Dane led them along the featureless passage. The corridor was dimly lit by the same diamond-shaped rocks that illuminated the main hall. They made a sharp right at the end of the hall. Far ahead of them, he could see the pathway leading to the tunnel. He made a mental note that they were now moving north, parallel to the inside hall where Meriwether lay, and to the river.
He paused where the passageway intersected a hall on the right. A careful look revealed no pursuers, but in the faint light he could just make out a spiral staircase at the far end. Kaylin came up beside him, her gaze following his. “Do you think…”
“It’s a big old circle,” Bones said, pausing between them. “Or a square, I mean. I guarantee you, you go down there and hang a right, you’ll be in the hall where we left Meriwether.”
Bitterness and frustration welled up inside of Dane as he thought again about leaving the Admiral behind. The rational part of him knew there was nothing they could do. Meriwether was probably already gone.
Kaylin seemed to read his thoughts. She squeezed his arm, and then pulled him forward. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.” They hurried across the hall and into the tunnel that led back toward the well and, hopefully, safety.
This tunnel differed from the one they just left. There were none of the glowing stones on the wall, and they had to use their flashlights to find their way. Also, this passage gradually curved back to the right.
“Smell that?” Bones asked, raising his head and inhaling deeply. A smile spread across his dark face.
“What?” Dane asked.
“Water. We’re almost there.” Bones claimed to have heightened senses due to his ancestry, but Dane suspected that his friend was usually blowing smoke. This time, he hoped Bones was right.
Behind them, shots rang out again. They were muted, sounding far away. First one barrage, then another reverberated down the hall. The sound was unexpectedly drowned by a deep rumbling that seemed to come from within the bowels of the earth.
“Tremor!” Dane shouted, dropping to the ground. The hallway shook as if some giant hand had grasped it and given it a jiggle. Chunks of rock fell around him. The vibrating lasted several seconds. As the force dissipated, he heard a loud crashing from down the tunnel ahead of them, and a cloud of dust filled the air.
“No way,” Bones said flatly, his voice filled with resignation.
Dane did not say anything. He stood and trotted down the hall. Just around the next bend, the ceiling had collapsed, blocking their exit. He and Bones climbed onto the pile of rubble, and attempted to dislodge some of the top stones, but to no avail.
“The tremors are getting worse,” Kaylin said, a worried look on her face.
“Maybe they feel bigger because we’re underground,” Bones said. “What do you think, Maddock?”
Dane took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “I think we need to find another way out, and soon.”
CHAPTER 26
Coming back out of the tunnel, Dane led the group to the left, moving back toward the main room.
“So, we’re headed east?” Bones asked.
Dane nodded and guided them down the hall. When they reached the end, where the passage terminated at the spiral staircase, they looked down the hall to the right. Meriwether lay where they had left him, obviously dead. Nearby, another body lay on the ground.
“He got him one,” Bones said. “Good for him.”
They walked over to where their friend lay. Dane knelt and checked Meriwether’s pulse, confirming that their comrade was, indeed, deceased. A lump in his throat, he opened the top button of the Admiral’s shirt, and removed his dog tags. “I’ll take care of these,” he whispered, tucking them into his pocket. Then, he reached down and picked up the SIG P-210, and handed it to Kaylin.
The blonde looked down sadly at their fallen friend. She brushed at her eyes with the back of a sleeve, and turned away from Dane and Bones. Regaining her composure, she cleared her throat and turned back to face them. “You were right, Bones,” she said. “We’ve just looped around.”
“That means the only way is up,” Bones said. “Where the bad guys are.”
“What about the bad guy over here?” Dane asked. He walked a few steps to inspect the man whom Meriwether had shot. He was surprised to see that this man was not clad in black, like the others. Instead, he was garbed in bulky, loose-fitting brown pants, and a pullover, white cotton shirt. The shirt was of an odd cut, with no collar and blousy sleeves. The man’s features were obviously middle-eastern, but Dane could tell no more.
“The guys who were shooting from upstairs, I presume,” Bones said. “We’ve got to get up there and somehow get past them.”
“Can’t we get across the water?” Kaylin asked.
“Too wide,” Dane said, shaking his head, “and the current’s too strong for us to swim across. We’ll have to chance it upstairs.” He led them back up the hall to the stairwell. “Let’s re-orient ourselves,” he said, turning back to face them. “We’re on the northwest corner of the main room. Got it?” Both nodded, and he turned and led them upward.
Silently, they crept up the stairs, listening for the sound of approaching footsteps. The turn was so tight that they would be right on top of anyone coming in their direction before seeing them. The narrow staircase, hewn out of the rock, curled up and to the left. The walls were smooth, like those of the lower halls, broken up only by the occasional glowing stone high on the outside wall. Dane winced as he took each step. The climb made him feel every pain in his feet, knees, and back, in a way that level ground did not. He gritted his teeth and focused on his anger, allowing his bitterness at the loss of Meriwether to overcome his pain. Slowly, he continued the seemingly interminable upward trek.
When they reached the top of the stairs, Dane peered out cautiously. They were at a corner of the upper hallway. He looked to his left. The hall ran the approximate length of the main chamber, turning left at the end. Halfway down the hall, an arched window was cut in the inside wall at chest level. This must have been one of the windows from which the snipers had fired down upon their pursuers. Directly across from the window was a high, arching door set in the outside wall. Dane could not see into the darkness beyond. Looking around the other corner, he could see that this upper hall definitely formed a hollow, walled balcony that wrapped around the big chamber below. This hallway also had a window at the center of the inside wall, and a doorway on the outside. He turned and motioned for Bones and Kaylin to follow him.
Stepping out of the stairwell, Bones surveyed the area, just as Dane had. “Another square,” he whispered. “But where are the bad guys?”
Dane shrugged, and led them down the hallway to the left, moving south. Reaching the window at the hall’s midpoint, he glanced through, surveying the courtyard below. The black-clad bodies of their pursuers still lay at the top of the steps on the far side of the room. Nothing moved, save the water flowing through the canal in the center. He turned to see Bones peering into the dimly-lit room on the opposite side of the hall. Bones nodded and tilted his head toward the doorway. Rifle at the ready, Dane hurried inside, with Bones behind him.
The crystals in this room emitted only the faintest light, but it was enough to see that they were standing in what looked like a quarter of a sphere hewn into the rock with laser-like precision. Carved into the rounded ceiling above, he thought he could just make out familiar constellations.
A whisper of warning from Bones brought Dane’s head down in time to see that he was staring down into a well like the ones in front of and behind the Goliath carving outside. Outside. The place in which he and his friends now found themselves was so surreal as to make it strange to think that somewhere up above, the world was going about its business. Kaylin hurried up, and shone her flashlight down into the well. Unlike the other wells they had seen, this one was only a few feet deep.