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They pulled him up and he winced in pain.
“I’m not going to be able to walk,” Günter said. “Leave me here.”
Emerson took the headlamp from Riley and handed her the duffel bag. “I’ll carry him,” Emerson said. “We can’t afford to stay here much longer. If the security force patrols this area they might see the rope and come down after us. And we can’t leave Günter here. We need him to take us to the gold.”
Riley nodded. The adrenaline rush from the fall had worn off and she was running on empty. “Understood.”
Emerson slung Günter over his shoulder, and Günter grunted and moaned and told them to go to the right side of the cave.
“Look for the tunnel opening,” Günter said.
They crossed the cave and moved into what was clearly a man-made mining tunnel. Emerson’s hair skimmed the overhead support beams, and dust sifted down in the light from his lamp.
They trudged on for what seemed like an eternity to Riley. If this was the shortcut, she didn’t want to see the longcut. They reached an intersection, and Emerson stopped and looked around.
“Which way?” he asked Günter.
“Through the wall,” Günter said.
Emerson set Günter down on the tunnel floor and gave him the headlamp. “Show me.”
Günter played the light across the rock face and found a small fissure. “There.”
“I see it,” Emerson said. “I thought it was just a shadow until you put the light directly on it.”
“I found it purely by accident,” Günter said. “The fissure goes on for about thirty feet and takes you to the secret vaults.”
“I’m barely going to squeeze through there,” Emerson said to Günter. “I’m going to have to leave you here.”
“I’ll be fine,” Günter said. “As long as I don’t move my leg, the pain is down to a dull throb. Get some gold and return through this same fissure. It’s the safest way out.”
“Does this fissure open directly into the vault?” Emerson asked.
“Not directly. You’ll come out to another tunnel. Go left for about fifty feet and hope no one’s there. Take the headlamp. If the lights are on in the vault it means the guards are patrolling. Wait until the lights go off to come out in the open.”
“Stay here with Günter,” Emerson said to Riley. “It’ll be easier to sneak around the vault if I’m alone.”
Riley was sure that was true. She was exhausted and no longer operating at peak brilliance. And she wasn’t confident that she could navigate the fissure without a total freak-out panic attack.
She watched Emerson fit himself into the small space and silently disappear from view. She told herself he would be okay. After all, he was Emerson. He could cloud minds and endure pain. And he was fearless and strong. And he was sort of smart, in a weird way. She sat down beside Günter with her back pressed against the cool rock wall of the tunnel and willed herself to stay calm.
“He’s going to be okay,” she said to Günter.
“Yes,” Günter said.
“All he has to do is find the gold and bring some of it back, right? And then he can turn it over to the press or the authorities or whoever and all this will end.”
“More or less,” Günter said.
Riley looked over at him. She was beginning to hate that phrase. “More or less?”
“The gold has been recast. It no longer bears the stamp of its origin. Emerson will need to find Dr. Bauerfeind. He’s a German chemist who has developed a technique for reading the fingerprint of gold even after it has been melted and re-formed. Yvette was in contact with him. She was going to use him to try to trace the gold from the German mint. It has a very distinctive combination of palladium and thallium.”
“So if we can get our hands on some of that gold and give it to Dr. Bauerfeind, our case is made.”
“We have to find him first,” Günter said. “He went into hiding when Yvette disappeared.”
“Piece of cake,” Riley said, closing her eyes. “Easy-peasy.”
