She let go of him in disgust.

A sudden wail broke the silence that followed her outburst. Teresa heard it over the ringing in her ears and the sound of her own furious breathing. She turned to face the quarry again, and heard it once more: it was coming from inside the black tunnel.

“That’s the sound of crying,” said Parisi.

It was the sobbing of a tired, hungry child. Teresa quickly zipped up her vest and prepared to go in.

“You have your answer now,” she told Knauss.

De Carli handed her the sheets she’d asked him to print out. She folded them carefully and put them in her pocket, ignoring the tremor in her hands.

“Superintendent!”

A woman was running toward them, illuminated by the light towers. She’d arrived just in time.

“Who told her?” asked Knauss.

Teresa motioned at De Carli to pass her another vest.

“I did,” she answered.

-74-

-74-

“Superintendent, I hate to agree with Knauss, but the last thing we need right now is a frantic and terrified mother to deal with,” Parisi said softly. “What if things get out of hand? What do we do then?”

Gloria Sanfilk came up to them, her hair—wet with the snow that had just begun to fall—sticking to her sunken cheeks. The expression on her face was not what Teresa had expected to see: it was neither distraught, nor exhausted, but burning with a heat that could have easily melted the glaciers that had laced those mountains for thousands of years.

“Is my son in there?” she asked.

“Yes,” Teresa replied.

“Are you going to get him?”

“We’re going together. Would you be up for that?”

Gloria nodded without a moment’s hesitation.

“No. Absolutely not,” said Parisi. He was worried, but Teresa was sure there was no other way. All of them—Teresa included—had to be ready to sacrifice something, to risk all that they held dear, if they were to succeed.

“I will go to my baby!” said the mother, as if to make clear to all those present that the matter was not up for discussion.

“It’s about safety, Gloria,” Knauss intervened. “Yours and Markus’s.”

They heard another wail coming from the tunnel. Gloria flinched, then took a step toward the blackness.

“My son is calling for me,” she said. “Don’t you see? He’s calling for me.”

“Gloria . . .” said Knauss in a murmur.

The woman turned around and sought Teresa’s eyes with her own.

“I can feel him, right here,” she whispered, bringing her hand to her chest, “and I know he can feel me, too.”