Page 17 of What Remains (John Worthy #3)

Flowers led him on a tour. The abandoned aqueduct turned out to be more than simply a long tunnel. The front chamber was high enough for a person to stand comfortably and about twenty feet wide.

“Artificial, though,” Flowers said, aiming at flashlight at the walls.

“See all the gouges, where the rock’s been hammered out?

We think this was something done after the karez went dry.

Anyway, pretty big and there are three tunnels that lead to other rooms. Here.

” He moved the light to an opening at nine o’clock.

“Another straight in front of you and then this one to the right. We got the kids down this way. Notice anything about it?” Flowers asked as they moved from the front room and into a tunnel high enough for a man to walk without having to stoop and wide enough for two abreast.

John felt the strain in his knees. “Heading downhill?”

“Yup. What else? Give you a hint. Think in terms of a clock. You got nine and noon and?” Flowers paused. “Dot-dot-dot? Fill in the blank, man.”

Craning a look over a shoulder, John studied the entrance to this tunnel. “The opening’s not at three o’clock. It’s at two.”

“And give the boy a gold star.” In the flashlight’s glow, Flower’s smile took on a slightly devilish cast. “Got any guesses why?”

“Bad at geometry?”

Flowers let go of a short laugh, which sounded again in a faint series of echoes. “You’d think so, but that’s not it. Stop a second and take a listen.”

They did. After a short silence, John said, “I don—” But then he did hear: a faint burbling, liquid sound. “Water?” When Flowers nodded, John said, “Where the flow got diverted.”

“That’s what we think, yeah. Feel the rock.”

“Cool.” He noticed something else: Flowers’s breath smoked ever so slightly. “The water lowers the temp in this portion of the tunnel system.”

“Correct. It’s also why the boys are down this way. More comfortable, but if they want to move up into the big room, no one will stop them. Just nicer back here, easier to sleep.”

“Water sounds awfully close.”

“Probably because it is. This isn’t a natural cave system.

Roundabout noon, things start getting pretty toasty, enough so the walls sweat.

Probably accounts for why there aren’t any rooms branching off to the right.

You don’t want to crack something open and then get a flood.

But overall, pretty comfortable. See this?

” Flowers pointed his light to a rocky lip a little over head height.

“Shelves chiseled out of stone. Just the right height for a lantern or flashlight.”

John spotted another opening to his left, the top of which reached shoulder-height. “What’s that?”

“Ah, that’s an interesting place. Come on, we got a few minutes.”

They ducked through into another room which reminded John of the four-man cabins he’d slept in as a Boy Scout. “Bedroom?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. Look here, though.” Flowers played the beam of his flashlight along one wall. “See them?”

“Wow.” He wasn’t expert enough to know if what he was seeing was Arabic or Persian. “What language is that?”

“Pashto. You got a name and look, see here?” Flowers reached a finger to trace a deep curve and stellate divot gouged from stone. “Ten to one, that’s a crescent moon and star.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I think the guy died. You find crescents and stars on grave-markers. Plus, this is the east wall of this particular chamber. Gravestones always face Mecca.”

“Someone from the village that used to be here?”

“I don’t think so.” Flowers moved the flashlight’s beam down to another marking. “Look at this word here.”

“More Pashto?”

Flowers shook his head. “Arabic.”

“You read Arabic?”

“Naw, but I recognize the word. It’s shaheed. ”

“What’s it mean?”

“Martyr. And those three little divots just underneath that? They represent three drops of blood. Sort of standard Taliban practice. We’ve found these in a lot of other rooms.”

“So, Taliban lived here.”

“Yup, and probably other squads and armies before them. Great place to hide. You wouldn’t believe how many chambers there are.

We explored some and it’s almost like this underground city.

We found a couple bullets, a cooking pot, old fuel cans, some clothes further back.

Probably a lot of other stuff we haven’t seen.

I mean, the complex goes on forever. In fact.

” Flowers snapped his fingers. “Know what it reminds me of? Vietnam. The guys who went into VC tunnels.”

“Tunnel rats.” Dare had told him about those men. There was also a famous novel series featuring a homicide detective who’d been just such a soldier.

“Yeah, only the tunnel was called something else.”

“Black Echo.” Long after he’d become John Worthy, the books were made into a TV series but updated.

Instead of Vietnam, the detective had been Special Forces in the First Gulf War.

The very first episode referenced that black echo, too.

Which had pissed him off because there were no tunnel rats in the First Gulf War. Vietnam vets deserved better.

“My grampa was in ‘Nam. He said when they come on these tunnels,” Flowers said, “they made the small, wiry guys go in, see if there were any VC. As in they had to go in there, no flashlight, no light and hope there wasn’t a VC waiting with a knife or a wire to strangle ‘em with.”

“That’s messed up.”

“Certainly messed up Gramps. Anyway, this complex is like that. A little further along this one corridor, there’s an actual seep, kind of this spigot punched into the rock.

It’s plugged now, but from this trickle of water that comes through and the way the wall sweats?

Pull a couple stones, you might get more than just a dribble. ”

“Sounds kinda dangerous.” He hated to think what might happen if something jarred that plug loose. If this complex was even a tenth as extensive as Cu Chi, there were likely dozens of these plugged spigots. “You don’t worry about flooding?”

“A little, but the guys who drilled this complex must have worried about the same thing. Here and there along the corridors, you find these…well, I guess you’d call them escape hatches.”

“Which are?”

Crooking a finger in a follow me gesture, Flowers snapped on a flashlight then led him further down the corridor. “You ever watch the original Star Trek ?”

“You’re kidding, right? The show’s a classic. Why?”

“You remember how Scotty’s always climbing into those utility tunnels to fix something that’s gone haywire and always just in the nick of time?”

“Jeffries tubes? Sure. They were named after one of the set designers, I think. Why?”

“Because I’d bet good money whoever built this probably watched the same show…ah.” Aiming his light to the left, Flowers used the beam to pick out a series of rough slots chiseled from stone that began a foot off the floor. “See here? How the steps slant up and into the wall?”

“Wow.” The handholds led up to an aperture wide enough for a man. “What is that?”

“You remember back at the airport when Driver talked about how they constructed these aqueducts?”

“Vaguely. He said something about wells?”

“ Karez, right. The wells are what direct the flow of underground water and snowmelt.”

“And that’s what this tube is? An old well shaft?”

“Yup. The rungs driven into the rock are how guys got up and down to clean out the shafts or check on the flow. Goes all the way to the surface. There are about a half dozen we’ve found so far and likely a lot more.

I’ve been up this one just to see where it ends.

Doesn’t go all the way to the surface, though. It just dead-ends.”

“Plugged?” When Flowers nodded, he asked, “Solid?”

“Enough so’s I needed to spend a fair amount of time chipping myself out. I figure it happened because no one lives here anymore to keep them clear.”

“Hunh.” As they turned to retrace their steps, John said, “Nice escape hatch, though, in case an enemy gets inside.”

“I suppose.”

“You ever worry the guys who were here before will come back?”

“Since the dates we’ve found are from when the Russians were around?” Flowers shook his head. “Not really. This isn’t near anything important anymore.”

“But you still come in at night. You don’t travel in or out of here during the day.”

“Just pays to be careful. Same reason why we don’t use comms out here.”

“Complete radio silence?”

“Better believe it, brother.” Flowers gave him a significant look. “’Cuz we ain’t the only guys with eyes in the sky.”