Free Restless Soul by Alex Archer Page B

poured through the hole and the place reminded her a little of a South American cenote because of the pool of water in the center where it collected from the storm. From the amount of rain that had been coming down the past two days, she suspected the pool was deep.
    Free me.
    The words sounded stronger and even more insistent than they had before.
    The gray light filtering through the hole in the ceiling and the pale yellow light of her flashlight revealed the rest of the chamber’s contents.
    There was a soggy rope ladder dangling down and twisting in the wind that whipped its way inside. The rain blew in at an angle and shimmered in the beam of her flashlight.
    Free me.
    She swung the beam around.
    There were more teak coffins and, off to the side, something that shimmered too much to be made of wood. She took a step forward and focused her light on it.
    “Oh my,” Annja said. The icy feeling that had gripped her in Tham Lod Cave came back in force and dropped her to her knees.

6

    The voice in Annja’s head was louder and more demanding, but at the same time it seemed calmer, as if she had finally found its source.
    Annja wanted desperately to investigate the chamber that very instant. The mystical voice, the source of her unease, was here. There were also all manner of things that she wanted to study, and preferably without her companions around. But she felt responsible for Luartaro and Zakkarat. They were her first priority.
    She raced back down the tunnel, retrieved the men and led them to the rope ladder that would take them to the outside and safety.
    For an instant, she’d hoped that they would leave so she could spend time in the chamber alone, but in her heart she knew that wouldn’t happen. And she couldn’t blame them.
    “Annja, this is amazing.” Luartaro stood slack-jawed. He’d somehow managed to keep his pack, and it fell with a thunk at his feet. “I…I’m at a loss for words. This is staggering.”
    “Yes,” she agreed. Her own pack rested at the edge of the pool. “It is staggering and amazing and more. I need to get a film crew here for Chasing History’s Monsters. ”
    “There are no monsters here,” Luartaro said, his voice an awed hush. “Just treasure.”
    “Maybe they’ll make up a monster,” Annja said. Her producer, Doug Morrell, would do that to get a film crew there. Especially if she told him there was a spirit in the lime.
    Zakkarat gasped as he looked around the cavern and muttered to himself.
    Luartaro tapped their guide on the shoulder. “See? I said that we would get out of here, and she’s found us far more than an escape. She’s found a great treasure! So there’s no reason we have to leave right away. No reason at all. It’s drier in here, anyway.”
    “She will bring her TV people here?” Zakkarat wondered. “To this lost place?”
    Luartaro shrugged. “If she can find a monster.”
    Zakkarat looked puzzled for only a moment before his curiosity for the treasure took over. Both men fell to examining the objects that lined the walls of the chamber, most of which were stacked on small and large crates that undoubtedly held more valuables.
    Luartaro’s flashlight beam danced from side to side, up and down, setting gold and gems to sparkling. He spotted a large lantern in front of a crate and lit it. There was a reflector in it that brightened up the cavern.
    Annja shared their excitement. A part of her wanted to delight in the discovery and giddily take it all in, run from one niche of the chamber to the next like a character in an Indiana Jones movie. It was a dragon’s hoard of wealth.
    Instead, she focused on finding the answer to her unsettling feeling. That took precedence, she told herself. She listened for the voice.
    “Flash floods are expected this time of year, the beginning of the rainy season,” Zakkarat said as he scurried about. “I should not have let your baht lure me out here in the rain, Annjacreed. I got us lost. We all could have