Cibola

Chapter 25

Jade muttered a curse as the tunnel ended in a blank wall. She had realized this tunnel was a mistake as soon as the booby-trapped ceiling caved in on Jacob. Obviously the missing clue contained something more vital than she had assumed. They gave up the idea of digging out almost immediately. There was no way to make it through the mass of rubble. They continued on, their nerves stretched like piano wire as they watched for further traps, but all they found was a long stretch of tunnel coming to this dead end.

“Any ideas?” Jarren asked, letting his light play up the wall and across the ceiling.

“Put your light back up there in the corner of the ceiling.” She thought she had seen something. She added her light to his and the twin beams revealed a gap in the ceiling where the rock had crumbled away. There was a passage above theirs! “Boost me up.”

Jarren hunched down and Jade clambered up onto his shoulders. He was very strong, and had no problem lifting her up to the gap in the ceiling. She peeked through, shining her light back and forth. It appeared that this passageway ran directly above the one in which they had been traveling, but unlike the lower passage, it continued on. She hoisted herself through, and then turned back to the others.

“Who’s next? I can help one of you through if you need it, then we’ll drop a rope and haul the last person up.”

“I’ll give Jarren a boost up,” Thaddeus said. “I’m lighter, so it’ll be easier to bring me up the rope.”

A few seconds later, Jarren’s head and broad shoulders appeared in the hole, and he clambered through. Jade had already fished the rope out of her pack and was looking for a place to secure it. Finding none, she instead secured it around Jarren’s waist and tossed the other end through the hole.

“Ready when you are.”

“Just a minute.” Thaddeus’s voice was soft and urgent. “I hear something in the tunnel. I’ll be right back.” He drew his pistol, turned off his flashlight, and headed off down the passageway.

“There can’t be anyone in the tunnel,” Jade said. “Both ends are blocked off, and we didn’t see any side passages.

“He’s an idiot,” Jarren muttered. “I ought to go down there, but in the dark, he’d probably mistake me for a gentile. I should just go shoot him myself and be done with him.”

Jade wanted to laugh, but the sounds that suddenly burst out through the hole in the floor chilled her marrow. A shout. A single gunshot. A shriek of agony that died into a wet, choking squelch.

“What the…” Jarren sprang to his feet. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” He untied the belt from around his waist, slipped feet-first through the hole, and dropped with a thud to the floor below.

Jade sat in the darkness, her heart racing. What had happened to Thaddeus, and what would she do if Jarren did not come back? She entertained the frightened thoughts for only a moment before steeling her resolve. She would find the treasure by herself. How many years had she dedicated to finding the truth behind the story of Cibola? She had joined forces with an organization she despised, and betrayed a man about whom she cared deeply in order to fulfill her personal quest. She had heard of treasure hunters catching “the fever” and she knew it was true about her. Cibola was her passion, her purpose, her very life. She could not go on until she had seen it through. Perhaps, when it was over, she could find Maddock and make him understand that what she had done, she had done to protect him. Drugging him was the hardest thing she’d ever done, but if it kept him from walking into the hands of the Dominion, it would be worth it. Whether he would even believe her, much less forgive her, was another question altogether.

The thoughts fled as Jarren returned. It was all she could do to help him get back up to the second level, but they managed.

“I take it you didn’t find him,” she said.

“I found this.” Jarren held up a Taurus PT92 that she assumed belonged to Thaddeus. “And lots of blood.” Only now did she notice the reddish tinge on the Taurus’s grips.

“Nothing else?” she whispered, unable to believe he could have just vanished like that.

“There were smears of blood along the passageway as if he’d been dragged away, but after about forty feet the trail just vanished at the base of the wall. I swear, I searched that wall from tip to toe and didn’t find any sort of passageway, trapdoor, not even a seam.” His voice was dull and he sounded understandably shaken. “I don’t know who is in here with us, but I don’t believe Bonebrake did that.”

“All we can do is go on,” Jade whispered. She did not wait for an answer, but turned and headed down the passageway. They continued for another five minutes until the tunnel gave way to a narrow staircase that wound around the inside of a deep pit. Grotesque gargoyles ringed the upper edge of the pit, each contorted into a different, agonized pose, all holding out their hands in supplication.

“Ugly,” Jarren observed, shining his light upon one particularly gruesome figure. “What now?”

“Obviously, we don’t know for sure that we’re in the right place, and we’re missing the fourth clue, but the fifth clue reads, ‘On the third terrace in the cave.’ And that,” Jade shone her light across the pit, “looks like the mouth of a cave to me.” As they crossed the pit, Jade noticed that the clover and cross insignia of Fray Marcos was embedded in the very center of the floor in polished marble. “This is encouraging,” she said. “We found this symbol everywhere one of the clues was hidden.” She shone her light around the room and saw that the insignia was also carved on the wall where the stairs began. “I have a good feeling about this. Let’s go.”