The Bone Chamber Part 35

"We didn't know it was Alessandra."

"Well, you suspected. I would never have gone to the Smithsonian, the guard would never have followed me, and Tex would still be safe and sound, because Adami's d.a.m.ned cousin wouldn't have recognized me at the party, because he saw me at the hotel when he came after you, because I would be home home for Thanksgiving vacation. Where I should be right now, picking out the turkey from the butcher. In a few days, they'll be sitting around the table, wondering what happened to me. I was stupid for getting involved. I went to Quantico for a reason, to hide, to make sure I didn't endanger anyone else, and I've gone and done the very thing I wanted to avoid." for Thanksgiving vacation. Where I should be right now, picking out the turkey from the butcher. In a few days, they'll be sitting around the table, wondering what happened to me. I was stupid for getting involved. I went to Quantico for a reason, to hide, to make sure I didn't endanger anyone else, and I've gone and done the very thing I wanted to avoid."

He heard her moving, was certain she'd crossed her arms. "But I'd be dead."

"You don't know that," she said.

"He recognized you because you saved me. And we know Adami was searching for this third key, because you had the instinct to move closer and listen in. And what happened to Tex was my fault not yours."

"How so?"

"I failed to convince him to follow my orders."

"Yeah? Well whose fault is it we're sitting in a d.a.m.ned hole and can't get out?"

"Who's to say we wouldn't be dead if we had followed the others up the tunnel? Maybe you saved our lives. Again. Have you thought of that?"

She didn't answer, and he knew immediately that she was thinking of the others. The shots fired, that they didn't make it.

He reached over, found her hand, held it in his, and realized she was getting cold again. He rubbed her fingers in his, and when she tried to pull away, he said, "You need to stay warm, preserve your strength."

She didn't argue, didn't pull away this time. Not that it eased his guilt any. He might have been able to do something to help the others, but somehow he'd allowed Sydney to convince him to go against his instincts. He'd placed his trust in her and he'd let the others suffer as a result. And once again came the thought that history was repeating itself.

He had no one to blame but himself.

He didn't trust anyone else, she didn't trust herself. They were quite a pair. "I take it you have real issues with the dark?"

When she didn't answer, he wondered if she was ever going to speak to him again, until a few moments later, she said, "If I told you I sleep with a night-light on, would you laugh?"

"Doubt it. Why?"

"Nightmares. From when my father was killed."

He recalled her dossier, the background he'd done on her. She'd been only thirteen when she'd witnessed her father's murder. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm afraid of enclosed s.p.a.ces. Claustrophobic."

"You're kidding?"

"Do I look like the sort who kids about that stuff?"

"Can't tell. It's too d.a.m.ned dark."

"The only reason I was able to climb into this hole is because it's huge. If it was small, enclosed, you'd be on your own. The narrow tunnels we came down through? Just about killed me to do it. And back in the columbarium? In that tunnel underneath the steps? Trust me. I was not doing well."

"Great. I don't like the dark, and you don't like enclosed s.p.a.ces. You know what that means? We're up s.h.i.t creek."

He couldn't help but smile.

"You think we can recover that ladder?"

"I'd rather not have my head blown off, trying to find the d.a.m.ned thing."

"You think they're up there?"

"Who knows."

"I think they think we're toast, so why bother."

"Maybe we are," he said.

"I'm not ready to die...Wasn't Xavier talking about how soft tufo tufo is? Maybe we can dig our way out. a.s.suming you can handle climbing through some skinny tunnel." is? Maybe we can dig our way out. a.s.suming you can handle climbing through some skinny tunnel."

"I really, really don't like enclosed s.p.a.ces."

"Now you're starting to sound like me." Sydney switched on her light.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for a shovel. Or maybe something we can toss up, try to hook that ladder." She reached for her pack, then stood, slowly. "Uh, Griffin? You might want to take a look at this."

He turned. Saw what she saw. What they hadn't had time to see when they were being shot at. The rock behind them wasn't the solid ma.s.s of tufo tufo it appeared to be. In fact, had Sydney not moved to the side, shone her light just so in looking for the shovel, they might never have noticed the outcropping that hid the tunnel behind it. "You think that arrow you saw in the cavern above was pointing to this?" it appeared to be. In fact, had Sydney not moved to the side, shone her light just so in looking for the shovel, they might never have noticed the outcropping that hid the tunnel behind it. "You think that arrow you saw in the cavern above was pointing to this?"

"Xavier said he looked down here. There was nothing," she said. "But if he continued down that ladder past this ledge into the cistern, he could very well have missed this. The ledge isn't very big, and from where the ladder was situated, you'd never see this."

"Beats trying to dig our way out." Griffin scooped up his pack, and followed her between the outcropping and the tunnel hidden in the V of it. "One problem I see."

"What's that?"

"It barely looks big enough to fit through."

"Yeah, well unless you have a better idea..."

He wasn't kidding about the tight s.p.a.ces. He hated them. But he'd trained himself over the years to get past the absurd fear that he'd get stuck. He would have never made the ATLAS team otherwise. And h.e.l.l if he was going to let Sydney show him up. "After you."

"By all means. Brawn before beauty."

He hesitated, took a deep breath, then entered. Though tall enough, it was narrow, so narrow in places that Griffin's shoulders. .h.i.t the walls, and he had to turn to his side to pa.s.s through. The entire pa.s.sageway was much rougher than the tunnels off the cavern above, as though this particular area had been excavated more hastily, and perhaps, judging from the outcropping that hid it, on the sly to keep it from being discovered. At one point, they had to snake through on their bellies, and he concentrated on his breathing, the better to keep his mind off the confining pa.s.sageway. "Hard to imagine anyone going to this much trouble for a burial chamber."

"If we get out of here," Sydney said from behind him, "I never want to be in another fifty-degree underground chamber again."

"I'll second that." After several more feet, the floor in front of him dropped sharply into a wide cavern that looked like a ma.s.sive honeycomb of stalact.i.tes and stalagmites.

He crawled out, slid down a few feet to the cavern floor. Sydney did the same.

"Amazing," she said. "I thought water seepage made the columns, but these look too uniform, like they're all carved."

She was about to take a step forward when he reached out, stopped her. "Don't move."

"What's wrong?"

He pointed between the columns into the interior, his headlamp sweeping across strangely shaped mounds. It took several moments for his sight to adjust, to see what was beneath the tufo tufo dust that covered everything. The realization of what he was seeing hit him. Urns and chests, each strategically placed around the center columns. "h.e.l.l," he said, not daring to let go of Sydney's arm. dust that covered everything. The realization of what he was seeing hit him. Urns and chests, each strategically placed around the center columns. "h.e.l.l," he said, not daring to let go of Sydney's arm.

"But that means the map has to be here."

"Yeah? And we never discovered the second key. So if it is all true..."

One false step and they were dead.

34.

Francesca tried to catch her breath, leaning against the rough wall of the tunnel, while Xavier and Alfredo felt around with their hands. The pa.s.sageway they'd taken led up, and they'd run the entire way. the rough wall of the tunnel, while Xavier and Alfredo felt around with their hands. The pa.s.sageway they'd taken led up, and they'd run the entire way.

"What exactly are you looking for?" she asked, her voice low.

"I just don't understand it," Xavier said.

"Understand what?" she replied, not liking the worry in his voice. She had enough to worry about right now, like what had happened to Sydney and Griffin. Were they still alive? Bleeding and injured down in the cavern? The two agents had sacrificed their own safety so the three of them could get away. But how the h.e.l.l were they going to get help to them if they couldn't avoid being shot by the men who were chasing them?

"There should be a sign," Xavier said. "A skull and crossbones that tells me this is the right pa.s.sageway, just like the one in the tunnel below that led us up here."

"You mean this might not be the right way?"

Alfredo slammed his hand against the stone wall. "It's certainly looking that way."

"Calm down," Xavier said. "Maybe the signs change. Maybe it's not supposed to be a skull and crossbones. Maybe that's one of the things we're supposed to learn."

"For G.o.d's sake," Francesca said. "This is not the time to make that discovery. We should have known this before we even set out."

"Yeah?" Xavier whispered harshly. "And when was that? Between the five minutes I'd learned you wanted to meet me and the announcement that Alessandra was murdered? You've had a h.e.l.l of a lot longer to look at the flash drive she sent, so get off my case."

"I'm sorry," she said. "What can I do to help?"

"Not a lot. By all calculations, this should lead to the pa.s.sageway that di Sangro plotted out."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure where it's not, and it's not here."

"Actually," Alfredo said, "if I had to guess, this pa.s.sageway leads right back to the basilica. We've gone in one big giant circle."

"I wonder if that's what Sydney saw down in the main cavern."

Xavier stopped pressing on the wall. "What are you talking about?"

"Right before those men shot at us, she called Griffin over. I think she realized something was off down there."

"Well," Alfredo said. "Whatever it was, we have to be grateful, or more than likely we'd all be dead," he said, as he and Xavier continued to push on the rock wall with their gloved hands. "We'd have been sitting ducks if those men had followed us up here right away. All we can do now is hope that your agent friends were able to fight them off and discovered the right pa.s.sage, and we can get the h.e.l.l out of here before those guys find us."

A scuffling sound echoing up from the pa.s.sage below sent her heart racing. "They're getting closer."

"Look there!" Xavier said, pointing his flashlight beam toward a crevice in the wall, narrow at the base but widening as it rose. The light bounced off the tunnel walls into a ceiling that seemed to disappear into a deep blackness. "We'll make them think we're gone."

Alfredo began climbing up the V-shaped crevice. He reached down for Francesca's hand, pulled her up, as Xavier boosted her from the floor, then followed. Inching their way inward and upward, they didn't speak. Suddenly Xavier reached over, gripped her arm, his fingers digging into her in warning.

She needed none. She heard the two men coming up the tunnel, and she held her breath, praying they wouldn't hear anything. Beside her, Alfredo's foot slipped, knocking loose a bit of tufo tufo that skittered down the crevice into the tunnel below, and she thought this was it. They were caught. that skittered down the crevice into the tunnel below, and she thought this was it. They were caught.

"You hear that, Vinny?"

"You shut up long enough and I might."

Francesca's heart pounded at the realization of just how close the men were to their hiding spot.

"It's coming from up there," the first man said.

"It's them. It has to be." Francesca heard what sounded like a gun being racked, as though one of the men was checking his weapon, checking to see if he had enough ammunition. "Hurry. They might be getting away."

"What's your rush? Even if this tunnel does lead out, we have someone posted on almost every street corner around the basilica. They can't get farther than that."

"Yeah, well we need to be there when they find what they're looking for." A light bounced off the tunnel walls. She closed her eyes, pressed her face into the rock. Please don't let them find us... Please don't let them find us...

"Why do you suppose Mr. Westgate wants to get this thing?"

"Because Mr. Westgate's boss wants to get power over Adami."

"How's some stupid map gonna get him that?" Vinny asked. "They both got more money than G.o.d. Seems to me that if we were smart, we'd get the map for ourselves."

"And have both Adami and Mr. Westgate's boss after us? You got a death wish?"

"Just thinking aloud."

"What the h.e.l.l?" She heard their footsteps stop, heard some shuffling. "They're gone! I could've sworn I heard something coming from up this way."

"They must have gone out a different tunnel." Francesca dared a look over Xavier's shoulder, caught a glimpse of the light beam as it swung the opposite direction.

"Now what?"

"The only thing left. We go after the two down in the cistern."