“Okay, so they’re influence mines,” said Sethi, collecting himself. “Back when I was in the naval division, part of the job was to find old mines and explode them. Many of them last a very long time.” He glanced back at the screens then raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Jennifer and Constance are immediately above us, right now. As are ninety percent or more of the Saviours. I have a crazy idea. The craziest. We go in and get them out of there. And then blow this whole thing up.”
“I like it.” Cormack straightened.
“It’s not possible,” said Kara. “You can’t even get into the remembrance hall without your handprint being scanned. Including me. I’m not trusted anymore.”
I gestured towards each of the dead Saviours in the room. “We have hands.”
I heard Evie’s breathing escalate beside me.
“Okay, yes, we have that.” Kara nodded coldly, not even flinching at the suggestion of hacking a dead man’s hand off. “But you can’t get to the detonators without diving equipment. You’ll drown.”
Sethi inhaled deeply. “Not necessarily. Do you know exactly where the detonators are located?”
She nodded, pointing at a set of large metal cabinets that were set against the wall. “There. Brother Clarence would have the key. He was the senior. The old man that you killed.”
Cormack sprinted over to the scaffolding and felt inside the dead man’s pockets until he found a set of keys. Within the next second, we had the cabinets open. Inside were sets of pumps and switches, all well maintained.
“The switches hoist the cage when it needs repair,” Kara told us. “They also work a pumping system for times when the cenote gets blocked. And here’s the map of the cenote.” She took out a laminated illustration of the entire cenote.
The cenote comprised a vertical shaft that led straight down from the surface, almost seventy feet deep into the earth, continuing down underneath the cellar. The cage was situated maybe twenty feet down from the top of the cenote, suspended on steel cables. The cenote shaft had horizontal arms that reached out to the sea. The top arm was marked with tiny letters.
Sethi studied the drawing, finally placing a finger on the top arm of the cenote. “That’s where the detonators are, right? It has the World War Two code for this type of influence mine.”
“Yes,” said Kara. “No one else here knows that except for my stepfather and me. Brother Angelo died about seven years ago. But it’s a suicide mission to attempt it. And the diving equipment is kept where the explosives are. I’m not going to be part of this. The Saviours will start torturing my mother and your girlfriend long before you even get to the first of the doors that lead there. And you still won’t get the equipment.”
“I am trained to hold my breath for a long time,” said Sethi. “I can do it.”
I glanced from the cenote illustration to Sethi. “The sponge diving, right? You learned to dive on the island where you grew up—Constance told me.”
He gave an abbreviated nod. “In Kalymnos.”
“You sure you want to go down there?” I asked him.
“Yes.” His eyes flashed with adrenalin.
“Even if you can, they’ll shoot you before you even reach the cenote,” Kara insisted. “And the outcome will be the same. My mother will face the worst of the Saviours. I won’t have her go through that.”
My chest tightened. “I have an idea. We’ll take them by surprise and buy ourselves some time. You and me, Sethi, we go in there as captured prisoners. Kara, in Saviours’ robes, pretends to be that blonde-haired guy, Lewis. She and he are about the same height. Sethi, you run and dive into the cenote and do your thing. Kara and I will cover you and get guns to Constance and Jennifer. We’ll take the grenades you and Jennifer brought in your backpacks to cause as much mayhem as possible.”
A cold sweat prickled the back of my neck. What I was proposing—going into a hall of hundreds of brutal killers—sent waves of raw terror coursing through my veins and breath pumping hard into my lungs. People like me had never even considered doing things like that.
Kara’s eyes grew round, and she gave me a nod.
“Let’s do this,” said Sethi.
Evie’s hand caught fast in mine. “I’m coming there, too.” Her voice sounded so definite, nothing like the Evie I knew.
I shook my head, catching my breath. “They’ll know straight away what’s happening if any of you come with us. It can only be Sethi and me. Everyone else should get out to the chapel and wait there for us.”