Page 72 of Into The Rabbit Hole
“What am I upagainst?”
“Sections where there’s no ground, bear traps, snares, and walls with knives. Minus the chasing bolder and the snakes, we’re talking the making of an Indiana Jones film,” Wes babbledon.
“Shit. What do Ido?”
“Use the flashlight I gave you and make sure you can see at all times. Also, there’s a path that leads straight to the girls, but you’re going to have to cross a swinging bridge to get to it. To get out it’ll be best to use the tracks. Those are fine. There are solid tracks leading down the east and the north. Try to aim for the north side of the mountain, but the important thing is you all getout.”
“What about the bombs, Wes? It sounds like they both have active bombs, and there’s athird.”
“Just get them to me. Detective Fray is on the way, too. I’ve told him about the bombs so we just need to get to the right side of the mountain intime.”
This sounded crazy. “Okay, let’s getgoing.”
“Put your flashlighton.”
The minute Wade did, he saw a row of bear traps all waiting to snap him up. Zeek had laid them out so that it looked like it was all part of the rubble. If Wade had taken one more step, that would have been it. His foot would have gotten caught. Then he would have fallen, and set the rest off around him. One of them would have taken his headoff.
This whole thing was literally atrap.
“There’s a path to your left. Walk carefully along it and then shine the flashlight to the center when you get to theend.”
Wes wasn’t kidding about this whole trusting thing. This was trust beyondmeasure.
Wade did as instructed, got to the end of the path and then shone the flashlight. A large wooden door came into view. It seemed to have some motion-detecting sensory because it lit up when Wade gotcloser.
“What’s this,Wes?”
“The mother of all traps. You have to get the coderight.”
“What code?” Wade couldn’t seeanything.
“Put your hand on the door orsomething.”
Wade placed his hand lightly on the door. When he did this, the middle of the door lit up in green and showed some Egyptian symbols on some square panels that eased out of the greenlight.
“What the fuck is this, Wes? How the hell are we supposed to get this right?” This wasinsane.
“Give me a minute,” Wessaid.
Wade was still standing there at least ten minutes later. “Wes, come on, let’s just guess what this thing is. Is it agame?”
“I’m guessing you have to decode the sentence and press the panels in order. This guy isgood.”
“Better than you?” Wade had toask.
“Clever, but not better. The symbols don’t make any sense. I don’t think the intention here is to let you through. None of those form a sentence at all. Holdon.”
Wade waited aminute.
“Wade, there’s a hole at the top that may be just big enough for you to get through. There is a drop on the other side, though, so you’d have to be careful to climbdown.”
“I rock climb. That should beeasy.”
“Trythat.”
Wade put the flashlight in his mouth and grabbed onto the closest rock that jutted out. That helped him to lift himself up. Once he got to the top, he could see the hole Wes talked about. It was to the left of the doorframe.
Twisting himself around, he pummeled himself over to it and, yes, it was just big enough to slide through. Wade got to the other side and looked through, holding the flashlightdown.