Michael Vey 9, page 12
“I can give you some light,” McKenna said. She reached her hand into the hole and lit up the cavern. We could see Cristiano below treading water.
“Come on down,” he shouted, his voice echoing in the cavern. “It is not easy to swim in a Chasqui uniform and boots.”
Ostin put his legs into the hole and dropped down into the water. He was followed by Ian, McKenna, then me. McKenna had illuminated the entire cavern, which was larger than it looked from above—about the size of my parents’ living room at home. The water was cool and comfortable.
Zeus and Nichelle leaned over the opening and looked down at us.
“How’s the rectum?” Nichelle asked.
“Wet,” I said.
“I’m dropping down the packs,” Zeus said.
He dropped the first pack into the water. I caught it, and it initially pulled me under. I swam back up, struggling with the weight.
“It’s heavier than I thought.”
“That’s the pack with grenades,” he said.
“I can tell,” I said, struggling to stay afloat.
“Here’s the second one,” Zeus said. “It’s water for McKenna and C4. It weighs almost as much as the first pack.”
“It won’t in water,” Ostin said. “The water will equalize, and the C4 is foamed, so it floats.”
“Whatever,” Zeus said. He dropped the second pack. Ostin was right, of course. It sank into the water, then popped back up. Ostin grabbed the pack.
“Where to?” I asked Cristiano.
“The entrance is over here.”
“Off to the colon,” Nichelle said from above.
“Thanks, Nichelle,” I said.
“I see it,” Ian said. “It’s about five feet down. It leads to another chamber.”
“That is the way into the cave,” Cristiano said. “Once you swim through it, you go up into an air pocket. The tunnel into the cave is on the opposite wall. It only has a foot of water in it. We will have to crawl through it.”
“How long is the tunnel?” McKenna asked.
“About fifty yards. The last twenty feet should be dry. We must be careful once we reach the tunnel entrance,” Cristiano said. “There should not be anyone there, but it is possible.”
“Ian will let us know if anyone is around,” I said.
We took turns swimming down through the passage, then popping up on the other side. It was nearly pitch-black. The only light came from our skin and the dim glow from the cavern we’d just come from.
Cristiano swam to the tunnel and crawled in. We followed him, single file, with Cristiano, me, and Ian in front, then Ostin and McKenna. The tunnel was about three feet in diameter with sand in the bottom, easy enough to crawl through.
McKenna kept the tunnel lit until we were all in. Then she cut her light back just enough so we could still see where we were going.
“Can they see her light?” I asked Cristiano.
“There is a bend in the tunnel near the end, so we are okay until then.”
We crawled for about ten minutes more before the water receded and we came to a slight jog in the tunnel.
“Tell McKenna no light,” I said to Ian. “Pass it back.” A moment later the tunnel went dark. “Ian, you’ll need to guide us,” I said. “Come ahead of me.”
Ian crawled around and ahead of me but was still behind Cristiano, who had spent enough time in the tunnel to know where he was. As we progressed, the tunnel increased in diameter until it was tall enough for us to walk, stooped at first, then completely upright.
“Watch your head,” Ian warned. “There are small stalagmites.”
I passed the message back.
“Tell Ian they’re stalactites,” Ostin said from behind me. “Stalagmites are on the ground. You’d have to be walking on your hands.”
I didn’t pass along his message. Before long we reached the end of the tunnel and climbed out into the larger cave.
“How do we find our way back to this tunnel?” I whispered.
“There is only one other tunnel down here,” Cristiano said. “And it only goes ten meters.” He reached over and touched the stone wall next to the tunnel. “I marked this one.”
In the light of my own glow, I could see where he had carved a dinner-plate-sized letter C.
“Which way?” I asked Cristiano.
“Right will lead us up to the supply and utility room.”
“Where does the left path go?”
“It ends after twenty meters. I went there once, and I could hear the guards in the prison, so that is what is behind the walls. Maybe McKenna could melt through them.”
“They’d see us on their cameras and attack,” I said. “We’ll stick to the original plan. Up to the command center.”
As we walked through the cave, the only sound was the squish-squash of our water-filled boots. We could see the supply room door from a distance, since light came from the space underneath it.
“Is anyone inside?” I asked Ian.
“It’s vacant,” he said.
I opened the door. The room was brightly lit by fluorescent lighting. It was large, filled with rows of metal shelving stacked with plastic bins. Against one wall there were two five-thousand-gallon stainless steel tanks. We could hear the constant sound of air being pushed through the vents.
“That must be the ventilation,” I said to Cristiano.
Cristiano nodded. “The utility room is on the other side of the supply room. There is a large cooling unit and many filters. The electricity and air come in from the outside vents.”
I stepped back out into the tunnel.
“Where is the command center?”
“It is just ahead. It is that door.”
There was a single metal door about thirty feet in front of us.
“Ian, can you see what’s inside?”
“Yes. There are two guards.”
“Are they armed?”
“No.”
“That’s surprising,” I said.
“Not so much. There are at least fifty armed guards in the room in front of them, so they probably don’t see any threat.”
We walked another twenty feet to the control room’s back metal door.
I grabbed the knob and tried to turn it. “It’s locked,” I whispered.
“Here,” Ostin said, taking from his pocket one of the magnetic keys we’d taken from the guards on the trail. “Try the key.”
I held the key up to the door. The light turned red. “It’s not for this.”
“I could melt the lock,” McKenna said.
“Or we could blow it with the C4,” Ian suggested.
“I have a better idea.” I knocked on the door.
Cristiano’s eyes grew wide. “What are you doing?”
Suddenly the doorknob turned. Then the door opened. A large Peruvian guard stood in the entrance. From the look on his face, I doubted that this door was ever used.
“Qué desea?”
I was still holding the other side of the doorknob, and I pulsed. He yelped in pain before hitting the floor. His partner was looking at us. I pulsed again, slamming him against his console. The row of monitors above the console briefly flickered, then came back online. I stepped into the room. “Tie them up.”
“With what?” Cristiano said. It was a good point. We didn’t have any handcuffs, and I’d left our only rope with Zeus.
“Find something,” I said.
While Ian and Cristiano dragged the man away from the console, I checked the front door of the room and locked it, then looked back at the first man I had shocked. He was still lying on his back, unconscious.
“You hit him with a lot,” Ostin said.
“I think he hit his head on the wall,” I said.
There were no windows in the control room, just rows of screens. It was exactly as I’d hoped. We could see everything, and no one could see us.
Cristiano and McKenna went back out to the supply room to find something to tie them up with. They returned with four rolls of duct tape. We put tape over the guards’ mouths and eyes, wrapping it around their heads until they looked like mummies swaddled in silver gauze. We taped their hands behind their backs and their legs together, then dragged them to the corner of the room.
“You just knocked on the door,” Ian said with a chuckle, as if he’d just gotten the joke.
“It usually works,” I said. I squatted down next to the two guards, both of whom were now conscious. Then I put my hands on their shoulders. “I want you to feel something.” I shocked the two men hard enough that their bodies strained at their bonds. “That was a small jolt. If you make a sound, if you try to escape, I will electrocute you. Nod if you understand.”
Only one of them nodded. I put my hand on the other and was about to pulse again when Cristiano said, “I think this one does not speak English.” He translated what I had said to the man, and the guard nodded emphatically.
“All right,” I said. “Put tape over their ears too. I don’t want them hearing anything either.”
McKenna put a strip of tape over their ears, then wrapped tape around their heads a few more times.
There were three large screens above us, with nine video images on each screen. Two monitors were of night-vision cameras outside the facility. The other showed various rooms around the cave, including the barracks, where most of the guards were sitting on their cots in various stages of undress.
What I was looking for was Taylor and Tara. I was also looking for Jack, figuring he’d be in Chasqui uniform, but taller and whiter than most of them. I didn’t see any of them.
“Why isn’t the prison showing up on the screens?” I asked. “Ostin, can you figure out the console?”
“Simple enough. Looks like it came from RadioShack.” A moment later he looked back at me. “This panel controls water pumps and sewage. The biggest panel controls all the lights around the facility. This panel controls electric locks. And this portion controls ventilation.
“And this panel with the little toggle switches controls the movements of each camera. It looks like there are fifty-four individual cameras, but we can only see twenty-seven images. But if I push this…”
Suddenly all the images on the monitors changed. There, on the central monitor, were Taylor and Tara. Though, from their positions I couldn’t tell who was who. They were being kept in separate cells, and both were wearing RESAT vests. They were clearly in pain. Seeing it made me want to go after Amash right then.
“Are those bats hanging from the ceiling?” McKenna asked.
“Looks like it,” I said. “Ostin, what about the controls for the RESATs?”
Ostin looked a moment, then said, “Seeing how the Electroclan had already fled the jungle when Amash started his tricks, RESATs wouldn’t have been high on his list. It was probably an add-on to the system.” He spun around in his chair, then said, “There they are. On the wall.”
There was a series of black dials, each numbering from zero to ten. They were all set to zero except for two. One was set to four, the other six.
I turned them both off, then looked back to the screen. Even though they were both lying down, I could see their bodies relax.
There was a ring of white-coated keys hanging below the dials. I guessed they were the keys to the vests. I had learned that even when the vests were turned off, taking them off without the keys could be fatal.
As Ostin was poring over the monitor, a voice snapped over the speaker.
“Control, adjust the palace room to sixty-nine degrees, twenty-five percent humidity.”
Cristiano stepped up to the speaker where the voice had come from. “Yes, Sovereign.”
I looked at him. “That was Amash?”
“The sovereign himself.”
On the screen, Taylor sat up in her bed. She looked confused and afraid.
“Let’s go get them,” I said. “Can you unlock the doors from here?”
“If I knew the room numbers,” Ostin said.
“I can help,” Cristiano said. He looked over the buttons. “There are two ways to get to the jail. There is a door at the back of the guards’ room, and there is one through the supply room. The prison door is locked from the outside. The guards can open the door with a magnetic key.”
“Not if we weld it shut,” I said. “Can they get in here?”
He shook his head. “Only the guards for the control room have the key. They trade it off at each shift. That is the protocol.”
“That’s good for us,” I said. “McKenna, while I free the girls, I want you to weld the guardroom door shut. Ian, stay with her, so you can warn her if some guards come.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Cristiano, you and Ostin keep this room. We’ll be right back. Hopefully.”
McKenna, Ian, and I walked back out the door we’d come in, then less than ten meters down the opposite side of the supply tunnel to another thick metal door. There was a sign on it that read CÁRCEL. As we approached, I could hear the door click unlocked.
“Ostin found the lock,” I said.
We stepped into the prison. The lights inside flickered and buzzed, though I think it might have been designed that way for effect.
“There’s your door,” I said to Ian and McKenna, pointing to the door leading to the guards’ barracks. While they went to weld the door shut, I walked down to the cells.
There were at least six cells, and the locks on all the doors clicked simultaneously.
Good job, Ostin, I thought, giving a thumbs-up to the camera. Taylor was in the second cell, lying on the cot. There were hundreds of bats hanging above her.
As I opened the cell door, several of the bats flew toward me. I shocked them out of the air like a bug zapper. Taylor looked up at the sound.
“Michael?” Her voice was hoarse. She weakly brushed her matted hair out of her face. “Is it really… Is this a trick?”
I put my finger over my lips to quiet her, then said softly, “Let’s get you out of here.” I threw my arms around her. She was trembling.
“I’m so sorry I did this. I thought I could save Tara.”
“You did.”
I put the key into her RESAT vest and unlocked it, threw it to the floor, and then helped her stand up. Her legs were wobbly, and she could barely make it to the cell door. Once we were outside, I said, “Lean against the bars for a minute. I’ll get Tara.”
Tara was in the last cell of the tunnel. She was lying on her cot, staring at the door, her eyes glazed. There were piles of white bat guano all over her clothing and body. She didn’t move, even when I opened her cell door and walked in next to her. For a moment I feared she was dead.
“Tara?”
She didn’t move for almost a minute. Then she slowly blinked and looked at me. Her face was nearly purple, and her eyes were glassy. I guessed that her RESAT was the one set to six.
“What have they done to you?”
She didn’t speak. She looked almost catatonic.
“Come on, I’ll help you.”
When I put my hands on her to lift her, she let out a short squeal: “RESAT!”
“It’s okay, we’ve shut it off. Here.” I took out the keys. I unlocked her vest and took it off, then threw it into the corner of the room.
“Come on, we need to go.”
“Abigail,” she said softly. That’s when I knew just how bad a shape she was in. It’s like they had broken her.
“Abi’s not with us.”
“Abi…”
“I’ll carry you.” I lifted her to her feet, then put her over my shoulder. I couldn’t believe how little she weighed. The last time I’d seen her was in Boise. I didn’t know if they were starving her or if she’d been unable to eat with the RESAT set so high, but she’d lost at least twenty pounds.
I carried her out to Taylor and put my arm around Taylor so she could lean against me. Then the three of us started back to the tunnel.
“We’ve got a problem, Michael,” Ian shouted to me. “There are guards coming, and McKenna’s not done.”
Despite the approaching guards, McKenna couldn’t hold back her emotion when she saw the girls. “Taylor? Tara? You’re really here.”
“McKenna,” I shouted. “Heat the doorknob.”
“Sorry.” She turned back. Her hand turned bright red.
There was a shout of pain from the other side of the door.
“Ian, come get the girls. I’ll help McKenna.”
He ran over and took Tara from me, then reached out to Taylor.
“I can walk,” Taylor said, steadying herself against the cave wall. “Just take care of Tara.”
“Keep welding,” I said to McKenna. I put my hand against the door and pulsed as hard as I could. There was another shout of pain. It only took another thirty seconds before the door was glowing red and the lock was fused.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
McKenna and I ran back out the first door we’d come in through. I pushed it shut.
“Do you want me to seal this one too?” McKenna asked.
“Yes. I’ll get you some water.”
“I’ll get some,” Ostin said, his head sticking out of the control room.
“Give it to Tara first,” McKenna said.
Ian sat Tara down on the ground, then sat down next to her, pulling her hair back from her face.
“You’re going to be okay,” he said.
She still didn’t respond.
Ostin came out of the control room with water bottles that must have belonged to the Chasqui. He handed one to Ian, then gave the second to McKenna. Ian lifted the back of Tara’s head and helped her drink.
Ostin gave the third bottle to Taylor. She immediately guzzled the whole of it. When it was gone, she said, “Could I have some more?”
“All you want.” I went into the control room, found more bottles, and brought three back. I gave one to Taylor, one to Ian, and then the other to Ostin for McKenna, who was still welding the door.
Taylor finished the second bottle, then breathed out heavily. “Thank you.”
“How long has it been since you had something to drink?” I asked.
“I don’t know. There’s no time down here. No night or day. No clocks. Just pain.”
“No one will ever hurt you again,” I said.
