Rainbow Fire Page 26

  His laugh was like his smile. "Too bad you don't trust me."

  "I trusted the death adder you left Dillon more."

  "A nice touch, that, if I do say so."

  "I'm not getting out until you stand back."

  "My pleasure."

  She sat up, then slid her legs over the bumper, holding the skeleton in front of her as she did. She knew he was only waiting for the chance to get a clean shot. She was out with a twist of her agile body, the skeleton still shielding her. She didn't take her eyes off him, but she knew immediately where he'd driven and what he planned for her.

  "Isn't this getting old?" she asked nonchalantly. "How many people can you push down the Rainbow Fire without someone getting wise? Even Sergeant Newberry can't ignore this one."

  "He won't ignore it," Gary agreed. "He'll just think Dillon did it. He thinks Dillon's behind everything that's happened. Newberry takes the easiest way out."

  "I'll take the skeleton with me down that shaft."

  "That would be a pity. It should be preserved for posterity."

  "I'm a get-even kind of girl, Gary."

  He motioned her towards the main shaft. "I don't think you know all the details, though." Kelsey saw she had no choice other than to move, and she began to back in that direction as he continued. "If you don't give me the skeleton, I'm going to make your death a nasty, nasty thing. If I have the skeleton, then I'll make it quick. One step backward, Kelsey. One quick step and it will all be over."

  She pretended to mull over his words. "A nasty, nasty thing?"

  "Bits and pieces of you gone, like that." He snapped his fingers. "These old guns are treasures. And I can reload in less time than it takes to kill you."

  "And what will Sergeant Newberry say when he finds bits and pieces of me gone?"

  "He'll think Dillon's a violent man. A lovers' quarrel. A feud over opal. Who knows what he'll think? But he won't think of me."

  Kelsey bumped into something, a piece of equipment, she guessed. She scrambled to figure out exactly where she was as she cursed the moonlight that worked so well to Gary's advantage.

  "If you turn around, you can see where you're going," he pointed out.

  "If I turned around, you'll shoot me." She inched around the equipment as he closed in on her. She was beginning to get her bearings. The machine at her back was the tunneling machine they had used to begin the drive. To her left somewhere would be the Calweld drill. And then left of that the main shaft. "You know the main shaft has padlocks?"

  "Locks don't worry me."

  She was worried enough for both of them. Escape seemed unlikely, and even a black belt was no match for a gun. She continued to inch her way, taking care not to give him an opening to shoot her. The skeleton was clutched against her chest like armor.

  They played the deadly game of cat and mouse until she brushed against the mullock heap to the side of the main shaft. She saw one chance and one chance only of taking him by surprise. When he stooped to pick the lock, he would be vulnerable. He knew about her self-defense skills, but she prayed he was like most men, a chauvinist who didn't believe he had anything to fear from a woman. She decided to reinforce that impression.

  "Gary, you don't really want to kill me." She put just the right note of fear in her voice.

  "You're right. I don't. You've a special, rare sort of beauty." Gary motioned her backward. "But I must."

  "But I don't want to die."

  "Can't blame you for that."

  "Can't we strike a bargain? What if I give you the skeleton and promise not to tell anyone?"

  "You're smarter than that, Kelsey."

  She let a sob shudder in the air between them. It wasn't hard to conjure. "There must be something I can do."

  "Yes. Be a good girl and hand me the skeleton. I'll make this easy for you." He leaned over to grasp the padlock, but with a sinking heart she saw that he hadn't lost one bit of his concentration. The gun was still trained squarely at her heart. She had found a man who didn't underestimate her. It was too bad he was also the one who wanted to kill her.

  He stooped, balancing the gun across his knees, still aimed precisely at her chest. The speed with which he picked the lock was breathtaking. There was no time for her attack before he was standing to flip over the iron cover so that it flopped across the other padlock.

  The night became deathly still. There had been nightbirds singing, Kelsey realized. Now there was nothing, not even the moan of the outback wind. "What will it be, Kelsey?" he asked, motioning her toward the shaft. "Quickly, or piece by piece?"

  She moved slowly as he closed the distance between them. Her options were so limited that the decision wasn't hard. She watched him stop six feet in front of her.

  "The skeleton's yours, Gary," she said, her voice trembling.

  She watched him nod, then stretch out one hand. "A wise choice."

  "Yours," she repeated. "But you're going to have to catch it first." With her last words she heaved the skeleton straight up in the air. Then, in the split second it took him to leap toward it, she spun and jumped into the shaft.

  * * *

  JAKE'S UTE LAY abandoned by the side of the road. Dillon braked to a halt behind it, shouting Kelsey's name. There was no answer. Not even the wind.

  He was out his door in double time, searching the ute and area around it for clues. He saw the flat tire immediately, then the open trapdoor in the back. He gave the metal box beside the toolbox a cursory investigation. He felt sure Kelsey had seen it, touched it, perhaps wept over it. But he knew it had nothing to do with her disappearance.

  Except that if she had gone voluntarily, the box would have been back inside the hole, the trapdoor would have been closed and the toolbox replaced to safeguard what was inside.

  Gary had her. Dillon knew it as surely as he knew his own name. He didn't understand why, and he didn't understand how, but he knew that she was in trouble. The worst kind.

  He dropped to the ground, training the high-intensity beam of his torch along the roadside. He hadn't lived in the bush all these years without absorbing the skills of those around him. He had sat at campfires with Aboriginal men so proficient as trackers that they could tell the last week's history of any piece of earth just by giving it one glance. They had taught him some of their skills in exchange for noodling for opal in his mullock. Everyone had come out ahead. Now he was gut-wrenchingly grateful.

  There had been no struggle, but Kelsey's footprints were unmistakable. He recognized the tread of her sneakers and the way her shoes gripped the ground. There were other prints, too. A man wearing boots with new leather soles.

  The tracks weren't hard to follow in the soft dirt. They took him down the road, past his own ute to a place where an automobile had been pulled off the road. The footsteps ended where new tire tracks began. The tires had spun on the soft shoulder before they had pulled back onto the dirt road. They headed away from town.

  Dillon got back into his ute and followed them. The right rear tire had a worn tread on its left side. If the ground remained soft enough and the traffic light enough, he knew he would be able to distinguish it just by stopping at each intersecting road to see if the auto had turned off.

  He did just that until it was clear where the automobile had been headed. He didn't know why, but Kelsey was willingly or unwillingly going to the mine field where the Rainbow Fire was located. Without wasting any more precious time checking tracks, he floored the accelerator and headed there himself.

  * * *

  THE ALUMINUM LADDER burned Kelsey's hands as she fell. She had managed to grab one side, but the metal was so slick that it didn't stop her. Flailing wildly, she kicked against a rung and felt it give. Her foot fell against the next, then the next, before she found purchase.

  She clung to the ladder momentarily, until the shaft was suddenly lit with the glare of the generator-powered light. Gary wasn't wasting any time. In seconds he would be shooting at her, and his aim would be true. She jerked the
electric cord that dangled beside the ladder, once, twice, before the shaft was dark again. Then she scrambled into total darkness. She heard a curse above her, and a shot ricocheted against the shaft walls, missing her by feet. Her fear changed to exultation. She was escaping, and she had destroyed his best means of finding her. They were equal partners now. He had the gun, but what good would it do him if he couldn't see her?

  She reached bottom just as the ladder rattled above her. He was coming down. She had expected no less, but her momentary elation was quenched as she began to picture the mine and where she would go.

  It was blacker than midnight, a depthless void in the center of the earth. She had spent so little time here that, try as she might, she couldn't remember any of its twists and turns. She paused, wondering if her best defense was just to stand at the base of the ladder and attack when he neared the bottom. But she knew he had the gun with him, and one sound would alert him to her presence. He could shoot her in the dark.

  She would be safer if she hid. The mine was a rabbit warren of tunnels. If he found her, backed her into a corner, she could fight then. As always, the best defense now was to escape.

  She began to feel her way along the wall as swiftly as she could. If possible, the mine got darker the farther she got from the shaft. The total, unrelenting darkness was as terrifying as knowing that Gary was coming after her, but she pushed on anyway, because she had no choice.

  She listened to the sounds of his descent. There was a gunshot, and she thanked God that she hadn't waited at the bottom of the ladder. He was guessing that she had and acting accordingly. "Kelsey," he shouted, "it's no use. Give up."

  She knew he hoped she would answer, that she would give him some clue to her whereabouts. There were four chambers going off the shaft, because Dillon and her father hadn't wanted to take the chance of missing opal in any direction. Gary wanted to know which chamber she had entered.

  She pushed on, taking care to move silently. She was going too slowly, but she couldn't go faster without giving away her location. She came to a side chamber and paused. If it was a dead end, she could end up pinned against the wall, waiting for Gary to find her. If it was a tunnel connecting this chamber and the next. . .

  She passed it by, afraid to turn off. She heard the sound of something clattering to the floor, followed by cursing somewhere behind her. Then she heard Gary's shout.

  "I've been in this mine before. I know every bloody nook and cranny. You can't hide. I know it better than you do."

  He must have been in the Rainbow Fire searching for the skeleton. Then she knew something even more frightening. He had a light. She saw the tiniest pinprick reflected on the walls of the chamber. It came from the darkness somewhere behind her. It flamed, then disappeared.

  Matches. She pushed on farther, wondering how long a book of matches would last. Would it be long enough to help him find her? Was he still in the main shaft, or had he chosen the correct chamber? Was he even now closing in on her?

  She heard no footsteps behind her. Praying he had chosen another tunnel, she moved on, stooping as the ceiling got lower and began to curve. She came to another intersection and debated whether to turn into the new tunnel. It seemed narrower, lower, and she passed it by.

  Minutes passed as she felt her way along the tunnel, minutes when she heard nothing from Gary.

  And then, in a voice that was frighteningly close, she heard, "I've got a candle, Kelsey. You'd forgotten about the candles, hadn't you? But I've been here enough to know where they're kept, and I've got several now. I'll find you."

  She realized he was in a nearby chamber, probably only yards away. She moved faster. He said he had candles now, and she had no reason to doubt him. When he entered her chamber, she would be in clear sight.

  She heard a scraping sound in the narrow tunnel she had bypassed, and she hurried on, knowing that he was cutting through. Dim flickers of light preceded him. She knew because even though she didn't turn, the tunnel was growing lighter. The absolute darkness had been breached.

  Kelsey flattened herself against the wall, praying that the candlelight wouldn't expose her. She was only yards away, but there was still a chance he wouldn't see her if he turned and followed the passage back to the shaft.

  He didn't turn. She saw the candlelight first, then the candle. Last, she saw Gary.

  Surprisingly he was no longer carrying the rifle. She felt a thrill of hope. In a fair fight she could beat him. He outweighed her by a good seventy pounds, but weight meant nothing. It would be difficult to maneuver between the narrow shaft walls, difficult to hit and kick, but she could do it. She had trained for such a moment.

  He turned unerringly and held the candle out in front of him so that its rays just touched her. Then, in his other hand, he held up what looked like another candle. Kelsey knew better. It was gelignite, the form of dynamite used to blast through rock in a drive. Dillon kept it in the supply room, too.

  "A candle in one hand," he said holding out the candle. "Death in the other."

  His insanity had never been clearer. She knew that reasoning with him was impossible, but she tried, anyway. "If you light that, you'll blow us both to kingdom come."

  He shook his head. "Just you. Move, Kelsey."

  She knew what he planned. The tunnel must end soon. He was going to back her up against the face and light the explosive. Then, from a safe distance, he was going to listen to the walls come down around her.

  She didn't intend to cooperate. "Go ahead and light it," she said, starting toward him. "But I'm going to take you down with me, Gary."

  He laughed and waved the candle near the fuse. "Do you know your way out of here, Kelsey?" He laughed again. "I hope so. Ido, you know." He waved the candle again, and this time it contacted with the fuse. There was a hiss as he tossed it toward her. The gelignite landed three yards in front of Kelsey’s feet. Then he blew out the candle.

  The sudden darkness took her by surprise. Now there was only the tiny spark from the fuse. Part of her noted that the gelignite hadn't exploded on contact. She hadn't been able to tell just how long the fuse was, but she knew she might only have seconds to get clear. She ran directly at the spark, remembering exactly where it was in relation to the walls at her sides. She expected to be blown to bits any moment, but the gelignite didn't explode until she was well on the other side of it.

  She had chosen a straight path, using the glowing fuse as her marker. Gary had expected her to feel her way along the walls, but by running instead she covered enough distance to be out of the worst danger when the walls began to crumble around her. She had also stuffed her fingers in her ears, but even after the explosion no longer rang through the tunnel, she could still hear it resounding inside her head.

  She ran into a wall. Arms flat against it, she felt her way, trying to put as much distance between herself and the instability of the explosion site as she could. She could hear rock falling behind her, and she knew the tremors could trigger more.

  Gary was waiting in the chamber under the main shaft, holding a lighted candle and another stick of gelignite. "You found your way out," he said, congratulating her. "I'm surprised."

  She looked down at his feet. The gun lay in front of him.

  "Don't make me pick it up," he cautioned her. "If I do, I'll have to put the candle and the gelly in the same hand. Who knows what could happen?" He motioned her toward the tunnel she had just left. "One more should do it, Kelsey."

  "You're really crazy," she said, beginning to back into the tunnel. She could feel the tremors of the first explosion. Rocks were still falling.

  Gary kicked the gun ahead of him as he followed her. Finally he stood in the entrance. She stood as close as she dared, prepared to rush him the moment the candle touched the fuse.

  She never got her chance. Arms locked around Gary's neck from behind, cutting off his air supply, and he dropped both the candle and the gelignite. He grabbed the arms, trying to wrench them loose, but they squeezed and squ
eezed. With supreme effort he twisted, bringing his elbows against a hard, male abdomen. The man holding him didn't even flinch before he slammed a sledgehammer fist to Gary's face.

  "Dillon!" Kelsey threw herself on the gun at the men's feet and grabbed the candle, which, miraculously, was still burning. By then they had taken the fight out into the main chamber, to the floor. They rolled over and over until, in the near darkness, she wasn't sure who was who. She set the candle against a rock so she could grip the rifle with both hands. "Stop. I've got the gun. Gary, I'll shoot you without a thought," she screamed.

  The men ignored her, something more primal than guns on their mind. She heard a banging against the floor and grunts of pain. She moved closer, until she was sure the head had been Gary's.

  Dillon was winning, the stronger and more courageous fighter of the two. Kelsey trained the rifle on Gary, but there was no clear shot. They rolled over again, then again. Dillon was on top, his hands at Gary's throat when Gary's fingers closed around a rock. Before Dillon could react, Gary smashed it against the side of Dillon's head.

  The shock was just enough to stun Dillon so that he lost his grip. Gary twisted from underneath him and followed the rock's blow with his fist. Dillon grunted, and Gary freed himself to reach for the rock again.

  Kelsey reacted without thinking. The gun hit the floor, and she leaped forward. Her foot rose in a swift, vicious kick. Gary screamed as his arm fell uselessly to his side. He turned to her, his expression disbelieving. Then he fainted.

  When Dillon staggered to his feet, she threw herself into his arms.

  "Watch that hug. This is the good guy, remember?" Dillon felt Kelsey tremble against him, and he buried his face in her curls.

  “How did you know where I was?” she asked.

  Dillon heard welling tears in her voice, and he held her tighter. He was never going to let her go. “Melly warned me about Gary. I tracked you here.”

  “Melly knew?”

  “She’s suspected something was wrong for a while. She found out for certain tonight and rang me.”