The inferno leaped across the well’s entrance, causing Mike to remember the frustration of looking into those flames and waiting for Hotak to come out. “It will take a while for the fire to burn down.” He watched the flames on one knee in the dry, sandy bottom of the tunnel. The tunnel was about three feet high. The ladder could be pulled up, but he couldn’t pull it down. Embers floated down. Some hit the ladder. Others settled in the sand.

He turned. A bright light lit up the tunnel. Julie was on one knee, in her hand, a small flashlight pierced the darkness.

“I’m glad you got that. Holding my lighter would have gotten old.” He shifted over to her. “Where’d you get it from?”

“I always carry a flashlight and a pocket knife with me even when I’m wearing a suit and working in my office back in DC. I’ve had them the whole time, never needed the light till now.”

Mike looked down at the light. It was about three inches long and the diameter of a cigar. He’d owned the same type of flashlight himself. They put out massive amounts of light due to the enhanced bulbs and batteries.

“Cool.” Mike leaned back against the wall.

Julia flashed her light down each end of the north-south leading tunnel. “Looks like we only have three options, stay here, go north, or go south.”

“Actually, our options are closer to one. Ten years ago, after the ambush with Hotak, I sent some of my guys down here to determine where he’d gone.”

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Julia flashed the light north and south again. “Not everyone is cut out to enter the unknown, dark, underground.”

“Yeah, well,” Mike deadpanned. “I followed the tried and true method of soldiers in Vietnam when they found a tunnel.”

“How’s that?”

“I picked the smallest guys on the team and told them they were now tunnel rats, get down that hole and scout around.”

Julia blew a long breath through pursed lips. She sat on the opposite side of the tunnel. “They probably weren’t too happy about your selection method.”

He dropped his head to the right, shoulders lifting. “No, they were not, but they went anyway.”

“What’d they find out?”

“The tunnel to the south,” he pointed with his thumb. “There’s a cave-in about four hundred meters down. That way,” he pointed north. “The tunnel twists and turns for a while, then splits. One side leads to a large open cavern with several more tunnels. The other side dead ends at a pool of water.” He let out a long exhale. “Guess what? I don’t remember which side leads to the pool and which leads to the cavern.”

She directed her light at the bottom of the ladder. “So we stay here and shoot them as they come down.”

Mike leaned over and glanced up. He could no longer see flames reaching across the wellhead. But there was light enough to see smoke rising into the sky. “Unfortunately, that isn’t an option either.”

“Why not?”

“Because, if it were me, the first thing I’d do before sending anyone down here is drop a grenade on top of us.” The right side of his mouth lifted into a smile. “It wouldn’t be pretty for us if they did.”

“So we’re going north.”

“So, we’re going north. You can choose which way to go when we get to the tunnel junction.”

She shook her head at him. “Oh, hell no, and let you blame me for picking the wrong way.”

“All right,” he chuckled. “I’ll pick, but you lead the way.”

“Why am I in the lead?”

“Well,” Mike shrugged comically. “You’ve got the light so…”

An unexpected smile formed on Julia’s face. “Deal.”

He waved his arm in their direction of travel. On hands and knees, flashlight clutched in one hand, Julia crawled north. Mike followed.