The Unseen (22 page)

Bunny inched into the ice cold water, feeling its chill all the way into her bones. Winston waded alongside her into the deepening water.

“You weren’t kidding about this water being cold, were you?” Winston’s lips had turned a bluish hue.

Bunny turned toward him and massaged his arms with her hands. “You look like you’re freezing to death. Maybe if we move a little faster, you’ll warm up a little.”

The two strode as fast as they could through the mostly waist-deep water. Bunny angled her head toward Roberta and Rich and nudged Winston on the shoulder. “Those two are really going after each other.” Their postures tense and defensive, the pair flung out insults as fast as they could articulate them.

Winston shook his head and frowned. “Yeah, that’s the kind of attraction I can bloody well do without.”

“Rebecca and Kent used to argue and launch insults each other’s way for hours—and look at them now. If you watch their body language, they almost seem to move in synch. And they never run out of topics to talk about—their interests are so similar. There’s definitely something lasting between them.”

Winston’s brows tipped in and he scratched his chin. “So our relationship isn’t exciting enough for you?”

Bunny splashed water in his direction and laughed. Her voice echoed through the maze of tunnels that went on for miles. “You know that’s not true.”

Winston glanced over his shoulder at Rich and Roberta when one of them spewed out the
f
word yet again. “Crikey—those two sound like they’re going to kill each other.”

“Oh, thank goodness we’re almost there.” Bunny’s teeth chattered as she stepped from the icy water onto a smooth platform of limestone.

Winston hunched over and shivered beside her. “Bunny, you’re freezing.” He gripped her shoulders and rubbed his hands up her arms to create some warm friction.

His warm touch worked its magic and soon Bunny had enough feeling in her fingers to reciprocate. “Your turn for the hypothermia treatment.” She zipped her hands over Winston’s arms before moving on to his lower back. “At least this cave is reasonably warm inside, since it’s nearly level with the ground. Rebecca said the main cave was freezing. I never got to go down there because Kent didn’t think I could do the three hundred foot rappel.”

Kent stood nearby, tipping his water bottle toward his mouth. Water dripped down his chin where it missed. He wiped it away and extended his arm toward the embracing couple, still holding his bottle. “Okay, enough of that kinky stuff.”

“We’re just trying to warm up a bit,” said Winston.

“Great, now let’s go find those hieroglyphics.”

As they stepped over the masses of boulders, Bunny tried to recall what she’d seen. She’d glimpsed the place the kidnappers had described after Kent and Rebecca had rescued her and they’d escaped by fleeing deeper into the cave. The ground leveled off and Bunny’s ankles let out a sigh of relief now that they weren’t being twisted in every direction.
That’s it.
“Wait. It’s somewhere near here.”

“Are you sure?” asked Kent.

Bunny felt elated and excited. “I’m absolutely positive. I remember feeling that same relief after we stopped climbing over those boulder piles before. You never forget ankle pain like that. It’s a small niche on this left side somewhere. But I think we passed it.”

Kent pursed his lips, deepening his dimples.

Bunny knew he still doubted her. “Come on, I know it’s back here some place.”

Although their headlights illuminated the passageway, the group started panning flashlights over the limestone walls to detect side passages. Bunny ran her hands over the jagged limestone as she walked, trying to jar another memory. “Oh, yeah, I just remembered. There was a rock jutting out that reminded me of a hawk’s beak nearby.”

“What about that.” Winston extended a pointing finger over her shoulder.

“That’s it,” Bunny shouted as she ran toward the shape.

“Watch your step,” said Kent. “You won’t be much help to us with a broken neck.”

Bunny bit back her frustration.
“I’ve got it under control.” She walked below the rocky projection and ran her hands over the wall again until she felt the groove. “Here it is.” She shone the light directly into the narrow opening in the rock. Everyone peered around her to glimpse the inscriptions that were clearly visible on the wall.

Kent’s blue eyes widened with astonishment. He wiped his lips to hide the smile that spread over his face. “Excellent job tracking this down, Bunny. That was awesome.” He gave her a brotherly pat on the back.

“Thanks.” Bunny was so thrilled, she felt like she could leap right out of her skin.

Winston raised his hand to give her a high five and gave her an affectionate wink.

Kent turned toward Roberta. “So what do you think?”

Roberta shrugged. “I’ll slide in there and take a closer look, but I am ninety-five percent certain this is modern day art.”

“How do you know that?” Kent asked.

Roberta launched out a sharp-edged response. “Words written in English are a pretty big clue.”

Kent tipped his head and gazed inside the opening with pursed his lips. “Can you see what it says?”

“Not at this distance in this kind of light.”

Kent placed two fingers on either side of his chin, compressing his full lips. “Let’s squeeze in there and take a closer look. Roberta, I’ll let you go first.”

Roberta shook her head, then wriggled her way through the opening. “Fabulous. Funny thing, I’m always the first one nominated to go into openings likely to be crawling with snakes.”

Bunny covered her mouth with her hands and glanced at Winston. She could tell by the strained, yet amused, upward curl of his lips that he was struggling as hard as she was not to laugh.

Kent’s lips turned up in a smile as he gave the group a
she’s a real piece of work
look. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something macho man Rich would say, too.”

* * * *

Kent pushed his way through the narrow opening, which widened inside a small chamber. Standing beside Roberta, he ran his fingers over the strange drawings etched in black on the limestone walls. There were a series of stick-figure drawings of a man running. One had been drawn with solid lines, the second one was done in dashes, and the final one used only dots to represent the figure’s shape. “These drawings must represent how the powder makes people invisible,” said Kent.

“I think you’re right about that. But look at this. Whatever instrument was used to draw these images and write these notes has smudged,” said Roberta. “But underneath the third picture, it says
the Unseen are here on Earth
.
Now, I’m one of them.
”

“What do you think that means?”
On Earth, from where?

“I’m really not sure. It sounds to me like whoever inscribed this believes some kind of extraterrestrial beings were here. Maybe the powers he experienced made him feel connected to them somehow.”

“Hmm. When do you think the drawings were created?”

“I’d wager during the Vietnam War. I extensively researched the history of this area and six Vietnam Veterans mentioned hiding out in caves in blog posts and published books. I contacted every one of them. Three of the men admitted they’d seen writing on the walls in caves in this study area, but none said they’d actually written them or found anything unusual down here. One was deceased. There were two men who never returned my calls. I’m hoping to follow up with them when I get back to my office.”

“It sounds like you’ve done your homework,” said Kent.

Roberta perched her hands on her hips and stared at him as if he was a patient in a mental hospital. “They don’t call me out to every Godforsaken place in the world to stand around and pick my wedgies.”

Kent wondered if Rich had any idea what he was getting himself into. This woman seemed to thrive on conflict. “Right.”

Roberta angled her body toward the entrance. “What about you, Slick? Did your men hide out around here?”

Rich’s booming voice echoed through the tunnels. “Lady, real men don’t hide out and scribble on walls during wars.”

“Yeah, but I was asking you.”

Almost thirty minutes had passed since the couple’s last cat and dog fight and now they were at it all over again. Kent shifted his body to block Roberta’s view of Rich, hoping that would calm her. “Roberta, please, can we get back to work?”

Rich’s angry voice echoed through the labyrinths. “If you weren’t a woman, I’d punch your fucking lights out. I bet you’re one of those men who just dresses like a woman.”

Roberta pushed Kent aside so she could make eye contact with Rich. “Ha. You’re just intimidated by me, that’s all.”

Kent grabbed Roberta’s arm and flashed her a warning look. “Can you cool it down and save this love fight for later?”

“Are you kidding me?” Roberta raised her chin and then jammed some stray hairs behind her ears. “I’m only interested in artifacts.” She turned back toward the drawings.

Kent bit his lip to keep from smiling. He wondered if he and Rebecca had acted this outrageous. He thought back to some of their fights and felt his face flush.

He pointed toward the second set of three images. “Look how they’re leaping in the air. When Rebecca ingested the powder, she could jump and do flips in slow motion.”

Roberta yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth. “We know all that. What interests me more is this.” She had been scanning the walls of the chamber and now her flashlight beam was directed toward a drawing of a cave room open to the sky. “There’s a drawing here of a place in the cave. The inscription under it says
cathedral of the Unseen
. I would wager that’s where you’ll find your magic powder. Does this place look familiar?”

“It’s definitely a collapsed limestone roof, but there are dozens of them along this cave system.”

Roberta paused before responding. “Is there one nearby?”

“Yes, there’s one we could reach in a couple of hours.”

After perusing the rest of the chamber inch by inch, she spoke. “Let me take a few photos before we leave. That way we can study the pictures and see if we missed something.”

“Sounds like an excellent plan to me.”

Kent wiggled his way out of the narrow opening.

“So what did you find out?” Rebecca asked. Her green eyes danced with eager excitement.

Kent smiled. The basics weren’t good enough for her. There wasn’t a single facet of the mission that didn’t fascinate her. In the past, David had been his backboard to bounce off ideas, but untangling mysteries with his Bec added a whole new dimension to his life. They shared everything together.

An instinctive lurch made him step closer. He wanted to physically and verbally express how much their special connection mattered to him. But he knew he couldn’t—not now, not in front of everyone. Everything he said any louder than a whisper reverberated through the tunnels dozens of times. And he knew the others were eager to hear about their findings. “It’s a bit complicated.”

He described everything he and Roberta had seen, including the possible reference to aliens. “If we can find some of the original rocks, maybe I’ll be able to learn how this supernatural substance was created.”

“Can you show me the drawings? I’d really like to take a look.”

“Sure. We’ll just have to stay out of Roberta’s way.”

“Don’t worry, I’m all done,” Roberta said, pulling the camera away from her face. “Explore away.”

Kent turned toward the group. “I’ll give you all a few minutes to step inside and take a look at what we’ve found here before we move on.”

Kent and Rebecca squeezed their way back through the narrow opening and walked over to study the drawings. Rebecca grazed her fingertips over the sketch of the collapsed cavern. “It’s amazing enough that you discovered such this record-setting cave, but now finding something like this—you’ll be even more famous than you are already.”

Kent decided a little physical contact wouldn’t hurt. He linked his arm with hers and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Fame I could do without. After all this is behind us, I’d like to take you away to some deserted beach and spend a few days exploring every part of your body.”

Rebecca turned toward him, her green eyes glittering with delight. “I’d like that.” She turned and brushed her moist lips over his cheek, stumbling over a rock as she did.

“Careful there.” He caught her before she fell. “We’ll make it happen, then.” Contentment rose in his chest as he pictured spending a week or two alone with this woman he loved so dearly. There’d be nothing to interrupt them from making love, talking for hours until they knew each other inside and out, and making love again. His cock twitched expectantly at the thought. But before they took that trip, he wanted to ask her to marry him.

* * * *

The instant Rebecca’s eyes had landed on the inscriptions, the hallucinations resumed. She barely heard Kent’s voice when he instructed them to start walking toward the doline. Still, she stepped along beside him.

Strange images had flashed in front of her eyes on several occasions ever since she’d ingested the powder. And there were other things she’d noticed—like she rarely slept, yet never felt fatigued, and she felt more intelligent than ever before.

Whenever she did fall asleep, she had strange dreams. As the flash in front of her eyes came into focus, she saw a dark tunnel she seemed to be traveling through at an incredible speed. She sensed the pull of her skin and whatever force catapulted her through the tunnel threw her this way and that. Her head felt topsy turvy from all the sudden shifts in direction.
Where am I?
Suddenly, she dropped into vast dark space, floating weightless and surrounded by stars.

“Bec, are you okay?”

Kent’s voice jolted her back to reality and the images she’d seen faded away. “Oh, sure, I’m fine.” She looked to see she’d inadvertently bumped into a wall. “Just a little shaky on my feet today, that’s all.”

Rays of light trickled into the cave as they approached the doline. A warm breeze lifted Kent’s collar, carrying the sweet scent of orchids. He and Rebecca stood shoulder to shoulder, waiting for the rest of the group to gather. Rich and Roberta were still launching verbal grenades when they arrived.