Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
Dana
“Just the Orbit Wintermint, ma’am?”
Dana nodded with a smile.
“Do you need a bag?”
“No thank you,” she answered politely, and remembering what Kurt had told her, she showed her keycard to the clerk, who thanked her for dropping in. Picking up the small box of gum, she left the store, striding across the lobby of the main building and out the front door.
She’d needed only an hour of poring over her files to realize she was right. The erosion cut she and Kurt had found was another piece to the puzzle she was putting together, but right now it was only a piece. Like a corner, but Dana wanted more than just the one. She needed a second, and right now there was one place where she knew she could find it.
Taking out two pieces of gum from the box, she popped them into her mouth. She didn’t normally chew gum, but for what she had planned, she needed it.
No. Do I make myself clear?
He had, but just as clear was her need to confirm what she suspected, and there was only one way to do that.
Now. No more waiting.
Dana followed the gravel walk they’d taken yesterday until she found herself back at the Sapphire Mine Gift Shop. Stepping inside, she found the store empty except for the man who ran it.
“Hey, Roman!”
He looked up from whatever he was reading on the counter in front of him, smiling. “Hey! Ms.”—he pointed, snapping his fingers several times—“Aziz, right?”
“You remembered.”
“Hard to forget what you and Mr. Ellery spoke about yesterday.” He leaned his elbows onto the counter. “Did you talk with Mr. Hawkins?”
“We did. We’re just waiting on approval from his lawyers.”
“Cool.” He glanced toward the door. “So, where is Mr. Ellery?”
“He’s back at the main building. I think he’s looking into some of the other… amenities Rawhide Ranch offers.”
Roman grinned broadly. “Well, you should be with him.”
Dana cocked her eyebrow. “Yeah… it’s not like that.”
“His loss,” he replied with a laugh.
The scrape of the door opening followed by a tinkling chime brought both their heads around. Three young women stepped inside, stopping to examine the room around them.
“Welcome to the Sapphire Mine Gift Shop and Exploration Zone!” Roman called out. Glancing at Dana, he said, “Gimme a sec, I’ll be right back.”
“If it’s okay with you,” Dana pointed to the exploration room behind her, “I’m gonna pop back there for a minute.”
Roman nodded. “Sure, no problem. I’ll come find you when I’m done here.”
She slipped past the counter and headed into the exploration room as Roman moved toward the guests. She strode past the sluicing table and the colorful buckets and gear, moving to the far wall where the steel gate closed off the mine tunnel. Glancing back toward the front of the store, she could hear conversation taking place between Roman and his three customers.
Thank you, ladies. Now do your girl a favor and keep him occupied a little while longer…
Dana reached into her pocket and pulled out a small metal device. When she was out on survey she wore her Leatherman multi-tool in a pouch on her belt, but this time she’d hidden it in her pocket so as not to draw attention. She didn’t want to answer any questions why she had it on her, especially if she bumped into Kurt by accident on her way here. Now she unfolded the screwdriver blade from the knife and knelt in front of the gate lock.
As she’d told Kurt, the lock was old, and the mechanism wasn’t complicated. A little working at it so the latch came free, and suddenly she was holding the padlock in her hand.
After a final glance toward the front room, she gingerly opened the gate as narrowly as she could, then slipped behind it to the other side. It squeaked slightly as she swung it back closed, but not enough to draw anyone’s attention. Reaching through, Dana slipped the lock back through the hasp, then pulled the wad of gum from her mouth. Forming it carefully, she used the sticky glob to keep the shackle from engaging fully while still appearing closed. If anyone pulled on it or looked too closely it’d give, but she was banking no one would do that until she was long back. At that point it wouldn’t matter; she’d relock it completely and no one would be the wiser.
Well, until Kurt found out, and he would eventually, because she’d have to tell him. But, like every other time in the past, she’d deal with that the way she always had, and eventually he’d forgive her .
Until he doesn’t.
Where that thought came from, she didn’t know, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it now. Turning, she strode down the tunnel as the light and sound of the shop faded until the only noise was the shunkshunkshunk of her feet on the mine’s floor.
Fifty feet into the tunnel, Dana paused to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The tiniest trace of light filtered back from the gift shop, and by the time her eyes had acclimated, she could discern the ghostly outlines of the mine’s timbering well enough to walk further back unassisted. She didn’t want to break out her phone until necessary, because though she doubted Roman would easily detect what she’d done to the lock, there was zero doubt he’d notice a bright light source coming from beyond the gate if she turned on the flashlight too soon.
Soon even the residual light from the entrance began to dwindle until she stopped so she wouldn’t potentially walk into something dangerous. Dana pulled out her cell, tapped at the flashlight icon, and the tunnel around her became bathed in a bright white light. She had to squint to keep from being totally blinded, but soon she adjusted to the illumination around her, and resumed walking.
She made cursory glances at the walls as she continued but didn’t expect to see anything this close to the main entrance; she was confident what she was looking for would be deeper back. The tunnel continued straight for ten minutes before she encountered the first lateral. It branched to both the left and right, but Dana ignored them, keeping to the main tunnel. The more she continued, the closer she kept an eye on the walls to either side.
Thirty minutes had passed since she’d first snuck in, and she’d passed several more side passages before she came to her first obstacle.
A cave-in.
Shit. Mr. Hawkins had warned of this, and now it was obvious he hadn’t merely been trying to scare them off. From the look of the way the timbers had collapsed, a pressure fault in the rock had failed, allowing tons of materiel to cascade down. The hundred-year-old wood made a crooked V, but as she knelt, she could see on one side there was still a way to pass beyond it.
Barely.
Pressing herself to the tunnel floor, she squeezed through the small gap left in the broken, loose rock that filled the opening. As Dana continued to crawl through the tight passage it seemed reasonably stable, and nothing moved as she pulled herself through. She’d been in situations like this, and worse, before, so she wasn’t unduly concerned. If Kurt were here, she wouldn’t have made it this far; he’d have stopped her before she could’ve gotten down on her belly. For Christ’s sake, Dana, it’s not safe! That’s exactly what he’d have claimed. That or something equally as limiting, and she didn’t need to hear it. Fortune favored the bold, and she’d proven she had plenty of fortune, even if there were those who wanted to believe her luck would run out some day.
The opening continued to narrow until rock scraped against her back. For a second, she thought of reversing course and wriggling back out, but the light ahead showed the passage was growing, so she pressed on. And it did; the edges of the cave-in spread outward, and a moment later, she was slipping free of the narrow confines and back into a tunnel that looked no different than the one she’d started down.
Whew .
She shone the light around the passageway, and if Mr. Hawkins had come this way there was no sign of it. Every indication was that she may have been the first person to walk this in more than a hundred years.
Glancing at her cell screen, she noted that she’d already been in the mine for a half hour. At this point she’d heard no noise behind her, no indication anyone was following her, so she was confident if she pressed on, she still had a chance of finding what she was looking for and getting back out before Kurt recognized she’d been gone.
She was deep enough in the mine now she could slow her pace slightly, investigating the walls closer as she continued up the tunnel. By her reckoning as to how far she’d come, now would be the time when it would be possible to find something akin to what she and Kurt had seen from across the canyon earlier. She expected it to be on a much smaller scale, which was why she needed to move carefully, so she wouldn’t miss it when it did show up.
And she knew it would, eventually. It was simply a matter of when and where.
Another fifteen minutes’ walking and she’d passed three more laterals, and still nothing. This mine had really been worked back in the day, and though it may have garnered its riches from sapphires, Dana had little doubt the original owners had been looking for more. This area of the northwest was known historically for gold, silver, and lead mining, and the men who’d dug this deep hadn’t only come this far looking for pretty, colorful stones.
Another hundred feet progressed beneath her feet, then another, and for the first time since she’d started, Dana began to wonder if maybe she was going to have to sneak in a second time. The longer this went on, the riskier it became that Kurt was going to find her out, and confident as she was that she could smooth things over with him, there was no point in pressing her luck. Besides, if she did go back now, there was always the chance Mr. Hawkins’ lawyers would finally come through and give them the permission they’d been waiting for, though convincing Kurt to proceed beyond the cave-in would be a challenge, for sure.
Just another hundred feet. Then you can think about turning around...
She listened to the voice in her head and continued moving forward carefully, the white beam of her phone’s light cutting through the darkness ahead of her.
She jerked to a halt, then slowly swept the light back over the wall she’d just scanned.
There it was.
She’d almost missed it. All this way, and she’d almost passed right by it. Stepping closer to the wall, she kept the beam of light fixed on the spot that had caught her eye. Reaching out, she ran her fingers over the dullish band in the rock.
Gum. It felt almost like the gum she’d used to keep the lock falsely secured. It was a thin line of bluish-silver and gray clay-like substance running parallel to the wider band of sandy-colored sedimentary rock Kurt had focused on at the scar they’d found earlier. Where the band at that spot had been substantial enough to see from their position across the canyon, this one was barely two fingers in width. But it was the same material, Dana was certain of it—a seam she was positive would contain traces of rare earth minerals once it was assayed.
Taking her multi-tool out, she scraped a generous amount of the material into the sample bag she’d brought along for just this reason. She didn’t need much—just enough for the lab to make an assay. As she had discussed with Kurt, she didn’t expect this mine to be the source of the minerals they would find. No, that was going to be further away from here, either north or south of this location. But this indication right here would tell them what Dana needed to know, that she’d been on the right track. Screw those guys in Colorado. This was where the next real find would be.
And she was the one who’d done it. Same as all the other times before.
Once the baggie was filled with enough material, Dana sealed it shut and shoved it into her pocket. She glanced at her phone; okay, later than she’d hoped for, but she could still pull this off. Looking specifically at the power bar, she grimaced. Okay, she needed to get going. Now.
Turning, she retraced the path she’d just come. Because she had chosen not to take any of the lateral passages, the route back was simple. Not only that, the trail of footprints she’d left on the floor was a dead giveaway.
It seemed longer than she remembered, but soon the collapsed portion of the tunnel came into view. Dana dropped to the ground and began shimmying her way back through the gap. Rocks dug into her hips as she passed through the narrowest part of the cave-in, but she ignored it; this was the halfway point, and once she was through it would be clear sailing.
The gap began to widen, and Dana breathed a sigh of relief. The worst part was over, and from here things should be a piece of cake. Her biggest worry now would be if Kurt had gotten antsy while she was gone. If she found him waiting in the lobby, he was going to notice the scuffs and smears of dirt on her jeans. That was just going to bring up a bunch of questions she didn’t want to answer, not to mention the inevitable argument that would occur once she confessed to what she’d done. All she wanted right now was to get back to her room to change before Kurt yelled at her until he’d have to admit she’d been right. Again.
As the passage broadened into the opening on the other side, Dana reached to grab on to the splintered wood so she could leverage herself from under the collapsed support beam. At least that was what was supposed to happen, except the wood didn’t hold. It was an unnerving feeling as she put weight on the timber, and it began to sag. She jerked to a stop, but the wood didn’t. It kept going, and she grasped at it again, as if she could prevent it from crumpling, because that was what it was doing and…
Shit. Shit, shit, shit!
The sssssshhhh of falling rock filled her ears as a cloud of dust obscured her vision. For a millisecond her body took over and she surged forward, but it was an illusion, because a heaviness overcame her, a wave that made movement suddenly feel as if she were trapped in glue. The light shining forward illuminated a million motes in swirling motion, a veil of inches rather than yards.
The shifting of rock and dirt stopped as quickly as it had started, and for a moment Dana lay motionless as silence once again filled the space around her.
“ Fuck .” The word was a whisper, but in the sudden oppressive hush of the mine it sounded like a shout.
Grime coated her lips, turning to a gritty paste in her mouth as she licked the earth away. A quick check of her body revealed nothing that seemed broken or bleeding. From her waist down, though, it felt as if she was under the heaviest weighted blanket ever. The pressure was strong but not painful, just enough to make fear arc through her.
Okay, this is… this is bad.
She dug her fingers into the loose rock and dirt in front of her and pulled. It felt like she was in one of those dreams where you knew you should be running, but your body wouldn’t cooperate. She wanted to kick her legs out or press back against whatever was behind the soles of her shoes, but… nothing. They simply wouldn’t budge.
Shining her phone around her, she looked for anything nearby she might use to help free herself. But there was nothing. The largest piece of splintered wood nearby was barely six inches in length, and it was also six inches out of her grasp. The only thing she could do was reach back and scrape away at the rubble at her waist, but she could spend hours doing that and it wouldn’t be enough to free her.
Dana had been twelve hundred feet below ground in Argentina when the edge of a vertical shaft she’d been trying to skirt had caved inward. She’d fallen for what had seemed forever, though it hadn’t been nearly as far as it had felt at the time. Still, it was enough that she’d broken two ribs and a leg in the process. It’d taken two days for the rescue team to reach her, but there was a difference here. In Argentina, Kurt had known she was in the mine, even though she’d gone far beyond where they’d agreed. Here, she’d lied by omission, and he had no idea where she was right now.
But he’d suspect. When she didn’t answer his calls about whether they were going to have dinner tonight, when she wouldn’t come to her door to either invite him in to fuck her or to tell him to fuck off, he was going to wonder where she was. Eventually, he’d suspect what she’d done. Of course he would because she was… Dana. Her rash, reckless, undisciplined self. He’d come for her, because in one fashion or another, he always had.
She hoped it’d be soon. Before her phone battery ran out or the rubble shifted, or the ceiling collapsed further. Because if any of those things happened…
Maybe this was it.
Maybe this was where her luck would finally run out.