Uncover Me

by Linda Barlow

"Fuck you," I groaned. No bullet wounds was fine with me. I wasn't planning to die anytime soon, and being abandoned in a fairly large cavern with plenty of air to breathe didn't scare me.

  But Ellie was different. "Oh no," she whispered, sounding scared for the first time since this nightmare had begun. "Please no."

  Something twisted in me at the sight of her huge eyes widening in her pale, lovely face. She had been so brave. She had confronted her claustrophobia, entering the cave and taking the photographs without revealing to anybody how monumental a task this had been for her. She had faced Nigel down in a manner that I'd never expected...and beaten the asshole, too. Shit. It wasn't fair that her hard-won courage should be snatched from her at the last moment.

  Damn. I couldn't think of any fucking way to forgive myself for bringing her into this mess. If only I'd set her free right at the start. If only I hadn't developed a crazy yearning for her. If I could find a way to save her life, I'd gladly give up my own.

  As this thought shot through my mind, I realized that the impossible had happened. I'd fallen for her. Madly, deeply, truly. How sad and ironic that I should discover this now, when it was probably too late.

  Chapter 38

  ELLIE

  I felt sick. It was as if a big hard hand had reached into my chest and squeezed all the blood out of my heart. Nick was hurt—beaten more badly than Nigel had been the previous night. As the realization set in that we were trapped here, I shrank against him, cradling his injured body, but also needing comfort myself. I could see my own tears gleaming amid the gold of his hair. Then silence gathered, pressing upon my eardrums until I wanted to scream to break its awful tyranny.

  We were sealed inside the cave, and it seemed so freaking dark. It wasn't actually dark at all, but my mind was sliding into panic mode.

  The brain doesn't always behave in the most sensible way. I'd almost been shot and Nigel had put a gun to Nick's head, but instead of obsessing about the narrowness of our escape, I was plunged into terror about something much more amorphous. All I could focus on was that I was trapped underground with someone I cared about lying injured beside me. Not my mother, this time, but Nick. I felt dislocated, as if we were not on an island off the coast of Turkey, but lost in time and space in the narrow passageway of a small, undistinguished pyramid, where my mom and I had been stuck when I'd been a child.

  Nigel's crew had taken their flashlights with them, which made the cavern seem much darker, even though some light was entering through the fissure in the ceiling. I hated the dark. Fucking dark. I had to get out, out, out. I couldn't stand this—it was going to break me wide open and spill my pieces everywhere.

  I wrestled with my terror. It flowed over me in waves: a riptide of fear that would leave me mindless, irrational, insane. I battled it just as I'd always done, until I finally remembered that fighting just made it worse. Why did it always take so long to remember that?

  I reached deep inside for something to hold on to. For courage, dignity, strength. I had those things, didn't I? So what if I get scared sometimes? Who doesn't?

  I dropped my face against Nick's shoulder and hugged him. Don't fight it. I let the darkness roll over me; let the terror come.

  And it did come. The fast and furious what-ifs began, as always, but this time I countered each of them with a relentless answer: What if I die of fright? Then I'll be dead and none of this will matter. What if Nick dies? Then I'll be alone. What if we survive, only to succumb slowly to a horrible death by thirst and hunger? What will happen, will happen. Everybody dies.

  "Hang on, Ellie. Don't be afraid. You're not alone in the dark."

  Tears coursed down my cheeks. Nick had been severely beaten. He must be in terrible pain, yet he was thinking of me. "I'm doing fine," I lied. "I'm okay."

  Nick shifted and groaned again. "You shouldn't be trying to move," I said. "Please try to rest, and save your strength."

  "We'll be okay, babe." He squeezed my fingers. "The cave is huge and fresh air comes in through the fissure in the roof. Light comes in too—it's not that dark in here."

  "We still have the lights I was using for the photography. I don't know how long the batteries will last, though. They were on all morning. They took my camera, with all the pictures."

  "My pack is over there against the wall. Can you reach it? There's a flashlight in there and a bottle of water."

  I did, and was relieved to find both items. There were actually two liters of water in the pack they'd allowed Nick to carry on his back to the cave. But how long would that much water last? I offered Nick some. He only took a couple of sips. I took a sip myself, then recapped the plastic bottle.

  "Okay then," Nick said. "There's no immediate danger. By tomorrow this island will be crawling with law enforcement types. They'll get us out of here."

  I rubbed his scored wrists gently to restore the circulation. "Will they be able to find us?"

  "They will," he said in a firm voice. "Don't forget about Metin. He knows about the cave. He's a smart kid."

  If he's still alive, I thought grimly. I suspected Nick was thinking the same thing. Nigel would surely have taken steps to eliminate Metin. I pictured the handsome young man with the dark, merry eyes. Please be all right, Metin. Please look for us. Please find us.

  "Are you sure you're okay?" Nick reached up a finger to touch my cheek. "This must be scary for you. I'm so sorry." His hand fell back to his side and clenched into a fist. "I should never have dragged you into this mess."

  "Ssh, Nick. Please lie down." I shifted our positions so he could lay his poor head in my lap. I was sure it must be throbbing. "If you hadn't carried me off, I wouldn't have fallen for you." I tried to joke around. "Or had so much amazing sex."

  He chuckled. "We'll have more amazing sex, I promise you." There was a long pause, before he added, "Fallen for me?"

  I smiled. That would have been so easy for him to ignore. "Don't pretend you didn't know. It was sorta love at first sight, but a little delayed because of harsh treatment and spankings and ropes around my neck."

  "You were calling it Stockholm syndrome a few days ago."

  "Yeah, well that was before I knew you loved dancing and music and ancient languages and poetry. Or that you persistently put other people's welfare before your own."

  Nick seemed stunned; he met my eyes, but couldn't seem to get any words out. That was okay. Word were unnecessary between us now. "Close your eyes," I ordered. "Rest a bit."

  When he was quiet, I found the flashlight and turned it on so I could estimate the extent of his injuries. His beautiful face was badly bruised. I poured a tiny amount of the water from the bottle onto a bit of cloth torn from my shirt and wiped his abrasions clean. Then I gently examined his body. The worst battering seemed to be around his face and his ribs, where the skin was already bruised. Asshole Nigel. Nick and I probably had some matching bruises now, although his injuries were much worse than mine.

  Nick should be wrapped up warmly in a blanket, but we didn't have one. He needed a doctor, or at least some decent first aid. Once again tears pricked my eyes. I remembered the way Nigel had had the others hold Nick down so he could beat him. Hatred burned in my gut. For the first time I understood how truly evil Nigel was.

  I hoped that guy named Hepburn got here before Nigel could escape. Somebody had to put the bastard down.

  When I'd made Nick as comfortable as possible, I set out on a quick exploration of the cave. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to venture through the narrow passage that led to the entrance. If there was any chance of getting out that way I wanted to know about it. But the boulder at the entrance had been firmly wedged against the inner wall.

  I knew another upsurge of panic then, but this time I didn't even try to fight it. Of course you're terrified, I told myself. Who wouldn't be?

  Returning to the central chamber, I ran my flashlight beam over the ceiling where the fissure was. I tried to estimate its height. Fifteen feet? Twenty? If I could hoist myself up th
ere somehow, could I squeeze through the opening and escape? I examined the opening from several angles, and then slumped with dismay. It was too narrow. And without a rope, there was no way to reach it, anyway.

  Afraid to use up the batteries of the flashlight, I switched it off and sank down next to Nick to think. Was there some way of levering that boulder away from the entrance? Human strength and ingenuity had moved that stone before. We ought to be able to find a method of moving it again.

  When Nick stirred again and opened his eyes, I told him the results of my explorations. "You probably know more about engineering than I do. How can we shift that rock?"

  "We can't. It's huge. They had tools and levers. We don't."

  "A lever is a relatively simple tool. Can't we find something in here to use as one? A plank of wood, maybe?"

  "Nigel wouldn't be stupid enough to leave anything like that in here."

  "Don't be so pessimistic. There's all kinds of junk in here. How about the crate?"

  "What crate?"

  "On the day you carried me off, you were stealing a crated statue. I know the statue's in here since I photographed it a little while ago. What happened to its crate?"

  "The wood in that crate, even if you could find it, wouldn't be strong enough to shift a stone that large."

  "I'm going to look for it, anyway," I said. Switching on the flashlight, I started to do just that.

  Chapter 39

  NICK

  I sat up again. I managed to contain my groans of pain this time, although I really didn't feel any better. In fact, I felt worse. My muscles were starting to stiffen up.

  I was astonished at her composure. But maybe it wasn't so surprising. The things we fear the most often prove to be less daunting than we expect when they actually occur. Besides, Ellie had already confronted the worst of it when she'd decided to enter the cave and take the photographs.

  She had been trying to comfort me, and I'd let her. Here we were, trapped in her worst nightmare, and it was her strength that was sustaining us both. Maybe that was okay. Maybe I had to let her strength sustain us now, in case we needed mine later. If I had any strength later, which was beginning to look doubtful.

  I felt a fierce upsurge of affection for her. She was brave, determined and optimistic, which made me hopeful, too. If there was a way out of here, we'd find it. And if we did, if we survived, maybe I'd be able to make some kind of life with her. It amazed me to contemplate, but maybe I wouldn't have to go through the next fifty or sixty years a lonely vagabond, running away from women, from commitment, from love.

  I didn't want to tell her that the odds were against us, though. This cavern had remained hidden for three thousand years. I hadn't told Hepburn about it in any of my reports. When they landed on the island and found nobody around, Hepburn and his men might assume I'd left the island.

  We could die here, just as my cousin intended. It was the most likely outcome.

  "Nick!" Ellie's voice, coming from one of the deepest recesses of the cave, jolted me. "I think I've found something."

  "What?"

  "I'm not sure. There's a slab of rock here that looks similar to the one at the cave's entrance. It's at an odd angle, though, as if it's been jolted by some great force. Didn't you say there was an earthquake on this island some decades ago?"

  "Yeah, that's why the rich old recluse who used to own Granddad's villa abandoned the island. The epicenter was at sea, but the quake was close enough to the island to do a lot of damage."

  "I think there's an opening behind this slab. It's barely visible, but I can feel air currents moving. I'm going to investigate, if I can get up enough courage to squeeze through this narrow cleft."

  "No!" I managed to lurch to my feet. "Are you crazy? Whatever it is, you have no idea whether it's safe. Wait for me. I'm coming."

  I stumbled after her in the dark, my head aching, my legs about as responsive as stilts. I found the recess just in time to see her disappear through what, from my perspective, looked like solid rock. "Ellie!"

  A moment later I heard her cry out. Fear slammed through me. Fuck! Damn it to hell! I imagined one horror after another—a steep drop-off, a poisonous snake, rotting skeletons, the face of the devil himself.

  I forced my useless, aching body through the same narrow slit where she'd disappeared. The thought of losing her had kicked my stomach into my throat.

  "Ellie!"

  All was silent now. My heart was pounding at a rate that would have rivaled hers at the height of one of her panic attacks. I rounded a mammoth stalagmite and saw her flashlight beam shooting like a laser into the darkness. I stared, and then I, too, made a hoarse sound.

  She was there, quite safe, standing still in the small circular alcove of an inner cave. The ceiling shimmered with light as our flashlight beams were caught, captured and thrown back by a thousand twinkling facets of quartz that arched overhead. In the middle of the alcove, rained upon by the brilliant crystal light, were several gleaming objects of varying sizes: Bowls, vases, a large caldron, several ceremonial drinking cups, bracelets, earrings, diadems and other jewelry. Most of them were tipped over at various angles, but they were roughly grouped around a beautiful three-foot-high statue of a golden dolphin twisting as he leaped out of the sea into the arms of a young man so perfectly proportioned he could only be a god.

  "Fuck me. I don't believe it. My grandfather was right. You've discovered the fucking treasures of Troy."

  She pointed to the statue. "Altinyunush Adasi—Golden Dolphin Island," she said, the awe ringing in her voice. "It was a true name for this place, after all."

  Chapter 40

  ELLIE

  Nick insisted on examining the "treasure" with me, even though it was obvious that he was feeling rocky. "So close and yet so far," he said as he gingerly brushed dust from the golden dolphin and scrutinized the beautiful object with the flashlight. "My grandfather will leave this island without a clue that only a few feet of stone separated him from his greatest discovery."

  "How do you suppose they missed finding the inner cave?" I asked him.

  "It's well-hidden. It's probably a sacred shrine, dedicated to the gods. Whoever left the items here in the first place didn't ever want them found."

  "I couldn't see the opening. I only found it because I'm so desperate to find a way out. I was following something that felt like a draft."

  He laughed hoarsely. "Leave it to Nigel to seal us up in a cave that's concealing priceless artifacts."

  "I'm glad they didn't find it," I said fiercely. "These things should be on public display in a museum, not pirated into illegal collections."

  "It's nice, finally, to be able to agree with you."

  "Do you suppose all this is really from Troy?"

  "I'm no authority on metallurgy. The golden treasure Schliemann found at Troy actually dated from an earlier epoch than Homer's city. That stuff was more primitive than this, though. The dolphin is very finely executed. Did the Trojans of the Homeric epoch have the skill to do such work? I don't know. It'll have to be evaluated by the experts."

  "If the experts ever get a look at it." If we die here, I was thinking, Nick and I would take this secret with us across the silent borders of death.

  When Nick put a hand to his head and swayed slightly, I started panicking again. Not for myself, though. It was him I was worried about. I grabbed him, and he leaned on me. "Please. You need to lie down."

  His lips had whitened. "My blasted head aches, that's all."

  "You're supposed to be resting. Are you dizzy? Nauseous?"

  "Yeah. A bit." He sat, looking weak and frustrated because of it. "I probably have a slight concussion. I had one a few years ago, and this is what it felt like. I must have cracked the back of my head on the rocks when Nigel knocked me down."

  My fingers felt for and found the lump just below the crown of his head. Another horrible series of what-ifs ran through my mind. What if it's a serious head injury? What if he loses consciousness? Wh
at if he dies?

  Stop it! Shut up, dumbass brain!

  I helped him settle so he was leaning against the wall of the inner cave. If only there was a blanket to cover him with. It wasn't damp, but the air was cool. I could feel a draft on my legs and ankles. If only we weren't so thinly dressed.

  I've got to get him out of here. There has to be a way.

  "Close your eyes and rest, but try not to go to sleep."

  "Aye aye, doc."

  "Nick—"

  He touched my hair gently. "Relax, darlin'. I'm not dying of a brain hemorrhage, if that's what you're worried about. I have a hard head. I'll be fine. I'm going to meditate for a while and try to gather my strength."

  "Will meditating help?" I asked doubtfully.

  "Can't hurt. Jeff, one of my friends from home, swears by it. It's very calming. If we're stuck in here for any length of time, I'll teach you how to do it."

  "Okay. I'm going to look around a bit more and see what else there is to discover."

  "Please don't disappear through any more mysterious passageways."

  "I won't. I promise. Rest."

  It didn't take me long to find the tunnel. I'd become increasingly convinced of its existence by the air currents flowing around us. And every now and then, I got a tangy whiff of the sea.

  So I poked around stalagmites, shone the flashlight into recesses and crawled on my hands and knees on the cold, rough floor of the cave, seeking the source of the draft. I was confused by the way the airflow was distorted by the irregular shape of the cave, but at last I identified the one deep recess through which the currents seemed to be moving.

  There I found a crack less than two feet high. Lying on my stomach, I stared into blackness, beaming my flashlight into what appeared to be a low, narrow horizontal shaft. The drafts assaulted my face. But I could see no light, nor any other indication, apart from the cool, fresh air, that the shaft led to the outside world.

  "Nick." I knelt down beside him and touched his shoulder. Nick lifted his head from his arms. His face was white and his mouth was set in a tense attempt at a smile. He probably felt even worse than he looked. He wouldn't complain because he wouldn't want to worry me.