Sean took a few sips of his water before they set out on the trail.
Adriana walked over to him and leaned in close. "What did the kids say?"
Sean hadn't wanted to alarm the others, but they needed to know what measures he was taking to figure out how the assassins had been able to track their movements.
"They may be looking at where we use credit cards. If they do that, they can follow a trail and connect the dots. One way or the other, we use cash from now on. Okay?"
She nodded. "You going to tell those two?"
Sean smirked. "Eventually."
They rejoined the others and looked to Reece for the next move.
"Lead the way, mate," he said in a fake accent.
"Hey, well done, Sean." Reece turned to Tommy. "See, that's how you do an Aussie accent."
"Oh, come on," Tommy protested. "That sounded exactly like the way I did it."
"Nah, mate. But keep working on it."
Incensed, Tommy threw his hands in the air. "It sounds the exact same."
"Okay, on we go," Sean said. "Sorry, buddy. Your accent does sound a little Pommie."
"What is with you two and the whole Pommie thing?"
Reece led the way to the trailhead and began the descent into the canyon. Sean and Adriana followed close behind, leaving Tommy muttering words in his bad accent in an attempt to practice.
"Still sounds the same," he said to himself and hurried to catch up.
The lean path leading down into the canyon would have been a problem for Sean had it been any narrower. As it was, he clung to the inner rock wall like an infant grasping its mother, keeping his right hand touching it at all times. As they reached a bend in the trail and rounded the turn, he switched to his left hand, to keep that feeling of stability.
It was a habit that he'd carried since childhood. Whenever he found himself in a high place, Sean had to touch something solid that made him feel like he was grounded. His fear of heights had been a curse as long as he could remember. He'd tried doing any number of things to get rid of it: therapy, rock climbing, rappelling. None of it had worked. As long as he had a little room like he did on this path, he could still move. There were times, however, when he'd been nearly paralyzed with fear.
His mind drifted back to an episode high in the mountains near an old Buddhist monastery. A staircase cut into the stone — hundreds of feet above the ground — had nearly been his kryptonite. It took him an incredible amount of time to navigate, but in the end he'd done it.
For some people, that might have been enough to shake him of his fear. Not for Sean.
"You okay, buddy?" Tommy asked. There was a hint of ribbing in his voice, but he knew better than to give Sean too much of a hard time. He knew his friend loathed his phobia.
"Yeah," Sean said. "Better with every step closer to the bottom. You gonna be okay coming back up?"
"I guess asking for a donkey to ride back is out of the question."
The two shared a short laugh.
Reece proceeded at a rapid pace, leading the group through a series of turns until they reached the bottom where the path stretched out in two directions. A sparse river ran downhill to the left. He waited for Sean to bring up the rear since Tommy had long since passed him, hiking quickly down the canyon side, seemingly unafraid of the potential danger.
"Which way?" Adriana asked when they stopped at the foot of the trail.
Reece pointed to the right. "Waterfall is that way. Not far now. Probably another fifteen-minute walk."
He took a gulp of water from his bottle and then shoved it back in his rucksack. The others did the same and followed their guide as he navigated around the rocks and bushes.
The temperature in the canyon was much cooler than up above. The rays of the morning sun had yet to bake the basin's rocks completely. Plus the little river provided a cool flow of air just above the water as it ran along the path.
The group heard the waterfall before they saw it. The water crashing over rocks and splashing into a pool below gradually grew louder until they finally rounded a bend in the canyon. Then the canyon opened up into a wide U. Short trees grew sporadically along the water's edge leading to a pool about forty feet across. Big rocks jutted up out of the ground close to the standing water and reminded Sean and Tommy of a few places they'd gone swimming near the mountains of Tennessee.
"Kind of like the secret place back home," Sean said as the group's march stopped next to one of the big rocks.
"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing," Tommy said. "Shame we're in a hurry. Would be a nice place to go for a swim."
Reece took in a deep breath and sighed. He pointed at an area to the right where the path narrowed and continued up around the rocks until it disappeared behind the mist. "You can see the trail keeps going over to there."
"It's definitely shaped like a boomerang," Adriana said. She took in the scenery. "Quite the little getaway spot."
"Yeah. Nothing out here but nature and more nature. City people like to come out here to relax. On the weekends, this place will have quite a few visitors taking a dip."
Sean remained focused on the mission. "I'm going to take a look behind the falls," he said and started up the short hill path. "Hang back for a second."
The others watched as he made his way above the pool. He stopped where the trail narrowed and tested out his footing. Turning his body to face the rock, he secured his rucksack a little tighter against his back and then shimmied to the left, carefully moving a few inches at a time until he disappeared behind the falling water. He was only gone from view for a minute before he reappeared and started making his way back.
When he was back on the wider path, he turned his body and walked back to his companions. Before he reached the rocks where they stood, he shook his head.
"There's nothing back there."
Chapter 23
"What do you mean there's nothing back there?" Tommy asked.
"Just what I said," Sean answered. "There's a little overhang back there, not much of a cave. Just a recession, really. But that's it."
Puzzled, Tommy took a step toward the hill path. "You're sure there's nothing? You weren't up there very long. Maybe there's a secret entrance or something."
Sean snorted a derisive laugh. "Trust me, you can go up there if you want, but you'll find the same thing I did."
"Take a look at these drawings over here," Adriana pointed at some rock art on the canyon wall still enveloped by shade. "Maybe there's a clue."
The others had been so focused on the waterfall, they'd not seen the drawings on the other side of the water.
"How did we miss that?"
"Maybe you were thinking about skinny dipping," Reece joked.
They migrated over to the water's edge to get a closer look. Several depictions of ancient people were painted into the stone. Outlines of white hands were smattered all over in seemingly random places on the scene. A boomerang hovered over the entire section of art.
"Boomerang," Sean said. "This has to be the right place."
They peered at the artwork — half in admiration, half in an attempt to unlock the code potentially hidden within.
"The riddle Mathews left mentioned the underworld. Notice how one of those people in the drawing is horizontal underneath a few wavy lines?"
"Oh yeah," Tommy said. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Looks like we're going to have to take that swim after all."
"Swim?" Reece asked. "You don't think there's something in there, do you? If there was, someone would have found it by now."
"You make a good point," Sean said, slipping his shirt over his head and unbuckling his belt. "But it can't hurt to check."