RUN FOR THE CAVE

Sprinting toward your left, you run as fast as you can until you reach the cave, not taking the time to look back. You only hope Bo's stumble bought you enough time to enter the cave unnoticed. Going deeper into the hillside, you only pray you don't run into any wild animals as you lose the light filtering in from the mouth of the cave.

Just when you decide that it can't get any darker and you find yourself feeling the walls to get around, you notice another faint light ahead of you. Considering that as a sign that you must be in an old abandoned railroad tunnel rather than a natural cave, you rapidly run for the exit.

But when you get closer to the light, you notice that it is not the natural light from the sun, but rather a flickering manmade light, the kind that would be produced by a number of oil lamps. And there are sounds too. Nothing loud or especially identifiable, but random, hurried sounds as if more than one person is scurrying about inside the cave.

"Would you hurry? We's supposed to meet Fester at the Chickasaw County line half an hour ago!" You hear someone say as you approach the light, which you discover is bathing the dead end of the tunnel. A sharp curve in the caves infrastructure allowed you to get fairly close while remaining unnoticed.

Someone then chuckles as you stand just around the corner. "Fester 'ill just have to get over it. I just got 'em dry and I still have to wrinkle 'em up real good and roll 'em around in the dirt."

"Well you know what Boss said, if we're late with that delivery he's gonna dock us ten percent for every ten minutes!"

"There you go worrying about the pay again." The second man says. "Ole' Boss ain't gonna dock us nothin'. As long as we got the plates here in our possession, we can make whatever he cheats us out of…..and then some!"

As the two men laugh, you come to the shocking realization that you've accidentally stumbled upon the secret counterfeit operation!

Backing away, your foot gives you away again just as it did at the woodpile earlier. Catching a lone rock on the cave floor, you send it skittering, the sound vibrating with a slight echo.

"Did you hear that?" You hear one of the guys ask.

"Better check it out." The other one replies as you hear a gun being loaded.

Realizing that the darkness is going to be your best friend right now, you turn and sprint into the inky conditions as the counterfeiters move to check out the noise.

If you can just get back out to that cornfield, it will offer plenty of camouflage while you make your way back to the cabin where Bo and Luke discovered you earlier. You only hope that Frank and Loreli have returned at this point as the possibility is always there that the counterfeiters could discover the cabin as well.

You have a pretty good head start, thanks once again to your track days, but as you near the opening of the cave, you are horrified to see Bo and Luke in the distance, apparently having abandoned their search in the woods and now making their way toward the cave!

Although Frank and Loreli have been pretty hush hush concerning the case itself, you've heard enough to know these counterfeiters are no one to be messed with. Taking the chance of going against them alone is like taking the chance that you're not going to drown if you stay under water for more than a minute. You could sure use your cousins' help right now and either way, they're in the path to be seen by the counterfeiters, who will assume they were the ones in the cave!

But then again, if anything happened to them, you could never forgive yourself. You've quickly thought up of a plan that just might get the three of you out of this alive, but it is going to require you to turn around and face up to the counterfeiters alone before Bo and Luke realize that you're even in the cave. It's a scary thought indeed, and you are not quite sure you're up to the challenge. Either way it's a risk, and you don't have time to decide on the lesser of two evils.

Go to the Chapter Entitled 'HELP' to Summon Bo and Luke for Help.

Go to the Chapter Entitled 'ALONE' to Face the Counterfeiters Alone