Carter took another deep breath, and let out another quick burst of sound.
“Carter, is that you?” Brad’s voice fell from the top of the cliff. A chorus of thankful cheers sounded from the sky. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Carter yelled back. “Peachy.”
A vine snapped. Carter’s gut lurched as he fell. But he only fell inches before the rigging of vines caught him again and swung him toward the cliff face.
And then they all snapped.
Carter braced for the worst. But, really, how can you brace for a long fall and a sudden, splattery stop? Luckily, his fall wasn’t that far. He slammed onto rocky ground, knocking the wind of his lungs.
“Carter!” Brad yelled.
“I’m all right!” Carter yelled back through gasps. “You were right about that fiftieth pace!” He was standing inside a dark cave that cut back into the cliff.
He could see a few yards into the cave, only what was illuminated by the light of the rising sun. And as amazingly brave and daring as Captain Lackbeard was, he didn’t want to run into a deep, dark cave all by himself.
“We’re coming down,” Brad yelled.
A chorus of voices followed, but Carter couldn’t be bothered to listen. They were doing their own thing now, and all he could do was wait.
Wait and explore what little of the cave he could see. He studied the ground, looking for signs of inevitable booby traps. If anything, he knew that much for sure. Pirates loved booby traps.
But he found nothing special. So he stepped a bit further into the cave, just beyond the veil of darkness. He ran his hand along the wall. Something jutted out the rock, something manmade. He leaned in for a closer look, and could barely make out the edges. But what he couldn’t see, he could smell.
Oil.
He fished the waterproof matches out of his pocket. Two left. He took a deep breath, and struck. The firelight showed a lantern mounted to the wall. He touched the match to the reservoir of oil, and it sparked to life.
Out of the corner of Carter’s eye, he watched as a spark ran from the lit lantern down a cannon fuse strung along the cave wall. As it traveled, new lanterns were lit at odd intervals. Soon, a trail of light extended deep into the cave and disappeared around a corner fifty yards in.
He didn’t know whether he would have gone on alone at that point, now that he could see. He wrestled with the decision for just a minute before the rappel rope fell over the edge of the cliff and dangled in front of the cave.
Cadet Tim slid down a second later. “I’m here to rescue you, civilian.” Tim swung his legs until he was moving like a pendulum, back and forth. When he was close enough, Carter grabbed the rope and pulled Tim in.
Then came Louis, Marcus, Walter, and the second cadet, Kevin. Carter froze when the pirates came down next. “Hold up, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t they just double-cross us and knock me off a cliff?”
Brad filled Carter in on what happened in the moments when he dangled over certain doom.
Apparently, Nestor was all full of regret. Never tossed a kid over a cliff in all his dubious adventures, Carter guessed. Anyway, he handed his gun over to Major North even though he could have simply bean-bagged them all and run off.
“That’s right,” Nestor said, his voice meek, but serious. “I’m turning over a new leaf.”
Major North appeared in the cave opening. “I’ll believe it when I see it.” He rocked back, and then swung forward and jumped into the cave on his own. No help required. “Until then, we’ll keep an eye on them. Isn’t that right cadets?”
“Hoo-rah!”
“And I’ll be taking charge of this operation.”
“You keep thinking that, Captain Bench Press.” Carter stepped around the major like he wasn’t even there. “As soon as the rest of my crew gets here, we’re off. You can do whatever you want.”
Carter joined Brad at the mouth of the cave. Before Carter could speak, Brad wrapped him up in the tightest bear hug of his life. Brad made a series of noises, half-words, the beginnings of a heartfelt sentiment that tripped over itself and fell on its face.
So Carter squeezed him back, letting him know that no words were necessary.
As they broke apart, a shouting match from above grew so intense, Carter thought it might cause a cave in.
“Why did you come along, anyway?” Darla had razors in her voice. “Just so you could torment me some more?”
“I’m trying to keep you from making the same mistakes I did.” Ms. Roberts cut back
“You’re trying to control my life.”
“I just want what’s best for you. And you can’t see that right now because you’re a mess of teenage hormones.”
“Seems like you’re trying to keep me locked in the house with you.”
“Exactly the opposite,” Ms. Roberts said. “I want you to be free. I want you to go on all the adventures you could ever hope to go on. And you won’t be able to do that if you tie yourself to Brad Humbolt.”
Darla yelled down to the cave. “Get ready for me. I’m coming down.”
The rappel line jostled as it took her weight, tensed nearly as much as Brad’s jaw. He and Ms. Roberts rarely openly clashed. Brad rarely openly clashed with anyone besides Carter. But that didn’t mean they liked each other. Seeing the torment she inflicted on Darla was enough to secure her place in Brad’s bad graces.
It was just one of many reasons Carter hated her. She’d made his life miserable for as long as he could remember. The second he stepped out of line, even slid his pinky toe over the line, she cracked like a whip. He was used to adults not caring about him. The foster parents he’d had tended toward dismissive. He wouldn’t say neglectful—it wasn’t like they starved him. But none of them particularly cared. He was there, that’s all. Like a lamp.
But Ms. Roberts was the total opposite. She’d been on him from the second he’d zipped up his skull and crossbones hoodie and declared himself the scourge of St. John’s County.
The line swung some more as Darla climbed down. More than it should have.
“Something isn’t—” Brad’s voice was cut off by a shriek, a kraken bellowing from the froth below.
As soon as Darla dropped over the ledge, the knot securing the line slipped loose. Nothing tethered Darla to the cliff side. She was in total free-fall.
Until she stopped suddenly, and her body jerked from the sudden stop. But she only stopped for a second, and then she slid at a slower pace, as if in a controlled fall.
Ms. Roberts yelled from above, her voice tight with urgency: “Grab her! I can’t hold on much longer!”
Brad and Major North, the tallest among the group, both leaned out of the cave as far as they could to reach for the rope. Neither could.
“Hurry!” Ms. Roberts yelled. “I’m clipped to the line, but she’s pulling me over!”
Carter could see the desperation on Brad’s face as he stretched beyond comfort, to the point where his arm looked like it might separate at the shoulder.
And then…
Darla was gone.
Time slowed. Darla dropped out of sight. Ms. Roberts screamed from above as she was dragged over the edge, mother and daughter now both plummeting toward certain death. There was a split second of abject hopelessness as Carter and crew watched their comrades rushed toward their ends.
But it only lasted a second.
Because in the next second, Brad dove out of the cave. He grabbed the tangle of vines that had snaked around Carter with one hand, and the line that held Darla and her mother with the other. He wrapped his legs around the vines, then wove his arm around it, and waited.
For what felt like forever.
Then Ms. Roberts fell past them.
Carter remembered the look on her face. She didn’t look at all like the Ms. Roberts who was terrible to him for as long as he could remember. She looked like a child. A frightened child. Make that a scared-to-death child.
Time sped up again as she passed. T
here one second, gone the next. Carter watched Brad—waited for the moment the line snapped taught and ripped him off his vine, leaving Carter totally and completely alone.
The line snapped. Brad screamed. But he held on. The rope dug into his arms, like it was trying to hold onto him just as much as he was trying to hold onto it.
Major North dropped onto this belly at the edge of the cliff. “Grab my legs!”
Tim and Kevin each grabbed a leg. The major inched out, half his body hanging over nothing. Then more than half. He started to slip through the cadets’ hands.
Carter snapped from his state of shock and rushed forward. “Come on,” he ordered his crew. “Let us be damned to the locker if we let two of our own meet their ends like this.” He grabbed onto Major North’s left leg.
Yvette grabbed his right. Walter grabbed Yvette. Louis wrapped his arms around Kevin’s waist, and pulled back. Even Nestor and JJ grabbed hold where they could.
Major North stretched out. “Just…” He brushed the line with the tip of his finger. “A little…” He stretched some more, forcing his arm to reach beyond its capability. “Got it!” He grasped the line in an iron tight-grip. “Pull me back!”
The entire group heaved backward into the cave. Once on solid ground, the major reeled in the line, handing the slack back to whoever would take it. He grabbed Brad by the shoulders and hoisted him in. Then they all pulled together, until Darla and Ms. Roberts were safe.
Everyone collapsed into one big ball of relief.
Ms. Roberts wrapped Darla in a bone-crunching hug.
“You saved my life,” Darla said in shock and disbelief.
Ms. Roberts looked her daughter determinedly in the eye. “Just because you don’t always like me, doesn’t mean that I don’t always love you.” She wrapped her up again. And then she did something that made Carter think she must have banged her head during her fall.
She gestured for Brad to join them.
Brad looked behind him, making sure she wasn’t motioning to someone else.
Ms. Roberts grabbed his arm and pulled him into the biggest group bear hug of his life. When she kissed him on the cheek, Brad looked like he might have a stroke. “For saving my little girl,” she said. “Maybe I was wrong about you. Forgive me?”
“Uh, okay.” The color had drained completely from his face. “Can I have your permission to—”
“Don’t ruin the moment,” Ms. Roberts said.
The hug broke up, and Brad could breathe again. Until Major North approached him.
The major looked even larger in the confines of the cave. Brad jumped when the major’s hand shot upright. He saluted. “Well done, Humbolt.”
The cadets snapped their hands to their foreheads, and all three said in unison, “Valley Forge Military Academy! Hoo-rah!”
As the major dropped his hand and pivoted away from Brad, Carter shot across the cave and buried his face in his brother’s chest. “I’m glad you’re not dead.” His voice was muffled by Brad’s body.
When his face grew hot and his eyes threatened mutiny and tears, Carter pushed away and marched further in to the cave. “Enough of the niceties,” he barked in his pirate voice. “There’s treasure to be had.”
24
The further they moved into the cave, the more Carter felt like he was being swallowed. They were just walking down the throat of some giant rock monster, serving themselves up as dinner. The sunlight had long since disappeared, with only the dim flickering light of the lanterns casting an eerie glow remaining. But nothing in the world could make Carter turn back now. No cave monsters could make him abandon his quest for treasure. Not even the blatantly booby-trapped section of floor they’d reached about forty minutes into their trek.
The rock and dirt floor of the cave suddenly changed to a seemingly endless honeycomb pattern of tiles of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Nothing like this was done without purpose. And Carter could think of no other purpose than to protect a mound of gold and jewels.
But not every member of his ever-growing crew had the mind of a pirate. Tim and Kevin charged ahead, excited by the sight of something new. Hoo-rah! Like kids on Christmas morning.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Carter said as the cadets ran past.
They stopped and turned on their heels. “Yeah? And why not?” one of them asked. Carter didn’t care much about trying to tell the twins apart.
“Booby traps.”
The cadets chuckled. Like kids.
“Obviously,” Carter said. “You think the pirates just wanted to add some color to their cave? They wanted to redecorate a little?”
The cadets exchanged a look. Carter saw the spite in it. Even if they thought he was right, they were going to charge ahead anyway. And they did.
As soon as Tim, or Kevin (who cares, really?), stepped on the tiles, two of them sunk into the ground, and a low rumbling echoed through the cave.
“What’s that noise?” Tim asked, shaking.
In answer to his question, a pair of swivel cannons flipped down from a fissure in the wall, their short fuses lighting as they scraped against the rock, their sizable barrels aimed directly at the spiteful cadets.
Any other captain might have let them suffer the consequences of not heeding his warning. But he was not any other captain. He was Captain Lackbeard, and, like it or not, these two were members of his crew now.
Carter rushed forward. He felt a hand brush over his back. Brad tried to grab him, but couldn’t get a grip. Carter saw the fuse burning down out of the corner of his eye. Just seconds left. He dove, shoved the twins to the side, away from the tiles, and then he landed hard on the cave floor.
Unfortunately, Carter didn’t move with the force he’d hoped. He pushed the twins out of the way, only to land exactly where they stood—smack dab in the crosshairs of the two swivel guns.
He shut his eyes, like that might make getting blasted to smithereens more tolerable.
Maybe it did. He didn’t feel anything. He thought there would at least be a pinch. Maybe a burn. A tickle. Something.
He opened his eyes and looked down the two barrels. Both fuses had burned down completely. But no smithereens.
“Misfire,” he said, breathless. He stepped back from the tiles, onto the relative safety of solid rock. Just as he did…
BOOM!
Both swivel guns fired, blasting the spot where he stood a second before into total nothingness.
All color drained from Carter’s face, the implications of his messiest near-death experience yet hitting him hard in the chest. “I think I need to change my shorts.”
Louis produced his Hello Kitty suitcase, tears of relief streaming down his cheeks. “I’ve got you covered. Hope you like pink.”
When the rest of them moved to embrace Carter, and congratulate him on his bravery and not dying, he shouted, “Nobody move!”
They all froze in place.
“What? What is it? What happened?” Marcus ducked and bobbed, evading an unseen barrage of cannon fire.
“This whole area is booby-trapped.”
“How do you know?” Yvette asked.
“It’s what I would do,” Carter answered.
Yvette pointed at Nestor and JJ. “I vote we make them stroll through the pirate’s gauntlet. I’m sure they could locate all the traps for us, being expert pirates and all.”
Nestor sneered.
Carter took the old map from his pocket. He studied the front, then the terrain, then the map again. The answer was on there somewhere. It had to be. No pirate would rig his own treasure so that not even he could retrieve it.
But it wouldn’t be written plainly for anyone to see. He was missing something. He flipped the map over. The back of the map was covered in a crimson splatter. It looked like a pen exploded on it.
Pirates don’t do anything without reason.
He looked closer. Underneath the indistinct smear, he started to notice a pattern—a familiar honeycomb pattern. Holding the
map below one of the wall lanterns, Carter studied it more intently. There were marks hidden in the red. Very distinct marks that seemed deliberate. He compared it to the tiled floor again.
A slow smile crept across his face. And then, to satisfy his curiosity, he sniffed the map, and then dabbed the red splatter to his tongue.
“Dios mio!” Yvette shouted. “That’s disgusting.”
“Blood,” Carter said.
Yvette wretched. “Yeah, not helping.”
“It’s genius,” Carter said. “The pirate that made this map wrote himself a little reminder right here on how to bypass his traps. As all good pirates do. Only, he must have run out of ink, because this is drawn in blood.”
“You probably just contracted syphilis or something,” Marcus said.
“Worth it,” Carter said.
“I don’t think you know what syphilis is,” Yvette said.
“Whatever,” Carter said. “The point is, I know where the traps are. Now we just need a way to trip them so we can get through.” He pointed to the grenade launcher in Major North’s hand. “Can you shoot some of them?”
The major shook his head. “I’m out.”
“I have one round left,” Ms. Roberts said, taking the bean bag shell out of her pocket.
“I don’t think one will be enough,” Carter said. “Unless…” His voice trailed off following a crazy thought. “Louis, you still have your marbles?”
Louis nodded, but didn’t seem to grasp the consequences of that nod until Carter snatched the leather pouch of marbles from him.
Seeming to understand Carter’s plan before Carter could explain, Major North began to disassemble the bean bag cartridge. When he was done, he’d separated the bean bag from its casing.
Carter handed him the pouch of marbles.
“I got those when I was six,” Louis said, his head on Yvette’s shoulder as she reluctantly consoled him. “They’ve been with me through thick and thin.”
“Well, kid,” the major said, emptying the marbles into the casing. “Now they’re going to get us all out of the thick of this situation.” He secured the casing and examined it to make sure it was secure. Then he loaded it into the grenade launcher.
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