Rogue Angel 46: Treasure of Lima Read Online Free

the grip of its power, before leaving them abandoned in its wake.
    For a moment, it was all they could do to hang there in the water and get their bearings. Annja recovered first, moving to where Steve and Julie clung to a nearby stalagmite. She used hand signals to confirm that they were both okay. Once she had, she looked about and saw that Manuel was doing the same with the other guest, Rick. They were all shook up, and no doubt scared, but fortunately none of them had been seriously injured, thanks in part to the fact that their position in the grotto had partially shielded them from the full force of the earthquake.
    That was what it had been, an earthquake; Annja was certain of it. Costa Rica had more than its fair share of quakes and she’d been through enough of them to recognize the phenomena, even this far underwater. She also knew that there would likely be more to come, if only from the series of aftershocks that were likely to follow. In fact, they had a limited window in which to get out of the danger zone before the ground betrayed them a second time.
    It was time to get out of there.
    Annja caught Steve’s and Julie’s attention and signaled for them to head for the surface. Thankfully, they did as they were told, grabbing hands and kicking hard for the sunlight high above. She nodded approvingly as she watched them go; they stayed in the center of the shaft and rose quickly but carefully.
    The newlyweds had risen about a hundred feet toward the surface when the first of the aftershocks hit. The frenetic shaking of the cenote’s walls carved off chunks of limestone that fell downward into the water below like unguided missiles. Annja watched one such projectile fall toward her and just managed to get out of its way; it might not strike with bone-breaking force because of the resistance of the water, but it would certainly be heavy enough to carry her to the bottom and pin her there if she were unlucky enough to be trapped beneath it.
    Seeing her charges continuing upward in the wake of the aftershock, Annja turned her attention back to her own level, wondering why Manuel and Rick hadn’t joined her yet. She saw the answer quickly enough; the aftershock had apparently spooked Rick into action and he was now headed for one of the tunnels rather than back up the main shaft toward the surface.
    As Annja looked on, Manuel went after him, catching up with him before Rick could get more than a few feet down the length of the tunnel. The dive instructor got his charge turned around in the right direction and followed in his wake, headed back to the main shaft of the cenote where Annja waited.
    That was when the second aftershock hit.
    The world bounced and shook and careened around her, the pressure wave throwing her against the wall of the cenote with bruising force. To Annja, it seemed that this aftershock was stronger than the first by a factor of two or more; it was nearly as strong as the initial quake itself. Debris thundered down around her, rocks the size of softballs competing for space with those the size of refrigerators.
    The water, crystal clear just moments before, rapidly became obscured with dirt, silt and rock kicked up by the action of the quake, reducing her visibility to just a few feet. She caught a glimpse of Rick cutting away his weight belt and using the sudden increase in his buoyancy to rise swiftly out of reach, and he headed for the surface high above their heads.
    Annja waited for Manuel to follow suit, but the dive instructor didn’t appear. With every passing second she grew more concerned that something dire had happened to him, until she couldn’t stand it anymore and set out to find him.
    It was a good thing she did.
    After searching about for several moments, she finally spotted his brilliant blue wet suit pressed up against a pile of rubble. Swimming over, she discovered that he was conscious but unable to move, his left leg trapped beneath the remains of a stalactite that had