His gambit had failed. The men had scrambled to cover before anyone else on the Avalon crew was able to get hold of a weapon and the Snake King still had Atticus. Now, Diablo put a gun to Atticus’s head and the firing stopped.
The Snake King got to his knees and dusted himself down. “Impressive, but at the same time pathetic. Tarántula! Have your men get the capstone out of here at once. Then I want everyone to evacuate and blow the roof. There’s a lot of water in the lake above this cave system. More than enough to drown all of you like the rats you are.”
Decker watched as the Mercado brothers removed the capstone and then dragged Atticus out of the complex. To give the old guy credit, he kicked and screamed and fought across every inch, but the gangsters were much stronger. They were all gone a few minutes later, leaving only the Snake King and Tarántula.
“The charges, Tarántula!”
The man from Acapulco put the C4 into three strategic locations around the cave and then the two men walked over to the entrance.
“Goodbye, Avalon crew,” the Snake King said. Tarántula was already up the rope ladder and now the Snake King turned and began the ascent. As his feet climbed up out of sight, Selena turned to Decker.
“So what now? Do we disarm the C4?”
“As soon as that psycho hits the detonator,” Riley said, “that C4 is turning into a giant fireball. Thing is, we don’t know when he’s going to push the button.”
“Riley’s right,” Decker said. “Best advice is get as far away from the explosives as we can and take some sort of cover. That way…”
It was too late. All three packs of C4 exploded in a fierce fireball, blasting chunks of rock and smoke into every corner and shaking the entire cave beneath their feet.
24
“Jeez, who farted?”
Riley’s voice sounded muffled in the smoke. All around him, debris slowly fell back to earth and for a few seconds he wondered if they were going to make it. Then he felt water on his forehead.
“Um, you guys all right?”
They all checked back in, coughing and spluttering.
“That’s good, but I think we’re in trouble.”
“Danvers’s plan worked?” Selena called back.
“Let’s put it this way, raindrops are falling on my head.”
“Mine too,” Diana said.
“And me,” said Decker. “Look at the cave ceiling! Now the smoke is clearing, I can see at least three giant cracks and they’re all getting worse. Danvers’s plan worked. The entire lake is going to come crashing down on us any second.”
“So what do we do?” Acosta said.
“We wait,” said Riley, earning him a strange look from the Mexican academic.
“Wait?” Selena said. “They’re holding my father hostage and getting away with the capstone, plus we’re about to have a lake crash down on top of us! We need to move!”
“No, I agree with Riley,” Decker said. “We wait, but somewhere safer than this.”
“I don’t understand,” said Acosta.
“It’s simple.” Decker began climbing up to a ledge running around the south side of the cavern. “When that roof falls in, it’s going to bring millions of tons of rock and water crashing down into this cavern. We get caught in that and we’re dead. But, if we can survive the initial collapse we should be able to ride the surface of the water up to a higher level in the cave complex and find another tunnel that leads us to safety.”
“You mean, use the water like an elevator?’ Acosta said.
“Exactly, and then…”
The time for explanation was over. The cracks in the ceiling had joined up and now broke open completely. Water rushed down through them and crashed into the floor. It grew heavier and faster and then reached the edges of the cavern. Seconds later, it was as high as their ledge.
“Get into the water!” Decker screamed. “We can swim out of here over there! I see some sort of tunnel opening up just behind where one of the cracks formed!”
They rode the water up to the tunnel and then climbed up over the ledge. With the water rushing up behind them, they sprinted along the passageway. This was narrower than those that had come before it, and much lower. Riley was the tallest in the group and was now having to tip his head forward and hunch his shoulders in order to make his way through it.
“Can’t wait for this to end,” he said with humor. “This place is literally a pain in the neck.”
“We must be nearly there by now,” Selena said. “Oh…”
Ahead was a large stone bridge stretching across a wide canyon. Flowing underneath it, they saw a thick, wide channel of bubbling, flowing lava.
Charlie pulled up. “I told you… hell!”
Decker skidded to a halt beside him. “I think we’re going over that bridge.”
Diana was horrified. “You think we should walk over a rickety wooden bridge a hundred meters above a river of lava? Are you totally insane?”
“On seconds thoughts, you’re right,” Decker said. “Forget that. Let’s flap our wings and fly across instead.”
The Portuguese academic rolled her eyes and sighed. “There is no need to be… what is the word… faceto!”
“I don’t know what that means,” Decker said, “But I know there’s no other way across this ravine unless we take the bridge.”
“I agree,” Charlie said. “And I’m sure when Riley gets back, he’ll give us a full report of what he found on the other side and then we can proceed safely.”
Riley scratched at his stubble and grinned. “What is it with you mate? You want me to die or something?”
“Absolutely not,” Charlie said. “I need you to get back here alive
