“Spencer, it’s okay. I don’t want a rifle,” Allie said.
“Me either. I mean, it’s not like we’re being dropped into Afghanistan or something, right?” Drake said.
“We have no idea what we’re walking into. His unwillingness or inability to perform could cost us our lives,” Spencer argued.
“You’re walking into a cave, last time I heard. What, precisely, do you think you’ll need all this firepower for?” Reynolds asked.
“Ask your operative,” Spencer said. “Oh, that’s right, he’s gone dark, so you have no idea what’s waiting for us at the other end of the cave.”
“I’ll be right there beside you,” Reynolds reminded him.
“That’s another thing I’m afraid of.”
Allie and Drake eventually convinced Spencer to continue on absent all the weapons, and they loaded their bags into the SUV – all now had black nylon backpacks, with Allie bringing only her necessities in hers, including the sword, her phone and tablet, and a change of clothes. She was wearing the hiking boots she’d bought the prior morning on the way to meet Roland, as were Drake and Spencer.
“Have you given any thought as to how you’re planning to slip an AKM past any guards at the cave?” Reynolds asked as they prepared to leave.
“I’ll dismantle the gun and carry it in my backpack. I can reassemble one in my sleep, so once we’re out of sight in the cave, I’ll do so,” Spencer said.
“I’m not going to ask how you know so much about a Russian assault weapon,” Reynolds said.
“I have friends in all the wrong places.”
The trip to the border checkpoint took almost an hour, and when Roland followed Reynolds’s SUV into the far right lane, they were passed through with no inspection by a border guard with an ear-to-ear smile. From the checkpoint it took almost three hours to reach Ransoo, the village used as the jumping off point for pilgrims headed for the Shiv Khori.
They parked the vehicles in a gravel lot next to a market and made their way to the path that led up the mountain to the sacred cave. There were few others on the trail, as the pilgrimage season was already over, and they encountered only the occasional straggler. The path transitioned to a walkway paved with stone and, as they neared the cave, to a series of steep steps that stretched up the side of the rock face to an opening in the side of the cliff.
Once inside the cave, they were met by an attendant who offered to guide them and, when they refused, cautioned them not to touch anything and not to stray from the clearly marked route to the sacred chamber. They agreed and pressed forward until the cavern narrowed, the roof dropping to a point where they could barely squeeze through.
“Up there is the passage we need to take,” Drake whispered, pointing left, into the darkness, the lamps strung for the pilgrims insufficient to light the entire area. “It branches there, and then there’s a dead end to the right after a dogleg we need to avoid, so we bear left until we reach another branch, and take that one to the right,” he advised, peering at the hand-drawn map. Drake led them single file toward the second passage, which they discovered when they reached it had been sealed with a brick wall.
“Damn. Didn’t see that coming,” Drake said, and tried one of the bricks, which came away in his hand, the mortar crumbling to sand at his touch.
“Looks like they didn’t do a very good job,” Reynolds said, and joined Drake in widening the opening while Roland and Spencer kept watch to ensure they weren’t interrupted.
After several tense minutes there was a gap in the wall they could manage, and Drake dragged himself through and then switched on his flashlight while he waited for the rest. Allie came next, and then Spencer, followed by the Frenchman and Reynolds, neither of whom looked thrilled to be spelunking.
Drake headed off into the dark, his flashlight beam piercing the gloom before him. The floor of the cave sloped gently upward as he proceeded, and glistening rivulets of water streamed along both sides of the passage like black veins.
At the fork, he veered left and then had to traverse the next stretch in a crouch as the cave’s ceiling dropped to no more than four feet high. When it increased in height again, he paused and waited for the others, the chamber now illuminated with the beams from their lamps, the air stagnant and dank.
Spencer reassembled the parts of the AKM into a working rifle with a folding wire stock, and slapped a magazine into place before chambering a round. Reynolds watched him with a deadpan stare, and Spencer leaned toward Allie and Drake to whisper to them.
“Strap on your pistols. If you wind up having to use them, there’s not likely to be any warning. Make sure there’s one in the hole, and check the safety so you don’t blow your foot off.”
Allie removed her pistol from her backpack and cinched the web belt that accompanied it tight. “How much further?” she asked Drake as she adjusted it.
“A long way. This is just the start if the map’s to scale.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
Drake pushed himself to his feet and surveyed the area before him, playing his flashlight beam over the brown rock. He caught Spencer’s determined look and set off with a nod, the others tailing him.
The passage slope steepened and they found themselves straining to make progress, the atmosphere in the cave now vaguely sulfurous. When they rounded a long bend, the distinctive sound of rushing water greeted them, its loud splashing echoing through the cavern. Drake edged forward and then abruptly stopped. His flashlight fixed on a wall of water cascading across the cavern before disappearing into a cavity in the floor.
“That’s not on the map,” Allie whispered.
“No. It’s probably new – since the idol was made,” Drake agreed. “So much for doing this the easy way.”
Spencer unwound a length of nylon rope and tossed one end to Drake. “Tie this around your waist. I’ll play anchor while you do your intrepid explorer bit.”
“Why don’t I do my ‘turn around and go back’ bit? Seems more sensible,” Drake said.
Reynolds checked the time. “We don’t have all day. We’ve already been in here an hour. Depending on how far this goes…”
“You want to try it?” Drake asked.
Reynolds gave him a grim smile. “That’s why you get paid the big bucks. Although we’re all getting wet if the passage continues.”
“No reason to think it doesn’t,” Allie said.
“Unless this stream, which has carved through the floor, has collapsed the ceiling further on,” Drake said. He tied the rope around his waist and hesitated a moment before the curtain of water. When Spencer had planted his feet wide and Allie had wrapped her arms around Spencer’s waist to add resistance if Drake fell, he shrugged. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered, and then ran straight through the water, his flashlight gripped tightly in his hand.
Spencer tensed, ready to absorb Drake’s weight if the cave floor was gone on the other side, but the rope remained loose. Drake reappeared through the torrent seconds later, soaked, and gave them a thumbs-up signal. “You have to jump to make it over the crevice the water disappears into, but it’s only about two feet wide,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Allie asked.
“I’m here, aren’t I? Come on. Piece of cake – really.” He ran toward the waterfall again and disappeared with a leap, and then the rope tightened as he pulled it from beyond the rush. “Just work your way along the rope, and jump right at the water. I’ll catch you on this side,” he said, his flashlight illuminating the stream from behind the fall.
Allie did as instructed and, at the water, held her breath, closed her eyes, and leapt through it. She slipped when she landed, and then Drake’s arms were around her, steadying her. She looked up into his face and blinked. “I’m fine,” she whispered.
“I know,” he said, and leaned in and kissed her. “But it seemed like a perfect time to sneak in a hug…”
She smiled and kissed him a
gain. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”
The rest followed her through, and soon they were all standing on the far side of the waterfall. Drake consulted his soggy map for a moment and then nodded to himself and motioned with his flashlight. “Should be another passage soon, on the right. We already passed the dead end – at least, I hope so.” He looked over the dripping group. “Ready?”
“Let’s do it,” Spencer answered, rifle held casually in his right hand, pointing at the ground, flashlight in his left.
Hours passed as they ventured deeper into the cave system, and around three o’clock they paused for a rest in a wider section of the passageway. The air was now cool, redolent of wet stone and mineral deposits. The mountain seemed to weigh heavily on them even as they sat catching their breath. Drake took another long look at his map and shook his head. “We’re barely at the halfway point, if this is correct.”
“How far do you think we’ve come?” Allie asked.
“Probably a couple of miles,” Reynolds said. “All uphill.”
“At least the map’s been accurate so far,” Spencer said.
“And you have no idea what’s on the other end of this?” Reynolds asked.
Drake and Allie exchanged a look. “The script was incomplete. It ended with the words ‘beneath which’ and ‘holiest of holies.’ Your guess is as good as ours,” Drake said.
Reynolds grunted and rubbed his face. “At this rate it’ll be getting dark by the time we make it out.”
“If we’re lucky,” Spencer agreed, struggling to his feet. “Let’s go. This place gives me the willies.”
Allie nodded. “That makes two of us.”
Forty minutes later, Reynolds lost his footing as they were navigating a thin strip of cave with a sheer drop on one side. He went down and his flashlight tumbled into nothingness, clanking against stone many feet below, and it was only the rope they’d tied around their waists at Spencer’s urging, creating a daisy chain to prevent a catastrophe, that saved him from following it into the abyss. He stared down at the void for several long beats and then regained his feet, visibly shaken. Spencer eyed his torn pant leg and scuffed hands without sympathy. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Close one.”
“Try not to do that again.”
“Good thinking.”
Over the next three hours the floor continued to incline steeply, and they were forced to climb the narrow stretch on all fours, the only sound their labored breathing, everyone now tired from the long slog. Drake paused at the top of the slope and then turned to the others, his face stiff. Allie reached him and glanced over the edge, and her shoulders sagged as she gasped in dismay. Drake gestured at the passageway as the men approached his vantage point.
“Cave-in,” he said, gesturing dispiritedly to the tumble of rocky debris blocking their way, stretching high within the natural chamber to where part of the ceiling had collapsed, terminating their progress and leaving them nowhere to go but back.
Chapter 51
“What do we do now?” Reynolds asked.
Roland gave him a sour glare. “I’m going to have a cigarette.”
Spencer shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that. There could be explosive gas nearby. Be a bad way to test for it.”
Drake moved to the rubble and sat on a rock. Allie joined him and put her hand on his shoulder. “So close,” she said softly.
“We don’t even know to what. But man, is that going to be a long hike back.”
Spencer set his rifle down and climbed the debris. He was near the top when he sniffed several times, like a dog tracking a scent.
“What is it?” Allie asked, catching his expression.
“Fresh air,” Spencer said, reaching for the nearest rock. His fingers wrapped around it and he sent it tumbling down the slope. Drake and Allie leapt aside as it crashed near where they had been sitting. “Sorry. But more to follow.”
“You really think we can dig our way through?” Reynolds called.
“I’m sure as hell going to try,” Spencer replied, and worked another stone loose.
Twenty minutes later he’d created an aperture two feet square – just wide enough to accommodate them. He motioned to Drake. “Bring me the rifle. Looks like the passage continues for another dozen yards, and then there’s an opening.”
“Spencer, you’re a genius,” Allie said. Drake climbed the pile, rifle in his arms, and when he reached Spencer, handed him the weapon before he withdrew his flashlight from where it jutted from his pocket and flipped the power on. He shined it through the hole and grinned at Spencer.
“I see leaves.”
“I’ll go first. Keep your lights under control, just in case there’s something waiting for us that isn’t friendly,” Spencer warned, and then switched his flashlight off and crawled into the gap. Allie followed, and then the rest of them were through, only Allie’s light remaining on.
“Turn it off,” Drake whispered. She did, and with the chamber darkened they could begin to make out detail from a wash of twilight seeping through the plants at the cave mouth.
“At least it’s still light out,” Spencer said, checking the time. “Not for much longer.”
“Let’s see if there’s anything out there while we can,” Allie said, and followed Drake and Spencer to where dusk was spilling into the cave.
They emerged through a tangle of vines into a rocky clearing surrounded by mountains. The air was crisp from the high altitude, the sky bruised with the fading light of twilight. Allie turned back to face the cave, and if Reynolds and the Frenchman hadn’t been stepping from the mouth, she would have been hard-pressed to find it again, so covered by overgrowth was the opening.
“Where are we?” Reynolds asked.
Allie removed the handheld GPS from her bag and powered it on. The screen blinked as it acquired a signal and then a color map popped up, indicating their location with a pulsing red dot. They gathered around it and she slowly zoomed out, and Reynolds shook his head. “There’s nothing here, according to that.”
Drake looked around and nodded slowly. “Judging by what I can see, it got that part right.” He paused. “Although…”
“What?” Allie asked.
“Over there,” Drake said, pointing. “Looks like rubble, doesn’t it?”
Spencer stared at the rise Drake was indicating and began marching toward it. “The script said something about a holy of holies. Want to bet that’s a temple or a shrine?”
They joined him and crossed the clearing, and soon were in the midst of an obviously man-made structure that had collapsed long ago and was now piles of stone blocks, with walls still faintly identifiable among the debris. “It was fairly big,” Drake commented, eyeing the spread of stones. “Wonder what happened to it?”
“There are earthquakes in the area,” Reynolds said. “A stone structure without modern reinforcement wouldn’t fare too well in those. There are plenty of temples in the region that have been destroyed by seismic activity.”
“The script ended with the word beneath. Maybe there’s a subterranean vault below the complex?” Allie said. “That’s the obvious conclusion.”
“I don’t know. It’s a fairly big area. And it looks like there were outbuildings,” Drake said, and then stopped, concentration lines furrowing his forehead. “What do you think that is?” he asked, gesturing at a pole standing at the edge of the main area, pointing straight at the sky.
Allie shook her head. “It’s going to be dark soon, and it’ll probably get pretty cold. Let’s do a lap around the area and see if we can find anything that might be an entrance to an underground chamber.”
Spencer nodded. “I’ll take this section. You see what’s over there,” he said, pointing at another ruin nearby.
Reynolds stood with his hands on his hips. “But nothing about this explains why my man disappeared.”
“We didn’t promise you miracles, just that we would follo
w through on whatever Carson was after. This is us doing that. It’s up to you to figure out how it ties into whatever the DOD is interested in,” Spencer said, and then walked off toward a partially standing wall. Reynolds and Roland remained in the clearing, watching Spencer disappear into the rapidly descending gloom.
“Might as well tag along. There’s nothing to see here,” Reynolds said, and picked his way along a fallen row of blocks.
At the other ruins, Drake and Allie stopped at the remains of what looked like an altar carved from native stone. “This looks promising,” Allie said, kneeling to inspect the characters etched into the base. “Looks like Sanskrit to me.”
Drake took several steps closer to an ornately crafted depiction of Kali’s head, her tongue lolling out in an obscene manner. “Here’s our old friend the goddess. So this is the right place.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Allie said. “But obviously a lot’s happened since the script pointed the way. Time’s wiped the place off the face of the earth.”
“Maybe not all of it,” Drake said, and then froze when a sound reached him from a nearby wall: metal on stone.
“Spencer?” Allie called, rising from the altar and moving to Drake’s side. Drake unholstered his pistol and flipped the safety off, peering into the shadows at the far edge of the ruins.
Drake shushed her with a finger to his lips and then ducked down when he caught sight of a turbaned man with a rifle moving their way from the underbrush. Six more followed, carrying their assault weapons like they knew how to use them.
Allie shifted beside Drake and freed her weapon as well, but nicked the corner of a rock with the barrel in the gloom. The men spun at the sound, and then the clearing exploded with noise as they opened fire on the ruins.
Drake and Allie kept their heads down as ricochets whined around them, the gunmen firing largely blind in the dim light. Rock chips showered them as they ducked as low as they could. Drake murmured in her ear as they cringed in their hiding place, “It’ll be too dark for them to see us within another five minutes.”
The Goddess Legacy Page 24