Pacific Vortex! (Dirk Pitt 1)

“Stay back!” Giordino cried. “If you carry me, you’ll never make it.”

“And ruin my big chance for a life-saving merit badge?” Pitt said curtly. “No way.”

He threw Giordino’s arm over his shoulder and then half carried, half dragged his friend to the escape tunnel. By the time they made the entrance, the water was up to their knees and swirling into the darkness beyond.

“You women run on ahead,” Pitt commanded.

Without being told a second tune, Adrian and Summer began splashing awkwardly through the narrow tube.

The process with Giordino was slow, and Pitt soon lost sight of the girls in the darkness. The rushing current of water hurtled down the ramp, causing him to stumble and fall. As he went down, his head was covered momentarily by the flow and he inhaled the saltwater. Choking, he pushed himself to his knees and managed to make it the rest of the way with the help of a strong, muscled arm that came out of nowhere.

Miraculously, it was Giordino, gnashing his teeth from the agony of his bruised feet.

“This is one good deed you’re going to regret,” Giordino muttered.

“Complain, complain,” Pitt sputtered, coughing out the seawater. “That’s all you ever do. Come on, we’ve got a boat to catch.”

The slippery stone ramp gradually broadened out into the stairway, and Pitt found the going a little easier. The yellow phosphorescent rocks were falling like hail, splashing around them in a flowing stream. The strange, glowing color of the rocks as they streaked from the cavern’s vaulted dome created the eerie appearance of a ghostly meteor shower. Then, at last, the gushing river of water finally diniinished as it fell over the side of the stairs to the pond below, enabling Pitt to see where he was stepping.

“Hold on, old buddy,” Pitt said encouragingly. “We’re almost there. The two statues should be around the next bend.”

“See the women?” Giordino asked.

“Not yet.”

They would be there; Pitt was sure of that. A wave of confidence coursed through his veins. They were too close to die now. They had survived the explosion. Once in the water, it was only a short swim through the outer caves to the surface. True, they might all find death waiting outside from sharks, from drowning, or from exhaustion. But as long as they were still alive, Pitt would keep pushing them until the final door was slammed in their faces. He hurried his pace and began dragging Giordino two steps at a time, trying to end this part of the claustrophobic journey as quickly as possible. If they were to die, it was better to die under the familiar touch of the sun and sky.

They were rounding the final bend now. Pitt could see Summer. She was standing at the edge of the pool like one of the sculptures under the yellow phosphorescent light.

Adrian also came into view, leaning wearily against ihe base of one of the statues. She looked up as they arrived, her eyes filled with terror.

“Dirk... it’s too late,” she mumbled. “He...”

Pitt cut her in mid-sentence. “No time for talk. The roof is starting to give way ...”

The last word froze in his throat. His mixed feelings of fatigue, pain, joy, and hope melted into a twisted knot of defeat. From behind one of the sea god statues stepped Delphi. His right hand held the big Colt and the gun was aimed straight at Pitt’s forehead.

“Leaving before the party’s over?” he said, the hate spread across his face.

“I bore easily,” Pitt said, shrugging helplessly. “You might as well kill me now. You don’t have much time if you wish to save the others.”

“How very noble of you, Major,” Delphi said, his face a mask of cruel evil. “But you needn’t concern yourself with details. My daughter and I are the only ones who will leave this cavern alive.”

For a moment no one spoke. The only sounds came from the splashing of the falling rocks as they smacked the water. Deep within the seamount, a rumbling shudder shook the ancient-hewn chambers. Soon, very soon, Kanoli would be totally destroyed, never to be rediscovered again.

A sudden explosive cracking sound rolled through the cavern and vibrated into a thunderous crescendo as the tremors shook the hard rock walls.

For a fleeting instant, Pitt thought Delphi had fired the gun. Then he realized the cracking sound had originated from overhead. One wall had broken loose and was crumbling down the stairway in a sweeping avalanche. Pitt gave Summer a violent shove which sent her flying from the steps into the yellow pool. In the same swift motion he threw himself on top of Adrian, blanketing her body with his.

The avalanche hit. Tons of gold-tinted rock bounded down the sloping wall burying the stairway. One of the carved, sphinxlike statues stood firm on its pedestal against the onslaught, but the second figure succumbed to the crashing force and toppled over, to Pitt’s dazed mind looking like a cowboy who fell off his horse in the middle of a cattle stampede.

Pitt gritted his teeth and tensed his muscles as the rocks mercilessly rained down on his back. One tumbling boulder smashed into his side, and he heard, rather than felt, a rib snap. His face itched as blood trickled down his cheeks from a gash in his scalp. An odd piercing cry reached his ears over the rumbling din. It seemed far away, but then it dawned on him that it was coming from Adrian’s lips only a few inches away as she screamed in uncontrollable hysteria. The rocks kept coming, covering Pitt’s legs to his waist He was pinned and unable to move. He clutched Adrian more tightly, as if his arm could squeeze the fear out of her.

It took almost a full minute before Pitt became aware of a heavy silence, broken only by an occasional small rock clattering down the slide and splashing into the water. He could now feel Adrian’s spasmodic movements as she sobbed in numbed terror.

He slowly raised his head and peered over the jagged rubble. A veil of phosphorescent dust hung in the damp cavern air and slowly settled, like a swarm of glowing fireflies, to the stone floor. One statue still stood, staring coldly into nothingness while its base lay encircled by a thick layer of rocks. Its mate was missing, but on a closer inspection, Pitt could faintly see it on one side, a shattered and broken piece of antiquity.

Then something moved beneath the fallen sculpture. Pitt strained to penetrate the gloom. He freed one hand to rub the blood and dust from his eyes. The object rose slightly and turned, two glinting eyes staring in Pitt’s direction. It was Delphi.