Water was leaking down into the lower chambers and slowly beginning to fill up the tunnel she was wading in. Up to her knees, it pulled at her limbs as if it had a life of its own, slowing her down to a veritable crawl. Worse, the water seemed cold. Colder than the lake above, it sapped the strength from her limbs.
Whatever had caused the cracks in the earth had succeeded. The mine was flooding out. But Aurore wouldn’t be satisfied with that. She wanted to collapse the graveyard to hide her sins. Not that she thinks of them as sins; she’s only “protecting” the family.
Anna forced her legs to continue working. Not only was the water hard to work against, it was moving and threatening to pull her down with it. She came to a bend in a passage and put her arm up to steady herself as the water poured down the manmade channel. The water pushed at her thighs, urging them to go with the flow. I don’t have much time here.
She took another step, and the water took her down.
* * *
Camille ran through the gate, dragging one of the elders with her. She had found him near the Zydeco band, already troubled because of the raging thoughts that were running wildly through the family’s minds. You see, she thought to him. See. See. See.
His name was Lee Vildibill, and he was visiting from Houma. He was just as angry with Sebastien and Aurore as the rest, but his anger was tinged with disbelief and sheer incredulity. He’d known the Benoits for thirty years. They’d stood side-by-side during many family crises. As one of the elders, he’d even asked Sebastien what he thought about Anna St. Thais and her tremendous display of power. Her fear when she had been kidnapped had been incapacitating to many of the family, and her range had stunned the elders.
Sebastien and Aurore had always been supportive members of the family, ones who cared about how the outside world affected them, ones who eschewed the entrance of chain stores and outside influences that would warp the family. Sebastien had told Lee to wait and see about Anna. She would grow to become part of the group. She was one of them. Sebastien’s words came back to haunt Lee in the current situation. “She’s with us, or she’s an outsider, oui?”
Lee shifted to the present, answering Camille’s thoughts with his own. I see nothing but many people listening to unchecked thoughts. He looked around him slowly. Gold eyes glowed in the dark, reflecting the light of the moon and the state of the family’s fury. A man in his sixties, he had been an elder for ten years, and never had he been aware of such a dire circumstance. Sebastien and Aurore, my friends, murderers, how can this be?
Camille gave up thoughts for spoken reason. Her voice was a heated snarl. “They teach us. Family does not hurt family. La Famille never harms its own. Anna is one of us no matter where she was raised.”
There were other voices, too many to listen to within Lee’s head, all jumbled in tense purpose to be heard. “Out loud!” he said stridently. “I cannot hear all of you at once!”
Laurant Theriot spoke up, “Maman is dead. I can feel it now. It’s like a curse in my blood. She died without me knowing it. What kind of cruel trick is that?”
“Anna knew Meg was in the mine,” insisted Camille. “Knew she was dying.”
The other voices spoke up, their thoughts twisting into Lee’s, angry, virulent, determined to understand. She’s stronger than most. Anna discovered the secrets. People missing for years, decades. No secrets in the family. Outsiders. The lake is receding. No secrets. The lake is angry. Goujon is angry.
Lee Vildibill glanced at the edge of the bayou, the black waters glistening with the light of the full moon. If he looked further, he could see the lake stretching out into the night. Not so calm now, he knew the waters churned with chaotic emotions. Peace, he thought. Serenity. We are with the lake. Goujon is not angry with us. He only tests our world.
Now, Lee continued when control started to seep through the uncontained thoughts of vengeance combined with earnest attempts to understand a situation gone so badly, where is Aurore Benoit?
Lee saw that Gabriel Bergeron was yanking at the huge double doors with all of his might, pulling the heavy metal back, thrusting it out of its tracks. Gabriel, wait.
Gabriel twisted around. Wait? His thoughts failed him. A clutter of rage pooled with condensed threats rained upon all of the family within reach. Several flinched with the amount of vehemence barely contained there. “Anna’s in there. And she’s not dead, yet, so I can—”
“It’s already too late,” said Aurore Benoit. She stood at the entrance of the mine, framed by the large double doors, and looked out at the crowd of people. Tall and proud, her white-streaked hair glimmered in the night. Her gold eyes burned with the answer.
Thoughts stilled. Voices silenced. There was only the sound of Gabriel’s truck burning, with paint crackling and the whoosh of flames as it bit into combustible areas of the vehicle.
A hundred pairs of gold eyes turned to Aurore. They shone in the darkness, reflecting the single floodlight back at him. Her calm façade did not change. “And Sebastien?” she said. “I felt his pain for a moment. I can’t feel him anymore?”
Gabriel’s face smoldered with fury. “Sebastien’s not dead,” he grated.
Not dead. Not dead. Not dead. The thoughts suddenly repeated in the family’s minds.
Raoul Benoit appeared beside Gabriel, his face fraught with confusion and anguish. “Maman. C’est moi,” he said. “It isn’t too late. We can fetch Anna out and make things right. I don’t know what you were doing, but please, merciful Dieu, don’t let her die in there. There’s something wrong with Gaspard. I felt the pain in my chest as if his heart was torn in two,” his voice cracked. “What have you done, Maman?”
“Why can’t I reach Anna?” demanded Gabriel. “What are you doing, Aurore?”
“At first, it was me that prevented you,” said Aurore. “Now it’s her. She won’t let you. You didn’t trust her. Now you can’t help her. Truly you can’t.” She smiled sadly at her son. “She could have been the strongest of all of us.”
Gabriel lost what tatters of his temper he had remaining and went for Aurore. Three men pulled him back before he could reach the older woman. Aurore cried out, “I am sorry for nothing! I protected all of you from the outsiders! Even now you judge me. She would have betrayed us! She would have betrayed you!” She pointed a finger at Gabriel.
Gabriel growled under his breath and lurched forward. Two men yanked him back.
Aurore cast a sly look over her shoulder. “Judge me but not Gaspard. Not Gautier and not Meg Theriot. And certainly not Anna. She doesn’t need any prayers now.”
The ground began to shake as the explosives Sebastien had set began to go off. The earth shuddered in protest, and the bluff above them began to shift.
Chapter 26
Saturday, February 21st
It is said that seeing a blind man is good luck. Helping that same blind man brings fortune to the obliging one. Ignore his needs, and the devil will come calling at your door.
Anna was helplessly sliding along a corridor, struggling to get upright and find her footing on the slick floor, as water roared ever downward. She clutched the flashlight with a death grip, and the fingers of her other hand scraped powerlessly along the walls searching for something to grasp. Her body crashed against an abandoned rail cart, and she grabbed on for dear life. Water rushed around her body and the cart, flowing past to deeper regions. It was draining down the mine to the lowest levels and beginning to fill up.
Dripping with water, Anna pulled herself upright. She panned the flashlight around, coughing water, clearing her lungs. She wasn’t sure how far she had traveled in the flow of water, but she’d swallowed more than she’d wanted, and some of it had gone down the wrong pipe. She glanced down at the Maglite. It was still working and she nodded in mute admiration. If I get out of here, I’ve got to write a letter to the manufacturer. She considered that. Fat chance.
Anna grasped the edge of the cart and pushed forward, lurching with the leading force of the wa
ter’s current. She was near the bottom of the mine, where most of the water from above was converging. After shoving herself through a tunnel with water waist deep, she found herself at the entrance to the graveyard once more. She waded through the opening and immediately realized more than a few things.
The strong beam of the flashlight showed the cap at the top of the cavernous area was leaking heavily. Black liquid spilled continuously in an arching waterfall. The water was beginning to fill the room, the vehicles floated like weird bumper cars, some of them tapping against each other and against the walls, making odd clanking noises that echoed above the spill of the water. Gaspard’s flashlight had vanished, washed away or gone dead because of water, and the only light was hers. Finally, Anna could smell the strong stench of what seemed like sulfur. It was as if someone had fired a gun near her, but she hadn’t heard the retort.
Anna pointed the flashlight upward and saw nothing. She remembered that Aurore said they had planted explosives in the ceiling. Something gently tapped her on the shoulder. Startled, she spun about, nearly ducking herself again in the process.
A little round tube was hanging from the side of the opening. It swung gently back and forth where the air pressure was pushing it. It had a small pull ring on one side and was connected to a narrow rope-like material that led upward, attached to the walls with what looked like long staples that bit into the salt. Anna reached up and grabbed it, bringing it close to her nose. It was this thing that smelt of sulfur. She dropped it and followed the line of rope with her flashlight. It led to a central spot on the ceiling near the draining cap where it attached to several other cords which all spread outward in a wagon wheel shape to various parts of the top of the mine hollow. Each went to little holes drilled into the salt, disappearing inside, covered with putty that held it in place. A line of little rope led to dozens of holes. One was almost directly above her head where she could examine it in detail. It looked small and insignificant as if no harm could come from it.
Anna’s mouth opened. She looked at the little tube with its pull ring. This was a fuse igniter that had already been activated. It was connected by safety cord to the detonation cord in the rough center of the ceiling. There the cord splintered off to the explosives that had been strategically placed in the ceiling by Sebastien. The holes could hold explosives of some kind. She had no idea what a salt mine would use to break great chunks of salt from the earth. Aurore hadn’t been making light when she said she wanted to collapse the room and leave no evidence. When the roof went, the salt would bury this place, and everything in the room at the time would be buried.
All this time she had assumed Aurore would go to the surface and push some imaginary button that would bring the mine in on itself, like something out of a movie. A laughing villain would stand outside and say something vile as he detonated the explosives, and the audience would flinch in reactive pain. The truth was she’d set a specific amount of safety cord that was burning away to the detonation cord; so much cord would burn in so many seconds. When it reached the detonation cord, the explosives would blow. She had already set it in motion before she had gone to the elevator.
Anna couldn’t reach it to yank it away from whatever explosives were set into the ceilings. Even if she could, she wouldn’t have time to remove the two dozen or so cords that were attached to the safety cord. She glanced around her, seeking out the equipment that the Benoits must have used. A cherry picker was the only thing that could have gotten them up to the vaulted ceiling, and Anna knew that if she could get her hands on something that had an engine in it, then she might have a fighting chance.
But whatever they had used to place the multitude of explosives was long gone. Ladder or mechanized vehicle, perhaps it had been returned to wherever Sebastien had gotten it. Anna dismissed her idea and went wading for the Dodge, intent on the scuba gear. At the very least she could extend her life, perhaps finding a way to swim out of this place. Threading her way through a current that wanted to rip her away and through floating debris that bobbed and swirled, it felt like it took her forever to cross the chamber. She reached the Dodge truck, watching as its lighter bed bumped into the Peterbilt, ripping away the metal jaws that had been attached to the grill. The front end of the Dodge was weighed down by the engine and sat in place, while its lighter back end pivoted around, pushed by the water.
Anna shoved away a piece of wood that was thrust into her by the current and groped for the side of the truck.
The water was being drawn through the chamber into the area where the opening to the sinkhole was located. Anna studied it minutely and decided that the sinkhole was sucking up water, causing water to course through the graveyard on its way to lower ground. But it couldn’t be long before the water started to fill it up and overflow backed up into the lower sections of the mine, at least meeting the lake’s level. This place would be one large watery cave, unless the explosives blew first.
Anna grappled with the strong force of the water as it streamed through the bigger hollow of the graveyard. It threatened to yank her legs out from underneath her and pull her down to join those who had gone before her. Dan Cullen. Gautier Debou. Meg Theriot. Gautier’s fateful warning was coming back to plague her.
Perhaps Arette’s husband had a little gift, after all, she thought. A touch of clairvoyance? Anna dismissed the thought and clutched the side of the Dodge. She nearly smiled to herself as she came so close to being successful.
But the explosives above her began to go off in thundering blasts that made the water ripple over her body and sent great shavings of salt plummeting toward her. She would have screamed had her head not been forced under the churning waters.
* * *
The two men holding his arms yanked Gabriel backward. One of them murmured in French reassuringly. Gabriel stared in stunned disbelief as the building that concealed the opening of the mine crumpled like a tin can under the fist of a colossus. The people around them began to hurry backwards. There was a great whooshing noise as air was sucked into the mineshaft as pressure from below began to equalize. The single floodlight went out with a great popping noise as it was yanked from its wires. The earth continued to shudder in massive protest of what had been done to it.
Aurore, the closest person to the opening of the mine, stumbled before them, going to her knees. Gabriel yelled, “Aurore!” He reached out a hand toward the older woman, the headlights of the cars behind him revealing that the bluff was moving like a monster about to issue forth an ultimatum of death to all who dared to pass in front of it. There were shrieks of dismay and fear from behind Gabriel as the others perceived what was happening.
The mine belched out a great cloud of salty white smoke that enveloped the crowd of people, leaving whiteness behind wherever it touched them. The two men who had been holding his arms moved away, trying to find their way out of the murky impediment. Gabriel fought his stinging eyes, rubbing his fists against them to clear his vision. The earth continued to shake beneath his feet. The ominous shift of the terrain sounded like a low shriek of pain in his ears.
“Look!” someone behind him yelled. The white cloud of salt and sand began to settle, making them all look like pasty ghosts walking around in a pale ocean. “The lake is boiling! C’est vrai! The lake is boiling! What is this?”
Gabriel cast a hurried glimpse over his shoulder. His burning eyes followed the tongue of the bayou out toward the lake and saw what the rest of the family was seeing. In the deepest area, the lake was bubbling up, the water began to surge against the shore in large dashing waves, spray splattering upward like black fingers reaching for the bright moon. It was as if the water was fighting the air, seeking dominance, but he knew the surface under the lake was undergoing changes. The mine was beginning to fold in on itself and was sucking the water down into it.
When Gabriel looked forward again, he saw that Aurore was back on her feet. Every inch of her flesh was covered with white dust, and she stared puzzledly at the devastated b
uilding as if she couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening. Gabriel blinked furiously to clear the salty obstruction from his vision. The earth began to shift again. The large silhouette of the bluff moved visibly behind them, obscuring the stars.
“Aurore!” Gabriel yelled. Aurore turned her head to look at the younger man. Gabriel added, “Come away from there!”
The bluff began to disintegrate into a mass of muddy material and loose sand. Trees and roots aside, it collapsed into an accumulation of loose dirt with nothing left to support it. It rolled downward with nothing to prevent its exodus.
Gabriel saw Aurore move her head back and knew the second the older woman realized her immediate danger. Gabriel spun on his heels. He didn’t pause. He rushed toward safety, yelling, “Run! Run! RUN!” One of his arms picked up a woman who had fallen, and he shoved someone else along.
He couldn’t help looking back, almost expecting to be turned into a pillar of salt for his transgression. The bluff had become a hulking creature that hunched precariously for a long moment and then began to fall, spreading further and further out, a tidal wave of grit and sand. Gabriel saw the whiteness that was Aurore’s shape, her hands reaching out as if she were entreating God for mercy, and then she was gone, buried under the mass of dirt rolling forward.
Then the heap of sand and dirt swelled toward the lake, with no other course left to it. It was a gush of earth in a fluid movement that streamed downward, a graceful motion that nothing outside of nature could match.
* * *
The water plunged from the ceiling of the graveyard like an impenetrable wall, dropping from every inch of the cracks made by the detonations. Anna saw the explosives go off in a rush, and the water swallowed her whole. She could feel it tugging at her flesh, drawing her into the opening where the sinkhole was sucking the water away, an unimaginably powerful siphon. She tumbled weightlessly, abruptly colliding against an unmovable object. The flashlight cast circles of yellowish light into the swirling murk, and a huge chunk of salt slid by Anna’s side, slicing along her arm.