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The path drew abruptly narrower. Then they came to a sharp bend. On the other side, it opened to a roomy cavern. The blackness was chased away by a dim glow.
A lone man stood in the center of the glow, holding an old-fashioned oil lantern in one hand and a small black device in the other hand. At first, she thought it was a cell phone.
As Prim and Mato stepped farther into the cavern, the man turned their way, holding up the device. “She’s alive!”
It was Levi Paddock, with a crazed look of exultation glowing in his eyes.
As Prim’s eyes grew accustomed to the dimness, a number of items took shape. There were stacks of dollar bills piled around him, along with a strip of metals plates. The scent of ink and paper was strong in the room.
“Now will you tell me what’s going on?” she pleaded.
The Native American man’s eyes took on an even wilder glint. “I’m about to bring the mafia to its knees. What you see here,” he waved at the piles of neatly stacked bills with a flourish, “is everything we need to report them to the Secret Service, the FBI, Homeland Security, the United Nations, Spiderman, the man on the moon, and anyone else who wants a piece of the action.” He ended his tirade on a sob.
Nobody laughed.
“Great. Let’s, um, grab as much of this stuff as we can and make a run for it.” Prim crept closer, not liking the look in his eyes one bit. He had to know there was no way they could carry all the evidence he’d amassed. The best they could hope to do was carry off a few items and leave the rest for the authorities to come collect.
“No. They won’t let us live long enough to tell the tale. They’ll pick us off like ants.” He raised the black device in his hand higher. “Every one of us! Mato, Alina, the guards, myself, and you!” His swarthy features sagged with defeat. “I’m sorry, but the moment you stepped inside my garage, it was over for you, Doc.”
She craned to get a better look at what he was holding.
“That’s why I had to take things into my own hands. I rigged the garage with explosives, and now they’re going to pay for what they did to Alina.”
“Levi, she’s?—”
An explosion shook the ceiling above them, raining rocks, dust, and other debris down on them.
With a shriek of terror, Prim threw herself to the floor, holding her cuffed hands over her head. She coughed, choked, and sobbed her way through the sounds of cracking, crumbling rock. The dust grew so thick that all she could do was heave and gag.
So, this is what it feels like to be buried alive.
At any second, she expected the final avalanche of rock and debris to descend on her, crushing the life out of her.
Instead, the world abruptly grew silent again. The dust slowly settled, and Prim stopped coughing. She could breathe again. She rolled to her back, panting, with her cuffed hands stretched over her head.
It was pitch dark again.
“Prim?” Mato’s voice wafted faintly her way. “Dad?”
“Mato! You’re alive!” She wasn’t sure why she found that fact comforting, but she did.
“You okay?” His words were as gritty as the dirt still dripping down on them. A fit of coughing seized him.
She gave a sobbing laugh when he grew silent. “Define okay.”
“Yeah. You’re okay.” He coughed again, sounding relieved. “Dad?”
There was no answer.
He raised his voice. “Dad, can you hear me?”
A groan rose from the center of the room. “Can’t…find…the lantern.”
“Probably broke, Dad. We’re just gonna have to wait until Prim’s boyfriend comes looking for her.”
“What about the tunnel?” Prim sat up dizzily, wishing she could free her hands from the cuffs. They were chaffing and bruising her wrists.
“Gone.” Mato sounded wry. “Sealed behind a pile of rock.”
