“What makes you think there is another way out?”
“The water here is fresh. If you watch the water, it has a not so slow movement in that direction.” He pointed to the wall ahead. “Logic suggests there’s a large subterranean water table moving along here – and that water must come out somewhere.”
“Two faults with your theory,” Zara smiled condescendingly. “First. There aren’t any waterholes around here for at least seventy miles. Second. You’ve already searched all the other waterholes within a hundred mile radius. And thirdly, even if the water did take us somewhere we could get out, we would drown in the process, because – in case you didn’t notice it, the water is moving underground, which means we won’t be able to breath in the process!”
Sam smiled, nonplussed. “Even so, I think I’ll have a swim. Kill the time if nothing else.”
Zara stood up to argue the point, but she felt a gentle hand on her wrist, stopping her. Zara looked down and saw Tom.
“Let him be. This is his sort of thing. Let him get it out of his system.” Without saying anything else, Tom laid backwards and made himself comfortable, quickly drifting toward sleep. “After all that walking, I’m glad to have time to relax. Sleep when you can…”
“Even if you’re right and this ancient water table travels for a hundred miles there’s no place to reach the surface again.”
“No known place, you mean?” Sam corrected her and then dived below the water again.
She watched as he disappeared for a considerably longer time. Thirty seconds stretched to a minute. Followed by two. She looked at Tom who appeared indifferent. Not just unafraid. More like a bored child, waiting to go home.
“Tom, I think your friend might have just drowned.”
“Sam? Nah, he’s a pretty good swimmer.” Tom smiled. “When he's not talking, he has breath to last for hours.”
Nearly a minute later she got up and kicked Tom. “Hey, I’m pretty certain Sam’s just drowned. Are you going to do something?”
Tom sat up, stretched, as though he’d been in a deep sleep and walked to the edge of the water. It was moving relatively slowly on the surface, but she’d heard of these things having powerful undertows, capable of sucking a man downwards to his death.
“He does seem to be holding his breath longer than I would have expected,” Tom said and then sat down again.
“That’s it!” she yelled.
Tom nodded. “If that current’s strong enough to drown Sam, there’s nothing I can do to overcome it.” He stared at the dark water. “Too bad, too. I liked that guy.”
She shook her head in disbelief.
A moment later Sam resurfaced and took a couple deep breaths.
Zara said, “My God, Sam! I thought you’d just gotten yourself killed.”
He shook his head. “No. But I think I just found our way out. It’s a very narrow tunnel Tom and I accidentally came across earlier. It will be hard to get through, but if we can reach the other side, it might just take us somewhere.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Zara backed away from the edge of the island and said, “Oh no! Not me… no way!”
Sam swam along the surface toward her. “Why? Do you prefer the idea of waiting here and taking your chances on General Ngige’s men who are guarding the well, and even as we speak, working out how to get to us?”
“Unlike you, I’m terrified of confined spaces. Anything narrow and underwater, I’m just not going to be happy. I think I’d rather take my chance against Ngige’s men or waiting long enough to starve in the Saharan desert.”
“Yeah, I hate confined spaces too. But I really don’t have an alternative, and neither do you.”
Sam dipped his head and disappeared under the water again, as though he didn’t want to argue the point.
She looked at Tom. “Really? I thought he was supposed to be some world-leading cave diver?”
“He is. Always hated it though. His mother gave him the stupid notion that one must try to overcome their fears, and he’s spent his life doing just that. It’s a bit extreme, I’ll admit. I think secretly he’s grown to love the subterranean environments.”
Zara asked, “What about you?”
Tom shrugged. “What about me?”
“You don’t look much like a diver? What do you weigh – two hundred pounds?”
“Two fifty.”
“So, how did you get into cave diving? It can’t be a natural choice for a man of your size.”
Tom laughed. “I don’t get claustrophobia. Never have. Instead, cave diving came naturally to me.”
“Really?” Zara was surprised. First, to hear that Sam Reilly hated caves, and second to hear that Tom Bower, a giant, had always felt at home inside them. “How so?”
Tom smiled. He didn’t appear embarrassed. More like a gentle soul and a big kid whose heart never changed since he was a child with his first real dreams for the future. “I’ve been getting stuck in things since I was little. Always too big for everything. In that way, cave diving’s always made me feel right at home.”
Sam resurfaced at the side of the island. “I’ve been thinking and I’ve made a decision.”
“About what?” she asked.
“I thought Tom and I would check out the tunnel I found. If there’s any chance it’s going to go somewhere we’ll come back and get you.”
“Great. And in the meantime, what do I do?”
“It will be dark. You may as well have a rest.”
Zara had seen the domed cavern in the dark. She didn’t like it. One of the few things more frightening than swimming through another narrow underwater tunnel was the thought of waiting here to see if Sam and Tom were ever going to come back, or if they were going to drown and leave her to die trapped in the dark.
She bit her lower lip and then smiled. “On second thoughts, how about I come with you now?”
Chapter Sixty
Sam retraced his trip back to the smaller of the two domes, where he and Tom had erroneously surfaced when they had first arrived. Sam led the way as he slowly swam along the surface of the narrow tunnel where he and Tom had nearly become lost while searching for Zara. He quickly found the narrow tunnel. In this tunnel there were a few inches of air above the water level, so they could breathe while swimming. Zara swam in the middle of the group, with Tom following. They took it in turns to use the one watertight bag as a flotation device, with each of them, using it for a brief break from the strenuous swimming.
They traveled along the tunnel, following a constant and almost imperceptible flow of water. Because the tunnel was perfectly rectangular with no identifying changes in the shape or texture of its walls, it was difficult to judge how fast they were moving. Tom and Sam stopped on occasion to test their ability to swim against the current if later required. They would mark the stone walls of the tunnel with chalk and then swim for a minute. Afterwards, they would stop and measure the distance. Each time they stopped to do this, Sam was surprised by the strength of the current and also encouraged by it. That amount of water can’t move unless it has somewhere to go, and of course, although it was not obvious because of the uniformity of the tunnel, the current was speeding them along its length.
After three hours in the water they saw the first change in the tunnel, and it wasn’t a good one. The water height moved up the wall of the tunnel, which meant there was less distance between the water and the ceiling – less room to breathe.
Zara caught up with Sam and tapped him on the shoulder. She asked, “Do you have plan?”
Sam gave a cursory glance at the ceiling, now only about half a foot above his head. He said, “To deal with our diminishing room to breathe?”
She nodded.
He said, “Not really. I was kind of just hoping it would resolve itself.”
“That’s it?” She cursed and mumbled something under her breath about never trusting a man like Sam Reilly. “That’s the best you’ve got?”
“If it makes you fe
el better, I have a gut feeling our problem will self-resolve soon. This won’t last long. The Garamantes who built these tunnels were highly exacting people. They didn’t simply decide to change the height of the tunnel. I think it’s more likely there’s been a cave-in somewhere further along, and it’s caused a backflow of water here, or increased the depth below us. Either way, once we pass it, we should be fine.”
She asked, “Can we pass it?”
“That’s the big if. I’m reasonably confident we’ll be all right.”
Two minutes later Sam placed his hand on the ceiling and stopped their progression. Zara floated into him and stopped.
She asked, “What is it?”
Sam said, “I don’t know. This might be the end of the line. Wait here and I’ll go ahead and see if we can get past it. If that suits you?”
“Go,” she said. “I’ll just hang out here.”
As Tom caught up, he reached up and touched the ceiling, coming to a stop. “Do you want me to go ahead and see what we have?”
“Nah. We already agreed I'll go ahead and check,” Sam said. “Wait here and look after Zara. I’ll have a quick look and see if it’s possible. If I don’t come back, you know the deal?”
“I won’t come looking for you. I’ll get Zara back, we’ll wait as long as we can and then climb back up the well and escape across the desert.”
“Be sure you do. You know I would if the roles were reversed, right?”
“I doubt that very much,” Tom said. “But I'm better at following orders, so be careful. You know I prefer it down here in the cool water than trekking across the scorching desert.”
Sam nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
He then dipped his head below the narrow ceiling and disappeared.
Chapter Sixty-One
Sam drifted along the tunnel, with no more than an inch or two of air between the water and the ceiling. He kept his eyes opened while floating on his back. The blue glow from his DARPA thermal suit reflected off the ceiling back down at him, as though it were a mirror. Occasionally, every twenty or so feet, a gap would form where the glow would be absorbed by an area of darkness. These areas, he soon discovered, occurred when the ceiling had collapsed leaving a small opening.
He floated into the first large one he found. It formed where three stones, each no larger than a soda can, had fallen from the roof. Not big enough to surface his entire head, but good enough for him to place his mouth inside and breath the air trapped above.
The air was not stale and foul, but felt cool, and delicious on his throat.
Sam waited there for ten or so seconds as he caught his breath, not wanting to wait any longer in case he drew the last of the air out. He dipped again and floated well below the roof line. It was at least another forty or fifty feet before he found another opening.
This one was much larger, and capable of supporting his entire body. It looked clear to him that a large pocket of the tunnel had collapsed. He surfaced and took a couple deep breaths. His eyes scanned the area. The opening appeared to go to another level. The light of his suit shined upwards approximately twenty feet until it reached another, thoroughly damaged ceiling. Bits of limestone and sand intermingled through a gaping hole where the ceiling of a second tunnel passed through the cave-in.
Sam waited until his eyes adjusted to his new environment and then grinned. There was definitely a second tunnel, about ten feet above. Two tunnels are better than one – especially when the second one is high and dry. He tried to grip the remaining stone walls and climb. The rocks he put his weight on fell apart in his hands. He tried another grip, followed by a third. Each one broke in his hands, sending more stones tumbling down.
He stared at the second tunnel. It was clearly visible now that he’d identified it. He shook his head and cursed to himself. Ten feet, I can’t reach a meager ten feet?
Sam dropped back into the water and continued to swim down the flooded tunnel. He didn’t get very far. A second large cave-in blocked his progression any further down the tunnel. The water sped past him, as its pressure became confined to two small cracks in the limestone wall. Neither was big enough for even Zara to slip through. Definitely too small for him to make it.
Sam performed a swimmer’s tumble-turn against the pile of stone rubble which blocked his progress through the original tunnel, and started swimming hard against the current. He surfaced at the large opening to catch his breath and then swam all the way back to where he’d left Tom and Zara. It was a much harder swim going back against the current.
Surfacing, he took several deep breaths. Tom held onto the side of his right arm to stop him from floating down the current, and waited.
Zara asked, “Any luck?”
Sam said, “Maybe.”
She looked at him like he was a fool. “What does maybe mean? We can either get through or we can’t. Which one is it?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know yet. It’s a maybe. But I’m willing to give it a try.”
Tom asked, “What have we got?”
“There’s a cave-in approximately eighty feet ahead. The current is still getting past, through two small cracks in the limestone. Real small cracks. Even Zara wouldn’t fit through, which means it’s not going to be an option for either of us. About twenty feet back from there, there’s an opening in the ceiling where another cave-in occurred. Above it I can see a second tunnel. High and dry. It looks like a good option. But we’ve got a problem…”
Zara frowned. It said, don’t we always? “What’s the problem?”
Sam said, “The tunnel’s ten feet above, and the walls are too unstable to climb.”
Tom said, “Okay, but surely we can get past that. I mean, between the three of us, we can build some sort of human chain or something and remove the obstacle of ten feet?”
“I think you’ll find we need a human pyramid,” Zara corrected him.
Tom shrugged. “Either way, it must be possible?”
Chapter Sixty-Two
Ten minutes later all three of them surfaced inside the large opening where Sam had found the second tunnel. The opening was just wide enough for all three of them to fit inside. Sam watched as Tom and Zara glanced around, judging their quandary.
Zara was the first to see it. “We have a problem.”
Sam said, “Yeah, it took me a while to work it out too. But there has to be another way.”
Tom said, “What’s the problem? I could almost reach the second tunnel myself. If I had something to stand on.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Tom’s smile disappeared. “There’s nothing for me to stand on, is there?”
“Afraid not,” Sam said. “Which means, we can’t make a human pyramid because the person at the bottom will just sink lower in the water until we’re all underwater.”
Zara said, “There must be a way!”
Tom nodded. “All we need is for a couple of these stones to hold and I can reach the second tunnel.”
Sam watched as Tom tried the first stone he could reach. It fell away the same as the other ones Sam had tried. He then tried to use oppositional force between the two sides of the cave-in to climb upwards, but the opening was too wide for that to be of any use.
After the fourth fall, Tom stopped and looked at Zara. “You want to have a try. You’re a lot lighter than we are?”
“Sure.”
Zara reached for a much lower stone and gripped it. Lithe and agile, like a cat, she managed to use the hold to reach a second one. She spread the weight between both holds, leaning forward as she climbed to distribute the pressures evenly. Two feet from the top, a third stone held her weight. She paused there, as she studied the climb. She needed to jump to reach the top. It wasn’t an easy jump, but it wasn’t impossible, either.
She bent her arms and legs, slowly increasing the tension in her muscles ready to jump. Sam watched her muscles contract with the explosive force of an elite athlete. It was an easy jump for her – unti
l the two stones she was pushing off, broke under the intense pressure.
Zara fell backwards into the water.
Sam grabbed her shoulder and helped her to surface inside the opening again. He watched her catch her breath. “You did well. Better than Tom or I.”
“But not good enough.” She shook her head.
Tom said, “You can try again. You’ll make it. Just give it time.”
They gave it time, but despite their best efforts, they were no closer to reaching the second tunnel an hour later.
Zara cursed the opening. “After all that we’ve done to get here, we’re going to fail because of ten lousy feet!”
Sam said, “It’s not over yet.”
“What do you mean?” She looked like she wanted to hit him and his confidence. “Of course it is. We’ve found the only way out. And it’s impossible to access. The water’s too low to ever reach the top of that wall.”
Sam persisted. “Even so, there will be a way. It might just take some time, that’s all.”
Zara’s mouth was set hard. Her face, normally vivid with expression, showed nothing but the despondence of impossibility. “How? It’s not like you can raise the height of the water.”
Sam grinned suddenly. “Maybe we can?”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Both men took a dozen or more deep breaths in and out. By hyperventilating they were reducing their carbon dioxide levels and turning their blood slightly alkaline. The benefit of which, was to offset the inevitable acidity that would be caused when they held their breaths for a prolonged period during the free-dive and reduce their urge to breath.
Sam caught Tom’s eye and nodded. It was time. He dipped his head under the water and back into the submerged tunnel. He quickly swam down the current until he reached the cave-in, approximately eighty feet ahead.
The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2 Page 71