Lewis pried at the lid with the pipe. At first it wouldn’t budge but after a few frantic tries, the lid creaked upwards a couple inches, which was enough for Lewis to slide the pipe in, allowing him to use a lot more leverage.

“They’re coming!” Samantha whispered nervously. Lewis too could hear the approaching footfalls outside the cabin. It wouldn’t be long before the gunmen simply toppled the barricade and came in shooting.

“Jennifer, take this and buy us some time,” Lewis said to Gonzalez as he handed her the nearly empty revolver.

Gonzalez took the .38 and crept over to the log pile, carefully peeking through a small crack near the top. Screaming as her eye got close to the gap, she jerked her head back while whipping the pistol up, quickly firing a single shot through the crack at close range. A loud scream sounded from the other side, indicating she had hit the assailant who made the mistake of peeking in at the same time Gonzalez was peeking out.

A new barrage of bullets struck the wall as the gunmen dove for cover and wildly returned fire, not knowing their prey was actually down to their final bullet. It was surprising they didn’t kill each other in the crossfire.

The gunmen’s confused battle with the logs bought Lewis enough time to finish removing the box’s lid. He lifted hard with his legs, tipping the lid to the side as parts tore away from years of rot. Everyone stood shocked at what lay inside. It wasn’t a box at all, but rather the hatch to a mine shaft.

Lewis blinked a few times, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low light below. There was a rotting ladder leading down into the darkness, next to which hung a familiar outline that was slowly coming into focus. Reaching his arm down, he removed an old oil lamp from where it hung on a large, rusty nail. He held it up for the girls to see. “This oil will probably still burn,” he began with a twinge of hope in his voice. “Either of you have a match?”

Getting nothing but shaking heads and worried looks in response, Lewis turned his attention to a new sound coming from just outside the door: the pouring of some sort of liquid. The girls’ faces were twisted in curious looks of confusion until the pouring sound was replaced by the loud rush of expanding air and a bright flash of light. The gunmen had doused the cabin in gasoline and set it on fire.

The rickety ladder now represented their only path of escape. “Down!” Lewis urged, pointing into the shaft.

Gonzalez hesitated as she peered into the darkness below, unable to tell if the shaft really even went anywhere. “I don’t think this ladder will hold our weight,” she stated quite calmly, despite the chaos that was unfolding around her. Smoke was filling the cabin, making it even harder to see.

“Just go!” Lewis yelled as gunfire began pelting the cabin once again. Apparently the gunmen wanted to ensure their prey stayed inside for the roast. Gonzalez scurried down the ladder with Samantha right behind. Lewis turned towards the burning doorway, intent on buying some more time.

Lewis had three goals in mind as he fought through the smoke. First, he wedged the soup cans in amongst the logs, having learned the explosive results of putting a sealed can in a fire as a Boy Scout. Next, he broke off a short strip of wood that was burning on one end. He used the small flame as a match to light the antique lantern, which began to glow immediately as if it were brand new. Lewis’s final goal required that he brave the worst of the acrid smoke, pushing his way right up to the small gap in the stack of logs. Thick smoke was billowing in through the hole, but the light outside was enough for Lewis to spot one of the gunmen, firing wildly at the roof. Lewis took aim through the small hole and used his final bullet to shoot the man in the head.

A resurgence in the amount of gunfire directed at the doorway chased Lewis back to the ladder. Sliding to a stop next to the hole, he crouched and lowered the lantern in. Samantha and Gonzalez were standing knee deep in water, about 20 feet below. Lewis spun around, swinging his legs onto the rungs of the ladder and starting down. Hoping to keep most of the smoke out, he slid the hatch cover back in place before continuing downward, the lantern dangling from his hand to light the way.

The old wooden ladder supported him until he was almost halfway down. The actual problem started at the bottom, where the ladder was propped up on a couple of large rocks to keep it out of the water. Lewis’s hurried bouncing motion caused the ladder’s feet to slide off the rocks into the water. He waved his free arm wildly, trying to keep his balance, but his weight, combined with the sudden jarring when the ladder hit the bottom, was too much for the rotted rung he was perched on. The rung gave way, sending Lewis falling towards the water below. The next few rungs shattered as he crashed through them, each one slowing his feet while allowing his upper body to continue unimpeded.

Lewis hit the water flat on his back with his right arm stretched towards the ceiling, reaching to prevent their only source of light from being extinguished. His left arm shot into the water in an attempt to push off the bottom before he sank too deep. Reaching out, Gonzalez was able to snag the lantern before the waves from Lewis’s back-flop doused the small flame.

“Nice catch,” Lewis said, after spitting the water from his mouth.

“Nice quarter-gainer,” Gonzalez shot back. “You may want to lay off the doughnuts before trying any more ladders.”

Lewis grinned and got to his feet. “I could definitely go for a doughnut about now,” he stated as he looked around the mine shaft. They were now at the bottom of a narrow crack that extended away in both directions, one way leading towards the river while the other headed towards the canyon wall. “Have you two checked the passage in either direction?”

Gonzalez didn’t miss a beat. “We were just gossiping and doing our nails down here in the dark, waiting for you to drop in,” she retorted.

“Women…” Lewis mumbled as he held up the lantern, slowly switching it from one side to the other, allowing everyone to get a look in both directions.

“That way,” Samantha said, pointing in the direction towards the river. She immediately turned to lead the way, wading through the water.

They walked as quickly as possible, knowing they had only a limited amount of time before the cabin burned to the ground and the gunmen began searching for them. The path angled slowly downward, the water deepening as they proceeded, soon requiring everyone to swim. Breathing heavily due to the effort, Lewis kicked hard to swim with the lantern extended over his head. They rounded a gentle bend and were done. The tunnel just ended. Gonzalez held her breath, diving under to search the bottom but came up empty, unable to find an escape route.

“I meant, that way,” Samantha said, smiling sheepishly while pointing back the way they had come. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Lewis said with a shake of his head. “I always think it is better to quickly eliminate an incorrect route than it is to spend a lot of time proceeding forward, not knowing if the other way might have been better.”

Samantha again led the way, this time going even faster to make up for lost time. It took only a couple minutes to get back to where they started, stopping briefly to listen to the raging fire above before pushing on into the unknown.

The water began to recede as they started up the new passage, rounding the first turn. Continuing upward, the path became completely dry after the first hundred yards. Not having to wade allowed the team to make much faster progress. Unfortunately, the faster progress only got them to another dead end faster. They were in a quarter-mile long crack that was sealed at both ends. The only way out was back through the gunman-guarded inferno above.

Samantha almost crumbled at the sight of the solid rock face in front of them. It seemed like so much of her daily existence had revolved around being trapped by rock.

Lewis, on the other hand, was not the least bit interested in the wall ahead. His focus was instead drawn to a small pile of mining equipment sitting off to one side. Most of the items were simple tools that he recognized like shovels, a couple of pickaxes, a sledgehammer, and a long metal rod that Lewis knew was used to pound holes into the rock for sticks of dynamite. And this led to the key ingredient to Lewis’s quickly forming plan: next to the metal rod was a wooden crate that still housed eight sticks of dynamite.

Gonzalez shook her head after following Lewis’s gaze. “That stuff might blow at the slightest touch,” she warned.

“Well then, it’s a good thing we have an explosives expert,” Lewis replied while pointing to Samantha.

Samantha turned her attention from the wall to the wooden crate of dynamite. She instantly fought off the depression that had moments ago nearly overwhelmed her. “That stuff is a little before my time.” She knelt by the box, gingerly touching one of the sticks. “These have been here for a while. They haven’t made dynamite with sawdust like this since before I was born. See the crystals on the edges here? That’s where nitroglycerine has sweated out of the sawdust and then crystallized on the outside of the paper. That’s not good. These sticks are extremely unstable.” She gave the box another look then stood to face the others, saying, “I don’t suppose we have many other options though.”

“Will they still explode?” Gonzalez asked.

Samantha nodded slowly, taking a step back from the crate before saying, “Yes, they are actually more explosive now than when they were made.” Tilting her head to the side, she added, “The trick is to place them without blowing yourself up.”

“I destroyed my grandfather’s rowboat with a similar stick,” Lewis said with a faraway look in his eyes. “It slipped out of my hand by accident while unloading after a fishing trip.”

Gonzalez and Samantha looked at each other and shook their heads, both bewildered by this new information. There wasn’t enough time to go into details now, so Gonzalez simply asked, “You were fishing with dynamite?”

Lewis chuckled. “Grandpa was more into the catching than the releasing.” He then pushed the fond memories aside, the faraway look morphing back into complete concentration. “Here’s my plan,” Lewis began before quickly running through what he had in mind.

Using the word “plan” to describe what Lewis had in mind turned out to be a bit misleading. It was more of a collection of wild thoughts bound together by threads of insanity. Gonzalez and Samantha were becoming ever more convinced that Lewis’s goal was simply to kill all three of them before the gunmen got the chance.

They had to act fast. If Pierre’s men discovered the mine shaft, Lewis and the girls would be sitting ducks. Samantha went to work on the dynamite, gently testing each stick to make sure it could move freely and was intact enough to pick up. Luck was finally on their side; all eight sticks appeared to be usable.

While Samantha was checking the explosives, Gonzalez and Lewis worked together to remove the wooden handles from three of the shovels. They discarded the handles and kept the blades. The insanity was about to begin.

Working as quickly as possible, Samantha slid a single stick of dynamite into the open hole at the end of each shovel blade, gently smashing the nitroglycerine and sawdust into the space that had been formerly occupied by the handle. Lewis carefully took each blade, packing in a handful of small rocks. Gonzalez ripped the sleeves of Lewis’s shirt, making rags to cover the ends of the gravel-filled blades, tying them in place to keep the ammunition inside.

Samantha used another strip of Lewis’s shirt to tie four of the sticks of dynamite together in a single bundle. This bundle, along with the three loaded shovel blades and the final stick of dynamite, was then wrapped in the remainder of the shirt, forming a neat little bag of destruction. They were as ready as they’d ever be.

Lewis grabbed the smallest pickaxe and they all headed back towards the hatch. Samantha carried the explosives, walking as smoothly as possible, keeping her breathing extremely shallow the entire way. The watery section and its slippery floor were especially nerve wracking.

Flames were visible through the burning hatch cover; the fire was within a few minutes of completely destroying it. They had no way of judging the condition of the blaze above, but knew that the time to act was now. Samantha gently handed the four-stick bundle to Gonzalez, and then edged down onto her knees and carefully pushed the rest of the explosives under the water. Lewis gave Gonzalez a quick nod. “Ready?” he asked.

She held the dynamite in her outstretched palms, available for Lewis to grab and throw as soon as the path was clear. “Ready,” she confirmed.

Lewis then hefted the ladder, using it as a battering ram to shove the hatch above to the side. Taking the bundle of dynamite from Gonzalez, he heaved it underhand at the opening, trying to put a little arc on the throw so the explosives wouldn’t end up coming back down through the hatch. The moment Gonzalez’s hands were free, she flattened her body as both she and Samantha pushed the shirt full of dynamite under the water, hoping their bodies and the water would shield the remaining explosives from the approaching blast.

Lewis knew that he too should hit the water but he couldn’t help but watch the bundle as it flew through the opening. He didn’t really know what to expect. The show was nothing short of spectacular; the dynamite, missing the edge of the hatch by less than an inch as it spun out of the hole, detonated almost immediately. Lewis’s eyes widened at the bright explosion. His mind told his body to get in the water but the message arrived too late. The pressure wave from the blast hit Lewis like an all pro linebacker blindsiding a rookie quarterback, thrusting his body downward.

Other than a nose full of water, Lewis and the girls were fine. A few pieces of burning wood now sizzled in the water, but the explosives Samantha still held had been protected enough to remain intact. Everyone’s ears were ringing as they stood back up, looking at each other with dazed expressions.

Knowing there was no time to waste, Lewis took the shirt containing their makeshift weaponry and began climbing the ladder. Luckily, the rung-less section of the ladder was short enough that Lewis was still able to climb to the top, keeping his feet on the outsides of the remaining rungs as he sped upward. He did his best to combine speed and safety, knowing he had to get to the top fast to defend their position against the gunmen above, but he also didn’t want to blow himself up while climbing.

The scene above was close to apocalyptic. When Lewis tossed the dynamite into the inferno, much of the cabin’s shell was actually still standing. The explosion, however, had thrown the burning logs outward, creating a full circle of destruction. Two of Pierre’s men, one of whom was the helicopter pilot, had been directly in the path of one of the largest logs and were now dead. The four remaining gunmen were burned and battered but managed to miss the majority of the destruction because they were lying behind a rock pile when the mayhem started. That didn’t stop them from spotting Lewis’s head when he poked it out of the now-exposed entrance to the mine shaft.

A wave of bullets stormed towards the hatchway as Lewis ducked back inside, nearly falling off the ladder due to his quick movement. Gonzalez, who was working her way up behind Lewis, was stretching to get past the section without rungs when the ladder jolted sideways, sending her back into the water. Samantha grabbed the ladder, steadying it before Lewis and the explosives did a swan dive of their own. “Are you okay?” Lewis called down.

He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he pulled the last unaltered stick of dynamite from the makeshift pack and threw it up through the opening, aiming for the spot he had last seen the gunmen. It turned out to be a fairly decent shot for someone who wasn’t able to see his target; the dynamite directly impacting the front of the largest rock in the enemy hideout. The explosion didn’t take out any of the remaining gunmen but it served Lewis’s purpose, causing enough of a distraction for him to climb out of the shaft and find shelter behind an adjacent mound of dirt and rocks.

The battle of the rock piles began. Two of Pierre’s men immediately rushed towards Lewis, firing wildly as they ran. Lewis pulled the first loaded shovel blade from his pack, grabbing it by the tip. Swinging the blade through the air, he brought it down hard on the top of one of the rocks in front of him. The unstable dynamite inside the shovel exploded on contact, sending a deadly shower of rocks forward as the blade kicked back, nearly breaking Lewis’s wrist before he could let go.

The impact with the rock created the equivalent of a massive shotgun blast, the small rock fragments acting like giant BBs as they spread out, creating a swath of destruction. The approaching gunmen were immediately cut down by the rock storm, both sustaining multiple fatal wounds. The final two members of Pierre’s crew watched in shock, unable to comprehend the strange heavy artillery Lewis seemed to possess.

Lewis peered over the rocks to survey the damage, instantly drawing fire from one of the gunmen providing cover for his companion who was rapidly circling around to Lewis’s left. These two seemed more experienced and disciplined than the rest of the crew, and they would be very difficult to beat if they worked together. The gunmen were yelling back and forth in a foreign language, maybe Russian, as they took turns firing in Lewis’s direction, the steady gunfire keeping him pinned down.

Two experienced soldiers versus two customized shovels didn’t seem like a fair fight. Letting the attackers get set up wasn’t going to improve his odds, so Lewis decided to act immediately. The moment the gunfire paused, Lewis threw one of the explosive blades in a high arching toss, aiming for the guy who was circling to his left. A booming explosion followed by a loud yelp told Lewis his toss was on the mark.

Unfortunately, a renewed round of yelling also revealed both attackers were still alive. Lewis could not understand the words being said but he suspected that the discussion centered on the makeshift weapon that had taken the man’s left pinky off. Surely they were figuring out their quarry was not as well armed as they may have expected.

Picking up the pace of the rhythmic gunfire, the assailants took turns firing, covering for each other as they moved forward. Lewis was crouched in a ball, forcing his body into the small shelter provided by the rocks. Time was running out. He clutched the last remaining shovel to his chest, trying to come up with a plan to take out both men with the final weapon. His only real option seemed to be to wait until his attackers were close before detonating the explosives, hoping to take out everyone and, at least, save Gonzalez and Samantha. The gunmen were almost upon him when a shout drew their attention back towards the remains of the cabin.

Gonzalez had climbed out of the shaft and was now running towards the river, yelling as she ran. The ploy worked. Both gunmen spun towards the noise, tracking the source with their rifles. Lewis lunged at the closest man, who was the one down to a single pinky. Swinging the blade as he moved forward, Lewis aimed directly at the assassin’s heavily-scarred face. The gunman caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, quickly sidestepping the blow while knocking the shovel blade to the ground. Lewis was amazed when the blade landed without exploding, having fallen into a small patch of soft sand. Seizing the window of opportunity provided by Lewis’s shock, the brute launched a quick counterattack with the butt of his rifle. Lewis regained his senses in time to spin his head away, just enough to turn what would have been a direct hit into a glancing blow off the left side of his head. He swung his arm up in a defensive motion, knocking the rifle away as both men tumbled to the ground in a heap of kicks and punches.

The other gunman had remained focused on Gonzalez’s bolting figure. He fired a short three-round burst, knocking the beautiful cave diver to the ground in a heap. Before the final bullet casing even hit the ground, the gray-haired gunman was spinning back towards where his nine-fingered friend and Lewis were wrestling on the ground. He smiled an evil grin when he saw his friend had gained the upper hand and was now on top of the man who had caused them so much trouble.

Lewis was able to land a hard punch to his assailant’s temple that would have rendered a weaker man unconscious. This was clearly not the man’s first skirmish as he instantly recovered, swiftly pulling a knife from a sheath on his chest. He swung the knife in a powerful arc towards Lewis’s face. Lewis detected the motion in time to reach up, grabbing the man’s arm with his right hand while shoving hard with his left. This resulted in a twisting motion that spun his attacker sideways. In one smooth motion, Lewis rolled with the man, spinning the knife-bearing arm around and plunging the blade into the commando’s chest, killing him on the spot. Knowing the man’s partner was still behind him, Lewis immediately withdrew the blade and stood, spinning around as he rose.

He was too late. The growling figure was less than fifteen feet away, gun barrel trained on Lewis’s skull. The gunman uttered a few unintelligible words in his native language before saying in accented English, “Drop it.” He gestured towards the knife in Lewis’s right hand. Fifteen feet was too far. Lewis would be cut down before he made it even half way, yet he knew he was dead if he didn’t do something.

That’s when he spotted the shovel blade he had dropped earlier. It was lying only two feet to his right, but it was facing the wrong way. The loaded end was nearly up against a boulder, pointing directly away from the man Lewis assumed to be the leader of Pierre’s military force. Lewis raised his hands in defeat, letting the knife dangle between his fingers. “You win,” he said, giving the knife a gentle toss to the side. Lewis’s only remaining weapon tumbled downward, landing directly on the loaded shovel blade. The impact caused the dynamite to explode as before but this time, the large rock up against the would-be muzzle prevented the ammunition from coming out. Instead, the blade rocketed forward, directly towards the startled gunman.

Gunfire erupted from the leader’s rifle. Lewis was struck first in the leg then twice in the shoulder as the gunman squeezed the trigger for the last time before the rocket-propelled shovel blade severed his grimacing head from the rest of his body. Samantha screamed from the top of the mine shaft when she saw Lewis crumple to the ground as well.

Racing to his side, she found that Lewis was still alive but losing blood rapidly. He was working to wrap the tattered remains of his shirt around his leg wound, which looked to be the source of most of the blood loss. “I’ll be okay,” he said when he saw the worried expression on her face. “Flag down that boat,” he said, pointing to a jet boat rounding the bend, heading upriver.

As Samantha raced to stop the boat, Lewis hobbled over to where Gonzalez lay. When he got closer, he saw that she was still breathing. His heart skipped a beat and he nearly forgot his own wounds as he quickly knelt beside her, carefully rolling her onto her back. She had been hit only once, in the right shoulder, and her forehead had a nasty gash from falling on the rocks. Lewis scooped her in his arms and headed to the waiting boat, anxious to get away from this place.

It turned out the boat had been chartered by a group of doctors on a weekend fishing trip. “This is your lucky day,” one of them said as he and his colleagues checked over the wounds.

“If this was a lucky one, I’m asking for a refund on my rabbit’s foot,” Lewis said as he looked to Gonzalez and Samantha seated beside him. Gonzalez reached out and squeezed his hand. They all laughed a painful but much needed laugh as the boat raced back down the river towards civilization.

Epilogue

Samantha stayed in the Lewiston hospital with Lewis and Gonzalez for a few days, doing her best to keep the authorities at bay while her friends’ wounds healed. She had given her deposition to the authorities and it was time to get back to her responsibilities in Canada. Saying her goodbyes, she gave Gonzalez a gentle hug then enveloped Lewis in a warm embrace and long kiss that made Gonzalez blush. “You saved our lives,” she said, before flashing an apologetic look at Gonzalez and leaving the room.

The visits from various government officials continued for an entire week as they tried to piece together the full scope of events. Agents from the FBI and INTERPOL had interviewed all three survivors multiple times. Lewis knew there would be more questions to come, and he envied Samantha for at least getting away from the center of the investigation.

The FBI had already managed to answer one question that had been nagging Lewis ever since he discovered Pierre’s involvement: why did Pierre’s men dynamite the cave with their boss inside? Preliminary investigations showed that the explosives used to close the river opening were actually purchased by a Michael Stonewood. Lewis thus suspected that Craig, acting under Stonewood’s orders, was actually responsible for sealing the cave entrance, to keep Pierre’s team out.

The federal government would be bringing in an expert archeological team from the National Parks Service to explore the cave and document the treasure before transporting it to a secure facility in Washington, DC. The Parks Service people hoped Lewis and Gonzalez would accompany them on another expedition into the cave once their wounds healed. Feeling they weren’t ready yet, Lewis redrew the same detailed map he had already given the FBI, handed it over and told them to figure it out on their own. Deep down, he knew he and Gonzalez wouldn’t actually miss the conclusion of their adventure together, regardless of what he told the feds. If for no other reason, they owed it to their fallen friends to see that everything was handled appropriately and that the treasure didn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Lewis realized he wouldn’t be getting paid for this job, but he didn’t care. He had something better than a paycheck — he had met someone truly special.

On their final day in the hospital, Lewis arranged for a candlelight lunch, complete with champagne and a tuxedoed waiter. “To our first date,” he toasted.

“It was worth the wait,” she replied, before scooting closer and giving him a lingering kiss. “I still owe you a home-cooked meal for getting us out.”

Lewis smiled as he said, “I’ve got the rain check in my pocket.”

She gave him a second kiss before whispering in his ear, “When we’re done cleaning up the mess here, I’ve got a real adventure for you, under Antarctica.”

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Thank you for reading Backlash. If you enjoyed it, please spread the enjoyment by recommending it to a friend or leaving a review at your favorite retailer! Even if you hated it, you can still leave a review or recommend it to someone who has a different taste in books — or to someone you don’t like. You can also submit feedback directly to me, keep up on future developments, and get additional information by visiting my website at http://www.DLThomasBooks.com. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DLThomasBooks.

Thank you,

D. L. Thomas

Content

D. L. Thomas
Backlash

Chapter 1 — LEWIS

Chapter 2 — BREIFING

Chapter 3 — FISHING TRIP

Chapter 4 — GATEWAY TO HELL

Chapter 5 — HOME SWEET HOME

Chapter 6 — UP, UP AND AWAY

Chapter 7 — VICTORY

Chapter 8 — THE PITS

Chapter 9 — RUNE RIDDLE

Chapter 10 — PAGING DOCTOR MILLER

Chapter 11 — OTHERS

Chapter 12 — THE CHASE

Chapter 13 — LAST STAND

Epilogue

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