Sean imagined they’d broken through his makeshift barricade by now and were circling around the statue of Buddha, discovering the cavity in the floor. The two Americans had been running for the last three minutes, giving them a significant head start. Three minutes might be an eternity but could be lost quickly if they weren’t careful.
The corridor shot straight ahead for the first hundred feet, then it made an abrupt left for another twenty feet then shot right again. Sean and Tommy felt like they were being herded through a labyrinth with no way of knowing exactly where they were going. They reached the end of the flat passage and found a set of stairs that descended to a lower level. Tommy only hesitated for a second, knowing it was their only option. Going back wasn't a possibility.
He bounded down the stairs and reached the next floor. Eight steps later, they reached another right turn that presented a huge problem. The tunnel came to a T, shooting off to the right and left.
“Which way do you think?” Sean asked quietly, shining his light down one corridor and then the next. Even at a whisper, his voice sounded like the sounds of a roaring river bouncing off the stone walls.
“Was going to ask you the same thing.”
Tommy tried to regain his bearings. “Our car should be out that way,” he pointed left. Sean nodded. He’d been thinking the same thing.
“Fastest way between two points.”
They took off again, padding along on the balls of their feet so as not to make as much noise. The two reached another turn in the tunnel. Tommy sped around it without thinking and ran face-first into a tangled mass of cobwebs. He grasped at his face and hair, panicking, nearly dropping his flashlight in the process. Fortunately, he didn’t make a noise other than spitting the cobwebs out of his mouth.
Sean stepped by him, putting his hand out in front and pulling the remaining webs out of the way. “Come on,” he whispered.
“I don’t have one on me, do I?” Tommy asked. He swiped his hands around in panic-stricken paranoia.
“Dude, there are no spiders down here anymore. We have to move.”
Tommy followed, though he still swiped at his neck and hair occasionally just to make sure Sean wasn’t lying.
The tunnel stretched out another fifty yards in front of them and ended at another set of stairs. They flew down the steps, taking them two at a time until they reached the next landing. Yet another tunnel awaited.
“This thing goes on forever,” Tommy said, gasping for air.
“We should be close.”
Sean pressed on, going straight then following the passage to the right, keeping his hand out in front of his face to protect against more cobwebs. Tommy hurried after him, trying to keep up.
The two reached another fork in the corridor. This time, Tommy recommended they go right, suggesting that now the car was in that direction.
Sean nodded and kept moving. After making the right and then going around another corner that bent back to the left, they found themselves in a long stretch of tunnel that looked more than a few hundred yards long. The floor sloped downward at a slight angle, disappearing into the darkness beyond the end of their lights’ reach.
Tommy frowned. “What’s the matter? Keep going?”
“The floor goes down. We should already be at ground level. And from the length of it, this passage is longer than the length of the temple. It must extend beyond the exterior walls and end up somewhere on the grounds around the perimeter.”
“Perimeter, parking lot, doesn’t matter to me. So long as it gets us out of here alive, I’m good.”
Tommy took off at a gallop. Sean scurried after him. Twenty seconds later, they realized that the floor was rising again. They picked up their pace and started to see a pale glow from the other end of the tunnel. It was a thin sliver at first, but as the two Americans drew closer, they saw that it was a narrow opening, about twenty inches wide and five feet tall.
They made it to the opening, and Sean took a quick look out. Thick stands of trees and emerald-green grass surrounded the exit. It was probably why the opening had gone unnoticed; at least he assumed it had largely gone unnoticed.
Sean went through first, easily slipping through the narrow space. Tommy, on the other hand, had a little more trouble, but he made it through right behind him, though his size didn’t do him any favors.
“Remind me to drop a few pounds when we get back to the States,” he said, trying to suck in his waistline as he squeezed through.
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
Once on the other side, the two crept through the thicket of skinny, pale tree trunks.
Tommy couldn’t let it go. “The fact that you weren’t going to say something means you were thinking about saying something.” His words came through clenched teeth as he tried to keep his voice down.
“Seriously? Right now we’re having this conversation?”
“We weren’t going to until you said you weren’t going to say anything.”
Sean stopped and stood up straight. He turned around and faced his friend. “We’re not married. So please, let it go. If you want to get in shape, I encourage that.”
He spun back around and started walking toward a clearing at the edge of the trees.
“You encourage that?” Tommy hissed, catching up. “Really? That’s exactly what a husband would say. So now I’m the wife?”
“You’re certainly not doing yourself any favors asking these kinds of questions. Now can you please just focus? We need to get out of here. In case you forgot, there are men, probably armed, trying to kill us.”
The conversation ended abruptly as Tommy realized he was being overly dramatic.
The clearing was nothing more than a beaten-down, leaf-covered path that appeared to circle back around to the park surrounding the temple. Sean led the way, moving at a jog until they reached the edge of the tree line where a stretch of meadow ended in the parking area. They could see their car a few hundred yards away. Sean took a quick survey of the area to see if anyone stayed behind to watch their vehicle in case they were able to get past the siege outside the central stupa.
From what he could tell, there wasn’t anyone suspicious, just unsuspecting tourists who were completely oblivious to the deadly game of cat and mouse that was going on right under their noses.
“Looks like the coast is clear,” Sean said. “But they’ll have guys up top keeping an eye on things. Going to be a race to get to the car before they do.”
“You go first; I’ll bring up the rear.”
Tommy’s offer had more to do with his being the slower of the two, but Sean declined.
“We go together. You ready?”
The journey through the tunnel had been a welcome respite from the heat and humidity of the Indonesian summer. Now they were back in the sun, and the damp air made their lungs heavy.
“Sure. No time like the present. Hopefully, anyone following us into the tunnel took a wrong turn.”
Sean nodded then stared ahead across the meadow. “Go.”
The two took off at a dead sprint. Fifty yards across the field, Tommy slowed noticeably, so Sean pulled back his pace a percentage to stay with his friend. His eyes shot over to the temple roof where there were two men in sunglasses standing at the edge. One had a phone to his ear. The second he noticed the two Americans running across the grassy span, he pointed. The other man with him disappeared, presumably heading for the steps leading back to ground level.
With a hundred yards to go, Tommy was struggling, taking in oxygen in huge, desperate gulps. But he didn’t stop, though his pace was diminishing closer to a jog with every step.