Chapter 10 - The Drowning Cavern
The drop into the smuggler's chimney was sheer, cold, and claustrophobic. Matteo lowered Elena first, then passed Mia down before sliding through the narrow stone chute himself, jamming the iron hatch shut from below with a rusted steel pry bar.
They landed on slick, seaweed-covered rocks. The roar of the incoming tide was deafening, filling the cavern with a hollow, booming rhythm that shook Elena’s teeth. The water was already waist-deep in the main channel, frothing with dark foam as waves crashed against the distant mouth of the cave.
"The sea opening is guarded," Matteo shouted over the surf, pointing toward the mouth of the cave where blue flashing light flickered off the water. "One of Volkov’s patrol boats is idling right at the entrance. If we swim out into the bay, their searchlights will spot us immediately."
"Then where do we go?" Elena cried, shivering violently as the freezing salt water lapped at her waist, forcing her to hoist Mia up onto her shoulders.
Matteo reached into his waterproof utility pouch and pulled out an ancient brass key. "The Rossi family built these tunnels during Prohibition. There’s an emergency air pocket and an old utility ladder leading up through the lighthouse shaft on the north bluff. But it’s behind the submerged reef."
"We have to dive?" Elena asked, terror seizing her throat.
"I dive first," Matteo said, his eyes locking onto hers in the shadowy twilight of the cavern. "I clear the gate. I take Mia through. Then I come back for you."
"No," Elena said, grasping his arm with fierce defiance. "We don't separate. Take Mia, and I will follow your fins. You can't come back twice, Matteo—the water is rising too fast!"
A wave crashed into the cave, swelling the water to Elena’s chest. Mia cried out, clinging to Elena’s hair with tiny, terrified hands.
Matteo stared at Elena, seeing the unbreakable will behind the nanny's wide hazel eyes. Without another word, he pulled a compact emergency breathing regulator from his vest, placed the mouthpiece into Mia’s small lips, and pinched her tiny nose shut with his fingers.
"Hold on to Papa, Mia," he murmured, his face softening with raw paternal agony. "Breathe the air from the tube. Don't let go."
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He pulled Elena in by the nape of her neck, pressing his forehead against hers for a single, searing second. "Stay on my shoulder. Don't look back."
Together, they plunged beneath the freezing, pitch-black water just as an explosive concussion echoed from the hatch above them, shattering the stone ceiling they had just left behind.
