Page 323 of Marcello

It wasn’t all bad, though. We saw some astounding sights.

Large underground caverns with pools filled with water…

Tiny waterfalls gushing from openings high over our heads…

Caves with giant pillars carved from rock, like something out of Lord of the Rings.

But then it was always back into the cramped darkness.

Hour after hour, my back and legs aching.

And then finally, at the very end…

We smelled our destination before we reached it.

The cold, damp air became thick with the stench of rotting meat.

Adriano gagged. “Christ, what’s that fuckin’ smell?!”

“Quiet,” Lars whispered. “We can’t risk anybody aboveground hearing us.”

“Alright, fine,” Adriano whisper-shouted. “What’s that fuckin’ smell?!”

“A bunch of corpses, just like Marcello said,” the old man whispered from the front of the line. “We’re here.”

We entered a room that was big enough for a dozen of us to stand upright. In addition to the tunnel we’d just come from, there were two other passageways leading in separate directions.

I was right behind Adriano, so I was one of the twelve able to stand up. Everybody else had to crouch down and wait back in the tunnel.

Above our heads was a circular hole carved into the rock ceiling – the well leading up to the Amatos’ compound.

Beneath the well was a pile of corpses five feet high.

Mostly men in black suits, their white shirts rust-red with blood…

But there was also a middle-aged man and woman on top of the pile, dressed in pajamas and a negligee. Their milky-white eyes stared out into nothingness.

The room was two inches deep in water. The bodies at the bottom of the pile were waterlogged and swollen.

Advanced decomposition had set in days ago…

And something had been gnawing at them.

Rats.

Dozens of them squeaked and splashed and scurried away from our lights.

Lucia stifled a scream and hiked up one foot to avoid the rodents.

“Still glad you came along?” Niccolo whispered sardonically.

She glared at him…

Very deliberately stomped her foot down in the water…

And flipped Niccolo the bird.

He just chuckled, then turned to Lars. “What now?”