Pop Travel (24 page)

Cooper let go of her arms and his shoulders sagged.

“Really?”

Geri gave a firm nod and crossed her arms.

He put a hand to his forehead and squinted.

“I wasn’t planning on having an accomplice. You’re serious? You really want to risk your life?”

“Yes! Don’t you worry, J.L. I’m no dainty wallflower. You’ll see.”
He’ll see, all right.
She had been more than ready from the very beginning.

“Fine. But I’m telling you, this is not a little carefree holiday. These people aren’t going to let us just walk away if they catch us. You will have to follow my lead and listen to me. This is the last time I’m going to ask you. Are you sure?”

“Yes, J.L. I’m absolutely sure!”
Do you want me to sing it?

“Okay, then. Let’s go.” He shouted, “Incoming!” and scooped her up. Sliding along the wall, he carried her out through the opening and set her gently down.

“Was that ‘incoming’ supposed to be my warnin’?” she asked as she straightened her dress again.

“Yep,” he answered with that sly grin. “All right. Now we need to find a way into the stables.” He rubbed his hands together, then grabbed her hand and led her back into the main tent.

When they entered, Geri noticed the Creator hadn’t moved, fixed in the same stance as when they left. His guards flanked him like statues, each towering about a foot taller than him. The heavier-set Caucasian with sandy hair kept a watchful eye of the perimeter, while the other, an Indian with a long nose and dark sienna skin, kept an equally watchful eye on the guests in the line.

“That poor fella” Geri pouted, feeling sorry for the Creator. He looked weary, forcing smile after smile, shaking all those hands and saying the same thing over and over. This wasn’t much of a party for him. And on his birthday, too.

Cooper tugged on Geri and they continued through the tents to the entrance. They noticed a line to get into the stables. Geri remembered why from her homework assignment.

“It’s the restrooms! That’s what he had the stables converted into. And there is a guestroom upstairs.” She shook her head with a smile.

They agreed barging through the crowd might cause a scene or make someone suspicious, so they stood at the end of the shorter line. For the men’s room, of course.

Geri fidgeted with her brooch and frowned at it as she thought about all this new information.
A deadly flaw? How could Ed not have mentioned that? I have to see this evidence!
She’d been through all Cooper’s pockets and scanned his QV with hers when they were at the fence looking at the house. Nothing registered.
I will have to do a more thorough search of him. It might not even be on him. I’ll deal with that later.

As they inched closer to the building, Geri smiled at Cooper. He raised his brow and smiled back.
How incredible would it be to find that ancient tunnel? I wonder if Ed knows about
that
!
She could barely contain her enthusiasm. Touching Cooper’s shoulder, she whispered in his ear.

“Do you know where it starts?”

“Should be the northwest corner.”

She nodded. That would be up on the left side of the building.

Soon their turn came and they stepped inside. The stables had been refurbished, but still had the look of an antique farm building with dark wood walls and exposed rafters. Past the ladies’ room door on the right and the men’s on the left, they came to a short hallway. When they turned the corner, they saw a door at the end. Looking at each other with hopeful eyes, they raced like kids to see who could try it first.

Cooper won. Geri crossed her fingers.

It was locked, of course.

“Wait. I’d like to try.” It was a simple four-character keypad lock.

“Be my guest,” Cooper said, with a doubtful sniff. He spread his hands and stepped back. Turning his back to her, he positioned himself perfectly to block her from the view of the camera she had noticed in the corner of the ceiling on their way in and would be a good lookout in case anyone came their way.
Nice thinking, Cooper.

Geri cheated and used the unlock sequencer on her QV, clicking it open in seconds. When he spun around to check, she flashed him a slick grin.

“I told you so.”

Cooper sniffed and pushed the door open. They braced for an alarm.

There wasn’t one.

Just as they were about to go in, three boisterous young guests bopped around the corner. A boy had his arms around the waists of two girls. They were up to no good, whispering and giggling to each other. When they saw Cooper and Geri, the trio stopped short and sobered.

“Come on, sugah.” Geri gave Cooper a tempting wink and pulled him by his tie into the dark room. The kids caught on, and the boy gave Cooper a heads-up, You The Man nod before escorting his ladies back the way they’d come.

When Cooper and Geri got inside and shut the door, he gave her a mocking grin.

“How about a little warning next time. I am a gentleman, ya know.”

“Ha, ha.” Geri smirked back at him and flipped on the lights. They had entered a large maintenance closet.

“Now how do we find it? I’ll wager there won’t be a sign with a big arrow that says, ‘Secret Passage, Dig Here’.”

“I’m going to knock on the floor and find an open section between the joists. If this is like most Georgia construction, there’s a crawl space under the building. You can help by looking for a toolbox. We’ll need a saw to cut through the floor.”

“Yes, sir,” she said with a teasing salute. Humoring him, she looked around, not really expecting to find a secret tunnel. But once he trusted her, she could ask him more about the video and strip him of it, one way or another. Cooper’s innocence and ingenuity were refreshing and would make her task easy. She also hoped she wouldn’t hurt his feelings too badly.

“I think I have a good place to start. Any luck finding tools?”

“Is this a toolbox?” she asked and pointed to a tall, plastic toolbox with multiple sections. She didn’t like playing dumb, but she found in the past it inspired men to help her.

“Yes. Do you think you can handle getting it open?”

Instead of the chivalrous route, Cooper gave her the sarcastic option.

Of
course
I can get it open. It’s a toolbox. You were supposed to offer me a hand.
So a helpless maid wasn’t his type. Good. When she opened it, a light shined in her eyes. She turned to see Cooper playing with a big black flashlight and smiled.
Nice and bright. It will be dark down there.
Good idea
.

Searching through the toolbox, she found a hacksaw. That wouldn’t do them any good. She showed him anyway, to test his intelligence.

“Will this do?” she asked. With her thumb and one finger, she dangled it and kept her pinky raised primly in the air, holding a stinky sock.

“No. It’s too small. Anything else?”

She shrugged. He went over to see for himself. Geri backed up and spied a sledgehammer hanging on the wall by an automatic electric sweeper.

“How about that?” she asked and pointed.

Cooper lifted his nose out of the toolbox.

“Too noisy, but that will work.” He reached over her shoulder and grabbed a utility saw from where it hung on the wall behind her.

She followed him as he found his spot again. Raising an eyebrow at her, he gave her another chore.

“How about finding me some adhesive?” She could tell he wanted to keep her occupied so she wouldn’t be looking over his shoulder while he worked.

“What for?” she asked, irritating him and loving it.

He cut a large square in the linoleum floor and wrested it up first. While he sawed through the wooden floor, he answered her.

“To hold,”
Down, Up!
“the floor,”
Down, Up!
“back in place.”

“Of course.” Backing away, she watched his progress. The floor was sturdier than it looked, and so was he. It wouldn’t take him long to make a big enough hole for them to fit through.
I knew there were muscles under that jacket
. She smirked.

“Leave it to me.” She searched the shelves.

In the toolbox, she found some duct tape.

“Will this do?” she asked, holding it up.

“I guess. Set it over there.” He nodded at a nearby shelf where he had put the flashlight.

“You’re makin’ quite a mess,” she teased. “Was this part of your plan?”

“Feel free to get the electric sweeper.”

“Oh, yes. I saw one in the corner. Be right back,” she said, holding up her index finger.

“Take your time,” he replied under his breath.

“Here it is. Oh! You’re through,” she said when she returned.

Cooper had cut out a rough hole and pushed the piece through. It fell with a crunch. He poked his flashlight into the hole and leaned over to look around.

Peering over his shoulder, Geri saw plastic covered the ground.

“Great.” He took off his jacket, handed it to Geri, and jumped down. When Cooper stood up, the closet floor swallowed him up to his waist.

“Am I supposed to go down they-ah?” She frowned.

“What did you think? The tunnel would be carpeted for you? You don’t have to come, you know.”

She pushed his buttons, testing his patience. He passed, and that made her smile.

“Oh, no. This is much too excitin’. What’s a little dirt?” She shrugged.

“At some point you won’t be able to go back,” he warned.

“We’ll see.”

Cooper shook his head and ducked into the hole. She kneeled to watch him. Sitting down in the crawl space, he pulled out his map and used the flashlight to examine it. He chose a spot about two feet from each wall. Using the rough piece of wood flooring he had just chopped out, he pierced the plastic and started to dig.

“Think you’ll find some treasure?” she asked, teasing him again.

“Why don’t you clean up? Once we find the tunnel, we will want to get moving. And you should get ready to secure the linoleum.”

“Sho’ nuff.” She got the sweeper.

As she vacuumed, she peeked on his progress. The cramped space made it awkward for him to dig. Being so tall, he had to kneel and bend at an angle. She also noticed, by his grimace at times, the wood hurt his hands. She went back to the toolbox and grabbed a pair of work gloves she had seen.

“Here. Use these.” She threw the gloves at him.

He turned around and raised an eyebrow at her, then found the gloves.

“Thanks.” He put them on and kept digging. Persistence. Another good quality.

When the sweeper finished, she put it back on its charger.

“I think I found something!” Cooper called out. While she tidied up, she had been humming, like Snow White. When she heard him, she poked her head through.

“What was that?”

Cooper feverishly scraped away at the dirt with his hands.

“Oh! Did you find it?”

“Yeah, I think so. There’s wood under here. Might be a door or something.” He clawed around in the dirt and red clay to find a handle or edge.

“Should I come down now?” Geri asked.

“No. I want to make sure there’s a hole underneath and not just more dirt. If there isn’t a tunnel, we will have to go back to the party and we don’t want to look…” He stopped, reaching the edge of a board. He jostled it, having a hard time pulling it out, since three-fourths remained buried. With the floorboard, he pried at it and found another plank of wood. As he removed the larger pieces, Geri felt a cool waft of air escape from below.

“This is it! Go ahead and seal the floor up there. But toss the saw down first. And don’t forget my jacket. Can you handle all that?” he asked.

“Of course. I’ll be down in a jiff.” She kept her sneer to herself.
Can I handle it? Just you wait, buddy.
But a tunnel actually existed! This assignment kept popping up surprise after surprise. Smiling, she finished straightening up the closet.

“Look out below!” she called and dropped down the saw. After making sure she put everything back where it belonged, she turned off the lights, grabbed Cooper’s jacket and the tape, and jumped down into the hole, feeling a bit like Alice. Kneeling in the cramped space, she carefully matched up the piece of linoleum and secured it with the tape. Then she did the same for the piece of flooring. She leaned back and admired what a good job she had done. Home improvement was not her forte.

Hiking up her dress, she scooted over to him on her knees, impressed with Cooper’s progress. He had gotten several boards up. At one time, they might have been nailed together as a crude door. Now he pulled them out individually, with some falling apart in his hands. The scent of stale, damp earth drifted up from the hole as the air shifted.

“Now what would you have done if that wasn’t there?” she asked as she peered into the dark hole which had grown big enough for them to fit through. “And what do you suppose we will do if it’s caved in or blocked halfway to the house?”

Cooper rolled his eyes, then looked at her.

“I would have gone to Plan B.” He grabbed the flashlight. His raised eyebrow told her he tired of her doubting him.

“There’s a Plan B?” she asked, raising a doubtful eyebrow at him.

When he shined the light into the opening, they could see pieces of wood barely sticking out of the dirt on one side as a makeshift ladder leading down.
Imagine that.

“When necessary, there’s always a Plan B. Come on.” Throwing the saw to the ground below, he carried the flashlight and descended the crude ladder.

His determination had been rewarded and deserved admiration.

“Right behind you!” she called.

Cooper helped her down the last rungs. When she stood up straight, her hair just grazed the top of the tunnel. The low ceiling wasn’t made for a tall man. Knowing Cooper would have to duck most of the way, she hoped it didn’t grow smaller farther down.

“Brr, it’s cold down here.” She shivered.

“Go ahead and put on my jacket. So how far do you think we are from the house?”

“About half a mile?”

“That was my guess, too. Good. We should have enough air to get there,” he said.

“Enough air?” Geri gasped and put her hand to her chest.