Destination: Sofia by David Wood & Sean Ellis

Author:David Wood & Sean Ellis
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: travel adventure, men's adventure, pulp adventure, action adventure, new pulp
Publisher: Adrenaline Press
Published: 2019-12-16T07:00:00+00:00

12

Six hours later, Maddock and Bones were back in the Fiat, heading east out of Sofia. Corey and Slava stayed behind, but would be providing real-time technical support via the same high-speed wireless data connection they had used the previous night. In the event that the police came calling, investigating their connection with the item that had been stolen from the museum, Slava would also, hopefully, be able to deflect suspicion and provide them all—including the absent Riddle—with an alibi. The possibility that they might be investigated was one reason that Maddock had decided to bring along the cup, which was still hidden away in his backpack. He also knew that it might contain clues that would only make sense once they reached their destination.

Maddock didn’t really expect the search to bear fruit, but since they still had more than twelve hours before the kidnappers were supposed to make contact, it seemed prudent to check out Prohodna Cave before surrendering the cup, if only to cross the possibility off the list.

The drive took just over an hour and a half, much of it on a wide, four-lane divided highway that wended through forested hills. The skies remained overcast and on several occasions the windshield was spattered with drizzle. Four lanes eventually gave way to two, but traffic was light and they made good time. A wooden sign in the shape of a curving arrow, perched atop what looked like a stone chimney, signaled that they had arrived at their destination.

“Busy place,” Bones remarked as they pulled off the pavement onto a muddy track that curled south around the base of a low hill that they had just driven over. The track ended at a parking area which was crowded with tour vans.

“Slava said it was a popular destination,” Maddock replied. He also recalled her saying that the cave’s popularity made it an unlikely place to hide a treasure, but sometimes the best place to hide something was in plain sight.

After setting up their chest-mounted GoPros and establishing a data connection with Corey, they followed the rest of the arriving tourists down a path that disappeared into dense foliage. The trail descended as it skirted along the base of an overhanging limestone cliff which seemed to close in from both directions. Maddock surmised that they were at the bottom of what had, in prehistoric times, been an enormous sinkhole. When they rounded a corner and the arched opening came into view, Bones let out a low whistle. “That’s a big ass hole.”

Maddock gave him a sidelong glance. “Let’s try to keep it family friendly, okay?”

Bones was not wrong about the size of the entrance, however. From bottom to top, it was at least a hundred feet.

“This is actually the small entrance to Prohodna,” supplied Slava, still playing tour-guide, albeit remotely. “‘Prohodna’ means ‘passage,’ or literally, ‘walkthrough.’ The cave is a natural tunnel, almost three hundred meters long, through the hill. The large entrance is on the other end of the cave.”

“We’ll probably lose the signal once we go inside,” Maddock said.

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