Seizure (19 page)

Authors: Kathy Reichs

BOOK: Seizure

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“I go first.” Ben pointed with his bolt cutters. “Ten seconds, then Shelton. After him, you two count to thirty, then come as fast as you can.”

“Everyone off the street ASAP,” I added.

We were huddled behind a jewelry store, one block south of the Exchange Building. Dressed in black. Just past three in the morning.

I carried only my backpack. Inside were a pen, four flashlights, bottled water, an electric lantern, and Bonny’s map.

“If Shelton can’t pick the door quickly, we bail.” Ben looked hard at me. “Right away. No exceptions.”

“Agreed.”

“If I see a car, my ass is hauling,” Hi said. “Usain Bolt style. I’ll swim home if necessary.”

“I’ll pop the lock,” Shelton promised. “But if the building has an alarm . . .”

He didn’t finish. No point. We had to pray for low-tech security.

“The rally point is Washington Park,” Ben said. “Miss that, meet back at
Sewee
.”

“Of everything we’ve done,” Hi said, “this is by far the stupidest. Just wanted to get that on record.”

Ben closed his eyes, inhaled, then charged around the corner.

“One one thousand . . . two one thousand . . .”

At ten, Shelton took off like a shot.

As I counted to thirty, Hi did little toe jumps at my side. Finally, after an eternity, we hit our mark.

“Go!”

We sprinted the short block to the building.

Success! The gate was open. Hi and I slid through and pulled it shut.

I turned and scanned the street. No movement, no signs of life.

“Keep going,” Hi said.

We streaked down the staircase. The door at the bottom swung open. Ben waved us through, then closed it behind us.

I clapped Shelton’s back. “Nice work!”

“No sweat.” Shelton’s face was drenched. “Okay, a
lot
of sweat, but that lock was a joke.”

We thumbed on our flashlights.

“This place is scarier at three a.m.” Hi whispered.

“A tad.” Shelton’s voice quavered.

I didn’t disagree.

We crossed the basement and descended the second set of steps. At the bottom we paused to regroup.

“Flare time.” As usual, three of us had no problem.

SNAP.

“
Damn damn damn!
” Ben. Struggling.

“Try to relax,” Hi suggested. “Let it come to you.”

“Relax?” Ben hissed. “What are you, an idiot? That never works.”

“Over here.” I’d already located the oddly mortared stone.

Shelton and Hi hurried to my side, leaving Ben to stew alone.

“The air seems to flow from behind,” I said. “Help me push.”

Shelton dropped to a knee beside me. Together we pushed with all the flare strength we could muster.

Nothing. The rock didn’t budge. A sick feeling formed in my stomach.

Hi added his back to the mix. We gave it everything. The stone refused to give.

The sick feeling grew.

“It’s no good,” Shelton panted. “This bastard’s not moving.”

“Let’s take off,” Hi pleaded. “We’ll try something else.”

“No,” I said. “We need Ben.”

“Ben can’t play right now!” Shelton yelped. “And we don’t have time to wait.”

I grabbed Hi’s shoulder. “Go! Do your thing!”

“You’re pretty casual with my life, you know.”

“Go!”

Groaning, Hi got to his feet, considered a moment, then crossed to Ben.

“Still failing?” Hi asked. Casual.

“I almost had it!” Ben barked.

“Maybe it’s your Native American blood,” Hi offered. “Perhaps conquered peoples can’t tap superpowers?”

Ben stilled. “What did you say?”

“Weakness,” Hi mused. “Inferior races might lack the genetics for flaring.”

Ben grabbed Hi by the shirt, pulled his face close.

“You wanna see an inferior race, you—”

Ben shuddered as the power scorched through him. Hi scooted backward, just in case.

“God, you’re easy!” Hi chuckled.

Ben’s eyes burned a deep amber-gold. “You’re getting a little
too
good at pushing my buttons, Stolowitski.”

Hi bowed. “Practice makes perfect.”

“Ben!” I called out. “Move this fricking rock, already!”

Ben’s eyes swiveled to me. Without a word, he charged across the dungeon, dropped to his back, and slammed his boots into the stone.

A ghastly creaking filled the dank chamber. Fragments of mortar cascaded to the floor. Slowly the stone moved backward from the rest of the wall.

Ben paused, panting. Then he slammed again, legs driving. Two more thrusts drove the stone into open space.

“You did it!” Hi said.

Ben’s efforts had created an opening just large enough to wriggle through. Heads close, we peered through it. Nothing but darkness. A chilly breeze caressed the skin on our faces.

I pointed my flashlight. The beam probed the blackness beyond, revealing a narrow tunnel approximately three feet in diameter.

Shelton spoke first. “No way I’m going in there.”

“This must be how Bonny escaped,” I said. “The treasure could be—”

“Look at that!” Near hysteria coated Shelton’s words. “We have
no idea
where this pit leads! We could get trapped and never get out!”

Ben squared Shelton’s shoulders and looked him in the eye.

“I’ll be with you the whole way,” he promised. “You can do this. Any problems, we turn around.”

Shelton let out a strangled cry. Wiped his glasses. Nodded.

“Ready?” I asked.

“We’re ready,” Ben said.

Dropping to all fours, I crawled into the hole.

CHAPTER 28

S
ilence filled the dungeon in the ruins of Half-Moon Battery.

Deathly. Foreboding.

Dust particles danced in the air oozing from the fresh wound in the rear wall.

Absolute blackness blanketed the chamber.

Then, a noise.

Overhead, wood creaked.

A faint glow appeared at the top of the stairs, slowly worked its way downward.

Moving shadows shot the walls at sharp angles.

The glow reached ground level.

Gravel crunched.

The flickering light crossed toward the back of the chamber.

Paused.

Seconds ticked by.

Shadows spun the walls.

The light reversed and bobbed back up the steps.

Darkness returned.

Moments later, footsteps again broke the silence. Descending with purpose.

This time, the light was stronger, white and penetrating.

Without hesitation, the radiance moved into the exposed gap and was gone.

CHAPTER 29

C
laustrophobia threatened to overwhelm me.

The tunnel was rough-edged, low, and seemingly endless. My flashlight beam dissolved into darkness two yards out.

As I inched forward, the walls tightened like a fist. Within twenty feet I couldn’t rise to my knees. I dropped and dragged myself with my elbows.

My body scraped over gravel, sharp rocks, and things I tried not to imagine. Progress was agonizingly slow. In my mind’s eye I saw us—a line of ants creeping through a narrow straw.

Shelton’s whimpers told me he was barely holding it together. Without Ben’s prodding, I’m not sure he would’ve kept going.

At one point I glanced back. Hi’s glowing eyes were right behind me. And looking petrified.

“You okay?”

He gave a shaky thumbs-up. “Just keep moving. And please yell if you see an exit sign. I feel like I’m crawling down a monster’s throat.”

Swallowing hard, I dragged myself another few yards. The skin on my elbows was growing raw.

Hi was right. Things got worse if you stopped. The walls closed in. My brain reminded me of the crushing weight hanging over my head.

“You see anything?” Shelton yelled from down the line. “Tell me this leads somewhere! I’m buggin’ out!”

I aimed my flashlight dead ahead. Still the blackness ate the beam. Even flaring, I couldn’t see more than six feet.

“Not yet,” I said. “But the air is still moving. It has to come from somewhere!”

“Don’t stop!” Shelton pleaded. “It’s not like we can turn around.”

He was right. The passage was way too tight for a U-turn. If we hit a dead end, we’d have to back our way out.

My mind shied from that terrifying possibility.

Reach. Drag. Pull.

The passing minutes seemed like hours. Without my extra flare strength, I’d have collapsed.

Questions hounded me. Did this hole lead anywhere? Was it tilting downward? How far below ground were we? Was I dragging myself to hell?

It was then that my flashlight died.

Nightmare.

Heart hammering, I snaked ahead faster, yanking forward with ragged, frantic lunges. The rough ground tore at my skin. I felt blood on my elbows and knees.

Adrenaline raced through me. My breath came in great, heaving gulps.

“Tory?” Hi called. “Is this your flashlight?”

I didn’t answer. Didn’t slow. Just squirmed forward, desperate to reach the end of this pressing, suffocating, horrifying subterranean crack.

Tears streaked the grime coating my face.

I was wrong!
my brain screamed.
I’ve led us into a grave.

“Who’s bleeding?” Ben shouted. “Is everyone alright?”

“Blood!?!” Shelton shrieked. “Where!?!”

Then my outthrust hand hit something solid. A wall. Fingers trembling, I traced its surface, looking for a way through or around.

No deal. The rock face was solid.

I nearly screamed. We’d reached a dead end. We were trapped.

“Why are we stopped?” Hi sounded nearly as frightened as Shelton.

Moments from despair, my wits returned.

The breeze is still there!

My hands shot left, right. Struck solid earth.

Near panic, I rolled to my back and reached for the roof. My hand encountered nothing but open air.

Tucking in my limbs, I rotated and got to my knees. Holding one arm above my head, I carefully rose to my feet.

“I can stand!” I shouted.

“Seriously!?!” Shelton sobbed. “Here I come!”

“Hold on!” Hi yelped. “Tory, is there room for the rest of us?”

I spread my arms, took two steps forward, two backward. The opening was at least two yards wide.

“Yes! We can all fit!”

Hi belly-crawled forward, flashlight bobbing. I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to his feet. Together we helped Shelton and Ben.

Packed in tight, we panted in unison. Then the boys aimed their beams into the gloom.

“Wow,” I said.

Our heads were poking through the floor of a cavern measuring about twenty feet square. Wooden beams supported a fifteen-foot ceiling. Straight ahead—in the general direction we’d been crawling—a low passageway wound from sight.

No one needed an invitation. We scrambled from our hole like escaped convicts.

Hugs. Backslaps. We’d have lit cigars. Right then, open space—
any
space—was the most wonderful thing in the world.

“Thank the Lord,” Shelton breathed. “I couldn’t take much more!”

Got that right. Everyone had been close to the edge.

“Let’s see those elbows,” Ben demanded. “You left a bloody streak in the shaft.”

I let him inspect my wounds, glad he’d forgotten to be mad at me.

“Not too bad. Next time wear long sleeves.”

“Yikes!” I winced. “Know your own flare strength, buddy.”

“This chamber is man-made,” Shelton said excitedly.

“What tipped you off?” Hi joked. “The ceiling, or the tunnel?”

I pulled the lantern from my backpack and powered it on. Light filled the room, more than enough for canine eyes.

“Look!”

Hi pointed to a line of narrow wedges cut into one wall. Arrayed vertically, the indentations marched upward toward a hole in the ceiling.

“Steps,” Ben guessed. “This must be how the builders entered and left.”

“Out we go!” Shelton said. “Follow my lead!”

“Hold on!” I grabbed his arm. “We must be standing in Anne Bonny’s treasure tunnel. We
found
it! We need to go that way!” I pointed to the opening on the chamber’s far side.

Shelton looked like I’d offered a swim in a shark tank. “We don’t know this was Bonny’s tunnel. Or where it leads.”

“We’re in the right place,” Ben said. “This cavern must be directly under East Bay Street.”

“See how smooth these walls are?” Hi said. “Water did that. At some point, this chamber was completely submerged.”

“Sea cave?” I asked.

Hi nodded. “I think this is it. There might be chests of diamonds right down that passage! We’re all gonna own private islands!”

“Okay!” Shelton surrendered. “We’ll keep going. For a bit, anyway.”

“What’s that?” Ben trained his light halfway up the primitive ladder.

A horizontal wooden beam crossed the ladder’s path, its far end attached to a rusty iron hinge. Three feet to the beam’s left was a massive iron spring. Above the spring hung a frayed rope.

Using the foothold indentations, Ben climbed up and gave the beam a tentative tug. The hinge screeched as the timber swung out from the wall.

“God in heaven.” Ben’s eyes went round as golden soccer balls.

Attached to the beam’s wall-facing side was a three-foot metal blade.

“Booby trap,” I whispered.

“Had to be.” Shelton’s brow glistened. “Pirates don’t give up their treasure without a fight.”

“That’s some serious
Goonies
action right there.” Hi whistled. “Trip that spring release and the blade cuts you in
half
. Bad day.”