“Thoughtful, as always,” Remi said. With a final glance at the morose Russian, she resumed her ascent, Lazlo and Sam close behind, all of them eyeing the rocks underfoot with renewed caution.
At the cave mouth, they switched on their lights and directed the beams inside. Remi sniffed and crinkled her nose. “Stinks. Sulfur.”
“They don’t have bears here, do they?” Lazlo asked in a whisper.
“I don’t think so. But you never know. Could be some of those octogenarian Japanese holdouts in there, too.”
“Right,” Remi said. “They probably trained the bears to attack.”
“Very amusing, as always,” Lazlo said with a sidelong glance at them.
“Remi?” Sam asked.
“You can go first this time,” she said.
Sam stepped forward and ducked down. The gap was no more than four feet high, and, stooped over like an old woman, he inched forward with careful steps. The space widened but the ceiling was still low. The main cave was tiny compared to the first one, barely more than ten feet wide and twice that length. Sam glanced around the area and shook his head as his light bounced off the flat walls. There was no continuation like in the first cave. Just the one area.
Remi shuffled in next to him, followed by Lazlo, and Sam turned to them. “Well, the good news is, there are no skeletons.”
Lazlo took in the cavern. “Not much to it, is there?”
“No. We can scratch this one off our list,” Remi said.
They did a cursory inspection to ensure they weren’t missing anything and filed back out, blinking in the bright sunlight as they exited.
“Now what?” Lazlo asked.
Sam’s gaze roamed over the ridge stretching into the distance and drifted down the slope to where Leonid sat. He checked his watch and sighed. “Much as I’d like to keep looking, it will be dark in about five hours, and with Leonid’s leg cut up like that, he’ll be risking infection if we stay out here. So I’d say we head back to the truck, get him taken care of, and live to fight another day. Now that we have the GPS coordinates, we can easily return later and resume the search.”
Remi smiled. “I don’t know that I’d agree with the term ‘easily,’ but the rest of it makes sense.”
“Which I take to mean that we don’t report the killing field we stumbled across just yet,” Lazlo said.
“Correct,” Sam said. “But we will. First things first.”
They returned to Leonid and helped him to his feet. Sam explained his reasoning for calling it quits and Leonid offered only a token objection. They set off back down the hill, following the stream again, Lazlo and Sam taking turns supporting Leonid as he limped along, his discomfort obvious.
When they got back to the village, the sky’s vibrant blue was turning purple as dusk approached. The villagers watched as they made their way to the Nissan and Sam
stopped short before they reached it, hands on his hips.
“That’s not good news,” he said, staring at four flat tires. He crouched down and examined the nearest one. “Someone cut the valve stems off. This was deliberate.”
“Why on earth would they do that? And who is ‘they’?” Remi demanded.
“Obviously, someone who doesn’t like us, for whatever reason,” Lazlo said. “Could also be kids amusing themselves—”
“What are we going to do now?” Leonid interrupted, beads of sweat rolling down his pale face. The journey had obviously taken its toll on him.
“Not to worry,” Sam said. “I’ll call Des and see if he can get one of the lads to go into town and rent a vehicle to pick us up. Leonid, do you think you can make it another mile or so to the main road?”
“Why didn’t you call earlier?”
“It’s not like there was any way to get to us. That area’s impassible,” Remi explained. “Worst case, we can give Des directions and hope he can find his way here to the village.” She eyed the trail they’d driven up. “Although he’s never been here before, so he might get lost.”
Leonid shook his head. “I can make it. We’re in no rush now, correct? So we can take our time?”
“I’d imagine it will take a few hours to take the skiff in to Honiara, rent a truck, then drive here, especially at night,” Sam said. “So you’re correct that we’re in no hurry. Although I don’t like the idea of trekking through the jungle at night.”