Lonetree reached out and took hold of Jack’s wrist. Jack thought he was going to recheck his watch, but instead the injured man drew him in close and whispered, “Take your girl. Follow this path. Elevator can’t be far away.” He pushed Jack’s arm away. “Now. You have to go now.”
Jack ran over to Sarah and put a hand on either shoulder. “Sarah, we’re going to go home, all right sweetie?”
Sarah nodded. She was scared, but she was staying in control. Jack could feel her whole body shaking but she was focused on what he was saying. Jack had no idea what had happened back at the Source, or what part Sarah had played, all he knew was that she was his little girl. She was scared but doing her best to listen to her dad. God he was proud of her.
“I need your help.” He handed her the glo-stick. “Hold this light and walk right beside me, O.K.” He held her at arm’s length to get a good look at her. “I love you, honey.”
Despite the cold darkness around them. The blood and death. The silent skeletons that stared out at them from their stone cages. Despite it all, Sarah smiled. “I love you too, Daddy.”
Jack hugged her then turned and ran over to Lonetree.
“What are you doing?” Lonetree said.
“Come on. We’re all getting out of here.” He slid his shoulder under Lonetree’s arm and shifted the big man’s weight onto himself. Lonetree pushed off from the stone cage and hobbled forward, grunting with every step. Jack struggled under the man’s weight, repeatedly losing his footing on the slick rocks beneath him. Sarah walked next to them, holding the glo-stick out in front of her as if it were a talisman against whatever lurked ahead of them.
“Faster. Faster,” Jack urged Lonetree as they stumbled down the path.
“Leave me, damn it.”
“No, you just move your ass. I thought you were a Marine or something.”
Lonetree cocked his head to the side. With a gasp he straightened himself a little and took more of his weight on his own legs. With this better distribution, they surged forward together. Navy SEAL,” Lonetree hissed between gasps for air. “Marines are pussies.”
The trail turned and entered a tunnel carved into the cave wall. They noticed a glow of light ahead of them. “That has to be the elevator,” Jack said.
They pushed as fast as they could down the trail, around a bend, and finally into a brightly lit room. Halogen lamps glared like artificial suns. The mechanical hum of a generator filled the air. Against the far wall was a square metal platform with guardrails around the perimeter. The elevator. The way out.
Sarah screamed. Jack grabbed her and pushed her behind him.
In the middle of the room, shotgun hanging at his side, stood Nate Huckley. Beside him was Dr. Mansfield, his hair now wildly out of place but otherwise looking calm and in control. The elevator was twenty feet behind them.
Dr. Mansfield called out to them. “I was starting to get worried. I thought maybe that idiot Janney had done something drastic. He’s always over-reacts in a crisis.”
Huckley pointed the shotgun at Sarah. “We don’t want anything happening to you. Especially you, little girl. You’re much too important to waste”
Jack and Lonetree exchanged glances. Neither of them had an idea how to get around this latest obstacle. Jack still had the knife he’d used on Janney, but it was no match for a shotgun.
Lonetree was gasping for air and clutching his side. And they had less than five minutes before the entire place came down around them in a massive explosion.
Jack’s shoulder’s sagged as he faced reality. Despite everything they had done, they were all going to die.
EIGHTY-THREE
Lonetree collapsed to the floor, his body wracked by a coughing fit that produced a new flow of blood from his mouth. He rolled to his side, panting from the bolts of electric pain that tore through his body. Jack stayed with Sarah as Huckley walked closer to them.
“Looks like you’re in a little pain there, Mr. Lonetree.” He raised a gun. “Perhaps you’d like me to put you out of your misery?”
Lonetree managed to look up from the floor. He tried to say something, but the words came out in an unintelligible mumble.
“Don’t be stupid, Huckley. We still need to know who he’s told about us. And where his brother’s notes are hidden,” Dr. Mansfield said. “What the hell happened back there? What was that explosion?”
“I don’t know. If you didn’t notice, I was the one on the ground in pain.”
“You’re not in pain now.”
Huckley cocked his head to the side. “Not only that, but I can’t sense the Source anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“Usually the Source is so loud that I’m totally overwhelmed. It’s like white noise, a constant throbbing that fills my head. But now, nothing. I don’t sense anything.” Huckley stared at Dr. Mansfield. “You don’t think…”
Dr. Mansfield turned pale. He looked at Jack. “What did you see? What was that explosion?”
Jack shrugged. “Nothing. I didn’t see anything. There was an explosion then the lights went out.”
“He’s lying,” Huckley said. “Without the background noise from the Source I can sense what he’s thinking.” He closed his eyes. “He saw movement inside the Source. He thinks the Source escaped from the cage.”
Jack stared at the wall behind the two men. He studied the smooth surfaces, the way the shadows filled the cracks of the rock. The tried to catalog the types of rock he knew. After Huckley had read his mind about what he saw back at the Source, he knew he had to keep his mind occupied. Anything to keep his brain active. Anything to keep from thinking about…
Huckley arched his back as if a current had passed through his body. His faced contorted savagely. He looked quickly at Lonetree. Then at Jack. “Explosives? How much? Where?”
“What are you talking about?” Dr. Mansfield demanded.
Huckley waved him away and concentrated. Jack tried to think of anything else, but it was impossible. He fought the urge to look down at his watch. The explosion had to still be at least four minutes away. Somehow he had to stall Huckley to keep him from escaping before the detonation.
Jack looked away. Still, no matter how hard he tried, the pure satisfaction of seeing Huckley caught in the trap seeped through the mental barricades. The look on his face betrayed his emotions.
“Where are the explosives?” Huckley screamed. “WHERE ARE THEY?”
Jack allowed himself to smile. He allowed the conversation with Lonetree about the fail proof feature of the charges replay in his mind. He watched Huckley’s face change expressions as the memory played in his inner eye, the last bit of color draining from Huckley’s already pale complexion.
“This…this …can’t be.” He looked back up the passageway toward the cave. “The Source will be destroyed.”
“Tell me what is going on!” Dr. Mansfield shouted.
“The cave is rigged to blow. There are only a few minutes to go,” Huckley said.
“Tell them to turn it off!” Dr. Mansfield screamed.
“They can’t. It’s on a failsafe.” He turned and kicked Lonetree in the side where he was bleeding. “Goddamn Indians. I hate them. Always have.”
“If the Source escaped in that explosion, maybe we can lure it out of the cave. Bring it up with us.”
Huckley looked horrified. “Are you insane? How would we control it? There’s no way. Here it was our slave, but up there?” He shook his head. “You don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“Without limits. It was talking about itself the whole time. Somehow the girl gave it enough power to break free. It will want revenge against us. Both of us.”
“We can’t just leave it here,” Dr. Mansfield shouted. “We can’t let it be destroyed.”