“I have to agree,” Phillip said, watching George go over to pick up the trishula from where it had fallen. “This thing seems like nothing but trouble.”
“It’s what we’ve done all of this to find,” George said, bringing it over so they could all see it again. He looked at Nadir. “This was your operation. What do you think we should do?” The professor was silent and they all waited for either him or the voice to speak again. Finally Phillip was the one to open his mouth.
“If Kiran and that Nazi could get down here after us, so can other people. If we leave it here, someone else is going to come for it.” Phillip reached out to touch the trishula, then stopped. “Maybe we should just destroy it.”
“This is an ancient weapon, possibly as old as time itself,” George said, shaking his head. “Even if we could destroy it I don’t believe we should.” He turned to Alice, whose eyes were fixed on the bone-white relic in George’s hands. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” she said, holding out a hand. George gave her the trishula and as soon as she touched it her eyes went blank, the pupils dilating until almost nothing of her brown eyes remained. Her body stiffened and she began to breathe faster, as if she was in a panic. George pried her fingers, which had tightened like a vise, off of the trishula and she swayed on her feet. She tripped over her own feet and fell, but this time Phillip was the one to catch her before she hit the ground.
“Alice? Are you all right?”
“It’s terrible,” she said, her body trembling. “Just like she said it would be. I saw it. I saw everything.”
“What do you mean, everything?” Her words didn’t make sense to Phillip but she didn’t elaborate, only shook her head.
“We should let it be,” she said weakly as George shoved the trishula at Nadir and dropped to his knee beside her. “We spilled blood in her temple so she’ll let us go. We shouldn’t steal from her as well.” Alice smiled, just a little. “Besides, this isn’t just some run of the mill tomb we’d be looting. She’s a goddess.”
“A goddess,” Phillip said. He was still struggling to process that the voice they heard was a divine being, and Alice started to get up. George took her hand to pull her to her feet and Phillip stood as well. He was wet from holding her but the warmth of the temple kept him from being cold. He looked up at the statue, then took a step back in horror when he saw a real, living woman standing on the pedestal.
She was beautiful and terrifying all at once, with smooth black skin as dark as ink. Her eyes were ruby and fire, a deep blood red that matched the shade of the tongue that lolled out of her grinning mouth. The fangs that had been on the statue were longer and sharper now, and the skulls on her necklace clacked together as she reached out to him with the hand the trishula had been in. There was a groove in the palm and it was dripping blood onto the floor in thick, dark drops. A wild laughter filled the room and her leg moved, taking a step down from the pedestal. That was the last straw for Phillip.
“Leave it,” he said, backing toward the door. “Leave the damn thing and let’s get out of here.”
The others looked at him curiously and when Phillip pointed wordlessly at the goddess, wondering how they could be so calm, he was relieved to see that there was nothing but a statue on the pedestal. Without questioning him, Nadir handed the trishula to George, who climbed back up on the statue and put it back in Kali’s hand. Phillip was glad he was the one to do it, because he wouldn’t have gone near the pedestal to save his life.
“Let’s go,” George said. He looked at his watch, then shook his wrist. “Looks like it’s stopped. Maybe we’ll make it back up before the sun comes up. It would be best if we were out of here before any of the other workers come out to the cave.”
“Yes,” Nadir said. “We don’t want anyone else following us down.” He looked over at the corpse on the floor uncomfortably. “What should we do with him?”
“Leave him,” Alice said. “Let him stay down here with her. She can send him to Hell for us.”
They climbed the stairs to the main temple and went out to make their way across the stones that would lead them back to the shore. As soon as they started to cross there was a rumbling sound from behind them and they all turned to see that the doors of the temple that had been wide open for them were sliding shut. They came together with a crash and Phillip was immediately flooded with relief. There was no chance the creature in the sanctum – goddess or statue – was coming after them now.
When they got to the lake, Alice looked over the entire cavern and smiled. It all seemed so peaceful now, and the sound of the water rushing and dripping had become soothing.
“It really is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Not as beautiful as you, Phillip thought, and for a moment he thought he would be able to say it. Then he saw George touch Alice’s hand, just for a moment, and knew it was hopeless.
Twenty-Four
They found Kiran at the top of the second staircase, unable to move past the door that had let them in before. Alice had speculated that when the temple sealed itself, so had the other doors but it slid open to let them through when she touched it. They’d used the rope that Kiran had used to tie up Phillip and Nadir to bind his wrists and Phillip had taken his gun.
It was mid-morning when they emerged from the cave, and the workers all stopped to stare as they walked the director of the dig to the planning tent and sat him down. George enlisted the help of one of the drivers and, after handing him some money to keep him on their side, went with the others to pack up his things for the trip back to civilization.
“I wonder what they’ll do now,” Alice said, looking far more presentable in a fresh shirt and skirt. “About the dig, I mean.” Her hair was still hanging around her shoulders, having lost the pick George bought her in Ahmedabad, and he resolved to buy her a new one when they got back to New York. She’d been so pleased when he gave her the first, after all, and as far as he was concerned it when his feelings toward her had started to change.
“Now that the reason for it is gone, I suppose the Nazis will just abandon it. They weren’t interested in the historical value of the site, just the possibility they’d find the trishula. As Schuvalt said, the government has more important things to worry about right now. Left alone long enough, I imagine it will be buried again.” Nadir looked a little sad at the prospect and George put Alice’s suitcase in the truck with his own.
“It’s probably for the best,” George said. “Let everything down there stay buried.”
“Yes,” Alice agreed. “It could be decades or even centuries before a group like us attempts to explore it again, if ever. Even then I don’t know if they’d be able to get in. The temple may have simply sealed itself forever.”
“Ready to go?” Phillip joined them at the truck with his suitcase, the last of their personal effects. Alice laughed, and the sound filled George with a peace he hadn’t felt in years. Not even what had happened with the Nazi could take it away from him, and it was because of her. Phillip joined her in laughing and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”
Just as they had when they arrived, Alice, George, and Phillip rode in the back seat while Nadir took the front. They put Kiran in the second truck with their things and the driver George had paid in the tent. This time when Alice dozed off in the truck George couldn’t say he blamed her, and this time when she leaned on him while she slept he didn’t mind.
When they got back to Surat, they dropped Kiran off with the police and gave them the story they’d come up with to explain everything. They all knew full well that even if he tried to contradict their story, he would have sounded like a madman. By the time they had everything settled, it was early evening and they were all exhausted.
“I don’t know about you,” Phillip said as they stood outside the police station. “But I’m not in any shape to fly right now.”
“I say we find a hotel,” George said. “A good one. We can leave in the morning.”
; “It will be nice to sleep in a real bed,” Nadir agreed. “And take a real shower.” Even though they’d had the luxury of both when they were staying with the Patels, George couldn’t agree more. He spoke to one of the policemen, who recommended the nicest hotel in the city and assured George that they would accept his American money just as well as Nadir’s rupees.
Along the way they stopped at a druggist to pick up some razor blades for Phillip and George was surprised to see that they still sold the brand of cigarettes he had smoked when he lived in Surat. He wasn’t much of a smoker anymore but he bought them for nostalgia’s sake and put them in his pocket beside his gun.
He still wasn’t sure what had come over him in the temple. The Nazi threatening Alice had made him angry, yes, but not enough to shoot him. It seemed like everything had just come at him at once and he’d done it before he was really sure what he was doing. He didn’t regret it. The man had deserved to die. He’d hurt Alice, and his friends had been responsible for the deaths of so many of his brothers. When he said Schuvalt wasn’t the first man he’d killed, he had been telling the truth. But this was the first time he’d done it because he wanted to instead of doing it on orders.
“What are you thinking about?” Alice put a hand on George’s arm and he smiled down at her.
“How much I can’t wait to get back to sewing people back together,” he replied. “Compared to all of this, dealing with the aftermath of an automobile accident seems a walk in the park.”
“Is that what you do?” It occurred to George that he’d never told her about his work. He had been too busy trying to push her away to do something as simple as make conversation with her and he nodded.
“I work in the trauma department at Bellevue,” he said. “When people come in with broken arms or knife wounds I’m the one who sorts them out. I’m considered a bit of an odd duck because I still use some of the Ayurvedic methods I learned here but no one says too much because it works.”
“Amazing,” Alice said. She was carrying his black bag again and looked down at it. “I always knew you’d be a wonderful doctor.” George didn’t know what to say to this and was relieved when they made it to the hotel.
They paid for four rooms and put their things away, agreeing to meet in the lobby to go get something to eat as none of them had eaten since the night before and they were all ravenous. George couldn’t help being a little disappointed when Alice came down freshly showered with her hair put up in a comb.
“You bought a new one,” he said.
“It’s too much trouble to leave it down,” Alice said, patting her bun. “I bought it at the druggist while you were getting your cigarettes.”
“Ah.” George wished he’d thought of it while he was there but he was at least glad that the boy hadn’t thought of it either.
They walked together down the street to the restaurant the desk clerk had recommended and were surprised to find it was more of a pub. The loud voices and music that was being played by a small group were exactly the atmosphere they needed and the foursome took the only empty table by the wall, well away from the people that were dancing to the music in pairs and alone. Alice translated for the group and their food was brought out before she could even explain to Phillip what they were about to eat.
George couldn’t decide if the food was actually the best he’d ever had or he was just so hungry that anything would taste like it, but he ate everything that was put in front of him and wasn’t surprised to see that the others did the same.
“It was wonderful,” Alice told the waiter in Gujarati. “Thank you so much.” The band in the corner started playing another lively song and she smiled. “I’m so full but this music is wonderful. If I was back home I would certainly dance to it.” George had never been much of a dancer but it wouldn’t have been the first time he’d danced with Alice and he was debating whether or not to take a chance when Phillip stood up from the table and offered Alice his hand.
“Let’s dance, then,” he said with a grin. Without so much as a glance in George’s direction, she beamed at Phillip and took his hand. He led her over to the makeshift dance floor and, after a brief exchange that made Alice laugh, they started dancing in an obviously American fashion. Nobody seemed to care but their plain clothes made them stand out in the crowd much more obviously.
He could remember the way Alice smiled when they danced, the way she always trusted him to lead, and every now and then bumped into him when she wasn’t paying attention. He thought about the time he’d wasted being cold to her even after she’d apologized and wondered if he would ever see her again when they went home. After what she’d said in their dream he had almost expected that they would see each other again in New York but now that he saw her dancing with Phillip he wasn’t sure.
“She’s really something, isn’t she?” Nadir’s words brought George back to the noisy room and he nodded, hoping it didn’t look like he wasn’t paying attention.
“Yes,” George said. “She certainly is.”
“She may have saved more people than just us with whatever she saw back there in the temple,” Nadir said. “I wonder what it was.”
“We might never know,” George said, then looked around the room at the people who were laughing, drinking, dancing, and even singing. “Neither will any of them. As it should be.” His attention was back on Alice, and on Phillip’s hand on her waist. “I’m going to go outside for a bit. I’d like to have a cigarette.” Nadir nodded and George walked past the dancers and out through the back door of the restaurant.
Part of him hoped that Alice would notice he was gone and come after him, but when she didn’t he kept walking until he was around the corner and sat down on one of the benches he found there. When he reached into his pocket for the cigarettes his fingers brushed against his service revolver and something soft. Curious, he took it out and saw that it was the bloody handkerchief Alice had used to tend to his head. It had turned pinkish with the water that soaked it when he jumped into the lake but he could still see the letters monogrammed into the corner. GGB, he thought. George Gregory Bennett. Alice had been saving this for years, keeping it close to her all this time and as he stared at it, he regretted every cruel thing he’d said to her.
Maybe it’s better this way, he thought, tucking the handkerchief back into his pocket and lighting his cigarette. The tobacco was sweet and it filled his lungs with smoke that made him ache for the past. Maybe she would be better off with someone like the boy, who’s still young and idealistic and not so damaged. The way she looked at me after I killed the Nazi, I wouldn’t be surprised if she never wanted me to come near her again.
“George?”
There was no mistaking Alice’s voice and George’s heart jumped in his chest at the thought that she really had come after him. She still wanted him in spite of everything and for a moment he was paralyzed. He wanted to call out to her, to tell her where he was and have her come to him but at the same time he wanted her to go home and have a normal life with a normal man who wouldn’t wake up shaking in the middle of the night.
“I’m around the corner,” he said instead, and Alice came around to join him with a smile just as he took a drag of the cigarette. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from dancing and she sat on the bench beside him.
“That smells lovely,” she said. “Aren’t those the cigarettes you smoked back then?”
“Yes,” George said. “That’s why I bought them.” He offered the cigarette to Alice, knowing it was crazy, that she was likely to laugh at him and tell him she didn’t smoke, but she took it from him and exhaled a cloud of sweet smoke. “Like it?”
“It’s very good,” she said, handing the cigarette back. George put it to his mouth again, wanting to feel the warmth of her lips on the paper before it was gone. “Why are you out here?”
“Just wanted some air, I suppose.”
“Oh.” They were both quiet for a minute, then Alice took a deep breath. “When you said Jan wasn’t the
first man you killed, you meant the war, didn’t you?” George nodded, somewhat reluctantly. “Is that what you used to have nightmares about?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” It was the same answer he’d given her a hundred times before and just like she always had, she simply fell silent. This time, however, she smiled at him.
“I want to tell you why I was in India.”
“It doesn’t matter,” George said. “Alice---”
“You know my father is German,” she said over him. “When I was out of high school he wanted me to see Europe so he sent me off on a tour. I’ve always been interested in languages so I had quite a good time trying them out in France and Spain and Italy, but I didn’t get into trouble until I went to Germany.
“I met Jan, and he thought I was German because of my name and because I was so fluent. He was quite handsome back then and I didn’t know he was a Nazi until later, after I begged my father to let me stay in Germany longer. I suppose he felt comfortable with me because he started telling me all about the military and how there were still plenty of Germans that wanted to bring the country back to glory. He told me about these great plans and I knew I had to tell someone before it was too late to do anything about it.
“When I went to the embassy to tell them, they asked me if I was willing to do my duty to America and pass along the information he was giving me.” She laughed bleakly. “You’re so patriotic when you’re young. Someone tells you that you can be a hero and you swallow it hook, line, and sinker.”
Drowned History Page 15