Viper's Nest (23 page)

She reached above her to where she had seen the light, pointed the laser at the stone and flicked the switch, marvelling at the tiny sizzling sound, smelling the heat from the stone as the laser
got to work. She scribed a small semi-circle, just large enough for her to wriggle though, but still it was hard work. Then at last, miraculously, the stone wobbled and Cate put down the laser
gratefully and readied herself for the final effort.

She pushed at the stone, gently at first, and then harder as it began to move forward – and suddenly it was gone from her hands, dropping down into the chamber, where it landed with a
quiet thud.

For a second there was nothing, and then a waft of hot, stale air hit her face. ‘Amber? Jade?’ she called. ‘Is anyone there?’

Her heart sank as the silence swallowed up her voice. She tried again. ‘It’s me. Cate – Cate Carlisle. Please, can anyone hear me?’

She felt a wave of despondency wash over her and her eyes filled with tears. After all this, she was too late and four young people were dead because of it.

Then she heard a male voice, croaky – faint but alive. ‘We’re here, we’re all OK. Whoever you are, thank you.’

Cate felt her knees go weak and she clung to the wall for support. She swallowed hard, desperate to answer, too choked to talk.

Behind her she heard a grunting, shuffling noise as someone dragged themselves along the soft earth floor and a few seconds later Ritchie was in the passageway, standing up with obvious relief,
brushing the dirt from his hands and knees. He shone his torch around, picking out the chamber, the drawings, and then finally Cate.

‘Jeez, Cate,’ he exclaimed. ‘I was getting worried. Thank God you’re OK. But what the heck are you doing here in the darkness? Put your torch on.’

Darkness? Cate was puzzled, then remembered she had her night-vision lenses in.

Ritchie played his torch around the chamber. ‘And what is this place? Wow! Look at those paintings!’

He looked again at Cate and saw her face, and then within a few strides was at her side, shining his torch up at the hole, listening to the muffled cheers that were coming from the other side of
the wall.

‘You’ve found them! Oh my God, Cate. You’re a legend.’

He flung himself against the wall, pushing his head through the hole. ‘Amber, Jade – it’s me, Ritchie. Please tell me you’re OK.’

‘Hey, Ritchie,’ Cate heard Amber reply. She sounded frail and weak. ‘Boy, am I glad to see you. Please, please, get us out of here.’

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘Help is on its way. I rang my Uncle Jack.’

Cate stared at him in horror. ‘You did what?’ she whispered, trying to keep the panic from her voice.

‘I rang Uncle Jack.’ Ritchie looked puzzled. ‘He was really worried about me – and you, Cate. He’s already sent Novak down to look for you. He said I was to follow
you into the cave and not let you out of my sight.’

Cate closed her eyes. His men would be on their way now, catching a plane, maybe chartering a helicopter. How long did she have before they got here? A couple of hours, maybe three. Or would
they just call some local thugs, get them to head for the site and find her before she had a chance to escape?

And what about Ritchie? Could he really know nothing of his uncle’s crimes? Or was he bluffing, playing the innocent whilst leading the criminals right to her door.

Should she run now, get away from here, from Ritchie? But she couldn’t just leave the students now they were so close to freedom.

‘Hey, guys.’ The voice coming from behind the rocks sounded concerned. ‘What’s up? Talk to us. Please.’

Cate took off her rucksack and shoved it through the gap. ‘Give me a leg up,’ she said to Ritchie. ‘I’m going in.’

Willing hands grabbed her as she wriggled through the hole, trying to ignore the sharp shards of rock that ripped through her jeans and cut her arms. Then she was in the chamber, seeing four
pale, exhausted faces wreathed in smiles – and suddenly Jade was in her arms, her face wet with tears.

‘We thought we’d be here for ever,’ Jade sobbed.

‘
You
did,’ corrected Amber, her eyes shining as she kissed Cate for about the twentieth time. ‘Mad, I know, but I never gave up hope. I have to say, though, I
didn’t have you on my list of potential rescuers, Cate.’

‘Thor Jarson.’ The blond man put out his hand and shook hers. His English carried only a trace of a Scandinavian accent. ‘This is our sixth day here. We have some food and
water,’ he gestured behind him to a pile of bottles, ‘but it was very worrying.’

The last of the four, a short, black-haired boy, was standing back, gazing at Cate with an anxious look on his face. ‘I’m Stefan,’ he said at last. ‘Stefan Vilander. We
didn’t get lost down here. This rock fall was no accident. We have been the victims of a most dreadful crime. And all because of this.’ He gestured around the chamber and then Cate saw
why. The prow of a ship, elegant and slender, carved in the shape of a serpent, rose up proudly to the ceiling of the chamber.

The timbers of the boat were mostly rotted, but there was no mistaking the distinctive sweeping outlines, the deep hull, the oar holes still visible between the tar-plugged timbers. Around and
within what remained of the boat were piles of helmets, green with age, steel swords, daggers and axes.

‘A Viking longship,’ she breathed. ‘Unbelievable.’

‘It’s beautiful, no?’ said Stefan, watching her closely.

Behind him, Ritchie was being pulled through the gap by Thor and Amber.

‘Amazing. I agree,’ Stefan continued. ‘This longship will change how we see our past for ever. But because of this boat and the treasures in it, we were taken from our beds at
gunpoint. Somehow these people found out we had discovered something important and made us bring them here.’

Cate forced her gaze away from the ship and looked at Stefan. His green eyes were blazing with anger, his thin face taut and rigid.

‘How did you find all this?’

‘Amber found the place by accident. We knew immediately what it was and how important, that it was a world-changing discovery. We were supposed to keep it quiet, to tell no one until our
professor came, but somehow word got out.’ He made a resigned gesture, his gaze flickering towards Jade. ‘Then, on Tuesday night, men came for us. Four of them, armed with guns. They
had explosives, sledge hammers, pickaxes. They made us get dressed, took our phones from us, and then forced us at gunpoint to show them the hidden chamber. The entrance was blocked so they simply
stuck down some explosives and blasted their way through – they didn’t care what damage they might do.’

The group fell silent now. Cate offered Stefan some water and he took it, his hands shaking as he put the bottle to his mouth.

She looked at Ritchie. ‘We should be getting out of here,’ Cate said. ‘These guys need to see a doctor and we need to call the police.’

‘They said they were going to kill us,’ said Stefan, ignoring Cate. ‘They were going to take the treasure. Their boss already had a private collector waiting for it, somewhere
in China, willing to pay millions of dollars for it. That Columbian, the one with those metal piercings in his chin, he was truly evil.’

Cate stared at him. Gabriel, it had to be Gabriel.

Stefan continued. ‘The others were terrified of him. They did exactly what he said. And he was clearly following orders from someone else. He mentioned his boss a few times. Said how
pleased he would be at this haul.’

Jade started crying, her sobs echoing around the chamber like an ancient wail. ‘I really thought we were going to die down here.’

Ritchie put his arm around her, soothing her as if she was a child.

‘So what happened? How come you’re still here? Where are they now?’ he asked nervously, as if he expected armed bandits to jump out at him from the shadows.

There.’ Thor gestured to the wall of huge boulders, recently broken and mixed with red earth and roots. ‘They worked for a few hours, taking things from the chamber, piling them up
in the cave. Then they loaded everything up into boxes,’ he explained. ‘They were in a kind of frenzy.
Coins
, they kept saying.
Jewels
,
gold
. They were disgusting.
Swearing, howling, laughing. Like a pack of baying animals falling on their prey. And then there was a rockfall.’

‘The explosives they used must have disturbed the ground above us,’ Stefan said. ‘There was this huge rumble, the whole place shook. They were on one side of the wall, we were
on the other and it all happened so quickly. Within seconds we were trapped here, buried alive.’

‘We thought that after they’d gone they would at least tell someone where we were. We honestly couldn’t believe that they would leave us here,’ said Amber.

‘But then, as the days passed, we realised,’ said Jade between sobs. ‘That they had just left us here to rot. All we could do was hope that people would come and look for us,
woudn’t give up on us.’

‘Do you know who their boss is?’ Ritchie turned to Stefan. ‘Whoever it is must be truly evil. He must have known about the accident, that people were trapped. How could he
leave them to die down here like this. It’s inhuman.’

Cate stayed silent, watching Ritchie’s face.

Stefan gave a wry smile. ‘We had a long time to talk in here, to tell each other everything. We wondered who else could know about our discovery. Jade admitted that she was so excited
that, when she was emailing her weekly round up of news to the twins’ very generous sponsor, she just happened to mention that they may have found something amazing. And when he emailed back
asking her to tell him what it was, well, Jade couldn’t keep it a secret any longer. He was her sponsor and he had a right to know and she thought she could trust him. After all, he is one of
the most famous men in the world.’

Cate watched Ritchie as he put his hand to the wall and leaned against it heavily. Horror, shame and pity was written all over his suddenly pale face. In that instant, Cate knew Ritchie was
innocent. There was no way he could have faked that reaction.

‘What are you saying?’ he whispered.

‘I’m sorry, Ritchie.’ Amber was sobbing now. ‘Really sorry. The only person who knew about the Viking ship and all the treasure, apart from us, was Johnny James. Your
Uncle Jack.’

There was a silence. Then Ritchie turned to look at Cate, his eyes confused and frightened. ‘You knew. That’s why you were asking all those questions about Uncle Jack. Why
didn’t you tell me?’

Cate shook her head. ‘I couldn’t, Ritchie. I wasn’t sure. Not until now. And if I had got it wrong, it would have been a terrible accusation to make.’

She looked at the faces around her. They were exhausted, which was hardly surprising, considering the nightmare that each of them had been through.

Cate had a sudden desperate urge to feel fresh air on her face, the wind in her hair, and to look up at the night sky. ‘Look, guys,’ she said, ‘this can all wait. Please.
Let’s go. We know how unstable this place is – we don’t want to get trapped again.’

But just then they heard a sound. Ritchie had suddenly frozen. He was leaning back against the wall, his head turned towards the open hole. He looked at Cate and she saw the fear in his eyes.
‘They’re coming.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Stefan whispered. ‘Who’s coming?’

There was a silence. Cate looked at Ritchie, unable to bring herself to tell them what was happening.

‘Friends of my uncle,’ Ritchie said slowly, almost robotically. ‘I told my uncle we had found a passageway. And he’s sending people to find us.’

‘Brilliant.’ Stefan spoke into the darkness. ‘We finally get rescued and now we are at risk of being killed all over again.’

For a few seconds Cate was almost paralysed with fear. She thought about what a terrible place this would be to die, down here in the darkness, breathing in stale air, seeing the fear in the
faces of her friends, as they too faced their death. She shook herself. She couldn’t – no, she wouldn’t – let that happen.

‘Come on,’ she said sternly. ‘We’re not dead yet. We have to find a way out of this.’

She bent down and started picking up rocks. ‘Here! Let’s disguise this hole to the passageway with stones. It’ll buy us a little time.’

Suddenly galvanised, the boys sprang into action. The three of them picked up pieces of rock, until slowly, painfully, the hole was filled once more.

‘Now, switch the torches off,’ Cate ordered. ‘If they see light we’re finished.’

Stefan was standing next to her. He smelled badly of sweat and fear. Cate wondered how soon it would be before she too was in such a state.

She was grateful for her night-vision lenses and wondered what it must be like for the others to be in total darkness.

Cate could hear voices now, getting louder, the sound slipping through the tiny cracks between the replaced stones. She put her hand into her rucksack and felt for the old map, unfolding it in
front of her.

The men were very close. Cate could hear their footsteps, loud, aggressive, angry.

‘The place is empty, Novak. They must have gone already.’

‘Of course they haven’t gone.’ An Eastern European accent. ‘They’ll be in here somewhere. Hiding. Like rats in a drain. We just have to find them.’

‘I thought we were here for treasure.’ Another man, another accent – Californian this time. How many men had Novak brought with him? ‘Not to hunt down a bunch of
teenagers.’

‘You do as you’re told. We pay you enough,’ said Novak menacingly. ‘I’ll find those kids, even if I have to blow the whole place to smithereens.’

Ritchie moved towards Cate, his hands held out in front of him like a blind man. ‘This is all my fault,’ he whispered. ‘It’s up to me to sort it out. Let me go out there,
distract them, lead them away from here. They won’t kill me – I’m Johnny James’s nephew.’

Cate sighed and reached for his hand. ‘They nearly killed you on the Pacific Highway. I don’t think they’ll care about you now, either.’

The voices were fading as the gang moved away from the wall.

Cate spread the map out on the floor. ‘Thor,’ she whispered, ‘put your torch on. It’s not that strong, we should be OK with it on. I want you all to see this.’