Sins of the Assassin

Chapter 26

“Watch your step,” said the Colonel.

“I’m no hothouse flower, Colonel,” said Baby, dropping to her hands and knees. Her tight jeans scraped the rock face as she squeezed through the opening.

Moseby offered her a hand from the other side. “Ma’am?”

She took his hand, giggling as he pulled her through. “I declare, the Belt has more gentlemen per square foot than anyplace on God’s green earth.”

The Colonel wriggled through the cleft in the rock, more agile than anyone would have expected for a man his age. He brushed back his hair, dust drifting down. Two of his adjutants waited for him inside the inner passage, two others worked their way through after him. One of them, Trey, a big ole boy from the Kentucky border, almost got stuck, and had to be dragged through, embarrassed and a little frightened.

The Colonel walked around the widened interior passage, his shadow huge in the floor lights. He gingerly touched one of the walls, looked at his fingertips.

Baby pounced on his shadow. Looked around, dirt streaked on her cheek. “Spooky.”

“I told you not to come,” said the Colonel.

“You know I like a little scare, Colonel,” she said, kissing him. “Keeps the blood circulating, that’s what my mama says.”

“What makes you think this tunnel goes anywhere?” the Colonel said to Moseby. “Jefferson’s already checked it out.”

“No, sir, he checked out the main tunnel,” said Moseby. “This is a little feeder line…run off the main one to see if it was worth excavating later. The old-timers used to do that a lot when they were chasing coal.” For the last few days and most of the nights, he had been walking the tunnels and mineshafts honeycombing the mountain. Examining untouched tunnels and ones that had already been explored, and crossed off from consideration. “My point is, I don’t blame Jefferson for not bothering with it, but sometimes folks miss things. They get so focused on what they’re looking for that they don’t see what’s right in front of their nose.”

The Colonel walked deeper into the narrowing tunnel, his head almost brushing the ceiling. “I like a man who doesn’t take things as they are. Speaks well of you.”

Moseby joined the Colonel. “The reason Jefferson was interested in the main shaft was because there’s a lot of calcite present, which attracts moisture, and the slope is right to collect it at the bottom somewhere. Like the lake you’re interested in. When the main shaft ended in a dead end, Jefferson went on to other tunnels, but this little feeder line has also got the same factors. No reason it might not have a lake down there.”

The Colonel shivered. “It’s cold down here.” He rubbed his hands together. “Some of the other shafts are hot enough to bake bread in.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” said Baby, taking the Colonel’s arm. “I can’t cook worth a lick. The Colonel’s always riding me about his first wife’s cooking.”

The Colonel leaned close to one of the walls, rubbed his finger over a section and examined it. “What are these sparkly mineral deposits?”

“Schist. It’s sparkles because of all the mica in it,” said Moseby. “Might be one reason the seam was never fully mined. Schist fractures easily. Causes real problems.”

The Colonel rubbed his finger against the wall again. “My information about the lake is sketchy, but there was mention of the passageway down being marked by stars. It was passed off as delusional, but seeing this schist makes me wonder.”

“You should have told me earlier,” said Moseby.

“You seem to be doing just fine,” bristled the Colonel, “and I wasn’t sure how reliable the information was. Everything I know I got third- or fourth-hand.”

“Colonel, sir?” called one of his adjutants. “Are we almost done here?”

“Why don’t you go back into the main shaft,” said the Colonel. He turned to Moseby. “My men hate it down here. Can’t say I blame them. We’re soldiers, not moles.”

“That’s a rude thing to say to Mr. Moseby,” said Baby, tickling him. “If he’s a mole, he’s a darn cute one.”

“Mr. Moseby knows I hold him in the highest regard, Baby, it’s just the men and I prefer open sky…” The Colonel stopped as the adjutants squeezed back into the main tunnel, taking one of the floor lights with them. The tunnel seemed suddenly smaller, the air thinner. The only way to work this far underground was to keep your mind focused on the task at hand, just concentrate on breathing in and out. Once you let your attention slide, once you noticed how cramped it was, and started to imagine the sheer weight and volume of rock and dirt overhead, you were lost. A man’s screams echoing off the walls could start a panic, a blind rush to daylight trampling everyone in the way. “Open…open sky is preferable to this entryway to Hades.”

Moseby could see the Colonel struggling to overcome his fear-it was one of the reasons he wanted to have this conversation here. He needed all the advantages he could get. The Colonel’s eagerness to go back outside might make him tell the truth. At least more than he intended. “It’s always difficult finding a specific object underwater, Colonel, but all you’ve told me is that there’s something lying at the bottom of an underground lake. Something you evidently want badly enough to commit hundreds of men and I don’t know how much money. So what am I looking for?”

“As I’ve told you before, that information remains classified.”

“Colonel, I at least need to know how big this thing is that you want me to find.” Moseby walked back to the rocky outcropping that partially blocked the entrance to the main tunnel. “This rock face has been here for thousands of years. Anything or anyone entering this feeder line had to make it past that narrow opening. So, Colonel, is this thing I’m looking for going to fit through?”

Behind the Colonel, caught in the light, a single drop of moisture slid down the rock. “Yes…yes, I believe it would.”

“Is it metallic or organic, because I’ve got some very sensitive detecting gear? Colonel?”

The Colonel glanced at his wife. “Baby, are you cold? Shall we go?”

“It’s all right,” said Baby. “I feel safe down here with you two big strong men.”

The Colonel jerked as the floor light flickered, the battery running low. “I think we should leave.”

Moseby nodded. “Colonel, I’ve come a long way on your say-so. I left my family with men I don’t know, men I don’t trust. I was supposed to be able to talk with my wife at least once or twice a week, but Gravenholtz keeps making excuses.”

“You know we don’t have decent reception up here.”

“Gravenholtz left special equipment behind at my house…a high-tech phone, supposed to be able to cut through the atmospheric problems. I was assured-”

“There’s been a problem,” said the Colonel. “I’m sorry, John.”

The silence in the tunnel was even more unsettling than the echo of their lowered voices.

“I think you better tell me what the problem is, Colonel,” Moseby said softly.

“You giving the orders now, son?” said the Colonel.

Moseby hesitated. “No.”

The Colonel pursed his lips. “One of Lester’s old comrades, man named Jeeter, was left in charge back at your house. Evidently this Jeeter deserted his post, taking the phone with him. It’s quite valuable-”

“What happened to my family?”

“I’m sure they’re quite all right-”

“Colonel, right now I don’t give a good goddamn if you’re sure or not. I want to see my family. I want to be on that chopper in twenty minutes.”

“You think you give the orders here, Mr. Moseby?” The Colonel’s face tightened, his jaw set. “Give me another order. Go on, Mr. Moseby, please…tell me what to do.”

They were inches apart, close enough that Moseby could smell the tobacco on the Colonel’s breath and the coffee he’d had an hour earlier. Close enough that Moseby could dash his brains out on the rock wall with one quick movement. That wouldn’t bring Moseby back to his family, though.

“You two boys shouldn’t fight,” said Baby. “Colonel, you can’t blame John for worrying about his family, it’s the most natural thing in the world to do. And John, you should know that if it was in the Colonel’s power to let you visit your wife and daughter, he’d do it. Just that there’s been too many helicopter trips off this mountain. People in flyover country are starting to wonder what’s going on here, and right now we don’t need the attention. So just as soon as we can, you’re going to be sent right back with your kin. And with your pockets full of money to boot. Isn’t that better than standing here mad at each other?”

Moseby and the Colonel stayed squared off.

“I want your word,” said Moseby.

The Colonel stuck his hand out, and they shook. “And I want your best efforts, John.” He glanced back into the tunnel. “Are we done here? Because I’ve seen enough of this place to last me a good long while.”

“There’s a few scrape marks on the floor further on that are rather interesting,” said Moseby. “Nothing certain, but-”

“Do what you need to do,” said the Colonel. “Baby? Shall we?”

“If you want me to proceed, Colonel, I’m going to need additional help,” said Moseby. “There’s been a cave-in further down the tunnel. I don’t think it was deliberate. No trace of explosives being used. More an aspect of the calcium carbonate that permeates the rock, makes it brittle-”

“Yes, yes,” said the Colonel. “Get to the point.”

“I need a crew of men to clear the shaft, but it’s going to be hard and dangerous,” said Moseby. “Round-the-clock work, because we have to chip away the collapsed section into small enough pieces-”

“Anything you need. Just make it happen.”

The floor light flickered again.

“I want to select the best men from the other crews working the site,” said Moseby. “I already know who I want. The other bosses are going to be pissed off at me grabbing their best-”

“Just do it.” The Colonel’s voice echoed. “Any problems from the bosses, you tell them to take it up with me.”

“I’m going to start bunking with the miners, Colonel. Just so you know. You can reassign my bodyguards, I won’t need them.”

“There a problem?”

“Just trying to make things run smoother.”

“Fine. No more bodyguards. Just let me know where your tent is.”

“Colonel…one more thing. I can appreciate your desire to maintain security, but you’re hampering my ability to find whatever it is you’re looking for by not telling me the specifics. What’s the weight? The size? One container or more? Does it have a magnetic or a radioactive signature?”

“Why do you ask about a radioactive signature?” the Colonel said quietly.

“Because, Colonel…” Moseby made sure there was just the three of them in the tunnel. “There’s not a whole lot of things small enough to get through this tunnel, but worth enough to justify the scale of your dig. If it’s not Fort Knox gold, maybe it’s something from New York or Washington, D.C.”

The Colonel’s shadow waved on the walls.

“Tell him, Colonel,” said Baby. “One look at Mr. Moseby and you know he’s different from the others. He’s a finder. You can trust him.” She leaned her head on his shoulder, snuggled against him. “Shoot, you owe him the truth. He’s risking his life down here at the bottom of the earth.”

The Colonel nodded, beckoned Moseby closer. “Somewhere down here, Mr. Moseby, hidden safely away…is the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, the most sacred documents of the former regime. I intend for us to find them, Mr. Moseby, whatever the cost.”