and crossbones waver in the light, then disappear in a shadow as he aimed the beam up the long tunnel. “This way,” Alfredo said, starting forward, his voice echoing up the passageway.
Xavier and Francesca followed him in, but Sydney hesitated again, trying to decipher what she’d actually seen.
Griffin stopped beside her. “Something wrong?”
She whispered. “I swear there’s an arrow up there.”
“An arrow?”
Instead of trying to explain, she took her own light, moved it across the entrance of the tunnel and over the skull and crossbones in a sweeping fashion, much as Xavier had done. Perhaps it was the way the thing was carved in the tufo, merely a coincidence in the play of shadows, and she glanced over at Griffin.
“You think that’s an arrow?” he said.
“Pointing down.”
And before either had a chance to look further, there was a sharp crack of gunfire. It echoed around the cavern, making it impossible to pinpoint it.
Yellow tufo dust fell from the tunnel entrance. “Run!” Griffin shouted into the tunnel at Francesca. “Turn off your lights!”
Alfredo froze. Francesca and Xavier pulled him up the tunnel, away from the gunfire. Griffin and Sydney each took one side off the tunnel entrance, tried to press themselves into the walls for cover. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing, she thought, switching off her light, pulling her glove off with her teeth, then drawing her weapon from her jumpsuit pocket.
She glanced toward the path they’d taken from the basilica, saw a muzzle flash, then another. The gunshots echoed across the cavern. At least two shooters, maybe more. She closed one eye to preserve her night vision. Hoped the reflective stripes from the jumpsuits didn’t make them more of a target. Aimed. Fired.
33
“We’re sitting ducks here,” Griffin said. “We’re going to have to try to make it up the tunnel. Follow the others.”
Sydney fired off two more rounds, hating herself for even thinking about what she was going to say. “No.”
“No?”
“We need to go down.”
“No. We don’t separate.”
“If we go up, we’re leading them right to the others. Xavier knows his way around here. He thinks there’s a hidden passage up there. The arrow pointed down, and we may be their only chance for escape.”
“It was an anomaly. Shadow play.” A shot hit the tufo above them. Dust rained down.
“From everything I’ve heard on this di Sangro guy, he was far too intelligent to let some shadow get in the way. The skull and crossbones is upside-down, so it makes sense the arrow would clarify.”
He fired off a round, then, “How sure are you about this?”
“You have a better idea?”
She heard him taking in a deep breath, as though coming to a weighty decision. “We go down.”
God, let me be right, she thought.
He fired again.
Answering gunshots. Sydney pressed herself into the wall, then leaned out, fired a couple more rounds.
“Ready?” Griffin said.
She looked over to where she thought he was on the opposite side of the tunnel entrance, imagining she could see him in the dark. “Yeah.”
“Cover me, wait a second, then follow.” Griffin fired twice, then ran into the main cavern.
Sydney fired. Again and again. Figured she had about seven rounds left. Someone or several someones were running down the main entrance. She waited a heartbeat, jumped out, fired a volley, then ran like hell.
Griffin flashed a light on then off. He was perched halfway into the entrance of the cistern in the floor, one hand gripping the ladder anchored to the tufo. He dared the light again, then tossed her a rope, looped at one end. “Put this around your middle and pull tight.”
She tucked her gun into her waistband, grabbed the rope, slipped it on, pulled. “I already hate this idea.”
Griffin was heading down. “If you fall, try not to take me with you.”
“I really, really hate this idea.”
“You said that,” he replied, then disappeared from view. The light from his headlamp cast an eerie glow from the depths of the cistern. It was just enough light to let her see the flexible-sided ladder, which, in her mind, didn’t look sturdy enough for one person, let alone two at once.
Shouts from the tunnel entrance, one saying, “This way!” gave her all the impetus she needed to get on the ladder and start down. She sat on the ledge, grabbed the top of the ladder, then felt for a rung with her foot as she let herself over.
Griffin called up, “Keep your body close to the ladder, and your hands no higher than your