White Jade (The PROJECT) (11 page)

The room was about twenty feet square. Against one wall, three low rectangles of wood bore old mattresses, straw spilling out where the rats had gnawed on the rotted fabric. Across the room a broken stool lay on its side by a rough wooden table. On the table was the stub of a candle in a holder. Selena walked over and picked it up, just as the light died.

Nick
f
elt
the
old
fear, the childhood demons of nameless, hideous monsters lur
king in places without light. He
took a deep breath, calmed
him
self.
They
weren
'
t dead yet.

"
Now all we need is a light,
"
said Selena.

"
You have a match?
"

"
I don
'
t smoke.
"

"
Neither do I.
"

"
Smoking can kill you.
"

They started laughing hysterically.

When
they had
calmed down
he
said,
"
Stay where you are.
"

He
crossed the room with hands stretched out until
he
banged up against one of the beds. From the tattered mattress
he
gathered straw and fabric and fumbled
his
way back to Selena. On the floor
he
felt around until
he
found a rock

He
made a little pile of bedding, took
his
knife and struck it against the rock. After a few tries
he
got a spark.
He chipped
at the rock, showering sparks down on the straw. It caught into bright flame.

She handed
him
the candle and
he
lit it. The room came back into view, the smoke from the fire rising upward.

"
Look.
"
Selena pointed upward.

The smoke disappeared into a hole in the ceiling.

"
That
'
s where the air is coming from.
"

"
At least we won
'
t suffocate. Be nice if it were bigger.
"

Carter
looked around.
"
What is this place?
"

"
I think it was an opium den. No one except Chinese would have come in here. The miners couldn
'
t have read the sign over the entrance and wouldn
'
t have cared anyway.
"

"
That makes sense. That
'
s why the beds. And the sign makes sense, too. There might be a way out. I don
'
t think there
'
d
only
be one exit to a place like this.
"

He
walked slowly around the room. On the back wall was the outline of another entrance, walled up with stone, the mortar crumbling and old.
Nick
took the pick head
he
'
d found and began chipping away. Soon there was a pile of dust on the floor
. A
rock came free, then another.
He
stuck
his
hand through the opening and touched empty space.

He
kept chipping and pulling out rocks until the entrance was big enough to climb through.
They
looked at each other.

"It's another tunnel," he said.

"
What if it
'
s a dead end?
"

"
We don't have a choice. Only one way to find out.
"

This tunnel was narrow but it was in good shape. At one point it dipped through water that came to
their
knees.
Nick
wondered if
he
was about to step into a deep, deep hole, but the floor rose again and
they
were back on dry ground
.
The candle was almost gone when
they
came to another blocked entrance, this one walled up with brick.

"
That
'
s a change.
"

"
The mortar looks old. Maybe I can kick it down.
"
 
He
handed her the candle.

He
gave it a good kick. Another.

"
Now I know how Bruce Lee must have felt,
"
he
said.

"
Let me try,
"
Selena said.
"
Better get out of the way.
"

Nick
stood to the side. Selena closed her eyes, took a deep breath and became very still. She opened her eyes and backed away, then let out a wild yell and launched herself flying, feet first. The whole wall blew out into the room on the other side.

Squinting against light,
he
stepped through into someone
'
s basement. Selena was getting to her feet.
He
reached down to help her up.

"
How the hell did you do that?
"

"
Nick.
"
She gestured with her head.

A burly man with a gray beard
stood
openmouthed across the room in pajamas, eyes wide, pointing a twelve gauge shotgun
at them
.

Carter
raised
his
hands.
"
How
'
s it going?
"
he
said.

Chapter
S
event
een

"
What are you doing
here
?
"
Shotgun Man was around sixty. He looked scared
. T
he twelve gauge
shook
in his hands. A large dog of indeterminate breed stood next to him, bristling and growling.

"
Take it easy. I
'
ll pay for the damage to your wall.
"

"
You mind telling me where the hell you came from?
"

"
You mind putting that down, sir? I can explain. It
'
s a long story. My name
'
s Nick, this is Selena.
"

"
You look like something my dog rolled in. You say you
'
ll pay?
"

"
Absolutely. We
'
ll make it new. Where are we, anyway?
"

Suspicious, but he lowered the gun a few inches.
Nick
breathed easier.

"
You
'
re in
Smartsville
,
California
. How did you get here?
"

T
he truth would
n't
be a good idea, considering the events of the day
. He
began improvising.

"
Selena here owns the old Connor mine up the road. You know the place?
"

"
Connorsville? The Number One Mine? Sure, everyone knows about it. That
'
s your place?
"

Carter
was about to say something, but she beat
him
to it.

"
Yes.
"
She smiled at him.
"
I
'
m really sorry we made so much trouble for you. I was showing Nick around and we went inside the mine. I tripped and grabbed a post holding up the roof. The whole thing came down and the roof collapsed. We were almost buried alive.
"

Carter
picked up the story.
"
So we couldn
'
t get out the way we got in. We wandered around in there for hours until we found the tunnel that brought us here. We broke down your wall because there wasn
'
t anything else to do. Like I said, I
'
ll pay for the damage.
"

"
Well, I
'
ll be damned.
"
The gun dropped another few inches.
"
I always heard the Chinese dug secret tunnels during the gold rush.
"

"
Why would they dig one here?
"

"
This
was
a whorehouse
in the old days
. It
'
s good a reason as any, I guess. You two were damn lucky to find it, after being dumb enough to go into that old mine.
"

"
I guess it wasn
'
t very smart,
"
Selena said, l
ooking contrite.
Carter
caught her glancing at him from
the corner of her eye. She was enjoying
it
, playing the dumb blonde.

"
I guess you'd like a glass of something,
"
Shotgun Man said.
He lowered the shotgun all the way. The dog stopped growling
and
began to look interested instead of threatening.
"
Come on upstairs. This will be a hell of a story to tell down at the
It'll Do
.
"

Shotgun Man's name was Ed. He
offered a
shot of Crown Royal and a lift back to the house.
Nick figured that w
hoever threw th
e
grenade would be long gone and would have cleaned up the carnage.
He
wasn
'
t worried about stumbling over a couple of dead bodies.

They
climbed into Ed
'
s pickup
. T
en minutes later
they
stood
on the front porch of the house.
There was
no sign of the shooters.
Nick's
watch showed midnight.

Ed drove off with a promise from Selena that he could come back with his metal detector and search the town site.
They
watched his taillights disappear. High overhead in the warm, June night, an airplane left a long, silver trail across the star-filled sky. A soft breeze c
arried the sound of
crickets singing to each other.

"
Feels good to have all that space above you, doesn
'
t it?
"

"
I didn
'
t think we were going to get out of there,
"
she said.

"
The spiders got to me.
"

"
And the rats. Don
'
t forget the rats.
"

She turned to
him
and wrapped her arms around
him
.
He
held her for a long moment
, felt the warmth of her body in the
cool
night air.

"
Let
'
s go inside.
"

Selena turned on the lights. The contents of her purse were scattered on the floor and the couch. The back door was open where
they'd
run for it
.

Selena gathered her things back together
. Nick
called Harker.
I
t was three in the morning on the East Coast.
T
he day
'
s events were enough reason to wake her up.

Harker picked up her phone.
Her voice was thick with sleep.

"
It better be good, Nick.
"
She coughed.

"
You might say that. We have the book.
"

He
filled her in
on what had happened.
There was a long pause.

"
I
'
ll get a cleanup team out there to process the place. No sign of the shooters?
"

"
It
'
s dark out, so I can
'
t look for bodies, but no, no sign. My guess is who
ever
threw the grenade took the others with him. He was in the house and got into Selena
'
s purse, so he knows who she is and where she lives. But after that cave in, they have to think we
'
re both dead.
"

"
This local man, you think he suspects any of this?
"

"
No
. He just thinks
we
'
re dumb
,
exploring
old mines
. I told him we
'
d reimburse him for damages, he
'
s fine with it. I don
'
t see any problems
. M
aybe
another contribution to local bar lore.
"

"
Grenades and Uzis mean serious backing. Did you get a good look at any of them?
"

"
I
'
m pretty sure they were Chinese. The big one is ugly as hell. I
'
d recognize him if I saw him again.
"

"
Maybe the Bureau can help.
"

"
If Ugly has anything to do with Wu, they might have a shot of him.
"

"
I
'
ll see what they
've got
. There have to be more photos than the one
s
they gave us. What
'
s your plan now?
"

"
I haven
'
t thought about it.
G
et
some sleep
, I guess
.
"

"
How
'
s Selena?
"

"
She
'
s fine.
"

"
Tell her she is
now under Federal protection and direction regarding her activities.
"

"
Yes, Director.
"

"
And Nick…I
'
m glad you both made it out safe.
"

She hung up.

Carter
turned to where Selena was sitting on the couch, exhausted, beat up, filthy with mine dirt. She looked a little rough around the edges
. He
wanted to hold her.
He wanted to do more than that.
It had been a long time since he'd
wanted to hold
any woman.

"
The Director sa
id
you're now under Federal protection. It means the government will be controlling your life for a while, what you can and can't do. It's the trade off.
"

Selena nodded, a gesture of resignation.

"
Harker's
sending a team to check this place out
,
"
he
said.
"
What do you want to do
?
"

"
I want to get cleaned up and sleep. But I don
'
t want to stay here.
"

"
I
'
ve got a place not far away. Why don
'
t we go there? I can sleep on the couch.
"

She considered a moment
, gave him a thoughtful look
.

"
Sounds better than a motel. You have a shower or a bathtub?
"

"
I do.
"

"
Let
'
s go.
"

She got up, took the book and her purse, turned everything off and locked up.
Carter
opened the
passenger
door for her. The glove box was open and
he
hadn
'
t left it that way.
The
insurance slip was gone.
He
closed the glove compartment without mentioning
his
thoughts to Selena. The address on the slip was
a
P.O. Box, so they didn
'
t have
a
physical location yet.
They were
safe for the moment.

In less than an hour
they
pulled up at
the
cabin.

While
Selena
cleaned up
he
got the book and placed it
in
a
gun safe
at the back of
the bedroom
closet
.
He
sat down and leaned back on the couch, waiting for her to finish, and closed
his
eyes.
Wha
t a day
, he thought
.
Why were these people so anxious to get the book? He
fell asleep.

He dreamed.

He
was running in a twilight land,
with
something
close behind
.
He ran t
hrough
a bleak landscape with
high mountains
and
large black animals in a
rocky
field. The sky was sickly yellow and there was a bad smell in the air.