Dangerous Minds (Knight and Moon #2)(66)

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.