opposite wall. She picked up the lamp and moved it about, tracing the trajectory it took as it fell. There it was again! The light glinted from a horizontal crack in the wall roughly fifteen inches tall, maybe two or three feet wide. The crevice narrowed and turned down at each end, causing her to shudder. It looked like a frown in the face of the wall.
She walked over to examine it more closely. The hole had formed a couple of feet above her head, but even her limited view brought a gasp. The ceiling on the other side appeared to be solid quartz, glittering like millions of diamonds.
The pounding of her heartbeat thudded in her ears. The shot from this angle through the gap was intriguing but from inside that next cavern, aiming up directly at it… She could barely breathe at the thought.
The crevice was large enough to fit through, but reaching it was the problem. Her fingers just bent at the opening if she stretched. Augh! Why did she have to be so short?
She walked around the area, tracing the wall with the beam from her flashlight. The light showed no other way to reach the other side, so she returned to the crack with new determination.
If she jumped, she could get her palms flat onto the facing of the hole. Her arms were strong from lugging around equipment, but the wall was so smooth, she couldn’t get any purchase with her boot. After four or five tries, she noticed a bit of scraping left from her feet, though.
She jumped again, trying to suspend herself long enough to batter the soft wall. It worked. Her toe sank in a tad, enough to give her leverage to move an arm deeper through the opening.
Her arms burned and threatened to rip out of their sockets, but she held on and heaved, scrabbling her toes against the wall for any hold she might find.
The rim of the hole was only five or six inches thick, and her fingers soon clasped the inner side. Giving a scream that could have landed her a role in a horror film, she hauled her torso onto the ledge, balancing precariously like a human teeter-totter.
She eased the flashlight out of her pocket and focused the beam into the small room. Her position didn’t allow much air into her lungs, and what little was there rushed out at the sight that met her eyes. She’d been wrong. The ceiling wasn’t the focal point. The entire room was floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall crystals.
The room reminded her of the geodes she’d gathered at the LBL’s Geology Station as a kid. On the outside, they looked like lumpy dirt clods, but inside, they were solid crystal. This one was big enough to hold her rather than the other way around.
She’d never imagined a find like this. Shots from inside that cavern were once-in-a-lifetime occurrences and the opportunity she’d waited for her whole life…the one that would make her somebody. Her head whirled with possibilities.
First, she’d have to find a way in and out of there that wouldn’t make her dizzy. She lowered herself back to her starting point. Having both feet on the ground helped her think more clearly.
The obvious solution would be a ladder. Nothing too tall. A stepladder would work. But she’d also need a partner. Someone who could pass it through the opening so she could climb out and keep all her equipment safe.
Jaci.
Oh, she’d pitch a fit and whine a lot but eventually she’d agree. Cajoling her would take some time. Kyndal needed to get started right away so they could make it back by early afternoon.
She stuffed her camera and lights into the bag, grabbed her backpack and made a mad dash for the entrance, following the strips of masking tape like beacons.
Once outside, she halted, blinded momentarily by the bright sunlight. She squinted and swallowed great gulps of fresh air.
“Hold it right there, young lady.” The voice was male and gruff.
Kyndal let out a frightened yelp and swung around to face a burly man in a sheriff’s uniform. She supposed she should be relieved that she wasn’t looking down the barrel of a gun, the way she and Chance had years before. Still, the sheriff’s presence was nothing to celebrate, not with all the signs posted.
“You got permission to be here?” His tone implied he already knew the answer.
Kyndal’s clenched gut warned her not to lie, but it didn’t seem prudent to confess that she’d