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Chapter Five
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She's bound and gagged, trapped in a small, confined space.  The trunk
of a car, she realizes.  She's in the trunk of a car, and it's hot and
very uncomfortable.  She doesn't know how long she's been here, or where
she's being taken ....

He will come for her, though.  Of that she is certain.  He will come for
her, because he has to; they mean too much to each other for it to be
otherwise ....

The car comes to a gradual stop, and after a moment she hears the murmur
of voices, gradually increasing in volume.  A man's voice is giving
orders, speaking harshly, but the other is protesting, resisting:  //You
don't understand; they're waiting for me.  I can't be late .... Please,
for your own sake -- don't stop Duane Barry.//  Then she hears two
gunshots, and a moment later the trunk lid opens.  And someone is
looking down at her, but it isn't her partner ....

"Wendy!"  Dana was drowsily aware of someone shaking her shoulder. 
"Wendy!  Wake up!"  Dana reluctantly forced herself to wakefulness.  She
felt like she'd been asleep for a week -- groggy, lethargic and lacking
in motivation.  Her eyes fluttered open, and she saw Pan crouched in
front of her -- and even as she processed that information, he gave her
shoulder another shake.

"Great," he said.  "You're awake.  Let's get going."

Pan proceeded to grab her arms and drag her to her feet -- and much to
Dana's surprise, she saw that the ropes which had bound them to the tree
were gone.  Not just untied; not just lying in her feet in a loose heap
-- they were simply gone, as if they'd never been there at all.

She had little time to ponder the matter, however.  In the next instant,
Pan had taken her hand in one of his and placed his other hand on the
small of her back.  Dana shivered as she felt his warm, moist breath
tickling her ear.  "Remember, Wendy," he murmured, "you have to want to
believe."  And then they were rising off the ground and soaring up past
the trees.

And for the second time in as many days, Dana was flying.

The day before, on the flight from her home to Neverland, she'd been too
overwhelmed by what was happening to really grasp the reality of it. 
And then she'd been shot down, ending any possibility of reconciling
herself with the experience.  But now ....

Some things she remembered, of course:  The wind rushing past her ears;
the ground dropping rapidly away beneath her; the hollow,
elevator-going-up feeling in the pit of her stomach.  These things --
the simple, physical sensations of flying -- these things she remembered.

What she did not remember was the almost intoxicating sense of freedom
and power that was now sweeping through her system.  Her half-formed
plan of the day before, to fly away home at the first opportunity, was
all but forgotten.  Dana felt as if she could go anywhere; do anything. 
It was wonderful -- glorious --

"Isn't it great, Wendy?"

Dana glanced over at Pan, and saw that he was grinning like a fool, his
face only inches from her own.  And as had happened in her bedroom, she
felt a sudden rush of awareness of his physical presence.  His body was
nestled close against hers, his hand was resting gently but firmly on
the small of her back, and those eyes ....

Dana shook her head sharply, trying to force the thoughts away.  A
distraction; she needed a distraction -- something that would give her a
chance to get these strange, swirling feelings under control. 
Everything had been happening so fast, and she was so confused.  She
took a deep breath, looked down at the passing scenery, and tried to
steady herself.

They were flying about thirty feet or so above the treetops, she saw. 
It was an evergreen forest, and the trees were so densely packed that
she only had rare glimpses of the ground.  There were no obvious
landmarks, and Dana wondered idly how Pan could possibly know which way
to go.  The thought worried her more than a little bit, as she realized
with a jolt that she had no idea at all where she was in relation to
Pan's hideout -- or even in relation to the tree where Alex had tied
them up.  If she became separated from Pan, she'd be lost.

She glanced again at the boy flying next to her.  His face looked calm
and serene, his eyes closed to mere slits against the early morning
sunlihgt.  "Where are we going?" she asked abruptly.

Pan looked at her, a puzzled smile on his face.  "We're going to rescue
Diana," he explained patiently, as if it were the most obvious thing in
the world.

Dana shook her head in exasperation.  "I know *that*," she began --

"She's a really wonderful person," Pan went on blithely.  "I just know
you two will really hit it off!"

"Uh huh," Dana replied.  "I'm sure she's swell.  But how do you know
where to look?"

"Oh, she's on Marooner's Rock," Pan replied carelessly, looking back to
the front.  "In the cave."

"The cave?"

"Yeah," her companion replied.  "And we're almost there -- look!"

Dana suddenly smelled salt in the air, and as she craned her neck to
look ahead, she saw a break in the treeline.  An instant later they were
leaving the forest behind; they passed rapidly over some cliffs,
folllowed by a strip of sparkling white beach, and then they were
soaring out over the sea.

"There it is!" Pan exclaimed, as he guided her through a broad, sweeping
turn.  For a moment they paused, hovering only a few feet above the
water, and for a few seconds Dana let her gaze drift across the nearby
shore.  And then she saw it.

It was a cave; a dark hole in the cliff face, only a few feet above the
water line.  The beach had dwindled to nothing at that point, leaving an
array of sharp, ugly looking rocks in its place.

"She's in there?" Dana asked doubtfully.  The hole in the cliff was only
three or four feet across, and wasn't very accessible; it hardly seemed
to be a likely place to hold a prisoner.

"Yeah," Pan said -- and even as he spoke the word, the two of them were
swooping in towards the cave.

"How do you know?" Dana objected, trying not to flinch as they
approached the cliff at a dizzying speed.

"Where else would she be?"  Dana felt Pan shrug slightly, but before she
could respond, he added, "And here we are!"

And indeed, here they were.  Without quite knowing how it had happened,
Dana found herself perched precariously on a small ledge just below the
entrance to the cave.  Pan clung to a similar outcropping a few feet
away, and was peering cautiously into the hole.

"Do you see anything?" Dana asked.

Pan shook his head.  "Nah.  Too dark."  He looked over at her with a
grin of childish enthusiasm.  "Looks like we'll have to reconnoiter." 
And before Dana had a chance to object, he'd let go of the cliffside and
plunged into the hole.

Dana hesitated for a moment, unsure what she should do.  No, she
immediately corrected in her mind, she knew full well what she *should*
do -- she should fly away from this place, try to gain enough altitude
to get her bearings, and then head for home.  On the other hand, she
couldn't just abandon Pan; who knew what sort of danger he was
subjecting himself to.  On the third hand, he had brought it on himself --

Dana shook her head in frustration.  Who was she trying to kid?  She was
going after him, and there was no point in denying it.  And so she took
a deep breath and murmured, "I want to believe."  Then she jumped up off
the ledge and cautiously entered the cave.

It was, as she had expected, almost completely dark inside, the only
illumination coming from the three foot wide opening she had just
traversed.  For a moment Dana simply hovered there, just inside the
entrance, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the small amount of
available light.

There really wasn't much to see, she gradually came to realize.  There
was bright morning sunshine outside, but the opening was so small that
the light was focused into a single, narrow shaft, which didn't really
serve to illuminate much of anything.  About all she could tell for sure
was that the cave had rapidly opened up once she'd passed through the
entrance, and that she was now hovering along one side of a rather large
chamber.  Quiet, lapping noises coming from below told her that the
bottom of the cavern was filled with water, and Dana realized that at
high tide the entire place might be flooded.

Where the heck was Pan, anyway?  Once again, Dana shook her head.  He'd
been the first one through the entrance, but he'd only been ahead of her
by a few seconds.  Surely he hadn't just flown off into the darkness. 
Had he?

Abruptly, Dana heard a sound, very faint and far away.  She held her
breath and listened intently, and after a moment it was repeated.  It
was a voice, she realized; a female voice.  And then she heard a second
voice -- a man's, low and rumbling, and somehow filled with menace.

Dana strained her ears, trying to make out what was being said, but the
voices were too quiet, and the acoustics in the cave were producing
strange echoes.  Without really thinking about it, she started drifting
slowly forward, in the direction she thought the voices were coming
from.  And finally, she was able to make out the words being spoken.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" the woman's voice was saying. 
"What if he doesn't come?"

"Don't worry," the man replied.  It sounded low and sibilant, like a
snake hissing in the grass.  "He'll come.  What else can he do?"

"You know how he is," the woman persisted.  "Erratic.  Undependable. 
Spooky.  He could --"

"Diana, you worry too much," the man said sharply, cutting her off. 
"He'll be here."  There was a brief pause, and suddenly Dana smelled
cigarette smoke.  "He'll be here," the man repeated, "and the Project
will continue according to plan."

"That's easy for you to say," the woman answered, a tinge of anger in
her voice.  "You're not the one being used as a decoy.  You're not the
one who'll drown if he *doesn't* show up."

Dana heard an evil chuckle.  "You worry too much," the man said again. 
"Besides, you won't drown, Diana.  Remember -- there are monsters in the
water."

"Hey, Wendy!"

Pan's whispered exclamation made Dana jump, and it was all she could do
not to shriek in surprise.  "Where have you been?" she demanded.  "I
thought --"

"I just finished reconnoitoring," he said, as if he hadn't heard her. 
"Looks like the place is clean.  And Marooner's Rock is dead ahead."

"Pan, wait!"  Dana said.  "There's something you need to know."  She
wanted to tell him about the converation she'd overheard; she wanted to
warn him that this woman, Diana, was apparently in league with his
enemies.  But before she could utter another word, he was speaking again.

"There's no time," Pan said.  "We have to rescue Diana now, before the
tide comes in.  There are monsters in the water, you know."  With that,
he moved forward into the darkness -- and Dana had no alternative but to
follow.

"Peter!"  It was Diana's voice again -- but now it seemed more high
pitched and tremulous than it had been before.  "I knew you'd come for
me!"  Dana growled at the phoniness in the woman's voice.  Surely Pan
would see through that --

"You bet, Diana," he replied cheerfully.  "Just give me a minute with
these ropes."

Dana continued to fly forward, until a huge, hulking mass loomed up out
of the darkness, ahead and slightly to the right.  Marooner's Rock, she
thought.  It had to be Marooner's Rock.  She altered course slightly,
and a few seconds later she came to a bumpy landing, a short distance
from two shadowy figures.

"Pan --" she started.

"Wendy!" he exclaimed happily.  He hurried towards her, dragging Diana
along by the hand.  She was tall and large-busted, Dana saw, with long
dark hair, and her mere presence was making Dana's hackles raise, as
well as making her feel oddly inadequate.  But Pan was still speaking --

"Wendy, this is Diana.  Good thing we got here when we did, huh?  Now
let's get out of here before it's too late."  Then, without giving her a
chance to respond, Pan and Diana took off in the direction of the light
that marked the entrance to the cave.

Fine, Dana thought in annoyance, as she flew off after them.  Just
fine.  They did need to get out of here -- heaven alone knew what
dangers were lurking out there in the darkness.  But once they were
clear, she and Pan were going to have to talk.

But even as she thought the words, Dana had a sinking feeling that it
was going to be easier said than done.

================END CHAPTER FIVE================