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daughter
worked there. Later I added I'd changed my mind, since she was
going to leave because she was under utilized. It was a pity their
firm would lose someone of your high qualifications and…"
    "Dad!"
    "Come now, Renee." Jack turned serious. "There's
little I can do for you now. Let your old Dad help you this
way."
    "Oh Dad, you are the limit."
    The young lawyer reached over and hugged her father.
He held her with his one good arm. "Your mom would have been proud
of you, Sweetheart," he whispered. "I am too, so don't you let
those young upstarts grind you down. It will come right, I assure
you."
    Renee gulped. Her father still talked of her mother
even though she'd died a decade earlier. "Thanks, Dad."
    ****
    "So that's really it," Renee said to her two
companions.
    "And you're still with the firm?" Lem asked.
    "Yes." Renee sighed. "Mind you, Old William decided
not to retire and makes the place bearable. Also, I'm doing some
court work now, mainly civil cases."
    "And the brother who made that pass at you?" Courtney
cut in.
    "He's still there but leaves me alone. The last I
heard he was having a fling with one of the secretaries. I feel
sorry for his wife. She's quiet and unassuming."
    "And your dad?" Lem asked.
    "He's at home," Renee said. "Poor Dad. He was such an
active person. I think he's lonely." She glanced up. "He's the
reason I'm here. During my annual leave, I decided to potter around
the farm but Dad insisted I have a real holiday, as he called it.
So here I am, lying in a cave hundreds of feet under a mountain
with a busted ankle. I must say that I enjoy the company. It's
strange but I feel as if I've known you both for years, not just a
few hours."
    "Emergencies can do that," Lem said. "I feel the
same."
    "Time is funny," Courtney whispered. She stood and
brushed her dusty clothes off. "My God, I'm getting all sentimental
now. The cave must be getting to me."
    "Probably." Renee caught Lem's eyes and smiled.
    ****
    Their meal was sparse but nobody complained. Even
worse was the dwindling supply of water. They would run out within
a day so decisions had to be made. Courtney was all for trying to
find a way out but her spontaneity diminished when Lem asked what
direction they should take. They were in the center of a huge area
with little or no distinguishing features. The slip that appeared
as a blot of blackness without glowworms was their only link with
the outside world.
    "What do we do?" Courtney asked pessimistically.
"Nobody is coming now. If they were, they'd be here. It's up to
us."
    "You two go," Renee said. "There might be a way out.
If you find it, you can send someone back for me."
    "No," Lem replied. "If we go, we all go."
    Courtney stared at Lem, then Renee. "Funny, I thought
you might say that."
    "Don't you agree?" Lem replied.
    The teenager rubbed a hand along her face and sighed.
"In the last few months I trusted nobody. Nobody cared about me. I
was one of a hundred. If I walked away, someone would jump into the
space I left but here…" She gave a tiny smile. "Let's say, I
wouldn't want to be the person all alone down here and I don't
think Renee should be left either."
    "Thanks Courtney," Renee said. "If it wasn't for my
ankle, I'd be the first one walking out."
    "So we wait a little longer." Lem said.
    "How about morning?" Courtney suggested. "If nobody
is here by nine, we hitch Renee on our backs and walk out.
Okay?"
    Lem glanced at Renee. She nodded.
    "Okay," he said and glanced at his watch. It was
after seven in the evening.
    ****
     

CHAPTER 4
    Five serious-faced spelunkers made their way out from
Misty Depths Catacombs after a four-hour expedition. They plodded
through the small crowd of bystanders, past a row of parked
four-wheel drive vehicles along to where two tents had been erected
in a small forest clearing.
    "The whole of level F beyond grid reference three has
gone." The leader, an elderly Native American man, reported to
state trooper Gary McKnight at the smaller tent.
    "Is