“Signal?”
Taylor shook his head. He resisted the temptation to hurl his BlackBerry at the nearest mountaintop. “We didn’t run them off. They’re either blocking the road ahead or going for a better position.”
“Or both.”
“Or both. Either way, we can’t retreat. Not without the Bionic Baby Maker.”
“She’s not going far.” Will ejected his pistol magazine, checked the clip, reinserted the magazine. That would be his second and last clip. At a rough estimate, Taylor guessed Will probably had six, maybe seven, rounds left. He hadn’t been planning to go to war. Neither of them had. He reached in his pocket, tossed Will one of his extras. It wasn’t regulation, but Taylor always carried extra extras.
Will took it, slipping it in his vest pocket. “I guess that answers the question about whether she was faking labor.”
“I guess. Listen, Brandt. If that car’s still running, I think you should take it and head for the nearest ranger station. We need some support here. There isn’t any point trying to keep this thing secret now.”
“And in the meantime, you’re going to do what?”
“I’m going to find Hedwig and go to ground with her until you show up with reinforcements.”
“The guy who thinks Descanso Gardens is a wilderness is going to try tracking someone through Lincoln National Forest? I don’t think so.”
“Hey, she’s no wilderness expert either. I’m the perfect choice to track her. She’s going to think like me.”
“Very funny. We’re sticking together.”
That was the way Taylor would prefer it, but honesty compelled him to speak. “We need some backup. We’ve got Dick and Jane ahead of us and, for all we know, Nemov coming up on our ass. Ramirez might even be out there somewhere. The situation is out of our control. We need help.”
“We’re sticking together.”
“Would you listen to me?”
“Would you listen to me? I’m not leaving you out here.”
What a really bad time to get choked up, but Will was glaring at him, mouth thinned to a white line and eyes so bright they were glittering. Bad timing for both of them.
“Will…”
“I’m. Not. Leaving. You. Got that?”
Taylor took a deep breath. “It’s okay. I know you’ll come back.”
To his surprise, Will’s hand closed on his shoulder and pulled him forward into a fleeting but adamant press of mouths.
“You’re right. I will. Always.” He released Taylor and turned away. “Let’s go. It can get dark fast in the mountains.”
* * * * *
“Is there any chance she didn’t come this way?” They had been searching the tree-covered hills for half an hour with no sign of Hedwig anywhere. Now it was mostly a series of rocky downhill slopes. Where the ground wasn’t rock, it was covered in golden wheat. Or something that looked like wheat but was more likely weeds. There were a few scraggly pine trees and a lot of juniper and cactus. The air was sharp and clear as a crystal bell, and every clack of rock on rock seemed to carry for miles.
“This is the closest thing to a trail.”
Which wasn’t saying much.
Taylor paused to look over his shoulder — which was when he felt the ground give way.
For a confused instant, he thought he’d misstepped, that he was falling down the hillside, and then he realized that he was falling into the hillside. The ground caved in around him, dirt and rock crumbling down on him as he sank.
He seemed to hang, suspended, clawing the thick, moist dark, trying to climb back up to air and light, squinching his eyelids, spitting, breathing out against the smothering shower of debris. It felt for a moment like he might fight gravity.
Then he plummeted. He landed in soft earth, though hard enough to knock the wind out of him.
He could hear Will yelling. It sounded like a long way away.
Taylor blinked a couple of times and began to rapidly take stock. Fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs…everything seemed to be working. He gingerly lifted his head. A cone of light spilled down from the hole in the ceiling above his head.
A good twenty feet above his head.
“Taylor? Can you hear me? Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
Will’s head appeared in the opening above.
“Brandt!”
“Jesus Christ. You scared the shit out of me, MacAllister.”
You and me both. But Taylor refrained from saying it. Will sounded about as rattled as Taylor’d ever heard him.
“You can move? Are you injured?”
Taylor slowly picked himself up. “I’m okay.”
“Are you sure?”
“Uh, I think so.” He moved into the shaft of sunlight, brushing the grit and pine needles from his clothes and hands. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Do you see a way to climb up?”
Taylor looked around. He was forced to reluctantly admit, “No.”
Will swore.
“Tell me about it. Why does this stuff always happen to me?” He thought of all the movies he’d seen where caves were filled with snakes or skeletons or bears. Occasionally treasure, true, but usually snakes, skeletons, and bears. With his luck? At the very least, giant spiders.
It occurred to Taylor that Will had been silent for a couple of minutes. He looked up. Will was still there, looking down at him. Taylor began to see Will’s predicament.
“See, if you’d gone for help when I asked…”
“Not funny,” Will said tersely.
“All right, all right.” He felt around in his pockets. He was going to have bruises all over his body from falling on the junk he carried. He pulled out his pencil flashlight and shone it slowly around the walls of his prison. Rock…earth…jutting roots…a darker shadow…
He went to examine it.
“What are you doing?” Will called.
“Hang on.”
That darker shadow turned out to be a slit in the wall. Taylor shone his light into it. He could feel cool air pushing against his skin.
He moved back into the ring of light. Was it fading? He couldn’t tell.
“There’s some kind of an opening in the wall. Maybe a tunnel.”
Will was shaking his head. “No. Not a good idea.”
“Really? What’s your plan?”
Silence. Poor Will. Taylor sympathized. Will didn’t like not being in control, and this situation was definitely out of control.
“Listen. Try and find the girl. I’ll see if I can find another way out of here.”
“You listen. Some of these New Mexico caves are huge. Miles long. You can’t tell how big yours might be from the chamber you’re standing in. And there isn’t going to be any light. You won’t be able to see a foot in front of you.”
“I’ll be able to see exactly a foot in front of me.” Taylor held up his pencil flashlight.
“Seriously?”
“We don’t have a lot of time here, Brandt. Our friends in the hearse could be closing in on Hedwig right now. You need to go.”
“Do you have a way to mark your trail?”
Taylor held on to his patience with an effort. “I could take a leaf from Riley’s book, but no. Short answer? No.”
Will raked a nervous hand through his hair. “I don’t like this.”
“I’m not loving it either. Would you just go hurry up and find Hedwig? She’s probably giving birth under a tree right now.”
Will swore. “All right. But…watch yourself. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“You mean besides falling into an underground cave?”
“Besides that.” Will stood up. “I’ll be back.” He disappeared from the opening.
“So you keep telling me,” Taylor muttered.
* * * * *
The tunnel smelled weird. It smelled sulfurous and animal. Hopefully there was no poison gas…
Maybe the tunnel led to the center of the earth. Maybe it was the pathway to hell. Either way, it was pitch-dark and narrow — and perhaps he was even working against an upward incline. It was hard to tell in the disorienting dark. So narrow in a couple of spots that Taylor had to fight with himself to keep going. He had never been claustrophobic before, but the fear of getting trapped in this hole in the ground kept skyrocketing his pulse and turning his legs to jelly.
As lean and wiry as Taylor was, he had to wriggle through a couple of very tight places, and he wasn’t sure he could wriggle back. It was only the knowledge that Will needed him — and the belief that the cool wafts of fresh air he felt on his perspiring face meant there was an opening somewhere close by — that kept him moving.
He was surprised to find he was about as scared as he’d ever been. He was not going to like being in tight, enclosed spaces after this; that was for sure.
The flashlight beam fluttered against the slick darkness like a white moth, and a couple of times — to his frank horror — it faded out.
If the light went entirely, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t break. Better not to think about it. Better to just keep moving, keep pushing and wriggling — forget about the fact that he probably couldn’t get back if his life depended on it, that he might die, wedged here beneath this fucking mountain.
There was more air against his face. He could feel…a breeze. And perhaps the pitchy blackness was fading a little?
Yes. There was light ahead. Light spilling through a jagged lightning-shaped opening.
He sped up, stumbling toward it, almost dizzy with relief.
Fresh air. Daylight. Freedom. He was embarrassingly close to hyperventilating his abject gratitude. Thank God there was no one to witness — and he sure as hell was never going to tell Will how bad it had been. How bad he had let it become in his mind.
Taylor reached the opening. It too was narrow, but it would have had to be the size of a paper cut to prevent him from getting out. He stuck his left hand and leg through and started to wriggle.
The sound of voices stopped him.
Male and female.
“I can’t tell if they came this way or not,” the male voice said.
Not Will.
Taylor drew hastily back. He listened.
The woman answered, but her voice was less distinct. She was farther down the hillside, already past the cave but out of his sight line.
He heard a clattering sound of falling rocks. It sounded still farther away. So where were they?
Taylor stuck his arm and leg out of the opening and began to twist. The rocks tore his shirt and scraped his skin, but that didn’t matter. It was wide enough, and he was getting through.
He wriggled some more, and then he was out. Out into the amber sunlight. Yellow dust motes floated above the wheat-colored grass. And far down the hillside — much farther than he’d thought from the sound of their voices — were the man and woman from the black sedan.