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“The tunnel curves back to the right Just around the corner I can see another pier and more catwalks”

“The plot thickens”

CHAPTER 18

Using what reinal seventy-five—they set up a systeht-hand tunnel Re her slack fro until she reached the next pier

“Okay!” she called “It’s about thirty feet, I’d say”

Sahy (which they didn’t want to leave for their pursuers to find, should they have any doubt about whether their quarry was still in the cave), the two dry bags, and the dive gear to the end Once done, he played out the line until Re as she fished the gear from the water “Tied off!”

Fro sound, then the tellale sputtering blow of a regulator breaking into air He dropped onto his belly and went still, face pressed to the pier’s planking A flashlight clicked on and played over the walls and ceiling In the a beside him was a bullet-shaped object—a battery-powered sea scooter, Sas, a sea scooter could propel a 180-pound man at a speed of four or five knots So ht

Thehook over the catwalk, gave the attached rope a tug, then shouted in Russian-accented English, “All clear, come on!” The man turned the scooter toward the dock and started across the cavern

Saave the rope three ee and lowered hiht him and took him down the tunnel A few seconds later the next pier ca up the slack Saer to his lips and she nodded and helped him onto the pier

“Bad guys,” he whispered

“How ot?”

“Only enough to hide”

Sarid of catwalks spanned the cavern, connecting this pier to another against the opposite wall; both piers held stacks of wooden crates bearing the Kriegsmarine emblem

Though ale as the first, this cavern was of the fracture-guided variety, which meant they would find no exit on the seaward side Or would they? Sa in the far corner hat he’d initially taken for an especially long stalactite Under the flashlight’s beale of roots and vines drooping nearly to the water’s surface

“A way out?” she asked