“That’s a nice theory. But then, why didn’t your search of Lake Solitude discover anything?”
“Because we weren’t looking in the right spot.”
“What do you mean? You said you dived the lake, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but we were looking for signs of the lost airship on the lake bottom. We weren’t looking for a tunnel close to the surface.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then I’m about to go for a very cold swim for nothing,” Sam said, his white teeth showing his comfort, despite the cold.
That said, he dived his head under the frigid water and disappeared.
The combination of the frigid water and Sam’s lack of a diving mask combined to make for very poor visibility. In the distance, he could just make out a faint glow, which, he decided, must be the outside world, but he had no way to judge the distance.
Sam held his breath for just over a minute.
The glow didn’t seem to change at all.
How far had he gone? Could he make it to the end?
The glow at the end of the tunnel could be as much as several hundred feet away. He might make it, but he probably wouldn’t, and if he failed, what would happen to Aliana?
No, he decided, he’d better go back and rethink their escape.
Years of diving had taught him not to be careless.
His lungs burned as they fought the instinctive desire to take another deep breath, and his muscles ached both from the effects of the icy water and his lack of oxygen.
It was a dangerous combination.
As he surfaced, he tried to plant his feet on the silt, but struggled to hold himself upright. He drew upon his remaining strength, and dragged his body to the shoreline.
Aliana ran to him instantly.
“Are you okay?”
He wanted to answer “Yes,” but the effects of hypothermia made speaking too difficult.
“My god you’re freezing!”
He felt her wrap her arms around him. It didn’t feel warm; if anything, it stung him wherever she touched.
Still, he didn’t have the strength to tell her to stop.
“Sam, you’re going to freeze to death if I don’t do something soon.”
Freezing cold, soaking wet and with no means of warming himself, Sam watched, helplessly, as Aliana stripped naked in front of him. Her intention was obvious – to share her body heat with him. As near to death as he was, he couldn’t help but find himself amazed by her beauty. Her body exceeded the many fantasies that he’d had of her.
All woman, Aliana’s skin was so soft! She smelled feminine and divine. Sam reminded himself that she wasn’t doing this for his pleasure, but in order to save his life.
Even in the cold and so near to death, his body still became mightily aroused. To his embarrassment, he felt himself stiffen.
He squirmed, trying to hide his erection from her.
She nevertheless wrapped herself tightly around him and clung to him even harder.
They lay there together, for what might have been minutes or hours – Sam didn’t know. Half in a fevered dream state, he fluctuated in and out of consciousness, unsure of just how much was fantasy and how much was reality.
Then, he felt her press her lips hard against his. They were soft and wet, and her tongue met his with an eagerness that burned him with desire.
Was this a dream?
Sam returned her kiss with all the strength he had that remained.
Her arms were wrapped firmly around his neck as she kissed him again. Other sensations were starting to return to his body, and as they did, they were more powerful than he could ever remember.
The sweet sound of her moans, her delightful, feminine scent, and the soft touch of her skin, drove him to ecstasy.
Then came the soft sound of her gentle whisper in his ear, “I thought you were dead, you bastard.”
He opened his eyes, and saw that hers were wet with tears.
“Not a chance, not when I’ve only just found you.”
Before he realized it, she pushed her underwear down and off. She was wet, warm and welcoming as he drove himself inside of her. Her sigh of pleasure spiked his need.
“Oh, yes,” she murmured.
A wave of intense desire rolled though him.
Sam groaned.
Their bodies molded together perfectly. He’d gone from utter Hell to the heights of Heaven in that one moment and wished that the entire experience could go on forever.
Chapter Twenty One
John Wolfgang worked with his team of lethal mercenaries throughout the night.
They had been on standby in Tyrol awaiting his orders, and were dropped off by helicopter half an hour after he made the call.
His grenade had destroyed most of the crevasse that made its way deep into the heart of the mountain. The drilling process itself was easy enough, since the limestone was relatively soft. What took up most of their time was carrying out the rubble, bucket by bucket. There was only room for one person at a time to enter the hole. That person was rotated every half hour in order to maintain maximum drilling speed.
If Simmonds knew about it, so would the others, and that meant that he didn’t have much time. His team was heavily armed, but who knows what sort of men, the other God damn treasure hunters had employed.
He had suggested to the leader of the elite team that they just use dynamite and blow their way down to the lower level of the tunnel. The leader had replied that he would be happy to do so, just as long as everyone was also happy to be crushed by the mountain above them in the process.
By lunchtime the next day, they had progressed approximately forty feet.
“How deep are we going, boss?” It was Brent, the leader, who hadn’t spoken to anyone since he’d given the initial orders for how he wanted the drilling to proceed.
“Until we reach the cavern below. She’s in there, I know she is,” John said, with an outward sound of certainty that he didn’t quite feel inside. If he was wrong about this, it would be all over for him and Aliana.
“Understood.”
Two hours later, the man returned once more.
“Have you broken through yet?” John asked eagerly.
“No, but there’s a small gap, and we’ve been able to run a wire through it. We still have another 80 feet to go.”
“How far have we gone in the past 24 hours?”
“We’re approaching 50 feet.”
“Okay, so another two days?” John asked.
“Yes.”
“Is there any way we can increase our progress?”
“No.” Brent didn’t have to say anything else. He was a highly experienced mercenary. His face said it all. “If I say 48 hours, then that is the fastest it can be done.”
“Very good. Let me know the second you break through.”
*
Sam wasn’t sure how long he’d been asleep.
At the moment his mind was still groggy, but he was certain he had something terribly important to do before time ran out – he just couldn’t quite recall what it was. Despite the feeling of faintness, he discovered a sensation of comfort beyond anything he’d ever before experienced.
He opened his eyes and saw Aliana staring back at him.
“You’re still here,” she said, sounding relieved.
“Did you think that I was going to leave you while you slept?”
She kissed him, and said, “I wasn’t certain that you were going to live. You were pretty cold when I pulled you out of the water.”
So I didn’t manage to drag my body up on to the shoreline, after all – she did.
“Thank you,” he said quietly, and he meant it too.
“Did you make it to the outside?”
“No.”
He watched her face as he said the last word, and as she tried to formulate her next question, without trying to rush his weary mind.
“Was that because there was no way out, or because it was too far?” A
liana asked.
“It was too far.”
“So, that’s it then?” She seemed to be taking it well for someone who had just received a death sentence. “I wonder how many more years it will take before someone sees the Magdalena again, and enlightens our long lost loved ones of what became of us?”
It was strange, Sam realized, he hadn’t even considered the fact that if he couldn’t swim that distance underwater, then they would be stuck in the cavern, most likely ending up just like the skeletons inside the Magdalena. It was quick thinking on Aliana’s part, he decided, to have reached the conclusion that if he, an underwater dive expert, couldn’t swim that far underwater, then it would be impossible for her to do so as well.
The morbid part of his mind began to wonder if it should come to that, would he prefer to die on the shore or inside the Magdalena.
He took his time before answering, “You would be surprised at how ingenious the human mind can be when it’s trying to save its own life. We have enough food to last us for another week, and an unlimited supply of water, so I wouldn’t write us off, just yet.”
Her face brightened a little, but her voice betrayed her loss of hope when she asked, “Do you have any other ideas?”
“Yes. All we have to do to cross the tunnel underwater is to simply figure out a way to carry more than a couple of lungs-full of air.”
“Okay, and how do you propose we do that?”
“I haven’t worked that part out yet, and we don’t have much in the way of air-carrying devices in our backpacks to work with.”
“Unless…” she began, her smile seeming to return.
“Unless what?”
“Unless we can use something from the Magdalena?”
“My God, you’re right! Why didn’t I think of that?” He grabbed her hand again, “Come on, we’re getting out of here.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Tom Bower flew the 44 over the Dolomite mountain ranges. It had been a quick trip. He had stopped on only three occasions along the way, twice to refuel, and once to use the bathroom.
He’d been drinking at an exclusive bar in Paris, and had just taken the most adorable Parisian woman back to his hotel room, when his cell rang. He was reluctant to answer it, but the person on the other end had been persistent, and after the ninth phone call, he thought it might have something to do with Sam Reilly.
Against his better judgment, he answered the call.
“Tom Bower?” A stranger’s voice had asked.
“Yes, who is this?”
“My name is not important right now. Let’s just say I’m a friend of Sam Reilly.”
“Go on, I’m listening.”
It took some convincing for Tom to trust the man on the other end. His coarse voice, alone, sounded sinister, as though he’d smoked enough cigarettes to have already died from lung cancer years ago.
“Sam and Aliana have gone down the rabbit hole and found the Magdalena.”
Tom’s reflexes were now fully awake, and he said, “Those are a few names I haven’t heard in a while. Tell me more…”
“Some people, let’s say some unfriendly people, are currently making their way down that hole right behind them.”
“Okay, that’s not very nice.”
“No, I thought you’d say that. Now, what I need you to do, is return to the only place from which they might escape.”
“Might escape?” Tom asked.
“Let me tell you what I know…” the man coughed several times.
Maybe he does already have lung cancer?
“At this moment, Sam and Aliana are inside a tunnel and are most likely in possession of the highly sought-after contents of the lost Magdalena. An elite team of mercenaries is chasing them, cornering them like foxes; their only hope of escaping them is to exit from the other side of the tunnel.”
“And you want me to help extract them from there?” Tom asked.
“Yes. Now, I’ll give you the GPS coordinates of where I’m hoping they will meet you soon.”
Tom wrote down the coordinates, and then read the latitude and longitude back to the man for verification.
He now knew exactly where he was supposed to go.
“Does this place mean anything to you?” The man asked him directly.
Tom had the good sense to answer, “No, I’ve never been there before.”
The man laughed at Tom’s denial, his coarse, dry laugh indicated that he knew perfectly well that Tom and Sam had just spent the past week diving Lake Solitude.
But there was nothing in there … right?
“So, the tunnel comes out there?”
“Yes. But there’s something else you should know, Tom.”
“What’s that?”
“No one’s been able to find a way in for the past 75 years.”
“And you’re betting that Sam will find a way out?”
“No, I’m betting that Sam and Aliana will die when the fox catches up with the rabbits, but I thought you’d like to know nonetheless, just in case. Good luck.”
The man ended the call before Tom even had a chance to thank him.
There was never any doubt in Tom’s mind about whether or not he was going. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do once he got there, or even what he could do. In all probability, Sam and his new girlfriend were probably already dead. In fact, if it hadn’t been Sam, he wouldn’t have even bothered going there to find out.
But Sam was different.
Sam's life of privilege had left him with the deep-seated belief that he could have it all, and as Tom had discovered early on in their friendship, that optimism seemed to have a carry-over effect. If there was anyone who could find a way to get out of this mess, it was Sam Reilly.
With a gentle kiss, Tom left the beautiful woman lying next to him. Her black, silken, negligée barely contained her ample breasts.
“You owe me for this one, Sam,” he said quietly out loud as he left.
Then in the dead of night, Tom flew toward the given coordinates, where a crack team of mercenaries were swarming toward the mountain.
He still wondered what they knew, and more importantly, what they thought had been discovered. Did they actually believe Sam and Aliana had somehow managed to discover the lost Magdalena? As he looked at the men swarming the mountain face far below, maybe another day’s climb to Lake Solitude, he couldn’t help but wonder what this really was all about.
The gold wouldn’t even pay their fees, so what else were they after?
Looking at the altimeter, Tom noticed that he was approaching 6,000 feet. Lake Solitude was at 8,500 feet. The air was starting to thin out just a little, and he had to raise the collective to maintain elevation.
Some instinct told him exactly where to go, but what he would do once he got there was an entirely different matter.
And it was a question for which he had no answer.
*
Sam located the engineer’s compartment in the Magdalena’s pilot house.
On a routine voyage, the Magdalena would have been carrying an engineer and enough equipment to repair any faults that might occur in flight, but from what he’d heard and learned about that fateful and final night, the Magdalena was flying with only a skeleton crew. Rifling through the equipment, Sam found what he needed in order to disconnect the 75 year-old enormous air tank from the pilot gondola.
Aliana’s eyebrow curled in surprise as he worked.
“After so much time, won’t the air inside have gone stale?” Aliana asked.
“I’m sure it will have done just that,” he said, as he managed to finally crack open its regulator with a hiss. “Yep, that’s pretty dry, stale crap.”
“So then, what are you going to use it for?”
“We’re going to build a rudimentary diving bell.” Sam released any pressure that still might be held within. He then began to work on cutting the air canister in half, as he continued to explain, “You see, I don’t need a lot of air to get through this tun
nel. There should be just enough air in here for me to take three or four breaths, which should be enough to get me through to the end of the tunnel.”
“Me?” She looked concerned. “Do you mean we’re not both going to go through?”
“No. You saw what the frigid water temperature did to me, and I’ve got a lot more body fat to help me keep warm than you do. Besides, the air isn’t the best, as you know, so we shouldn’t both risk going.” He studied her face. She seemed to accept her fate with equanimity. “When I get to the other side, I’ll contact my friend Tom. He’s probably the only person that I know I can trust. And once he gets here with our dive gear and some equipment, we’ll come back to get you.”
“And what will I do if you die along the way?”
It was a fair question, he realized.
“Wait a week. With my rations, you have more than two weeks’ worth of supplies. If I haven't returned by then, take the second half of this air tank, and hope to hell that your luck is better than mine.” Sam made sure that what he’d just told her was getting through. “Then, you eat as much food as you can to increase your body’s ability to resist hypothermia, and then swim as fast as you can toward the glow, in that direction. Once you make it through the tunnel, you should be able to ascend to the surface. You’ll have to find some way to warm yourself up, and once you do, you walk out of this mountain range, following whatever trail or Via Ferrata you can find, and simply pretend that none of this ever happened.”
He tried to meet Aliana’s eyes, but she turned away.
“Okay, I understand,” she acknowledged.
Sam watched as Aliana’s eyes examined the now halved air canister. It resembled a giant steel bucket, and it was large enough that a man could fit his head and shoulders inside, and breathe the air.
The Sam Reilly Collection Page 21