Craggy rock shoots up to the sky at Dead Face Cave, forming a wall within the mountain. Orange, afternoon sunlight shines against it. My eyes trace over the jutting gray boulders as Emi parks outside the cave. She turns the engine off and faces me, reaching for her phone.

My fingers tighten around my own cell phone. "Ready?"

Once you start, there's no return.

Isn't that what Silverenn said at the beginning? Once I started to decipher the clues, I already set my fate in motion. I just hope treasure lies at the end of the tunnel, not an abyss. Either our plan will catch the mafia members, or we'll end up dead in the process.

"Ready." Emi nods, setting her jaw with determination.

I text the number that sent me that threatening message a few days ago.

We're ready to trade. Meet us at Dead Face Cave in an hour.

My thumb hovers over the send button. In a flash of a decision, I tap the purple blue icon.

Sent.

"Think we'll be able to get the police up here in time?" Emi asks. She chews her lip while staring down at the black screen in her palm.

"Hope so." Timing is tricky, since we need the police to come after the mafia arrive. That way, we can catch them in whatever nefarious crime they're going to commit.

Which might include shooting us. Anxiety courses through me, and I'm starting to regret this "plan." But it's too late to go back now.

"Are things set up with Martin?" I ask.

Emi opens her phone, then nods. "Yeah. He said he'll call the police and give them our coordinates fifty minutes from now, telling them we need help."

"Good." That should give enough time for the police to get here, and hopefully, catch the mafia inside the cave doing something illegal, not at the cave's entrance. It's risky to rely on Martin to remember to do that, but Emi and I didn't know who else to call that wouldn't ask questions about why they're calling the police.

"I sent him a reminder message just in case," Emi says, pocketing her phone.

Emi and I hop out of the car, and the shutting doors echo off the surrounding rock. My eyes scan the rising cliffs as if they can follow the reverberations.

My eyes turn to the small rocks littering the ground, and I crouch down, propping up a phone against two of them. I bought it about two hours ago, paid for it and a data plan with my negative-balance credit card. Somehow, we're not far enough from civilization for the internet to not work, and I'm able to open Zoom on the new phone, turning the camera on so it shows the cave's entrance. Once my own phone connects to the session, I can watch to see when the mafia arrives. I step back and am pleased to see that the phone on the ground is barely visible among the rocks.

"There." I brush off my jeans, still holding my phone. Emi regards the phone among the rocks warily.

"What if we lose reception inside the cave?" she asks.

"Well, let's see." I step inside the cave. The reception bars on my phone drop to two, but they don't disappear — at least not yet. I wave Emi to follow me. "Come. The clock is ticking down."

My eyes snag on the empty parking lot outside the cave. I tell myself that the lack of people is a good thing. It means no one will get in our way while we hunt for the treasure. But apprehension still nags at me. There's no one around in case something goes wrong.

Martin's going to call the police, I remind myself. The worst that can happen is that the mafia don't threaten us, so the police have nothing to jail them for.

Emi peers around the cave's mouth. "Do you... think it's safe? There could be spiders... or snakes."

I force a smile as I look at her. "Safer than Silverenn's old warehouse. The city actually allows visitors in the cave."

"Maybe we should have a tour guide."

"Do you think a tour guide would let us go snooping for a supposed treasure? And even if they did, we'd probably have to split the money with them."

Emi sighs. "Why do your bad ideas sometimes make sense? Honestly Cerise, you should've gone into marketing."

"Well, once we're rich, I'll set aside more time to market our trio."

"Deal."

Side by side, we face the cave. I'm hit again by the realization that we must enter, and quickly. Once the mafia arrive, it won't be so easy tracking the treasure. I prepare my phone's flashlight, the narrow beam barely visible in the sunlight. Gravel crunches underfoot as we approach the cave and darkness envelops us. Emi unfurls the map clasped in her hands.

"It appears that we need to follow this main tunnel until it branches into six smaller ones," she says.

"Kay."

We duck under a low archway. Mildew fills my nostrils, and I cover my mouth with the back of my hand. My eyes stray to the Zoom session.

Zero bars of data. Connection dropped.

I gulp. It was worth a try. But now we won't have any warning when someone arrives. My eyes shift to Emi, my jaw unhinging to tell her. Though I barely see her in the darkness, she inhales quick breaths at my side. It's probably better not to burden her unnecessarily.

Our footsteps patter in the stillness. I can feel my heart pumping in my chest despite the slow, full breaths I take. I form a rhythm with the droplets dripping in the background. Inhale, beat, plop. Exhale, beat, plop. The repetition calms me down, perhaps it even grounds my sanity, too.

Thin strands of light from my phone shine upon the semicircular room we enter. Six channels carve through the gray rock, away from the current path.

"Which one do we take?" I ask.

"The second one from the left," she says after squinting at the map. "We'll have to make a quick right afterward."

"Just let me know when."

The glow casts just enough light to see what's ahead. I almost walk past the next turn, but Emi places a hand on my arm and pulls me onto a narrow path. It's just large enough for us to walk shoulder to shoulder. Anxiety rises inside me with every step. I keep glancing at my phone, but it refuses to reconnect to the internet, to no one's surprise. To calm myself, I glance at the map in Emi's hands. We're so close, I can read every detail on it, and I quickly hone in on where our location is. The corridor appears to cut across the cave, positioning us near the treasure.

The dripping peters out, a deafening void in its wake. My ears hone in on our labored breaths to take its place. Somehow, this is harder than practicing for six hours.

Another sound, a faint clicking, whispers through the rock. Ice grabs my arm. I jolt back with a gasp only to realize it was Emi's hand. I look at her with wide eyes.

Emi mimics my expression and mouths, "Did you hear that?"

I listen closer. It doesn't sound like the soft sneakers we're wearing. It's a harsher clicking sound, what I'd imagine dress shoes to sound like — shoes that mean business.

Frantically, I check the time. It's only been twenty-five minutes.

No. It can't be them so soon. How could they have caught up to us so quickly?

I really hope my suspicions are wrong, but then again, who means business when entering a cave?

Emi elbows me. "Cerise, the Zoom session!"

I shake my head. "It doesn't work. No internet."

In the faint light, tears bloom in Emi's eyes. "What do we do?"

Martin won't call the police for another twenty minutes. If Silverenn's descendants are here looking for the treasure, then we only have one option: reach it first and don't get caught.

"Run."

Emi and I take off down the tunnel, legs pummeling the ground in a whirlwind of motion. Dark rock zooms by on either side. The clicking increases, adagio inching to allegro. Can they hear us running? If we can hear them, surely they can hear us. And if they catch us, we're doomed. We have nowhere to go.

"Emi, we need a plan," I whisper. I wonder if my voice will carry through the tunnels too, betraying our strategy. "How many ways out are there?"

"Just one according to what I've seen on the map. And they'll probably block it." I barely hear her voice, it blends too well with her panting.

"Maybe not. They don't have the map, after all. Then again, they might have been here before or have a digital map pulled up." I catch glimpses of Emi's concerned face in my peripheral vision. I quickly change from speaking of all possible scenarios. "We should hide. And lead them away from the treasure."

Before us, the tunnel splits into two. I expect Emi to point to one of them, but instead, she veers to the left wall. My flashlight shines on a hole running through the rock. My jaw drops.

"That can't be right," I say, reaching for the map. Silverenn can't possibly expect us to climb through a dark hole, crawling with who knows what.

Emi whisks it out of reach. "No time. Come on!" She bounds to the passage, crawling right inside. Of course she fits with no problem. The bigger problem is whether I'll fit. There's a reason she plays violin, and I play viola.

A strange sort of unease stirs in my stomach. Why won't she let me see the map? I try to shove my doubts down into my mind's deepest corners. But specks of worry bubble to the surface.

"Come on!" Emi hisses. I blink to attention. The dress shoes still march in the distance, but it's only a matter of time before they reach us. It's stupid for me to distrust her actions. Besides, my chances with Emi are safer at this point. I squeeze into the tunnel. Rock presses against me like a pair of jeans after the holidays — a bit too tight for comfort.

My knees shuffle against the ground in sync with my hands, pushing me through. But it's a struggle due to the friction against my houndstooth pants and white top. Silently, I curse my clothing choice. Dirt will destroy both pieces or cost my next paycheck to clean.

If I even get another paycheck...

Emi stops, and it doesn't take much for me to do the same. I wasn't moving very fast to begin with.

"The tunnel ends," Emi whispers. "There's a drop-off."

I angle my flashlight over her shoulder. "What do you see?"

"Looks like there's a room not too far down. I'm climbing down."

Emi disappears, and I hear a soft thud. I step forward. Now that I have a clear view, my light shines over the edge of a cliff. Notches line the steep, bowl-shaped side. I stick my phone in my pocket and slowly make my way down, setting my hand or foot on solid rock before reaching for the next. Several feet of air pass before I make contact with the ground. When I pull my phone out again, it hits Emi's irritated face.

"This was a terrible idea," she snaps.

For once, we agree. "It's too late now. Which way do we go?"

"Do tell us all."

My blood freezes at the voice. Though high-pitched like Emi's, it's got a stronger, more commanding quality to it. Slowly, I scroll my flashlight around the room. It lands on three figures standing in the shadows, two males and one female in black suits. But I'm not paying as much attention to them as what they hold in their hands, aimed at our chests. I already know what they are, yet still, I angle the light a little further up, shining directly on the black metal.

Yup. Three guns. One for me, one for Emi, and the last for good measure.