Cruz was also on his knees. “I doubt a dog could fit through that hole let alone a man.”
Crouch tapped the rock with his own flashlight. “What are we missing?”
“If you guys are done looking, turn those bloody flashlights off,” Russo murmured. “We’re lit up like a Jean Michel Jarre concert.”
Caitlyn frowned in confusion but switched her light off. Crouch did the same. “The mouth of the river,” he said, shining a penlight over his notes. “If it’s not here then… ”
Caitlyn sat back on a rocky outcrop, scanning the area. The only noticeable cavern was the astonishing black expanse above them, speckled with stars, a great dusky frame for the moon. The isolation of the area struck her as much as anything. A life could be lost out here and only the vast remoteness would ever know who’d passed.
Cruz moved over to Crouch, studying the notes. Russo and Healey moved a little higher and replaced their goggles, giving the area a once over. After a minute Russo clicked his comms and reported that all was clear.
Caitlyn sighed. “I guess most of the time these treasure hunts will end in failure. And even if there once was something here — five hundred years is a long time.”
Crouch shook his head. “Look around you. This land does not change. Five hundred years is but the blink of an eye to the monuments of Utah.”
“What surprises me is that there’s a stream out here at all,” Cruz said. “I wonder where it comes from.”
Crouch turned to stare at him. “What?”
“I said, what surprises me is—”
“No. Not that. You said ‘I wonder where it comes from’. Is it possible that—” he tailed off, again revisiting his notes.
Caitlyn felt her excitement rise. “What is it?”
Crouch traced the words with his finger. “Mouth of the river,” he repeated. “Could it be a mis-translation? Could it really be — source of the river?”
Russo and Healey returned, picking up on the sudden buzz.
Cruz nodded. “I believe it’s a common problem. But the actual source could be anywhere, right?” He gestured up at the mouth. “Underground rivers, lakes. Some hidden tributary of the Colorado. It passes by less than ten kilometers from here.”
Russo snorted. “But at a lower level, genius.”
Cruz made a slight smile. “It is not uncommon to find springs at the top of a mountain where rivers run below. The pressure of the weight of the earth on subterranean water deposits can force water up through fissures and cracks to produce elevated springs.”
Caitlyn looked up. Her eyes caught the crowd of rocks situated a few hundred feet above them, the highest ground in the area. “I see only one possible source to this stream,” she said, pointing. “And it’s there.”
Crouch jumped up. The team raced up the sharp slope, struggling for a good foothold on the smooth rock but determined to beat the terrain. Crouch hauled Cruz along and Healey dropped back to give Caitlyn a hand, but the black-haired girl waved him away. So far Healey’s training had consisted of hand-to-hand combat and incapacitating strikes, but this wasn’t a trained killer she was facing — it was an exertion of effort against the mountain and she was damn well going to prevail on her own.
Healey smiled and left her to it. Caitlyn thought about the girl she’d been before she joined Crouch’s unit not so long ago — would she have denied an offer of help from a trained military solider?
Not a chance.
With more than one last huge surge of effort Caitlyn made it up to the strange array of rocks. The guys were waiting for her. “Thanks,” she panted. “No hiker in their right mind would ever try that. Now what have we got?”
Before her, several rough, surfboard-shaped boulders appeared to be growing up from the ground, pointing at the skies. Almost fan shaped, the arrangement struck Caitlyn as odd but at the same time familiar. It was Crouch’s statement that made her remember.
“A natural occurrence,” Crouch said. “In the shape of a feathered headdress?”
Cruz pursed his lips. “You’re reaching.”
“Maybe. But a wandering Aztec warrior might take this as a sign. C’mon.”
They squeezed among the boulders, searching the surface of the rocks and around the sides. The rock was thick and solid, but the formation was also quite dense, offering a chance to slip and squeeze among the standing stones and venture into their inner core.
“I can hear water,” Cruz said, for the first time looking eager. “Hurry!”
Caitlyn followed Cruz and Crouch, sliding between the smooth rocks, using their tapered bases to keep her balance, resting on the arch where more than one came together. Everyone became stuck more than once and, though she helped push Crouch to force him through every narrowing gap, it was still undignified to have Healey shoving her from behind. Within minutes the team were sweating and panting. Crouch called for a rest.
“Never,” he said. “Never did I expect to find myself temporarily defeated by a bunch of bloody rocks.”
Cruz, who had been checking every surface as they toiled through, spoke up. “Not a single marking,” he said a little dejectedly. “I hope this is worth the effort.”
“More importantly,” Caitlyn said, looking around. “I hope we can get out.”
Crouch waved him on. The team restarted. Caitlyn tried something new, finding it easier to slither around each rock, keeping her entire body in contact with the surface rather than stepping and climbing and pretty soon everyone except Russo was copying her. The big man was having the most trouble, getting wedged where they slipped through and having nobody to give him a boost. Still, he battled on.
Caitlyn, lost now among the tall stones, kept her eyes peeled ahead, the stars and moon an intermittent lightshow above. Her gaze was fixed on Cruz’s back when the man suddenly vanished. A high-pitched squeal followed him down. Crouch leaped forward, bracing himself between the pillars and staring past his own feet.
Crouch shouted, “You okay?”
A half-strangled voice floated out of nowhere. “I have no idea.”
Crouch turned around. “Cruz fell about ten feet. There’s a spring down there, guys. At the very heart of this little gaggle of rocks.” Their boss slipped and slid out of sight.
Caitlyn moved into position, seeing for the first time what Cruz had clearly overlooked. A small natural break in the rock formation lay ahead and below, its bottom mostly consisting of a burbling spring. What Caitlyn saw immediately was the run-off to where the spring naturally fell away.
The dark hole was easily the size of a man.
Cruz was already at the entrance, peering within. Crouch was trying not to elbow him out of the way. Caitlyn grabbed a handhold and let herself down the side of a rock, scrambling blindly for a foothold. After a moment of effort Healey’s voice, closer than she would have thought, said, “Just jump. The fall is five feet.”
Without acknowledging him, Caitlyn let go, landing on her feet and then her knees. A jolt of pain flashed through her limbs but nothing nearly enough to prevent her from rushing over to the bubbling spring.
“A bit of a Eureka! moment.” She fought away a fleeting image of the horrible events that had recently microwaved her mind and jumped into the action. “Let me see!”
Cruz waved his flashlight at the hole. “Down there,” he said. “The spring travels to the right but I swear I can see another tunnel branching to the left. Now, with this rock being situated so high there’s got to be room for a cave down there, possibly eroded thousands or millions of years ago before the stream diverted its course.” He grinned self-consciously. “That’s the hope I’m clinging to anyway.”