Chapter 124
Dom knew what they were going to do as they set it up. K.J. was lying spread eagle on the ground, peering over the edge. Talking to Madison. Keeping Madison calm and updated.
Madison’s voice was…breathless.
In a way that damned near terrified him.
K.J. inched her way backwards very carefully.
Jake and Lake were busy setting up battery-operated lighting now. Lake had something to say about that. “I can say I fucking hate these damned mines. Considering.”
His brother’s wife had almost died down here.
His sister had been abducted twenty-something years ago by an uncle who’d wanted to use her to treasure hunt.
Bailey Addy, a good friend of the Lakes, had been kept down here with Lake’s wife and had almost died.
And now…Madison. People Lake cared about.
Dom reached out and helped K.J. move more safely.
K.J. looked at them. “Mads is wedged in a crack in the bottom part of the shaft, from what I can see. Limited mobility. But she’s no more than twelve feet down.
It looks like the opening is wider two-thirds of the way down—and there is a small ledge.
Then…it narrows. Looks like half as wide.
Her lower body seems to be wedged in a narrower part of the shaft.
If we can get down to her, and get a rope around her, we can…
haul her up. It’s just…going to be hard to get down there to her.
And I don’t know if you guys…you are all too heavy and way too wide through the shoulders. ”
“Newcomb?” Miguel asked. “We can’t leave that son-of-a-bitch down there, either. No matter how much we may want to do otherwise.”
K.J. had checked the man’s condition before pulling back from the edge. Dom didn’t give a flying rat’s ass about Ernie Newcomb right now. But…the TSP would have questions. He wanted the man to live so he could pay for every sin he had committed.
“He’s not moving. He’s in a shaft of some sort about two feet beside her.
Looks like they were built close together, or…
in conjunction with each other and shifted over time.
The rock eroded or broke and now…we have two large shafts in rock too close together.
And I can’t tell how deep they are. Mads looks to be stuck in debris at the bottom. ”
“Or she’s on top of what’s basically a damned clog,” Miguel said. “We can’t wait too long.”
“He’s probably the equal distance down. I don’t know if he’s alive, but there is blood. I couldn’t tell if he was even moving. And he is upside down; I can see the bottom of his shoes.”
“Madison is priority,” Dom didn’t even think it had to be said.
“She is. And I am going in to get her.” K.J. said. It wasn’t a question. No one had thought it was.
Miguel nodded. “K.J’s the only one who will fit. Let’s get Madison out of there.”