ghastly to accept. She recalled reading about the bodies of cave divers who had become lost in a maze of underwater caverns and been found with their fingers rubbed raw to the bone where they had tried to claw their way through solid rock.
The men stood quiet, their mood somber from the buried solitude. Marquez was unable to believe that some unknown party had tried to murder them. There was no rhyme or reason to such an act, no motive. His conscious thoughts languished on the grief that would soon overcome his family.
Pat thought of her daughter and felt a deep sense of desolation, knowing that she would not be there to see her only child grow to womanhood. It did not seem fair that she would die deep in the bowels of the earth within a bleak and barren chamber, her body never to be found. She wanted to cry, but tears refused to fall.
All conversation died when water reached their knees. It continued rising until it reached their hips. It was ice cold and stabbed their flesh like thousands of tiny nails. Pat began to shiver, and her teeth chattered uncontrollably. Ambrose, recognizing the warning signs of hypothermia, waded over and put his arms around her. It was a kind and thoughtful act, and she felt grateful. She stared in rapt terror at the hideous black water that swirled beneath the yellow glow of Marquezs lamp, reflecting on the cold forbidding surface.
Then suddenly Pat thought she saw something, sensed it actually. 'Turn off your light,' she murmured to Marquez.
'What?'
'Turn off your light. I think something is down there.'
The men were certain that fear had caused her to hallucinate, but Marquez nodded, reached up, and switched off the hard hat's little light. The chamber was immediately thrown into hellish blackness.
'What is it you think you see?' Ambrose asked softly.
'A glow,' she murmured.
'I don't see anything,' said Marquez.
'You must see it,' she said excitedly. 'A faint glow in the water.'
Ambrose and Marquez peered into the rising water and saw nothing but stygian blackness.
'I saw it. I swear to God, I saw a light shining in the cleft below.'
Ambrose held her tighter. 'We're alone,' he said tenderly. 'There is no one else.'
'There!' she gasped. 'Don't you see?'
Marquez dipped his face under the surface and opened his eyes. And then he saw it, too, a very dim glow coming from the direction of the tunnel. As he held his breath in growing anticipation, it began to brighten as if it was coming closer. He raised his head free of the water and shouted, his voice tinged with horror. 'Something is down there. The ghost. It can only be the ghost that is said to wander the mine shafts. No human could be moving through a flooded tunnel.'
What strength they had left drained from their bodies. They stared transfixed as the light seemed to rise through the opening into the chamber. Marquez switched his lamp back on as they stood frozen, their eyes staring at the apparition that slowly rose above the surface of the water, wearing a black hood.
Then a hand lifted from the murk, removed a mouthpiece to an air regulator, and raised a diver's face mask over the forehead. A pair of vivid green opaline eyes were revealed under the miner's lamp as the lips spread into a wide smile that displayed an even set of white teeth.
'It would appear,' a friendly voice said, 'that I have arrived in the proverbial nick of time.'
4
Pat could not help but wonder if her mind, numbed by fright and the torment to her body from the frigid water, was playing weird tricks. Ambrose and Marquez stared blankly, unable to speak. Shock was slowly replaced with an overpowering wave of relief at suddenly having company and knowing the stranger was in contact with the world above. Cold fear abruptly evaporated, to be replaced with inspired hope.
'Where in God's name did you come from?' Marquez blurted excitedly.
'The Buccaneer Mine next door,' answered the stranger, shining his dive light around the walls of the chamber before focusing its beam on the obsidian skull. 'What is this place, a mausoleum?'
'No,' answered Pat, 'an enigma.'
'I recognize you,' said Ambrose. 'We talked earlier today. You're with the National Underwater and Marine Agency.'
'Dr. Ambrose, isn't it? I wish I could say it was a pleasure meeting you again.' The stranger looked at the miner. 'You must be Luis Marquez, the owner of the mine. I promised your wife I'd get you home in time for dinner. He stared at Pat and grinned slyly. 'And the gorgeous lady has to be Dr. O'Connell.'
'You know my name?'
'Mrs. Marquez described you,' he said simply.
'How in the world did you get here?' Pat asked, still dazed.
'After learning from your sheriff that your mine entrance was covered by an avalanche, my team of NUMA engineers decided to try and reach you through one of the tunnels leading from the Buccaneer Mine to the Paradise. We'd only covered a few hundred yards when an explosion shook the mountain. When we saw water rising in the shafts and flooding both mines, we knew the only way left to reach you was by a diver swimming through the tunnels.'
'You swam here from the Buccaneer Mine?' asked Marquez incredulously. 'That has to be nearly half a mile.'
'Actually, I was able to walk much of the distance before I entered the water,' explained the stranger. 'Unfortunately, the surge was more than I expected. I was towing a waterproof pack containing food and medical supplies behind me on a line, but it was torn away and lost after a torrent of water swept me against an old drill rig.'
'Were you injured?' asked Pat solicitously.
'Black and blue in places I care not to mention.'
'It's a miracle you found your way through that maze of tunnels to our exact location,' said Marquez.
The stranger held up a small monitor, whose screen glowed an unearthly green. 'An underwater computer, programmed with every shaft, crosscut, and tunnel in the Telluride canyon. Because your tunnel was blocked by the cave-in, I had to detour to a lower level, circle around, and travel from the opposite direction. As I was swimming through the tunnel, I caught the dim glimmer of light from your miner's lamp. And here I am.'
'Then no one aboveground knows that we were trapped by a cave-in,' stated Marquez.
'They know,' the diver answered him. 'My NUMA team called the sheriff as soon as we realized what happened.'
Ambrose's face showed an unhealthy pallor. He failed to display the enthusiasm of the others. 'Is there another member of your dive team following you?' he asked slowly.
The diver gave a slight shake of his head. 'I'm alone. We were down to our last two tanks of air. I felt it was too risky for more than one man to make the attempt to reach you.'
'It seems a waste of time and effort for you to have made the trip. I see little that you can do to save us.'
'I may surprise you,' the diver said simply.
'There is no way your twin scuba tanks hold enough air to take all four of us back through a labyrinth of flooded tunnels to the world aboveground. And since we'll either drown or die of hypothermia in the next hour, you won't have time to go and bring back help.'
'You've very astute, Doctor. Two people might make it back to the Buccaneer Mine, but only two.'
'Then you must take the lady.'
The diver smiled ironically. 'That's very noble of you, my friend, but we're not loading lifeboats on the Titanic.'
'Please,' begged Marquez. 'The water is still rising. Take Dr. O'Connell to safety.'
'If it will make you happy,' he said, with seeming insensibility. He took Pat by the hand. 'Have you ever used scuba gear before?'
