over a hundred-foot drop, it really doesn’t matter what you call it.”
At which point she had to remind herself this wasn’t about her and what she feared, especially when Griffin said, “You’re welcome to stay behind.”
“So you can get all the credit for rescuing Tex? Don’t think so.”
“To the tunnels, then.” He smiled, but it was grim, and she gathered that traveling to the center of the earth wasn’t his idea of fun, either.
Xavier’s cousin, Alfredo, met them at the basilica, handing them each a small pack containing extra rope, a hard hat with headlamp, gloves, water, and a flashlight from the back of his utility van. He eyed each of them, judging their sizes, then gave each a bright orange jumpsuit with reflective strips across the chest and back and sleeves. Apparently he had plenty to spare. “It’s a steady fifty degrees down there. Chilly. These will help keep you warm, and protect your skin and clothes from those tight spaces.”
Sydney took the pack, realized it was too small to put her travel bag with her sketchbook into it, and decided to leave the travel bag behind in Alfredo’s van. She pulled on the jumpsuit, then started toward the entrance to the catacombs beneath the basilica, when Griffin stopped her. “Take these,” he said, handing her a folding knife and a semiauto from his backpack, the Beretta they’d taken from their earlier assailants.
From the weight of it, it felt fully loaded, and she ejected the magazine, saw there were fifteen rounds. “You think it’s Adami’s men following us?”
“Like his man said when I called him at the train station to ask that very question, he has no need to follow when he knows where we are going, and where we’ll end up.”
“If it’s not his men, then who?”
“Someone who knew enough to follow us on a train to Naples—which makes me wonder if it isn’t whoever stole the professor’s computer. We’re assuming we lost the man at the hotel, and we got to Xavier first, but as of now, we have no way of knowing that Xavier or his cousin were not being followed.”
Sydney glanced over at Xavier and Alfredo, who were helping Francesca with her jumpsuit. Suddenly the thought of walking through tunnels or rappelling into the vast depths of a cistern no longer bothered her.
Being murdered and left behind in some long-forgotten chamber, knowing that her bones might not be discovered for centuries, was far worse. “I’ll keep an eye out,” she said, replacing the magazine, then putting the weapon in the pocket of her coveralls. She started toward the others.
“There’s something else. Something I haven’t told you.”
He stepped in close. But then Xavier called out that they were leaving, and Griffin moved away, saying, “It can wait.”
His face held that stubborn, closed look she was beginning to recognize, the one that told her he wasn’t about to reveal his secrets to her or anyone else. “Let’s do this,” she said.
“You sure?” he asked.
She wasn’t. Not sure of anything. Especially not him. Even so, her answer was to pick up the pack that Alfredo had given her and walk over to where the others stood waiting.
Sydney eyed the larger packs carried by Xavier and Alfredo. The equipment hanging from both reminded her of what a mountain climber might carry, and then some. “How long are we going to be down there?” she asked.
Alfredo shrugged. “Judging from the distance, and depending on how much obstruction lies between here and di Sangro’s tunnel, not more than a few hours.”
She could only hope that’s all it was. A few hours of walking through the caves she could live with. As long as they were back in time. She and Griffin looked at their watches at the same moment. Not quite five hours before they had to deliver this lost map to Adami.
They filed into the entrance of the tunnels below the basilica. Sydney saw the yellowish rock, and decided it wasn’t as bad as she’d first imagined. They continued on, for what seemed an eternity, the temperature cooling as they descended, then remaining steady. The perfect wine cellar, she thought, grateful for the jumpsuits Xavier’s cousin had provided. In all, their journey consisted of winding through a labyrinth of switchback steps, long passageways, and endless tunnels that seemed to lead down.
And down.
The intense quiet felt surreal. Their breathing seemed to echo off the walls, and the only other sounds heard were their footsteps as they trudged along the rough-hewn floor,