Whiteout

Chapter 7 #2

“Uh, yeah. I mean not really. Just coming to see if I can get some more pain meds for Ellie. She’s still battling that migraine.”

“Let me take a look at her, Vance, please?” Maya asked.

He raked a hand over his head and sighed. “I would love that, but she’s convinced it will pass in the next few hours.” He shrugged. “She’s usually right, but this time has been intense, and it’s hard to watch her suffer like this.”

“I’ll come right now,” Maya said.

He hesitated. “No. She’s funny about that kind of thing. Let me ask her. I’ll get word to you if she agrees.”

Maya frowned. “All right, but please reassure her that I don’t mind.

” She was worried it was more than a migraine, but unless the woman consented to an examination, Maya’s hands were tied.

“Let me see what I can find. We’ve pooled our resources, and someone had some migraine meds they shared.

” Desperate times called for desperate measures. “Tell me everything she’s allergic to.”

“Nothing. No foods, no meds, nothing.”

“All right, follow me.”

Once Vance had one dose of medicine for Ellie, they made their way back to the café and took their seats.

“So tell us about the tunnels,” Lila said.

“It looked like a cave initially,” Gideon said, “but once I got inside, I could see it was definitely man-made.” He looked around. “There was a maze of tunnels, and while it was hard to keep my sense of direction and stay oriented, I’m pretty sure one of them led this way.”

“Then there should be an entrance,” Maya said, “right? Or would it be an exit?”

“Guess it depends on which way you went in,” Lila said.

Maya laughed. “You know, when we were kids, we looked all over the place for anything that could be used to hide a treasure.”

“We didn’t go into the employee areas, though.”

“True, but I know some kids tried. I never was willing to break the rules.” She shrugged. “And now I’m glad, because obviously those who did so didn’t find anything either. But from what I remember they sure got in a bunch of trouble.”

Lila frowned. “You know, I think I may know what you’re looking for.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been here awhile and I’ve gone through every inch of this resort. I remember seeing a map-type thing tacked to one of the walls in the basement. I had no idea what it was and honestly didn’t think anything about it. Just figured it was someone’s weird art.”

“Where?” Maya asked.

Lila smiled. “You want me to show you?”

Gideon nodded. “Absolutely.”

Gideon and Maya followed Lila through the kitchen into a back hallway, and Gideon aimed himself toward the glass door at the end.

“Let me take a look here first, will you? I’m curious to see if what I’m thinking is right.

” He pushed the glass door open. “It’s a small alleyway where they dump the trash.

” He pointed to the dumpster. Then stepped outside and let the frigid wind sweep over him.

He shivered but ignored the cold while he took in the scenery.

There was a small patio area surrounded by a brick wall.

To his right, a wrought-iron gate was cracked open.

Gideon walked to it and gave it a push. It swung out and he raised a brow.

Maya stepped up beside him. “What are you doing?”

“Seeing what’s out here and if what I’m picturing in my head matches reality.

” He exited through the gate, and she followed.

Lila brought up the rear. He pointed to the avalanche area.

“You can’t see the tunnel from here, but it’s over there.

If I remember correctly, I think it runs this way. ” He pointed toward the lodge.

“How are the tunnels shaped?” Maya asked. “Could one lead us under the slide and out to the road? Like could we use one to escape?”

“That’s exactly what I was trying to figure out.

” He rubbed his chin, thinking. “As I was walking it, it seemed like they make a kind of an M shape. The entrance was straight ahead and then there was a fork in the road, so to speak. I went left, and it had a sharp curve that started taking me back toward the lodge. I don’t know where the other curve ends up, but if it’s the same as the first, it might take us off the property.

There were a couple of other tunnels that branched off the way I went that looked like they went up the mountain, but I can’t say for sure.

” He tracked the area from the tunnel with his eyes, estimating where the opening would be in the lodge.

“The basement,” Maya murmured.

“Yes,” Lila said, “that’s where I was going to take you.

It’s just a junk-filled storage area, and it’s been forever since anyone’s been down there.

I used to go down just to make sure no one was trying to overstay their welcome at the resort, but I found a way around that nonsense.

I finally booby-trapped the door so I could tell if it had been opened or not. It never was.”

“Can you get us down there?”

“Of course.” She motioned for them to follow and led them to a back room off the kitchen, then to an old door in a hallway. “Look at the bottom.”

He looked and saw a piece of black electrical tape that ran horizontally across the crack of the door.

“Still there,” she said. “But open it and that’s the way down.”

“Clever woman.”

She shrugged. “I can be. I requested a lock be installed, but no one was worried about anything down there and said it was a waste of money to protect it with a lock. I was more worried about someone going down there, hurting themself, then suing the place. But no one else was concerned about that. They said no one knew about the basement anyway. They’re not wrong.

I still wanted a lock, but we don’t always get what we want, so here we are.

The map is toward the back on the wall.”

He twisted the knob and pulled. Nothing. “It’s definitely not locked, but . . .” He jerked harder, and it opened with an earsplitting screech.

Maya jumped and clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a yelp. He raised a brow at her and she flushed. “Sorry. I guess I’m a little on edge.”

“I don’t blame you.” He tried the light switch on the wall without hope, so when the bulb over the stairs came on, he almost jumped too. “Well, that’s good news.” Gideon started down the steps, with Maya and Lila right behind him.

Once they reached the bottom, stale air surrounded them.

The place was filled to the brim with restaurant and ski equipment.

Old furniture and mining tools, safety equipment and dust. So much dust. “Talk about a hoarding situation.” For the next thirty minutes, they moved stuff to create a path to the back where Lila said the map was.

“Oh wow,” Maya said, “look at that.” A large intricately hand-drawn map was tacked to the wall. “This has to be it, doesn’t it?”

They all stepped closer and Gideon laughed. “No way it can be this easy.”

“I think it is actually this easy, thanks to Lila,” Maya said.

“You think this is it? Am I right?” Lila asked.

“I really think you are,” Gideon said. “Well, it’s not an M shape. It’s more of a W on top of an M. But I think this is where we are now.” He tapped the paper. He looked closer. “I wonder what these little circles are? Ventilation shafts, maybe?”

“No idea,” Lila said.

“Guess we know where the rumors came from now,” Maya said. “No treasure indicated, but it’s a fun thought. Which one of those tunnels leads out? Surely whoever built these wouldn’t go to all that trouble without one route off the mountain.”

He touched the top one. “This one is a possibility.”

Maya placed a finger on another area. “And this one is the area uncovered by the avalanche.” She traced it. “So it doesn’t go out,” she said. “Bummer.”

“Is there an entrance to these tunnels from the lodge?” Lila asked. “The map’s down here, so it seems like there would be one. Maybe?”

Gideon glanced around the area once more, then returned his gaze to the map. “I would think so. How have we not heard about this map in all the years of coming here?”

Lila shrugged. “The resort’s still owned by the original family, but turnover is pretty high, and there aren’t any employees that have been here for an extended period of time.

And those who were here back in the earlier days have all passed on.

So it’s no surprise that no one would know about this.

And if someone did know about it, they wouldn’t necessarily have any reason to talk about it.

You know how I came to discover it. I haven’t thought about it once until you were talking about tunnels. ”

“Okay,” Maya said, pointing to the far wall.

“Back there, behind all that stuff and around the corner, is where the door should be.” She snapped a picture of the map with her phone, then led the way, dodging items and shoving boxes to the side to make a path.

When she rounded the corner, she stopped. “It’s a wall, not a door.”

Lila tapped it. “Sounds solid.”

Maya frowned. “This is the right place, isn’t it?” She knocked on the wall next to the area that should be a door.

Gideon rapped as well, then dropped his hand to his side. “Nothing sounds hollow. Huh.”

“Well, that’s disappointing,” Maya muttered. “They must have closed it up.”

“Guess we could knock it down,” Lila said, “but we’ll have to get permission. Of course, I have a feeling the manager would be just fine with that if it meant we could get out and find some help.”

“Let’s go back to the map,” Gideon said.

“I know you have a picture on your phone, but I want to see the whole thing again.” They followed him to stand in front of the drawing, and he said, “Okay, so here’s the entrance that was uncovered by the avalanche.

” He ran a finger over the lines. “That tunnel doesn’t appear to be connected to this side.

It’s totally separate, but it does lead to another maze of tunnels and this one”—he jabbed the map—“looks like it leads out.”

“But it might not be safe. You didn’t go that way originally.”

“No, we’ll have to do a little exploring, but it’s our best shot.”

Lila nodded. “Let’s go tell Grant Paulson.

He’s the resort general manager.” They made their way back up the steps.

“He’s been here for about two years and does a great job.

He’s been out there organizing the digging shifts and making sure people stay hydrated and careful not to overexert themselves. ”

“One thing before we go. What’s with the landlines?”

Lila raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“When I mentioned them before, you and Ethan exchanged a look. Why?”

She sighed. “Okay, yes, it looks like they’ve been tampered with.

I’m not a phone line expert, but even I could see that it’s possible someone messed with the wires and stuff.

The VoIP cabinet is in the back of the lodge where the main office is.

When we first looked, you really couldn’t see anything was wrong.

But when you traced the primary line feeding into the resort’s phone, it was missing.

Without one to replace it, there’s no way to get the phones working again, even when the internet’s restored.

Not only that, but security just learned that there was a flash drive inserted into one of the open USB ports.

Looks like a jammer that emits a low-level interference signal.

Its job is to disrupt any attempts to reestablish communication remotely.

Like if anyone tried to reroute calls through a backup system, all they’d get is static. ”

Maya gaped. Then snapped her lips shut. “Wow. That’s clever, but . . . why?”

Lila scowled. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.”

No, it definitely couldn’t be good.