Uncover Me

by Linda Barlow

  I swallowed hard. I was choked up; I tried to hide it. I couldn't let him see me weep for him.

  "I'm not asleep." He spoke so defensively that my heart jerked. "I'm okay."

  Sure you are.

  "I think I may have found a way out." I described the air currents I'd been following. "There's some kind of tunnel. It looks as if it's man-made. Maybe the people who stashed the treasure here carved a secret entrance for themselves. I can smell the sea every now and then, so I think it must lead out of the cave."

  "Can you see the other end? A light of any kind?"

  "No, but maybe the shaft curves." I paused, adding in a voice that shook, "I thought I might crawl in and see where it goes."

  Nick's eyes came fully open. "I'll do it."

  "No. You're hurt. Besides, it's narrow. You'd have to slide along on your stomach. You've got a concussion and maybe a couple of broken ribs. You can't do it."

  "Neither can you. You're claustrophobic."

  "I want to get out of here. I want to get you out of here." I firmed my spine and lifted my chin. My insides were mush, but I mustn't let him see that. "I'll do whatever it takes."

  "Let me see this tunnel."

  I gave him my hand and helped him to his feet. He tried to hide his unsteadiness from me. His weakness hardened my resolution. I could do this. Couldn't I?

  Nick squatted beside me and examined the tunnel with our flashlight. He sniffed the air. "You may be right," he conceded. "But it's black as the devil and there's no way to know whether it's safe. Or even how far you'd have to crawl. The source of the draft might be nothing more than a small hole like the one in the roof of the outer cave." He turned back to me, his expression grim. He shook his head decisively. "It's too dangerous, Ellie."

  I was briefly relieved. Too dangerous. Not likely to save us. Good—I wouldn't have to crawl into that hole. "But what alternative do we have?"

  "We can return to the outer cave and wait. We can hope Metin's free to come after us. If something's happened to him, Hepburn might find us. If neither of those things happens and we're really desperate, we can attempt this. By that time maybe I'll be better."

  "And maybe you'll be worse. Maybe we'll both be so weak and dispirited that we won't have the energy to escape. We don't have much water, and we've got no food. There are no blankets to keep us warm at night. We can't wait, Nick. If we wait we'll die."

  His lashes came down and curtained his eyes. He must know I was right. His headache would probably get better with each passing hour, but broken ribs wouldn't heal overnight. How cold did it get in this place at night? We could die of hypothermia if we couldn't keep warm.

  What if the damn shaft actually did lead out? Wouldn't it be foolish not to investigate it?

  "Let's give it a couple hours," he said. "Maybe I'll start feeling better after I rest a bit. I was the one who got you into this mess. Broken ribs or no, I'll be the one to take the risk."

  "No. I'll go."

  "Ellie, it's dangerous! We have no idea how stable the tunnel is. If you crawl in there, disturbing things, the whole shaft might collapse. I have no tools, nothing to dig you out with—"

  I quivered at the image but kept my head high. "Suppose you go in and it collapses on you."

  "Then I'll be dead, which is probably exactly what I deserve."

  "And I'll be trapped here, alone in the dark and waiting to die. I couldn't bear that." Involuntary tears filled my eyes. "I can't just sit here and do nothing."

  Nick swore, then caught his breath. Dammit! I could see that breathing too deeply hurt him.

  "Anyway, your shoulders are too wide," I dropped to my hands and knees and measured the opening to the shaft with my hands. "Look—I'll barely fit myself."

  "And if it gets narrower?"

  "I'll come back."

  "Oh, God, Ellie!"

  "There's really no choice, is there?" The truth was, if I was doing this, I had to do it now. If I waited, more hellish images of everything that might go wrong would flood me and I'd dissolve into a state of helpless anxiety. I had to act, and I had to act now. "Let me try this. If I sit here and think about it I'll chicken out. But, hey, if I succeed, I'll probably never be claustrophobic again. If I get through this, I can get through anything."

  He caught me to him and held me hard. "Shit, Ellie. I love you."

  The tears fell faster then. I didn't know if he meant it, but it gave me courage. "I love you, too." I lifted my face for his kiss. It was fierce and tender. His hands moved gently over me, as if memorizing my body.

  "If we get out of this, you and I are going to be together, hayatim. I mean—" He stopped, looking vulnerable in a way I'd never seen in him before. "If that's what you want."

  "You think I'd crawl through a dark, eighteen-inch-wide tunnel for the sake of anyone else?" I grinned. "Only for you, master."

  He rolled his eyes, and then hugged me. "If we get out of this, I'm gonna fucking thrash your ass for even suggesting such a crazy stunt."

  I kissed him one more time, and turned to begin my journey into the night.

  Chapter 41

  ELLIE

  There was barely room to crawl. I had to slither along on my stomach, one hand holding the flashlight, the other reaching out in front of me and feeling for obstacles. My light revealed the inner walls of the shaft to be quite solid-looking. The sides were smoother than nature could have made them. Someone had hewn this tunnel out of rock, hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago. It had to lead somewhere.

  Calling back my findings to Nick, I began to move a little faster. I could see no exit—there was nothing but gloom and darkness ahead. I concentrated on propelling my body forward, trying not to think about the possibility of a cave-in.

  After several excruciatingly slow minutes of forward motion, I noticed that my light seemed to be glancing off stone ahead. Oh, no. Could someone have constructed a tunnel only to abandon it after a few yards? But the air still smelled fresh. Crawling a few more feet, I saw why. The tunnel did not end; it took a sharp turn to the right.

  Again I called back and explained. My voice echoed oddly and Nick's sounded faint as he replied, pleading with me to be careful. I clung to the sound of his voice. I stuck my head around the corner, hoping now to be able to see some daylight. But there was nothing. The shaft continued as black and forbidding as before.

  This was depressing. And scary. Rounding the bend made me feel as if I was cutting myself off. Separating from him even more dramatically. I thought about earthquakes, like the one that had shaken this island in the past. I pictured the tunnel convulsing as the earth moved and hundreds of meters of dirt and rock above my body crashing down and burying me. Faltering, I paused, not sure I could go on.

  Don't quit now. That's sea air you can smell in here. There must be a way out.

  Getting around the corner was no easy task. I had to jack-knife my body, and in the process I scraped my breasts and my belly on the rough stone. Worse, the tunnel seemed to grow narrower, and for a few moments as I negotiated the turn, I got stuck. My heart, which had been remarkably well behaved so far, leaped into panic-alert. Sweat burst out under my arms and along my spine. Terror swept over me.

  "Ellie?" Nick yelled.

  I wriggled my hips and pulled free. Maybe the sweat that had blossomed on my skin actually helped. But Nick would never make it through the tunnel. He was too big. "I'm fine," I said. My voice was shaking and squeaking. It was hard to swallow because my mouth was so dry. "I don't see anything yet, but I'm going on."

  I few minutes later, I thought I saw something move ahead of me in the darkness. Visions of snakes halted me, but I determinedly pushed that idea from my mind. If anything did live in here, it would hear my noisy approach and get the hell out of my way.

  I came to another bend in the shaft. This time I hesitated. I was panting from the effort of dragging myself along, and my knees and palms were growing numb. If I got stuck I'd be in a real fix. Too wide-shouldered to get past the
first turn, Nick wouldn't be able to reach me. I'd be doomed to lie here, trapped, watching helplessly as my flashlight got dimmer and dimmer until it went out, leaving me to die alone in the dark.

  For the first time since Nigel had sealed the entrance to the cavern, I felt my will and courage fail me. Tears squeezed out of my eyes and carved a ragged path through the grime on my face. I can't do this. I've tried my best, but I just can't go on.

  My flashlight flickered. I remembered that Nigel and his men had been burning the flashlights all morning. This one was running out of power. How much time did I have before it died altogether? Not enough to waste feeling sorry for yourself, Ellie, my girl, I thought.

  Determinedly scrunching myself up as small as possible, I took a steadying breath and ventured slowly around the second bend. As soon as I did so, the quality of the darkness changed. Pressing my flashlight against the rock to hide its feeble light, I squinted into the gloom. Ahead of me, like a star shining in the velvet depths of night, a light gleamed. It looked blue. Sky or sea? I didn't care which.

  I shouted the news back to Nick and launched myself toward it, praying it would be large enough to provide me with an exit. I couldn't judge distance well in the tunnel, but presumably the smallness of the aperture meant that the light was still far away.

  It was not. I had to crawl no more than five yards before I came to the end of the shaft. The smell of fresh air was dizzyingly strong here, but even so, the opening was no larger than my fist.

  For several seconds, I stared from a yard away, unable to accept that my odyssey could end in failure. It didn't make sense. The tunnel was large enough—just—for a person to crawl through. Surely it required a more substantial exit than that. Through the circular hole I could see the blue sky. The irony of it appalled me. Only a few inches of rock separated me from light, life, and freedom.

  "I will not cry," I said aloud. "There's got to be a way out."

  I ran my faltering flashlight beam over the stone around the aperture and noted that it looked different from the other walls of the shaft. Moving closer, I checked it with my fingers and realized why. What I was confronting was not a solid wall of rock, but a tightly packed mound of stones. Hope leaped in me once again. Whoever had constructed the tunnel had walled it up to conceal it from the outside.

  Putting down the flashlight, I tried to shift the stones around the opening. My hands were quivering. At first the stones wouldn't shift at all, and I was afraid they'd been mortared. But I finally felt one loosen. I dug at it until I was able to push it out, enlarging the aperture to the size of two fists. I pressed my face to the opening and looked out.

  Before me was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen—the blue arc of the sky and, just beneath it, the sun-drenched sparkle of the Aegean Sea. And straight ahead, almost on a direct line from me, I could see the trim, clean-lined prow of the Voyager, gracefully floating on the silken sea. "Nick!" I shouted, hearing the joy in my own voice. "I made it! I'm on the other side of the mountain, on a cliff overlooking the bay where Voyager is anchored. I can see her!"

  Ignoring the cuts and bruises on my fingers, I continued to widen the opening. "I'm going to climb down and swim to the boat. If Metin's there, I'll get him to help us. If he isn't, I'll radio the mainland for help."

  "Dammit, Ellie! If Nigel catches you he'll kill you."

  "I'll be careful, I promise. Are you okay back there? How's your head?"

  "My head is fine, and you are amazing. I fucking love your ass! But please be careful."

  My spirits were soaring. I no longer knew what fear was. Even the prospect of climbing down an extremely steep and rocky slope to the sea didn't faze me. I had crawled through my own personal vision of hell and survived the experience. Nothing, not even a devil like Nigel, was going to stop me now.

  The swim to the boat through the cool water was a welcome change to the harsh, sweaty work of crawling through the tunnel. I was cautious, breast stroking as noiselessly as possible. When I reached the yacht, I hauled myself up the built-in metal ladder at the stern and jumped lightly over the side. I stayed perfectly still for several moments, listening. There was no sound.

  I slid open the main hatch and went below. On tiptoe, I checked the various compartments. They were empty. Damn. What had Nigel done with Metin? I thought about the young man's handsome face and quick smile and prayed he was still alive.

  The last door I approached led to a tiny storeroom. As I opened the door—a little less cautiously now, since the boat seemed deserted—I was grabbed from behind. I stiffened and would have cried out had a hand not clapped across my mouth. Then I heard the mutter of a masculine curse, and I was released.

  "Allah be praised. I thought you were dead."

  I whirled. "Metin! You scared me."

  "You scared me. I thought you were one of them, come back to finish me off." He held up one wrist, which still had a coil of rope knotted around it. "They knocked me out, the dogs, bound my body and left me in here about an hour ago. Fortunately I have a hard head and strong teeth." He showed me where the cord had been gnawed through. "I was coming to search for you and Nick when I heard someone board the yacht. What happened? Are you okay? Where's Nick?"

  "He's hurt. Nigel beat him badly." I quickly explained our ordeal in the cave. "You've got to help me get him out of there."

  "Okay. No problem."

  I looked at him doubtfully. "But there is a problem. Nick can't crawl out the way I did. His shoulders are too wide, and he's hurt. You and I are going to have a hard time clearing the entrance to the cave alone."

  "Then we will get help," Metin said confidently. His white teeth flashed in his swarthy face. "You think I would let those swine escape after all the time I have invested in their capture? The first thing I did upon freeing myself was radio for assistance. The Turkish Shore Patrol are on their way."

  "Thank God!"

  "Nick will not be pleased. He hoped to keep his grandfather out of prison. I was ready to help him with that—why not—one must have respect for the old, even if Sir Avery was a little crooked. To trap Nigel was the important thing. But now—" He shrugged. "I don't know what will happen now."

  Whether or not Nick's grandfather went to prison was not my immediate concern. "We need blankets, bandages, medicine, water. A couple of new flashlights. If we can't move the stone, I'll crawl back in through the tunnel and wait for help to arrive."

  "I will come with you."

  "You can't. Like Nick's, your shoulders are too broad."

  "Then we will move this stone of yours. Come, Ellie hanim."

  Chapter 42

  ELLIE

  The hot afternoon sun beat down upon us as we rowed into shore, unloaded our supplies and began the trek around the promontory to the excavation site. As we scrambled over the arid ground, I stared at the cliff towering above us, trying to take in the fact that I had crawled through a narrow tunnel in the bowels of this jagged rock pile, propelled myself through silent darkness and escaped safely into the light. I stretched, reveling in the warmth of the sun dancing upon the bare skin of my arms and legs. If it weren't for my anxiety about Nick, I might actually have felt good.

  We were nearly at the site when Metin, who was leading the way along the narrow track, stopped. He looked back at me, laying a finger across his lips. I listened. I heard the swell of angry male voices, moving toward us from the direction of the compound.

  "Quickly, get behind these rocks," Metin ordered. I obeyed without hesitation, responding to the cool note of authority in his voice. We were both speaking Turkish since I no longer had to hide my knowledge of that language. My Turkish was better than his English.

  No longer did Metin look like a fisherman's kid with a lust for adventure. Instead he'd transformed himself into a Mediterranean bandit, armed from head to toe with handguns, knives and a deadly-looking object that was, he'd informed me, an automatic rifle. He was also carrying a crowbar and an oar from the yacht's lifeboat, which he intended to
use as a lever at the cave entrance.

  We crouched out of sight just a few yards from the sealed entrance to the cave. Through a chink in the rocks, I had an unobstructed view of the men who were approaching from the other side of the excavations. "It's Sir Avery," I whispered. Because of his crippled legs, the elderly archaeologist rarely visited the excavations. It would have been impossible to push his wheelchair over the rough, stony ground.

  But they were carrying him. Mustafa, the cheerful, burly cook, and Erdal, Sir Avery's longtime companion, between them were cradling him in their strong arms. Beside them were the other men loyal to Sir Avery—Ahmet, Engin, the leonine Aslan, and a couple of others. They were armed. One of them had Sir Avery's folded wheelchair.

  Also present, looking disgruntled, were Nigel and Sinan. Sir Avery was holding a gun upon them, just as he had earlier held one upon Nick.

  I stared, puzzled. What had happened? I remembered that Nick was friendly with most of the workers at the compound and that Sir Avery's workers outnumbered Nigel's by a considerable margin. Had Nigel been unable to convince them all to do things his way?

  The small procession halted in front of the boulder that now blocked the entrance to the cave. "Open it," Sir Avery growled. "You sealed it, now roll away the stone. They better be in there, and alive, Nigel."

  I looked at Metin. "I guess Sir Avery didn't wish us dead."

  I was all for showing ourselves, but Metin wouldn't allow it. "We will wait. In the meantime, they will do the heavy work for us."

  It took the efforts of several men to shift the large boulder. I wondered what Nick must be thinking if he could hear the sounds of the cavern being unsealed.

  At last it was done. At his command, the men lifted Sir Avery and prepared to carry him into the cave. "We will follow," Metin said. He cradled the rifle in his arms. His face was set, but his eyes were gleaming with a kind of pleasure I supposed that only men of certain macho tendencies could truly share and understand.