Chapter Thirteen
Kari hustled down the aisle in the dungeon. It was like she’d stepped back in time to medieval London. They had to have purposely made the cells so formidable since the palace was modern. The prince was quite the drama queen.
There were a few men among the cells, and they looked like skeletons. When she got out of this, she would make sure they were rescued for this hellhole.
Bryon pushed ahead of her and stopped at the rough-hewn rock wall.
“Now what?” she asked. “Where’s the door?”
He stood looking around. “Not sure.”
Panic zipped through her. Along with anger. “What?” He had to be joking. “You bring us down here not knowing how to get out? Are you crazy?” Her arms slapped down at her thighs. “We’re gonna die. That’s all there is to it.”
He sniffed along the wall. “Hush. Don’t be so overdramatic. That’s not becoming of an agent.”
She straightened up immediately. He was right. She wasn’t being professional at all. For pretending to be a girlfriend who was supposed to only walk around a lot, she sure was busy. And now she was going to die. All because she had to pee. Funny how life sucked.
“Got it.” Agent Day pushed against the rock and she saw a portion slide back. He gritted his teeth and the muscles popped out on his arms. His shirt sparkled in the low light from the dungeon. She would’ve giggled if not in this situation. The dungeon door opened and men’s voices echoed.
“Hurry.” She pushed against the section of wall like she was really helping. She had to do something. Shit. They were going to die! Day suddenly seized her hand and pulled her through a narrow opening. She sucked her belly into her chest. Her boobs were already big enough, she didn’t need this.
She breathed out as a flashlight lit the dark tunnel. Where were they? It looked like the escape tunnel El Chapo used in his getaway. Then it hit her. They were in the infamous tunnels that no one ever escaped. They existed. At least, one did.
Agent Day guided her through turn after turn, sometimes pausing before taking another direction. The tunnel was high enough for her co-agent to stand, and he was a lot taller than she was. The walls were far enough apart to almost walk side by side. The floor was somewhat smooth for being cut from rock. Probably from years of people traveling to and from this area.
Running into another dead end, they backed out. Now that she thought about it, the palace had to be purposely built where it was to have such access to an entrance. She wondered if the Nazis had a previous structure there and used the tunnels to hide things. Holy shit. There could be treasure somewhere down here.
They slid down another narrow passageway and stopped.
“What?” she asked. “Why did we stop?”
“I think we’re safe for a bit. We hit so many dead ends and made so many turns that the guards couldn’t have possibly followed us. You can rest while I search ahead for a way out.”
Once again, she did not believe his words. “You brought us into the fabled tunnels which have had all their exits bulldozed and blocked, and you don’t know the way out?”
He looked at her. “All the exits bulldozed?” he asked.
“Oh my freaking god.” She didn’t care if she was being unprofessional. They were definitely going to die. What was she going to do? She absolutely didn’t feel safe, like he’d thought. Acting in anger, she stomped down the trail and took the first turn she came to.
Everything was so dark. She could only see a narrow swath of the area that her flashlight landed on. This really creeped her out. If she had had claustrophobia, this would not have been the place for her.
The tunnel narrowed to a one-person passage. Her toe hit a rock in the middle of the path and she tripped forward, losing her balance. Her shirt was grabbed from behind and a breeze hit her face. What the hell? She straightened and turned around. Fixing her shirt, she scowled at the man. That was quite rude. “Agent Day,” she said, “there is no need to be manhandling me. I can take care of myself.”
His brow raised. “Call me Bryon. I’ll call your Kari.” He looked over her shoulder to whatever was behind her. “You can take care of yourself?” He shined his light past her and nodded for her to turn around.
She spun around and inches from her face was a metal spearhead. She screamed and jumped back. Bryon shined his light over the area. Not only was there one spearhead, but two dozen heads attached to wood boards that shot out from both sides of the wall. And to make matters worse, a partial skeleton hung from several of the spikes. Oh, fuck. She’d have been a shish kebab if he hadn’t snagged her shirt.
She looked at him. “How did you know?”
“I smelled a dead body and figured since it wasn’t on the ground, there could be a trap. As soon as you stepped on the trigger, I knew that was right,” he replied.
Her face scrunched. “What trigger?” Then she remembered. The rock she’d tripped on in the first place. “Never mind.”
Bryon stood close to the spears and sniffed. “This trap has caught more than one person. It must reset itself somehow,” he said.
“How could it do that?”
He shrugged. “Could use gravity to eventually pull down a rock attached to a pulley to yank a rope to pull it back. Something like that.”
“You mean we have to wait for this to open before we continue through?” she asked. Patience wasn’t a virtue right now. The guards could still be behind them. Bryon put a hand on each piece of wood and pushed out. Nothing happened for a second, then slowly, the boards moved. When his arms were fully stretched, the spears were spread enough for her to pass through. Which she did. He slid his hands across to the other side then jumped out when close to the far side.
Kari swiped her light along the path in front of them and wondered what other traps lay ahead.