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The desolation that confronted Matt almost brought him to his knees. The house was levelled. There was no sign of Jena.
“Keep it together,” Harry ordered him. As though Matt had any other choice.
“Over here,” Lake yelled. “Two guys. Both injured. One unconscious.”
Matt ran to where Lake was standing beside the road. A car had been thrown off the tarmac into the bushes. A guy lay out cold beside it, blood on his head. The other one was propped against a tree, cradling his arm. Matt recognised the type—Glasgow thugs.
Matt strode over to the one who was conscious. “Jena. The woman. Was she in the house?”
The thug ran his tongue over dirty lips. “Naw. She was in Frank’s car.”
Matt looked around. He didn’t see a car. “Where?”
“Up the road a wee bit.”
“Lake?”
“I’m on it.”
Matt took a step towards the guy. His body vibrated with barely contained rage. “Is she hurt? Did you hurt her?”
The hard Glaswegian thug licked his lips again nervously. “We didnea touch her.”
He was leaving something out. Deliberately. “Did Frank touch her?”
“Just a slap.”
The rage inside Matt turned cold. Frank Di Marco was a dead man.
“Matt.” Lake’s voice was eerily calm as it came through Matt’s earpiece. “Get over here. We have a problem.”
Matt felt fear battle anger. “If anything has happened to her...”
He watched the man pale before he turned and ran towards Lake. He barked an order over his shoulder at Jason, telling him to watch the men.
Lake was standing at the edge of what used to be a field. Now it was a series of ravines. The earth had collapsed into the old mine shafts. Matt could hardly process what he was seeing. Before the explosions there had been a grassy expanse between Jena’s and Abby’s houses. Now there was dust, rubble and holes in the earth. Beyond the field he could see Abby standing on the doorstep of her house, Katy in her arms. Matt pulled out his phone and dialled her number. He watched as she reached into her pocket and retrieved her phone.
“She was running over the field and just disappeared.” Abby’s voice shook.
Matt stilled. “Jena?”
“She fell into the mine.” It was a whisper.
Matt’s heart actually stopped as he stared at the mess in front of him. She was under this?
“Lake.” Matt looked at this friend. “Jena’s under here.”
Lake’s jaw clenched. “We need silence.” He pressed his ear and gave the order. Matt relayed the word to Abby. The whole area went deadly silent.
That was when they heard it. The best sound Matt could ever have heard.
“Help, somebody help me.”
Jena.
Jena was pretty sure her ankle was broken. From the pain she had when she took a breath, she would guess there were a couple of cracked ribs as well. She used the light feature on her still intact cell phone to look around her. She’d slid down with some earth and landed in an old tunnel. The whole area between her house and Abby’s was a warren of tunnels and shafts. Some of them quite close to the surface. From the time it’d taken her to fall, Jena guessed she wasn’t buried very deep. She looked up at the earth packed above her and swallowed hard. Okay, deep was relative—she was still pretty far underground.
The earth had collapsed on either side of her, leaving her in what looked like a small room. There was no way out. All she could do was hope the support beams holding up the dirt over her head would stay where they were. One of the collapsed dirt walls had an old pipe sticking out of it. A wide, rusting metal pipe that had come down with the explosion. Jena waved her hand in front of it—there was air coming through it. A slightly cooler breeze.
Her heart raced. If there was air, then the other end of the pipe had to be above the surface. She dragged her broken leg closer to the pipe, breaking out in a sweat as she did so. The pain made her sob. She clenched her teeth as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She couldn’t pass out. She wouldn’t pass out.
She checked again to make sure it wasn’t possible to ring for help, but, unsurprisingly, there was no cell reception underground. Taking a deep breath, she pressed her mouth to the pipe and shouted for help.
Someone had to hear her.
The alternative was too horrific to contemplate.
“There.” Lake pointed to a dip in the ground with an old broken pipe sticking out of it.
They ran to it. Matt sank to his knees. The pipe was wide, large enough for him to fit a hand inside. Jena’s voice came out through it. She sounded strained and terrified. Without hesitating, Matt put his mouth to the pipe.
“Jena, we’re here. We’re going to get you out.”
He heard faint, relieved sobbing.
“It’s okay, princess. It’s going to be okay.” Damn, he hoped he was telling the truth. She had to be okay. There was no other option.
“I’m in a bit of the tunnel that’s still standing. There’s a collapse on either side of me,” Jena shouted.
Matt looked around him and knew exactly where she was. There were two large sinkholes with an island of grass between them. One of several islands in a sea of ravines and potholes. His heart raced. She’d been lucky. She could have easily been buried with one of the sinkholes instead of being pushed into a cavern.
“I think my ankle is broken and my ribs are cracked.”
He closed his eyes. “We’re going to get you out. I promise.”
“I’m scared, Matt.”
“I know, princess. It won’t be long. Just hold on tight.”
“Is that her?” Magenta and Harry came running up to stand beside him.
“I picked Magenta up,” Harry said. “She’ll know what’s down there.”
Magenta took in the alien landscape in front of her. “She’s at a junction. Those have extra reinforcement.” She pointed over the field. “See the pattern? Every grassy bit is a junction.”
Now she’d pointed it out, Matt could see the pattern. The junctions were grass islands in a sea of dirt.
“That’s good, right?” He didn’t want to sound desperate, but he couldn’t help it.
Magenta nodded. “Really good. If they haven’t collapsed by now, they probably won’t. She’s safe.” She bit her lip and cast a worried look at Harry.
“What?” Matt demanded. “What else?”
“She’s safe unless there’s another explosion.”
Matt’s stomach clenched. “Is there likely to be another explosion?”
“I don’t think so.” Magenta looked at Harry, and there was uncertainty in her eyes. “I found some explosives in the mine when I checked it for Abby. I cleared them out and called in some munitions experts to check the rest of it. They’re due out this week.” She looked devastated. “I didn’t think there was a need to rush. I’d cut off that whole section of the mine.”
“The second explosion.” Matt rubbed his face. “That was explosives in the mine?”
“Yeah,” Magenta said. “The good news is, if there are more explosives, they should have gone off with the first lot. Chain reaction sort of thing.”
“Okay.” Matt clenched his jaw. “Let’s assume everything that could explode already has. How do we get her out?”
Magenta looked around. “We need to dig through the most stable area, otherwise we’ll bring more dirt down on her. There.” Magenta pointed to the middle of the grass area. “Dig in the centre. Keep it small. You shouldn’t have to go down too far. You might even be lucky and hit an old air shaft, and speed things up. This area is covered in them.”
Matt looked at the gaping hole between him and the island of grass. “How the hell do we get a digger over there?”
“We can do it,” said a voice. It was Grunt.
Matt looked up to find Grunt, Joe and Lake standing there, looking like members of the A-Team.
“We did stuff like this all the time in the marines,” Joe said.
Matt looked at Lake, who nodded confidently. Matt took a shaky breath. “You got what you need?”
“I’ll get it,” Lake said.
The men set off at a run as Matt turned back to the pipe. “We’re coming to get you. Magenta is here and she knows where you are exactly. Lake, Grunt and Joe are getting the equipment we need to dig you out.”
Magenta tapped his shoulder. “Can I talk to her?”
Reluctantly, Matt moved out of the way.
“Jena,” Magenta shouted into the pipe. “I need you to find a corner under a beam. Can you see down there?”
“I have a flashlight app on my phone.”
“Good. Get to a corner under a beam. Stay there. We’re going to dig through the middle of the ceiling above you. The rubble trapping you shouldn’t get too disturbed, but you might get some dust. Do you have something you can use to cover your mouth and nose?”
“Yeah,” came the trembling reply.
Matt clenched his fists. This was the last time he was ever going to let her out of his sight. Every time she was unsupervised she got injured. The woman was a magnet for accidents and mishaps. He hung his head as he tried to calm his breathing. He’d wrap her in freaking cotton wool if he had to.
“If the air gets too stuffy, breathe at this pipe,” Magenta shouted. “You aren’t that far down. It shouldn’t take long to get to you. Try to stay calm.”
Magenta signalled for him to come to the pipe. “Talk to her. Keep her calm. Make sure she’s okay. This shouldn’t take long once the equipment is here. Look, you can tell how deep she is by how much the earth has fallen on either side of her. This part of the mine is near the surface. She was lucky.” She gave him a quick hug. “I’ll go get my climbing gear. Don’t worry, Matt, we know what we’re doing.”
She ran for her car. Harry patted Matt on his shoulder. “You stay here. Talk to your woman. I’ll coordinate with the emergency crews. They should be here any minute. We’ll get the area checked out and cordon the dangerous bits off. I already sent someone over to check on Abby. She’s shaken up but fine. The mine doesn’t run under her house, so that’s good, but the mushroom farm was taken out in the blast. There’s no way to salvage her business.”
Matt ran a hand over his face.
“Frank?” he asked Harry.
“In the wind. I’ve put out the word to keep an eye out for him. His car’s still here. He can’t have gotten far.”
“How the hell did he get back here so fast? He must have just jumped another flight as soon as he got back to the States.”
“I’ll find out what happened.” Harry’s tone was grim. He nodded to the ground. “Let’s get Jena sorted first, then we’ll deal with that moron.”
“Aye.” Matt nodded.
“Matt?” Jena’s slightly panicked voice drifted up to him.
He knelt beside the pipe. “It’s okay, princess, I’m here.”