“Mike, Mike.”

He felt a hand shake his shoulder and jerked his head up. “What? I’m awake.” The Afghanis are right behind them, and he’s fallen asleep. He must really be out of it. That’s something some dumbass private would pull.

She pulled her hand back, sitting on her heels.

He rubbed his eyes and glanced at her. “Sorry, I fucked up.” His hands froze in mid-rub. “Uh oh.” She was soaking wet.

She grimaced at him. “I’ve got good news and bad news.”

Drops of water dripped down her blond ponytail onto her chest. He had a pretty good idea what the bad news was.

“Yep, there’s a pool of water ahead, but the good news is I took a little swim to see…”

“You did what?” His eyes widened. He couldn’t keep the wonder out of his voice. “Are you freaking crazy?”

She chuckled at him. “Believe it or not, I do have skills.”

He wrinkled his forehead. “I’ve noticed you seem fresher and faster down here than I am, but?”

She dropped her head and lifted it, a half smile on her face. “All the stuff we’ve gone through has been tough for me. I understand the people behind us are trying to kill us, but being down here is an absolute blast for me.”

“Come again.”

“I grew up in Missouri, the cave state. You may remember from my brief, oh no, that’s right, you all were looking at me like I had a banana growing out of my head.” She cocked her head at him. “As a kid, my friends and I explored, adventured through, and even partied in the caves near and far from our homes. In college, it became more of a sport for me, and after I joined the CIA, I kept it up. I’ve been spelunking for half my life. I live for this stuff.”

“Well, look at you.” He nodded his head in appreciation. “Are there any other skills you have I should know about.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Plenty. But we don’t have time for that now.”

Mike turned his head. The men following them were shouting. They might have made it to the intersection, but he suspected not.

“Now’s the time to decide to either turn around and hope we don’t run into those guys or go forward and lose them. I don’t think they’ll swim through to get us.”

“I don’t want to swim through either.” Mike looked back the way they’d come. This caving stuff was for the birds, and now this. “I don’t mind saying, my fun meter pegged out after crawling through that last cave-in. Now you want to swim through more of this shit.” He waved a lazy finger at their surroundings.

She couldn’t suppress the big smile and quiet laugh. “Look at the big bad army man scared of the dark and water.”

"I've been in the dark, I've been in the water, and at the same time. This shit is different."

"A little bit different."

Mike looked at her, a sour look on his face. “Laugh it up, funny girl.” He tilted his head toward the fork in the tunnel. “Maybe we should turn around now before these guys catch up to us?”

“Wait, I haven’t told you the best part yet. The swim is about ten, fifteen meters. The tunnel doesn’t get much tighter than what we’re in now. At the lowest point, the tunnel branches again. The branch I swam through, I didn’t need my light the last bit.”

He shifted against the wall. That was interesting. It couldn’t be the sun, could it? They hadn’t been down here that long.

“The pool’s surface area on the other side is much larger than this side. It's about half the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. It’s fed by the second tunnel at the bottom where they branch. I’d say there have been some man-made improvements. Where I surfaced, the tunnel was lit up with electric lights. A large pipe was in the water that ran the length of the tunnel to a pump and generator about fifty meters from the pool. That’s as far as I went.”

He looked in the direction of the pool. “That. Is not what I expected.” He got to his knees and toes resting on his heels, similar to Julia’s position. “I’m not so sure the guys behind us will stop at the pool.” He shrugged. “I guess it depends on how motivated they are to find us. Either way, it sounds like what’s on the other side is related to the helicopter we saw and Hotak. That interests me.”

She nodded at him. “Yes.”

“Getting there doesn’t much excite me. Drowning in the dark, frigid water of an underground Afghani well system isn’t the way I pictured myself going out.” He looked back at the sound of more voices. “But, if we go back to the fork before they get to us, take the other route, who knows what’s there now or how long we’ll be down here. We could be in here for days looking for a way out.”

“I say swimming is our best option.”

He sighed, lifted his shoulders, and dropped them in subdued defeat. “Swimming sounds like it will get us closer to Hotak. Let’s do it.”

“That’s the spirit big boy.”

“You’re never going to let me forget this, are you?”

“I got to get it while I can.” Her lips turned up.

“Great.”