The car sped down the deserted road at pace, trailing dust behind it in a thick cloud. Carl followed the main road to the border crossing as far as he dared, before turning off and heading along a dirt track, which wound its way along the border.
Louisa came round a few hours back. She looked out of the passenger window, calming her troubled mind by gazing at the sights whizzing by. Chris had informed her Ishmael was not dead, but still the thoughts of her actions would not let her be.
Louisa took the Hippocratic Oath. She was supposed to protect life, to preserve it at all costs, not take it. Surely, she had only acted on impulse, protecting the group from a man who was threatening to hand them in to the authorities. However, that notion gave her little comfort. She held the gun, felt the recoil, and saw Ishmael collapse to the floor. She pulled the trigger. If Ishmael had not survived, she would be a murderer.
Louisa wanted to be alone. She wanted to cry. Neither was likely to happen. Only if she survived this could she make amends for her actions. Her self-pity would have to wait.
As Carl started to climb a hillside, he pointed into distance. “The Egyptian border runs the length of the mountain range to our right. On an evening, the view from up here is one of the most beautiful sights in the world.”
Louisa expected the border of two enlightened countries like Israel and Egypt to be a virtual one; a line on a map with the odd border crossing placed on the main roads connecting the major cities. She was not expecting a raised mound of dirt, topped with barbed wire. “Is there a lot of trouble?” she asked. “I mean, you wouldn’t have all this for no reason.”
“There used to be.” said Carl. “Now it’s here mainly to keep African nationals from finding an easy route into the Middle East. Tens of thousands were crossing the border into Israel at one point. When I was here last, in the early nineties, I was assisting the Sunni in Israel find a way into Egypt, back when the tensions between the two countries were still at their peak.”
The car continued down the road, before stopping on the crest of a large, dome-shaped mount by the side of an abandoned checkpoint.
Carl pulled in next to a horribly rusted, counterweighted barrier. “Get your things, we’re on foot for the next six miles or so.” he said, getting out of the car and leaving the keys in the ignition. He walked to the side of the road and began untying a length of semi-rotted cord from a spike next to a badly battered guard hut. One end of the rope attached to the spike and the other disappeared under the barbed wire and off the sheer edge of the hillside.
“What’s the deal?” said Chris, watching Carl intently.
“Spot of afternoon abseiling. You think you can manage that?”
“How far are we talking?”
“About seventy feet down to the cave system that feeds the Ein Muweileh spring and then about six miles through the mountain to the village of Quseima in Egypt. We should be able to pick up a taxi from there.” said Carl, taking the end of the rope over to the car and beginning to tie it to the axel. “Have either of you two got any abseiling experience?”
“I have.” said Justin. “As I have to keep reminding people, I am in the army.”
“Same here, military training basics, no more.” said Louisa.
“It should be easy then. Standard hand over hand, foot-guided descent. No safety, no karabiner. You both ok with that?” said Carl, happy to see the pair nod in response.
“One of us should test the weight the rope can take.” said Chris.
“I’ll do it.” said Carl, going over to the car and removing the items he procured from the solar power plant. “Only I know where the entrance to the cave system is.”
“What exactly is that?” asked Chris, pointing to the equipment.
“It’s a geophysics scanner. It uses ground-penetrating radar to give you a picture of what lies beneath the surface of the ground. It took a while and a bit of creative thinking to get it, but the guy buckled eventually.”
Chris walked over to the fence and tried to lift the bottom rail of wire. It moved easily.
“Good, I was hoping they hadn’t noticed that still needed fixing.” said Carl, as he clambered through the tight gap.
Louisa stared out at the drop beyond the fence. It was nearly four hundred meters to the valley floor. She watched, as Carl carefully spun the rope round one leg and arm, slowly beginning to apply weight as he slid off the edge.
As Carl descended, the rope squeaked and squealed. He shuffled his way down the cliff face, a warm updraft creating a light swaying in his position, which was more disconcerting to Louisa than the drop.
About five minutes of careful climbing later, Carl reached the mouth of a fissure set into the rock. He lowered himself into the opening, tugging the rope to tell the others to start their descent.
Justin went next, ably reaching the cave faster than Carl.
Louisa followed after, Chris telling her not to worry as he eased her over the edge.
The shimmy down the rope was arduous. The strain on her muscles brought the searing pain of her grenade-powered flight back to her hip, and the blood pumping through her veins made the bruise on her head pound. The updraft blew around her, taking away her footing occasionally and making her progress slow. More than that, it lifted the sweat from her clothes and blew it into her nostrils. She smelt awful; again.
The heavy smell of guano and stagnant water met her, as he drifted lazily in front of the opening. Its rancid odour and pungent acidity making her eyes water, as she eventually reached the floor of the cavern.
The cave system’s entrance looked like an enormous axe wound in the face of the mountain, which opened into a large cavern descending into the depths of the mountain. High over their heads, thousands of bats and birds nested in the pockmarked roof.
Once everyone arrived, Carl took a flashlight from Justin and began to move, hopping between rocky outcroppings to avoid the guano that lay, feet thick, in the centre of the cave.
“This place smells worse than I do!” said Louisa, holding a hand across her mouth and nose.
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” said Chris, with a smirk.
“I’d forgotten how bad it was, sorry.” said Carl. “Just try to stay close. Some of the passages are difficult to traverse and depending on how much water has fallen in the hills recently, some of them could be flooded.”
The next three hours were a gruelling mix of fear and exertion. True to Carl’s words, the cave system was complex and difficult, especially in the limited light thrown out by the pair of torches. A number of times, they stopped and retraced their steps, Carl’s memory of the layout not what it once was.
Eventually, sodden and hungry, they reached a large cave near the base of the mountain. A snake of water ran through it and droplets of moisture dripped from the high ceiling. The cavern was serene. A palpable silence hung in the air, which allowed the liquid gurgle of a stream to echo through it as it meandered through the chasm. From ahead of them, through another small opening, a strange glow emanated out, twinkling against the walls. It shimmered and danced, throwing arcs of gold across the space.
Carl turned off his torch and motioned for Justin to do the same, as the group stopped and peered at the ethereal spectacle before them. “I always loved this part of the trip.” he said, as the light playfully wound up and down the walls.
“What is causing this?” asked Louisa, amazed by the dazzling display of nature laid out for her pleasure.
“The exit to the outside is just through that opening, on the far side of here. It’s where all the water collects into a pool before pushing into the outside world. What you can see is sunlight that has travelled along the water from the spring’s mouth. It follows the flow like a fibre optic cable, released when it reaches the pool in the cave beyond.”
“This almost makes the entire trip worthwhile.” said Justin, gazing at the view.
“Almost, kid.”
They stood in silence for a few minutes, before Carl turned his t
orch back on and began to pick his way across to the exit.
Arriving at the far end of the cave, a five-foot gap in the rocks sat at the stream’s end. The surface of a pool glowed brightly through the semi-circular opening, casting out its otherworldly glow.
“Don’t mean to point out the obvious, mate,” said Chris, stooping over to look into the chamber, “but there’s absolutely no exit out of there.”
Carl smiled and pointed down through the limpid pool to the source of the light.
“You’ve got to be joking! How far?”
“About twenty feet. It loops under and then resurfaces below a ledge by the side of a stone trough. There’s a small oasis fed off the outflow. We usually did this at first light so as not to raise any alarm, but it will be the middle of the afternoon now.”
“I’ll go.” said Louisa, glancing at Chris. “Junior swimming champ. Give me a moment to get ready.”
“I’ll help Justin prep our electronics.” said Chris, reaching into his pocket and taking out a dustbin liner.
“Remember Louisa,” Carl said, helping Louisa into the chamber, “it’s down and then back up. You should be able to tell where the exit is by the change in temperature above you, but as you can see the pool is well lit so you shouldn’t have much of an issue seeing your way.”
Louisa paused, taking in the sights around her. Was she being foolish? Only time would tell. She took a long lungful of air and jumped in.
To her surprise, the water was strangely warm, and momentarily made her regret not asking for a bar of soap to take with her.
The pool sank down about eight feet and through the crystal clear waters she could easily make out a narrow shaft weaving toward the outside world.
She moved quickly, taking care not to snag her clothing on the rocks, the water getting slowly warmer, as she headed into the light. With one last effort, she broke the surface and stood up. Taking a deep, gratifying intake of breath, she wiped her hair back into a ponytail as the searing heat of the afternoon sun removed any lingering chill from her bones.
As her eyes began to adjust, she realised there was a man surrounded by goats not three feet from her. He was wearing a black, traditional Egyptian galabeya, and a dark, cord-bound headdress.
“Hi.” Louisa said, extending a hand and trying to break the moment. “Nice day for it.”
Chapter 45