JET - Sanctuary (16 page)

“That makes sense. But how do we get out of here? I have no idea whether an older mine like this would have any vent shafts. Probably not…”

“The current’s strong, so that means it’s letting out somewhere. I say we follow it and find out where.”

“What if it’s into an underground river? They have those, you know.”

“That wouldn’t be so good. Let’s hope for something outside.”

“Do you…do you think they’ll give up?”

“No way of knowing. Maybe, maybe not. But if we keep moving, I can’t see them catching up to us.”

“So we could wind up drowned somewhere under the mountain instead of shot,” Alejandro said bitterly.

Jet shrugged. “We don’t have a lot of options.”

Alejandro removed the flashlight from the rifle and switched it on. The small lamp seemed blinding after the prolonged darkness. He traced the beam along the tunnel and nodded. “I think you’re right. This looks old. The walls are uneven, nothing like the other mine. It was probably dug in the nineteenth century and then abandoned when the ore began to run lean. Maybe earlier. Hard to say.”

“You know more about silver mining than I would have expected for a…a businessman.”

“I’m not uneducated. For a long while I fantasized about owning a ranch out here, raising horses, maybe growing grapes. I devoured everything I could on a wide variety of related subjects and spent most of my university years in these mountains. Nearly every weekend.”

“We have to keep going. We know there’s nothing back there for us except death.”

Alejandro took the lead, and they glided along seemingly forever. They passed a fork where the main tunnel split off and decided to go with the passage that had the strongest current. After another long slog, she checked the time again and saw that twenty-five minutes had elapsed. The frigid water was beginning to take its toll on them both, and she wondered how long they could keep going before it stopped them. Even though it wasn’t freezing, it was cold enough to leach their body temperature, and Jet knew well that the first signs of hypothermia would be sluggish thinking and loss of motor skills.

They rounded another twist in the tunnel and found themselves facing a dead end – one minute they had been in a narrowing passageway, the next, confronted by a wall. Jet exchanged a glance with Alejandro and took a deep breath, then went under as he directed the flashlight beam into the water by the base of the wall. When she came up for air, gasping, she shook her head.

“The water’s rushing through a small opening. Maybe large enough for us to get through, maybe not. But there’s no telling where it goes, or if there’s any air – it could be wormholes that shoot through the rocks, carrying water and nothing else. If that’s the case, going in would mean drowning.”

“I’m not sure I feel that lucky.”

“What about the other passage?”

“I guess we don’t have any alternative, do we?”

“Let’s work our way back. It’s worth a shot. This looks like certain death.”

It seemed to take twice as long to backtrack, and when they reached the other passageway, they hesitated in front of it. “If this goes nowhere, then what?” Alejandro asked.

“Then we need to come up with a better plan,” Jet said, trying not to think about Matt and Hannah and what might be happening to them. It was possible the gunmen would call it quits after the cave-in, not wanting to tempt fate by pushing still deeper into the mine, but Jet couldn’t bet on it, in which case their survival would depend on Matt’s ability to evade them. Matt was good, but not superhuman, and Jet’s mind conjured up a host of nightmare scenarios, each worse than the last.

Alejandro moved into the new passage, his teeth chattering, and Jet knew they were in trouble – she wasn’t sure how much longer they could hold out. But the thought of her daughter hiding in the mine above kept her going, and she refused to give in to the mental drift from the drop in her body temperature.

The tunnel narrowed further, and Alejandro looked back at her, his gaze grim. She slowed and then cocked her head and listened.

“There. Do you hear that?” she asked.

“Hear what? My ears are shot from the gunfire.”

“Splashing. I hear splashing. Keep going.”

Alejandro continued plodding forward, carried by desperation as much as current. They rounded another curve, and he disappeared from view. She gasped as his head sank beneath the surface, and then she too was pulled down as if by a subaqueous invisible hand.

Jet struggled to hold her breath as she was pushed along, her velocity increasing, and just as she thought she was blacking out, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel manifesting in her mind’s eye, she realized that it wasn’t in her mind at all – there was a glimmer above her. She kicked upward with all her might, and her head broke the surface. She sucked in air reflexively, and Alejandro sputtered nearby as he treaded water and coughed.

Jet looked around as sweet, cool air flooded her lungs. They were in a cavern, and at the far end was an opening through which sunlight was flooding. She swam for the gap, and Alejandro joined her, their wet clothes slowing their progress. When they made it, they found themselves at the top of a small waterfall where the subterranean reservoir spilled down the mountainside, forming a brook that trailed off into the brush.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had all the swimming I can stomach,” Alejandro said, eyeing the green grass that grew along the banks of the creek.

“I’m with you.” Jet crawled onto the rocks at the side of the opening and studied the slope, and then, after a moment’s hesitation, lowered herself down. Alejandro watched her progress, and when she was standing on terra firma, followed in her tracks. They stood, dripping in the sun, and Jet raised an eyebrow. “Where’s your rifle?”

“I dropped it when I went under. And I lost my pistol as well. Fell out of the holster.”

She pulled the Glock from her waistband and dumped water out of the barrel. “At least I still have this. But I’ll need to dry it out. Give me a few minutes.”

Alejandro nodded, and she set about fieldstripping it, inspecting each piece before reassembling the gun. “It should still fire. I just want to make sure there’s no grit in the workings. It wouldn’t do to have it jam.” Jet fitted the last part in place and stood. “So now what?”

“Now we have to find a way off this mountain so I can get my people involved,” Alejandro said, his tone dark.

“I suppose circling back around and taking on several dozen men is out of the question?”

“With one waterlogged pistol? I think not.”

Jet tilted her head back, luxuriating in the sun’s warmth after too long in the cold water. “Well, you’re the Chilean wilderness expert. I want my daughter back, and standing around here isn’t going to do it.” She opened her eyes and leveled a cool emerald stare at Alejandro. “Lead the way.”

Chapter 23

Colonel Campos swiveled as one of his subordinates by the mine entry called his name. He’d been alerted about the cave-in and casualties by radio and had issued instructions to inspect the length of the mine, leaving no inch unsearched. His instructions had been carried out to the letter, as he’d expected. What he hadn’t expected was to capture not only Rodrigo, who had surrendered shortly after the army had arrived, but also a man and his daughter – the man unarmed, although an AK-47 and a silenced pistol had been found on the floor of the tunnel before he’d been discovered hiding in a dead-end passage near the heart of the mine.

Campos approached the man, who had been dragged to the entry by two soldiers. His daughter, no older than three, stood next to him, holding his pants leg and bawling quietly. Campos took in the man’s features, noting the leanness of his jawline and the unflinching intensity of his stare, and glanced at the filthy cast on his arm.

“It’s not your lucky day, is it?” Campos said.

The man didn’t respond.

“Is this your daughter?”

A curt nod, nothing more.

“What were you doing inside the mine?”

Nothing. No response, not even a flicker.

“Perhaps you don’t understand the seriousness of your situation. You were involved in a gunfight in which a number of my men were injured. That makes you enemy combatants. Both of you. Which means you have no rights. I can do anything I like to you. And I intend to. If you don’t cooperate, you’ll never see the little girl again. Do I have your full attention now?”

Another nod.

“What were you doing in the mine?”

“Trying to escape gunmen.”

“Gunmen. I see. And why were they after you?”

“I don’t know.”

Campos snorted. “You don’t know.”

“That’s correct. All I know is they were shooting at us, so we ran into the mine.”

“We. Who’s we?”

“My daughter and I.”

“Who else?”

“That’s all I remember.”

Campos eyed him doubtfully. “So you have convenient amnesia?”

“I’ve been hiding in a mine for hours with a child. People have been shooting and blowing things up. Maybe it’s shock. I don’t know.”

“Shock. I see. Not bad, but it won’t hold up under scrutiny, especially with a witness.”

Matt didn’t blink.

Campos grinned. “That’s right. We caught another of your group. A young man with more brains than you, obviously. He’s singing like a bird. And his story is nothing like yours.”

Hannah looked up at Matt. “Want…my…mama!” she wailed, her voice torn with grief.

Campos stepped back. “Silence!” he roared.

The little girl continued crying. “Mama!”

Campos flinched at the shriek and glowered at Matt. “Control your brat, or I’ll have my men do it for you,” he ordered.

Matt shook his head. “Because she’s also a dangerous enemy combatant, right? A two-and-a-half-year-old terrorist?”

Campos sneered at him. “You have quite a mouth on you. But I think you’ll change your tune shortly.” He nodded to the approaching lieutenant. “Take them to the outpost for interrogation. I don’t want anyone talking to them until I get there.” Campos had commandeered a deserted army encampment in the hills south of the mine and was using the buildings as his field headquarters. It was under the radar because it was officially closed down, and had the added benefit of being on government property, so he could fortify it as he liked without attracting any scrutiny from the local population.

The lieutenant saluted. “Yes, sir.”

One of the soldiers led Matt to a troop transport, and the other picked up a kicking and screaming Hannah and carried her to the vehicle. The colonel’s soldiers watched in silence, and a flutter of trepidation twisted in his stomach – there were limits to what he could do without stepping over a line from which he could never return, and he’d need to keep his nose clean or one nervous infantryman could cause him a world of grief. He was already on tenuous ground, but if he brutalized an infant and a foreign national… Even his command over his men had its limits – limits a smart man wouldn’t hurry to test.

~ ~ ~

Alejandro moved like a ghost through the tall grass, surprisingly graceful for a city boy, Jet noted, as he neared the barbed-wire fence that enclosed the pasture they’d spotted. A dozen horses stood on the other side of the wire – three geldings and the rest mares, healthy, their coats shining in the sunlight. Jet could see that the adult horses had marks from bridles and saddles, so they were accustomed to being ridden – an inelegant but convenient mode of transportation in a rugged area with no roads in sight, much less any cars. She spotted a small farmhouse in the distance, so far away that it looked like a toy casually discarded at the other end of the valley. A shabby barn sat closer to the horses, on the other side of the pasture, unpainted and barely standing, sunlight shining clear through its walls.

Alejandro made a snicking sound with his mouth, and one of the mares regarded him with soft brown eyes. He slowly approached the fence and held his hand out, making a fist, as though he was holding something – perhaps a treat or a lump of sugar. The horse shuffled over, and he reached up and petted her, scratching around her ears, and then smoothing her mane as he purred endearments. A second smaller mare came over, followed by two of the ponies, and it quickly became obvious that all were not only tame but starved for affection. Jet joined Alejandro in rubbing their faces, and after several minutes he nudged her.

“Think you can keep these ladies company while I uproot that fence post?”

“I’ll give it my best shot. But make it fast, would you?”

“That’s my intention.”

He walked to the post and began working at it, shifting it back and forth until it fell, taking the fencing with it. He inspected his work and then moved to the next post and repeated the process. The horses seemed not to notice or care, and Jet had her hands full petting all of them, their big heads pressing her for favored position.

Alejandro stepped back once he had the second post felled. “I’m going to get a couple of saddles. Stay here.”

“It might be easier if I just walked over to the barn, don’t you think? The horses seem more interested in following me than in making a break for it. Poor things are probably bored out of their minds and would do anything for a run.” After a final pat on the head of the nearest mare, she marched across the pasture, followed by all but one pony and a shy mare that had hung back. Alejandro shook his head and hurried around the fencing to the barn, where a gate was held closed by a rusting length of wire twisted around one of the posts.

He emerged from the bleak structure a few moments later with a blanket, saddle, and bridle. “Do you know how to secure this?” he asked.

“No. Do you?”

“Fortunately I spent summers as a boy at my father’s estancia, and we had horses. Which one do you want?”

Jet turned and found herself facing the mare that had been trying to edge the rest away, vying for more stroking. “I think this one wants me.”

Alejandro swung the gate open and moved to the horse, which stood calmly while he placed the blanket on her back, strapped the saddle in place, and fixed the bit between her teeth. He handed the reins to Jet and returned to the barn. Jet whispered to the mare, “You’re a good girl, aren’t you? I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you.”