Sanskrit Cipher: A Marina Alexander Adventure Read online

  Fil shivered when he thought about the horrific messes that had potentially been made. Rutsinski hadn’t given him any details about the crashes.

  When he got to the warehouse, it was lit up like Christmastime. Rutsinski greeted him with worried eyes and a set face, and Filbert recognized the two gentlemen he was speaking to as biohazard specialists. Yeah, that made sense, since all the drivers had been transporting hazmat waste.

  What a mess.

  But, as he learned, the mess there at the warehouse was nothing compared to the bloody disaster that had taken the lives of three men that day.

  “They all— The same thing happened to all of them?” Filbert scratched his head. “What exactly did happen?”

  “No one’s sure,” said Rutsinski. “Only thing we know is Nate Durowitz called into dispatch complaining about how his rig was wobbly and shaking for no good reason, and wanted to know if anyone did anything underneath the tractor or anything. Do you know of anything?”

  Filbert felt the heavy weight of the pair of biohazard officers’ attention settle over him, and he really wished he’d taken the time to drive through a twenty-four-hour McDonald’s and get a frigging coffee. It was too late—or early, depending how you looked at it—for him to be coherent without caffeine.

  “No, of course not. We don’t do any maintenance here,” he said, softening his voice as he looked at the steely gazes of the two officers. They didn’t look any happier about this middle-of-the-night crap than he did. “The tractors—you know, the part of the rig where the driver sits—are each independently owned and operated by the drivers, and they handle all of their own maintenance and repair work. All’s they do is pull up to the trailer they’re assigned to at the docks and leave it sitting there till the trailer’s loaded.”

  He knew that was exactly the right answer—it was the honest one, thank goodness—when Rutsinski gave him a subtle nod.

  “All right, then. Seems strange, though, that three of these tractors all crashed today after leaving here,” replied one of the officers. His expression was filled with suspicion and maybe even accusation.

  “What actually happened?” Filbert asked, his armpits going damp.

  “Near’s we can tell, the bottoms just dropped out of the tractors as they were driving along—seventy, eighty m-p-h,” Rutsinski said grimly. “And then…well, you can imagine.”

  Filbert really wished he’d stopped for that frigging coffee, because that simply didn’t make any sense. “The bottoms just dropped out? Of the rigs? How is that possible?”

  It wasn’t. It simply defied logic.

  “All three of them? Ritter and Durowitz and Maloney? The same thing?” Fil did not like the way his stomach was pitching and churning and swaying.

  “Isn’t going to be a coincidence,” the lead officer said. “Three all on the same day? Same way? Yeah, no.”

  An ugly shudder zipped up and down Filbert’s spine as he broke out in a cold sweat. No, it probably wasn’t a coincidence.

  He just hoped it wasn’t somehow going to be his ass that was held responsible for whatever caused this horrific non-coincidence.

  Thirteen

  Marina heard the familiar crackle of the radio behind her as Bruce messaged back to the sheriff, and with the assurance that all was in hand, she went on ahead alone.

  “Adele, good girl,” she called over her dog’s barking. “I’m coming. Benny! Benny James! Can you hear me?”

  She moved swiftly and easily, but taking care so she didn’t end up in the same condition as Kylie. The passage opened up a little, then twisted into a hairpin bend with a little crevice that jutted off to the side—and then, several paces later, she was in the large cave room known as the Cathedral that she’d seen on the map. She noticed pale yellow cave popcorn studding the flowstone on the wall next to her when she paused to get her bearings.

  As Marina took in the area, the beam from her headlamp swung around, spotlighting a chandelier of cone-like stalactites, slender soda straws, and seemingly undulating ribbons. She looked up and saw that the space’s roof was about twenty feet high in the center, and she caught a glimpse of a few shifting bats among the crusty formations.

  Marina pulled out her flash and used it to cast a broader wave of light around the space. From the ground, stately columns, pointy cones, and wide towers that reminded her of wedding cakes had formed around a small lake that took up most of the floor of the cave room. The pool of black water was thirty feet in diameter, and there was barely enough dry ground to walk on around the edge. She didn’t take the time to pull out the map to see whether the water depth was indicated, and since she didn’t see Adele, that meant Benny wasn’t in the water. Whew.

  Marina was a strong swimmer, and she’d even rescued people—including the man she’d believed was her father—from dangerous water several times, but it was just slightly less than terrifying for her to be submerged. She’d nearly drowned when she was young, and always had to fight that memory and fear when she was in the water.

  The nine other tunnels branching off from the large cave room had her pausing to listen for the direction of the barking. It was too difficult to tell exactly which passage it was coming from because of the way the sound bounced off the walls and echoed about.

  “Adele, come,” she called, breathing in the sharp, cold air. “Benny, I’m here! I’m coming!”

  Marina heard a joyous, responsive bark, and then, moments later, Adele burst out of the fourth opening, which was at Marina’s eleven o’clock. Because she was a dog and didn’t feel the need to follow paths or dry land, Adele leapt into the water and ran directly to her mistress, bounding like a deer through the shallow underground lake.

  At least this told Marina that the water was no higher than mid-calf, but she took the dry route—no sense in getting water in her boots unless she had to, for that would contribute to lowering her body temp. She carefully picked her way toward the tunnel from which Adele had come. “Find Benny,” she said. “Adele, find Benny!” And then she called the boy’s name again.

  The passage Adele indicated was covered in flowstone that looked like large rust-colored bubbles oozing down the sides. This tunnel was slightly more easily navigated than the one where she’d left Bruce and Kylie, Marina noted gratefully. Wider but lower, and she had to duck for the entire way as she followed Adele—who’d bounded along ahead of her, excited that the game was afoot and that her mistress was about to reward her for the find.

  “Benny! Benny James!” Marina called again, and finally heard not only Adele’s nearby alert, but also by a very, very faint shout.

  “Benny, I’m here. I’m here to help you,” she called, knowing how important it was for a lost or injured person to hear those words. She repeated them over and over as she made her way to the place Adele indicated and discovered a pair of legs jutting up from an opening in the cave floor.

  The teen was stuck upside down, past his hips, in a hole in the floor inside a tunnel barely five feet wide.

  Mostly upright, the legs sagged, widespread. They were bent double at the knees, and Benny’s booted feet dangled loosely about a foot above the cave floor. One of the feet twitched as she called Benny’s name again.

  “Benny, I’m right here,” said Marina, pulling out the rope toy she used for Adele’s reward after a find. “Can you hear me? Good girl, Adele,” she said to the dog, petting her vigorously before offering her the rope toy.

  Adele took one end and Marina held the other, playing a little game of tug in the cramped space as she continued to speak to Benny while doing her best to assess the situation. One of the first things one had to do in a cave rescue situation was check for hypothermia, but that would be difficult if not impossible, considering how the boy was trapped. A temp reading on his bare leg wouldn’t be very helpful. “Benny, my name is Marina. Can you hear me?”

  “Yeah,” came a weak, exhausted voice. “I’m…stuck.”

  “I can see that.” Marina was still tugging with
Adele—it was the dog’s reward, and she couldn’t stint on it if she expected Adele to do the job in the future.

  Normally after a find, she would step away and give her full attention to praising and rewarding Adele while the other members of her team worked with the victim, but right now she had to be both dog handler and rescue crew. She yanked the rope from Adele’s mouth and tossed it a short distance back down the pitch-black tunnel so the dog could bound after it. “Are you hurt anywhere, Benny?”

  “My arm got…stuck and I can’t…push myself up.” He was a little breathless, but she could hear the relief in his thick voice. “I want to get out of here.” That came out a little stronger.

  “We’re going get you out of there, Benny, no problem,” she said, noting how tight the cavern’s floor hole was gripping him. He must have seen the opening in the ground and tried to crawl down and through, headfirst. She sighed. That was what cavers did—crawl into and through tight places—but experienced ones, unlike Benny, wouldn’t be alone, and they would have a safer technique. At least he’d had the sense to wear boots.

  “Do you feel cold?” she asked, sliding her hand beneath his jeans leg and sock. Not surprising: the skin there was cold to the touch.

  “Not really,” he replied. “I was, but now I’m not so much.”

  Marina grimaced. Not a good sign. She began to dig in her pack for the thin blanket and large plastic bags she carried as part of her first-aid kit. At the very least, she could remove the boots and wrap his legs and feet in the blanket, then the plastic, to help keep in whatever body heat she could. “Where are you stuck? Are your shoulders trapped too?”

  “It’s…tight…all around me except my h-head. And one of my a-arms. It’s so dark—I want to get…out of here!”

  As Marina shined her flashlight around the edges of where he was stuck, Adele returned with her rope toy, panting happily, and Marina tugged on the rope again while she examined the situation. If she could extract him right away, she wouldn’t have to worry about warming him up until he was out.

  She could see that he was trapped from just below the hips, and from the sounds of it, all through the torso. If he had no injuries, it should be possible to pull him out without further damage. She’d need Bruce for that, and maybe even some pulleys installed in the cave wall.

  Marina paused to give her sweet, brave, smart Adele a good rubbing and loving, then she tugged on the rope toy a few more times before tossing it once more. That was all Adele wanted or needed for the amazing hard work she did: someone to play tug and fetch.

  This time, when Adele returned, she settled down in the darkness behind her mistress and began to gnaw on the toy while Marina prepared a first—and hopefully only—attempt to extract the boy. With the help of her flashlight and headlamp, she was able to see just the tips of Benny’s ice-white fingers wedged tightly between his right hip and the cavern wall.

  “Benny, can you move your left hand?” she asked, maneuvering carefully in the close space to watch.

  “It’s s-stuck.”

  Okay, so that was his left hand crisscrossing over his abdomen and trapped by his hip. If she pulled on him, it should become unwedged and hopefully fall away, loosening the cave’s grip at his hips. “What about your right hand? Is that one free?”

  “I cut it on a rock and it hurts really bad. I tried pushing with it, but I’m too stuck.” His voice was weak and tearful, and getting more slurred. “My head hurts…so bad. And my legs feel really funny too.”

  Marina nodded grimly to herself. Yes, they would. Her EMT training had taught her about all sorts of trauma, including that the human body was not meant to be suspended upside down for an extended amount of time. The heart wasn’t used to working against gravity to pump blood into the legs—and, more importantly, away from the brain.

  The situation wasn’t good. Not only was he suffering from hypothermia and probably dehydration, but there were other more unique—and life-threatening—dangers in this case. A body could only survive upside down for so long before its systems began to fail. Blood would be leaking from capillaries and gathering up with other liquids in the teen’s brain and other organs. Toxins would be building up inside as well.

  Benny had been missing for more than three hours before they got there, and Marina had been underground on the search for at least another seventy minutes. Although she wasn’t certain how much more time he’d have left before his body shut down, Marina knew it was a matter of hours. Not only that, but there was the chance of asphyxiation from the constant and traumatic constriction of the lungs.

  She wrapped her arms around his thighs and tried to pull him out that way, but the ceiling of the tunnel was too low for her to stand upright and get good leverage. Next, she tried grasping him by the ankles while she was crouched low to the ground, pulling gently and smoothly…but he was simply wedged too tightly, and she wasn’t strong enough to maneuver him free while working against the force of gravity. Bruce, if he were here, might be able to.

  “I’m still here, Benny,” she said, touching his leg so he’d know she hadn’t left. It was time to call in help, and also to start trying to warm him up. “I’m going to remove your boots so I can warm you up a little, and I’m going to radio for more help. Your mom is outside waiting for you, and so is the sheriff and a bunch of other people who are going to help me get you out of there. I’ll be right here the whole time.”

  He responded with a weak “Okay.” The syllables were very slurred, and that was concerning.

  Marina sat next to Adele and petted her happily panting dog while she radioed back to the surface and apprised them of the situation. She didn’t need to specify how urgent it was to extract Benny James; the EMTs and paramedics standing by would understand.

  From her brief conversation, she learned that Kylie had made it back out and was having her ankle seen to, and that Bruce was leading in a team of rescuers. That meant Marina might have to go back and meet the group so she could lead them to Benny.

  “Benny, more help is on the way, all right?” she said as she removed his boots, but there was no response. She put a warm pack on each thigh, then began to wrap his legs and feet in the lightweight but insulating blanket. “Benny? Can you hear me?”

  Still no response, and that had Marina’s pulse kicking up higher. “Benny, can you hear me?” She jiggled his legs a little as she began to wrap a plastic garbage bag—to help hold in the heat even more—over the blanket, hoping to provoke a response. She heard a faint groan, and there was a slight tremor beneath her grip.

  Was his body failing already?

  “Benny? Benny, can you hear me?”

  He groaned quietly. “Help me.”

  “I’m right here to help you, Benny.” She needed to keep him talking so she could continue to assess and monitor his condition. “Can you tell me if you feel pain anywhere?”

  “Yes.” His voice was feeble, and it wheezed a little.

  Not good.

  She was already unlooping the strong nylon rope she had in her pack. “Benny, do you have any pets?” She knew he had a dog because his mother had brought the mutt, named Danger, with her.

  “I don’t think so… It looks green,” he replied, slurring his words thickly.

  “Benny, this is Marina. I’m going to get you out of there. Can you tell me about your dog?” Concern rose through her as she tied two lover’s knots around Benny’s ankles. “Benny?”

  “I went there…last summer,” he said. His voice was barely audible. “Snowmen.”

  This was bad. Marina braced the rope over her shoulder and began to pull, slowly and steadily, until his legs were straight and she felt resistance.

  “Stick with me, Benny,” she called, and put all her weight and muscle into pulling on the rope that was tied to his ankles. She felt a little give—just the barest of movements—before gravity and friction had their way and stopped Benny from popping out.

  Damn.

  “Benny,” she said, keeping h
er voice easy and modulated even though she knew things were extremely urgent and growing direr by the minute. “I’d like to know about your dog. What’s his name?”

  There was no answer, and as fear galvanized her into further action, the radio crackled, interrupting her.

  “Marina? We need guidance.” It was Bruce’s voice.

  “He’s starting to fail,” she said, yanking open her pack again. “I need you here ASAP. I’m sending Adele.” Then, looking at her dog, she said, “Go get help. Adele, get help.”

  Her dog knew that command, which basically meant to go back the way she’d come, find a human, and bring him or her back. Adele also knew Bruce, and he knew her, so that would make things easier—although Adele had been trained to work with any handler as necessary when commanded to do so by Marina.

  Meanwhile, Marina had pulled out the sharp knife she carried for a variety of tasks—in this case, to cut away the jeans or other clothing of a trapped victim. Every millimeter of extra space helped when trying to extract a trapped person—and denim jeans were notorious for thick, bulky seams—but the tightness of the cave’s hold also made it a challenge to safely cut away the clothing without injuring the victim.

  Now she had to partially undo the blanket and plastic she’d just wrapped him in, but there was no help for it. Something had to be done stat.

  With the illuminating aid of her headlamp, Marina was able to see her way to cutting along one jeans leg all the way to its stone embrace. The opening of the cave was irregular, so there were a few places around Benny’s waist where the stone didn’t fit as tightly, while there were many more spots where he was wedged like an octagonal peg in a round hole. She found two areas where she could fit the knife blade, and, working in the cramped space of the tunnel, she cut through the heavy denim and up through the belt he wore.