That’s the problem with being over-educated, he chided himself. You can always find something with which to scare yourself.
He kept crawling, forcing away the pain in his elbows and knees that felt like tiny teeth tearing into his flesh. He thought he heard the sounds of pursuit. The idea of the gunmen slithering through the tunnel behind him in the darkness filled him with fear that was even colder than the earth round him.
‘I think I can get through, sir.’
Eckart looked at the soldier nearest the rock fall. Through the hole they’d created, he saw only darkness. Either the people they were after had extinguished the lights or they’d abandoned their positions.
‘Do it,’ Eckart ordered. ‘Kill anything that moves.’
The man nodded and drew his pistol. ‘Including the professor?’
‘It’s dark down there. You don’t have time to decide who’s who.’
‘Yes, sir.’ With a pistol in one hand and a halogen flashlight in the other, the soldier dived headfirst through the opening in the fallen rock. He slid, feet spread wide to help control his descent, but he went in a rush and an avalanche of small stones rattled after him.
Tense and annoyed, Eckart waited and peered into the darkness.
‘The locals are coming up to speed,’ Mayfield warned over the headset. ‘Someone has called in an alert and claimed that shots have been fired in your twenty.’
‘Roger that,’ Eckart replied. ‘Topside and support, clear out. We’ll stay with this in an attempt to flush the professor.’ Webster wouldn’t be happy unless they came away with either the scroll or Lourds.
At the bottom of the rock slide, the point man got to his feet and shone his light around. The illumination shifted and changed, but no shots were fired. That was a bad sign.
‘Clear,’ the point man called up. ‘They’re not here.’
Eckart cursed and slid down feet first. At the bottom, he stood and moved to the other side of the room from the point man in case a trap had been laid. Desperate men did desperate things, and they still weren’t sure who the men were who accompanied Lourds.
The room looked like living quarters of some kind, but there was no electricity and no sign of running water. Eckart flicked his flashlight beam across the ceiling out of habit. Most people didn’t look up. Soldiers were trained to for urban assault. All he saw was the stone ceiling.
The rest of his unit slid into the room. They spread out without being told.
‘Door at the back.’ Eckart trained his flashlight on the dark rectangle in the wall.
‘On it.’ One of the soldiers stepped forward with his pistol at the ready. After a second, he swung inside the room. ‘All clear.’
‘Any other exits?’ Eckart asked.
‘Negative, sir. None that I see.’
‘Check for those you don’t see. Those people didn’t just vanish.’
‘Affirmative, sir.’
The point man halted beside a large rectangle in the floor. His flashlight illuminated a wooden coffin.
‘Sir,’ the point man called.
Eckart joined him, gazing briefly at the coffin, then into the open grave in the floor. ‘A rat hole?’
‘Yes, sir.’ The point man nodded. ‘That’s what it looks like.’
‘Find out.’
Eckart played his flashlight beam around the room but didn’t see any other way for the professor and his companions to get out. The soldiers were already checking for hidden doors.
The point man squatted at the bottom of the grave. ‘Sir, there is a tunnel here. It’s not very big, looks like crawl space only, but it’s big enough.’
‘All right. Let’s see where it takes us. Drop your pack. It’ll only slow you down. Take your flashlight, pistol and extra magazines. We’ll bring your gear.’ Eckart looked round the room and chose another small man. ‘Carter, you strip down and go with him.’
Carter dropped his pack immediately and kept only his pistol and flashlight. He crawled into the hole behind the point man and they disappeared in the space of a drawn breath.
Eckart slid free of his pack and tied it to his left ankle. He dropped his pack into the hole then slid into the tunnel. As he crawled, the line kept his pack tethered to him.
Lourds and his people couldn’t be far ahead. They didn’t have that big a lead. Eckart scrambled as he’d been taught back in basic, elbows and knees, eating up the distance.
Joachim stopped crawling unexpectedly. Sharp pain exploded through Lourds’ cheek as his face skidded over the monk’s hiking shoe.
‘What’s wrong? Why have you stopped?’
‘I don’t know. Everyone else has stopped.’
Lourds twisted painfully in the tunnel and looked back the way they’d come. Bright yellow light flashed through the darkness.
‘We’re about to have company,’ Lourds said.
‘I see them.’ Joachim raised his voice. ‘Olympia.’
‘The way is sealed,’ she responded.
Lourds’ spirits sank. He had known from the beginning it might end up like this, but dealing with it in the darkness was much different. He didn’t think he could take another five hundred yards of crawling on his elbows and knees. He was certain he’d rather be shot.
‘How is it sealed?’ Lourds asked.
Behind them, the flashlight beams closed the distance.
‘It looks like a solid wall.’
‘It’s not debris? Something caused by a cave-in?’
‘No.’
‘Is it man made?’
Olympia sounded irritated. ‘I don’t see a tool mark.’
‘That’s not what I mean. It’s not a hidden door?’
‘I already checked for that, Thomas. I’m not totally witless.’
‘This doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t build a tunnel that went nowhere.’ Lourds thought desperately, trying to imagine what the Brotherhood might have done to fool potential enemies. ‘The entrance was located in a grave. The tunnel was meant as an escape. Joachim, you don’t know anything about this, do you?’
‘No. The knowledge about the escape tunnel was passed down, but nothing more,’ Joachim answered.
‘How do you get rescued from the grave?’ Lourds asked himself.
‘If you’re dead, you have to wait till the Second Coming,’ Joachim said. ‘When Jesus Christ returns, the dead will be lifted from their graves and-’
‘I’m familiar with the theology,’ Lourds interrupted. Then a thought struck him. ‘Olympia, look up. What do you see?’
There was a pause, during which Lourds noted that the flashlights were coming closer, then Olympia called back, ‘Nothing. Just a stone surface.’
‘Smooth or unfinished?’
‘Smooth.’
‘Any markings?’
‘I don’t see – wait. There’s a fish symbol here.’
‘Push against the ceiling,’ Lourds said. ‘That should be a door.’ Now if only it works.
Stone grated in the darkness and Lourds held his breath as he watched the approaching flashlight beams. They couldn’t be too far off now, but in the darkness it was hard to judge distance.
‘It’s a door!’ Olympia called back.
‘Go!’ Lourds said. ‘Hurry!’
One by one, they went, and the flashlight beams still crept up on them. Lourds was certain he wasn’t going to make it. He sat on his haunches and passed his backpack and hat up to Joachim. His heart gladdened at the realization that the next section of the escape route was larger than the first. Once the way was clear, he stood up through the narrow passage, gripped the edges, and hauled himself up with the aid of Joachim and another monk. They closed the door.
Light seeped round the edges from below. The men pursuing them gathered there. Lourds was certain they wouldn’t be stymied for long.
He glanced up at Joachim and whispered, ‘Do you know where we are?’
Joachim shook his head.