AS HE TRAILED AFTER MOLLY down the new tunnel, Michael remained uncomfortably aware of the revolver’s solid weight in his hand. The mechanics of the weapon would be no problem. He’d shot a gun before, as research for games. He had good aim according to the ex–Special Boat Services man that had taught him the difference between semiautomatic pistols and revolvers. But Michael was uneasy around guns. While he enjoyed shooting paper targets at the range, the thought of what a bullet could do to a flesh-and-blood human being was something else.
He’d seen a few dead bodies since coming to Blackpool and the images often haunted Michael at night.
Are you prepared to do it, mate? Can you kill someone? He didn’t want to think that he could, but if Molly’s life was on the line, he would.
That certainty brought him no comfort.
The gypsies continued to yell and curse behind them. A full-fledged search was under way.
“DID I EVER TELL YOU HOW I spent three full days lost in the Misty Corners of Drable in Dark God’s Catacombs?” Molly couldn’t believe she was talking, and was embarrassed by the fear she heard in her own voice.
“No.”
“That was before I met you and knew you’d designed that level of the game, but I hated you for those three days.”
“A lot of people did while they were in Misty Corners, but they felt quite the opposite when they finally got through.” Michael watched the walls, looking for any indication that would tell him where they were, she assumed. For as much as she knew, they were headed away from Blackpool, not toward it.
“How did Draghici find this place?” she asked.
“Hand-me-down stories from his ancestors.”
Molly shone her light at the next juncture. “Which way?”
“Take the first.”
Three corners later, Molly swept the torch over an area with two connecting tunnels in addition to the right-hand turn. She couldn’t fathom how Michael could be memorizing them all, but she was certain that he was. “There are two left turns this time.”
“Pick one, and if you come up to a door configuration like this again, keep choosing the same doorway. At least this path seems to be taking us away from where we’ve been.”
Molly walked into the tunnel and hurried ahead. The light bounced before her and she kept watch for any lights approaching from the opposite direction. The fear that she’d run upon someone hiding in the darkness haunted her.
Gradually, the tunnel grew larger. The stink of brine hung in the air. On another day, standing on the deck of their boat with the sun overhead, Molly would have enjoyed the smell. But not now.
The sudden descent almost tripped her up. Before Michael could reach for her, she caught herself by slamming a hand into the wall. The flashlight banged against the stone, as well, going dark for a few moments.
The flashlight’s beam suddenly expanded in front of Molly and disappeared. Startled, she stopped so quickly that Lydia ran into her and nearly knocked her down. Michael hauled Lydia up while Molly managed on her own.
She shone the light around the vast space in front of them. “This is a cave.” Water lapped at an irregular shoreline only a short distance in front of them. Something metallic gleamed briefly in the darkness.
“This is a dead end,” Molly said. “We’re going to have to go back.”
Michael released Lydia and stepped forward. “Put the torch more to the right. I thought I saw something there.”
When the beam of light shifted, it revealed the bow of a powerboat sitting at anchor in the cave’s natural harbor.
IN FRONT OF THEM, A RICKETY wooden pier ran out a dozen feet into the water. As the boat floated, it bumped up against the pier hard enough to make it vibrate.
Michael scanned the deck warily for signs of any of Draghici’s men as he brought the pistol up. Lydia stepped back.
No one was aboard the boat.
Michael let the pistol fall to his side again. “Well, we know how Draghici and his men got here.”
Behind the boat, a broad, low cave mouth opened out into the sea. Wind blew through the gap and brought a chill that bit at Michael’s nose and ears. Lydia wrapped her arms around herself and his heart went out to her, but there was nothing he could do.
He held out his hand to Molly. “Might I borrow the torch?”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Molly, one of Draghici’s men could be on that boat.”
“If so, you’ll need both hands to deal with him.”
Reluctantly, knowing he was in for a fight they could ill afford to have at the moment, Michael nodded. “Together, then.” With Molly to his left and slightly behind him, they went forward. The wood of the pier was rotted and broken, shivering under their weight, and he worried that it would give way beneath them before they reached the boat.
Let the keys be in it. Let the keys be in it. Michael kept up the silent mantra till he threw a leg over the side and Molly directed the torchlight over the controls.
There were no keys.
Thankfully there was no one aboard, either.
“I don’t suppose Keith taught you how to hot-wire a boat.”
Michael unclipped a torch from beside the steering wheel and grabbed a couple of nylon jackets that would at least protect against the wind. “Keith’s not really a boat person.” He clicked the torch on and shone it around the deck. “Take a look. What else we can salvage.”
A rifle hung in the cabin and Michael was sorely tempted to take it. Draghici’s gypsies probably used it to fend off sharks, but he figured the weapon would be too unwieldy in the caves. Besides, he wasn’t a sniper by any stretch of the imagination. Shooting a man in cold blood was something he was sure he couldn’t do. He’d use the revolver only in close quarters if he absolutely had to.
Still, he couldn’t leave the rifle for Draghici and his men. He heaved the weapon over the side and it sank into the water like a rock.
“Here’s an emergency kit.” Molly hauled her prize up and set it on the stern seats.
The red steel box looked promising, but it turned out not to hold much. Michael had to admit that finding a police radio or a helicopter, even the keys, inside would have been too much to expect.
Waves lapped at the boat’s hull as he and Molly sorted through everything in the cabin. They kept the flare gun and three rounds, a roll of duct tape, a fishing knife and a Leatherman multitool.
Molly also took half a dozen energy bars and five water bottles she found in an ice chest. “Lydia and I missed dinner.”
“I don’t have enough pockets for everything.” Michael glanced around.
“You could always duct tape everything to you.”
“Now who’s being inappropriately funny?”
Molly opened more seat compartments and brought out a vinyl rucksack. “This?”
“Will work beautifully.” Michael took the rucksack and stuffed the items into it while she pulled on one of the windbreakers.
“I’ve also got more batteries for the flashlights. I mean, the torches.”
Michael grinned and kissed her. “I knew what you meant. I’ve given up hope that you’ll ever speak the Queen’s English the way it’s meant to be spoken.” He added the batteries to the rucksack.
“Someone’s coming!” Lydia called from the shoreline.
Looking toward the tunnel they’d just left, Michael saw that light was filling the space. “Time to go.”
“Where?”
Scanning the cave, he discovered the cave had precious few hiding places, and none of them good. Hiding on the boat would only get them recaptured in short order.
“I think I see another tunnel.” Molly aimed her torch at the wall on the opposite side of the cave, about forty yards away. “Isn’t that a trail?”
Staring hard, Michael barely made out the worn path. “It is. Good eyes. Let’s go.” He climbed out of the boat and gave Molly a hand up. Then they ran down the swaying pier to Lydia.
The young woman held her hands up in front of her. She was shaking and nearly frantic. “They’re going to kill us.”
“Not yet.” Michael helped her into the other jacket he’d found, then grabbed her arm and followed Molly as she ran along the narrow U-shaped trail that bordered the miniature harbor.
The light in the other tunnel grew steadily brighter. They were almost at the mouth of the second entrance when Draghici’s gypsies poured into the harbor cave.
“There they are!”
Harsh thunder cracks crescendoed through the cavern. Bullets tore sparks from the wall around Michael. He watched over Molly, willing her not to be injured.
“Stop shooting, Mihai, you bloody fool!”
Silence fell.
“If you kill them before Draghici tells you to, he’ll tie a boat anchor around your feet and dump you into the sea.”
Breath burning his throat and his heart pounding, Michael guided Lydia into the tunnel after Molly. The gunshots still echoed in his ears. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted three torches careening down the incline toward the water. There were more men than he’d thought.
He turned his back to the harbor and concentrated on running for his life.
“MICHAEL, THERE ARE TWO tunnels ahead.” Molly’s torch cast a broad arc. “I’m going to stay to the right.”
“Sounds fine.”
Lydia staggered and almost fell, kept vertical only by Michael’s quick reflexes. She was flagging, almost out of breath. She wouldn’t be able to maintain this pace.
“This is stupid.” Lydia gasped for air. “We don’t know where we’re going.”
Michael kept hold of her elbow and tried to support her as much as he could. “We’re heading in the opposite direction from Draghici and his goons. For the moment, I’ll count that as a win. As for where we’re going, that harbor back there gave us a clue.”
“How?”
“The cave mouth faced the sea, and the sea is to the east of Blackpool. We had to cross the harbor to get here, which means we’re headed south toward Blackpool.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. Just keep moving.”
“I’ll try.”
Molly entered the tunnel on the right and Michael followed.
A HANDFUL OF TURNS LATER, Lydia started retching. Michael watched, feeling sorry for her, but there was nothing he could do. The pace he and Molly set was brutal to someone who didn’t work out regularly. Luckily Lydia had been able to keep up long enough to get them away from Draghici’s thugs.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Lydia’s voice was plaintive.
“You’re doing fine.” Molly lifted her hands behind her head to open her lungs more. “Put your hands behind your head like this. It’ll help you recover more quickly.”
While Molly coached Lydia and kept her from panicking, Michael studied the tunnel and noticed a new opening in the side wall. He turned his torchlight onto the floor and looked for the engravings he knew had to be there.
A single line showed.
He knelt and brushed at it, making sure there wasn’t a second line beside the first. He still wasn’t certain of the significance of the six symbols he’d found on the model he and Rohan had put together. In their haste to escape their pursuers, he hadn’t been able to get a close view of the symbols as they’d rushed through the intersections. But his subconscious had hold of something and was worrying at whatever it was like a terrier.
It floated at the back of his mind, tantalizingly just out of reach.
Voices echoed in the tunnel, coming closer again. He returned to Molly and Lydia. “Can you go on?” he asked Lydia.
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” She heaved herself off the wall and they hurried on.