Silver Linings, стр. 91
At that same instant there was a soft knock on the bathroom door.
“Mattie? Are you all right in there?”
Mattie switched on the flashlight, stepped into her shoes, and fled down the hidden hallway. She reached the door that opened onto the jungle and held her breath as she turned the handle.
Half expecting to meet up with one of the armed guards, she switched off the flashlight and stepped out into the night. She stood very still for a minute, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Then she darted into the jungle.
She had only the moon and the lights of the house to guide her. The soft, moist earth muffled her footsteps, but she knew she was making far too much noise in the undergrowth. At any moment one of the guards would surely hear her. She could only hope the crashing surf would give her some protection.
She went straight into the jungle, keeping the house lights at her back. They quickly began to fade, however, as the thick vegetation closed in around her. She had to concentrate on the sound of the ocean and the vague light of the moon to guide her. She did not dare turn on the flashlight.
Ocean on the left. House to the rear. Straight on until you cross the stream.
Rainbird's voice, sounding as if it were magnified through some sort of megaphone, blared out in the darkness.
“Mattie, come back. Don't run away. You won't come to any harm. You can't survive in that jungle, Mattie. There are too many things out there that can kill you. Especially at night. Things like snakes, Mattie. Do you want to find yourself in the coils of a giant snake?”
Hugh had said not to worry, Mattie recalled. There were no snakes in the jungles of Purgatory. Hugh had never lied to her. Rainbird could tell you he loved you while he slit your throat.
She plunged on. When the lights of the house disappeared entirely, she risked the flashlight in brief doses. At one point she scrambled over a fallen log and realized it was the one on which she had torn her silk blouse the first time she had come this way.
She was on the right track.
“Mattie, you're safe with me. You will die a horrible death out in that jungle. Trust me, Mattie. I mean you no harm.” Rainbird's magnified voice was fading into the distance.
Hugh had said it would be virtually impossible to miss the stream. Ocean on the left.
Were those distant crashing sounds the footsteps of her pursuers?
She batted at the leaves, crawled over vines, pushed rare orchids out of the way as if they were so much noxious garbage in her path.
Mattie stumbled over a vine and went down on one knee. She put out her hand to steady herself and her fingers went straight into running water.
The stream.
Blindly she turned left. Now all she had to do was follow the rivulet of water to the waterfalls.
By now Rainbird would have sent his men out into the jungle on the theory that she would not go far. Perhaps he had assumed she would head for the sea in some primitive instinct to avoid the jungle.
She risked the flashlight again in short bursts of light. She quickly learned it was easier not to subject her eyes to the changes in shadows. Mattie continued her journey with the aid of the moon and wet feet. As long as her shoes stayed wet, she knew she was on the right path.
A familiar roaring sound told her she was approaching the waterfalls. Mattie picked up her pace, hoping she would not fall and twist her ankle. She still had all those caves to get through.
God, the caves.
And then what? she wondered bleakly. Assuming she survived the caves, she could not stay in Cormier's sanctuary forever. She would die of thirst and starvation. But she would worry about escape later. Right now the important thing was to get away from the blue-eyed vampire in the beautiful white mansion.
She would rather die of thirst and starvation in the cavern than lure Hugh to his death, and she knew that was what Rainbird intended.
Mattie burst through the last green barrier and came to an abrupt halt at the sight of the magnificent twin waterfalls bathed in silver moonlight. It was an eerie sight that touched some deep cord within her. There were things on this earth that were more powerful and would last eons longer than Jack Rainbird. And they could protect her from him now.
Mattie went forward and stepped up on the first of the wet, slippery rocks that outlined the foaming pool. She dared not fall tonight. Hugh was not here to catch her.
But this time she was not trying to juggle her purse and a French string bag full of pâté and bottles of sparkling water. This time it was a little easier. This time she was a little more determined.
Mattie did not slip. She leaped off the last rock, straight through a shower of water, and found herself in the black mouth of the cave. She flicked on the flashlight and scanned the walls for the marks Cormier had left behind.
Now came the hard part, she told herself ruefully. Now she had to walk through these twisting, turning tunnels of darkness all by herself.
It was worse than any crowded elevator but not quite as bad as having Jack Rainbird try to seduce her in a white and silver room. All things were relative, it seemed.
Twice she found herself turning down wrong corridors, but both times she was able to retrace her steps and find the small white marks on the walls. At several points along the way she wanted to close her eyes, but she did not dare. She might miss one of the white marks.
Her stomach was in knots. Her heart was pounding, and the flashlight threatened to fall from her damp