“I wasn’t asking,” she replied slyly and tossed him the harness.
He snatched it out of the air out of reflex but looked at the thing like he’d just caught a bag of snakes.
Emily grabbed the last harness from the Spaniard and began to slip one leg through the loops and then the other.
Wyatt reluctantly copied what the two women were doing. “What are we going to anchor the rope to?”
Ignoring him, Adriana removed a small bolt gun from her bag and walked purposefully over to the cliff’s edge. She laid down on her stomach and stretched the tool out over the precipice and pressed it against the rock wall. A muffled shot sounded then repeated as she moved the bolt gun slightly to the left.
“Oh,” Sean said, resigned to the fact that he would indeed be going over the edge of the cliff, whether he wanted to or not.
He struggled to slip the harness on over his khaki pants. “I’ve never done this before,” he said confessed sheepishly.
Adriana smiled with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”
He wasn’t sure how to take the comment, and it did little to suppress his apprehension. She stepped over to him and grabbed a loose part of the harness webbing and tugged it sharply, tightening the rigging.
Emily just shook her head slowly at the sight, having already finished up her harness adjustments. “Not a word out of you,” he pointed at Emily as Adriana completed her work with his device, looking awkward the whole time.
“I wouldn’t think of it.”
The late afternoon sun gleamed off of Villa’s creamy skin. A light gust of wind rolled across the desert plains, flicking her dark hair back a little and causing it to dance around her ears and neck.
“We should hurry. The sun sets early this time of year and it gets cold very quickly.”
Sean turned and gazed to the west. They probably still had a few hours, so time wasn’t going to be a problem. If everything went according to plan.
Angela watched the group with her binoculars from behind a small rock formation. Her team was well hidden though, at one point she had noticed Wyatt pause and look in their direction. James was right behind her trying to peek over her shoulder. So much like a child. From the looks of it, the group she was observing appeared to be gearing up to repel down the side of the canyon.
What had they found? Angela kept the thought to herself. She wasn’t sure but she knew what their orders were. Observe only.
The Prophet had been clear in his instructions, though she wasn’t sure why he’d changed their course of action. Perhaps he was losing faith in them. Or maybe the man hadn’t been unable to decipher the location of whatever it was he was looking for and these people were going to lead him to it. It was a plan that had worked before, she supposed. But Angela doubted it would work that way again. Sooner or later there was going to be another confrontation.
Sean had seen the glint of glass off in the distance. He’d assumed that the people who’d tried to kill him in Vegas the night before had decided to see what they were doing before moving in. Even out in the desert, there weren’t a lot of places to hide from the curious eyes of the canyon tourists. The hit squad was probably hanging back, waiting until the moment was right.
There wouldn’t be any mistakes this time. Not like last night. He didn’t voice his concerns to the others.
The information center was still within view, though it was far away. And their presence on the cliff’s edge was known by some of the local authorities, informed on the radio by Jim before they touched down. Still, it was disconcerting not knowing what move their pursuers would take next.
Sean watched as Adriana ran the rope through her harness clamps and casually stepped over the cliff’s edge. She pushed out with her feet and disappeared into the canyon.
Emily stepped closer, far less afraid of the dangerous precipice and watched as the Spaniard repeated her repelling motion like a pro. About twenty feet down she stopped and leaned in towards the cliff face, peering at something. “What do you see?” Emily yelled down.
“It is a cave entrance.” She swung herself down and into the opening. A few seconds later she poked her head poked back out. “There is a lot of writing on the wall. This must be the place!” Adriana yelled up.
“What did she say?” Sean asked as he stepped uneasily towards the edge. He crouched at the knees in a feeble attempt to maintain his stability.
Emily turned and raised both eyebrows at the site of Wyatt squatting near her. “She said this is the place. Said she found some markings in the cave opening.”
“You sure you want me to go in there?”
The look she gave was answer enough but she said what he needed to hear anyway. “You’re going to tell me that Sean Wyatt is going to pass up a chance to go into an ancient cave where there may be treasure that hasn’t been seen in probably several thousand years just because he’s afraid of heights? Maybe I was wrong about you.”
He grabbed the rope from her and laced it through the braking contraption the way Adriana had showed him before. “You know what you are?” He asked as he eased unsteadily towards the lip of the canyon.
“A woman?”
Another slight gust picked up as he leaned out over the drop below. Chills went through his body as he made the mistake of looking down. They must have been a few thousand feet up and the drop made his vision blur for a moment. He clenched his teeth, gripping the braking device with all his might. “Manipulative. But same difference.” With that, he released the brake and started inching his way down the rock wall.
Chapter 32
They were in a fix and Tommy knew it. He and Will had been cornered in a manmade cave at Bandelier National Monument. They’d gone there to look for clues but what they’d found was trouble. Will was running out of ammo and there was no way to tell how much ammunition the other guys had. Tommy figured it was more, though.
He struggled with the stone for a few more seconds trying to fit it into the round impression in the wall, but it wouldn’t seat properly. Then it hit him. The oddly colored notches in the stone were additions. Frantically, he began searching his backpack. A few seconds later, he pulled a small pocketknife from it. With the butt-end of the tool, he started chipping away at the lighter-colored areas of the stone. As he suspected, the softer material broke away after only a few knocks. Quickly, he repeated the process on the other three marks.
Again, Tommy slid the stone into place inside the recessed wheel in the wall, matching the notches with the gaps he’d just created. This time, it fit perfectly flush against the back of the ancient mechanism. He gripped the stone tightly and began twisting counter-clockwise. To his surprise, the thing moved fairly easily. Deep within the walls, a new rumbling began. All of the pieces from the ceiling had fallen, creating an odd maze of huge stone pillars in the room. Some were taller than others. The ground shook more and more violently. Then he realized something was moving beneath him. In what could have only taken a few seconds, the floor shifted and then dropped away beneath him.
Will heard the noise and looked over to the corner where Tommy had been toiling furiously. He was gone.