The Mad and the MacAbre (25 page)

“
You’ve lost your mind,”
Kelsey said.

“
Give me the
backpack.”

Kelsey pulled off the backpack and thrust it
at Cavenaugh, who opened it and dumped the contents onto the ground
at his feet. He removed his jacket and shoved it in, then followed
with a light jacket, a sweater, and a flannel shirt, until he was
down to a single undershirt.

“
What are you doing?” Jess
asked.

“
We know there’s a cavern
underneath this mountain,” he said as he slipped out of his boots,
then his snow pants and jeans. “We also know that the
geothermally-heated water flows into this spring from somewhere.
The footprints are coming out of the water, and we know that no one
could survive very long out here if they were sopping
wet.”

Cavenaugh now stood before them in only his
undershirt, long johns, and a single pair of socks. The rest of his
clothes were stuffed into the zipped backpack.

“
You’re going to freeze to
death if you do this,” Gabriel said.

“
Someone just did this
exact thing before we got here. There has to be a way to warm up,
or at least dry off, inside the cavern.” Cavenaugh shrugged. “Worst
case scenario, I’ll have to sit in this spring until help arrives
if I’m wrong.”

“
Are you willing to take
that chance?” Kelsey asked. “You know that could exacerbate your
condition.”

Cavenaugh cast him a sharp look.

“
What condition?” Jess
asked.

“
It’s no one’s business but
my own.”

“
The former Detective
Cavenaugh here has esophageal cancer.”

“
Former detective?” Gabriel
asked.

“
You didn’t really think
any of this was sanctioned by the police, do you?” Kelsey asked.
“The assault rifles, the communications system, the gear. Do you
think the Denver Police Department just opened up the armory for
Cavenaugh’s little shopping spree?”

“
We don’t have time to do
this now,” Cavenaugh said.

“
That’s why you wouldn’t
let me call the police,” Jess said. “You lied to us and jeopardized
all of our lives—”

“
Listen to me,” Cavenaugh
snapped. He pulled off his long underwear and socks, and stood
against the wind in nothing but a tee shirt and a pair of boxers,
visibly shivering. “That doesn’t change anything. Run away if you
want, but I, for one, intend to find out what happened to my sister
before I die. Even if it kills me.”

He donned the backpack and snatched the
rifle from Kelsey with a look that could have stopped a charging
bull. A moment later he was sliding down the icy embankment into
the spring. Two steps away from the edge, the ground fell away
beneath him, and he plunged out of sight.

***

“
Thou hast walked up and
down in the midst of the stones of fire,” Jess
whispered.

They stood at the edge of the spring,
watching the burbling surface of the pink water and the red rocks
beneath through the swirling steam. Cavenaugh had been down there
for at least three minutes, and all of them knew there was no way
he could have held his breath that long. Gabriel pictured Cavenaugh
with his feet snared in a tangle of bodies on the bottom,
struggling to free himself before finally taking that fateful
inhalation of fluid. Somewhere down there, Gabriel imagined the
stocky man’s lifeless body swaying on the current like a leaf of
kelp. Worse, if Cavenaugh’s theory had been correct, he just might
have found an underwater entrance to the cavern where the killers
waited for him. Will hadn’t been able to fire a single shot in
defense. There were no guarantees that Cavenaugh would be any
luckier. Gabriel envisioned Cavenaugh crawling out of a small pool
into a dark chamber where a shadowed form leaned over him from
behind, grabbed him by the hair, and yanked his head back to expose
his throat. A flash of steel and twin arterial sprays painted the
walls.

Gabriel scrutinized the spring for any
darkening of the already reddish water, half-expecting a rush of
crimson from the intake that would dissipate—

The crown of a head broke the surface and
there was a loud gasp.

Gabriel nearly squeezed off a shot, would
have had his hands not been shaking so badly.

Cavenaugh paddled toward them, but as soon
as his back crested the water, he thought better of it. The barrel
of the rifle pointed over his right shoulder as the broken wing of
an angel might. The strap crossed his chest. Steam twirled from his
head in the cold air like a recently extinguished candle.

“
I was right,” he said,
still panting for breath. “There’s a tunnel down there. Leads right
out from the bottom. Barely wider than my shoulders, but it
goes…all the way into the cavern. Without light, I can’t…can’t tell
how big it is, but I’d guess it’s pretty large by the
acoustics.”

“
Was there anyone inside?”
Kelsey asked.

“
Like I said. I couldn’t
see a thing, but I could smell…” Cavenaugh paused and dunked his
head again to replenish his warmth while he formulated his words.
“There was definitely something dead in there. Once you’ve worked a
homicide, you don’t forget the smell.”

“
So what now?” Gabriel
asked.

“
We do some spelunking.”
Now that Cavenaugh had regained his breath, his smile returned. “I
don’t know what kind of geothermal vents heat that cavern, but it’s
like a sauna in there. The backpacks are waterproof, so we can
carry all our clothes through the tunnel and change once we’re in
there. I already dumped mine.”

He produced the empty backpack and tossed it
at Kelsey’s feet.

“
You’re crazy if you think
I’m going in there,” Kelsey said.

“
Fine. Stay here. I’m going
back in regardless. How about you two?”

Gabriel opened his mouth under Cavenaugh’s
intense gaze, but no words came out. The prospect scared the hell
out of him. He heard a zipper behind him and turned to see Jess
shrug out of her coat.

“
I’ll go,” she
whispered.

“
Gabriel?” Cavenaugh
asked.

Gabriel stared down at the rifle for a long
moment before passing it to Kelsey. He reached for the zipper on
his coat with trembling hands.

“
You can’t leave me out
here alone,” Kelsey said.

“
It’s your choice, doctor,”
Cavenaugh said. His grin now had teeth.

“
What if they come back?
How could I possibly—?”

“
If I’m right, they’re
already inside. You’ll have nothing to fear unless they get past
the rest of us.”

“
You think they’re in
there, waiting for you, and you still want to go in after them?
After they’ve already proven their willingness to kill?”

Cavenaugh’s face remained stoic.

“
You’ve lost
it.”

“
The floor of the tunnel is
littered with bones, Kelsey, and the current runs directly toward
the end of the spring over there where all the rest are piled. Are
you following my logic? If you want to figure out what happened to
Levi…the only way to do so is by going in there.”

“
Where there are people
waiting to butcher us.”

“
The rifles are waterproof
as well.”

“
I don’t share your death
wish. I have a wife, and a respectable practice—”

“
Suit yourself,” Cavenaugh
said.

Gabriel stood in his underwear and tee
shirt, the rest of his clothing stuffed in the backpack beside his
socked feet. He shivered and his teeth chattered. What in the name
of God was he thinking?

“
Make sure to pack both
flare guns,” Cavenaugh said. “We’re going to need them.”

Gabriel wedged the bulky gun and spare
cartridges into the bag and zipped it closed again. The frigid wind
felt as though it blew right through him. The time had come to
decide. Either he unpacked his clothes and got dressed again before
he froze to death, or he forced his legs to propel him forward into
the water. Jess emerged from his peripheral vision in only her bra
and panties, a mismatched set of pink and white, and slid down the
rocks into the water, dragging her backpack by the strap. She waded
out a couple steps and dropped into the deep water with a startled
cry. A heartbeat later, she returned to the surface, coughing and
spitting out the vile liquid.

One step at a time, Gabriel eased closer to
the spring. He felt a sense of detachment, as though he had somehow
separated from his body and were merely watching himself inching
toward the spring from afar. At the edge of the bank, he lowered
himself to his rear end and slid down into the water. He scooted
forward to the edge of the rocks and plunged into the depths. About
eight feet down, his feet met the bottom, which he used as leverage
to launch himself back up into the cold air.

“
The opening to the tunnel
is pretty much right under us,” Cavenaugh said. “It’s roughly
fifteen feet long and the current will be pushing you right in the
face. You’re going to need to take the biggest breath you can hold
and use your arms to pull you through.”

“
What about the backpacks?”
Jess asked.

“
Loop the straps around
your ankle.”

“
What if it gets stuck?”
Gabriel asked.

“
Then ditch it and we’ll go
back for it.”

“
What if—?”

“
It’s now or never,”
Cavenaugh said. “Follow me if you want, or stay if you don’t. At
this point, I don’t care. Either way, I’m going now.”

He took a deep breath and was about to dive
under when Kelsey spoke.

“
Wait.”

***

Gabriel waited a moment after Jess dove,
drew as much air as his lungs could hold, and dove under the water.
The salt content stung his eyes so badly he could barely keep them
open, but he managed to see Jess’s feet before they disappeared
into the rocky mouth of the tunnel. The red bacterial sludge grew
over everything, covering the uneven rocks and the scattered,
strangely shaped objects he assumed were bones. He couldn’t help
but wonder about the consequences of exposing his bare eyeballs and
the sensitive membranes to the foreign microorganisms.

Gripping the stones at the edge of the
opening, he pulled himself ahead into utter darkness. His shoulders
scraped against the walls, ripping his shirt. The skin on his
fingertips threatened to peel away and he was certain he was going
to lose a nail, but the pain was nothing compared to the pressure
in his lungs. He already needed to take a breath. It felt like his
chest was full of smoldering coals. The irrational panic cut
through what little semblance of control remained, and he began to
thrash. Tearing open the skin on his elbows and knees, on his scalp
and toes. Colored amoebae floated across his vision and the entire
tunnel rotated around him. He clawed forward, faster and faster,
not caring if he flayed every inch of flesh from his bones, until
his head slammed into something hard.

Gabriel opened his mouth to scream.
Something struck his back between his shoulder blades and jerked
him upward. He sputtered with the influx of air, retched, then
rolled away from the opening and vomited onto the stone floor.

“
Shh!” Cavenaugh hissed
into his ear.

Gabriel continued to gasp until he calmed
down and rationalized the situation. The darkness in the cavern was
lighter than the underwater tunnel by degree, but only enough to
limn the silhouettes of the others. His harsh breath echoed
hollowly in the large, unseen room.

“
Hurry back,” Cavenaugh
whispered.

With a soft splash, Jess crawled down into
the water and headed back for Kelsey. She was obviously a better
swimmer and had handled the journey far better than he had.

Gabriel sat up and tried to get a feel for
his surroundings. The blackness was claustrophobic, and even though
he couldn’t see the stone walls, he felt confident they were about
to collapse and bury him alive.

There was a rustling noise, then a metallic
snapping sound.

“
This won’t last long,”
Cavenaugh whispered. “Memorize everything you see.”

Gabriel wasn’t sure what Cavenaugh meant
until with a whoosh and a scream, a fireball streaked off into the
darkness with a startling flash.

***

The resultant glow stained the room orange
from where the ball of fire burned against the stone wall ahead and
to the left. Already it was beginning to fizzle and fade. Gabriel
was shocked by the sheer enormity of the cavern, which more closely
resembled a highway tunnel through a mountain than any sort of
natural formation. The walls were smooth, with few outcroppings,
and rounded to create an elliptical room perhaps twenty-five feet
wide, but only a dozen feet high. It almost appeared man-made.
Beyond the leading edge of the fading light, a section of the roof
and walls had collapsed into a pile of rubble.

Gabriel tried to absorb every detail before
the crackling flame extinguished. Rivulets of water trickled down
the walls and dripped to the ground from the condensation above. A
small channel of water cut through the middle of the floor, whisper
quiet, and emptied into the pool from which they’d emerged. There
was a stack of red aluminum containers to the right, presumably
what they’d heard the rock strike from the hole through which the
cat had crawled. They were rusted and dented, but one still bore
the faded letters KER SENE. The smooth stone floor beside the small
stream was wet and sloppy. Maybe it was the orange glare, but the
long smear that led deeper into the tunnel glimmered scarlet.