Justice

SIXTEEN

“That’s…not very specific.” Sterling ran a hand through her hair. “Why couldn’t he just say, walk that way?”

“He did,” Maddock said. “Turn your back to the rising sun. That means face west.”

“Let your path be true means… walk straight ahead?” Bones offered.

Sterling’s expression brightened. “And there’s a stream not too far from here. That could be the whispering water.”

Maddock nodded. “That’s enough to get us started. I guess we’ll find out what the rest means as we go.”

Beginning from the shore, due west of the wreck site, they began their march inland. The going quickly grew rough as the foliage grew dense. Palmettos, vines, and shrubs stood in their path, and Bones seemed to take their interference as a personal affront. The big native hacked and slashed at them, roughly clearing a path for his companions to follow.

“I’ll bet you were a heck of a football player,” Sterling said.

“Might have been, but I had a habit of getting kicked off of whatever team I joined.”

“There’s a shocker.” Sterling winced as a branch Bones had pushed aside snapped back, cracking her across the cheek. “Did you do that on purpose?”

“Of course not. My humor is more sophisticated than that.”

Sterling flashed her middle finger at Bones’ back.

“I saw that,” Bones said.

Sterling turned to Maddock. “How does he…?”

“It’s a gift. No one can explain it.”

They crossed the stream and continued on. The way grew steeper and they found themselves climbing a gentle slope.

“Man, what is that smell?” The words had barely escaped Bones’ lips when the big man let out a cry and vanished from sight.

“Bones!” Maddock rushed forward but halted as he reached the edge of steep drop-off. Down below, Bones sat in several inches of black mud and stagnant water.

“I think I found the ‘blackness so foul’.” Bones crinkled his nose at the stench.

Maddock struggled to suppress his laughter, but failed miserably. Sterling slumped against his shoulder, tears of mirth streaming down her cheeks, her chest heaving.

“Joke’s on you guys,” Bones said. “If we’re going to head due west, we’re going to have to cross this…marsh, or whatever it is.”

That got their attention. Maddock regained his composure with a few steadying breaths. Sterling, her shoulders still bobbing with silent laughter, scrubbed her cheeks.

“Actually,” she gasped, “we’re right at the edge. Maddock and I can circle it. Since you’re already dirty, you might as well keep going straight ahead. We’ll meet you there.”

Now it was Bones’ turn to flash an obscene gesture as Maddock and Sterling rounded the quagmire while Bones trudged onward. When they met on the other side, Bones’ countenance was as dark as Maddock had ever seen it.

“Come on, Bones. It’s just a little mud.”

“It’s not that. Look where we are.”

Maddock followed his friend’s line of sight and cursed at what he saw. “We’re back at the cave.”

“Oh, come on!” Sterling stamped her foot.

“Maybe it’s not a bad thing,” Maddock said. “We’re back but now we have clues.”

“So, if the cave is the ‘mouth of the devil’, then we need to go back inside and look for disciples.” Skepticism hung heavy in Bones’ words.

“Unless the cave isn’t what we’re looking for.” As they strode up the gentle slope toward the cave, he scanned the surrounding area for anything that could be the mouth of the devil. When they reached the cave mouth, he paused. “I’ve got an idea. Sterling, how about you take a second look at the cave and see if there’s something we missed that could fit the clues. Bones and I will look for anything else that might be called a devil’s mouth.”

Sterling frowned. “Why don’t one of you check the cave and I’ll keep searching?”

“We can do it that way, but if we want to keep going due west, there’s going to be some climbing involved. No offense, but Bones and I will be able to go a lot faster on our own.”

“And I could go even faster without Maddock,” Bones chimed in.

Sterling eyed the steep, rocky cliff above the cave. “All right. But don’t go too far without me. We need to remain within earshot in case one of us finds something.” With that, she headed back to the cave while Maddock and Bones inspected the cliff face for hand and footholds.

“Do you have a plan or is this just a shot in the dark?” Bones said quietly.

“I have an idea. It’s hard to tell with all the brush growing out of the cliff, but if it were clear, don’t you think the formation above that ledge looks like the face of the devil?” He pointed to an odd formation thrusting out about ten meters above their heads. Over the years, wind and rain had smoothed the surface, but it was easy to make out what might have been a nose, eye sockets, a forehead, and horns.

“Might be the devil,” Bones agreed. “Looks more like that chick Professor brought home last weekend.”

Maddock grinned. Pete “Professor” Chapman was a fellow SEAL with less than exacting taste in women.

They made the climb in a matter of minutes. The going was easy and they soon found themselves standing on the ledge, looking at the rock formation.

“Doesn’t look like the devil from up here,” Bones said, “and I don’t see a mouth.”

“Look closer.” Maddock pushed back a thick shrub. “What do you see?”

“The wall isn’t solid.” Bones brushed the surface with his fingertips. “Someone did a good job fitting these blocks together, but you can see the seams.”

“And the holes they plugged up with mud.” Maddock smiled. “I assume you want to do the honors?”

“You know it.” Bones stood and attacked the wall with a vicious arsenal of martial arts kicks until, finally, one of the stones broke loose. He and Maddock worked it free, revealing an open space behind it.

“So there is a cave here,” Maddock said.

“Good call.” Bones cast an appraising look at him. “You know, you do just enough things right for me to keep you around.”

“Thanks,” Maddock deadpanned. “I’ll let you finish the job while I get Sterling.”

By the time Maddock and the agent arrived, Bones had cleared a space large enough for a person to squeeze through. Bones glanced at Sterling. “Ladies first?”

“Really?” Sterling smiled.

“Sure. In case it’s booby trapped.” Bones flashed a roguish grin that Sterling returned with a smirk.

“You’re a gem, you know that?”

“Just messing with you. Big dude goes first. That way we know you little people can make it through.” He flicked on his MagLite, stuck it in his teeth, turned, and plunged headfirst through the hole.

Sterling shook her head. “If he gets stuck, can we just leave him here?”

“I would, but I’m a little scared of his sister.”

Sterling made a face. “I can’t even imagine what that would look like.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Maddock hurried on. “She’s actually really cute, she’s just… vicious.” His thoughts suddenly filled with images of Bones’ sister, Angel, her big, brown eyes, her long hair held back in tight braids, pulverizing a punching bag with a flurry of punches and kicks. The young woman was fast becoming a legend in the local mixed martial arts scene. She was also modeling on the side, and Maddock found the juxtaposition of her two careers bizarre.

“Your face is a dozen shades of red.” Sterling arched an eyebrow.

“Oh! I was just thinking of something else.”

Bones voice interrupted them. “All right, you two. Get in here.”

Sterling and Maddock clambered through the hole. They had to crawl for a short distance before standing.

“You got something?” Maddock asked.

“Maybe.” Bones started moving his hands over the ground as Maddock and Sterling moved closer. His hands bumped up against the wall and stopped. He moved the flashlight back and forth before slowing down along what was now visible as a vertical seam in the stone wall. “It doesn’t fit any of the clues, but it’s definitely not natural.”

Sterling added her light to his, catching a horizontal seam extending from the top of the vertical one about five feet off the ground, and then another vertical seam parallel to the first. “That’s not natural. Is that a door?”

“I don’t know if it swings like a door, but we can try pushing.”

Maddock grabbed his shoulder. “Hold on, Bones. Booby traps, remember?”

Bones grimaced. “Okay, what do we do, then?”

“First we look around for any sort of lever or handle that might open it. But we just look at it, we don’t touch it.”

Sterling said, “It could be anywhere in here.”

Bones nodded. “In the movies, they never put it right next to the door. That would be too easy.”

She looked at him. “Is that what they did in Boston?” She was fishing.

“Boston was something else entirely. You know, we could have dinner sometime and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“I may regret this, but I’ll tell you what. If we find this treasure and stop the Sons of The Republic, you’re on.”

Bones rubbed his hands together. “Awesome! I knew you’d eventually come around. How about we break the room into thirds and start searching?”

For the next thirty minutes, they did just that, switching sections when they each finished their initial third. By the time they were done, each of them had actually searched the top, bottom and sides of the cave in its entirety. They found nothing.

Bones flopped to the floor near the supposed door. “What now?”

Maddock shone his light on the seams. “I’m thinking.”

Sterling said, “I have an idea. Maybe we’re making this too complicated. Maybe that’s just a big stone and we push it and it moves.”

Bones rallied himself to his hands and knees. “Hey, you could be onto something. Maddock here’s going to tell us it’s too dangerous, though.”

Maddock scanned the rest of the room with the light. “How about this? We take a couple of those larger rocks on the floor, put one on top of the other, then one of us lies on the ground and pushes with his feet.”

Bones raised his hand. “I volunteer. I can probably reach my arms all the way to the wall so I’ll have major leverage.”

A minute later they were ready. Bones lay on his back with both hands over his head and touching one wall. His feet touched the two three-foot long rocks they had placed in front of the door. The rocks were essentially rectangular and fortunately had settled right into the desired positions without much wobbling. Sterling had backed into the entrance to the room, while Maddock lay just in front of her, ready to lunge toward Bones to pull him out if needed.

“Whenever you’re ready, Bones.”

Bones started to straighten his legs and exert pressure. Maddock moved his flashlight back and forth between the seams and Bones, and he didn’t detect any sign of movement. Bones’ face was a mask of concentration and exertion.

After about fifteen seconds, he stopped and sucked in a few deep breaths.

“You okay, Bones?”

“Hell yes, I’m just getting warmed up. That was like five hundred pounds on the leg press machine. Time to raise it to seven-fifty.”

The second time, the stones still weren’t moving. Maddock thought Bones would have to take another break, but then an ear-shattering roar split the air. It took Maddock a second to realize that it had come from Bones. The sound reminded him of a martial arts keop, but with a deeper tone that sounded far more ominous and seemed to shake the earth. Maddock couldn’t be sure about the latter, because a split second later the stones moved.

He and Sterling both flashed their lights onto the seams at the same time. They saw that the space had opened a few feet, revealing another wall.

Bones stood and cracked his knuckles. “You’re welcome. What are you girls waiting for?”

Sterling leaned forward. “I think we’re looking for the combination to this lock.”