Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [101]
She swam back toward the cavern. The going still felt brutal and all of Annja’s muscles burned. Her lungs heaved and the waves roared around her head as if she was in the midst of a massive storm surge. With every breath she took, she gulped down seawater. Her eyes stung and her leg muscles cramped.
But she pressed on.
Slowly, she felt as if part of the current was yielding to her indomitable spirit and the sheer willpower she demonstrated. Her legs kept kicking and her arms kept crawling forward, stroke after stroke.
Annja moved closer to the cavern tunnel wall and was using the walls of the tunnel itself to help her move back toward the cavern. The danger was that she might get crushed against the sides if a rogue wave picked her up and smashed her into it.
But she had to keep going.
Annja thrashed mightily against the swells and, ahead of her, she could see the light from the main cavern.
Cole.
She had to reach him. Had to get to him and place the crucifix around his neck so that it might save his life.
It felt as if she had already been gone for hours rather than minutes.
Too long.
The struggle to reach the cavern was exhausting her. She took another breath, dove deep underwater and then tried to pull herself along using handholds on the tunnel wall.
She gained a few yards and then surfaced again, sucking in oxygen.
How much longer can I do this? she wondered. I’m not getting anywhere fast enough.
She felt a sudden brush of movement past her leg.
Her heart pounded.
What the hell was that? Was there an animal in the water with her? Some kind of fish? She groaned. For the love of god, she thought, don’t let it be a shark.
She felt something grab her around the ankles.
Annja ducked her head underwater again. A black mass with two eyes stared back up at her and then, abruptly, she was buoyed and almost lifted out of the water.
A spout of water hit her in the face. “Hiya, Annja.”
Dave’s body surfaced next to hers clad in a black wet suit. His beaming face smiled at Annja. “You look like you could use a little help getting back to the cavern.”
“Dave! What the hell are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if my little going-away present would explode, so I took the liberty of tagging along with the sub and attaching one of my world-famous homemade limpet mines to its hull.” He shrugged and, over the roar of water, Annja heard him say, “Glad you managed to get out of there in time.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Annja said. “But we have to get back to Cole, he’s hurt really badly.”
“How badly?”
“I think his femoral got nicked by a bullet.”
“Shit.” Dave took a breath. “Can you still swim for it? The current sucks pretty bad.”
“I’m exhausted,” Annja said. “But I’ll keep going.”
Dave grinned. “You make a swim like this with a spirit like that and you’ll be as good as any SEAL I ever served with.” Dave pointed to the wall. “Now, keep your head down and take a deep breath. I think we can make it back there if we follow a path through the water. I’ll lead and you follow. Got it?”
Annja nodded. “I got it.”
Dave ducked under the water and Annja followed. She watched as Dave’s powerful legs scissored back and forth like a motor and Annja found herself inspired by the clean mechanical action of his body as he maneuvered his way toward the main cavern.
Annja fought for every inch she could and, gradually, they started making progress. Every time Annja surfaced for air, she could see they were farther along the tunnel.
But the current still refused to yield to their desire to get back. And Annja wondered just what was building within the cavern itself. If all the water was being sucked toward the entrance to the open ocean, then would that pressure also build up in the cavern itself?
And, if so, what would be the final result?
Dave pulled her along now, sensing that Annja was exhausted. Annja kicked as well as she could, but when they finally made it back to the water near the dock in the cavern, Annja was running an energy