The B Girls (28 page)

"I had a premonition I was going to die in
that crack," Lucy said. "Sometimes it feels great to be wrong."
She looked around. "Where's the water going?"

They all looked around.

"It's running over into that other
corner," Mae said, pointing across the crazy space. "There must be
another outlet over there somewhere that we missed on the way in."

"As long as this room doesn't turn into a
lake," Lucy said.

"It doesn't seem to be backing up," Mae
said.

"Let's not do this again," Jane said.

"Let's finish this," Lucy said.
"Where's your pack?"

"Here," Mae said. "Still attached to
the rope"

Lucy pulled the pack to her and looked inside.
"The jar's still here and in one piece. Now we need to get Belle
back."

"And woe be unto the asshole who took her if
he's hurt her," Mae said.

"Amen," Jane said. "It wouldn't pay
to fuck with three recently tattooed women who just won a face-off with the
grim reaper."

"If you're feeling up to it, I think you
should go for the cavalry," Mae said to Lucy. "No doubt you'd like to
get above ground."

"I would walk barefoot across a bed of broken
glass to get the hell out of here."

"I'm not sure, but I think you were only
drowned for a minute or so," Jane said. "I guess I win the breath
holding contest."

"And I win the intact limb contest." Lucy
opened her pack. "I'm leaving the jar and as much of the rest of this as I
can. I don't think I'm going to need anything except water and light."

"You definitely need your whistle," Mae
said.

"Fine, I'll take the damn whistle."

"Make sure to tell them to bring the good
drugs," Jane said.

"Good drugs it is." Lucy rigged her
ascenders to the rope and started back up to the daylight.

Lucy took the final step up and draped her upper
body over the edge of the hole. She'd made it! Daylight, albeit rainy daylight
was just a minute away. If she had more energy she'd do the dance of joy as
soon as she unclipped from the rope.

As it was she'd settle for having enough energy to
make it back to the van.

"Just stay right there."

Lucy screamed in girly alarm at the male voice.
"Who . . ." She tried to put a face to the voice. Was it the ranger?

"It doesn't matter. I want the Declaration. If
you want to see daylight again, you'll stay right there until we figure out how
I'm going to get it."

Definitely not the ranger. Perry Thiel? The voice
didn't sound right.

"You have got to be kidding," she said.
Honest to God she hadn't wondered what else could go wrong. She hadn't tempted
fate that brazenly.

She shifted her weight to take the pressure off her
diaphragm and tried to get a look at him.

He was a large silhouette near the tunnel entrance,
backlit by cloudy sunlight. He had a very big, very bright flashlight pointed
in her direction. She couldn't see past it to get a look at his face and she
didn't trust her perspective to judge his size and build.

"I am definitely not kidding. Where is the
Declaration?"

"Where's my aunt?"

"You don't get to ask questions."

"Well, if you want the Declaration you're
going to have to take me to Belle first."

Lucy saw his negative head shake behind the
flashlight.

"If you want to get a rescue team here for
your friend, I suggest you cooperate."

He knew
Jane was hurt.
He must have been
up here listening to them.

Lucy wondered if she could throw a rock or something
at him and escape. That might be a good idea if she was capable of hitting
something smaller than the broadside of a barn or if there was a suitable rock
at hand.

"I don't have it," she said.

"Guess you really trust your friends," he
said. "Tell one of them to bring it up."

So far all he'd done was make vague threats. But
putting Mae in harm's way seemed like a very bad idea. "What if I
refuse?"

The answer was the sound of the slide on a
semi-automatic pistol being pulled back and released to chamber a bullet.
"I'd have to take you out of the way and go down for it myself."

Guess that answered the vague threat question.
"I'll go get it."

"No. I want you up here."

"Lucy? What's going on?" Mae called from
below.

"We have a little problem," Lucy answered.

"Quit screwing around and get her up
here," the man said.

He sounded nervous. That wasn't good.

A nervous amateur was a lot scarier than an
all-business professional thief.

"I need you to bring the jar up here to
me," Lucy said.

"What?" Mae called. "Don't you think
you should be more worried about getting some help for Jane?"

"There's someone up here who wants the
jar."

"Don't tell me Ranger Rick found us. Tell him
to forget about the jar and radio for some help," Mae said.

"Tell her to shut up and get her ass up here
with that document."

"It isn't the ranger," Lucy said.
"Just bring the jar. Now."

"Fine. Give me a minute to rig my
ascender."

Lucy turned her attention back to the man with the
gun. "How did you find out about the Declaration?" Wasn't that what
movie heroines did? Keep the bad guy talking until help arrives?

Of course there wasn't a chance in hell that any
help was going to arrive.

"Shut up. I don't want to carry on a dialog
with you," he said. "Your aunt thought she was entertaining too. She
was wrong. Now tell me what the jar business is about."

Oh God, she knew who it was.

A rat bastard, no conscience academic nutball named
Dawson.
The freaking professor! She
couldn't believe he'd fooled her so easily with his hints that Perry was the crazy
one. Of course, the fact that he'd told her what she expected to hear helped a
lot.

She wondered whether he was interested in the money
or the professional coup.

The rope below her went taut as Mae put her weight
on it and started up.

"We found an old pottery jar where the
document was supposed to be hidden. We haven't opened it yet but if the
Declaration exists it has to be in the jar."

"You'd better hope so."

"Once you have the jar, you're going to tell
me where Belle is and leave right?"

"Wrong question," Dawson said.

Lucy shivered. The nerves were back in his voice.

"What's the right question?"

"Am I going to leave you alive and well?"

Lucy swallowed. Better to know how far she was
going to have to go to save herself and her friends. "Are you?"

"I haven't decided yet."

Just great.

Lucy glanced down. Mae's head was just coming into
view. "Too bad I didn't follow my husband's lead and join the NRA. If I
had a gun I'd drop back down in this hole and just wait for you to show your
face."

"Talk like that won't push the life and death
decision in your favor," he said.

She was hoping talk like that would send a message
to Mae.

It did. Mae looked up and nodded.

She had the gun.

"Tell her to hurry up," he said.

"I can hear you now," Mae said. She'd reached
Lucy's feet. She showed Lucy the gun she'd shoved into her harness.

Lucy winked at her. "Just give me a minute to
get the jar out of her pack."

"If I see anything else come out of that hole
you're going to find out how I handle a gun."

Lucy reached down toward the pack. "I'm going
to have to get all the way up and sit on the edge. I can't reach it from this
angle."

"Just get it done," he said.

Lucy levered herself up and back so that she was
sitting on the opposite side of the hole from where he was standing. She
unclipped from the rope and gestured for Mae to come up a little more.

Mae took another step up, keeping her head below
the rim of the hole and swung around so that Lucy could get to the backpack.
She tried to hand Lucy the gun.

Lucy leaned down into the hole and whispered,
"When I toss the jar to him I want you to shoot over the rim in his
direction and zip back down to Jane."

"I'm not leaving you," Mae hissed.

"I'm going to run the other way. I'm sure
he'll take the jar and run if we make it too hard for him to deal with
us." At least she hoped he would, but no matter what, he wouldn't be able
to get to Mae and Jane.

"What the hell's the problem," he said.

Lucy lifted her head to look in his direction.
"The jar's a little unwieldy."

She leaned back down and pulled the jar out of the
pack. "Do it," she said under her breath.

"What about Belle?" Mae asked.

"We can't help her if we're dead."

Mae frowned at her but nodded agreement. She turned
off her headlamp so Dawson wouldn't know she was still up top.

Lucy wasn't expecting to get through the next
minute unscathed but with luck she'd get through it alive. Then she'd deal with
Dawson on her terms.

She straightened up out of the hole with the jar in
her hands.

Dawson's light moved closer.

"Don't," Lucy said. "If you come any
closer I'll drop the jar back into the hole. It's wet down there. The document
would be ruined."

The light stopped moving. "I'm running out of
patience."

"I'll toss the jar to you but I'm going to
have to stand up. I can't throw it from here."

"Bad idea. That jar breaks it could damage the
Declaration."

"I believe we have a stalemate," Lucy
said. "The jar's pretty sturdy. I bet it won't do more than crack."
If he shot her he'd take a chance on ruining the Declaration.

"Fine, toss the jar very gently."

"One more thing," Lucy said dangling the
jar above the hole. "I'm going to make you sorry you were ever born if
anything happens to Belle."

"All I want is the Declaration. Your aunt goes
free as soon as I make sure it's genuine."

Lucy didn't believe him but she needed more options
than she had with him pointing a gun at her. She brought her feet up out of the
hole and stood, jar in hand. "Ready? One." She rocked a little
swinging the jar. "Two." Another swing. "Three!"

She tossed the jar across the hole.

As soon as it left her hands, she turned to run.

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye as
Mae somehow launched herself above the lip of the hole.

The gunshot was a huge boom in the confined space.

Lucy was already in mid-stride and picking up
steam. She didn't look back to see what effect the shot had on Dawson.

She ran full out, her back tense waiting for
Dawson's return bullet to find her, praying she didn't run into a dead end too
soon or fall into another hole.

Another boom sounded.

Rock chips flew from the tunnel wall in front of
her on the right.

A third boom sounded.

Pain streaked across Lucy's left side and more rock
chips flew.

She gasped with the pain, her feet slowing, knowing
that any second another burning pain would assault her body.

Mae squeezed her eyes shut as she bounced her way
down the hole, rope zipping through her ascender and shots from another gun
boomed above her.

When the wall dropped away from her she started
feeling for the floor and risked a look down.

She landed hard, pain shooting through her ankles.
Nothing snapped. She frantically unclipped from the rope.

"What the hell happened?" Jane demanded.

"Move away from the hole," Mae said,
heading for the nearest boulder.

Jane hustled to join her and they took a position
using the boulder as a shield.

There was no more sound from above and the rope Mae
left swinging, stilled.

###

Lucy staggered forward.

As she waited for the next shot, her luck took a
sudden turn for the better--and so did the tunnel.

She rounded the left hand turn in the tunnel,
pulled up and turned off her headlamp. Please. Please. Please. Let him not be
following her.

Breathing hard, not sure how badly she was wounded,
she clamped her right hand over the pain in her left side.