Sean cast him a look that told him he should know better than to ask.
The realization hit Tommy a second later. “Right. Trouble. How many are there?”
“Don’t know.” Sean shook his head once. “I only saw one out there, but you can bet there are more.”
Tommy’s look of concern grew visibly worse. “How did they know we were here? No one knows we’re here except the kids. And we know they didn’t say anything to anyone.”
“The fact is that someone followed us here.” In his mind, Sean beat himself up for not seeing the tail. Over the years, people had become better and better at the art of tailing a target, often using two, three, and sometimes four decoys to throw off an alert driver. Things had changed rapidly over the last decade and were much more advanced than spycraft of the 1950s.
“How are we going to get out of here?” Tommy asked, realizing immediately after saying it that he wasn’t being helpful.
Sean calmly, but swiftly, stepped to the front of the statue, knocking over a few of the candles. He picked up a heavy bronze vase and carried it back over to the door. He set it down and wedged the base of it between the bottom of the door and the threshold. A couple of firm kicks jammed it into place. Sean stood up and pulled on the door latch. It didn’t budge.
He turned around and stalked back over to where Tommy was standing, watching his friend work.
“That’s great, but it doesn’t exactly help us get out of here.”
“No,” Sean agreed. “But it buys us some time.”
“Time to do what?”
Sean bent over and grabbed the pistol out of his ankle holster. He checked the magazine again and made sure a round was in the chamber. Tommy copied his friend’s procedure. They inched their way backward to the rear of the statue, keeping their eyes on the door.
When they were safely behind it, Tommy realized something that he’d blown off a few minutes ago.
“A draft,” he said vaguely.
“What?” Sean held his weapon at the ready next to his chin.
“When you pulled out that drawer,” Tommy pointed his barrel at the drawer sitting by the statue’s base, “a draft of stale, cool air shot out from it. I can still feel a little of it right now.” He crouched down and put his free hand out over the dark cavity beyond the dislodged drawer.
Sure enough, a stream of gentle, cool air trickled over his skin. He looked up at Sean, who was peering into the crevasse, then back down again. “Where do you think it goes?”
Sean stole a glance over at the door. “Doesn’t matter. We don’t have another option. In ten minutes, they could come through that door. They’ll cut us down in no time. We were lucky in Israel. We got the drop on those guys. That’s not going to happen here.”
Tommy stood up. “Okay, but how do we get in there?”
Sean kneeled down on one knee and ran his finger along the bottom edge of the statue’s platform. “This thing isn’t built into the floor. It’s just resting on top of it. We’ll need to move it to be able to fit through the hole.”
“Oh, I see. So we’re just going to desecrate a place that Buddhists consider holy.”
Sean caught his sarcasm but ignored it. “We’re not going to hurt it. Just move it a little. Look, no disrespect to Buddhists, but it’s just a representation of Buddha. It isn’t actually him. Trust me, they’ll be able to move it back.”
“What if we break it?”
“We aren’t going to break anything. Jeez.” Sean was exasperated. He appreciated Tommy’s love for history. Sean had similar feelings on the subject. But at the moment, survival took precedent over everything else. “Just help me move this thing.”
Sean stood up behind the statue and started pushing on the back of the head and waist. Tommy joined him on the other side and mimicked his friend’s efforts.
“Just so we’re on the same page, we’re trying to shimmy this thing back and forth until it slides over a bit. That sound about right?”
“Yep,” Sean nodded.
The heavy statue barely moved at first, only sliding an inch along the ground as the two men pushed and pulled. Leaning against the heavy stone, the two tried rocking it back and forth, grunting harder with each moment’s exertion. Their work gained momentum but not the way they’d planned. The bottom of the statue lifted higher and higher, first on the front, then on the back, and again on the other side. Each rocking motion created a loud thud that resonated off the domed walls.
“Sean,” Tommy’s voice filled with concern, “I don’t think this is a good idea. It’s going to fall over.”
“Almost there,” Sean said between breaths. “It’ll be fine.”
The two gave one last heave, and the statue slid forward but caught on the bottom front edge of the base. Gravity and momentum did the rest and the Buddha toppled over headfirst. It slammed into the floor with a loud crash. The sculpture’s head snapped off and rolled over to the far wall. One of the arms broke free and lay on the floor amid a cloud of debris and dust.
“Not going to break it, huh?” Tommy gazed at the sight regretfully. “You think they’re going to be able to just fix that?” He pointed with an outstretched hand.
Sean stared at the mess. “That was not what I had planned.”
“You think?”
“Look, we’ll write them a check or something. We have to move.”
“That’s a priceless piece of history we just destroyed.” Tommy’s hands were held out wide.
“I know, buddy. I promise. That wasn’t what I had in mind but if we stick around here we’re dead. Now please, help me move this base.”
Tommy shook his head but did as requested. The two bent down, put their fingers under the lip of the stone box, and pulled hard, using their legs to do most of the lifting. The heavy object didn’t put up as much of a fight as the statue, and toppled over after their first effort. It teetered over and stopped when the top hit the underside of the statue.
Where the box had been, a large hole opened up in the floor. The dank air wafted up into the chamber. Sean grabbed one of the two flashlights out of the rucksack and handed it to Tommy before taking the other for himself. The two flipped on the beams and pointed the lights down.
The area below was a dark passageway, surrounded on all sides by the stonework of the temple. Old cobwebs decorated the edges of the hole and corners of the corridor.
“The good news is that it’s not a long drop down. Maybe eight feet at the most.”
Sean’s words did little to comfort Tommy, who was clearly reluctant about the idea. “You sure about this?”
Something struck the iron door on the other side of the room. It sounded like a bullet.
“They’re testing the door’s strength,” Sean said. “Bullets won’t get through it, but they’ll get past my little wedge within five minutes. The tunnel is our only choice.”
Tommy looked back over at the door and then back down into the hole.
“You know you’ve been in worse places, buddy,” Sean said reassuringly.
“I hope you’re right.”
Tommy crouched down, grabbed the lip of the cavity, and lowered himself into the passageway.
Sean took one last glance over at the doorway. Something hit it hard. They were trying to barge through. In a few minutes, they would succeed. He just hoped the passageway didn’t lead to a dead end, literally and figuratively.
He bent down, put the end of his flashlight in his mouth, and gripped it with his teeth. Then he took hold of the edge of the hole and dropped into the darkness.
18
Tommy ran into the darkness at a cautious pace with Sean close behind. The light from their LED flashlights kept them from running into a wall, but there was no telling what the tunnel held in store. If they didn’t pay attention, it would be easy to fall into another hole or roll an ankle on something. Right now, any kind of injury would be devastating if the men they were running from had ventured into the passageway.