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Maddock and Bones followed her up the ladder and watched her leave. They then began unloading the SUV. They’d picked up extension cords, halogen lights, extra flashlights, bottled water, sacks and snacks, and more. While Bones moved the equipment into the entry room of the cavern, Maddock set up the motion detectors and security cameras, one of each outside the barn, focused on the doors, and one of each inside the barn, mounted in the loft, facing down. He then linked them into their cell phones and tablet computer. Maddock smiled, thinking it should be Corey Dean setting this up and watching their back for trouble. Luckily, Maddock had picked up a few of their friend’s electronic tricks along the way. Corey wasn’t around, which meant Maddock and Bones didn’t have the luxury of hoping nobody from Trident, or even Johnny himself, showed up.
The last thing Maddock did was set up the cell phone booster to relay signals down into the cavern. Maddock placed the electronic gear they’d picked up from a shop near the hardware store so it wouldn’t be immediately noticed. Anyone with keen interest or eyesight wouldn’t be left in the dark for long. Hopefully they’d be more interested in the extension cords and other obvious signs. Intruders failing to realize they’d been detected would give him and Bones time to respond.
By the time Maddock checked the wireless connections to his cell phone and tablet, Bones had already finished hauling the equipment and setting it up within the cavern. The final preparations Maddock made were to hold the large sliding door in place with a two-by-four, and brace the side door closed with another two-by-four. He further blocked it with a heavy crate. On a last, possibly paranoid thought, he moved the cast-iron keys into one of the seed driller’s grain boxes.
Once back down in the cavern, he asked Bones, “How are we doing?”
Bones set down the rolls of white and blue electrical tape. “I’ve been following the wiring, marking which wires go to the lights and which go to the steel crates.”
Bones pointed to another knife switch, which was both locked and in the off position. “This one goes to the nearest box, filled with TNT, according to the journal. I didn’t mess with it. TNT’s more stable than dynamite, which the brothers thought about using—it would’ve become mostly nitroglycerin by now.” He ran this tongue across his teeth. “Will the boxes still blow if an electric current is sent into the explosive booster?”
Maddock shrugged. “Those guys were probably amateurs.”
Bones showed him the first box dug into one of the walls where there was a fracture in the stone. “There’s a steel box encased in the wood. Moistures rotted the boards. The steel doesn’t looked rusted through. Probably pretty thick.”
“There’s five of these,” Maddock said of the box packed with TNT. It wasn’t a question. More of verification, based upon the journal.
Bones nodded. “I’ve found two already. The last one is placed beyond where the lights’ wiring runs.” He pulled out the journal and flipped to a page near the back. “Near a deep fissure in the ground.”
“Seems the brothers were more interested in readying to destroy the place than explore it,” Maddock said.
“They did years of digging,” Bones replied. “The lights they ran outdid any oil lamps for sure.”
Maddock couldn’t argue. He showed Bones how to access the cameras and motion detectors on his phone and the tablet, then asked, “Search together or separate?”
“A lot of area to cover. Should start with the boxes and old equipment first.”
“If Ruth Harshbinner hadn’t had one of the crystals,” Maddock said, “I wouldn’t give any chance of finding anything down here. Where Trident was harvesting them down in Mexico, it was a lot further underground. Dangerously hot conditions that required environmental suits.”
Bones recalled the Cave of the Crystals. Tam Broderick lost one of her team there. “Could be someone just stashed some of those crystals here.”
Maddock nodded in agreement. The Mixon brothers weren’t the first to discover and explore the cavern they found under their farm. Maybe, in addition to some of the crystals, there was some hidden Atlantian or other advanced equipment the crystals powered.
“Split up?” Maddock asked. “If our cell phones lose signal, we can break out the two-way radios.”
They’d picked up a pair of the inexpensive walkie-talkies. Limited range, but the gear Maddock had set up might not reach everywhere in the cavern complex.
“Na, Bro. Let’s stick close. Search in tandem.”
“Tandem, huh?” Maddock grinned. “Practicing fifty-cent words to impress Brenda?”
“Nope. Dime store words to addle your tiny white-dude brain.”
––––––––
Six hours later, after finishing a snack of beef jerky and water, Bones grimaced in frustration. The shadows across his face formed by the scattered incandescent bulbs that still worked, ironically, seemed to highlight his disappointment.
They’d checked most of the cleared southeast passages. They discovered hundreds of pristine calcite stalactites and stalagmites, some over three and a half feet in length, along with spectacular iron oxide and manganese dioxide formations. Six offshoots that hadn’t been cleared, each identified within the journal, were dead ends with nothing of value. Mud and debris that the slow flow of time and water had packed in them over the centuries, remained there. What the brothers had accomplished while keeping their discovery a secret was monumental. Still, that meant potentially extensive unexcavated passages might lead to hidden chambers holding crystals, or even ancient technological artifacts.
Maddock measured and compared his results with stalactites identified and measured by the brothers over seventy years before. Through conservative calculations, estimating no more than a quarter of a millimeter’s growth in that time span, any offshoot passage having calcite formations in excess of six-inch lengths were deemed at least 20,000 years old. That offered plenty of leeway, knowing their measurements and calculations weren’t exactly scientific. Nevertheless, it narrowed the search by over fifty percent.
Maddock’s knowledge, coupled with scholarly studies, placed Atlantis’s destruction between four and twelve thousand years ago. So, passages with 20,000-year-old calcite formations would predate Atlantis and similar cultures. They’d be unlikely to contain what he and Bones were seeking.
Bones leaned against a damp wall, looking at the dirt and grime covering him from head to toe. “We should shower at the hotel and plug their drains instead of Mrs. Harshbinner’s pipes, unless you think Johnny’s going to inherit the place.”
Maddock heard his friend and nodded as he turned the pages of the journal. “Why wouldn’t they list where they found the expended crystal?”
“Why would they need to?” Bones replied. “Something they wouldn’t forget.”
Maddock re-examined the journal’s cut-out portions and shook his head. Nothing directly or in context suggested the expended crystal Maddock carried in his pocket.
It’d take months of manual labor to clear everything out. If he and Bones didn’t find anything in the next few days, Tam Broderick could send her people to finish the excavation—if Ruth Harshbinner retained possession of the farm, and allowed it.
Bones said, “What if Mrs. Harshbinner’s husband got the crystal somewhere else. She might’ve forgotten and just made up what she didn’t remember?”
––––––––
Three hours later, they’d covered nearly a mile of passages. Some they had to crawl for yards to access, but most maintained a ceiling height between four and seven feet and ranged from two to six feet wide, with rooms that, while low in height were like expansive rock shelves that had dropped several feet. Those were littered with delicate calcite formations. The cramped, dark, damp and shadowy conditions didn’t wear on the veteran explorers like it would most men and women. The tedium, however, did.
After examining every nook and cranny in about a quarter of the mapped area, and replacing their Maglite batteries for the third time, Maddock and Bones were about ready to call it a day when both of their phones vibrated.
They hurried a short way back to where they’d left the tablet. The grainy black and white video feed showed Brenda in jeans, boots and a plaid shirt. She stood outside the barn, knocking on the door. Dolph, her canine companion trotted over and sat down next to her.
“She’s the type of woman that’ll get loud if she has to wait too long,” Bones said, making his way back down the narrow cavern passage. “Luckily, we’re beyond Podunkville’s suburbs, so only corn, beans, and cows will hear her.”
With their luck, Maddock thought, probably not.
––––––––
The fact that Maddock and Bones hadn’t done any recording drew a suspicious look from Brenda. They allowed her to do some video recording while they lowered the extension cords and other equipment down into the cavern before locking it up for the evening. That appeared to placate her.
Bones had just dropped down the end of the last 150-foot extension cord to Maddock when he heard Brenda’s startled scream.
Even though there were scattered lights where she’d gone to video record, Maddock grabbed his heavy-duty Maglite and raced down the series of passages. By the time he reached Brenda, she’d stumbled some distance without a flashlight.
“Maddock!” she said. “I saw that ghost. I think I got a few seconds recorded before the damn camcorder died.” She paused, a confused look on her face. “My flashlight died too, at the same time. Then the ghost disappeared. Sort of faded back into the dark.”
Bones trotted up, hunched down to avoid the low ceiling. “What’s the deal? Worms and centipedes shouldn’t bother a farm girl like you.”
She scowled at him. “If you saw a ghost, you big jerk, you’d be surprised too.”
“I wouldn’t scream like a girl,” he teased.
“Whatever,” she said. “I got it on camera. You’d’ve probably ran home to your mama.”
Maddock laughed, but knew otherwise. Anything paranormal would’ve piqued his partner’s curiosity. Even more, Bones would rather die of fright than try to live down squealing and running.
Bones led the way back through the cavern, past where Brenda said she saw the ghost. Nothing.
“Let’s get up top,” Maddock said, “and see what you recorded.”
Brenda raised an eyebrow. “So you believe me when I say I saw a ghost?”
“We’ve seen a lot,” Bones said. “Ghosts are supposed to drain batteries. Maybe that’s why your flashlight and the camcorder died.”
Maddock went up the narrow stairs, headed for the ladder first. Before Brenda followed, Bones asked her, “Did you feel a chill at the same time?”
“Well, yeah,” she said. “I felt a quick chill, like standing in a walk-in freezer. That’s what startled me into...well, screaming—a little.” With a pursed-lip smile, she looked up at Bones who stood hunched over again because of the low ceiling. “That, and my flashlight leaving me in the dark—with a ghost.”
Bones gestured for her to go up the stairs. “You wouldn’t be the first chick creeped out by a ghost.”
Maddock had retrieved the cast-iron keys before Brenda made it up. Fortunately, Dolph just sat and watched him.
They slid a fresh battery in the camcorder and packed around the tiny preview screen.
“Right about now,” Brenda said, anticipation in her voice.
No ghost. But two seconds before the recording ended, glowing light, about waist height, appeared. It was reminiscent of foxfire’s bioluminescence except, instead of pale green, it was a steely cobalt blue.
“That’s weird,” Brenda said, rerunning the end sequence. “Maybe ghosts are like vampires. You can’t see them in mirrors or film them.” She looked up at Bones and Maddock over her shoulder. “You guys haven’t seen any vampires ever, have you?”
“That would be a negative,” Bones said. “Ask me about aliens, and you won’t get a straight answer.”
Unsure how to take that response, Brenda asked, “You guys ever watch that alien-astronaut dude on TV? The one with the hair that stands up straight, like he’s seen a ghost?”
Bones made a face. “Whoa, chick! That dude rules!”
“Seriously?”
“You know how Muslims don’t want people disrespecting their prophet?” Maddock said. “That’s how Bones is with the ancient aliens guy.”
Brenda rolled her eyes. “You guys are strange.”