The Emerald Key - By Christopher Dinsdale Page 0,84
backwards toward lock number one. The huge wooden doors of the lock were shut and everything seemed to be quiet. As silently as he could, Jamie stepped across to the metal ladder and started the climb up, one rung at a time, toward the top edge of the lock.
Upon reaching the ground, Jamie quietly rolled onto his stomach. He stayed low and crawled over to the edge of lock number one. He peered over the stone edge of the lock. There! He could see their attacker. He was just reaching the bottom of the ladder, gun drawn and aimed toward the pipe. Wilkes was moving slowly, cautiously, not taking any chances. Jamie knew he assumed they were trapped in the pipe and had nowhere to go. Finally, Jamie saw him disappear into the pipe.
It was now or never. Jamie got to his feet and burst into a sprint for the head of the lock.
Ryan helped Beth and Colin crawl onto the floor of a huge building. Their wet, dark ride in the pipe had ended just feet away from the paddles of a massive waterwheel. Ryan, Beth, and Colin clambered over the top edge of the sluice channel which would, when full of speeding water, power the waterwheel. Ryan held a finger to his lips, reminding them to be quiet. Suddenly, from inside the pipe, a faraway voice echoed down to them.
“There’s no point hiding any longer. Give yourselves up now, and I’ll let the younger two live.”
Ryan stumbled over towards a pile of building material left from the construction of the sawmill. Beth grimaced at the sight of Ryan’s back as he made his way across the massive building. The back of his shirt was completely soaked in blood. Ryan slung two pieces of wood under his good arm and returned to the children. He passed one piece to Beth and kept the other for himself.
“The piece of wood for you is in case I pass out,” Ryan whispered as he leaned heavily against the wall. “I want you to watch that pipe like a hawk, young lady. If anything but water comes out of it, I want you to start whacking it as hard as you can and don’t stop whacking it until it stops moving for good. Understand?”
She nodded, gravely, lifting the wood above her head.
“Good girl.”
Ryan pulled Colin around until the little boy was behind him, protecting him from what might soon come their way. Together, they stared silently at the opening in the pipe and waited.
Wilkes stepped further into the darkness.
“I know you’re in here. Sitting quietly and waiting for me to leave isn’t going to work. I’m going to hunt you down, one by one. If I have to come in and find you, I’ll have to kill each one of you as I flush you out of this rat hole. The deal to save the children will then be off.”
Wilkes paused and listened. Only a thick silence hung in the air. Something was wrong. His intuition was telling him that he should be hearing at least a slight sign of life in these tight confines … a shuffle, a whimper perhaps, at least something … but there was nothing. Had they found another way out? His foot came to the edge of a sudden drop downwards in the pipe. He didn’t want to risk a suicide plunge into the unknown. Then, a noise did come down the pipe, but it was coming from behind. It was a sound that sent a shiver down his spine. It was the sound of rushing water! Wilkes turned and sprinted as fast as he could for the mouth of the pipe.
Jamie cranked the handles as fast as his arms would turn. The handles were attached to a round gear, which was then connected to a long metal rod. The rod extended down to the bottom of the gate and was attached to a door. The door held back the water from the canal. As Jamie cranked the gear, the door rose and a torrent of water sprayed into the lock. There were four doors in all. After cranking the first one wide open, Jamie ran for the second gear and started turning that handle as well. A second geyser of water erupted into the lock. He watched with satisfaction as the water frothed along the base of the lock and angrily disappeared into the pipe that contained their attacker.