The Bone Labyrinth (14 page)

The second Jet Ski swung in the opposite direction, its bright headlamp turning it into a star shooting across the dark lake.

They’re trying to flank us.

Gray grit his teeth. If their Zodiac got pinned down between the two Jet Skis, they were doomed. Aboard the boat, he had the only weapon and could defend only one side at a time. He needed help.

Firing one-armed at the brightly lit craft, Gray pointed with his other hand.

“Fredrik! Stay low, but keep us ahead of those two!”

The mountaineer proved to be made of strong mettle. He rolled to the engine and gunned it. The Zodiac sped forward, trying to outrun the two Jet Skis.

Gray dove low to the starboard pontoon and continued to fire at the brighter craft, but the driver of the other Jet Ski—the one with the broken headlamp—had regained his composure. Rifle blasts rose from that direction. Rounds pelted the pontoon on that side. The whistle of escaping air announced a new threat.

Even if he and Fredrik avoided getting shot, the Zodiac might not survive.

Gray returned his attention to that dark Jet Ski. He had to get that bastard to back off. He raised his weapon—but fresh gunfire came from a new direction. Muzzle flashes flared among the trio of lights at the edge of the cavern.

Someone over there has a gun, someone who must have encountered these masked assailants before.

The dark Jet Ski swung around to face this new threat, firing toward the cavern wall. Two of the lights vanished, dropping out of sight. Rifle blasts continued to echo from over there. Gray knew whoever had come to his defense was too exposed and could not hold out for long.

Still, the brave effort offered him a breath to deal with the other watercraft.

Gray twisted back around. By now the brightly lit Jet Ski had caught up with them and rode alongside their boat. He cursed the smaller watercraft’s speed and nimbleness. He aimed carefully. By his count, he was down to two rounds and had to make them count.

“Hold on!” Fredrik yelled.

Before he could object, Fredrik cut the engine. The boat slowed, then jerked hard as Fredrik kicked the propellers into reverse.

Out on the lake, Gray’s target raced ahead, then swung across their bow with a rooster tail of water spraying high.

Damn it . . .

Gray’s worst fear had come to pass.

Their Zodiac was now pinned between the two Jet Skis—one in front, one in back. As if giving up, Fredrik continued to chug them in reverse.

“What are you doing?” Gray called out.

Behind him, the gun battle along the cavern wall had ended. Whoever had tried to help them had either been killed or driven into hiding. Free now, the dark Jet Ski sped toward them, a hawk falling upon a wounded prey.

Gray turned to Fredrik, but the man was grinning savagely.

A scream rose from beyond the bow, from the direction of the brightly glowing Jet Ski. Gray peered over the pontoon. The enemy’s craft spun within a deep depression in the lake, sucked into the maw of a large whirlpool. Its tidal forces proved too fierce for the small engine.

As Gray watched, the Jet Ski capsized and was dragged down into the depths, along with its two passengers. The beam of its headlamp glowed out of the depths for another breath—then was gone.

Gray now understood Fredrik’s maneuver. He had led the enemy straight down the throat of the monster Charybdis.

But there was still one other threat.

Gray turned and aimed toward the remaining Jet Ski, taking advantage of its driver’s momentary shock. But before Gray could fire, a new volley of gun blasts erupted from the cavern wall.

Aboard the Jet Ski, the rifleman seated in the back toppled sideways, splashing heavily into the lake.

That takes care of one . . .

Gray cradled his SIG Sauer between his palms and squeezed his trigger two times.

The faceplate of the driver’s helmet shattered, and his head jerked back twice from the double tap of slugs. Then his body fell limply over his controls. Left unguided, the Jet Ski flew past the Zodiac and into the heart of Charybdis, where moments later it joined its companion in the watery grave.

“Turn us around!” Gray twisted and pointed to the cluster of lights along the cavern wall. “Let’s get them and get the hell out of here!”

Fredrik studied the deflated section of pontoon, then turned to the river flooding through the tunnel. “That’s if we can.”

6:33
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Lena huddled in the middle of the boat. Her ears still rang from all the gunfire. She tried not to stare as Roland bandaged a deep laceration on Gerard’s upper arm. The French soldier had stripped off his jacket after hopping aboard the idling boat. The wound was not from a gunshot, but from a shard of blasted rock that had grazed him.

“If it hadn’t been for your support, we wouldn’t have made it,” their rescuer told Gerard, motioning to the rifle. “That was some good shooting.”

He had introduced himself as Commander Gray Pierce, a military adjunct of DARPA, if she understood him correctly. But she was beyond caring
who
rescued her, as long as they helped her escape this subterranean hellhole.

Gerard reached over and tugged his weapon closer. “I owed them . . . for my men.”

Gray nodded, his face stern, plainly understanding the loyalty of a unit.

The boat’s pilot—a local named Fredrik—throttled the engine up. He wore a worried expression that kept her heart thudding heavily in her chest. As they sped across the lake, she shifted farther away from the sagging section of pontoon. By the time they neared the mouth of the river tunnel, they were flying over the water, going frighteningly fast.

“Need as much speed as possible!” the pilot hollered. “River’s a lot higher! So everyone stay low! It’s going to be a tight squeeze!”

Lena took him at his word and ducked until her helmet was even with the pontoon. Still, she spied ahead, refusing to look away.

If I’m going to die here, I’m doing it with my eyes open.

The Zodiac reached the headwaters of the river and shot into that torrent at breakneck speed. Momentum carried them through the mouth and into the tunnel, where the roaring amplified to a deafening din. The Zodiac vibrated and shook, bobbling in the current, quickly slowing under the river’s assault.

She knew what lay behind them if they lost this fight, picturing the swirl of that massive whirlpool. But what lay ahead looked no better.

Ten yards away, the river thrashed around a turn, churning with white water.

Fredrik aimed for the inside edge of the curve, where the river was less turbulent. He wrestled the boat forward as their progress slowed to a desperate crawl. He cursed in Croatian, hunkered low, forcing them forward inch by inch around the turn.

Lena stared up at the wall of raging waters that banked along the outer edge of the curve.
Oh, God, oh, God . . .

Then they were suddenly through, past the corner. The river still flowed heavily against them, trying to drive them back into that turn, but the current was not as wild.

Still, a new danger presented itself.

“Can we get through there?” Roland called out.

“We’ll have to,” Fredrik answered.

From here, the storm-flooded river filled the tunnel, rising to within a yard of the roof. To make matters worse, rocky pillars jutted down from above—
stalactites
, she realized.

The pilot had to throttle back some of his speed to help guide the boat through that jagged maze.

If we got hung up on one of those . . .

But there were other dangers lurking
under
the water. A ripping sound drew her attention to the floor. A sharp spear of rock pierced the bottom of the Zodiac, tearing a hole.

Fredrik jostled them free, but the damage was done. Water surged into the boat, swamping them.

“Use your helmets to bail!” Gray ordered. “Quickly.”

She yanked on her chin strap and tore off her headgear. Roland and Gerard did the same. They began a war with the river, scooping as fast as they could.

But even she knew it was useless.

Despite the scream of its overtaxed engine, the waterlogged Zodiac began to drift backward. She saw Gray share a look with Fredrik. The pilot gave a small shake of his head.

Then a new noise rose in volume—a familiar noise—coming from ahead of them.

The telltale throaty whine of a Jet Ski was unmistakable, echoing off the stone walls. A dark shape shot into view, led by a brilliant beam of light. The shadowy driver was ducked low, avoiding the roof, sweeping swiftly toward them.

It seemed the enemy was not done with them.

Swearing loudly, Gerard raised his rifle—but Gray pushed the barrel away.

“Don’t shoot.”

6:46
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Seichan closed in on the foundering boat.

She searched beyond it for any sign of pursuit, any sign of the two other Jet Skis. After watching the pair of enemy craft vanish into the tunnel earlier, she had scaled down the rope from the balcony to the dock, to where the abandoned third vehicle had crashed. Thankfully, the keys were still in the ignition and not tethered to the driver she had shot.

She now raced forward aboard the commandeered Jet Ski toward the Zodiac. Once there, she skidded her craft sideways and around, drawing alongside the boat. She took stock of the situation in one glance: the water filling the boat, the sunken pontoon, the screaming engine that seemed to be doing little good.

“Throw me a rope!” she ordered.

Confused faces stared back at her, but at least Gray understood.

He tossed her a mooring line. She caught it and wrapped it around a tow hook behind her seat. Gray twisted the other end of the rope in his gloved hands and braced his legs against the pontoons at the boat’s bow.

She gave him a nod and sped upriver. Once the line snapped taut behind her, she added the horsepower of her Jet Ski to the engines of the Zodiac. At first they made no progress.

C’mon, you piece of—

Then slowly the two vessels started to fight the current together. The tethered pair began a painstaking slog upriver, grappling for each hard-won yard. Finally, after what seemed like an hour, the world brightened ahead.

They’d reached the tunnel’s end. Once free, she lifted her face to the pelting rain, while lightning crackled overhead. She was never happier to be out in foul weather. She dragged the Zodiac back to its riverside dock, and after some maneuvering, got everyone off-loaded.

She then hopped off the Jet Ski—and into Gray’s arms.

He hugged her hard. “I thought I ordered you to stay here,” he whispered in her ear.

She leaned back, frowning at him. “And leave you all the fun?”

7:12
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Gray waited at the curb with the others. They huddled under a bower of trees that lined a small park. The dark bulk of Frankopan Castle shadowed the street. He wanted to be out of this damned village as quickly as possible. He didn’t know who the enemy was, but they were clearly paramilitary. This was no grab-and-snatch raid by thieves, but a well-orchestrated attack.

And I’ve had enough with running blind.

The rumble of an engine drew his attention to the street. A BMW shot wildly around the corner and braked hard to the curb. Dag sat behind the wheel, but it wasn’t the same sedan he had driven earlier. It was an SUV, a late-model X5.

“Time to go,” Dag said through the rolled-down window. “Roads are open for now, but between the police still hunting for those pub raiders and the storm over the mountain passes, best to be out of here quickly.” He reached through the window and slapped the side of the vehicle. “Borrowed this from a friend. Might need four-wheel drive to get us over the mountains to Zagreb.”

“You’re staying here,” Gray said, yanking open the driver’s door.

Dag pulled it back shut. “Do you know these roads? Who knows what’s washed out up there?” He patted his chest. “I know all the ways up and over these mountains.”

Fredrik offered some advice. “Kid’s right. You’ll want someone who knows the terrain.”

Gray looked questioningly at the mountaineer.

The man lifted both palms. “No offense, but I think I’m done playing tour guide for you all.”

Gray couldn’t fault him and nodded.

“Besides,” Fredrik said, “I’ll get Commandant Gerard the medical attention he needs.”

Gray glanced to the Frenchman. The soldier had also declined accompanying them, committed instead to staying and discovering the fate of his men. Gray had understood, knowing he would choose the same if matters were reversed. Gerard offered one promise, though: to share any knowledge he gained from his search—about the enemy or about the two kidnapped professors. Gray had given the soldier a secure number to call.

With matters settled, Gray got everyone off the street and into the waiting SUV. He took the front passenger seat, leaving the back to Seichan, Lena Crandall, and Father Novak. The plan was to head to Zagreb, where they would regroup.

After Gray said his good-byes to the other two men, they set off out of town.

Lena leaned forward from the backseat. She clutched a cell phone in her hand. Gray had already taken out the battery, fearful that the enemy might use it to locate her again.

“When is it okay to call my sister?”

“Not yet,” he warned. “For now, it’s better to let the enemy believe you’re dead.”

She leaned back, looking dissatisfied with his answer and worried about her twin.

He tried to reassure her. “Your sister is safe where she is.”

Lena sighed. “That’s true, I suppose.”

8

April 29, 1:33
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