I stood frozen, back pressed to the wall.
“Nothing to say, Dr. Brennan?”
How to play it? Reason? Cajole? Lash out? I chose to remain mute.
“All right, then. The gift.”
Park took a step back, allowing shadow to swallow me once again. I watched him set the lantern on the ground and begin unknotting the tied ends of the bag.
Barely thinking, I slid the tent stake behind the shelving and levered with both hands. The top-heavy case swayed forward, settled back.
Engrossed in his task, Park didn’t notice.
I dropped the stake.
Park’s head came up.
I grabbed a metal upright with both hands and rocked the shelving away from the wall with all my strength.
Park straightened.
The shelving pitched forward. Urns flew through the air.
Park threw both hands up, twisted his upper body. The Karnak special caught him in the right temple. He dropped. I heard his skull crack against cement.
The lantern glass shattered and its light went out, leaving only the smell of kerosene.
For what seemed a lifetime, objects crashed and rolled on the floor.
When the noise finally ceased, there was eerie quiet.
Catacomb darkness.
Utter stillness.
One heartbeat. Two. Three.
Was Park unconscious? Dead? Lying in wait? Should I flee? Grope for the tent stake?
Burlap rustled, sounding like thunder in the silence.
I held my breath.
Was Park releasing his malicious present?
A whisper, like the soft brushing of scales on cement.
More silence.
Had I imagined the sound?
The tiny scraping started again, stopped, started.
Something was moving!
What to do?
Then a terrifying, stupefying rattling deadened my every response.
Snakes!
I pictured slithering bodies coiling to strike. Darting tongues. Lidless, gleaming eyes.
Glacial cold cramped my chest, then rolled outward through my heart, my veins, my stomach, my fingertips.
What kind of snakes? Moccasins? Copperheads? Did those snakes rattle? Diamondbacks? Something exotic from South America? Knowing Park’s history, I was certain the snakes were venomous.
How many were out there, slithering toward me in the dark?
I felt totally alone. Totally abandoned.
But no one was coming. No one knew where I was. How could I have been so stupid?
Struggling to function, my mind flew in a million directions.
How does a snake locate its prey? Vision? Smell? Heat? Motion? Does it go on the attack or try to avoid contact?
Do I freeze? Bolt? Go for the tent stake?
More rattling.
Panic overcame reason. Good eye wide in the darkness, I shot toward the door.
My foot caught on the fallen shelving and I pitched headlong into the rubble. My hand hit flesh and bone, unconsciously jerked left.
Hair. Something warm and wet, puddled on the cement.
Park!
