The Devil's Cave: A Bruno Courrèges Investigation (Bruno Chief of Police 5)

metres were clear and then rubble began to pile higher and higher until it reached the ceiling.
    ‘Try the radio from here,’ he said to Albert, but there wasn’t even the sound of static.
    ‘There must be at least fifty metres of tunnel before the Gouffre,’ said Albert. ‘If it’s all like this, we’re in for a long wait, and who knows what damage the blast did to people inside the Gouffre.’
    Bruno thought of the Dragon’s Teeth, the three giant stalagmites that guarded the way to the tunnel, each of them many tons in weight. They’d need to get cranes and bulldozers and mechanical diggers into the Gouffre to clear them.
    ‘If we’ve nothing better to do, we might see if there are other ways out, maybe through some of those holes up by the roof,’ he suggested. ‘I’ll go and check the other tunnel to see how blocked that is.’
    He crossed back over the causeway, holding a candle high. With Sergeant Jules following him into the place that had so nearly been Jules’s grave, he advanced into the tunnel. Counting his steps, he managed just over a hundred metres before the rubble became impassable and they turned back. Now that the dust had settled, he sniffed, catching the faint scent of something that might have been glue, something he’d smelt often enough in his army days.
    ‘
Plastrite
, French military issue’ he said to Jules. ‘So when we’re out of here, the first job will be to find out where the hell they got hold of our own plastic explosive.’
    Back at the other tunnel, Albert and J-J were lifting stones from the rock pile one by one and tossing them down. Was that the best they could do, Bruno wondered. They were four grown men, plus the medic. They were alive, healthy, and they had light, water and whatever assets they carried.
    ‘Can we make an inventory of what possessions we have?’ he asked them. He began emptying his own pockets, laying down gun and wallet, handkerchief, folding knife, torch and mobile phone, notebook, pen and the rubber gloves and plastic evidence bags he always carried.
    Sergeant Jules and J-J had little more, but Albert had a 25-metre coil of rope, an axe, torch and helmet and his breathing apparatus strapped to his back. The medic had a commando knife and his rucksack of medical equipment. There were twenty-two candles in the ammunition box, each lasting about an hour. Bruno went round and collected the ones already lit, blew them all out but one. He then picked up those drenched in the wave from the lake and set them aside to dry.
    ‘From now on, we’d better ration the candles, but the rope will be useful,’ said Bruno. ‘How much air in that breathing equipment, Albert?’
    ‘Fifteen, twenty minutes, depending on your exertion rate.’
    ‘I might need that for the patient,’ said the medic. J-J snorted and Jules rolled his eyes.
    ‘Is your torch waterproof?’ Bruno asked Albert, thinking of the jets of water firemen used.
    ‘Supposed to be, but it’s probably more like water-resistant, depending on the pressure.’
    ‘So if we took it underwater, best wrap it in plastic,’ Bruno mused. He sealed the torch into two plastic bags and pointed to the lake.
    ‘At the end of the lake there’s a causeway where J-J and Jules and I crossed. It acts as a kind of dam but water falls over it and then drops. When I was last here, I used a stone and rope to measure the drop and it was twelve metres. That water has to go somewhere and my guess is it flows into the lake in the Gouffre. With the breathing equipment and the torch, we might be able to get out that way.’
    ‘This patient couldn’t make it,’ said the medic.
    ‘From what you say about getting him to hospital within the hour, he’s not likely to make it anyway,’ said Bruno. ‘This could be his only chance.’
    ‘What if you get stuck?’ Albert asked. ‘Isn’t it better to wait here until they can clear the tunnel and get us out? If we carry on moving stones out of the way I might get through on the radio.’
    ‘There’s a lot of tunnel to clear, and I smelt military-grade plastic explosive back there. That stuff’s powerful and it will have brought down a lot of roof. Rather than just sit back and wait to see if we get rescued, I think this is worth a try. And if I get stuck, I’ll have the rope tied round my waist and you can pull me out.’
    ‘Wait,’ said the medic, and unhooked his Kevlar helmet from his belt and tossed it to Bruno. ‘You might need