away from the uneven tunnel floor, and his foot slipped into one of the many depressions that marked its surface, robbing him of balance and sending him hard into the tunnel wall. He recovered quickly, losing only a few seconds, but the incident cautioned him against presuming safety just because he could see his objective. The growing pain in his upper arm suggested that an intact arrival at the second tunnel entrance was far from guaranteed.
With that thought Jack took one last look down the tunnel, fixing the details of it in his mind. He then switched off the flashlight and flooded his way out with darkness. That done, the fleeing archaeologist straightened and poured all of his remaining energy into running faster, bringing his knees up to minimize contact with anything that could trip him up. He stretched out his left hand, finding the tunnel wall and using its light brush against his fingers to keep him centered. But despite that passing solidness there was something almost terrifying in hurtling without reservation into darkness.
Still, he pushed those thoughts aside and ran on, counting his strides. When he reached thirty he suspected he was close. Sure enough, the cold rock disappeared from under his hand. He brought himself to a halt, feeling a moment’s panic at the loss of the one thing that gave him some assurance that he would not run headlong into solid rock. He turned and backtracked the few steps to where the tunnel wall ended, then saw the diffused light from other flashlights coming up the tunnel. He knew it wouldn’t take long for that light to find him, although he was thankful that his engineered blackout seemed to have temporarily halted the gunfire.
His own light still doused, Jack stepped to his right, losing sight of the approaching illumination and feeling along the rock until he found the place where it curved into the secondary tunnel. Earlier, on his way to the treasure room, as he’d passed by and briefly shined the light down the smaller passageway, he’d heard a trickle that suggested running water but hadn’t seen anything. He heard it again as he started in. If his memory was accurate the tunnel took a sharp right curve several yards in, but he couldn’t swear to that. So when he began his advance down the unexplored passage, it was with considerably greater care than he’d shown in exiting the last one.
Hugging the wall, he worked to put distance between himself and his pursuers. He doubted the ruse would provide complete freedom from pursuit, but even if it forced the other party to split up, sending one group toward the exit and another down the branch Jack had chosen, he would consider it a victory.
In the smaller tunnel the silence that normally pervaded the whole of the place beneath the mountain seemed to take on added weight, as if it were a physical thing—silent except for the sound of the water, growing louder now. In less than a minute he’d reached the spot where the corridor began its turn, and in the next few steps the sound of the water increased even more. He fielded an urge to use the flashlight to get a feel for what waited for him, yet he doubted he’d put sufficient distance between himself and the small chamber where the tunnels met for the light to go unnoticed.
Releasing a sigh, Jack started off again and it wasn’t long before he noticed a change in the feel of the wall beneath his hand. It took a few seconds for him to realize that the soft, damp skin covering the rock was moss. It was while he was processing that fact that his foot came down in several inches of water that traveled over his shoe, drenching his sock.
He thought a curse, but stifled it before it could pass his lips. Pulling his foot from the water he took a step back and, after weighing the danger of doing so, he chanced the use of the flashlight. With his hand over the lens Jack allowed only a sliver of the beam to escape, just enough to show him what lay ahead.
Taken aback by what he saw, his hand fell away from the front of the flashlight, allowing its full strength to fill the chamber. He stood there motionless, studied the wall that marked the end of the tunnel. To his practiced eye the barrier gave every impression of having been an abandoned project,