Silver Linings

Abbott. “Have you ever actually met someone faster than yourself?”
    Hugh was silent for a heartbeat. “Yeah.”
    “What happened to him?”
    “He's dead.”
    “So he wasn't quite fast enough.”
    “I guess not.”
    But their conversation couldn't distract Mattie from the horrible darkness that loomed ahead. A cave . She would never be able to handle this, she thought. Never in a million years. This was far worse than any elevator or dark hall or jungle. This was the real thing, straight out of one of her childhood nightmares.
    Mattie's stomach twisted.
    She started to tell Hugh she could not go another step when something went crunch under the toe of her expensive, ruined shoe. Automatically Mattie looked down and saw the flattened body of the biggest cockroach she had ever seen in her life.
    “That does it,” Mattie announced. “You'd better get out of the way, Hugh. I'm going to be very sick.”

CHAPTER

Two

    “You are not going to be sick,” Hugh said with implacable certainty. “Not here, at any rate. Not now. We don't have time for that kind of nonsense. Put down those bags and come here.”
    Automatically she obeyed, dropping the string bag and her purse to the ground. Her stomach churned. The memory of the blood in the white room mingled with the image of the dead insect at her feet. The gloom of the cavern threatened to swallow her alive.
    “Damn it, Mattie, get a hold of yourself.”
    She felt Hugh's hand close around her arm. She was vaguely aware that he was leading her back toward the entrance of the cavern. But she was totally unprepared for the shock of having her head thrust under one of the waterfalls.
    “Hugh, for heaven's sake, I'm going to drown!” But the water was refreshingly cool. Her nausea receded. Mattie started to struggle, and Hugh dragged her back into the cavern. She turned to confront him, sputtering. She felt like a drowned rat and knew she probably looked like one.
    “Better?” Hugh asked, not unkindly.
    “Yes, thank you,” she whispered, her tone very formal. She stared straight ahead and realized she could see nothing. “Hugh, I'm not very good in confined spaces.”
    “Don't worry, babe, you'll do just fine.” He went back to rummaging around in his string bag. “Only takes a few minutes to get through these tunnels. Now, where did I put that flashlight?”
    “Please do not call me babe.”
    He acted as if he didn't hear her. “Ah, here we go. I knew I'd stuck it in here somewhere.” He pulled the flashlight out of the bag, switched it on, and played it across the cavern walls. “Like I said, no problem. We'll be through here in no time. We just follow Cormier's markings. There's the first of them.”
    Mattie picked up her burdens and stared bleakly at the small white mark on the damp wall of the cavern. She would never have noticed it if Hugh had not pointed it out. “Couldn't we walk through the jungle to the other side of this mountain and approach Cormier's secret dock from that direction?”
    “Nope. That's the beauty of his hiding place. No access from the sea side except by boat, and you'd have to know about the flooded cavern or you'd never notice the opening in the rock face. The only other route in is through these caves, and if someone didn't know the way, he'd get hopelessly lost in minutes.”
    “I see. How very reassuring,” Mattie said weakly.
    “I told you Cormier was one sly old fox. Ready?” Hugh was already moving forward with characteristic self-confidence, clearly expecting her to follow without question.
    He did everything with that supremely arrogant, blunt, no-nonsense style, Mattie reflected angrily. Literally everything, including making love, as she knew to her cost. She doubted Hugh would have even known how to spell finesse or tact or subtlety if asked to do so. The words were simply not in his vocabulary.
    How could she have ever thought herself in love with this man? she wondered in disgust as she trailed after Hugh. She had nothing at all in common with him. He was obviously not even the least bit claustrophobic, for instance. It would have been nice to know he had some small, civilized neurosis, some endearing little weakness, some modern anxiety problem.
    She, of course, had plenty of all three.
    It took everything she had to follow Hugh through the dark maze of twisting caves. With every step the walls narrowed, trying to close in on her. Just as they used to do in those old, frantic dreams of her childhood,