Chapter 45

While Kurt met with their host, Joe stood in the main part of the cavern, rocking back and forth on his heels and toes. He wasn’t particularly worried. Having recognized Priya, he figured they were going to be okay, though he was slightly offended that she chose to speak with Kurt while leaving him in the role of hostage. “Probably just saving the best for last.”

To pass the time, he tried to count the number of people in the tribe—if that’s what this was. He found it impossible to get an accurate tally, as they were dressed alike, coming and going from various parts of the cavern, and in many cases identical siblings.

Near as he could figure, they numbered around thirty. Based on subtle differences, he guessed the group contained members from five or six groups of clones. All of them men. Aside from Priya he’d seen no women.

The two men assigned to guard him were identical. But they wore neck wraps to cover the tattoos. Joe had always heard that the mothers and fathers of twins could tell their kids apart, even when the twins tried to trick them. He figured that enough time in a group like this and they wouldn’t seem so identical after all, but he hoped he and Kurt wouldn’t be in the cave that long.

“So…” he said, grinning and addressing his guards. “You guys enjoying the evening?”

No response. But at least he had their attention.

“Got to love this steam,” he continued, sweat running down his face. “Good for the complexion. Really opens up the pores.”

All of them gleamed with perspiration. Joe could feel it trickling through his hair and down the back of his neck. It felt like an ant crawling on his skin.

Tilting his head from side to side, he tried brushing his neck against the edge of his collar to scratch the itch, but it was no use.

Changing tactics, he stretched his still-entwined hands toward the cargo pocket on the front of his pants. Reaching it, he pulled out the five-dollar back scratcher. Using his fingers, he extended it one telescoping section at a time until it was opened to its full length. Raising his hands together, he flipped it around to get at the offending itch.

“Ahhh,” he said, scratching vigorously. “That’s the spot.”

The tiny metal hand amused the guards. They watched it with great interest, breaking into laughter when Joe exhaled with satisfaction.

“You try,” Joe said, offering up the device.

The nearest man took it, closed and extended it several times, and then used it to scratch a spot on his head. He handed it to his partner, who did something similar.

Joe held out his hands. “Any chance one of you can get these off me? We’re on the same side.”

The two guards looked at each other. But he remained as he was.

“Mind if I look around?”

“Why?” one of them asked.

“You have a lot of interesting machinery in here,” Joe said. “I’m an engineer. I’m a fan of this stuff.”

“‘Fan’?”

Joe tried to think of a different way to say it. “I like working on this kind of equipment. I could probably fix some of it for you.”

They didn’t react one way or another and Joe chose to move slowly toward the central heat shaft. Avoiding the edge and the precipitous drop, he studied the pumping equipment arranged around the edge. A bundle of eight-inch pipes ran down into the well and back up. A pair of large pumps connected to them sat nearby. From the warning lights, Joe could see that one of the pumps had overheated and shut down.

A quick study told him there wasn’t anything else wrong with it, so he switched the pump off, reset the breaker, and turned it back on.

Green lights replaced the red and it kicked to life with a soft thud. It was soon whirring smoothly, adding its hum to the background noise of the other pumps in distant parts of the cave.

Joe could almost hear the oohs and aahs.

“You know what this does?” Joe asked. “It pumps cold water down into the hot areas underneath the island. High-pressure, heated water comes back up. That turns those generators, and they make the lights work.”

“Power from the earth,” the first man said.

“So you know about this stuff.”

“The Gray Witch taught us.”

“Of course she did,” Joe said. “Why wouldn’t she?”

No one replied to this.

Joe looked around. The Australian company had done a lot of work before moving on. The equipment, material, and supplies they’d left behind appeared to be substantial. Far more than anyone would bring in for just a test well. He guessed they had been further along than anyone suspected when Vaughn bought them out. It dawned on him that the abandoned equipment and the tunnels themselves might be useful. They’d obviously helped hide and sustain the escaped clones.

“How far down does this go?” Joe asked, pointing to the test well.

“Very deep.”

That didn’t exactly help. “Are there other tunnels around here?” he asked. “Other shafts?”

The nearest man nodded.

The second one elaborated on that. “Many.”

These are not the most talkative people in the world , Joe thought. “Here’s a question: Does anyone have a map?”

“Map?” the first man asked.

“A paper or drawing,” Joe explained. “One that shows where all the tunnels go.”

The first man thought for a bit and then nodded. He and his partner exchanged a few hushed words and then came to an agreement.

“Drawing,” the first one said.

“Yes,” Joe replied.

“Come,” he said, starting off toward a distant section of the cave.

Joe was led from the main room down another tunnel. It took them to a smaller space with an actual doorframe, but no door. Inside he found a large desk with an office chair behind it. File cabinets and a couple of poster boards with schematic drawings on them took up the side wall. A remote panel covered with dust blinked in various hues as LEDs flashed the status of different pieces of equipment.

Joe concluded that this was the operations room for the geothermal venture. He went to the desk, slipped his hands free from the vines, and began searching through the documents that had been left behind. He found shipping invoices, catalogs of available equipment, and receipts confirming the delivery of supplies. He found a barrel filled with poster-sized tubes. In each was a blueprint marking out the tunnels and equipment locations on different levels. The excavation proved far more extensive than he’d expected.

“Those Aussies turned this place into an anthill,” he muttered.

At the far end of the room, he spotted a particularly sturdy door made of gray steel that was beginning to show spots of rust. Built directly into the rock, it reminded him of the door to a bank vault. A warning sign covered in corrosion hung on it.

Joe went to the door, attempted to clean off the sign, and then leaned on the door, shoving it open. Lighting came on inside the room and a mischievous grin spread across Joe’s face.

He turned to his newfound friends. “We need to show this to Kurt.”