The Goddess Legacy

Chapter 50

Reynolds was standing by his SUV when Drake, Allie, and Spencer emerged from their rooms, blinking sleepily in the bright morning sunlight. Roland led them to where the DOD man was waiting, a scowl on his face as they approached.

“What is it?” Drake asked.

“We were only able to get one Kalashnikov and two pistols.”

“Unacceptable,” Spencer said.

“That’s the best we could do on short notice. I had to pull in favors to even land those.”

“Leaving us seriously outgunned if we have any problems,” Spencer spat. “I don’t feel like committing suicide today, thanks.”

“I was able to get us cleared at the checkpoint. Cost a bundle, but it’s done,” Reynolds continued, as though he hadn’t heard Spencer.

“How many spare magazines for the AK?” Drake asked.

“Three.”

“It doesn’t matter. No weapons, no deal,” Spencer said, his tone glacial.

Reynolds sighed. “Look — this is all I can get. And we’re not going to hang out here for another day in the hopes that my contacts can come up with another AK. These were smuggled in from Pakistan — you have no idea how hard it was to make that happen. So we’re going, and we’ll make the best of it.”

“Except I refuse,” Spencer growled.

“Spencer, let me explain something that I’d have thought was abundantly clear: you don’t get to refuse, or the cops arrest you within minutes. Is that how you want to play this? It’s not my preference, but if you push me, that’s how it’ll go down.” Reynolds paused. “If I were you, I’d take my AK, say thank you, and shut up.”

“Spencer, it’s okay. I don’t want a rifle,” Allie said.

“Me either. I mean, it’s not like we’re being dropped into Afghanistan or something, right?” Drake said.

“We have no idea what we’re walking into. His unwillingness or inability to perform could cost us our lives,” Spencer argued.

“You’re walking into a cave, last time I heard. What, precisely, do you think you’ll need all this firepower for?” Reynolds asked.

“Ask your operative,” Spencer said. “Oh, that’s right, he’s gone dark, so you have no idea what’s waiting for us at the other end of the cave.”

“I’ll be right there beside you,” Reynolds reminded him.

“That’s another thing I’m afraid of.”

Allie and Drake eventually convinced Spencer to continue on absent all the weapons, and they loaded their bags into the SUV — all now had black nylon backpacks, with Allie bringing only her necessities in hers, including the sword, her phone and tablet, and a change of clothes. She was wearing the hiking boots she’d bought the prior morning on the way to meet Roland, as were Drake and Spencer.

“Have you given any thought as to how you’re planning to slip an AKM past any guards at the cave?” Reynolds asked as they prepared to leave.

“I’ll dismantle the gun and carry it in my backpack. I can reassemble one in my sleep, so once we’re out of sight in the cave, I’ll do so,” Spencer said.

“I’m not going to ask how you know so much about a Russian assault weapon,” Reynolds said.

“I have friends in all the wrong places.”

The trip to the border checkpoint took almost an hour, and when Roland followed Reynolds’s SUV into the far right lane, they were passed through with no inspection by a border guard with an ear-to-ear smile. From the checkpoint it took almost three hours to reach Ransoo, the village used as the jumping off point for pilgrims headed for the Shiv Khori.

They parked the vehicles in a gravel lot next to a market and made their way to the path that led up the mountain to the sacred cave. There were few others on the trail, as the pilgrimage season was already over, and they encountered only the occasional straggler. The path transitioned to a walkway paved with stone and, as they neared the cave, to a series of steep steps that stretched up the side of the rock face to an opening in the side of the cliff.

Once inside the cave, they were met by an attendant who offered to guide them and, when they refused, cautioned them not to touch anything and not to stray from the clearly marked route to the sacred chamber. They agreed and pressed forward until the cavern narrowed, the roof dropping to a point where they could barely squeeze through.

“Up there is the passage we need to take,” Drake whispered, pointing left, into the darkness, the lamps strung for the pilgrims insufficient to light the entire area. “It branches there, and then there’s a dead end to the right after a dogleg we need to avoid, so we bear left until we reach another branch, and take that one to the right,” he advised, peering at the hand-drawn map. Drake led them single file toward the second passage, which they discovered when they reached it had been sealed with a brick wall.

“Damn. Didn’t see that coming,” Drake said, and tried one of the bricks, which came away in his hand, the mortar crumbling to sand at his touch.

“Looks like they didn’t do a very good job,” Reynolds said, and joined Drake in widening the opening while Roland and Spencer kept watch to ensure they weren’t interrupted.

After several tense minutes there was a gap in the wall they could manage, and Drake dragged himself through and then switched on his flashlight while he waited for the rest. Allie came next, and then Spencer, followed by the Frenchman and Reynolds, neither of whom looked thrilled to be spelunking.

Drake headed off into the dark, his flashlight beam piercing the gloom before him. The floor of the cave sloped gently upward as he proceeded, and glistening rivulets of water streamed along both sides of the passage like black veins.

At the fork, he veered left and then had to traverse the next stretch in a crouch as the cave’s ceiling dropped to no more than four feet high. When it increased in height again, he paused and waited for the others, the chamber now illuminated with the beams from their lamps, the air stagnant and dank.

Spencer reassembled the parts of the AKM into a working rifle with a folding wire stock, and slapped a magazine into place before chambering a round. Reynolds watched him with a deadpan stare, and Spencer leaned toward Allie and Drake to whisper to them.

“Strap on your pistols. If you wind up having to use them, there’s not likely to be any warning. Make sure there’s one in the hole, and check the safety so you don’t blow your foot off.”

Allie removed her pistol from her backpack and cinched the web belt that accompanied it tight. “How much further?” she asked Drake as she adjusted it.

“A long way. This is just the start if the map’s to scale.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

Drake pushed himself to his feet and surveyed the area before him, playing his flashlight beam over the brown rock. He caught Spencer’s determined look and set off with a nod, the others tailing him.

The passage slope steepened and they found themselves straining to make progress, the atmosphere in the cave now vaguely sulfurous. When they rounded a long bend, the distinctive sound of rushing water greeted them, its loud splashing echoing through the cavern. Drake edged forward and then abruptly stopped. His flashlight fixed on a wall of water cascading across the cavern before disappearing into a cavity in the floor.

“That’s not on the map,” Allie whispered.

“No. It’s probably new — since the idol was made,” Drake agreed. “So much for doing this the easy way.”

Spencer unwound a length of nylon rope and tossed one end to Drake. “Tie this around your waist. I’ll play anchor while you do your intrepid explorer bit.”

“Why don’t I do my ‘turn around and go back’ bit? Seems more sensible,” Drake said.

Reynolds checked the time. “We don’t have all day. We’ve already been in here an hour. Depending on how far this goes…”

“You want to try it?” Drake asked.

Reynolds gave him a grim smile. “That’s why you get paid the big bucks. Although we’re all getting wet if the passage continues.”

“No reason to think it doesn’t,” Allie said.

“Unless this stream, which has carved through the floor, has collapsed the ceiling further on,” Drake said. He tied the rope around his waist and hesitated a moment before the curtain of water. When Spencer had planted his feet wide and Allie had wrapped her arms around Spencer’s waist to add resistance if Drake fell, he shrugged. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered, and then ran straight through the water, his flashlight gripped tightly in his hand.

Spencer tensed, ready to absorb Drake’s weight if the cave floor was gone on the other side, but the rope remained loose. Drake reappeared through the torrent seconds later, soaked, and gave them a thumbs-up signal. “You have to jump to make it over the crevice the water disappears into, but it’s only about two feet wide,” he said.

“Are you sure?” Allie asked.

“I’m here, aren’t I? Come on. Piece of cake — really.” He ran toward the waterfall again and disappeared with a leap, and then the rope tightened as he pulled it from beyond the rush. “Just work your way along the rope, and jump right at the water. I’ll catch you on this side,” he said, his flashlight illuminating the stream from behind the fall.

Allie did as instructed and, at the water, held her breath, closed her eyes, and leapt through it. She slipped when she landed, and then Drake’s arms were around her, steadying her. She looked up into his face and blinked. “I’m fine,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said, and leaned in and kissed her. “But it seemed like a perfect time to sneak in a hug…”

She smiled and kissed him again. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”

The rest followed her through, and soon they were all standing on the far side of the waterfall. Drake consulted his soggy map for a moment and then nodded to himself and motioned with his flashlight. “Should be another passage soon, on the right. We already passed the dead end — at least, I hope so.” He looked over the dripping group. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it,” Spencer answered, rifle held casually in his right hand, pointing at the ground, flashlight in his left.

Hours passed as they ventured deeper into the cave system, and around three o’clock they paused for a rest in a wider section of the passageway. The air was now cool, redolent of wet stone and mineral deposits. The mountain seemed to weigh heavily on them even as they sat catching their breath. Drake took another long look at his map and shook his head. “We’re barely at the halfway point, if this is correct.”

“How far do you think we’ve come?” Allie asked.

“Probably a couple of miles,” Reynolds said. “All uphill.”

“At least the map’s been accurate so far,” Spencer said.

“And you have no idea what’s on the other end of this?” Reynolds asked.

Drake and Allie exchanged a look. “The script was incomplete. It ended with the words ‘beneath which’ and ‘holiest of holies.’ Your guess is as good as ours,” Drake said.

Reynolds grunted and rubbed his face. “At this rate it’ll be getting dark by the time we make it out.”

“If we’re lucky,” Spencer agreed, struggling to his feet. “Let’s go. This place gives me the willies.”

Allie nodded. “That makes two of us.”

Forty minutes later, Reynolds lost his footing as they were navigating a thin strip of cave with a sheer drop on one side. He went down and his flashlight tumbled into nothingness, clanking against stone many feet below, and it was only the rope they’d tied around their waists at Spencer’s urging, creating a daisy chain to prevent a catastrophe, that saved him from following it into the abyss. He stared down at the void for several long beats and then regained his feet, visibly shaken. Spencer eyed his torn pant leg and scuffed hands without sympathy. “You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. Close one.”

“Try not to do that again.”

“Good thinking.”

Over the next three hours the floor continued to incline steeply, and they were forced to climb the narrow stretch on all fours, the only sound their labored breathing, everyone now tired from the long slog. Drake paused at the top of the slope and then turned to the others, his face stiff. Allie reached him and glanced over the edge, and her shoulders sagged as she gasped in dismay. Drake gestured at the passageway as the men approached his vantage point.

“Cave-in,” he said, gesturing dispiritedly to the tumble of rocky debris blocking their way, stretching high within the natural chamber to where part of the ceiling had collapsed, terminating their progress and leaving them nowhere to go but back.