The B Girls (20 page)

Mae stayed back from the edge and watched Jane
disappear from view.

Lucy leaned over the hole and watched as Jane made
her way down.

It took her less than two minutes to reach the
bottom and unhook.

"Let me know as soon as Mae's on the
rope," she called up to Lucy.

"You got it."

Lucy turned to Mae. "Still want to do
this?"

"Absolutely," Mae said. She checked her
harness one last time and hooked into the rope.

Lucy checked Mae's equipment and it occurred to her
for the first time that by going last, she wouldn't have anyone to check her.
She shook off her nerves and smiled at Mae. "All set." She stepped
back to the hole and called down, "She's ready."

"Going dark," Jane said. She grabbed the
rope and turned off her light. "Don't mess around Mae."

"Believe me, I plan to spend as little time as
possible hanging on this rope." She turned off her light and backed up to
the hole.

She looked down.

"Don't look down," Lucy reminded her.

"It was a reflex. I can't see anything
anyway." She started to lower herself over the opening.

She reached the tipping point.

And lowered herself beyond it without getting dizzy
or panicking.

"Good job," Lucy said.

"You okay up there?" Jane asked.

"Just fine," Mae said and started walking
her way down the wall. She moved much more slowly than Jane had, but she kept
moving.

Lucy listened to her progress unable to watch from
above since shining her light into the hole would ruin the whole illusion Mae
was shooting for.

"Oh shit," Mae said.

"I guess you reached the free part of this
little rappel," Jane called up. "That means you're almost done. I'm
going to reach up so you can feel my hand and you'll know you can drop the last
couple of feet."

Jane's hand closing around Mae's ankle steadied
her. She let herself slide down the last four feet.

She touched down with a shout of triumph. "I
did it!"

"You sure as hell did. Let's turn on some
lights," Jane said. "Lucy! Come whenever you're ready."

Lucy checked her equipment again and hooked onto
the rope. "On my way." She stepped to the edge and lowered herself
into the hole.

If it wasn't for the fact that she was in a dark
hole trying to find a lost treasure with Belle's life hanging in the balance,
rappelling would be fun.

Lucy's feet touched bottom and she got her first
look at this "untouched" part of the cave. "Whoa."

"You're not kidding, whoa. Do you really think
we're up to this?" Jane asked.

"We have to be up to it," Lucy said.
"I refuse to think about failing. Belle is counting on us."

"This" was a world so unlike what any of
them had envisioned they were all disoriented. This wasn't a "tour" cave
with smooth floors and tunnel-like passages. This was a wild place with tumbled
rocks and boulders on the floor. More were hanging suspended overhead in ways
that didn't bear contemplating. Some of them nearly car-sized.

Stalactites and stalagmites sprouted from ceiling
and floor creating more obstacles. Not the colorful, fantastical formations of
a mystical wonderland cave, these were shades of brown, black, and tan some
tending toward white but never quite reaching that pristine color.

This "room" was large, allowing them to
stand with several feet of empty space above their heads. It was roughly square
although the walls were nothing close to straight or smooth. Lucy thought it
looked to be about thirty feet to the far side and maybe a little more from
side to side.

"Looks like a dead end to me," Jane said.
She was looking a little wild-eyed as she stared at the bewildering angles,
slopes and shapes of the earth around her.

Lucy could relate. If it weren't for the fact that
she'd have to rig the ascender to the rope they'd rappelled down, she would
have made a break for it. As it was, she found herself concentrating on keeping
her breathing even and repeating a mantra of "Belle needs me to do
this" under her breath as she looked around for the most likely direction
for the other exit.

The view made her dizzy as if it didn't match the
information the rest of her senses were processing. Like one of those fun
houses where the floor seems to slope in the wrong direction and things get
smaller or larger even though they look the same.

"There must be a way out. The map shows an
opening on the other side of a large pile or formation," Lucy said.

The hole they'd dropped in from was located in a
corner of the room and the walls nearest the opening were solid. Even the
combined light of all three of their lamps didn't penetrate to the far corner
of the room.

"It must be over there in the dark," Lucy
said. There was an obstacle course of fallen, broken, dripping and growing rock
between them and the hidden part of the room.

"I'll go check it out if you want," Mae
said.

She didn't seem the least bit intimidated by the
chaos around her.

In fact, having conquered the rappel down the hole,
Lucy thought she seemed stronger and more confident here in the dark than she
ever had in the suburbs.

"I think we should stick together," Lucy
said even though she had no idea how she was going to get through the next few
minutes without hyperventilating.

"Maybe I should wait here until you make sure
it's safe. One of us should be ready to go for help," Jane said.

Lucy shook her head, making shadows dance crazily
around the room. "None of us should be alone. We have to do this for
Belle."

"Forward," Mae chirped.

Jane rattled the hardware draped around her waist
and then nodded. "What the hell, it can't be any worse than dealing with
Timmy and Bambi."

"I thought her name was Missy," Mae said.

"How in the world did you remember that?"
Lucy asked.

Mae shrugged. "Remembering names is something
I learned to do so I wouldn't embarrass myself."

"You're both nuts," Jane said. "If
we're going, let's get it over with."

"I'll go first," Mae said.

Jane and Lucy didn't argue with her.

Mae crossed the five feet of relatively clear space
avoiding fist sized rocks and a couple of shin-high stalagmites and stopped in
front of a four foot high boulder the obstacles on either side were larger,
more jagged or both.

She looked over her shoulder. "Piece of
cake."

All Lucy could do was shake her head and pray.
Maybe if they stayed in here long enough she'd find some new nerve of her own.

Jane rolled her eyes. "I'm glad one of us is
freaking happy about this."

Mae put her hands on top of the boulder. She jumped
and tried to get the top half of her body up with her hands.

It didn't work.

"Okay, it's a little challenging," she
said. "Maybe one of you should give me a little boost."

Lucy was up for anything that would take her mind
off the fact that several rocks large enough to squish her were magically
suspended over her head.

She crouched down and laced her fingers together.
"Make it quick. I won't be able to hold you up long."

"No problem. Ready?"

Lucy nodded and Mae stepped up on her hands. Lucy
thought she could lift Mae at least a little but her hands came apart as soon
as Mae tested her weight. "Dammit. Let's try something else."

"Let her step up on your thigh," Jane
suggested.

Lucy eyeballed Mae's brand new Vibram soled hiking
boots and winced. Good thing she wasn't planning on appearing in public with
bare legs any time soon. Then again as long as she lived to appear in public
again she shouldn't complain about a few bruises.

"Think about Belle," Lucy reminded
herself. She shifted so she was on one knee. "Would you do me the honor of
walking all over me?" she asked, more than a little surprised she could
manage a joke when she was still having to work on slowing her breathing.

Mae laughed. "Absolutely." She braced her
hands on top of the boulder again and put her foot on Lucy's thigh.

One quick sharp pain for Lucy resulted in Mae
managing to flop onto the boulder, legs dangling over the edge.

"I think I see something," she said.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"With our luck it's probably something
life-threatening," Jane said.

"Hang on." Mae wriggled the rest of
herself up and slid across the boulder. "Ouch."

"What?"

"The top of this rock isn't exactly polished
marble," Mae said.

"I mean what do you see?"

"There's definitely an opening in the
wall."

Something in her voice alerted them to the fact
that this might not be all good news.

"And?" Lucy asked.

"And things are about to get a whole lot more
interesting." She reversed her position and looked back at Lucy and Jane.
"You two should come see for yourselves."

Lucy let Jane use her for a step stool. Then Mae and
Jane pulled her up onto the rock with them.

"See?" Mae said.

Lucy and Jane looked in the direction Mae's light
was pointed.

Jane stared and shook her head. "That can't be
right."

"Do you see any other openings?"

Lucy swept her light across the wall, praying,
silently screaming to the gods or God or the universe or anyone or anything
that might be listening,
please let there
be another way.
She didn't see anything except the tiny dark crack mocking
her in the combined light of their three lamps.

"Maybe it's not as small as it looks,"
Mae said.

"Only one way to find out," Jane said in
a shaky voice.

Lucy had no words. Well, none that would be
remotely helpful. Somehow, she didn't think predicting their deaths was a good
idea.

They scrambled around and over the few minor
obstacles between them and the ominous crack in the wall.

The crack looked even smaller close up. Lucy wasn't
even sure they could squeeze into the three foot wide opening that started at
the floor and rose about two feet.

"There really must be a better way," Jane
said.

Mae shook her head. "I don't think so."
She played her light around the room. Nothing obvious popped up.

"Let's look anyway." Anything to delay
thinking about going into that crack. Because Lucy was afraid thinking about it
was all she'd be able to do.

Lucy stepped to the right of the crack,
deliberately looking away from it. There would be plenty of time to face it if
they didn't find another way out.

They searched the entire perimeter of the room
taking turns boosting each other up over the taller boulders, slogging through
small puddles of water and cursing every turned ankle and rock marble that slid
underfoot.

For Lucy, the cherry on that particular cake came
when yet another rock took her right foot for a ride and instead of turning an
ankle she wound up on her butt in one of those cold puddles.

She sat there for a few seconds while the cold
crept into her bones, trying to fight off another bout of dizziness caused by
the fact that her light was now pointing toward the ceiling at a crazy angle.
She reached up, righted the light, and wished she hadn't.

They made their way back to the crack of doom.

"Great whatever Paul must have been a small
guy," Mae said. She stepped up to the crack since Lucy and Jane were both
standing frozen in place staring. She dropped her pack, stooped down, and aimed
her light into the opening. Before Lucy or Jane could ask what she saw, she
dropped to the floor and slid in.

"Wait!" Lucy jumped toward the crack.

Mae slid back out of the hole. "It's
okay," she said. "This is sort of like a thick wall. A few feet in it
gets higher."

"How much higher?" Lucy asked. "Are
we talking inches or feet?"

"Feet. I don't think we can stand up straight
but we can stand up."

"Swear?"

"Cross my heart," Mae said.

"Is there something we should know?" Jane
asked looking Lucy over.

"I don't like small spaces. I'm not sure I
can--" she cut herself off with an impatient shake of her head. "No.
I'll just have to suck it up. Belle could be . . ."

"Belle will be just fine," Mae said.
"We're going to get the Declaration and then we're going to get her."

"And
you
are going to be fine too," Jane said. "You're actually a pretty tough
broad."