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cuffing him lightly on his chest and starting back to the cavern.
    “Find anything interesting down the tunnel?” asked Mike.
    Diane stopped. “Several things.”
    “Why don’t you show me while we wait for Jin to get here?”
    “I really need to get back and help Neva search the cavern for any dead-caver clues.”
    “Will it take long to show me?” Mike nodded his head in the direction Diane had just investigated.
    “No, but . . .”
    “I’ll help with the search when we get back.”
    “All right, but let me check in first.” Diane put the button back in her pack and shifted the pack so that the walkie-talkie clipped to it was near her shoulder. “Neva, how are you doing?”
    “I’m fine,” she replied. “I kind of like this cavern. And I have someone here to keep me company. He’s a little old for me, but he’s a great listener, lets me do all the talking.”
    “That’s my girl,” Mike said, mostly to himself.
    Diane grinned. “Take a break. I’m going to show Mike a couple of things and I’ll be there to help you finish.”
    “I don’t need a break. I’m fine.”
    “All right but don’t tire yourself out. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
    “No problem.”
    She turned to Mike. “When we finish here, would you go to the entrance to meet Jin? I don’t want him coming into the cave. He’s never done any caving that I’m aware of.”
    Mike nodded, and Diane watched the light from his duel headlamps dance up and down on the walls.
    She led the way, backtracking to the first offshoot tunnel. They picked their way through the rubble to the opening.
    “Here.” She pointed at the mark above the entrance. “There’s no way to know who made it, but it could have been made by our guy to find his way back.”
    “You’re thinking there has to be another entry point,” said Mike, leaning forward to get a close look at the faint X over the entrance.
    “Maybe. Until we made the new hole in the roof of the cavern this may have been a separate cave with its own entrance, unconnected to the cave we came in—unless, of course, one of the passages connects them up somewhere else.”
    Mike squatted and examined the rocks around the mouth of the entrance, moving some of the rock, touching the silt and sand with his fingers. Then he stood and stepped through the opening. Diane followed directly behind him, the passage so narrow that they fit only single file. The tunnel was filled with tight meanders between huge boulders and uneroded protrusions from the wall of the cave. Some of the boulders were caught between other rocks as if they had tumbled down the passage.
    “I don’t like this,” said Mike. “I’m thinking they marked the opening to tell them not to go here. It looks too unstable. Some of the rocks at the entrance have been thrown out from a recent rock slide. Be easy to get trapped if one of these big guys shifts—”
    His voice was cut off by a grinding rumble above them.

Chapter 4
    Mike turned and put a hand on Diane’s back just as she sprang toward the tunnel entrance. A cloud of dust and pebbles suddenly surrounded them, blinding them. Diane kept running, hoping her feet would hit solid ground and not the rocks littering the floor. She sensed Mike right behind her. Her next footfall landed on an angular rock and she started falling. She put her arms in front of her to break the impact but was caught by Mike’s arm around her waist. He carried her for one step; then she regained her footing. They ran out of the tunnel entrance veering sharply away from the path of the rocks. The change of direction and uneven rocky floor threw them both off balance, and the momentum sent them sprawling to the cave floor. By good fortune, they landed mainly on silt and missed the sharp, jagged rocks. Dust bellowed from the opening, followed by a small avalanche of rocks. Mike still held her around the waist.
    “Glad to see I’ve still got adrenaline left; how about you?” said Mike, sliding