Now and then the clouds would empty over the town, concealing any sound and most movement the three made as they gained access through a hidden tunnel pin-pointed on the blueprint. Supposedly, the tunnel was once a drainage chute that ran from the torture rooms of Block 11 to dispose of body waste after interrogations. And there was no doubt about that by the smell of the place.
“Jesus! I never thought I would hold my breath this long without being drowned by a fat lass sitting on my shoulders at a pool party,” Don grunted as they crawled through the filthy cement pipe. It was narrow enough to hug a big man like Don just short of a claustrophobic fit, but he soldiered on behind Nina and Costa. They wore black overalls, unfortunately, made of fabric, since waterproof protective clothing rustled with movement.
“There, ahead, to the left, Nina,” Costa whispered as they came to the last bend in the subsystem under Block 11.
“Thank God for that!” Don whined. “This, people, is why we mercifully do not remember our births.”
Nina giggled up front, just before she used the pen-sized laser Purdue gave her to cut through any obstacles in their way. The device made no sound and reflective minimal light. Her rubber gloves gripped the drain cover tightly while the beam melted the old iron to sever it from the bolts in the cement. When she was done, they crept through into a dark corridor between Room 4 and one of the gas chambers.
“My overactive imagination is telling my lungs that there is Zyklon-B everywhere in the atmosphere,” Nina whispered.
“Me too,” Costa said. “Only in my case, it feels like I cannot breathe like something heavy is on my chest.”
“I bet if we did not know where we were none of that would have occurred,” Nina smiled. “It is all psychosomatic.”
“I’m just unsettled by the paranormal aspect, myself,” Don chipped in, his eyes reluctant to look too far into the dark green corridor through his night vision goggles.
Nina slapped him playfully. “Okay, guys, we have to get to the main gas room, from there, Don check if there are any discrepancies in the construction of the room.”
“What do you use that instrument again?” Costa asked again in amusement.
Proudly, Don obliged by saying the suggestive name in a German accent for the umpteenth time.
“Zis is my penetrator.”
“Oh God,” Nina rolled her eyes. “Grow up, you two.”
She wanted to smile, but not only were they pressed for time, but they were in a building where atrocious things had been inflicted on innocent people and jesting about a ground-penetrating radar instrument was just disrespectful. “Come on. Prof. Barry and her assistant’s lives are in our hands. Let’s not fail them.”
They proceeded in the pitch dark toward the location of the main gas chamber. Behind them in the dark, they heard a scuffling.
“Did you hear that?” Nina whispered, grabbing onto Costa’s arm. “Like boots on gravel.”
“I am not happy about this,” Don said under his breath. “Listen, you guys go ahead so long. Whatever it is, I’ll hold it off. Just hurry so we can get out of here.”
“But we need you to use the radar device inside…” Nina started, but she instantly kept quiet when two pairs of footsteps approached them.
“Fuck this, I’m moving on,” she whispered in panic. Don and Costa stood listening a second longer, hearing the phantom footsteps of heavy soldiers’ boots coming toward them. But they could see nothing on their night vision. The walking cadence hastened, gradually until they could hear the boots fall heavier and faster, clearly running towards them.
“Oh my God! Run!” Costa rasped. They took off, bolting in terror. Both raced in the opposite direction from the approaching soldiers, catching up to Nina, who had just reached the gas chamber they had been looking for.
“Jesus Christ! Hurry, get inside!” Don cried out loud. His voice echoed along the hallway as all three of them stumbled into the large sinister room with its grotesque atmosphere and froze with their backs up against the wall. Dead quiet, they waited against the barren grey walls where the scratches of the dying told their final story.
There was no sound whatsoever. The running had ceased completely, not even down to a trot – just gone. Costa was the first to dare peek around the entrance to determine their status. The other two held their breath as well as they could, considering their hearts were about to burst from fear-induced adrenaline.
“Clear,” Costa whispered.
“How sure are you?” Don asked while Nina wheezed audibly. “There is no way they could just not be there anymore. You heard them. There are only two flanking walls, man. There is nowhere they can hide.”
Costa shrugged, “Unless they are not actual soldiers.”
Nina shivered at the suggestion while Don went off on a tangent, bitching at Costa for bringing up ghosts while they were in the dark bowels of a concentration camp.
“Come on, let’s survey the floor first,” Nina urged. Although she sounded in control, she really only pushed them to get to the task so that she did not have to let her own imagination get the better of her.
The dank old chamber was huge, stretching over several divisions.
“Just remember, the Soviet Union reconstructed the original Krema I chamber,” Nina whispered. “That means that not everywhere we tread will be the original rooms.”
“Great,” Don remarked. “Just to make it more difficult they had to turn the bloody place into a Rubik’s Cube?”
“Try here,” Costa pointed to a place on the floor of the oven room where there was significant discoloration over a precise square area near the wall.
Don used the ground penetrating instrument, scanning the floor where Costa pointed out.
“No fucking way! Zorba, you genius!” Don shouted in an excited whisper as the screen yielded unmistakable images of a deep cavernous area under the first few meters of the floor.
“What did you find?” Nina asked.
“Look on the screen. This instrument uses radar to indicate fluctuations in the substructure. What does that look like to you, love?” Don asked her. Nina was astonished.
She gasped, “A flight of stairs!”
From the other chamber, the haunting footfalls started once more, pacing irregularly. Nina’s chest heaved as she realized that the sound of the boots were closer than before. She sank to her haunches and proceeded to utilize her laser cutter to burn hard into the concrete above the staircase.
“Hurry! Hurry!” the men pressed frantically. “Can’t you set it to a stronger beam?”
“This is the top setting, guys,” she hissed in frustration as the first side was cut halfway through the concrete.
“Listen!” Costa said.
In the next room, the boots were now accompanied by whispers.
“No ghosts?” Don asked.
Costa shook his head. “No, but they might turn us into ghosts soon.”
“Oh Christ, I cannot do this any faster!” Nina sneered, sweat trickling down her temple and cheek as she completed the second of three incisions.
“They are coming!” Don groaned. “Fuck that, I’ll deal with them. You guys get down there and find the stone. I’ll meet you at the minivan at dawn. Later than that, take off and get the stone to Dave.”
With that, he rounded the broken wall of the oven room and started a fight. Costa lunged to follow, but Nina grabbed him by his suit and pulled him back. “Please stay with me! Please! I cannot do this by myself.”
The third border was cut, leaving a roughly cut square in the floor.
“The laser did not cut right through,” he said.
They could hear a mighty altercation where Don was. Costa abandoned his efforts to do things quietly. With a hefty kick, he brought his foot down in the one corner where two incisions met, breaking the already sliced cement and forcing the thinner layer beneath it to fail under the pressure.
A shot rang out from the hallway, but Nina could not ascertain whether Don was dead or alive.
Only gunshots and shouting ensued. Nina knew that museum security would not open fire like that.
“Hurry, Costa! We have unauthorized company, if you know what I mean!” she growled as she stomped her boots down on the other unbroken parts to speed things along. The floor caved in with a terrible rumbling, but in the cacophony of the firefight, the collapse went unnoticed.
Costa helped Nina into the hole and took her hand once they were under the floor. They could hear the heavy footfalls of the men in the chamber scuffle. As the shooting stopped, Nina and Costa could hear the footsteps running toward the outside of the building.
“That must be what we heard,” he told her. “The footsteps chasing us were a floor above us. That is why we couldn’t see them. Just like now. There they go, but it sounds like they are right here.”
“I just hope Don is alright. I hope those bullets fired were his, Costa” she said softly.
Costa comforted her, running his hand over her tied back hair. He pulled her against him and continuously stroked her crown a few times before he pulled the black scrunchy from her hair.
“What are you doi…?”
Costa pressed his lips on hers, snuffing her words in a deep kiss. Nina could not believe what was happening, but she had wanted it for so long that she abandoned all responsibility.
‘Sam’
In the pitch darkness, she allowed Costa to ravage her, her passionate moans contained by the hidden hall under the ground of the killing floor.
34
Purdue was worried sick.
He could not get hold of Nina or Don, causing him even more stress. Everything in him screamed to return to Poland and seek them out. At least he knew where they were supposed to be, but he had to wait here in London for them. They would bring the Medusa stone so that he could arrange for Helen’s release. One thing he did have going for him was what he found on the security footage – which the kidnappers accessed the administration building with Soula Fidikos’ code.
But that only proved that the same people responsible for killing Soula were behind the abduction. And he already knew that just by deduction. Now his team members in Poland were off the radar, even from him, which was never a good thing. All he could do was hope that they were just delayed. Otherwise, he would be in for a long month of friends’ funerals to attend.
While he waited for the second of three calls from the Black Sun, he chugged back one Scotch after the other. It was a dumb idea that he knew, but it did not seem to matter to him if his friends were in trouble. His phone rang, like the expected tolling of an execution bell.
“Hello.”
“Mr. Purdue, how are you?” the distorted voice asked.
“I’m just peachy, thank you,” he answered casually.
“Do you have the Medusa stone?” the voice inquired.
“I have not been able to find it yet,” Purdue replied. He did not expect understanding from Helen’s captor, but he answered truthfully nonetheless because he had nothing else.
“That is a pity. Tomorrow is the last day, Mr. Purdue, as you know,” the voice reminded him. “Then we take Professor Barry.”
“I know. I know,” the exhausted billionaire slurred. “And if I don’t save Prof. Barry? You might kill her, but you will still not have the Medusa stone.”
A pause followed just as Purdue had hoped. He had them in a corner with that one, he thought.
“Then we kill Dr. Gould.”
Purdue’s heart stopped. He fought to keep from throwing up as the voice continued to clarify matters for him. “We have three men currently exploring Auschwitz with her, actually.”
Tears welled in his eyes and his voice cracked.
“Is she in their custody?” he asked.
“If she were, Mr. Purdue, she could not find the Medusa stone for us, could she? She is not in our custody, but she is in our sights. One word from me and Nina Gould joins Soula Fidikos,” the voice threatened.
Purdue could not utter a single word in response. It was not because he had nothing to say, but that his throat had closed up at the thought of Nina’s fate if he did not deliver the Medusa stone within the next day.
“Tomorrow, then,” the man signed off. “Good day, Mr. Purdue.”
He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry like a child; like he had not cried since the shock of his twin sister’s death when he left her behind in Venice long ago. Dave Purdue always had a way out. Wealth and genius had always provided him with a guaranteed way out of everything, even when all seemed lost. There was a reason he was always cheerful and suave.
Until now he had never known what it is like to lose control. No longer was he able to take the reins in every sticky situation.
But just as the despair overcame him, his mind became clear one more time. Like the final gasp before the last exhale, he focused on what he had, meager as it was.
“That accent,” he sniffed, wearily propped up on his elbows on the wall desk of his London penthouse. “Why do I know that accent?”
He got up, wiped his eyes and picked up his cell phone again. Pacing up and down, he waited for the call to be answered.
“Hey!” he exclaimed. “It’s Purdue. How are you?”
On the other end of the line, an old friend was amazed to hear from him, but Purdue soon made it clear that it was not a social call. After giving his friend a brief twenty-minute account of recent events, Purdue was back to his confident self.
“I need your help. I think I know who the kidnapper is. Can you find out if he is involved with the Black Sun organization? Please get back to me by tonight, latest. Sooner if you can!” Purdue pleaded.
After the call, he arranged to get what he needed to save Helen, and subsequently, Nina too. It would be the most unorthodox rescue he had ever implemented, but he had a good feeling about it. Having been so worried about Nina, it was ironic that the voice of Helen’s captor was the one who notified him that Nina was not dead or missing after all.
He had one night and a morning left to get the Medusa stone before the last call, that call that would seal the fate of two women he adored.
35
The sudden silence under the floor of the oven room was almost uncanny. All Nina could hear now was Costa’s heavy breathing as he gradually recovered from his climax. His hands were still firmly on her hips while she tried to absorb what really just happened. In the dark, she smiled to herself. He was not Sam, and she could not even imagine him as Sam since they were unable to see one another, but she did not care. Sometimes a release was just a release, and she needed it after all. Physical heaven granted her reprieve from emotional hell.
‘Well done!’ she thought to herself.
“When you are done, Professor Megalos, we still have a relic to find quite urgently,” she said, half whispering.
He snickered somewhere in the pitch blackness, “Way ahead of you, Dr. Gould. Unlike you, I have my pants on already.”
“How do you know I am not dressed?” she challenged defiantly.
“For one thing, I am wearing my night vision goggles,” he laughed, slapping her on the haunches.
A few seconds later, she had her hair back in the ponytail and was fully dressed as before, only, everything had changed. She could not put her finger on it, but she had bigger matters to take care of right now.
“Shall we dare light the flare?” she asked Costa.
“We will have to if we want to see anything down here,” he replied.
“But it will mark our whereabouts,” she argued with concern.
“Nina, the sooner we find the stone, the sooner we can leave. And what is more, once we have the stone, we can turn anyone into a damn statue if they fuck with us down here,” he snapped. Nina did not like his tone, but she was not going to spoil the moment with a confrontation.
Nina said nothing in retort. She felt around in her backpack for the smooth tubular object she needed. Twisting the cap off and striking the exposed end with it, she pinched her eyes shut to ease in the blin
ding light. While her eyes were shut, she heard Costa gasp in fascination. When Nina opened her eyes, she let out a yelp in fright.
“Jesus!” she cried as the ignited flare revealed the colossal face on the wall, crumbling around the nose and mouth to leave it looking like a grinning corpse. Costa was spellbound by the massive staring eyes, essentially two deep holes. One was black and the other appeared to glimmer. Nina stepped backward, in awe of the concrete shrine of human bones and snakeskin strewn on the floor in front of the face.
“Costa?” she called out to reduce some reaction from her companion. “Have you turned to stone?” Jesting seemed wasted on him for some reason. He was so serious, so focused all of a sudden.
“Do you know what this is?” he asked monotonously. She passed him a flare, and he ignited it.
“It looks like the head of Medusa,” she remarked. “May I add that it is creeping me the fuck out?”
“Isn’t she breathtaking?” Costa marveled.
Nina raised an eyebrow. “Maybe being straight makes me blind to the allure of females, but this chick is far from breathtaking.”
Costa looked around the chamber under the oven room, seeking out the meaning of the construction apart from the obvious. There were no elaborate markings or anything to indicate that it was a temple, yet the heap of bones denoted some sacrifices were made to the Gorgon.
Nina was reluctant to approach the hideous stone thing, but the one glimmering eye intrigued her no end, begging to be explored. While Costa moved along the walls of the crumbling makeshift temple to find clues, Nina gathered her courage and stepped up against the horrific face. Arduously, she struggled to elevate herself high enough on loose skeletons to stick her arm into the eye.
“Please don’t eat me,” she groaned as she wrestled with the long tubular hole. Her arm was just long enough to reach the shining object deep inside. Nina’s fingertips tap-tapped on the smooth surface until it fell forward and allowed her to claim it. Her heart pounded wildly when she pulled it out and realized that she had just uncovered the elusive Medusa stone.
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 4 Page 56