Vale and Carson were discussing something about the prisoners. Jack thought they were trying to decide whom to sacrifice next. The big man was following close behind.
Suddenly Javier leaped from cover and started firing his shotgun toward the flashlight. Which immediately blinked out, plunging them all into darkness. Jack could hear Dwight yelling and firing his revolver as well. He stood, aimed in the direction he thought Vale was, and pulled the trigger. The blast kicked the shotgun back into his ribs.
It was over in seconds, and the rumble echoed off along the tunnel. They emerged from cover slowly, and Dwight swept the area with his light. They spotted one man—the big one—splayed across a rock. Rivulets of blood dripped down from his head into the mud. In front of him was Frank Carson lying on his back, staring up. His chest and shoulders were soaked with blood, his gun still clutched in his grasp. But there was no sign of Vale. Dwight moved his beam across the rocks and found a trail of blood leading back up the tunnel. But they couldn’t see any movement.
“He’s still alive,” Jack said. “He got away!”
“He won’t get too far.” Dwight was staring at the ground a few feet away.
At his feet Jack saw a shattered glass jar. Its yellowish liquid contents were seeping into the mud.
Dwight bent down and lifted one of the pieces of dark glass. “This was a week’s worth of perilium for all of us.” He looked up at Jack. “What have I done?”
“We can find another way,” Jack said. Though even as he heard his own words, he knew they rang hollow. “How much is left up at the lodge?”
“Vale keeps it under lock and key. Maybe a few vials. They always give us just enough to last until the next feeding time.”
Jack took the flashlight and cringed as he inspected the bodies. “The big guy’s dead. Half his skull is gone.” He came to Carson and saw him blink. His bloodied chest was moving. Perhaps already recovering from the wounds. “Let’s just take his gun and get going.”
Javier pried Carson’s revolver out of his fingers and checked the bullets. Then he leaned over him. “Cómo cambian las cosas en un par de semanas.”
Jack looked at Dwight. “What’d he say?”
Dwight just grimaced and shook his head.
They continued on. Jack had walked only a few paces when he noticed Javier was not with them. Suddenly a gunshot cracked the darkness behind him and Jack spun around. Dwight shone the light behind them, but all they saw was Javier walking toward them, sticking Carson’s smoking revolver into his belt.
He didn’t say a word.
Chapter 40
Elina was nearly faint with terror as Nun’dahbi finished marking her face with the black ink. She spread her hands over Elina’s body, then took the staff and swept it across her again, rattling the beads and the round gourd affixed to the top.
After this she lowered her veil again and barked a few more commands to her men. They lifted Elina from the stone table and carried her toward the edge of the pit.
They looped additional ropes around her and tied them to another line connected to the log. Then one of the N’watu lifted Elina up and dropped her over the edge of the pit.
She screamed a muffled cry of terror as she felt herself fall away from the ledge over the open black maw. She swung out and then back, dangling from the log like a fishing lure.
She kicked frantically, trying to swing herself back to the side, but another N’watu loosened the rope and began to lower her into the hole. Elina descended slowly into utter darkness. The smell of death and rot wafted up from below, a sickly sweet odor that filled her with fear. She could feel that her struggling was beginning to work the gag loose from her mouth.
Her heart pounded against her chest and she prayed desperately, wondering what was down here, what kind of horror she was about to encounter.
Then her toes scraped against something solid; she hoped it was a rock but couldn’t be sure. They let her dangle there, twisting in the darkness. Waiting. She looked up and could see the black outline of the rim against the faint glow of the lanterns above her.
She hung in silence, weary from struggling. Yet her terror was like a noose, strangling her. She stared into the solid black void, waiting to die.
Suddenly a muffled clap of thunder echoed through the cavern. Elina looked up and heard some sort of commotion among the N’watu. Clearly whatever made the sound wasn’t something they were expecting. She could hear them speaking to each other—arguing in their choppy, guttural language. Their sounds quickly receded, leaving her in silence again.
But now she felt a spark of hope kindle inside her. Maybe the others had gotten free somehow and were coming for her. Maybe someone had finally notified the FBI.
Or maybe…
Somewhere in the darkness in front of her came another sound. A low, erratic tapping, unlike anything she had ever heard before.
Chapter 41
The passage came to an abrupt halt, depositing Jack, Dwight, and Javier into a large, open chamber. Jack took one of the flares from his bag and snapped it open. The bright red-orange glow lit up the whole room.
Along the far wall was a large wooden gate of some kind. It stood over eight feet tall and at least six feet wide.
“Not another one,” Jack groaned. He slid his hand along the wood. “So that’s where they took her?”
They inspected the surface, looking for a way to open it. Jack told them about the first door he had encountered and how it opened upward. Yet this one was different. There was a clear crease running vertically up the center that seemed to indicate it opened from the middle. But there were no handles. They pushed against it to no avail, and there was clearly no way to pull it open either.
Dwight stepped back. “Looks like it only opens from the inside.”
Jack sat down and rubbed his eyes. “Any suggestions?”
Javier reached into Jack’s bag and pulled out one of the grenades they’d taken from the armory. “Vamos a tocar a la puerta.”
Jack stood. “Is he going to try what I think…?”
Javier scooped a bit of mud from under the middle of the door, pulled the pin out of the grenade, jammed it under the wood, and ran for cover.
Jack and Dwight scrambled back to the other side of the chamber and flung themselves behind a jutting rock formation. A few seconds later the ground shook as a clap of thunder erupted in the cavern. Jack felt his ribs jolt from the force of the blast. Rocks and debris scattered across the room, and when the air cleared, his ears were ringing from the explosion.
He stood and brushed off the mud. “Are you crazy? You could get us all killed! You don’t just go setting off explosions inside caverns. You could bring the whole place down on top of us!”
But Javier was shining his flashlight at the doors. One side was cracked and splintered and had been torn off its hinge. And the other had swung wide open. He turned and grinned at Jack. “Good, yes?”
Dwight shrugged. “Well, now they know we’re here.”
Jack grabbed the flare and tossed it into the passage beyond the doorway. The place seemed deserted. At least for now. They got their weapons ready, Jack grabbed another couple flares, and they proceeded inside.
They spread out and moved along the passage quickly. Dwight held his flashlight out along with his gun. Jack snapped a second flare and tossed it farther ahead.
He looked into his bag and now wished desperately that he’d brought more of them with him. And to make matters worse, there was only one hand grenade left.