Fatal

CHAPTER 35

"Ain't it jes the balls, Lewis? Har this boy survives a friggin' mine cave-in, goes o'er a thirty-foot unnerground waterfall, an' then ends up gittin' hisself captured by Bass Vernon an' his lunatic gang."

"Y'are somethin'," Lewis Slocumb said to Matt.

Lewis, his jury-rigged chest tube pinned to his shirt, sat crammed between his brother Frank and Matt in the cab of their battered 1940-something red Ford pickup. In the back, amidst boxes and tarps, was younger brother Lyle. Kyle had been left to guard their farm.

"Frank," Matt said, still giddy from his close call with the bikers, "except maybe for when you popped out of your mother's womb, I swear no one has ever been happier to see you than I was back there."

"Who sez Mammy 'uz happy?" Lewis chimed in. "She 'bout slit her throat when she first saw him."

"An' she 'bout slit yourn when she saw yew."

Matt joined in their laughter. It was just past ten on a heavily overcast morning. The truck had been jouncing up a steep, rutted dirt road for nearly half an hour, circling the mountain that contained both the Belinda mine and the toxic storage dump.

"Ya done took yerself quat a trip, Matthew," Frank said. "Five mile allagether, mebbe six from whar ya started ta whar Vernon's people foun' ya. You are some lucky man."

"I thought I was dead going over the falls, then I really thought I was dead when Bass came in with that friggin' gun in his hand."

"Thet's his way. Bass is crazy as a bedbug. Mean, too, dependin' on whut drugs he bin takin'. Ah don' know if'n Ah ever seed him let someone go after they done been ta his camp. You, Lewis?"

" 'Ceptin' us," Lewis said.

"He knowed we mak the best damn hooch inna valley. We got no intrest in the stuff they grow in thet hellhole. But they got more guns an' ammo than the U.S. Army, an' we're always intrested in thangs thet go bang." Again he and Lewis laughed heartily. "O'er the years they come ta trust us — leastways, much as Bass is capble a trustin' anyone. Ya musta done somethin' purdy special fer him ta b'lieve us thet ya kin be trusted, an' let yer ass go."

"I saved Rake's life," Matt said simply.

"Ain't no one's gonna give ya no medal fer thet," Lewis said.

Matt checked his watch. There had to be enough air in the cave to get Nikki and the others this far. He prayed that Nikki or Ellen hadn't given up on him and tried to get out via the river. It was doubtful the gods would let two survive that trip in a single morning.

"How much longer?" he asked.

"Almos' there," Frank said. "They's no way ta git direct from Vernon's place ta the tunnel we plan on usin'."

"And Vernon explained what I needed? I mean, you brought some explosives?"

Frank smiled.

"Ah think ya kin say thet," Lewis replied.

"Wha d'ya think Ah been drivin' so slow," Frank added.

Matt gulped and looked back through the window at Lyle, who was stretched out calmly among the bundles, smoking a cigarette.

"I owe you guys big-time," Matt said.

They drove the last quarter mile off-road, weaving through the trees and rolling over roots. At the spot Frank pulled over, there was no hint of a tunnel along the rocky base of the broad, wooded hill.

"Where are we going from here?" Matt asked as they unloaded two large rucksacks from the truck, as well as two smaller nylon bags and a long, khaki canvas bag with a U.S. Army insignia stenciled on it.

"Jes 'cause ya cain't see somethin' don't mean it ain't there," Frank said, passing Matt one of the large backpacks and two thick coils of rope. "They's a bunch a entrances inta this here moun'in. Trick is ta know which one of 'em end suddenly in big, deep holes."

Only Lewis wasn't loaded down as the four of them made their way across twenty yards of shrub- and leaf-covered ground to the hill. Matt felt his excitement beginning to surge at the prospect of seeing Nikki alive.

Hang on, baby. Just a little longer.

This entrance to the tunnel, completely obscured behind an outcropping of rock, was no more than four feet from top to bottom — a jagged crack large enough to admit a person on hands and knees, but certainly not one with a pack. They piled their gear by the entry, and Matt and Frank made their way inside, each pulling one end of rope. Matt was not the least surprised to realize that his pulse remained relatively slow and stable, despite the tight passageway.

Step right up and get it, ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Rutledge's Famous Cure for Claustrophobia.

Guided by powerful flashlights, they made their way thirty feet along the narrow tunnel before arriving at a vestibule high enough to stand and wide enough for all of them and their gear. Frank tied the ropes together, forming one end of a long loop, with enough cord extending from the knot to lash onto a strap. Lewis was doing the same outside. One piece at a time, they hauled their gear in, while the empty cord was returned to Lewis and Lyle for reloading.

Hurry! Matt wanted desperately to yell out. Hurry!

The trip into the mountain by this route seemed longer and narrower than the one from the cleft, but there were no drop-offs and no water until they passed over the river on some planks near the very end of their journey.

Ten-forty.

The landscape of what used to be the entrance to the toxic dump had been completely transformed. Much of the overhead wall had collapsed, making a new cave outside the old one. The ceiling of the new cave, perhaps twenty feet above them, could be reached by climbing up a wall of rock that was just ten degrees or so short of vertical. The floor was littered with rubble but passable, and some of the right-hand wall had collapsed, leaving a strangely smooth gouge that looked as if it had been produced with a giant ice-cream scoop.

"Oooeee," Frank said, inspecting the massive front wall. "Them boys 'uz playin' fer keeps."

Matt felt sick. He had images of putting a stick of dynamite among some boulders, lighting a match, and blowing a new entrance to the cavern. Piece of cake.

As if reading his thoughts, Lewis put a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll git in thar fer ya, Matthew," he said.

Largely in silence, the three Slocumbs functioned like a highly skilled military unit. Lyle set out several kerosene lanterns, making the space nearly daylight bright, and then began unpacking their gear. Lewis, hands on hips, slightly short of breath, watched as Frank scuttled to the top of the pile of rock, then across from one side to the other.

"You'd best be darn good, Lewis," he called as he scrambled back down the wall.

"Ah am," Lewis replied simply. "Okay, Matthew, here's the deal. This here's the head-wall. It's lak a plug whar there useta be a hole. Ain't no big trouble blowin' it up. The trick is ta do it without killin' us an' anyone whut mot be behin' it."

"But you think you can:1"

"Ah think Ah kin try. Ain't no one kin do more'n thet. Lyle, lis'n up. I wanna soften up this here baby with a shell from Little Bertha, jes 'bout two-thirds a the way up. Kin ya hit thet big, pointy rock rot thar?"

"From whar?"

"Far 'nuff back so's ya don' git kilt, Lyle."

Lyle scanned the cave.

"No sweat," he proclaimed. "They's a spot ta shoot from rot back thar."

He opened up the long army-issue bag, removed a compact rocket launcher, and began preparing it to be fired.

"Ain't she a beauty," Lewis said to Matt. "A Javelin Anti-tank Missile with HEAT — hah-explosive antitank warhead. It'll penetrate more'n twenny inch a armor. Jes far an' ferget — thet means ferget whut yer shootin' at an' ferget about standin' round ta watch. Range a twenny-fahve hunnerd meter. Thet's goin' on two mile."

"Jesus, Lewis. How'd you guys get this?"

Lewis replied with a wry look that said, "Ya know better'n ta ask a queschin ya really don' want ta know the answer to."

"Frank," he said, "les you an' me git the Gel-Paks ready. Three rows up an' down, beginnin' with a pound at the very top an' finishin' with, say, ten pound at the bottom. We'll use det cord ta link 'em up."

Frank quickly produced several dozen sausagelike packages from one of the rucksacks and laid them on a tarp by Lewis, along with the detonating cord. Skillfully, the brothers began linking them together.

"Ready," Lyle called out.

Frank dragged the Gel-Paks away from the target and threw another tarp over them.

"This way, Doc," Lewis said, leading him and Frank back into the tunnel until they couldn't even see the head-wall. "It'd be fun ta watch this, but it'd also be a mot dangerous. Ah s'pect Lyle'll be back here purdy darn quick, too."

Matt heard a loud woosh from around the bend, followed by Lyle diving headfirst at their feet. At the same instant a sharp, near-deafening explosion resonated through the tunnel, followed by the clattering of rock. When Lewis nodded that it was okay to revisit the head-wall, they found the center of it largely pulverized, and the topmost rocks displaced and loosened.

"I'd hate to see Big Bertha," Matt muttered.

"Fahn shot, Lyle," Lewis said. "Ah guess they's hope fer ya yet. Frank, les git these here sausages in place an' mak us a hole." He turned to Matt. "We're gonna use de-lay detinaters ta blow this here thang so's it elapses from the bottom up. If'n we do it rot, a space oughta 'pear et the top. If'n we miss, it had best be on the sod a too little rather'n too much. If'n we don' git no hole the first torn, we got enuff Vibrogel ta try it again. Mebbe twice more."

"Hurry," Matt said, in spite of himself.

"Wha on earth 'uld we e'er want ta tak our torn?" Lewis replied. "Ah mean, t'ain't lak we're workin' with hah explosives er nothin'."

"Sorry."

"Ah thank Ah'm ready," Frank said, looping the det cord around his elbow before he ascended the wall.

"Ready for what, pervert?"

Bill Grimes, his service revolver leveled at the four of them, stepped into the cave from the tunnel, followed immediately by Vinny Sutcher, still in black, who casually panned the group with a submachine gun. Last to step into view, his gun also at the ready, was the thin man Matt had outwitted at Shady Lake Manor Estates.

"See, Vinny," Grimes said. "I told you it was worthwhile having you and Verne hang around for a day checking the entrances to this place. This here doctor is as slippery as an eel."

"What an imaginative metaphor," Matt said, noticing how incredibly calm Lewis Slocumb and his brothers appeared at that moment. He had no way of knowing for certain, but he felt some sort of information was being silently exchanged among them.

Grimes may have sensed the same thing. His expression darkened, and his heavy pistol steadied on Lewis.

"Step away from that stuff, Slocumb. Your brother, too," he said. "Vinny, get around there and move that shit away."

Sutcher shouldered his weapon, circled around to the base of the head-wall, and eyed the pile of Gel-Paks suspiciously.

"Ya'd best not e'en fart near thet stuff," Lewis said, mimicking an explosion with his hands. "Ka-boom."

Frank, who was about ten feet to Lewis's right, and Lyle, who was on one knee about fifteen feet behind him, both snickered.

"So," Grimes said, turning his attention to Matt, "I must conclude from your presence here that you are not the only one who managed to survive that devastating accident."

"They've all escaped except the guards you double-crossed," Matt replied, sensing he needed to stall. "We're digging those two out because they both swore to kill you if they ever saw you again. What are you, Grimes, some sort of major stockholder in the company that makes Lasaject? Is that what's going on?"

Surprise flashed across the policeman's face, then just as quickly vanished.

"Oh, yes," he said. "Mrs. Kroft. Well, if you must know, I have a proprietary interest in the company, yes."

"Do you know how many people — how many children — will die if that vaccine of yours gets into general use?"

"There's no proof that's so."

"Spare me. Those people you tried to kill in there are proof, and you know it. That's why you did this to them. Well, Grimes, they've escaped just like me. They're headed to Washington right now, along with Ellen Kroft and Nikki. You're finished."

Matt saw uncertainty in the man's eyes.

"I don't believe you," Grimes said. "We'll deal with the problems in there as soon as we've dealt with the problems right here. Verne, pat each one of them down, beginning with that one back there. Then get them together over in that corner. Then the good doctor and I need to have a little chat. If any of them give you any crap, shoot 'em in the knee. We'll save the other knee and the balls for later."

"Don't ferget ta check me fer rocket launchers," Lyle said, choking himself on a laugh.

Despite the obvious advantage his side held in terms of weapons and age, Verne approached Lyle cautiously.

"Stand up," he ordered.

"Cain't," Lyle said. "Ma laig's broke."

"If he doesn't do as you tell him to, just kill him," Grimes said. "He's not going to hurt you, Verne. He's a fucking old man and you have the gun."

"Yeah," Lyle said, "Ah'm a fuckin' old man."

He smiled toothlessly and shifted his weight as if he was going to stand.

At that instant, there was a scraping sound from high on the head-wall. All seven of those below turned to the noise. Ellen, a gaunt, dusty apparition, was standing straight up, twenty feet directly above Vinny Sutcher. The broad, flat rock she was holding over her head looked as big as her chest. At the moment Grimes spun and fired at her, she hurled the rock with all her strength, straight down at Sutcher. With his head tilted back, the heavy missile caught him flush in the face, producing the sickening sound of a pumpkin dropped onto pavement from a second story. Instantly limp, blood spattered across his face, Sutcher crumpled backward onto the stony floor.

The seconds that followed were a blur to Matt. He was still fumbling for the gun in his pocket when all three Slocumb brothers produced pistols, seemingly out of thin air. Instantly, the cavern sounded like a Chinese New Year. Gunshots seemed to be coming from everywhere. But the only muzzle flashes Matt saw came from the Slocumbs. Grimes was instantly hit in the chest, neck, and face. His eyes wide with disbelief, he danced sideways like a giant marionette, arms flapping, legs disjointed. Then he crumpled as if his strings had been sliced, held a sitting position for a single beat, and toppled lifelessly onto the dust. Verne caught bullets in his throat, mouth, and the center of his forehead, and was dead before he hit the floor.

Matt raced over to the head-wall. Above him, Ellen was down, but he could see that she was moving.

"Ellen?"

"I'm okay," she called back. "I slipped when I threw the rock. My pride's going to hurt when I sit, but otherwise I'm not hurt badly."

"Is Nikki all right?"

"She's back there with the others. It's slow going with her ankle. I think it's broken."

"Is there enough air in there?"

"There is now, thanks to whoever created that hole."

Ellen began making her way down to where Matt waited. Vinny Sutcher lay at his feet, deeply unconscious, breathing shallowly and intermittently. His broad pancake face was a pulpy mass, his eyes obscured beneath twin pools of blood. His head was cocked at a sharp angle, leading Matt to suspect that his neck had been fractured. Ellen moved in beside him, her jaw tightly set, her eyes fixed on the horrific damage she had wrought. Then, without a word, she bent down and, with great effort, picked up the rock again and leveled it over Sutcher's face.

"Ellen, don't," Matt urged. "It's over. Trust me, it's over."

Tears glistened through the dust on Ellen's cheeks. Her arms were shaking from the effort of holding the rock. Sobbing, she turned and dropped it to the floor, where it split in two. Matt put his arms around her and held her. A few seconds later, Sutcher took a single, shuddering gasp, and stopped breathing forever.

Matt led Ellen over to where Frank was once again arranging the Gel-Paks, and introduced the two.

"I'm going in to see Nikki," he said.

Ellen pointed to his watch. "Matt, listen. That first shot of Omnivax is going to be given to that baby in a little over three hours. As soon as it is, other kids all over the country are going to start getting it. We've got to stop them."

"Is there someone we can call?"

"This is the biggest campaign stunt of this election. I don't know anyone in a position to rein in the First Lady at this point. Do you?"

"No. We could try calling in a bomb threat."

"I hate that idea, but I suppose we could try it if we absolutely had to. I can see us accomplishing nothing except to give them more publicity and land us in serious hot water."

"If they go ahead with the shot, how many kids do you think will be vaccinated by the end of the day?"

"I really can't do more than guess," Ellen replied, "but I think it could be lots, especially on the West Coast, where pediatricians' offices will be open three hours later than the ones on the East Coast. Thanks to the President's publicity people, the papers are calling today's injection The Shot Heard Round the World. The public and the pediatricians just love vaccines. Omnivax is the most eagerly awaited advance in immunizations in decades, but it's been made clear that even though tens of thousands of doses have been shipped to offices and clinics around the country, administering it to patients won't be legal until after Lynette Marquand and Secretary Bolton have had their worldwide TV photo op. So… What? Maybe a few thousand doses by the end of the day? Maybe more. Who knows?"

"With a three percent prion infection rate."

“Or more.”

"Or more," Matt echoed.

He peered up at the hole high on the rock wall and made his decision.

"My Harley's at my Uncle Hal's place. I can probably get you to D.C. on time, but I don't want to leave before I see Nikki. We've been through too much together."

"I understand, but please, let's get going as soon as you can."

"We will."

"And Matt, I apologize for getting so wrapped up in my issues just now. I'm sorry about your uncle. I really am."

"Thanks. Me, too. Lewis, can you wait a little before setting off those charges?"

"Ain't no place we got ta be. We don' 'specially need Lyle, neither. He kin drahve ya ta yer bike."

"Great. Lewis, tell me something. How on earth did you guys get your guns out so fast?"

Grinning broadly, Lewis pulled up the sleeve of his jacket, revealing an arrangement of leather straps and springs.

"Ma brother Frank, thar, invented this here gizmo a couple a year ago an' built one fer each a us. We ain't really got ta use 'em, but we put 'em on taday 'cause we jes don' truss Bass Vernon much. An' the older we git, the more careful we git. That rot, Frank?"

"Thassit."

"So that's why you guys were looking at each other like you had a secret."

"We knowed somethin' they dint, thet's fer sure," Lewis said. "The moment Grimes tol' his boy thar ta git our guns an' dint jes pull the trigger, we knowed he 'uz a dead man, providin' Frank's gizmo worked the way it's s'pose ta."

"And did it ever. Ellen, I'll be right back. We'll make it. My uncle's place isn't too far from here. His girlfriend is away, but I know where he keeps a spare key."

"Good, because there's someone I need to call."

"I'll be back."

Matt was halfway up the head-wall when he heard Nikki's voice.

"Hey, sailor, come up here and get your Red Cross advanced swimmer's badge."

Looking about as grungy and disheveled as a person could, she sat perched on a slab to one side of the rent Lewis had made in the massive wall. Matt hustled to her side and kissed her unabashedly.

"I knew you'd make it," she said. "I just knew it."

"You did not."

"Okay, I didn't. But you made it just the same, and that's what counts."

"How's your ankle?"

"Better now than it was a few minutes ago. You know any decent orthopedists?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. How many people are still alive down there?"

"Believe it or not, a)} the ones that were alive when you Mt."

"Even Fred?"

"He's actually a little better. I did a trach on Colin."

"Incredible. You dun need no steenking OR."

Nikki looked down at the three bodies sprawled in blood amid the stones and dust.

"Did you do that?" she asked.

"In my mind I did, especially Grimes. But I didn't even get a shot off."

"I never trusted that Vinny."

"I know. Listen, it's almost noon. Let me help you down. I've got to get Ellen to D.C."

"Oh, yes, that first shot is due this afternoon. Hurry. I can get down myself."

"You can let me help you."

It was a slow, awkward descent. When they finally reached the bottom, Matt carried her to a safe spot in the tunnel and set her down. Even beneath the bandage he had applied, he could feel the enormous swelling in her ankle. He kissed her hand, then her neck, and finally her lips.

"You think you might like to, I don't know, hang with me after I get back?"

"Only if you promise me we get to do something really, really dull."

"I promise."

They kissed once more before he headed back to Ellen. As he passed Grimes's bullet-riddled body, he paused.

"See, I told you there was proof," he said.