Even if they did, he doubted they would be able to get through.
The shelf of the upper bowl had shattered and tons of black rock had crashed down like a landslide. Some of it had passed through the cave mouth and plunged into the water with and around them, but huge slabs and chunks had come to rest in the mouth of the cave, lodged there, blocking the rest from falling.
“We’re cut off,” Josh said.
“No,” Tori argued. “Look, there are plenty of openings. Tons of light getting through. They can put ropes down and pull us up.”
Sykes overheard. His boots scuffed the ledge as he turned to them. “No, they can’t. Josh is right. All that rockfall is unstable. It could give way at any time. If they put someone through one of those holes, the whole thing could come down and crush us all. They’d never risk it. If they try, I’ll order them not to. So will Captain Siebalt.”
“Are you kidding me? They have to try!”
Sykes no longer had his radio, but two of his men had managed to get theirs working. Static and voices hissed. From above, someone tried to hail them. Sykes turned his back and went to take the radio.
Josh swayed on his feet, pain surging again. If Sykes was right, they were all dead. He turned to see Alena Boudreau and Ridge watching them and made his way over to them, Tori quickly following.
“Dr. Boudreau, this is your operation. Talk to him. Get on the radio and tell them we’re down here,” Josh said. “Your grandson isn’t going to just leave you here.”
A line of pain formed on her forehead at the thought of her grandson, but she shook her head. “I’m afraid none of that really matters, Agent Hart.”
“How can you say it doesn’t matter?” Tori snapped. “I’m not going to die down here.”
Alena glanced at Ridge and took a deep breath, pressing a hand to her side. Josh wondered if she had broken some ribs or just bruised herself.
“Paul and I were just talking this through,” she said, a terrible wisdom and apology in her eyes. “Even if they came for us without first trying to remove some of the rockslide, to do so safely would take hours. We can’t afford that kind of time. The sun will keep shifting position and it won’t be long before there’s no direct sunlight down here at all. It may be that most of the creatures hibernate during the day, or that most are out in the deep water around the island, but I consider it sheer luck that we got onto this ledge alive.”
“All the more reason—” Josh started.
Alena shot him a dark look that silenced him.
“It’s worse,” she said, gaze shifting between him and Tori. “In case you’ve forgotten, the tide is coming in. The water level in the pool is going to rise. And up above, when the tide is high enough, it’s going to come pouring down on top of the tons of rock jammed into the cave mouth above us. That may bring the whole thing down, but even if it doesn’t, the water is still going to pour into this chamber. We don’t have until nightfall. If we stay here, we won’t even make it to high tide. Either we’ll drown, or they’ll come for us.”
Josh stared at her, feeling a connection with this woman, drawing on her strength. Despite the fate she had just described, she still did not seem beaten.
“You have an idea,” he said.
Alena nodded, then turned to Dr. Ridge.
The geologist clicked on a Maglite he’d had clipped to his belt. The sailors all had them as well, though none had turned them on as yet.
Ridge turned and shone the thin but powerful beam into the darkness behind him. Four or five yards away, the ledge rose into a jagged slope, at the top of which was the yawning black void of a narrow tunnel.
“There’s another way out,” Ridge said. “Can’t you feel the draft? The air’s moving in that direction.”
Now that he’d pointed it out, Josh could.
“Oh, my God,” Tori whispered, and the hope in her voice was palpable.
“At high tide, that tunnel will flood,” Sykes said from behind them.
They all turned to find that the lieutenant commander and his three surviving sailors had joined them, and overheard the last of the conversation.
Alena met Sykes’s gaze with her own, unwavering.
“Then we’d better get started.”
79
Thunder roused Gabe from his chair, but even as he got up, he tried slotting that sound into a different category. Not thunder at all. Three sequential booms like the whomp of a fireworks finale, the sound lingering in the air. Something had exploded.
The room they had locked him into had two windows, but from the one on the right all he could see was a curved, horizontal trail of smoke. He shuffled left, craning his neck, and saw burning wreckage in the distance, sinking slowly into the ocean. Gabe spent several seconds making sense of it, trying to tell himself they had towed some of the derelicts away from shore and detonated them to kill whatever sirens might be nesting inside. But even blackened and twisted, he knew that curve of hull. His face went slack as he watched the last of the Antoinette go down.
He sought within himself for the fury he thought he should feel, but found a curious alternative. Gabe Rio felt free. She had been his ship, more his home than the apartment he had shared with Maya. In all the ways that had mattered in the end, he had chosen the Antoinette over his own wife.
He hated the bastards for blowing her up, and he would miss her, yet Gabe found himself glad the ship was gone. If they had been kind enough to give him a bottle of whiskey or even a can of beer, he would have toasted the Antoinette’s destruction. That part of his life had been over ever since they had found the Mariposa adrift, but now there could be no going back. Not ever.
For long minutes he stood and watched the smoke curl into the air, losing track of time. His stomach growled, a deep down hunger that he had somehow failed to notice, and he wondered what kind of meal he could persuade his Coast Guard wardens to rustle up. His thoughts drifted a bit, and then his stomach growled again, and this time the hunger was enough to force him away from the window. There had to be at least one seaman on guard out in the corridor. If he banged on the door, they’d open up. Even a few crackers would be better than nothing.
Before Gabe even reached the door, he heard the lock click and it swung inward. He expected a sailor, or maybe Special Agent Turcotte, but it was Agent Voss who strode into the room. The broad-shouldered Mac stepped into the room beside her, crossed his arms, and stood next to the door — apparently just in case he should try to escape.
“So much for your case—” he started to say, but the look on Voss’s face made him falter. The woman seemed on the verge of either screaming or puking, and he had no desire to witness either one. “What happened?”
Voss steadied herself, lips pressed tightly together as though desperate to control whatever words came out next.
“On the island,” she said. “While you were searching for the guns, did you find any other caves that had water in them?”
Gabe frowned. “Water?”
“The water table under the island,” she said, gaze fixed firmly on him. “Some of the caves are tunnels. Water runs underground. Did you see or hear water in any of the other caves?”
He hesitated. “I don’t—”
“Think! It’s a simple goddamn question.”
Gabe stared at her, dreadful understanding seeping into his thoughts. He nodded. “One for sure. Probably others, but—”
“Which one?”
“Where we found the guns. I could hear running water, and the cave definitely went back farther. There were crevices, maybe going down into the bedrock. What happened? Is Tori—?”
“They were planting charges in the grotto. Every cave they can find is getting the same treatment. But one of the explosives in the lower part of the grotto triggered early. Seven casualties, all Navy. Miss Austin is still alive, and so is my partner. I intend for him to stay that way. They’ve found a side tunnel, but now they’re under tons of rock and we’ve lost contact with them. We need to get down there and lend a hand, try to find them before the rising tide drowns them or the sirens realize they’re there.”