by J. M. LeDuc
In the heat of the moment, Alana leaned in and kissed him hard on the lips. “I am now,” she said.
Brent was stunned by her actions, but didn’t want to show it or acknowledge what had just happened. He just turned her around and started the countdown. On three, he let her fly across the divide. Seeing that she was safe, he let himself think about what had taken place between them. She was just frightened, that’s all. I’m sure she didn’t even know what she was doing. He let his tongue trace his lips. He could still taste her. Thinking further he said to no one, “I don’t think I kissed back, did I?”
Hearing him mumble, Seven yelled, “What was that Colonel? I couldn’t hear you.”
“I was just thinking out loud. It was nothing. Send the rope back.”
Before he did, Seven pulled hard on the rope and saw the claw give way a little from the ceiling. Bits of limestone fell down on top of him as he pulled. “The hold is getting loose, Colonel. I don’t know if it will take another flight.”
“Send it back, it will hold. Just be ready to catch me.”
As Brent grabbed the rope, he untied the Stalagmite from the end. Any extra weight, even a little could mean the difference of the rope holding or not. He gave it a good tug and could see a cloud of dust fall from the ceiling. “I only need fifteen feet of flight,” he yelled. “If it gives loose after that, I’m going to come down fast. Be ready to catch me.”
“Ready when you are, sir.” Thinking of the possible scenario, Seven added, “Colonel, if the hook lets go, don’t let go of the rope, understood?”
Reading his mind, Colonel Venturi yelled back, “I’m with you, Sev. Let’s just get this over with. On three, I’m coming towards you.” Standing back as far as he could, Brent said a silent prayer and ran towards the line. At the last possible second, he lifted his feet off the ground and took flight. About three quarters of the way across, he felt the hook give way and he dropped five feet short of his mark.
He hit the floor of the cave so hard, he felt the pressure plate give way. He remembered what Seven had said and held on to the rope and waited for the inevitable to happen. As the first pieces of stalactite started to fall on him, Brent felt the rope being pulled from his hands. He tightened his grip and was dragged across the ground as he was continually pelted with pieces of limestone. Safe across the line, he looked back and saw large stalactites drop from the ceiling and smash into the cave floor where he had been, just seconds before. He continued to watch and saw the floor of the cave drop out in the same way it had earlier. Exhausted, he let go of the rope and let his head drop, resting it on the cold surface. His breathing labored, he just lay there, not moving. Seven rushed to his side, asking if he was alright. Brent nodded, saying that he just needed a moment.
It took a while, but Brent finally stood up and dusted himself off. Eyeing the others, he said, “We go the rest of the way blind. This is as far as I was able to scout ahead. From here, we have to take it extra slow and be on constant alert.”
Reading the map, Alana said, “It looks like we have about four to five miles to go.” Pointing to the map, she said. “Then it looks like we are about to hit the wall.”
The team gathered around so they could take a look at what Alana was seeing. “If you follow the line on the map and if it’s on scale, we are going to hit a wall in approximately five miles. The line then goes straight up for about fifty feet. From there the line is dotted for about another half mile. If this is correct, I think we are about to crawl through a very long tunnel.”
“Great, any other good news?” Bishop Jessup , his words oozing with sarcasm. asked
“If by good, you mean bad—yes,” Alana said. “At the end of the tunnel, the line drops straight down for the same distance that it went up and then the map ends. I don’t know what we have in store after that.”
“Only one way to find out,” Seven said. “Colonel, are you ready to move out?”
“Affirmative,” he said. “Let’s move.”
After crossing rough terrain for the next four hours, the team reached what Alana had warned them about. The tunnel suddenly ended.
“Now what?” the Bishop asked.
Alana pointed up. “Now, we climb.”
Eyeing the wall, she mentally mapped out hand and foot holds in her head. “I can do this,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
She looked at Brent’s bruised and still discolored fingers and said, “I’m sure. As an archeologist, I had to do a lot of free climbing. This wall is pretty jagged, so there should be a lot of good holds. I’ll anchor in every ten feet and tie off the rope. That should make the climb easy for the rest of you.”
“The limestone is very dry and brittle; be careful what you grab onto,’ Seven said.
“That’s the other reason I should make the climb,” Alana said. “I might not be a size zero, but I definitely weigh less than the three of you.”
“Can’t argue with you there,” Seven said as he unloaded with the tobacco juice.
She quickly geared up and started making the climb. About ten feet up, she screwed the first anchor into the wall, clipped in a carabiner and wrapped the rope through it. Continuing up, she grabbed a couple of weak holds and lost a hand grip. Being an experienced climber, she always made sure that she had at least one strong hand and foot hold. That way, there was little chance of her coming off the wall.
At the top of the wall, Alana climbed into the mouth of the tunnel. She anchored in and tied off the rope at the top of the climb. “Just as I thought,” she yelled. “We’re going to be crawling our way through the next part of the cave.”
Brent clipped two ascenders onto the rope and reminded the Bishop on how to use them. “Squeeze the handle and slide the top one up the rope as far as you can. When you stop squeezing, it automatically locks onto the rope. Repeat the process with the bottom one and then move your feet up the wall, making sure you get a good foot hold. If you slip, let go of everything. The climbing harness and the ascenders will hold you on the rope.” Brent slapped him on the butt and held the bottom of the rope taught. “Get moving, Spiderman.”
The Bishop did as he was told. About half way up, he yelled down, “My arms are burning; I don’t think I can make it the rest of the way.”
“Just let go of the ascenders and give your muscles a rest. As soon as they stop burning, keep moving.”
“I don’t think I can let go,” he yelled back, the fear escalading in his voice.
“Trust, padre. This is all about trust,” Brent said.
Bishop Jessup let go of the ascenders, fully expecting to fall off the wall, but instead, he hung there. With a renewed confidence, he waited for his forearms to stop burning and then proceeded to climb the rest of the way up the wall. At the top, Alana pulled him into the crevasse, unhooked him from his harness and had him lie in the tunnel as the other two made their way up the rope.
Neither Brent nor Seven used the ascenders to climb with. Using an overhand grip, they just climbed the wall, using good foot holds as they moved their hands up the rope. Once everyone was safely at the top of the climb, Brent instructed Alana to lead them through the tunnel. Seven was to follow with the Bishop close behind. “I’ll take up the rear, no pun intended,” Brent said.
A little over halfway through, Alana said, “The opening is getting too small to continue to crawl. We’re going to have to continue on our backs or bellies the rest of the way.”
“It will be easier if you do it on your back, padre,” Brent said. “Just lie flat and use your feet to push yourself along. If you keep your eyes shut, the feelings of claustrophobia won’t be so strong.”
The team slithered their way along until Alana told them to hold up. “I’m at the exit of the tunnel. I’ll anchor in and start to descend off the wall. I’ll call up to you when I reach the ground and tie off.”
An hour later the
team was safely on the ground, and although the Bishop was hyperventilating, everyone seemed relatively unscathed from their foray in spelunking. They looked at their surroundings and understood why the map stopped at the end of the tunnel they just came out of; twenty yards in front of them was a solid rock wall.
CHAPTER 39
“Now what?” Bishop Jessup asked.
“Now we find a way to the other side,” Alana said as she ran her hands along the wall. “This wall is manmade. These limestone bricks are mortared in place.”
“So what do you suggest?” Brent said.
“We need to find the stone that can be removed without causing the collapse of the entire wall.” She stepped back, so she could survey the wall as a whole. “The placement of these stones is not haphazard, whoever built it, built it in such a way that every stone holds up the stones above it. If we remove the wrong one, the entire wall will come down.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Seven asked. “If the wall comes down, we’ll have a way to get across.”
“That’s the genius of its construction,” Alana said, pointing up. “If you look at the very top, you’ll see that the wall goes up past the cave ceiling. If I’m not mistaken this wall was built as a primary brace.”
“Meaning?” the Bishop asked.
“Meaning, if it comes down, the entire cave collapses. We’ll be buried alive.”
Brent pulled the map out of his pocket as well as the map of the Holy of Holies that Joan had provided them. He placed them side by side. “It looks like it could be the dividing wall between the two tunnels. If we can manage to get across, we’ll have access to the Ark.”
Again, Alana ran her hands over the wall. “We have to hope that the architects of this wall made a mistake somewhere.” She took a piece of paper and pencil out of her backpack and started to draw a replica of the wall, stone by stone. “I need to figure out which stone has the least amount of load upon it. That’s the one we need to remove.”
Sitting down with the drawing, she began to write mathematical equations for each of the stones.
Leaning over her shoulder, Brent asked, “What is it you’re trying to do?”
“By using the laws of physics, geometry and calculus, even though I only have two of the three dimensions, I should be able to decipher which stone has the least amount of load on it. The angles in which each stone is placed as well as the size of the rock and the ones above it, should tell me which one we need to remove.”
“How long will it take you?”
“Without interruption, a few hours. If you keep asking me questions, we could be here for days.”
Brent smiled down to her, “I’ll leave you to your work.” He joined the others.
Brent removed his sat-phone and checked for a connection. “It looks like Joan has been trying to contact us. I can see how many times she’s tried, but I can’t retrieve the messages.”
“How’s that?” Seven asked.
“Somewhere along our journey, we were close enough to the surface that the messages went through, but now the satellite can’t reach.”
Seven looked up at the hole that they had just crawled out of. “It had to be when we were in the tunnel.”
“I wouldn’t give it a second thought, except that she has repeatedly tried to contact us. I have eleven missed messages.” Looking up, Brent continued, “I need to go back into the tunnel and hope that somewhere along the way, I get service.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“I’d rather you stay here, Seven. Just in case you’re needed. This is a one man job.”
Seven thought back to the time when Brent left the Phantom Squad in Bahrain and went to China on his own to rescue Jonathan Swain—Joseph Conklin—, then the head of SIA. “The last time you thought that, you almost got killed. We both know there is no such thing as a one person mission, Colonel.”
Looking over at Alana and then at the Bishop who had fallen dead asleep, Brent said, “Point taken. We’ll both climb.”
Seven nodded and pinched off a new piece of tobacco, “Let’s harness up,” he said.
Twenty minutes later the two of them were sliding on their backs, retracing their steps through the tunnel. Brent had his sat-phone lying on his chest waiting for the beeping sound that would let him know he had a connection.
Two-thirds the way back, they began a slight incline. “The top of this crest is the closest we are going to come to the surface, Colonel,” Seven said.
“Yeah, if we are gonna receive a signal, it should happen in the next few minutes,” Brent added.
Cresting the top of the incline, Brent felt his phone start to vibrate and saw the LCD screen light up. “We’ve got contact,” he said.
Seven slid up and wedged his body next to Brent. “So what’s so important that Joan tried to make contact so often?” Seven asked.
Picking up the phone, Brent scrolled through the texts. “It seems Maddie is pretty freaked out by this mission. Joan said that she has never seen her like this before and that it has to do with the fact this entire mission is being run blind. No back up, no contingency plan.”
“She goes on to say that Maddie ordered her to try to make contact every hour on the hour until she received a response.” Brent laughed as he read the rest of the text.
“What’s so funny?” Seven asked.
“Joan says that if we don’t make contact soon and she has to stay up all night texting these messages, she is going to make our lives miserable when we get home.”
As Brent continued to laugh, Seven said, “That’s not funny, I’m more afraid of her than I am of any extremist or terrorist we’ve ever been up against. You know she would make good on that threat. You better text back while you still have a satellite connection.”
“I will,” Brent said, “as soon as I finish reading the rest of these messages. They’re all the same except for one.”
“What’s it say?”
“It says that Cardinal Bullini’s assistant, Father Reilly is coming to south Florida to visit an aunt, so he is planning to come to Palm Cove and take the girls out to lunch.”
“Hmm,” Seven said.
“What’s hmm?” Brent asked.
“I don’t know,” Seven said, “it’s just that guy seemed a little weird when we were in the Vatican. He wasn’t very friendly—kind of cold and always lurking around—it seemed like I couldn’t pee without running into the guy. He just doesn’t seem like the type that would want to stop by and take you to lunch.”
Brent thought about what Seven had said and he had to admit, Father Reilly was a bit odd. “I’ll e-mail Joan that everything is going on schedule and with any luck we should be home within a few days. I will also voice our concerns about Father Reilly. I’ll feel better knowing that Joan’s extra-perceptual senses are on alert.”
“That makes two of us,” Seven said. “Send that baby into cyberspace and let’s head back. I’m worried about the Bishop.”
“How’s that?”
“If he wakes up and starts bothering Alana, she may use his head as a battering ram to break through that wall. There are a lot of strong emotions wrapped inside that beautiful package, and I don’t want the Bishop to be without protection if she erupts.”
Brent laughed a nervous laugh, knowing that there was more truth to those words than Seven knew. That would be one heck of an eruption, he thought as he continued to scoot along the tunnel, making his way back to the rest of the team.
CHAPTER 40
It was late when Joan received Brent’s text. She was relieved to know that everyone was alright and even more so that they would be home in a few days. She decided not to wait until morning to tell the others and quickly forwarded the text to everyone on the SIA executive committee and then personally called Maddie and Chloe to tell them the good news.
The next morning t
here was a bounce in the footsteps of those who received the e-mail and joviality in their speech that hadn’t been there in days. From her office, Joan watched and listened to the lighthearted way in which everyone was moving and talking. It made her feel good to see a positive light shine in those who mattered most. Talking to herself, she said, “This is going to be a good day.”
Security called her just after one o’clock in the afternoon saying that a Father Reilly was at reception and that he was expected. Joan confirmed the message and asked the security officer to treat Father Reilly as he would any other foreign emissary and to let him know that the Madame Director and Mrs. Venturi would be down shortly. Joan made sure to repeat what Brent and Seven had said about having concern about Father Reilly’s visit to Maddie. The Director told her she and Chloe would be careful, but she didn’t see any harm in going out for a short lunch with the guy.
Being that they were a little late, the girls were relieved when they heard laughter even before they even reached the lobby. “I see you’re keeping our guest entertained,” Maddie said, addressing the security guard.
Seeing the ladies walk in, the security guard quickly stopped laughing and stood at full attention. “Madame Director, please accept my apology for leaving my post,” the guard said.
“Relax Mike, we’re the ones who need to apologize for being late,” Maddie replied. “I appreciate you making our guest feel welcome.”
Relieved, Mike smiled and breathed a little easier. Maddie ran a tight ship at headquarters and he was happy he wouldn’t be reprimanded for leaving the security desk. “I’ll leave you to your guest and return to my post,” he said. He shook Father Reilly’s hand, saying, “It has been a pleasure meeting you, Timothy. I leave you in good hands.”
“The pleasure has been all mine,” Father Reilly said with a heavy Italian accent. “Thank you for your kindness.”
“Well, hello, Father Reilly,” Maddie said, extending her hand, “this is certainly a pleasant surprise. Chloe and I are looking forward to getting reacquainted during lunch.”