Seizure(56)

“Ooof!”

Hiram and I inhaled sharply. Shelton crumpled, but gave a woozy thumbs-up.

“Unreal!” Hi croaked. “Here goes nothing!”

Hi stormed forward, wailing the entire way. Then he collapsed next to Shelton. The two exchanged a shaky fist bump.

“Go!” I said to Ben.

“You next. I’m heaviest.”

I squeezed Ben’s arm, then fired across.

The platform wobbled wildly as I dismounted. A low grinding filled the cavern.

“Now Ben!” I screamed. “Hurry!”

As Ben raced for the bridge, a shadow appeared in the opening behind him. I barely noticed. My eyes were locked onto Ben, who seemed to move in slow motion.

The grinding amplified.

Crrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaaaak!

Ben pounded across. With each step, the bridge wobbled more. Then the end slipped from the ledge and the slab plunged downward.

“BEN!”

I watched in horror as the bridge dropped from beneath his feet.

Ben threw himself forward, arms out-thrust.

Time froze. My heart stopped.

Ben’s forearms caught the cliff’s edge. His fingers clawed for purchase. Then his body slammed the rock face, causing his grip to falter.

Six hands shot out and seized Ben’s arms, hair, shirt, and neck. As one, we pulled him to safety.

“Thanks,” he wheezed. “I was a little short.”

“Anytime.” Shelton. Doubled over.

“I still owe you one,” Hi panted. “And that’s just tonight.”

Crack! Crack!

Bullets smashed the rocks above our heads.

“Move!” I shouted.

We charged into yet another black passage.





WE TUMBLED DOWN a ramp and landed in a tangle of arms and legs.

Everyone lay still, too overwhelmed to move. My thoughts were firing in short jagged clips.

We’re alive. Unharmed. The shooter can’t follow.

Slowly, my panting subsided and my pulse decelerated. Disengaging myself from the others, I rose and looked around.

The current chamber was circular, the size of a classroom. A waterfall poured from a hole in the roof to a pool in the center of the floor. I guessed the pool’s diameter and depth at about ten feet each. The water swirled, eventually draining through a chute at the bottom.

The effect was beautiful, like a graceful garden fountain. The rest of the room was empty.

“This must be ‘the dark chamber’s sluice,’” I said. “We made it!”

My gaze scoured the walls, snagged on a platform jutting from the rock. Roughly a yard square, the platform held nothing. Deep gouges marred its otherwise smooth stone surface.

My shoulders slumped in dismay.

Something heavy had once rested there.

Like a chest.

No.

“What’s that gibberish?” Shelton pointed to black letters chiseled into the wall directly above the platform.

“Another riddle?” I said. “But that’s definitely not English.”

The characters were recognizable, but I couldn’t place the language. Beside the lettering was the now-familiar symbol. Bonny’s signature bent cross.

My heart sank into my socks.

She took it. The treasure isn’t here.

“No!” Hi slapped his forehead. “Tell me this isn’t where the treasure’s supposed to be. Please.”

I couldn’t meet his eye.

“It’s gone?” Shelton wailed. “How? Nobody’s been in here before us! Those tunnels would’ve been front-page news. And the skybridge! That never came down until tonight!”

I shook my head. I couldn’t agree more.

Then the pieces fell together. I’d been a fool.

Hi must’ve read my expression.

“What?”

“They moved it.”

“Who?”

“Anne Bonny. Her people.” I punched the air in frustration. “Why didn’t I think of this before?”

Shelton waved his arms. “Explain! Right now!”

“Bonny’s crew busted her out of the dungeon, right?”

“Yep,” Shelton said. “We crawled down that god-awful hole ourselves.”

“She must’ve worried the Brits would discover her escape route.”

“But they didn’t,” Hi argued. “If they had, everyone would know about these tunnels. Her crew must have resealed the dungeon like we found it.”

“But Bonny couldn’t be sure that would work,” I said. “She had to worry that the tunnels could be compromised.”

Hi and Shelton groaned.

“So she and her crew removed the treasure themselves,” Hi said, “reset the booby traps, and took off. Mother—”

“Come on!” Ben’s bellow echoed loudly in the small space. “Why can’t we catch one stinking break!”

My eyebrows rocketed up in surprise. “What?”

“What do you mean, what?” Ben spread his hands. “Look around, Victoria! There’s no way out of here!”

I spun a three-sixty. Ben was right.

No doors, no tunnels, no cracks, no fissures. We were stuck in a subterranean aerie with no outlet.

“So no treasure?” Hi whined. “I thought we had it!”