074 Greek Odyssey (7 page)

“Come on, Devlin. Don’t tell me you’re ready to give up after one cave?” Nancy teased.

“Oh, not me. But with your curiosity, you’d go wild in Australia. Just think of it, Nan. A whole continent to explore.”

“Sounds great.” Nancy had to admit that the idea of visiting the distant continent appealed to her—especially with Mick to show her around. Things were definitely getting serious between them. She was beginning to think that everything back home—her friends, her work, and even Ned—would never be the same for her again, now that she’d met Mick. “Who knows?” she added. “Maybe we’ll have a chance to see Australia together.”

“You’re softening. That’s a good sign,” Mick said. He leaned close to press a gentle kiss against her lips. “So . . . which cave do you want to tackle next?”

Tugging on her fluorescent orange cap, Nancy surveyed the situation. She could see the openings to three other caves. One was so high that she knew it was out of their reach. Another opening was so narrow that she and Mick would have to crawl through it. She pointed to a square passage that started at the top of a flat, rocky rise. “Let’s try that one.”

Stepping through the wide mouth of the cave, Nancy and Mick found that the walls narrowed into a dark tunnel. It twisted right, then left, and then they saw a faint haze of light. Nancy was surprised to find that the tunnel ended at an airy chamber, lit by pale sunlight filtering in through an opening in the rock high above.

“It’s like a great hall,” she said, gazing around the huge space. At the far end of the chamber a pond of dark water, smooth as glass, stretched to the rough stone wall.

“We’re not the first people here,” Mick commented, switching off the flashlight.

Nancy followed his gaze to a recessed area on their right, where three knapsacks were propped against a boulder. Two sleeping bags were rolled out next to a few orange cushions marked with a star and some Greek letters. Nancy walked over to the boulder, knelt to pick up one cushion, and studied the markings. The first three letters were distinctively Greek, but the last four resembled the English letters
aooa
.

Standing up, she spotted a hearth and cooking utensils just beyond some boulders. “Someone’s camping here,” she observed. “Maybe we should head back. I feel like I’m intruding on their home.” She backed away and accidentally knocked over a lantern.

Leaning down to pick it up, she noticed an envelope on the ground beside it. The flap was partially open, and Nancy glimpsed the edge of a photograph. She looked more closely—and gasped.

“Passport photos?” She looked over the headshots of a dark-haired man. He seemed to have a scar on his face, but the photos were a little blurred, so she couldn’t be sure. “Check this out,” she said, turning to Mick.

“No time for that,” Mick said urgently. “We have to get out of here—and fast.”

Hearing alarm in his voice, Nancy dropped the envelope and joined Mick. He was standing next to a stack of wooden cartons. She squinted in the dim light to read the word painted on each of the cartons: Explosives.

“Explosives?” Nancy’s heart started pounding. “In here?”

Mick nodded, stepping away from the four cartons. “Enough to blow this place out of the Aegean.”

“It’s definitely time to go,” Nancy said.

She turned abruptly toward the cave’s opening, then froze as a man’s voice called loudly from the tunnel beyond the cave opening: “Shara! Shara!” He was answered by a woman, who spoke brusquely.

Nancy felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. The campers were returning—and she had a hunch they weren’t going to be happy that she and Mick had discovered their collection of fireworks.

Mick’s eyes darted about the chamber. “Looks as if the way we came in is the only way out.”

“Not good,” Nancy whispered, her nerves twanging. “Mick, if those are the people who own these explosives, they might blow us away!”

Chapter Eight

N
ANCY TENSED
as the man’s voice called again, “Shara!” His voice echoed against the cave walls, so it was hard to tell how far away he was.

“Do you know what he’s saying?” she whispered to Mick.

“It’s Greek to me,” Mick said.

In the tension of the moment Nancy couldn’t appreciate his joke. She shivered as she looked frantically around the cold, damp cave for somewhere to hide.

Mick had moved away from the explosives and was running his hands along the rock wall near the passageway to the tunnel. “See that ledge up there, over the opening to the tunnel?” he asked.

Nancy nodded, spotting the ledge that ran over the doorway, about ten feet from the ground. “But it doesn’t lead anywhere.”

“We can hide up there—if we can find a way to climb up.”

In a flash Nancy was beside him, searching the rock wall for cracks and crevices that they could use as handholds. The voices of the people were getting louder, but still Nancy and Mick hadn’t found a break in the rock.

“Quick, give me a boost,” Nancy said breathlessly. Mick laced his fingers together so that she could step up from his hands. Desperately she scraped at the rock wall overhead until she felt a triangular wedge she could wrap her fingers around. A moment later she pulled herself up onto the ledge.

Moving fast, she scrambled around, locked her foot into a crevice, and stretched out so that she could help Mick up. Her muscles strained and her body flattened against the rock ledge as Mick grasped her hand and hoisted himself up within reach of the ledge. He had to make it up before they were discovered!

With his free hand Mick grabbed on to the same triangular wedge Nancy had used, and he pulled himself up. He huddled beside her, his face grimy with sweat and dust.

And not a moment too soon. Suddenly the voices were loud and clear, and Nancy knew that the strangers had reached this end of the tunnel. She sank back against the wall as two figures, a man and a woman, entered the rocky chamber below her.

In the pale light that filtered in from the opening above, Nancy could see a short, brawny man with jet black hair and a nasty red scar that stretched from his chin to his ear on the right side of his face. He was wearing shorts, which were sopping wet. Seeing his muscled arms and chest, Nancy knew that he would be a formidable opponent.

The woman was wearing a black one-piece swimsuit. Small-boned and petite, she had short red hair that was slicked back with water. Her features were plain, though something about her seemed familiar to Nancy. Since she was also wet, Nancy guessed that they had just been swimming.

The couple appeared to be arguing as they pulled clothes out of two of the knapsacks. Nancy wondered if the owner of the third knapsack was nearby.

Although she couldn’t understand anything the couple was saying, Nancy noticed that the man kept repeating “shara.” She made a mental note to ask Zoe if she knew the word. Her ear for languages told Nancy that these people weren’t speaking Greek. The rhythm and tone of the language was different from the conversations she had heard at the hotel and in Chora.

A glance at Mick told Nancy that he was studying the couple just as closely as she was. What are we going to do? she wondered. If the couple moved toward the back of the cave, she and Mick might have a chance to slip out through the tunnel without being noticed. But it wouldn’t be that easy.

The red-haired woman pulled a towel from her knapsack and marched toward the tunnel. Unfortunately, the man didn’t seem inclined to follow her. Resigned to settling in, Nancy shifted her legs.

Suddenly she felt herself sliding. Panic cut through her like a sharp knife. Pebbles and dirt scattered to the ground as Nancy grappled to keep her balance. But it was too late. Alerted by the falling pebbles, the woman looked up—right at Nancy and Mick.

Gritting her teeth, Nancy dropped to the ground. She landed just a few feet from the surprised woman. Any hope of a friendly reception was immediately dashed when the woman assumed a fighting stance. With a fierce cry she squared off and aimed a karate chop right at Nancy’s face!

Thinking fast, Nancy dodged the blow, wheeled, and landed a kick to the woman’s chest, knocking her to the ground.

The man was scrambling near the knapsack, probably looking for a weapon, Nancy thought.

Before he could act, Mick leapt to the ground beside Nancy. “Out we go!” he shouted, pulling her toward the tunnel. Not daring to look back, Mick and Nancy raced through the narrow passageway as quickly as they could.

When they reached the cave’s entrance, Nancy turned away from the flat, sandy beach and darted behind a jagged boulder lodged in the sand.

“Are they following us?” she whispered breathlessly to Mick.

“They will,” he answered, “but I think we’ve got a good lead.” He nodded toward a rocky incline that formed a point on the south end of the beach. “We’ll have to climb up that hill and hide behind boulders. It’s our only chance of losing them.”

Without hesitating, they tore off and scrambled up the hill. Glancing back, Nancy saw that Mick was right: The man and woman had chased them onto the beach. She darted behind a boulder, but not before she spotted the glint of a knife in the man’s hand.

Nancy’s stomach churned as the weight of the situation hit her. These people were armed and dangerous!

Fortunately, she and Mick had enough of a lead to give them an advantage. After a few minutes they managed to lose their pursuers in the rambling, twisted rocks.

As she and Mick continued to put distance between them and the cave, Nancy’s mind raced. They had left the picnic basket and her tote bag under the olive tree on the beach, and she knew it wouldn’t be safe to return there. Luckily nothing in the bag would help the man and woman track her down.

On the other hand, now she and Mick wouldn’t be able to hook up with Nikos, either, and he was their only way home. Unless they could flag down a boat of snorkelers, she and Mick would be stuck on Dragonisi, at least for the night.

Nancy was mulling over the situation when she and Mick reached a low cliff overlooking the water. The sea was a short drop, maybe fifteen feet below them. Nancy sat down to rest. Looking out over the water, she noticed a boat on the horizon, speeding along the islet’s shoreline.

“That boat’s heading our way. Think we can hitch a ride?” she asked, grabbing Mick’s arm.

He shrugged. “It’s worth a try.”

Nancy took off her bright orange cap and tried to flag down the boat. She was waving frantically when she recognized the boat’s yellow hull and distinctive star. It was the
Sea Star
. “Theo!” she shouted.

“Well, fancy that,” Mick said. He stood up as the boat swerved toward them and slowed down.

Theo seemed surprised to see Nancy and Mick stranded on the low cliff. Within minutes he had taxied ashore on an inflated dinghy and brought them aboard the
Sea Star
. When Nancy and Mick warned Theo that they were in danger, he sped away immediately, without asking questions.

Nancy waited until the boat was a safe distance from Dragonisi before she filled him in on their close brush in the cave.

“That is amazing!” Theo exclaimed, the wind rippling his hair. “Those caves you were exploring have drop-offs and hidden passages. Did you notice a pond in one of the caves?”

Nancy nodded. “Yes, in the cave that the people were camped in.”

“That’s called Kea Lake. It has a channel that leads out of the cave—a tunnel of water. It connects to a small pond on the other side of the point, where you flagged me down.”

“Do you mean we could have swum out of the cave?” Mick asked, somewhat surprised.

“It is possible,” Theo said. “But it is very tricky if you do not know the cave.”

“You seem to know Dragonisi well,” Nancy told Theo.

He shrugged. “I have maps, but the caves are dangerous. I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

“Lucky for us you were in the area,” said Mick. “We saw your boat on the other side of the island before lunch. How was the fishing?”

Theo glanced away. “Not so good. No fish today.”

Nancy looked over at the empty fishing net and wondered what Theo had been doing all day. “Maybe you saw the people we had the run-in with,” she said. “I think they were out swimming before they returned to the cave.” She went on to describe the man and woman.

Theo frowned and suddenly became preoccupied with navigating his boat. He definitely seemed uncomfortable with her questions. In fact, she was sure he was hiding something. “I didn’t see them,” he said, concentrating on the open sea.

Changing the subject, he said, “It will be almost an hour until we reach Chora. In the meantime, I will try to radio Nikos so he does not search for you. Why don’t you relax?” he said, nodding toward the seats on the aft deck.

With a sigh, Mick sank onto an orange cushion. “I’m glad that’s over.”

“We’ll have to report it to the police on Mykonos,” Nancy reminded him as she sat down next to him. In the frenzy of their confrontation in the cave, she hadn’t had time to tell him about the passport photos she found there.

“Wow!” Mick exclaimed once she told him. His green eyes flickered with interest. “Along with the explosives, it all adds up to something illegal—and deadly.”

“Do you think those people in the cave are connected to the three passports?”

Mick shrugged. “How do you figure that?”

“I don’t know,” Nancy said, hugging a cushion to her chest. “But I thought of it when I saw those photos in the cave.”

As she spoke, Nancy looked down at the cushion in her arms. Something about it struck a familiar chord in her mind. The square cushion was covered with smooth orange canvas cloth. She turned it over and found that a star and a few Greek letters had been marked on the cushion with a black felt-tip pen. The Greek word ended with the letters
aooa
.

Nancy’s eyes widened in surprise. The same cushions had been sitting near the sleeping bags in the cave with the explosives!

Chapter Nine

“
W
HAT’S WRONG
?” Mick asked.