steps and pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t open. I couldn’t find a handle, a switch, a button. No way to open the door.
“We’re locked in,” I said to Diesel.
“That’s kind of a bummer, because there’s no way out down here, and I have no bars on my cell phone.”
I joined Diesel at the bottom of the stairs and flicked my flashlight around the room. We were in a sort of grotto. Stone walls, moldy ceiling, a dark, seemingly endless pool of water.
“How did it come to this?” I asked Diesel. “Everything was going right for me. I had a little house, a job I liked, even a cat. And then you came along, and now I’m going to die.”
“We might not die,” Diesel said.
“How so?”
Diesel had his flashlight trained to writing on the wall.
“I hate these messages,” I said. “I hate them, hate them, hate them! I don’t want to see another message for the entire rest of my life.”
There was a moment of mutual silence where I suspect we were thinking the same thing… that the rest of our lives could be ten or fifteen minutes, depending on how fast the air got used up in here.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to pitch a fit.”
“It’s okay. I’m not overjoyed to see more messages, either.” He handed me his flashlight. “Hang on to this until I get back.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m taking a leap of faith.”
And he jumped into the black water and disappeared.
“No!” I yelled. “Diesel!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I had a white-knuckle grip on the flashlight, scanning the water’s surface. A minute passed. Two minutes. I was pacing the pool’s edge, looking for a sign that Diesel was moving around. A tear trickled down my cheek, and I bit my lip to keep from sobbing.
“If anyone’s listening,” I whispered, “please don’t let him drown.”
I thought I saw a ripple, and then Diesel popped his head out in an explosion of water. He swam to the side and hoisted himself out.
“There’s an underwater tunnel about ten feet down,” he said. “The tunnel itself isn’t real long. Maybe twenty feet. It opens into another grotto. And there’s a passage going out of that grotto. I didn’t get to explore the passage. You’re going to have to leave the flashlight here. It’s not waterproof. It’ll be useless on the other side.”
“I don’t know if I can hold my breath long enough.”
“You absolutely can. It’s not that far. I know exactly where the tunnel starts. We’re going to swim over to it, and I’m going to guide you in and push you from behind. Don’t kick. Just let me push.”
“Oh boy.”
“It’s not so bad. It’s like Indiana Jones. Remember how that big boulder was coming at him in
I eased myself into the water with Diesel supporting me.
“It’s cold,” I said.
“Only at first. You’ll get used to it.”
We scooted around the edge of the pool until Diesel said we were above the start to the tunnel.
I held my breath, and Diesel pulled me down and pushed my head into the opening. I put my arms out straight, and Diesel propelled us through the passage and kicked us up to the surface.
We climbed out and stood there, dripping wet and taking deep breaths. It was pitch-black, and I couldn’t see anything.
“Can you see in the dark?” I asked him.
“Yes. Can you?”
“No. Not even a little.”
“Hang on to me, and I’ll get us out of here.”
The passage was high enough that I didn’t have to stoop, and wide enough that my shoulders weren’t constantly hitting the sides. My shoes were squishing water, but it was better than walking barefoot. We made a turn, and I saw light ahead. A few more steps and the light was brighter. We took another turn and stepped into a large, domed room. And Hatchet was there. He was sitting on the floor with a lump and a gash on his forehead, looking damp and dejected, surrounded by rats.
I felt myself go rigid with anger, and I glared at Hatchet. “You sick son of a…”
Diesel wrapped an arm around me and walked me back into the passage a couple feet.
“Go easy,” Diesel said. “We need him to talk to us.”
“He hurt Glo.”
“I know, but we want him to tell us things.”
I nodded.
“Can you hold it together?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
We returned to the domed room.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Diesel said.
“We shall all die together in this hellhole, this stinking pit of misery,” Hatchet said.
“What’s with the rats?”
“They doth like me.”
We were on the far side of the room from Hatchet, and I wasn’t going any closer. Maybe if Hatchet was Pied Piper to hamsters I could manage, but these rats were as big as barn cats.
“Is that one of your special talents?” I asked Hatchet. “You attract vermin?”
“Apparently. They followed me here from one of the tunnels.”
There were four tunnel entrances in the room, plus the tunnel we just left. I tipped my head back and saw that the light was coming from a crack in the domed ceiling high overhead and reflecting off what looked like quartz crystals embedded in the walls of the cave.
“Have you tried all the tunnels?” Diesel asked.
“Yes. ’Tis a maze. I always return to this room. Some are booby-trapped. None are lit. And I cannot see in the dark.”
“Is there more water?” I asked him.
“Nay. None that I have found. Just the way we came.”
“And you came from Alpha Delta?”
“I did not. My sire doth open the back door to the Sphinx. It was all in the little book of sonnets. Where the key must fit in the wall to begin the journey to the stone. I was prepared to take the leap of faith. And I knew to find the stone and the stone’s tablet here.”
When Diesel and I found the first stone several months ago, we found a small tablet hidden with it. There was a power play between Diesel and Wulf, and Diesel got the stone but Wulf got the tablet. The tablet was written in an arcane language, but supposedly if the tablet could be translated it would lead to another stone.
“So why are you sitting here?” I asked Hatchet.
“When I returned to the secret entrance, it was closed and would not open. There was only silence. So I came back here to escape through one of the tunnels, but there is no escape I can find.”
“I’m surprised Wulf would entrust you with the stone,” I said. “I’d think he’d be the one to take possession of it.”
