The B Girls

This Time I Know I'm Dead





A hand closed around the wrist of her outstretched arm.

Lucy tried to grab on but her hand slid free.

The hand clasped her wrist again and pulled.

In her struggle to hang on, the need for air beat out the rational part of her brain that screamed no. She sucked in a mouthful of water and Ryan's face disappeared.

A sharp, wet, smack landed between her shoulder blades.

Lucy gasped and choked and fought for air. Air that magically appeared to replace the water she retched up.

Why wasn't she dead?

Mae sat back on her heels. "Thank God. I thought you were dead."

Lucy flopped onto her side, propped herself up on one elbow and proceeded to hack, cough, spit and snort in an effort to finish clearing her lungs and airway of water.

Mae crawled over to check on Jane.

"Don't worry about me," Jane said when Mae came into view. "Make sure Lucy's going to be okay."

Lucy rolled onto her back and wheezed. "This time I know I'm dead."

"Not funny," Mae said. "I thought we lost you."

"I thought so too," Lucy said and let out a shuddering sob.

The water in this wider section of the tunnel was only a few inches deep and didn't appear to be rising.

"Let's get out of this tunnel before this one starts filling up too," Mae said.

"Untruss me," Jane said. "My arm's numb from the cold I can walk the rest."

They shuffle-walked through the last stretch of tunnel and back into the room at the bottom of their first rappel and scrambled back around and over the boulder obstacles. Jane hit a couple of rough patches but kept saying she didn't feel a thing.

They reached the rope dangling from the opening in the ceiling and collapsed, giving themselves five minutes to cry and breathe, get oxygen back to all their vital parts and bleed off some of the horror at what they'd just been through.

"I've never been so scared in my entire life as when I saw that water start to run out of that crack," Mae said.

"You should've tried being in there with the water," Jane said. She looked awfully pale but seemed to be stable and alert. Mae helped her get a little more comfortable and put a pack behind her to prop her up. "Lucy saved my life."

Lucy shook her head. "Don't get all dramatic about it. Mae's the one who saved both our asses."

"We did it together. All three of us," Mae said.

"I had a premonition I was going to die in that crack," Lucy said. "Sometimes it feels great to be wrong." She looked around. "Where's the water going?"

They all looked around.

"It's running over into that other corner," Mae said, pointing across the crazy space. "There must be another outlet over there somewhere that we missed on the way in."

"As long as this room doesn't turn into a lake," Lucy said.

"It doesn't seem to be backing up," Mae said.

"Let's not do this again," Jane said.

"Let's finish this," Lucy said. "Where's your pack?"

"Here," Mae said. "Still attached to the rope"

Lucy pulled the pack to her and looked inside. "The jar's still here and in one piece. Now we need to get Belle back."

"And woe be unto the a*shole who took her if he's hurt her," Mae said.

"Amen," Jane said. "It wouldn't pay to f*ck with three recently tattooed women who just won a face-off with the grim reaper."

"If you're feeling up to it, I think you should go for the cavalry," Mae said to Lucy. "No doubt you'd like to get above ground."

"I would walk barefoot across a bed of broken glass to get the hell out of here."

"I'm not sure, but I think you were only drowned for a minute or so," Jane said. "I guess I win the breath holding contest."

"And I win the intact limb contest." Lucy opened her pack. "I'm leaving the jar and as much of the rest of this as I can. I don't think I'm going to need anything except water and light."

"You definitely need your whistle," Mae said.

"Fine, I'll take the damn whistle."

"Make sure to tell them to bring the good drugs," Jane said.

"Good drugs it is." Lucy rigged her ascenders to the rope and started back up to the daylight.





I'll Take That





Lucy took the final step up and draped her upper body over the edge of the hole. She'd made it! Daylight, albeit rainy daylight was just a minute away. If she had more energy she'd do the dance of joy as soon as she unclipped from the rope.

As it was she'd settle for having enough energy to make it back to the van.

"Just stay right there."

Lucy screamed in girly alarm at the male voice. "Who . . ." She tried to put a face to the voice. Was it the ranger?

"It doesn't matter. I want the Declaration. If you want to see daylight again, you'll stay right there until we figure out how I'm going to get it."

Definitely not the ranger. Perry Thiel? The voice didn't sound right.

"You have got to be kidding," she said. Honest to God she hadn't wondered what else could go wrong. She hadn't tempted fate that brazenly.

She shifted her weight to take the pressure off her diaphragm and tried to get a look at him.

He was a large silhouette near the tunnel entrance, backlit by cloudy sunlight. He had a very big, very bright flashlight pointed in her direction. She couldn't see past it to get a look at his face and she didn't trust her perspective to judge his size and build.

"I am definitely not kidding. Where is the Declaration?"

"Where's my aunt?"

"You don't get to ask questions."

"Well, if you want the Declaration you're going to have to take me to Belle first."

Lucy saw his negative head shake behind the flashlight.

"If you want to get a rescue team here for your friend, I suggest you cooperate."

He knew Jane was hurt. He must have been up here listening to them.

Lucy wondered if she could throw a rock or something at him and escape. That might be a good idea if she was capable of hitting something smaller than the broadside of a barn or if there was a suitable rock at hand.

"I don't have it," she said.

"Guess you really trust your friends," he said. "Tell one of them to bring it up."

So far all he'd done was make vague threats. But putting Mae in harm's way seemed like a very bad idea. "What if I refuse?"

The answer was the sound of the slide on a semi-automatic pistol being pulled back and released to chamber a bullet. "I'd have to take you out of the way and go down for it myself."

Guess that answered the vague threat question. "I'll go get it."

"No. I want you up here."

"Lucy? What's going on?" Mae called from below.

"We have a little problem," Lucy answered.

"Quit screwing around and get her up here," the man said.

He sounded nervous. That wasn't good.

A nervous amateur was a lot scarier than an all-business professional thief.

"I need you to bring the jar up here to me," Lucy said.

"What?" Mae called. "Don't you think you should be more worried about getting some help for Jane?"

"There's someone up here who wants the jar."

"Don't tell me Ranger Rick found us. Tell him to forget about the jar and radio for some help," Mae said.

"Tell her to shut up and get her ass up here with that document."

"It isn't the ranger," Lucy said. "Just bring the jar. Now."

"Fine. Give me a minute to rig my ascender."

Lucy turned her attention back to the man with the gun. "How did you find out about the Declaration?" Wasn't that what movie heroines did? Keep the bad guy talking until help arrives?

Of course there wasn't a chance in hell that any help was going to arrive.

"Shut up. I don't want to carry on a dialog with you," he said. "Your aunt thought she was entertaining too. She was wrong. Now tell me what the jar business is about."

Oh God, she knew who it was.

A rat bastard, no conscience academic nutball named Dawson. The freaking professor! She couldn't believe he'd fooled her so easily with his hints that Perry was the crazy one. Of course, the fact that he'd told her what she expected to hear helped a lot.

She wondered whether he was interested in the money or the professional coup.

The rope below her went taut as Mae put her weight on it and started up.

"We found an old pottery jar where the document was supposed to be hidden. We haven't opened it yet but if the Declaration exists it has to be in the jar."

"You'd better hope so."

"Once you have the jar, you're going to tell me where Belle is and leave right?"

"Wrong question," Dawson said.

Lucy shivered. The nerves were back in his voice.

"What's the right question?"

"Am I going to leave you alive and well?"

Lucy swallowed. Better to know how far she was going to have to go to save herself and her friends. "Are you?"

"I haven't decided yet."

Just great.

Lucy glanced down. Mae's head was just coming into view. "Too bad I didn't follow my husband's lead and join the NRA. If I had a gun I'd drop back down in this hole and just wait for you to show your face."

"Talk like that won't push the life and death decision in your favor," he said.

She was hoping talk like that would send a message to Mae.

It did. Mae looked up and nodded.

She had the gun.

"Tell her to hurry up," he said.

"I can hear you now," Mae said. She'd reached Lucy's feet. She showed Lucy the gun she'd shoved into her harness.

Lucy winked at her. "Just give me a minute to get the jar out of her pack."

"If I see anything else come out of that hole you're going to find out how I handle a gun."

Lucy reached down toward the pack. "I'm going to have to get all the way up and sit on the edge. I can't reach it from this angle."

"Just get it done," he said.

Lucy levered herself up and back so that she was sitting on the opposite side of the hole from where he was standing. She unclipped from the rope and gestured for Mae to come up a little more.

Mae took another step up, keeping her head below the rim of the hole and swung around so that Lucy could get to the backpack. She tried to hand Lucy the gun.

Lucy leaned down into the hole and whispered, "When I toss the jar to him I want you to shoot over the rim in his direction and zip back down to Jane."

"I'm not leaving you," Mae hissed.

"I'm going to run the other way. I'm sure he'll take the jar and run if we make it too hard for him to deal with us." At least she hoped he would, but no matter what, he wouldn't be able to get to Mae and Jane.

"What the hell's the problem," he said.

Lucy lifted her head to look in his direction. "The jar's a little unwieldy."

She leaned back down and pulled the jar out of the pack. "Do it," she said under her breath.

"What about Belle?" Mae asked.

"We can't help her if we're dead."

Mae frowned at her but nodded agreement. She turned off her headlamp so Dawson wouldn't know she was still up top.

Lucy wasn't expecting to get through the next minute unscathed but with luck she'd get through it alive. Then she'd deal with Dawson on her terms.

She straightened up out of the hole with the jar in her hands.

Dawson's light moved closer.

"Don't," Lucy said. "If you come any closer I'll drop the jar back into the hole. It's wet down there. The document would be ruined."

The light stopped moving. "I'm running out of patience."

"I'll toss the jar to you but I'm going to have to stand up. I can't throw it from here."

"Bad idea. That jar breaks it could damage the Declaration."

"I believe we have a stalemate," Lucy said. "The jar's pretty sturdy. I bet it won't do more than crack." If he shot her he'd take a chance on ruining the Declaration.

"Fine, toss the jar very gently."

"One more thing," Lucy said dangling the jar above the hole. "I'm going to make you sorry you were ever born if anything happens to Belle."

"All I want is the Declaration. Your aunt goes free as soon as I make sure it's genuine."

Lucy didn't believe him but she needed more options than she had with him pointing a gun at her. She brought her feet up out of the hole and stood, jar in hand. "Ready? One." She rocked a little swinging the jar. "Two." Another swing. "Three!"

She tossed the jar across the hole.

As soon as it left her hands, she turned to run.

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye as Mae somehow launched herself above the lip of the hole.

The gunshot was a huge boom in the confined space.

Lucy was already in mid-stride and picking up steam. She didn't look back to see what effect the shot had on Dawson.

She ran full out, her back tense waiting for Dawson's return bullet to find her, praying she didn't run into a dead end too soon or fall into another hole.

Another boom sounded.

Rock chips flew from the tunnel wall in front of her on the right.

A third boom sounded.

Pain streaked across Lucy's left side and more rock chips flew.

She gasped with the pain, her feet slowing, knowing that any second another burning pain would assault her body.

Mae squeezed her eyes shut as she bounced her way down the hole, rope zipping through her ascender and shots from another gun boomed above her.

When the wall dropped away from her she started feeling for the floor and risked a look down.

She landed hard, pain shooting through her ankles. Nothing snapped. She frantically unclipped from the rope.

"What the hell happened?" Jane demanded.

"Move away from the hole," Mae said, heading for the nearest boulder.

Jane hustled to join her and they took a position using the boulder as a shield.

There was no more sound from above and the rope Mae left swinging, stilled.



###



Lucy staggered forward.

As she waited for the next shot, her luck took a sudden turn for the better--and so did the tunnel.

She rounded the left hand turn in the tunnel, pulled up and turned off her headlamp. Please. Please. Please. Let him not be following her.

Breathing hard, not sure how badly she was wounded, she clamped her right hand over the pain in her left side.

She crept back toward the corner in the dark, eyes searching for any sign of Dawson's flashlight, listening for movement or voices.

Everything remained still and dark.



###



Evil bitches.

James Dawson clamped down on his rage.

Going after them was an indulgence he couldn't afford.

He didn't know which one of them had fired the lucky shot that had hit him in the leg but it didn't matter. Once he put the Declaration up for auction, he'd have more than enough money to pay off the treasure hunters and the doctors. He'd find a new doctor, a new treatment for Adele. And once she was well, he'd publish a book about the Declaration. His professional life was about to take off. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade.

It wasn't like he was stealing. No one really owned the document after all.

He pulled off his hood, folded it into a pad and strapped it to the wound on his leg with his belt. That would have to do until he was able to get somewhere safe.

There was no way of knowing how far the sound of the shots had carried and he wanted to be away from here before anyone had a chance to come investigate.

He picked up the cracked jar and headed out of the cave.

He'd been away from Adele for too long. She'd be worried about him and ready for her medication.