Part 36 (1/2)
Boom!
”I think you found it,” Ann said.
Cameron ran his fingers over the surface of the wall feeling for an edge. Nothing. Ann did the same on the other side, where the edge of the doorjamb would be if there was one. ”He put Sheetrock right over where the door would be.”
A low whine filtered down from above them, almost too soft to register.
Ann looked up. ”Did you hear that?”
”Sounds like a blender from two miles away.” Cameron spun his flashlight around the ceiling. ”Or three stories above us.”
”And?”
”No idea, but it's pretty late for anyone to be whipping up a smoothie.”
They held their breath and listened. Nothing.
”Let's get this done.”
He dug into his pack for his climbing ax as Ann did the same.
The blender started again.
”You want to keep digging and I'll go check out whatever is making that noise?” Cameron said.
”Good plan.”
The noise stopped the moment he turned. They listened. Again nothing.
”I'm going anyway.”
Ann nodded.
He eased through the narrow hallway, stopping every few feet to listen. On his fifth stop the whine started again. Then stopped. He didn't hear it as he scrambled up the rope through the trapdoor into the first level of the bas.e.m.e.nt, up the stairwell into the restaurant.
The sound didn't start again till he stepped around the back corner of the building into the shadows in the alley in between. A streetlight strobed and the element inside whined. It sounded like their blender.
How could that-?
As he followed the pole down into the ground it made sense. The pole was probably directly above where they were, and the vibrations carried down into the bas.e.m.e.nt.
A car drove by and Cameron tried to push himself into the wall of Taylor's building as it pa.s.sed. It didn't slow and didn't speed up. He stood in the shadows for a minute, watching the other shadows, watching for ... n.o.body.
There was nothing out here. Paranoid for no reason.
Finally he shook his head, as if he could shake off the unsettled feeling flitting around his mind, and crept back into the restaurant, down the stairs, down into the second level of Taylor Stone's bas.e.m.e.nt.
The light from Ann's flashlight lit up the narrow pa.s.sage as he s.h.i.+mmed through it and the luminescence drew him like a moth.
”I see you're still among the living,” Ann said as he pushed through the small opening at the end of the pa.s.sageway and stepped into the room.
”Just a streetlamp burning out, sending the whine down into the ground.” Cameron coughed as the cloud of dust swirled around him. ”Wow, nice progress.”
A pitch-black hole in the wall roughly six feet by two gaped next to Ann. ”Not bad, huh?”
”Not only that, but I couldn't hear you doing it from above, which means this vault is deep enough that we can relax a bit. Any noise we make down here won't be heard above.”
Adrenaline pumped through Cameron. This had to be it.
He grinned at Ann and she returned it with one of her own. ”You want to go first?” he said.
”Not a chance.”
As Cameron stepped through the opening, he flicked off his flashlight and turned back toward Ann. ”If it's real, we should see this at the same time.”
She followed his lead and shut off her flashlight before stepping through the opening.
Silence surrounded them. If he didn't know Ann stood three feet from him, he could have felt like he was the only person alive on earth. Was this what death was like?
”Are you ready?”
”Yes.”
Their feet scuffed the floor as they shuffled forward a few feet.
”Let's do this.” Cameron snapped on his flashlight.
A moment later Ann's flicked on and their lights filled the room. They stood in a large domed s.p.a.ce with faded cedar paneling. The back wall was covered from floor to ceiling with shelves that held piles of parchments, each stack weighted down by familiar-looking rocks.
Cameron pulled Susan Hillman's stone out of his pocket. It was smaller, but it was the same as the stones on top of the parchments. Blood pounded through his head and adrenaline pushed through his body.
In the middle of the room a thick gray canvas covered a rectangular shape at least ten-feet long and five-feet wide.
Cameron looked at Ann and grinned. She raised both eyebrows and returned the smile.
The Book of Days. It had to be.
”Taylor Stone is worthy of an Oscar. He almost had me convinced it was only a legend.” Cameron interlocked his fingers. ”Shall we?”
As they stood at either end of the canvas, ready to throw it back, Cameron said, ”Whatever is under here, thanks for going on this journey with me.”
”My pleasure.”
”Ready? One, two, three!”
They yanked off the cover, a snow storm of dust dancing in the glow of their flashlights.