LAUSTROPHOBIA THREATENED TO overwhelm me.

The tunnel was rough-edged, low, and seemingly endless. My flashlight beam dissolved into darkness two yards out.

As I inched forward, the walls tightened like a fist. Within twenty feet I couldn’t rise to my knees. I dropped and dragged myself with my elbows.

My body scraped over gravel, sharp rocks, and things I tried not to imagine. Progress was agonizingly slow. In my mind’s eye I saw us—a line of ants creeping through a narrow straw.

Shelton’s whimpers told me he was barely holding it together. Without Ben’s prodding, I’m not sure he would’ve kept going.

At one point I glanced back. Hi’s glowing eyes were right behind me. And looking petrified.

“You okay?”

He gave a shaky thumbs-up. “Just keep moving. And please yell if you see an exit sign. I feel like I’m crawling down a monster’s throat.”

Swallowing hard, I dragged myself another few yards. The skin on my elbows was growing raw.

Hi was right. Things got worse if you stopped. The walls closed in. My brain reminded me of the crushing weight hanging over my head.

“You see anything?” Shelton yelled from down the line. “Tell me this leads somewhere! I’m buggin’ out!”

I aimed my flashlight dead ahead. Still the blackness ate the beam. Even flaring, I couldn’t see more than six feet.

“Not yet,” I said. “But the air is still moving. It has to come from somewhere!”

“Don’t stop!” Shelton pleaded. “It’s not like we can turn around.”

He was right. The passage was way too tight for a U-turn. If we hit a dead end, we’d have to back our way out.

My mind shied from that terrifying possibility.

Reach. Drag. Pull.

Reach. Drag. Pull.

The passing minutes seemed like hours. Without my extra flare strength, I’d have collapsed.

Questions hounded me. Did this hole lead anywhere? Was it tilting downward? How far below ground were we? Was I dragging myself to hell?

It was then that my flashlight died.

Nightmare.

Heart hammering, I snaked ahead faster, yanking forward with ragged, frantic lunges. The rough ground tore at my skin. I felt blood on my elbows and knees.

Adrenaline raced through me. My breath came in great, heaving gulps.

“Tory?” Hi called. “Is this your flashlight?”

I didn’t answer. Didn’t slow. Just squirmed forward, desperate to reach the end of this pressing, suffocating, horrifying subterranean crack.

Tears streaked the grime coating my face.

I was wrong! my brain screamed. I’ve led us into a grave.

“Who’s bleeding?” Ben shouted. “Is everyone alright?”

“Blood!?!” Shelton shrieked. “Where!?!”

Then my outthrust hand hit something solid. A wall. Fingers trembling, I traced its surface, looking for a way through or around.

No deal. The rock face was solid.

I nearly screamed. We’d reached a dead end. We were trapped.

“Why are we stopped?” Hi sounded nearly as frightened as Shelton.

Moments from despair, my wits returned.

The breeze is still there!

My hands shot left, right. Struck solid earth.

Near panic, I rolled to my back and reached for the roof. My hand encountered nothing but open air.

Tucking in my limbs, I rotated and got to my knees. Holding one arm above my head, I carefully rose to my feet.

“I can stand!” I shouted.

“Seriously!?!” Shelton sobbed. “Here I come!”

“Hold on!” Hi yelped. “Tory, is there room for the rest of us?”

I spread my arms, took two steps forward, two backward. The opening was at least two yards wide.

“Yes! We can all fit!”

Hi belly-crawled forward, flashlight bobbing. I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to his feet. Together we helped Shelton and Ben.

Packed in tight, we panted in unison. Then the boys aimed their beams into the gloom.

“Wow,” I said.

Our heads were poking through the floor of a cavern measuring about twenty feet square. Wooden beams supported a fifteen-foot ceiling. Straight ahead—in the general direction we’d been crawling—a low passageway wound from sight.

No one needed an invitation. We scrambled from our hole like escaped convicts.

Hugs. Backslaps. We’d have lit cigars. Right then, open space—any space—was the most wonderful thing in the world.

“Thank the Lord,” Shelton breathed. “I couldn’t take much more!”

Got that right. Everyone had been close to the edge.

“Let’s see those elbows,” Ben demanded. “You left a bloody streak in the shaft.”

I let him inspect my wounds, glad he’d forgotten to be mad at me.

“Not too bad. Next time wear long sleeves.”

“Yikes!” I winced. “Know your own flare strength, buddy.”

“This chamber is man-made,” Shelton said excitedly.

“What tipped you off?” Hi joked. “The ceiling, or the tunnel?”

I pulled the lantern from my backpack and powered it on. Light filled the room, more than enough for canine eyes.

“Look!”

Hi pointed to a line of narrow wedges cut into one wall. Arrayed vertically, the indentations marched upward toward a hole in the ceiling.

“Steps,” Ben guessed. “This must be how the builders entered and left.”

“Out we go!” Shelton said. “Follow my lead!”

“Hold on!” I grabbed his arm. “We must be standing in Anne Bonny’s treasure tunnel. We found it! We need to go that way!” I pointed to the opening on the chamber’s far side.

Shelton looked like I’d offered a swim in a shark tank. “We don’t know this was Bonny’s tunnel. Or where it leads.”

“We’re in the right place,” Ben said. “This cavern must be directly under East Bay Street.”

“See how smooth these walls are?” Hi said. “Water did that. At some point, this chamber was completely submerged.”

“Sea cave?” I asked.

Hi nodded. “I think this is it. There might be chests of diamonds right down that passage! We’re all gonna own private islands!”

“Okay!” Shelton surrendered. “We’ll keep going. For a bit, anyway.”

“What’s that?” Ben trained his light halfway up the primitive ladder.

A horizontal wooden beam crossed the ladder’s path, its far end attached to a rusty iron hinge. Three feet to the beam’s left was a massive iron spring. Above the spring hung a frayed rope.

Using the foothold indentations, Ben climbed up and gave the beam a tentative tug. The hinge screeched as the timber swung out from the wall.

“God in heaven.” Ben’s eyes went round as golden soccer balls.

Attached to the beam’s wall-facing side was a three-foot metal blade.

“Booby trap,” I whispered.

“Had to be.” Shelton’s brow glistened. “Pirates don’t give up their treasure without a fight.”

“That’s some serious Goonies action right there.” Hi whistled. “Trip that spring release and the blade cuts you in half. Bad day.”

“Ben, please come down from there,” I said.

He dropped to floor level.

“The mechanism was triggered but never reset,” Ben said. “Maybe the other traps are disarmed, too.”

“Others?” Hi said.

“You think that’s the only one?” Shelton’s voice was back in the stratosphere. “That whole passage is probably a death trap.”

“Keep your flares lit,” Ben ordered, “no matter what.”

“We’ll proceed slow and steady, like the turtle.” I sounded like a high school coach prepping his team. “Our senses will detect the traps before they activate.”

Would they? They had to. No way I was quitting. These pirates weren’t going to outsmart me.

“You still want to go in there?” Shelton. Incredulous.

“Of course,” I said. “If something’s hidden in that tunnel, I intend to find it.”

“Treasure,” Hi said. “Mucho dinero. I’m so in.”

“Then we better hustle,” Ben said. “It’ll be dawn in a few hours.”

At the mouth of the passage, cool air washed over me. I sniffed, straining for clues of what lay beyond.

Stone. Mildew. Salt water. No help there.

The others gathered behind me.

Deep breath.

I stepped into darkness.