Emerson looked at the rope. “That’s convenient,” he said.
“I wouldn’t call it convenient,” Alani said. “You’ll have to hand climb four stories to reach the skylight. If you fall, you’ll kill yourself.”
Emerson shrugged. “When faced with situations such as this one I ask myself WWSMD?”
“WWSMD?” Alani asked.
“What would Spider-Man do?” Emerson grabbed the rope. “I’ll be back.” He scurried up and disappeared out the hole.
“That’s impressive,” Alani said. “That takes real strength.”
“Strength shmength,” Vernon said. “I could do that with Little Buddy on my back.”
Alani looked at Vernon with a single raised eyebrow.
“I’d show you,” Vernon said, “but it would leave you down here unprotected if I went up there.”
“Nice to know you care,” Alani said.
“Of course I care,” Vernon said. “I’ve always cared. I’d care even more if you weren’t frickin’ nuts.”
Alani flapped her arms out. “There you go ruining the moment. You always ruined the moment.”
Vernon stuffed his fists on his hips. “Did not.”
“Yes, you did. Remember that time we went to my cousin’s luau wedding and I caught the bouquet?”
“Un-huh.”
“Do you remember what you did with the bouquet?”
“Um, no.”
“You fed it to one of the feral goats.”
“That wasn’t good?”
“Catching the bouquet was significant. It meant I was supposed to be the next one married.”
“So you’re not married because of me?”
Alani narrowed her eyes. “Yes, and for many reasons.”
Emerson appeared at the skylight edge. He was back on the rope and descended hand over hand.
“Did you get a fix on our position?” Alani asked when Emerson got his feet on the tunnel floor.
Emerson nodded. “It’s a wet, muddy rain forest. I couldn’t see anything but ohia trees and massive hapu’u tree ferns. I called your dad, and he says we’re about two miles inside the forest, and he gave me new directions.”
They walked another half mile down the tunnel and came to a dead end. They were facing a forty-foot cliff with a pool of water at its base. Emerson looked at the map.
“This has got to be Skylight Falls. It’s the second highest lava fall in the main tube. The main tunnel continues west from here. Mr. Yakomura says we need to find a side channel going north fairly soon or we’ll be getting colder.”
A series of ladder rungs had been embedded into the three-story cliff. Emerson sloshed through water two feet deep and pulled himself up onto the ladder.
“Be careful, they’re slippery,” Emerson said, climbing the rungs and waiting at the top for Vernon, Alani, and Wayan Bagus.
At the top, the tunnel became wide and low, barely tall enough for Emerson to stand upright. They walked another quarter of a mile before it opened into a cavern with another cliff and plunge pool at its bottom. This one was thirty feet tall, and no one had left behind a rope or ladder.
Vernon looked up at the cliff. “Well, this is a real pickle,” he said.
Emerson started to unpack his rock-climbing gear from his pack. “Not a problem. I’ll climb to the top and throw down a rope.”
“Wait,” Wayan Bagus said. “There is a sound.”
Everyone listened. Somebody or something was coming their way, and the sounds were getting louder by the second. There was no place to hide. They were trapped between the cliff and whatever was approaching.
“It sounds big,” Alani said.
A family of wild pigs suddenly burst into the cavern and ran past Vernon.
“Holy bejeezus,” Vernon said, plastering himself back against the tunnel wall.
The pigs panicked at the sight of the humans. They ran in circles, squealing and grunting, flashing in and out of the headlamp beams, their eyes reflecting the light. And then just as suddenly as they came they disappeared back into the tunnel.
“Stupid pigs,” Vernon said. “They near gave me a heart attack.”
Alani grinned. “At least they weren’t Bigfoot.”
“I should never have told you about Bigfoot,” Vernon said. “Next you’re gonna be telling me it’s another thing that ruined a moment.”
“It did!” Alani said. “There was the camping trip at Keokea Bay. We were having a romantic moment, and you were sure you heard Bigfoot.”
“Hey,” Vernon said, “that Bigfoot encounter I had was traumatic. Anyways I’m not currently worried about Bigfoot because everybody knows Bigfoots lack the hand-eye coordination to climb ladders, and the only way they could get to us is by climbing that rickety three-story one back at Skylight Falls.”
Emerson looked at Vernon. “An excellent observation.”
“It is?” Vernon said. “I was just kind of winging it.”
“Bigfoots can’t climb ladders,” Emerson said. “And last I checked neither can pigs. So where did they come from and where did they go?”
Everyone nodded. They’d missed an offshoot tunnel. They retraced their steps back toward Skylight Falls. They went slowly, carefully examining each fold and crevice. A small pig darted across their path and disappeared.
“There,” Emerson said, shining his light at the tunnel wall.
There was a small hole in the north side. It was just wide enough for a large pig to squeeze through.
Emerson got down on his stomach and peered into the opening. “I think it’s big enough for us to crawl through, but I can’t see the end.”
“If it gets much narrower, we’ll be stuck,” Vernon said. “Just like Winnie-the-Pooh in Rabbit’s hole.”
“I am small,” Wayan Bagus said. “I will go first.” He wriggled into the hole. A minute later he called back to Emerson. “I am in another tunnel, and it seems to head in the direction we wanted to travel.”
Vernon stuck his head into the hole. “Can we fit?”
“It should not be a problem,” Wayan Bagus said from the other side. “As long as you make yourself as small as possible.”
Vernon looked himself over and sucked in his gut. “You didn’t use your special powers to go where thought takes you, did you?” Vernon asked. “ ’Cause that’s not really an option for the rest of us.”
“The mind is everything. What you think you become,” the disembodied voice of Wayan Bagus echoed through the hole.
Emerson got into the hole and wriggled through, pushing his backpack in front of him. He was followed by Vernon and Alani. After about fifty feet, they emerged in a lava tube on the other side. It was slightly smaller than the first tube, and only Wayan Bagus could stand completely upright.
“This is good,” Emerson said. “I don’t know if it will connect to Tin Man’s compound, but at least we’re heading in the right direction according to Mr. Yakomura.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
After about an hour of walking, the sounds of coqui frogs filled the otherwise eerie silence of the tunnel. Emerson looked up to see a skylight just ahead and about eight feet above them. He got a boost from Vernon and hoisted himself out of the hole in the ceiling.
“Nothing but more trees and ferns,” he called back into the hole. “I’m going to check with the helicopter.”
Alani looked at her watch. “I’m not feeling good about this,” she said to Vernon and Wayan Bagus. “It’s taking us too long. It’s three A.M. Riley is at the mercy of these psychopaths. We have no idea if she’s even alive. And if she is alive, heaven knows what they could be doing to her.”
“I know what you mean,” Vernon said. “My unagi is acting up. I’m feeling all tingly. That’s either a sign of a naked woman nearby or some kind of danger. And I don’t see no naked women. Although now that I think about it the tingling is pretty strong, so it could be some naked woman is in danger. I sure hope it isn’t Riley.”
“Silence is a great source of st
rength,” Wayan Bagus said to Vernon.
Emerson dropped back into the tunnel. “We’re close,” he said. “We’re walking in the right direction. Mr. Yakomura can’t circle overhead much longer without refueling so we’re on our own for a while.”
“I don’t like that,” Vernon said. “That feels real insecure being that my unagi is giving me a stomach cramp. There’s something bad happening up ahead. I know it for sure.”
“What’s with this unagi thing?” Alani asked Emerson. “Didn’t I see that on an episode of Friends?”
“Wait a minute,” Vernon said to Emerson. “You told me I had unagi. I mean, I got it, right? It’s not like the time Tom Hanks brought you the sculpture, is it? I never bought into that one.”
“As you believe, so will you be,” Emerson said, once again leading the way into the black tunnel.
“So what’s wrong with me if it’s not unagi?” Vernon said.
“Maybe you need a bathroom,” Alani suggested.
“It’s not the same thing,” Vernon said. “I’m all in a knot. It’s like in Star Wars when you hear the Darth Vader music and your heart gets real tight, like it’s squished into a little nugget.”
“My heart feels like that too,” Alani said. “I’m worried about Riley.”
Emerson stopped and held up his hand. “This is interesting,” he said. “We’ve come to a brick wall.”
Everyone sidled up next to Emerson and stared at the wall.
“Here’s something you don’t see all the time,” Alani said. “Not many brick walls in lava tubes.”
“I reckon we’re at a dead end,” Vernon said. “I guess the only choice is to go back to that skylight we passed a mile or so back and search aboveground.”
“It’s precisely because somebody has taken the trouble to erect a brick wall that it’s imperative we find a way through,” Emerson said.
Vernon waved his hands at the sealed tunnel. “It’s a brick wall. How the Sam Hill are we going to do that? You got explosives in your pack?”
“No explosives,” Emerson said. “I have a Swiss Army knife and a spoon.”
“There goes my unagi again,” Vernon said. “Now I got a cramp in my ass. I’m telling you something is wrong.”
“I hear a noise,” Wayan Bagus said. “It sounds like a machine.”
Everyone stood still, holding their breath, listening.
BANG! An object crashed into the other side of the brick wall, and everyone instinctively jumped back. The wall vibrated slightly, and some brick dust sifted down.
“I told you something bad was happening,” Vernon said. “They’re coming to get us.”
BANG! Another thunderous crash and a forklift exploded through the wall, sending bricks flying, raising a tremendous dust cloud. The forklift stopped short once it had demolished the wall, and Riley leaned forward in the driver’s seat, mouth open, eyes wide.
“Crap on a cracker,” Riley said. “I had no idea you guys were out here. I almost ran you over!”
“Holy cow,” Vernon said. “Holy guacamole.”
Riley swung down from the forklift. A handcuff dangled from her right wrist. “It’s not safe to stay here.”
“What’s with the bracelet?” Alani asked.
“Berta made the mistake of unshackling me for a bathroom break,” Riley said. “She might know how to build a bomb, but she sure can’t take a punch.”
“Who’s Berta?”
“She’s the woman who’s tied to the lab bench.”
Everyone peeked through the hole in the wall and stared at Berta, tied up and sitting on the floor. Several tables and chairs were knocked over, and there had clearly been some sort of a struggle.
Alani looked around the room. “What is this place?”
“It’s a weapons lab,” Riley said. She pointed at the bombs in the corner of the room. “They’re making a weapon capable of detonating and releasing a payload of the strange matter. They’ve got the Penning trap on the table by the bombs.”
“Where are Tin Man and Bart Young?” Emerson asked.
“I don’t know. They left me here with Berta. I’m sure they’re close. I barricaded the door to the lab but it won’t stop them for long. We should get out of here ASAP. I’m sure they heard me breaking through the wall.”
Emerson looked at the steel door on the other side of the room. It had a small reinforced-glass window at its top and a professional stainless steel refrigerator tipped over in front of the bottom.
Emerson kneeled next to Berta. “Does the Penning trap hold all of the strange matter?”
Berta stared at him in stony silence.
Emerson rose and walked over to the bombs. He studied them for a moment and set the timer on one of them to ten minutes.
“I assume that even without the strange matter loaded, these can still do some damage,” Emerson said.
“You don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll kill us all,” Berta said.
“Not all of us,” Emerson said. “Only those remaining in this lab. The rest of us will die only if we leave some strange matter behind.”
“You mean to steal the strange matter,” Berta said, eyes wide in disbelief and fear.
“Yes,” Emerson said. “All of it.”
“You might want to reconsider your priorities,” Riley said to Berta. “It might be better to be a poor live scientist than a rich dead empress.”
“I’ll ask you one more time,” Emerson said to Berta. “Does the Penning trap on the table hold all of the strange matter?”
“Yes,” Berta said. “Except for what you already have in the other trap. Just don’t leave me here.”
Emerson unplugged the trap, Vernon grabbed it, and Riley got Berta to her feet. Someone was banging on the lab door, trying to get in. Riley and Berta looked at the door. The enraged face of Tin Man filled the little window.
“He looks pretty angry,” Riley said.
“He’s insane,” Berta said. “If he catches us he’ll chop us into pieces, fingers and toes first, and then ears and breasts. I’ve seen him do it.”
Riley felt a wave of revulsion roll through her, and she pushed it away. No time for emotion, she told herself.
“Let’s get out of here,” she shouted above the banging.
Emerson lugged the Penning trap back into the tunnel and got into the passenger side of the forklift.
“What are you doing?” Riley asked.
“Making our getaway.”
Riley climbed into the driver’s side. “In a forklift that drives less than ten miles per hour?”
“The only way back to the main line of the Kazumura from here is through a crawl space. The Penning trap won’t fit.”
“And a forklift will?”
“There’s a skylight about a mile into the tunnel. We can use the forklift to lift the trap to the surface and make our escape.”
Vernon, Wayan Bagus, Alani, and Berta piled onto the blades of the forklift, and Riley turned the ignition. It reluctantly started up and rumbled slowly through the bricks, down the tunnel. By the time they reached the skylight, they could hear footsteps and voices echoing in the tunnel behind them.
“We have about a six-minute head start,” Emerson said. “Let’s get topside with the Penning trap.”
Riley raised Vernon, Alani, Wayan Bagus, and Berta close enough to the hole in the ceiling that they could scramble out and then lowered the blades so Emerson could get on, holding the Penning trap. Once the trap was safely aboveground Emerson slipped back into the lava tube.
A deafening explosion reverberated through the tunnel, followed by the sound of a cave-in coming from the direction of the lab.
“I guess the bombs work,” Emerson said.
Riley looked in the direction of the lab. “Do you think we got Tin Man?”
“Probably not,” Emerson said. “I imagine he’s leading the horde running after us.”
The sounds of footsteps and angry voices were getting closer.
“What h
ave you got in your pack?” Riley asked. “Matches, flares?”
“Yes and yes.”
“Give me the Swiss Army knife you always carry.”
Riley took the knife from Emerson and flipped the large blade out into the locked position. She dropped to the tunnel floor and cut the fuel line on the forklift, allowing the diesel fuel to pour out.
“Brilliant,” Emerson said. “And impressively diabolical.”
Emerson and Riley scaled the forklift and joined the others topside in the pitch-black jungle. Emerson fished around in his backpack and pulled out a signal flare. He lit it and handed it to Riley.
“Do you want to do the honors?” he asked.
“It’s not like the universe provides you with the opportunity to blow up a forklift every day,” Riley said. “I suppose it would be negligent of me not to drop this flare.”
Emerson smiled. “My thoughts exactly.”
Riley tossed the flare into the hole, and everyone jumped back. Seconds later the lift exploded, and a fireball rose out of the skylight.
“Guess we don’t have to worry about the crew in the tunnel,” Alani said. “Between the debris from the explosion and the destroyed forklift, I imagine they’re trapped for a while.”
Emerson and Vernon tugged Berta over to a large ohia tree and tied her up so that she was hugging the tree.
“We’ll send the authorities to pick you up once we get the Penning trap to safety,” Emerson said.
“You said you’d take me with you!” Berta screamed. “You can’t leave me alone in this jungle.”
Emerson stuck a Post-it note to her back. It said “I’m an evil murderer. Please leave me tied to this tree until police arrive.”
“We did take you with us. And now we’re leaving you here,” Emerson said. “You’ll be perfectly safe. There aren’t any predators out here, assuming Tin Man doesn’t find you.”
“You don’t think he’s imprisoned below?” Riley asked.
Emerson shrugged. “No way to know for sure.”
The sound of ATVs and human voices carried from far off in the jungle.