“I never went to your stupid school, you idiot. That was a lie.”
She spun around and left without another word.
More time passed. By now I had been inside the compound for about six hours, according to my watch. Surely Alex and Brent had gone to the police by now. They would be looking for us, but they wouldn’t know where. And we were hidden inside a mountain. They could fly right over us and not see us. So we were going to have to do something on our own.
The only trouble with that plan was that I wasn’t very good at escaping. I was good at getting caught. I was, in fact, excellent at getting caught. If there were an Olympics for getting caught by bad guys, I’d win the gold medal. Not to mention my “walking right into a trap” skills. Okay, Rachel. Calm down. Think.
Pilar had to be somewhere nearby. So if I could get out of this room and find her, maybe at least one of us could get out of here and get help. Break it down to steps. First step: Get out of this room.
I tried the door again just in case. Still locked. So I was going to have to get someone to open it. My eyes fell on the light switch. Mr. Kim had taught us a lot about turning circumstances to our advantage. So what could I turn to my advantage? Darkness and surprise.
I went to the door and started pounding on it. “Hey!” I yelled. “I need to use the bathroom again. Hurry up!” I kept it up for several minutes. Finally I heard the key scratch its way into the lock. Someone was coming. Quickly I switched off the light and stood to the side of the doorway. It was too dark to tell whether it was Dumb or Dumber who opened the door and started into the room.
“What the—” I heard him say when he saw the light was out, but that was all he said, because right then I kicked him as hard as I could in the side of his knee. He yelped and staggered to the side but didn’t go down. It was like kicking a piece of concrete, but at least I had hurt him a little bit. And I was about to hurt him more.
One of the first rules Mr. Kim had taught me about self-defense was the importance of the human head in a fight. Mr. Kim’s credo was “where the head goes, the body soon follows.” So when Dumb or Dumber yelled and staggered toward me, I grabbed two handfuls of his hair and yanked him straight over onto the floor. He screeched in pain (because I was really yanking hard—teach him to lock me in some dumb old room) and his head hit the concrete floor with a thump. He lay still. He was really going to be ticked at me when he woke up. But for the moment he was out cold.
I checked his pockets and found a set of keys. I stepped over him into the hallway, pulled the door closed, and locked him inside. There was no one around. If the room had been under surveillance I was hoping he’d been the one watching me, so I had a few minutes before anyone noticed he was gone.
I went to the door straight across from the room I’d been in and found the right key for the lock. Empty. I found Pilar in the third door I tried. She sprang to her feet.
“Rachel, are you okay?” she said.
“No time to talk,” I said. “We need to get out of here.”
We went back out into the hallway, just in time to hear the doorjamb of my cell crack with a loud snap as Dumb shoved his way through it. He came staggering out of the room limping and holding his head, but he saw us and started to yell.
Before he could get a sound out, Pilar vaulted across the hallway and planted a round kick right in his stomach. It knocked him back into the wall, but the guy was like a piece of iron. With a grunt of rage he pushed himself off the wall and swung wildly at Pilar.
Nimbly she stepped inside the punch and captured his arm with her hands. Then, almost faster than I could see, she moved out under his arm and twisted it behind him. Dumb groaned and tried to wrench his arm away, but he couldn’t get the right angle. Then Pilar launched a kick to Dumb’s groin and he went down with all the fight gone out of him. He didn’t move. Apparently he’d passed out.
“Wow. Remind me never to borrow your hairbrush without asking first,” I said. Pilar just shrugged, like this was something she did every day. I had to hand it to Mr. Kim. It seemed the martial arts were very useful in this type of work.
We stood in the hallway trying to decide what to do. One direction led back to the main compound. A few yards in the other direction, the lights on the ceiling ended and we couldn’t see beyond that point. But we knew where the other direction led—straight to Mithras and his cronies. Neither of us wanted to charge blindly into the darkness, but we had no choice. We started to run.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Into the Light
Soon we were in total darkness. The finished hallway ended and now we were running down a lava tube or a tunnel. It was too dark to tell which, but since we were on the Big Island, which is basically a giant volcano, I decided to assume lava tube. Luckily the surface of a lava tube is mostly smooth, so we didn’t have to worry about stumbling around too much. We did slow down a bit, though, because frankly, if the tube were to end suddenly, I didn’t feel like doing a Wile E. Coyote into solid rock. Personally I’d rather have the giant anvil dropped on my head.
“Hope this isn’t a dead end,” I said. “That would definitely make this a below-average escape attempt.”
“I doubt it,” Pilar said. “Most of these tubes surface eventually. We just need to keep going.”
“How do you know that?” I said. “What if it stops?”
“I don’t think it will. We studied lava tubes in Physical Science last year. And besides, do you feel that breeze on your face? Fresh air has to be coming in from somewhere.”
Of course, I didn’t know any of this because…well, duh, how often in life are you going to need detailed knowledge of lava tubes? But ever since I got to Blackthorn I’d been feeling like Pilar, Alex, and Brent were a lot smarter than me. Of course, they worked hard, and did stuff like study and pay attention in class, whereas my study habits were somewhat…let’s say, fluid. But right then I made myself a vow that if I was going to jaunt all over the globe fighting evil megalomaniacs I was going to have to start concentrating more on my academics. You never know when you might pick up something you need.
Still, it was a little depressing to be outsmarted by the three of them all the time. Time to engage in some basic pulling of the chain.
“Well, I hope it’s not just cave wind,” I said.
“Cave wind?”
“Yeah, you know, cave wind. It’s caused by a thermodynamic inversion of air pressure when the subsurface rock formations in a cave change temperature as the cave elevation rises or lowers. The inversion causes self-generating wind in caves as the warm and cold air moves around. I just hope we’re not feeling cave wind and thinking it’s fresh air,” I said. I had no idea what I’d just said, and as far as I knew there was no such thing as “cave wind,” but it sounded cool, didn’t it?
“I’ve never heard of cave wind,” she said. If I could have seen her face in the darkness, I’m sure it would have been all scrunched up as she tried to figure out why she didn’t know about cave wind. Man, I’m good.
“Yeah, well, it’s in all the best caves. Let’s keep moving,” I said. I needed to change the subject, because I had exhausted my “knowledge” of cave wind.
We kept a slow trot going for quite a while and then I started to notice that the darkness was getting lighter. We had to be getting closer to the surface. Then, sure enough, we came to a bunch of bushes and vines, and when we pushed through we found ourselves in the open air.
Except, somehow, we’d taken a wrong turn and ended up on the moon.
Of course, it wasn’t really the moon, but it looked like it. Later I would learn that we had come out in an old lava field in Volcanoes National Park, which is on the southern end of the Big Island. Except for the vegetation that clung to the side of the mountain, it was pretty bare—mostly just rocks and dirt. It was a huge, kind of scary-looking place. Here and there you could see jets of steam hissing up from the ground. Nothing like big puffs of steam coming up out of the earth to remind you that you are
standing on top of a giant lake of molten fire.
But we didn’t have time to contemplate it. We had to get out of here. We both pulled out our cell phones, but there was still no signal. Maybe that compound that Leikala mentioned had messed them up permanently somehow. Dang.
Blankenship and Leikala and the others were probably right behind us. We took a quick glance around. There was no one anywhere that we could see. Although it was still light out, it was getting dark and the park was probably closed. We looked out across the field and saw that about a mile away it started to slope up another mountain. There looked to be a trail there that led back into the jungle, and we could see a small wooden structure, maybe a hut or a ranger station or something. We took off across the floor of the valley as quickly as we could, jumping over and around lava boulders and the rocks that lined the valley floor. It was slow going, and we had to be careful because the surface was rough and uneven. If one of us fell or twisted an ankle, we’d never get away.
I kept looking over my shoulder to where we’d come out, expecting that madman Blankenship and his band of merry geeks to pop out at any moment. But so far there was no sign of them. Finally, after what seemed like a long time, we made it across the moonscape to the trail. We sprinted up and saw that what we had thought was a hut or a cabin wasn’t that at all. It was just a little observation station with a roof on it and a map along one wall that showed the whole park. There was no phone or anything. How could they not have a phone here? I mean, they have phones everywhere now—hello!
While I was grousing about our lack of telecommunications, Pilar was studying the map. She quickly figured out where we were and what route we needed to take to get out of here. She turned and looked south to where the valley ended. You could see the lava flow where it breached the surface and flowed into the ocean, rising up in a huge cloud of steam. Pilar let out a yelp.
“Did you just yelp?” I said.
“That’s it! That’s got to be it,” she said.
“What’s got to be it?” I said.
“Right here. Pele’s Point.” She pointed to a section of the map that jutted out into the ocean. Then she pointed to the lava flow again. “In the Book of Seraphim Flavius wrote all of these riddles that were supposed to be clues to where the artifacts were hidden. The riddle I’m thinking of says:
“Mithras walks with Hades’ handmaiden,
As she strolls seaward from her garden paradise.
There lies hidden the golden vessel that shall
Bring our King to life.
“That’s got to be it. I didn’t make the connection until just now. Hades was the Roman god of the Underworld. Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of the fiery underground where volcanoes come from. That must be where the artifact is hidden! At this point on the island the lava flows right into the sea. Pele ‘strolling seaward’—that has to be it.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but she was all excited and jumping up and down.
Just then I heard a noise coming from across the valley floor. I looked back just in time to see Leikala, Dumber, and a slightly limping Dumb emerge from the lava tube. Uh-oh.
“We have to go back,” Pilar said. “I know the artifact is here somewhere!”
“Not a good idea,” I said and pointed across the valley floor to where Leikala and the Stupid twins were picking their way toward us.
“We have to search that area first! We can’t let them get lucky and stumble across it.” She started out of the hut toward the trail, but I ran after her and grabbed her.
“Pilar, we can’t go back. They’ll catch us. Try to get back to the hotel somehow and hook up with Alex and Brent. The three of you figure out a way to find that statue—fast.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
I took a deep breath.
“I’m going to play a little game of hide-and-seek,” I said.
“Rachel, they’ll catch you. Simon might do something really bad this time. I can’t let you do this!” She was getting very worked up.
“Pilar, there’s no time for this. We don’t have many options. One of us needs to get away, and we need to find that statue. You’re the logical choice. You’ve studied the book, you know what to do. I can’t even find my socks in the morning,” I said.
“Stop making jokes! I won’t let you do this!” She was crying now.
“We don’t have a choice. You have a job to do. You need to focus on that. Now go!” I started toward the trail.
“Before you go, there’s something I need to tell you,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“There’s no such thing as cave wind.” She smiled through her tears.
I smiled back and gave Pilar a quick hug.
Then I turned and ran down the path, back toward the valley we’d just crossed, taking the next steps closer to my destiny.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Run, Rachel, Run
I led them on a merry chase, zigzagging back and forth across the floor of the valley. I figured it was likely they were going to catch me, so I wanted to buy as much time as I could for Pilar to get away. I kept angling away from where we came into the valley, figuring that if they did catch me, I could use up extra time making them take me all the way back to the lava tube. I might have been able to keep it up for a lot longer, but I ran out of real estate.
At the extreme end of the park, the lava comes right out of the ground and flows down to the ocean, where it hardens in a big whoosh of steam. I had run myself into a dead end. Mithrians behind me and hot molten lava in every other direction. So they caught me. As I said, I’m excellent at getting caught.
Unfortunately, by then I was so out of breath I couldn’t even think up a snappy wisecrack to keep them off guard. When they caught up with me I was bent over, hands on my knees, gasping for breath. Dumb and Dumber grabbed my arms and started dragging me back to the lava tube.
“Hey, how’s that knee feeling?” I said to Dumb.
His eyes darkened and he responded by squeezing my arm very tightly. I hollered for him to stop, and Leikala hissed at him. He loosened his grip.
“That’s right,” I said, “you wouldn’t want to damage your boss’s precious cargo.”
“Shut your mouth,” Leikala said. “I’m sick of your talking.”
I decided not to press my luck. They might push me off a cliff or something and tell Blankenship I had “accidentally” fallen to my death. We wouldn’t want that.
It was dark now, and Leikala lighted our way with a flashlight. A little over an hour later, I was unceremoniously shoved back into a room just like the one I’d been in before.
I sat cross-legged on the ground and waited. At least my escape hadn’t been a total washout. Hopefully Pilar had gotten away. I was really hoping she’d managed to find her way back to Hilo, but I couldn’t count on it. I had no idea how far it was to the hotel from here. So I couldn’t rely on them to help me, at least not yet. Keeping that relic away from Mithras was the first priority, and Pilar would understand that. I hoped.
After a long while, Dumb and Dumber and Leikala came into the room, and I stood up.
“It’s time,” she said.
Just for fun I feinted a kick at Dumb’s sore knee. He yowled and skipped away. That cracked me up. This big doofus scared of little old me.
“Knock it off,” Leikala snapped.
They took me out of the room and back into the main compound. I didn’t see Simon anywhere, but there were a lot of cars and vans and he was probably in one of them.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Leikala said.
“I thought we covered this already. Of course I’d like to know, that’s why I asked. Can’t you people please get some better comebacks? Do they not teach you these things in Supervillain School?”
“Just shut up,” she said, and roughly shoved me toward the back of a van. Before I got in they took my cell phone and my Swiss Army knife
and my wad of cash and put it in a duffel bag they stuck on the floor of the van. If I got a chance to get away, I was going to be cut off from communication, unarmed, and broke.
Dumb and Dumber got into the front seat of the van and Leikala sat in the backseat with me. All of the cars pulled out of the hidden compound and we started off in a big motorcade. They were silent on the way—big surprise.
“Anybody want to play license-plate alphabet while we drive?” I said.
“Shut up,” Leikala snapped at me.
“Oh, right. In order to play, you have to actually know the alphabet, so that gives me an unfair advantage. How about we sing instead? Show tunes? ‘Wheels on the Bus’ anyone? ‘Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall’?” I figured if I kept it up long enough maybe I could annoy them into pushing me out of the car. We weren’t going that fast. Besides, my constant chatter really got under Leikala’s skin, and if she was rattled that might give me some advantage.
“Keep it up and we’ll see if you can still flap your lips after I crush your larynx,” Leikala said.
Okay. That didn’t sound fun. But I didn’t really think she’d lay a finger on me as long as her boss wanted the pleasure of killing me himself.
“Are we there yet?” I asked. No one answered me.
“How much longer?” I asked. Still no response.
Obviously they didn’t know who they were dealing with, because I could keep this up as long as I needed to.
But it wasn’t long before we were pulling back into the dig site. Somehow I’d had a feeling this was where we were headed.
Except for my captors, the dig site was deserted. It looked different and kind of spooky at night. Down in the center of the pit, a bonfire had been built. I didn’t think it was such a good idea to start a fire on a valuable archaeological site, but I kept that thought to myself.
To Hawaii, with Love Page 8