Page 52 of Fighting for Mallory

He napped until he heard River enter their motel room. He lay still, feigning sleep, as River moved around in the dark. When he bumped into a piece of furniture trying to find the bathroom and let out a string of curses in Spanish, Luca almost chuckled aloud. A few minutes later, the other double bed creaked with River’s weight. Soon after, Luca heard his friend’s even breathing. He hesitated, then threw back the cheap linens and slid off the bed. His equipment bag sat next to the door. He glanced back at River before he slipped quietly through the door.

Luca jogged down the interior corridor until he reached the nearest breezeway that was a shortcut to the parking lot. He drew his Glock and proceeded cautiously. A powerful wave of nausea and dizziness hit him, and his legs turned into jelly. In his current weak condition, it was foolhardy to search for Mallory by himself. Luca bent over and dry heaved. His gunshot wounds hurt like hell, and he pressed his free hand against his side.

He drew a few deep, cleansing breaths and approached the Range Rover Maverick had loaned him. Barely visible in the pale, yellow light cast by the streetlamps stood two figures Luca instantly recognized. “Aw, damn!”

“If you’re going to do something either incredibly stupid or incredibly brave, you’re going to have company.” Hutch grinned and dangled the keys to one of the army trucks. “We’re going to need a bigger vehicle.”

Relief swept through Luca. He should have known Hutch and River could read his mind. Even so, he felt compelled to give them the option to change their minds. “I know you have my back. But the danger is my own, not yours.”

River held up a hand. “Stop. We understand the danger, and we willingly take it as our own. Besides, you’re in no shape to do this by yourself.”

“We need to go,” Hutch urged, “before we’re caught by Clayton.”

Luca nodded, and the friends hurried toward the first army truck parked parallel to the motel. They jumped into the cab with Hutch behind the wheel and headed out into a light rain. The flooding had receded somewhat, leaving intermittent puddles on the roads. When they reached the breach in the road caused by flooding, Hutch veered to the right and drove the army truck as far into the foliage as possible.

Before they began the three-mile hike, they donned hardhats with lights attached to them and checked their flashlights. They also had matches if they needed them, ropes and carbines, and other equipment in their duffel bags. All of them were armed with their Glocks. Locating the hillside where Luca staunchly believed lay a hidden entrance to a cave system not yet chartered, as Clayton explained, would be more difficult at night, but they had a compass to guide them and a satellite phone if they needed to call for help.

They set a reasonable pace with Hutch in the lead and River in the rear. Though fatigued and in pain, Luca gritted his teeth and pushed himself to keep up with his friends. They remained silent and vigilant, keenly aware of nocturnal animals that might be roaming the woods. Halfway to their destination, the satellite phone rang, startling them and causing something to flutter in the trees.

“Don’t answer it,” River warned.

“There might be news,” Hutch argued and opened a line of communication.

“God bless it!” Clayton shouted. That was probably the closest he’d ever come to cursing. “Do you know how reckless and stupid you’re bein’ right now? As your team leader, I’m orderin’ you to stop and return to the motel.”

Hutch held the phone away from his ear and yelled, “Come again? Can’t hear you, Boss! You’re breaking up!” He ended the call and grinned at Luca and River. “I don’t think Clayton likes us very much.”

“He’ll get over it. Let’s move on,” Luca replied.

By the time they reached the area they had searched earlier, the rain had stopped.

“Where do we start?” River asked.

“Here.” Luca pointed at the hillside. “Mallory’s earring was here, but there’s no point looking for it now. It’s been washed away. Call it intuition, but I know there’s a way into the caves right here.”

“All right. Let’s dig.”

They worked diligently moving rocks, small, uprooted trees, broken branches, and other debris from the hillside. Every so often, they took a break to rehydrate. Two hours into their efforts, the rain began again. It grew heavier, making their work more difficult and perilous.

Luca cleared one final clump of debris and rejoiced when he discovered an indentation. As he straightened up and opened his mouth to draw Hutch’s and River’s attention, he heard someone shout in the distance, “Luca, no! The ground is ?”

The warning came too late. The earth shifted beneath Luca’s feet, and he tumbled into a tunnel, along with mud, debris, and rainwater. Though not a strong current, the amount of water rushing through the tunnel system prevented Luca from being able to stand up or stop his headlong flight. He lost his flashlight, but his headlamp still illuminated his surroundings. Every so often, Luca swore he caught glimpses of arrows carved into the walls. As he bumped and scraped along, he felt like a pinball bouncing off one barrier after another.

Then he saw the end of his wild ride. “Oh, shit!”

The tunnel spewed him out, and he fell several hundred feet into a phosphorescent blue pool of water. He hit it with a loud splash, and the water closed over his head. Luca kicked with all his strength to reach the surface, treading water as he caught his breath. He swam toward a shallow part of the pool and heaved himself onto a rocky ledge. He lay there, panting. Every muscle in his body ached. A sharp pain in his side elicited a gasp. He was pretty sure he’d torn open his stitches. When he dared to check, his hand came away bloody.

The good news? He was in the cave system. The bad news? He wasn’t sure he could move.

At least he hadn’t been a complete idiot and come here alone. And if he’d correctly identified the voice that had shouted a warning at him too late, Clayton was on the scene and already initiating a rescue. Luca would take whatever punches Clayton wanted to throw at him, as long as it meant he was that much closer to saving Mallory.

Thinking of Mallory brought to mind the arrows he believed he saw on the tunnel walls. He could be wrong, but his intuition told him that she’d made those marks. Suddenly, he sat up, removed his hardhat, and waited for his aching head to stop spinning. What if she were nearby?

Luca forced himself to his feet. He felt blood trickling down his side and leaned against a stalagmite for support. He’d have to bind his wounds, but right now he knew he was close to Mallory, and she was his priority.

He tested his legs to ensure they would bear his weight and ambled around the area. Though his headlamp, miraculously, was still lit, he didn’t need it, for the minerals embedded in the walls and the blue pool of water provided a good amount of light. As he walked toward an exit out of the cavern, he stumbled over some rocks.

Luca glanced down and rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren’t deceiving him. Nope. The rocks clearly spelled HERE MAL.

---