“Nothing; there’s nothing, no sign of them.”
Soong’s fists were balled at her chest. “They ran off? I don’t believe it.”
Hagel pointed at the lantern. “Without a light? I don’t believe it either. That little tattoo guy was sticking to us like glue.”
“Then what?” Jennifer said. She spun to Casey. “The PLA?”
“Maybe,” Casey said.
“We must look for them immediately,” Soong said quickly.
Casey shook her head, looking off into darkness. “No, we don’t.”
Soong went quickly to grab at Aimee’s arm. “Please, Dr. Weir. We must find my colleagues.”
Aimee gently pulled her arm free, and rested a hand on Soong’s shoulder, looking into the Chinese woman’s face. “They’re gone.” She stepped away from the woman and turned to Casey. “We need to move.”
Hagel hooted. “Oh yeah, that is one stone-cold bitch.”
Casey Franks looked into Aimee’s eyes for a second or two, perhaps reading what was there, before turning away. “Move out. Double time.”
CHAPTER 31
The languid stream moved like oil as it traveled away into the seemingly endless dark cave. Captain Wu Yang walked out into the water to his knees, and dipped a hand, cupping some water and lifting it, shining his flashlight into it and examining it closely. He sniffed, then squinted — there seemed to be tiny dust motes floating in the liquid — rock particles maybe. He flicked his hand, and waded out further to his thighs, shining his flashlight down into the water.
“So, if need be, at least we will not die of thirst.” He turned back to his team. “But for now, do not drink. Only what’s in your canteens.” He wiped his hands, carefully walking from the water and over to where Shenjung Xing stood slightly apart from the soldiers.
“So, Comrade Shenjung, we follow the river, and hope it comes out at the coast or surfaces somewhere shallow enough for us to break through, yes?”
Shenjung looked from the water to the PLA captain, and then shrugged. “All options present the same chance of success or failure.” He turned back towards the dark, slow moving liquid. “But I agree that following the stream might take us to an area where we can potentially breach.”
Yang grunted. “We follow the river.” He looked at his signal locator. “Good; this is also the direction the beacon is emanating from, so maybe this is where the American submarine became wedged under the ice.” He lifted his flashlight, squinting into the darkness. “If the cave narrows any more, we will need to take to the water.” He turned, pointing to several of his men. “Switch off your lights. Lead and rear lights only — we need to preserve our resources now.”
Yang clicked his fingers. “Han Biao, Liu Yandong, take the scouting position, one hundred feet. Go.”
The two men half bowed and Shenjung watched as they jogged out along the black sandy bank. Yang turned to Shenjung, his voice lowered.
“Doctor, I estimate we have food for another forty-eight hours. We can survive without that for much longer. Water is now not a problem. But our batteries will soon be exhausted, and our lights will then yellow and fade. We can extend their life by conservation of usage, but…” He turned to the winding watercourse in the pitch cave, before returning to look at Shenjung with a humorless smile. “Darkness has a way of breaking the strongest of us, Doctor. It would be best if we found our way out long before the lights go out.”
Yang heard the faint scream come at them in a wave from somewhere far back, or was it far ahead? Flashlight beams came on, and flicked back and forth, before Yang barked at his men to shut them down.
“Nothing. Rocks settling, or water. Nothing.” He glared, and then turned to Shenjung. The scientist nodded once, but then looked away.
Yang turned back to the darkness, straining to hear anything more. He licked dry lips; he knew a man’s cry of fear when he heard it. Maybe one of the engineers was following them and slipped into a crevasse. He concentrated, but save for the faintest movement of water, there was silence.
He turned back to the soldiers. “Hoy!” They assembled and he led them down the river cave.
PLA commandos Han Biao and Liu Yandong jogged along the riverbank and then out of sight around the bend in the cave.
“Slow now,” Liu said as he began to walk.
“But Captain Yang said a hundred feet; we are only about half that,” Han Biao responded, not caring for Liu’s tone.
“Yang isn’t here. They take a break while we run in the dark. You run if you want.” Liu held up the only flashlight, moving the beam over the bank and walls.
Beneath their boots, the black sand scrunched and squeaked, and stuck to the iron lace holes in their boots. Beside them the water made little sound except for the occasional plink or gurgle as a tiny wave splashed up against the cave sides.
Liu shined the light on the far wall and it wetly reflected his beam back at them. “This stream has probably been traveling like this, far below the ground, for millions of years. It has probably never seen the sun.” He pointed the light at Han. “Do you think we will find our way out?”
Han held a hand up to block his colleague’s light. “If the water can find a way out, then we can too.” He turned away, rubbing at a spot on his shoulder where the toughened uniform material was torn from the previous cave-in. He rolled his shoulder, feeling the abrasion there, and knowing he carried several more cuts and contusions underneath his clothes. When they next rested, he would need to attend to his wounds. If his wounds became infected and he became too ill to walk, he doubted Yang would suggest he be carried.
Liu nodded. “I hope so.” He dropped the circle light from Han Biao. “I would hate to have to eat you when we ran out of food.”
Han Biao grinned. “I think we will all be eating Changlong, he is the fattest of all of us.”
Liu stared back along the watercourse. After a moment, his words were softer. “Maybe we should have tried to dig our way back out of the tunnel at the cave-in. At least we’d know where we were then.”
Han Biao sighed, and then shook his head. “I think it collapsed for dozens of feet, and some of the rocks were big as trucks. You would need dynamite, and after a cave-in like that, who would dare use explosives? We will either find a new way out, or…”
“We eat Changlong.” Liu scoffed softly. “Or we go mad in the dark.” He turned away. “Let’s go.”
Up ahead the tunnel curved and their riverbank ended, making the opposite side of the watercourse the one with the dry bank. The men stopped and Liu walked a few feet into the water and held the flashlight out and down. “I don’t think it’s too deep. We will need to cross.” He motioned with the light. “Go across and scout around the bend.”
Han Biao thought briefly about arguing over who should cross, but he knew that sooner or later they all would need to, so he immediately waded into the ink-black water, heading for the opposite bank.
The river wasn’t broad, no more than thirty feet across, and even though the ambient temperature was quite warm, Han Biao didn’t relish the idea of getting soaked. But, his next step plunged him to his chest, and the icy water flowed up and around him, with just a blanket of warmth on his face. He cursed, hearing Liu bray with laughter.
At least the coolness bathed his numerous cuts and abrasions, and hopefully the pristine cave water washed them clean of any debris that had stuck to the wounds. He held his hands up and bounced now, his buoyancy allowing jumps across the languid current, as his feet squished in a slimy mud at the bottom.
In another few moments, he had left the water and strode up on the far bank, stamping his wet boots. He could see that this shoreline was unbroken for as long as the light could reach.