"Meaning that you didn"t have a woman along?" Tesla said. "Well let"s be real clear about this. Going underground when it looks like half the world"s caving in isn"t my idea of fun, but I"m as good as any man at anything that doesn"t need a d.i.c.k. I"m no more of a liability than Grillo. Sorry, Grillo, but it"s true. We"ll get down there, safely. The problem isn"t the caves, it"s what"s hiding in them. And I"ve got a better chance with the Jaff than any of you. I"ve met Kissoon; I"ve heard the same lies the Jaff was told. I"ve got half a clue as to why he became what he became. If we"re to have any chance of persuading him to help us, I"ve got to do the persuading."
There was no response from Hotchkiss. He kept his silence, at least until they"d parked the car and were unloading the gear. Only then did he take up his instructions again. This time there were no overt references to Tesla.
"I propose to take the lead," he said. "With Witt following. You next, Miss Bombeck. Grillo can bring up the rear."
String o"pearls, Tesla thought, and me in the middle, presumably because Hotchkiss lacked faith in her muscle power. She didn"t argue. He was leading this expedition, which she didn"t doubt was every bit as foolhardy as he"d stated, and attempting to undermine his authority when they were about to make the descent was lousy politics.
"We"ve got torches," he went on, "two each. One for us to pocket, the other to tie around our necks. We couldn"t find much in the way of protective headgear; we"ll just have to make do with knitted hats. We"ve got gloves, some boots, two sweaters and two pairs of socks for everyone. Let"s get to it."
They carried the gear through the trees to the clearing, and there kitted up. The woods were as silent now as they"d been in the early morning. The sun that beat so strongly on their backs, bringing them out into sweat as soon as they put on the extra layers of clothing, could not coax a single bird to song. Once dressed, they roped themselves together, about ten feet apart. Hotchkiss the theoretician knew his knots, and made play with the fact, tying them, particularly Tesla"s, with a theatrical casualness. Grillo was the last to be added to the chain. He was sweating more heavily than anyone else, and the veins at his temples were almost as fat as the rope round his waist.
"Are you OK?" Tesla asked him as Hotchkiss sat on the edge of the fissure and swung his feet into the hole.
"I"m fine," Grillo replied.
"Never a great liar," she replied.
Hotchkiss had one last instruction.
"When we"re down there," he said, "let"s keep the chatter to the minimum, huh? We"ve got to preserve our energy. Remember, getting down"s only half the trip."
"It"s always faster on the way home," Tesla said.
Hotchkiss gave her a disparaging look, and began the descent.
The first few feet were relatively easy, but the privations began no more than ten feet down, when, maneuvering themselves through a s.p.a.ce that only just allowed access, the sunlight disappeared so suddenly and so totally it was as if it had never existed. Their torches were feeble subst.i.tutes.
"We"ll wait here a moment," Hotchkiss called back up. "Let"s get our eyes accustomed to the dark."
Tesla could hear Grillo breathing hard behind her; almost panting.
"Grillo," she murmured.
"I"m OK. I"m OK."
It was easily said, but it was very far from the way he felt. The symptoms were familiar from previous attacks: in elevators stuck between floors, or a crowded subway. His heart was working up a sweat in his chest, and it felt like a wire was tightening around his throat. But these were just externalizations. The real fear was of a panic that would rise to such an unbearable pitch that his sanity would simply switch off like a lamp, and darkness become a continuum, outside and in. He had a regime of remedies-pills, deep breathing; in extremis, prayer-none of which were the least use to him now. All he could do was endure. He said the word to himself. Tesla heard.
"Did you say enjoy?" she said. "Some pleasure trip."
"Keep it quiet back there," Hotchkiss hollered from the front. "We"re going to move off again."
They continued, in a silence broken only by grunts, and a single call from Hotchkiss warning that progress ahead was going to get steeper. What had been a zig-zag descent, squeezing between rocks thrown up by the rush of water when the Nunciates had escaped, now became a straight climb down a shaft whose bottom was untouched by their torch-beams. It was deadly cold, and they were glad of the layers of clothing Hotchkiss had demanded they wear, though their bulk impeded easy movement. The rock beneath their gloves was wet in places, and twice sprays of water, hitting a shelf on the opposite side of the shaft, caught them.
The sum of discomforts left Tesla wondering what bizarre imperative drove men (surely they were all men: women wouldn"t be so perverse) to pursue this as recreation. Was it, as Hotchkiss had said when she and Witt had first got to his house, that all the great secrets were underground? If so, she was keeping good company. Three men who could not have had stronger reasons for wanting to see those secrets and maybe haul one of them up into the light. Grillo, with his pa.s.sion to tell the whole story to the world. Hotchkiss, still haunted by the memory of his daughter, who"d died because of events here. And Witt, who"d known the Grove to its length and breadth, but never to its depth, and was getting here a fundamental vision of the town he"d loved like a wife. There was another call from Hotchkiss, this one more welcome.
"There"s a ledge down here," he said. "We can rest up a while." One by one they climbed down to join him. The ledge was wet, and narrow, only just affording s.p.a.ce to accommodate them all. They perched there in silence. Grillo pulled a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket, and lit up.
"Thought you"d given up," Tesla remarked.
"So did I," he said. He pa.s.sed the cigarette over to her. She took a lungful, savoring it, then pa.s.sed it back to Grillo.
"Do we have any idea of how far down we have to go?" Witt asked.
Hotchkiss shook his head.
"But there is a bottom down there somewhere."
"Can"t even say that."
Witt went down on his haunches and scrabbled around on the ledge.
"What are you looking for?" Tesla said.
He stood up again with the answer. A piece of rock the size of a tennis ball, which he tossed out into the darkness. There was silence for several seconds, then the sound of it striking the rock face below, shattering, and its pieces rattling away in all directions. It took a long time for the echoes to die, making it near impossible to tell anything about the distance below them.
"Good try," Grillo said. "It works in the movies."
"Wait up," Tesla said, "I hear water."
In the silence that followed her claim was verified. Water was running close by.
"Is that below us, or behind one of those walls?" Witt said. "I can"t make it out."
"Could be both," Hotchkiss said. "There"s two things that can stop us getting all the way down. A simple blockage, and water. If the system becomes flooded there"s no way we can go on."
"Let"s not get pessimistic," Tesla said. "Let"s just go on."
"We already seem to have been here hours," Witt remarked.
"Time"s different down here," Hotchkiss said. "We don"t have the usual signals. Sun pa.s.sing overhead."
"I don"t tell the time by the sun."
"Your body does."
Grillo started to light up his second cigarette, but Hotchkiss said: "No time," and started to ease himself over the lip of the shelf. The drop was by no means straight down. Had it been, their lack of experience and equipment would have thrown them down the shaft after a few feet of the descent. But it was steep enough, and got steadily steeper, some stretches offering cracks and handholds that made for relatively easy progress, other stretches sheer, slippery and treacherous. These they descended almost inch by inch, Hotchkiss signalling to Witt where the best opportunities lay, Witt pa.s.sing the message on to Tesla, and so on to Grillo. They kept such comments terse: breath and concentration were now at a premium.
They were just reaching the end of one such stretch when Hotchkiss called a halt.
"What is it?" Tesla said, looking down at him. The answer was one grim word.
"Vance," he said.
She heard Witt say oh Jesus in the darkness.
"We"re at the bottom then," Grillo said.
"No," came the reply, "just another ledge."
"s.h.i.t."
"Is there a way around it?" Tesla called.
"Give me time," Hotchkiss snapped back, his voice betraying the shock he felt.
There was what seemed to be several minutes (but was probably less than one) during which they clung to whatever handhold they had while Hotchkiss surveyed the routes available to them. With one selected, he called them to begin the descent afresh.
The lack of light the torches offered had been galling, but now they offered too much. As the other three climbed past the ledge it was impossible not to look its way. There, sprawled on the glistening rock, was a bundle of dead meat. The man"s head had cracked on the rock like a dropped egg. His limbs were bent back on themselves every which way, the bones surely broken from joint to joint. One hand was laid on the nape of his neck, palm up. The other was just in front of his face, its fingers a little open, as though he was playing hide and seek.
The sight was a reminder, if one were needed, of what a single slip on the descent might result in. They proceeded even more cautiously thereafter.
The sound of rushing water had diminished for a while but now it began afresh. This time it wasn"t muted by the rock wall. It was clearly below them. They continued down towards it, taking time every ten feet or so for Hotchkiss to survey the darkness below them. He had nothing to report until the fourth such halt, when he called back over the din of water that there was good news and bad. The good, that the shaft ended here. The bad, that it was flooded.
"Is there no solid ground down there?" Tesla wanted to know.
"Not much," Hotchkiss replied. "And none of it looks reliable."
"We can"t just climb straight back up," Tesla returned.
"No?" came the reply.
"No," she insisted. "We"ve come all this way."
"He"s not down here," Hotchkiss yelled back.
"I want to see that for myself."
He didn"t reply, though she pictured him cursing her in the darkness. After a few moments, however, he began the descent again. The din of the water became so loud any further conversation was out of the question, until they were finally gathered at the bottom, and could stand close to each other.
Hotchkiss had reported right. The small platform at the bottom of the shaft was no more than a collection of detritus, which the torrent was rapidly carrying away.
"This is recent," Hotchkiss said. As if to lend force to the observation the wall through which the flood broke crumbled a little more as he spoke, the force of water bearing a sizeable portion of it off into the roaring darkness. The water beat itself against the bank upon which they were standing with renewed gusto.
"If we"re not out of here quick," yelled Witt over the din of the flood, "we"re going to get washed away."
"I think we should begin back up," Hotchkiss agreed. "We"ve got a long climb ahead of us. We"re all cold and tired."
"Wait!" Tesla protested.
"He"s not here!" replied Witt.
"I don"t believe that."
"What do you propose, Miss Bombeck?" Hotchkiss yelled.
"Well we can start by giving the Bombeck s.h.i.t a rest, OK? Isn"t it possible this stream"s going to trickle out eventually?"
"Maybe. After a few hours. Meanwhile we"ll freeze to death while we wait. And even if it stops-"
"Yes?"
"Even if it stops we haven"t got any clue which direction the Jaff went." Hotchkiss played his torch-beam around the shaft. It was only just strong enough to strike the four walls, but it was clear there were several tunnels leading off from this spot. "Want to make a guess?" Hotchkiss hollered.
The prospect of failure rose up and took a good long look at Tesla. She ignored it as best she could, but it was tough. She"d been too hopeful, thinking the Jaff would be simply sitting-like a frog in a well-waiting for them. He could have taken any one of the tunnels on the other side of the torrent. Some were probably cul-de-sacs; others led off to dry caverns. But even if they could walk on water (and she was out of practice) which would they choose? She put on her torch in order to scan the tunnels herself, but her fingers were numb with cold, and as she fumbled to turn the torch on it slid from her grasp, hitting the rock and rolling towards the water. She reached down to keep from losing it, and almost lost her balance with it, her foot-perched on the eroding edge of the platform-sliding across the wet rock. Grillo reached for her, s.n.a.t.c.hing hold of her belt, and pulling her upright. The torch went into the water. She watched it go, then turned to thank him, but the look of alarm on his face diverted her eyes to the ground beneath her and her thanks to a shout of alarm. Even that never came, as the flood had its way with their little beach of rocks, finding a keystone that, once washed away, brought the capitulation of the rest.
She saw Hotchkiss fling himself at the shaft wall to find a purchase before the water took them. But he wasn"t quick enough. The ground went from under him, under them all, and they were pitched into the brutally cold water. It was as violent as it was cold, seizing them in an instant and carrying them away, throwing them back and forth in a dark blur of hard water and harder rock.
Tesla managed to grab hold of somebody"s arm in the torrent, Grillo"s she thought. She managed to hold on for fully two seconds-no mean achievement-then a curve in the pa.s.sage threw the torrent into fresh fits, and they were pulled apart. There was a pa.s.sage of total confusion, the water a frenzy, then-suddenly-it became still, as it broke out into a wide, shallow place, its speed slowing sufficiently for Tesla to lay her arms out to either side of her and steady herself. There was no light whatsoever, but she felt the weight of the other bodies on the rope, and heard Grillo gasping behind her.
"Still alive?" she said.
"Just."
"Witt? Hotchkiss? You there?"
There was a moan from Witt, and from Hotchkiss an answering holler.
"I dreamed this..." she heard Witt say. "I dreamed I swam."
She didn"t want to think about what it might mean for them all if Witt had dreamed of swimming-of Quiddity-but the thought was there anyhow. Three times to the dream-sea: at birth, in love, and on death"s door.
"I dreamed this..." he said again, more softly now.
Before she could hush his prophecies she realized the speed of the water had picked up again, and there was a growing roar from the darkness ahead.
"Oh s.h.i.t," she said.
"What?" Grillo yelled.
The water was really moving now, the din louder and louder.
"Waterfall," she said.
There was a tug on the rope, and a yell from Hotchkiss, not of warning but of horror. She had time to think pretend it"s Disneyland then the tug became a hard pull and her black world tipped. The water encased her, a straitjacket of ice which pressed breath and consciousness out of her. When she came to Hotchkiss was hauling her face clear of the water. The cataract they"d ridden down was roaring beside them, its fury turning the water white. It didn"t register that she could see, not until Grillo surfaced beside them, spluttering, and said: "Light!"
"Where"s Witt?" Hotchkiss gasped. "Where"s Witt?"
They scanned the surface of the pool they"d been delivered into. There was no sign of him. There was, however, solid ground. They swam for it as best they could; ragged, desperate strokes which brought them to dry rock. Hotchkiss was first out, and dragged her out after him. The rope between them had snapped somewhere on the ride. Her body was a numb, shuddering weight, and she could barely move it.
"Anything broken?" Hotchkiss said.
"I don"t know," she said.
"We"re done for now," Grillo murmured. "Jesus, we"re in the bowels of the f.u.c.king earth."
"There"s light coming from somewhere," Tesla gasped. She mustered what sc.r.a.ps of muscle-power she had to raise her head from the rock and look for the source of the light. The motion told her things weren"t well with her. There was a spasm in her neck, which ran down to her shoulder. She yelped.
"Hurt?" Hotchkiss said.