Labyrinth (16 page)

Chapter 17

Kessel was still struggling with the rope bindings. With each exertion, his fatigue grew. The rope had cut the skin on the inside of both of his wrists, leading to bloody red abrasions. But Kessel had managed to eke out a small space within the binds themselves. The price for his hard work had been pain and a lot of sweat.

Kessel was used to both.

During Hell Week when he’d been trying to become a Navy SEAL, Kessel had gotten a total of four hours of sleep during the entire seven-day ordeal. He was pushed to his breaking point and then beyond. He learned to shut off the nerve impulses that screamed up and down his body, and discovered what it took to survive the rigors of combat when he was thousands of miles from home, and hundreds of miles behind enemy lines.

So the constant sawing of ropes on his skin as he worked to free himself would never stop him. He knew how to operate despite the pain; how to go beyond what his body, mind and spirit thought possible.

And he would succeed.

The gap in the bindings was growing larger in tiny increments. At this rate, he estimated it would take another couple of hours until he could get his hands free. Once they were, he could untie his feet and finally get out of the cavern.

Then he’d have to see about dealing with bigfoot.

He smirked. Kessel had killed plenty of people before. From Taliban fighters to Iraqi insurgents during black-bag operations that were still classified. Kessel had been the business end of antiterrorism for years before becoming a special agent with the FBI.

But he’d never had to deal with a creature that wasn’t supposed to exist in the first place. At least this would be one for the guys back in Little Creek, the next time he got to Virginia for a few beers with the guys still on the Teams.

He could hear them now. “No shit, Kessel, you killed a bigfoot? That deserves another round.”

He grinned. The brotherhood of warriors was something most civilians would never understand. Formed in the fires of harsh training and bonded in the crucible of real-world operations that tested their every limit, Kessel and his SEAL brethren would always be there for one another. Once in, never out.

Almost like the Mafia.

Except this Mafia shot a lot better than the criminals.

Kessel drew his attention back to the task at hand. He had to get out of these ropes. The bigfoot could come back at any time. And while Kessel thought he was being kept alive for a reason, he didn’t kid himself that if he gave the creature enough reason, it
would
kill him.

And there wouldn’t be much he could do about it if he was still strapped up as a prisoner.

He went back to working the binds, twisting the ropes and flexing his wrists over and over again.

And slowly, the ropes started to give way.

A
NNJA
’
S
HEAD
SWAM
. She felt a heavy weight crushing down on her like a suffocating blanket. Annja had suffered concussions before and several times she’d wondered if she was going to get to old age with as many brain injuries as a professional football player.

As consciousness gradually returned, she blinked her eyes. Winced. The corridor’s light hurt her and she closed her eyes again, willing herself to take slow, deep breaths. Flush her blood with oxygen and then try to open her eyes again. See if that was any better.

It wasn’t.

Annja opened and shut them again. But as she gradually started recognizing her surroundings the memory of the maze returned. So, too, did her instinct that she was in imminent danger.

She visualized the sword in her mind’s eye and it appeared, hovering in front of her. Annja reached for it, felt her hands close about the hilt and an instant surge of power swept into her body, overwhelming the pain she felt and brushing it aside.

Her head cleared in a moment and Annja’s eyes opened at the sound of something rushing down the corridor toward her.

She saw a shadowy form even as she tried to clear her eyes and focus. But then she was knocked back onto her butt. Her sword skittered away, and vanished.

She rolled, coming up with the sword in her hands. She was tackled again and driven into the ground. An onslaught of punches and kicks thudded into her midsection. Even with the sword, her reflexes felt wobbly and slow.

Another hit took her straight in the mouth. Whoever was attacking, they knew how to hit.

Annja rose up again and drove her foot out at where she judged her attacker’s midsection was. She scored, feeling her heel sink into his stomach. She blinked, saw the man stagger back.

Asian?

She readied herself for another attack, but instead of approaching her again, the Asian man turned and ran.

He was already drawing away fast.

“Wait!”

Annja tried to run after him, but she was no match for his speed. He rounded the corner. Annja stumbled after him, but when she turned the corner, he was gone.

And only another empty corridor stretched before her. An exact duplicate of the last few hallways.

Annja groaned and sank to her knees. It felt like she was living in hell.

K
ESSEL
HEARD
MOVEMENT
and froze.

He shut his eyes and then cracked them just a little bit. He was close to freeing himself and he couldn’t let the creature discover his efforts. If it came to it, Kessel would simply try to snap the rest of the bindings with sheer strength and go right at the bigfoot, hoping he could score on surprise alone.

The shuffling sounds grew louder. It was in the cavern. Kessel willed his heart to slow along with his breathing. That was critical to his deception. If the creature noticed his chest heaving, it would know something was going on. Kessel’s bid for freedom would be over before it even began.

And he had to reach Annja somehow.

Figure out this damned maze, and then take Greene and the rest of his goon squad down.

Kessel saw a blur of fur pass in front of his eyes. It was close. And he could smell it now. It smelled disgusting—like a wet dog—and Kessel willed himself to remain still. He’d been subjected to far worse sensory overload than the smell of a wet dog.

Something light brushed over his face, almost like a feather. Kessel kept still. The creature was testing him, trying to see if he was truly still unconscious.

But Kessel was pretty good at deception. And he knew how to keep his body under absolute control.

He didn’t even flinch.

The creature tried again, brushing something along his eyelids. But again, Kessel simply took his mind elsewhere, refusing to acknowledge the sensation.

No chance, he thought to himself.

Not now.

Not when he was so close to getting out of there.

A long tense moment passed and then Kessel saw another movement as the creature moved away from him. He was so relieved his discipline almost slipped—he almost released a long breath—but Kessel caught himself.

Let the creature think he was close to death and he’d never expect a surprise attack when Kessel finally freed himself.

If this truly was a bigfoot, then Kessel would need every advantage he could get. And surprise was sometimes one of the most potent weapons in a confrontation.

He just hoped it would be enough.

A
NNJA
FELT
LIKE
crying.

That was the truth of the situation.

She’d literally dragged her ass all over this crazy maze, dealt with a series of obstacles and challenges and animals. And yet, despite all of that, she felt no closer to her goal than she had at the beginning. As time kept ticking away, Fairclough drew closer to death.

And Annja’s goal seemed to draw farther from her grasp.

Where was she supposed to go? Was this a never-ending series of hallways that she’d be trapped in forever? What had Fairclough actually designed here?

And God help her, but she was actually thinking that it might be better if he did die than subject anyone else to this cruel maze.

This wasn’t a security system at all, she decided sitting there in the lonely corridor.

It was hell.

Her hell.

There wasn’t a book in Fairclough’s maze. There’d never been a book at all. Or if there was, it wasn’t here. The realization didn’t come as much of a surprise.

Fairclough had brought Annja here for the express purpose of putting her in the maze. Presumably to die.

But how did Greene figure into this? Was it just providence that had brought him to Fairclough’s estate? And Fairclough, realizing that he might die without seeing his plan ever put into effect, demanded that Greene bring Annja here, in exchange for the book?

It was possible, she supposed. But it was tenuous.

And Greene had dispatched Kessel without blinking, so did he realize that Kessel was a plant?

Annja took a breath. What had she done to warrant this action by Fairclough? How did she know him?

But as much as she racked her brain, Annja couldn’t figure it out. If Fairclough was out for revenge, Annja couldn’t grasp what his reasoning might have been.

Of course, she made plenty of enemies around the world.

She glanced down at the sword. The truth is, she thought, this blade has brought me more grief than I care to admit.

Sure, she knew the sword had also saved lives, and helped her preserve good in the world. But was it worth the trade-off? Annja had people hunting her, stalking her and even trapping her now.

Where did it end? Where did her role as protector come to its conclusion?

She sighed and slowly got to her feet. If I don’t keep moving, she thought with a small grimace, my end will come here.

And somehow, dying in the lonely corridors of this maze wasn’t exactly how she wanted to go out of this world.

So she started walking.

Again.

Chapter 18

Kessel waited until the creature appeared to have left again. Obviously, it hadn’t gotten to Annja yet, unless it had killed her. But Kessel didn’t think that was the case. And besides, knowing Annja and the fact that she had a sword she could pull out of nowhere, the creature would no doubt have been injured if they’d collided.

And what about that sword? Kessel had seen some strange stuff in his time, but he’d never seen anything as remarkable as what Annja could do. One moment, the sword wasn’t there. The next, it was out and looking every bit as deadly as it seemed.

Incredible.

How she’d managed to come by a weapon like that, Kessel didn’t know. And he wasn’t sure Annja would ever let him in on her secret. But he felt fortunate just being in the know about the blade itself.

And he doubted many other people knew of it. Neither Greene nor Fairclough gave any indication that they knew it existed. And if Greene had suspected she was armed, he probably would have just killed her and been done with it.

No, the sword was a surprise. And Kessel looked forward to seeing the expression on Greene’s face when Annja pulled it out and let him in on her deadly secret.

Kessel lifted his head and opened his eyes slowly. A quick scan of the cavern revealed the creature had left once again. Kessel returned to working on his binds with a renewed vigor. Like any other gambit, his bid for freedom wouldn’t stay concealed for much longer. Eventually, the creature or someone else would notice that he’d been unconscious for too long, or they’d see the abrasions on his wrists, or some other indicator that he was anything but unconscious.

Back to work.

Kessel redoubled his efforts and wrenched his left wrist around and around. The gap within the ropes widened and Kessel maneuvered his fingers until he could slide them through the hole.

One hand free.

Time was of the essence. There would be no way he could hide one free hand if the creature came back. He had to get his other hand out.

Kessel stretched and brought his free hand over to the other one, ripping at the ropes and bindings until he tore open the knots.

His other hand was free.

Kessel bent over and began to untie his left foot first. It took far longer than he’d hoped it would, being tied with a number of cumbersome knots that required someone with longer fingernails than Kessel had to pry them open. But he kept at it, not knowing the meaning of the word
quit
.

And then he had one foot free.

Almost there. His senses were already screaming at him that danger was close by. His instincts, rivaled by paranoia at being discovered, hammered him to untie his other foot.

At least then he could face the creature with all of his skills at his disposal.

Kessel’s foot finally came free and he stumbled down off the wooden stretcher that had held him in place for so long.

His joints screamed and he felt the rush of pain in his extremities as blood and feeling washed back into them. He flexed his hands and arms and then did a few deep knee bends to get his blood coursing to where he would need it to be in case of sudden combat.

What was his best move now?

He could make a run for it, of course, but where to? He didn’t have any clue where he was. Running blindly, he was more likely to encounter the creature than avoid it.

So what was his next best option?

He nodded. Hide.

If the creature came in and saw he was gone, its instinct would be to head for the most likely escape route. And since Kessel had no idea where that was, he could, in effect, simply follow the creature out.

He’d have to deal with it eventually, of course. But he’d take it down when it came time to. First, he needed to get out of here.

He looked around the crevices and nooks and settled on one swallowed in shadow near the entrance to the cavern. Hopefully, the creature would rush right past it on its way out.

Perfect.

Kessel wedged his large body into the crevice, got his breathing under control and then let his consciousness expand, taking in all the natural sounds. He knew that the deep shadows would conceal him.

All he had to do was stay still and hope the creature reacted the way he expected it to.

Kessel got himself as comfortable as he could and then took several shallow breaths. He was ready.

And not a moment too soon.

Because not too far off, he heard something moving down the tunnel toward the cavern entrance.

The creature was coming back.

A
NNJA
TURNED
DOWN
another corridor and then stopped.

Had she just heard something?

She paused, listening to the crackling torches up in their sconces. But her ears were used to those sounds. This had been something else.

A lurching shuffle?

She frowned. I must be hearing things, she thought.
I’ve been in this damned maze for too long and now I’m starting to lose my mind.

Wonderful.

But then she picked up the sound again. Annja narrowed her eyes. There was definitely something here.

Close.

But where?

The corridor had walls of stone just like every other corridor. It wasn’t as though she was close to a door.

Or was she?

Annja eyed the surface of the walls. There’d been other instances where the walls had snapped open, locking parts of the hallways. And other sections had moved, as well. Was there another secret opening here somewhere?

Annja placed her hand on the section of wall closest to her.

Solid.

But she felt pretty sure she knew the direction of where the sound had come from. So she ran her hand down the part of the wall that she suspected. Pressed.

But it was still solid.

Annja shook her head. There had to be something she was missing. Some sort of latch or sign that there was a secret opening nearby.

She just had to find it.

She glanced back up to where the corridor started twenty feet away from where she stood. With a big sigh, Annja retraced her steps.

This was going to take a while.

T
HE
SOUND
OF
THE
approaching creature grew louder and Kessel stilled himself even further. With his blood flow restored to his arms and fingers, he felt primed and ready despite his exhaustion. Being knocked out had actually given him some rest, but he was used to going on fumes, anyway.

And then he heard the creature pass his hiding space, much sooner than he’d expected it would. It was mere inches away, but Kessel kept his cool.

And waited.

It didn’t take long.

Kessel shuddered as a massive roar filled the cavern. He’d never heard such a sound before. And then he heard the creature ripping the wood apart. It was strong, he realized.

And it would be much more of a challenge than he had reckoned.

So be it.

With another roar, the creature ravaged the cavern and then Kessel heard it approaching his hiding space.

It stopped.

Kessel heard it sniffing the air.

Shit, he thought, the bastard’s going to smell me.

But instead, the creature raced off down the tunnel, out of the cavern.

Kessel rose from his hiding spot.

Time to go.

A
NNJA
WAS
TEN
FEET
AWAY
from where she’d started her examination of the wall when she heard a roar. She whirled around, the sword at the ready.

But there was nothing behind her.

What the hell?

It was loud and it was close by, but she still couldn’t see where it was coming from.

Angry.

It sounded very angry.

K
ESSEL
FOLLOWED
at a distance, but close enough to watch the creature shambling at speed through the tunnel. The walls here were a stark contrast to the refinement of the corridors of the maze. Instead of being carefully masoned stonework, this looked like a system of caves.

It reminded him of Afghanistan.

He took a breath as the tunnel curved suddenly. The creature shifted and then roared again.

It was getting angrier.

In some situations, you could use that as a liability against the enemy. If you knew they had a bad temper, it was easier to get them to overcommit and then make a mistake.

But with a creature like this? Kessel didn’t think its anger would be a weakness.

It would undoubtedly be a strength.

A
NNJA
GRIPPED
THE
SWORD
tighter as another roar punctured the air. She felt sure she had identified the approximate location in the wall that concealed a secret opening of some kind.

But given the roar of the approaching…whatever…Annja decided to hang back and wait for it to open the portal, instead of trying to open it herself and risk blundering right into the unknown.

Was this the thing that had cast such a large shadow? That had so easily taken down Kessel?

Annja steeled herself.

Bring it on, she mused.

K
ESSEL
SAW
THE
CREATURE
stop and put one furry paw on a piece of rock on the wall. He heard a noise like shifting dirt and stone.

And then the tunnel swung inward to reveal a lit corridor beyond.

Kessel was almost back in the maze.