Calamity Jena (Invertary Book 4) (36 page)

That was when they heard it. The best sound Matt could ever have heard.

“Help, somebody help me.”

Jena.

Jena was pretty sure her ankle was broken. From the pain she had when she took a breath, she would guess there were a couple of cracked ribs as well. She used the light feature on her still intact cell phone to look around her. She’d slid down with some earth and landed in an old tunnel. The whole area between her house and Abby’s was a warren of tunnels and shafts. Some of them quite close to the surface. From the time it’d taken her to fall, Jena guessed she wasn’t buried very deep. She looked up at the earth packed above her and swallowed hard. Okay, deep was relative—she was still pretty far underground.

The earth had collapsed on either side of her, leaving her in what looked like a small room. There was no way out. All she could do was hope the support beams holding up the dirt over her head would stay where they were. One of the collapsed dirt walls had an old pipe sticking out of it. A wide, rusting metal pipe that had come down with the explosion. Jena waved her hand in front of it—there was air coming through it. A slightly cooler breeze.

Her heart raced. If there was air, then the other end of the pipe had to be above the surface. She dragged her broken leg closer to the pipe, breaking out in a sweat as she did so. The pain made her sob. She clenched her teeth as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She couldn’t pass out. She
wouldn’t
pass out.

She checked again to make sure it wasn’t possible to ring for help, but, unsurprisingly, there was no cell reception underground. Taking a deep breath, she pressed her mouth to the pipe and shouted for help.

Someone had to hear her.

The alternative was too horrific to contemplate.

“There.” Lake pointed to a dip in the ground with an old broken pipe sticking out of it.

They ran to it. Matt sank to his knees. The pipe was wide, large enough for him to fit a hand inside. Jena’s voice came out through it. She sounded strained and terrified. Without hesitating, Matt put his mouth to the pipe.

“Jena, we’re here. We’re going to get you out.”

He heard faint, relieved sobbing.

“It’s okay, princess. It’s going to be okay.” Damn, he hoped he was telling the truth. She had to be okay. There was no other option.

“I’m in a bit of the tunnel that’s still standing. There’s a collapse on either side of me,” Jena shouted.

Matt looked around him and knew exactly where she was. There were two large sinkholes with an island of grass between them. One of several islands in a sea of ravines and potholes. His heart raced. She’d been lucky. She could have easily been buried with one of the sinkholes instead of being pushed into a cavern.

“I think my ankle is broken and my ribs are cracked.”

He closed his eyes. “We’re going to get you out. I promise.”

“I’m scared, Matt.”

“I know, princess. It won’t be long. Just hold on tight.”

“Is that her?” Magenta and Harry came running up to stand beside him.

“I picked Magenta up,” Harry said. “She’ll know what’s down there.”

Magenta took in the alien landscape in front of her. “She’s at a junction. Those have extra reinforcement.” She pointed over the field. “See the pattern? Every grassy bit is a junction.”

Now she’d pointed it out, Matt could see the pattern. The junctions were grass islands in a sea of dirt.

“That’s good, right?” He didn’t want to sound desperate, but he couldn’t help it.

Magenta nodded. “Really good. If they haven’t collapsed by now, they probably won’t. She’s safe.” She bit her lip and cast a worried look at Harry.

“What?” Matt demanded. “What else?”

“She’s safe unless there’s another explosion.”

Matt’s stomach clenched. “Is there likely to be another explosion?”

“I don’t think so.” Magenta looked at Harry, and there was uncertainty in her eyes. “I found some explosives in the mine when I checked it for Abby. I cleared them out and called in some munitions experts to check the rest of it. They’re due out this week.” She looked devastated. “I didn’t think there was a need to rush. I’d cut off that whole section of the mine.”

“The second explosion.” Matt rubbed his face. “That was explosives in the mine?”

“Yeah,” Magenta said. “The good news is, if there are more explosives, they should have gone off with the first lot. Chain reaction sort of thing.”

“Okay.” Matt clenched his jaw. “Let’s assume everything that could explode already has. How do we get her out?”

Magenta looked around. “We need to dig through the most stable area, otherwise we’ll bring more dirt down on her. There.” Magenta pointed to the middle of the grass area. “Dig in the centre. Keep it small. You shouldn’t have to go down too far. You might even be lucky and hit an old air shaft, and speed things up. This area is covered in them.”

Matt looked at the gaping hole between him and the island of grass. “How the hell do we get a digger over there?”

“We can do it,” said a voice. It was Grunt.

Matt looked up to find Grunt, Joe and Lake standing there, looking like members of the A-Team.

“We did stuff like this all the time in the marines,” Joe said.

Matt looked at Lake, who nodded confidently. Matt took a shaky breath. “You got what you need?”

“I’ll get it,” Lake said.

The men set off at a run as Matt turned back to the pipe. “We’re coming to get you. Magenta is here and she knows where you are exactly. Lake, Grunt and Joe are getting the equipment we need to dig you out.”

Magenta tapped his shoulder. “Can I talk to her?”

Reluctantly, Matt moved out of the way.

“Jena,” Magenta shouted into the pipe. “I need you to find a corner under a beam. Can you see down there?”

“I have a flashlight app on my phone.”

“Good. Get to a corner under a beam. Stay there. We’re going to dig through the middle of the ceiling above you. The rubble trapping you shouldn’t get too disturbed, but you might get some dust. Do you have something you can use to cover your mouth and nose?”

“Yeah,” came the trembling reply.

Matt clenched his fists. This was the last time he was ever going to let her out of his sight. Every time she was unsupervised she got injured. The woman was a magnet for accidents and mishaps. He hung his head as he tried to calm his breathing. He’d wrap her in freaking cotton wool if he had to.

“If the air gets too stuffy, breathe at this pipe,” Magenta shouted. “You aren’t that far down. It shouldn’t take long to get to you. Try to stay calm.”

Magenta signalled for him to come to the pipe. “Talk to her. Keep her calm. Make sure she’s okay. This shouldn’t take long once the equipment is here. Look, you can tell how deep she is by how much the earth has fallen on either side of her. This part of the mine is near the surface. She was lucky.” She gave him a quick hug. “I’ll go get my climbing gear. Don’t worry, Matt, we know what we’re doing.”

She ran for her car. Harry patted Matt on his shoulder. “You stay here. Talk to your woman. I’ll coordinate with the emergency crews. They should be here any minute. We’ll get the area checked out and cordon the dangerous bits off. I already sent someone over to check on Abby. She’s shaken up but fine. The mine doesn’t run under her house, so that’s good, but the mushroom farm was taken out in the blast. There’s no way to salvage her business.”

Matt ran a hand over his face.

“Frank?” he asked Harry.

“In the wind. I’ve put out the word to keep an eye out for him. His car’s still here. He can’t have gotten far.”

“How the hell did he get back here so fast? He must have just jumped another flight as soon as he got back to the States.”

“I’ll find out what happened.” Harry’s tone was grim. He nodded to the ground. “Let’s get Jena sorted first, then we’ll deal with that moron.”

“Aye.” Matt nodded.

“Matt?” Jena’s slightly panicked voice drifted up to him.

He knelt beside the pipe. “It’s okay, princess, I’m here.”

39

Jena wedged herself into the corner closest to the pipe. It wasn’t directly in front of her, but she could lean forward to shout through it. She could hear Matt, which was the most important thing. Without his voice she would be all alone in the darkness. She felt like she’d been stuck underground for hours, but it couldn’t have been that long. Could it? Matt had been talking to her, telling her tales of life with the twins and his cousins. Telling her all about the trouble they got into as kids. His voice was the only thing stopping her from having a complete and utter meltdown.

Her broken leg was stretched out in front of her and throbbed with pain that made her want to wail. She dug her fingers into the dirt beside her every time it became too much. Her ribs didn’t ache as much as her ankle, but moving and breathing were uncomfortable. She was pretty sure she was covered in cuts and bruises. Her head still ached from the tumble in the car, and she didn’t even want to think what bugs were nested in her hair.

Sounds echoed down through the pipe. People shouting. Orders given. An engine revved. Something heavy hit the ground with a thud, making some loose dirt shake down onto her. She shuddered.

“Matt? What’s going on?”

“They’re laying down a couple of wooden beams for the hobby digger to roll across.” His voice sounded tight with tension. “You’re under a kind of an island; there have been cave-ins all around you. We’re trying to get the equipment to the right spot without causing any more damage.”

She rested her head back against the wall behind her as a shiver of fear went through her. He meant they were trying to avoid burying her alive. Yeah. It would be real good if they did everything they could to avoid that. A spasm of pain hit her, making her groan through clenched teeth. She was shivering and sweating at the same time. Adrenalin reaction. Nothing she could do about it except distract herself.

“Frank—did you get him?”

“Not yet.” The promise of pain was clear in those two words.

“I don’t understand why he’s still in town. Didn’t you send him away?”

“Harry checked. Frank didn’t make the connecting flight in London. No one thought to tell me.”

Jena closed her eyes. The thought of seeing Frank again made her shudder.

“You’ll get him, right?”

“I promise.” There was absolute confidence in those words.

Jena let out a relieved sigh then winced at the pain it caused. The room was closing in on her. The air becoming increasingly stuffy. She had to get her mind off it—before she went insane.

“You’re sure Abby’s okay? And Katy? Was their house damaged?”

“They’re fine, princess. The only person who was hurt was you.”

She barked out a tight laugh, jerking her ankle and making it throb. “They’re going to start calling me Calamity again, aren’t they?”

“They never stopped, princess.” His voice was soft. His worry clear. He was trying to distract her. She appreciated it. With her eyes closed, she could almost imagine she wasn’t trapped underground. That she was cuddled in the dark with Matt.

“They’re moving the digger across now. You’ll feel some rumbling, and some dust will fall once it starts, but don’t worry about it. Magenta says you’re safe, and she knows what she’s talking about. She’s dug up some old plans of the mine and there’s definitely an air shaft above you somewhere—that will help us to get to you. We have a drill attachment for the digger. You’ll be out in no time.”

“Will it make a hole big enough for me to climb out?”

“Of course it will.” To Jena’s anxious ears that sounded an awful lot like a “probably not”.

“The doc wants to know if you’re allergic to anything,” Matt said.

Jena half laughed, half growled. “Dark underground spaces.”

“Funny.”

“No, nothing. I’m not on any medication. Except the pill. Which is probably something we should have talked about before we had sex without using condoms.”

There was silence, then lots of muffled laughter.

“Jena, there are a lot of people around here and they can hear you.”

She wiped a hand over her eyes. She didn’t care about eavesdroppers. Invertary was full of them anyway. You couldn’t sneeze without someone knowing about it. She blinked back a bout of sleepiness. How was it possible to be in pain, yet so incredibly tired at the same time? She wanted Matt. She wanted his arms around her. She wanted his strength and comfort. She wanted his deep brogue whispering in her ear. If she had anything left in life, she’d give it all to have him with her. Touching her. Soothing her.