Finally, he pulled back and looked into her eyes. She saw tears forming in his, and he blinked them back.
“You’re not going with me,” he said softly.
She nodded, biting her lip. “I know. But you’re coming back, Ben. Understand? You’re coming back.”
He swallowed, taking one last look at Julie, then turned to the truck and got inside. He revved the engine and drove away, leaving Julie standing in the road.
In the rearview mirror, he saw a police cruiser pull up beside her and wait for her to open the passenger door. As she got into the vehicle, she looked once more at the trail of dust behind her truck as it disappeared over the small hill.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Ben reached the first cave on his list in record time. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever driven that fast over the weathered roads crisscrossing the park. He sure hadn’t. It was all he could do to keep the truck on the center of the road, hoping that no wildlife jumped in front of the moving battering ram.
The cave was off to his left, and he could easily see the markers from the road. A few stakes in the ground with brightly colored plastic strands marked the location as one of the park’s future tourist attractions. It hadn’t been fully excavated yet, nor had it been assessed by the park’s surveying crews.
But Ben didn’t care about any of that. He needed to find the actual cave, get inside, and find that bomb.
What would it even look like? He wasn’t sure he’d ever even seen a bomb in real life. And it certainly wouldn’t look anything like they did in the movies. Would it? As he exited the vehicle, he grabbed a heavy flashlight he’d borrowed from one of the cops and tested it.
He found the entrance behind a large bush, and he pushed the prickly strands away from his face as he crouched to the low hole below the rocks. It was a tight fit. His large frame was going to have a difficult time navigating the cramped space, not to mention the sharp protrusions of rock he could see breaking out of the otherwise smooth walls.
He sighed. Julie would fit.
He forced the thought out of his mind and slid through the entrance.
It was much tighter than he’d initially thought. His shoulders scraped against the rocks as he sucked in his gut and slid farther. He breathed in slowly, noticing the space grow even smaller, then exhaled. As he did, he slid once more, gaining another six inches.
This could take a while.
He repeated the inhale-exhale-slide process another twenty times and suddenly found himself in a larger hole. Still small, but he now had room to maneuver through the cavern. Still, he found it hard to believe someone could cram a body and a bomb through this tunnel, but it didn’t matter. He had to find it. If it could even possibly be in this cave, he would search the entire thing.
A few more feet and the space opened up again, this time large enough for him to crouch. He crawled forward on his hands and knees, careful to dodge the small rocks and sticks that had collected on the cave floor, ready to stab his knees as he slid past.
For twenty solid minutes, he slid, crawled, and hunched his way through the tunnel, and for twenty solid minutes his only concern was finding that bomb and hoping there were more than twenty minutes on its countdown clock.
“Har— nett.” The radio he’d clipped to the back of his belt crackled to life. “—Ennett. Do — read, over.”
He stopped, grabbed the radio and tried to send a response. “This is Bennett. Harvey Bennett. You’re breaking up, but I read you, over.”
He waited for a response, but none came. Ben checked the radio for battery — less than a quarter remaining, but enough to receive and send a signal — and the antenna. Everything seemed to be in working order, so he clipped it back onto his belt and continued on down the gently sloping decline of the cave.
If it’s important enough, I’ll hear it when I get back to the surface. We have to find this bomb.
But another ten minutes of slowly moving downward proved to be useless. Eventually, the cave narrowed down to a funnel shape, and he found forward motion growing more and more impossible.
Shit, he thought. This can’t be it.
He’d wasted thirty minutes, at least, searching for this cave and diving down it head-first. There was nothing in front of him suggesting that the roof had fallen in, nor was there any sign of prior human contact with the rocks and walls of the cavern. For all he knew, he was the first person to ever set foot in the place.
He shimmied backward, painstakingly moving uphill feet-first, waiting until the cave widened enough for him to turn around and exit.
It had been a massive waste of time, but Ben realized there was something more devastating about it.
There would not be enough time to spend thirty minutes in each of the caves.
He couldn’t hail the rest of the team and pull any of them off their search, either. If the bomb detonated, he had to hope the contagion would be close enough to the lake to be incinerated by one of the blasts.
Chapter Fifty-Three
It took him longer to go back up the tunnel, even after he’d turned around, than it did for him to descend. He was tired, frustrated, and — a new feeling that had just recently begun to wash over him — afraid.
Afraid of not getting to the bomb in time.
Afraid for the officers and volunteers racing throughout the park to find the virus caches.
And most of all, afraid for Julie.
He felt responsible, at least in part, for her involvement. Sure, she’d been near Yellowstone anyway, working on a CDC-sanctioned project, but she might have been called off it if it hadn’t been for his bright idea to get his mother involved.
Now she was every bit in danger as he was, and it was worse that they weren’t together.
The thought struck him as it rattled through his mind.
There was something between them, but he wasn’t quite sure what to call it.
And did she feel the same way? How could he ask her if he ever got the chance?
He crawled along, the ridiculous thoughts spinning through his head. He was a mess. Ben had had a few flings here and there, mostly with other park staff, many of whom were seasonal and changed every summer. None were serious, and none made him feel the same way Julie did.
And what way is that? he asked himself.
He could see the opening of the cave now, just barely. It was every bit as covered by brush and trees as when he’d entered, but thanks to a sliver of light shining through, he knew he was close. He pushed off the rock floor and crouched, trying to move faster.
“—Bennett, report. — Hear me?”
The words were stuttered, but he figured out what they’d asked. He pulled the radio from its clip and answered. “Hey, I’m here — just finished exploring the first cave, and nothing.” He waited, then added, “Over.”
“You’re cut— out…” then, “We’ve — three caches in about — sites.” Ben listened, interpreting the broken chatter. Three virus caches in some number of sites they’ve searched, he thought. It wasn’t great, but it was a start. More importantly, he was right about there being more of them in single-camper sites. No one was on a wild goose chase — they were on track.
Now, to find that bomb and clean up this mess.
He slowly rocked himself forward on his shaky feet and looked up at the hole. Just a few more yards.