As soon as a portion of the ground was cleared, Mateo went to work with the metal detector. The Garrett Ace 400 was a high-quality sensor specifically geared to finding gold, but it also picked up other metal objects.
So far they’d found barrel staves, the handle of a water bucket, the head of an iron ax, and miscellaneous bits and pieces. No metal door hinges or anything that might indicate an entrance to the lower floor. Definitely no trace of gold.
They took an afternoon break, sat down in the shade beneath the trees, and chowed down on peanut butter and crackers, cans of tuna, and handfuls of beef jerky, all washed down with bottles of water. They rested as the sun passed directly overhead, then went back to work, starting the same routine all over again.
Gage kept an eye on Abby. She had used plenty of sunscreen, but her skin was very fair, and he didn’t want her to get burned. He was responsible for her, and the sun could be vicious, even deadly.
He sank his shovel in, lifted away a blade full of dirt and debris, and tossed it into a wheelbarrow. From the corner of his eye, he watched Abby pulling her rake across a thick patch of vines. A loud shriek broke the silence as a small rodent leapt into the air in her direction.
Gage chuckled. Probably a kangaroo rat, a nocturnal rodent that lived in burrows under the ground. At the mortified look on her face, his smile widened, and he started toward her an instant before the ground opened up and swallowed her whole. Abby shrieked as she was sucked under, and Gage started running.
Mateo and Edge both charged toward her, but all of them slid to a halt a few feet from the hole, the ground around it clearly unstable.
“Abby!” From where he stood, Gage could see a portion of the rotten wooden floor had collapsed. Sprawled on the ground far below, Abby lay stunned, her body covered with debris, her face covered with dirt. Above her, a huge chunk of flooring that had been hidden by shrubs and vines hung precariously over her. The slightest movement could dislodge it.
Gage’s chest clamped down. “Don’t move, Abby!” Gage didn’t dare go any closer. “You hear me, Abby? You’ll bring the rest of it down on top of you!”
Abby’s voice echoed from below. “Looks like we found a way into the lower floor.” She shifted a little, making the floor over her head bob up and down.
Gage’s pulse leaped. “Dammit, I told you not to move!” He surveyed the heavy, rotting chunks of timber, the wooden planks dotted with rusty iron nails, and his mouth dried up.
Edge was already on his way to one of the Hummers to bring back a coil of rope.
“We need two,” Mateo said, his dark eyes worried as he and Carlos reached the spot next to Gage. “One for Abby, and one to secure the floor.”
But Edge, always a step ahead, was already returning with a coil over each shoulder.
Gage wanted to ask Abby if she was injured, but just the vibration of her voice might be enough to bring the whole rubble pile down on top of her.
“That stubby tree on the right looks solid,” Gage said.
“That’ll work.” Edge and Mateo went to work securing the floor, checking to find the best place to tie the rope, while Gage worked out the safest way to get a line to Abby.
“I am small,” Carlos said, looking up at Gage with dark worried eyes. “I could go in through the hole and help her.”
Gage rested a hand on the little boy’s head, his dark hair now clean and shiny. “That’s very brave of you, Carlos. Let’s try it this way first.”
But it didn’t take long to see that the boy was right. The loop Gage made and tossed toward the hole only managed to send more debris raining down on her. He studied the situation from several different angles, but there was no way he could get any closer without the rest of the floor caving in.
Edge and Mateo managed to tie the rope around a big enough chunk of floor to keep it stable, but nothing they did was going to be completely foolproof.
“Hang on, baby,” Gage said. “We’ve got to get the floor secured before we can pull you out.”
“I’m okay,” she called back to him. “I can see another room down here.”
He didn’t answer. All he could think of was the floor collapsing, heavy beams crushing her, iron nails sinking into her soft pale flesh.
“Please stay still,” he said and hoped she couldn’t hear the tremor in his voice.
“We’ve got it tied as tight as we can get it,” Edge called out.
Gage took the loop of rope and tossed it toward the hole, but the debris around the edge continued to prevent it from dropping through.
“I can do it,” Carlos said.
Gage turned to him. The kid couldn’t weigh more than forty pounds. Gage moved to get a better look at the opening. If Carlos inched out on his belly on the far side of the hole, he could get close enough to hand the rope to Abby.
It was dangerous. But the entire situation was dangerous. He looked at Edge, who stood a few feet away.
“We’ll cut off a piece of line and tie it around him,” Edge said. “Haul him up if something goes wrong.”
Gage didn’t want to do it. He thought of Cassandra, could still hear her piercing screams as she plunged to her death. He didn’t want to put Carlos at risk as well as Abby.
He felt his brother’s hand on his shoulder. “Make the call, bro. You know it’s the right one.”
Gage glanced back at the hole. With a deep, calming breath, he nodded.
Carlos stood still as Mateo tied a length of rope around his skinny waist and pulled the knot snug.
“You ready for this?” Gage asked.
“I can do it,” the kid repeated, thumping his narrow chest.
“All right, we’ll give it a try.” Gage returned his gaze to the opening. “Carlos is bringing you the rope. Just stay still!”
They walked around to the other side of the hole. Carlos got down on his hands and knees, dropped to his belly, and crawled very slowly out toward the opening. The floor was more stable here, but it dipped and swayed beneath his weight. A couple of false starts, a couple of direction changes, and Carlos reached the opening.
“It will not work!” the boy called out. “I need to take it down to her.”
Gage softly cursed, his body vibrating with tension.
Edge was already feeding out the line, giving the boy enough slack to drop through the opening.
“We’ll haul him out as soon as you have the loop tightened around you!” Gage shouted to Abby.
“Okay!” Abby called back, trusting him as she always did.
His chest felt tight. His heart was thundering like a freight train. Time dragged. He wanted to say something, make sure she was okay, but he didn’t want to distract her. He had to trust Abby as she trusted him.
Gage saw the tug on Carlos’s rope, signaling Abby had the line around her, and it was time to haul the boy up. Edge and Mateo made a quick and efficient extraction, pulling Carlos out of the hole and back across the floor to solid ground.
“I did it!” The boy jumped up and down as he ran toward Edge.
“Good job.” Edge smiled and ruffled the kid’s dark hair.
“Hang on, Abby! We’re bringing you up.” Gage took a turn with the rope around the trunk of a tree, then got a firm grip on the line and braced his legs apart. Edge and Mateo joined him, and they slowly hauled Abby out of the hole. Timbers creaked, debris rained down through the opening, but the dangerous portion of the floor remained anchored in place.