by Anthology
“Okay,” I said. He stepped toward the crack and I reached out to him without thinking about it. He paused and looked back at me.
“Be careful,” I said finally.
He nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
He slipped through the entrance and finally disappeared into the chamber itself.
I stood at the entrance, staring inside. I lost his flashlight beam a few times as he went deeper and deeper into the chamber. My heart was beating fast and my palms were sweating, fear lacing its way up through my chest. I didn’t know what was going to happen or if it was even safe in there, and I was terrified.
After a few minutes, I heard a loud bang. I jumped, horror filling my veins. I heard another and then another, and then silence.
I stood there, horrified. Those were without a doubt gunshots, but I didn’t know if Langdon was okay. Maybe some of the Syndicate guys survived, and Langdon was now hurt.
I didn’t know what to do. I could slip through the entrance and run after him, but he told me to wait. It could be dangerous in there, and I risked making some fatal mistake.
Or I could wait, and trust him.
As I stood there waiting, suddenly my questions were answered for me.
Chapter 15
Dy-No-Mite!
As I stepped toward the entrance of the chamber, a flashlight beam came into view. I couldn’t tell who was holding it, but I could tell that it was coming closer and closer as the person carried it toward me.
Suddenly, it stopped, probably somewhere in the center of the chamber. It just stood there, glowing, not moving, and I could feel my anxiety building. I waited, tense as hell, not sure what was about to happen.
When the beam turned off and then on, off and then on, relief washed over me. Quickly I pushed my way down the tight opening into the chamber, my own flashlight on and held high as I walked quickly toward Langdon.
I found him standing in the middle of the chamber, a strange look on his face.
“I heard gunshots,” I said, breathless with worry. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “I’m okay.”
“What happened?”
“The booby trap . . . “ He trailed off for a second, taking a deep breath. “They were in bad shape. There was no way we could have saved them.”
“Oh,” I said softly.
I could see that he was haunted as he looked away from me. I reached out toward him and took his hand. “It’s okay,” I said. “You did what you had to do.”
“They were suffering.”
“I know.”
“Syndicate bastards.” He didn’t smile. I believed that he hated them and felt it was the right thing to kill them, but it was still difficult to take a human’s life.
“Did you set the charge?”
He came back to himself then. “I did. They tried to pry the door open, which was what set off the trap.”
“We’ll light it from the other side. Come on.”
“Yeah.” He nodded, coming back to himself. He took a deep breath then headed back toward the entrance, holding my hand.
We moved quickly, hand in hand, back to the entrance and slipped through the crack. Once back in the other room, he leaned up against the wall.
“Ready?” he asked.
“I guess,” I said.
“If it looks like this went badly, we’ll run back to the ropes. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.” He grinned at me. “Let’s meet your destiny.”
Before I could answer, he hit the bottom, not bothering with a countdown.
The blast shook the cave, a deep resounding boom in the distance. That same noise combined with the same quake happened again, but it was dwarfed by the sound of something slamming to the ground. We both stood there, clutching the wall behind us, waiting without moving a muscle.
We stood for a minute or two and slowly silence reclaimed the chamber. I looked at Langdon, and he looked at me.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“Let’s go,” I said.
He grinned. “That’s what I hoped you’d say.”
We stepped back through the entrance and headed down toward the great iron doors.
Chapter 16
Treasured Memories
We quickly crossed the huge space and found what was left of the iron doors tipped forward onto the ground. There was rubble all over the place and a thick layer of dust in the air, but the right door had fallen completely and the left was barely hanging on by the hinges.
“Holy shit,” he said. “It worked.”
I laughed. “You say that like you weren’t sure.”
He grinned at me. “I was very confident that something would happen. I just didn't know what that something would be.”
I sighed. “Come on.”
We stepped onto the fallen door and slowly moved forward. “Wait,” he said. “Let me go first. There could be more traps.”
He pushed me behind him as we stepped through the threshold and into the room beyond.
It was dusty and smoky from the blast still, and I had to lift my shirt over my mouth. Langdon handed me a bandanna after a minute to wrap around my face before we continued on into the room.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. The ceiling was high, at least as high as the chamber before, but the room wasn’t as large as that chamber had been. It was still inky black, but our beams reached the far walls, making the room maybe twenty by twenty feet by my estimate.
But it was packed with shelves. Chests were stacked on the ground overflowing with objects, and as I got closer to one, I could see that it was filled with gold coins.
“Holy shit,” I said softly.
“It’s treasure. Real treasure.”
“Millions of dollars at least,” I said softly.
“Don’t touch anything.”
I looked at him. “Why?”
“We can’t be sure there aren’t more booby traps.”
“Good point.”
We moved farther into the room, gaping at what we saw. There were priceless statues, pottery, jewels, and hundreds of what looked like rolled-up parchment scrolls. Everything was perfectly preserved due to the dry salty sea air that washed into the outer chamber and slowly filtered into this one.
It was beautiful. I was at a total loss for words as we finally got to the back of the room and stared at a large stone pedestal.
“This is it,” he whispered. I could hear the genuine awe and disbelief in his voice.
Sitting on the pedestal was a book. But not just any book, it was the exact book from every single painting of Saint Nicholas. It was the book from the tattoo my mother had.
“His manuscript,” I said.
“A genuine ancient relic.”
“My god. It’s beautiful.”
The cover was red leather, slightly cracked, with a strange cross emblazoned in black and gold on the front. It was smaller than I would have guessed, maybe the size of a hardback novel.
I had the insane and intense urge to take it. For some reason, the book was calling out to me, like it was singing my name. I had the overwhelming sensation that I was meant to be in this room at this exact time, and that nothing I did could have prevented this from happening. I was born to find this book and to take it, and nobody could stop that.
Maybe I really was descended from the man that wrote this. Maybe all of this treasure was mine by birthright. Or maybe it was all pirate gold, and this was the only thing that was genuinely mine. I had no clue, but I knew that the book was the key to everything. If we could get the manuscript out of here, we could come back for the rest of it one day in the future.
I reached out for it, slowly but surely. It was like I was under a spell, totally transfixed.
“Anna.”
I stopped myself and looked at Langdon. He was staring at me, his face concerned.
“Be careful,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Take it. The
book belongs to you.”
I nodded, took a sharp breath, and reached out. I grasped the book, feeling the supple, ancient leather in my hands, and picked it up.
Nothing happened. I held the book in my hands, marveling at how heavy it felt, how solid and real it was. This was an ancient relic written by a Christian saint thousands of years ago, and now it was mine. I was descended from this man, according to Langdon at least, and so this book was my history.
“Here,” Langdon said. He had a soft cloth in his hands. I reluctantly gave him the book, which he wrapped in the cloth before gently sliding it into his pack.
Just then, I heard something. It was faint, but it was distinct. Something was grinding, like a mechanical gear rolling over ancient steel.
“Do you hear that?” I asked him.
“I do,” he said. “We should go.”
“What about this other stuff?”
“We can come back for it later. Come on, I don’t like that sound.”
He grabbed my hand and walked quickly back to the entrance. My heart was hammering in my chest, and I didn’t want to leave that room. I knew I had no choice, but there were priceless artifacts in there, things which would tell us so much about our history.
Langdon pulled me forward, driving us across the chamber. He hopped lightly off the fallen door and headed toward the far side, as we pulled our flashlights out. The grinding sound was louder out here, much louder, and there was a rumbling in the ground.
Langdon started walking faster. I could feel bile rising up in my throat.
“Look,” I whispered. “Does that wall look closer?”
I shone my beam to the left. At the very far end of its reach, I could just make out a wall where there had been no wall before.
“Fuck,” Langdon said. “RUN.”
Chapter 17
Let’s Make A Splash
Before I even understood, he was pulling me along behind him. We sprinted toward the other side and suddenly it hit me: the walls were closing in.
I shone my light to the left again and the wall was definitely close and getting closer. The chamber was large and the entrance back to the path was so tiny, I had no clue if we were even heading in the right direction.
“Come on!” he yelled. “We’re going to make it!”
The walls were screaming in toward us. The grinding noise was even louder now as the walls came closer and closer, the ground vibrating under our feet like the whole place was going to fall on our heads.
“There it is!” Langdon shouted.
At the edge of the beam was the gap into the path. He threw me forward, shoving me against the gap.
“Go!” he shouted. “Go!”
“Langdon!”
He shoved me through and I was sliding in, moving as fast as I could through the tiny crack. The walls were feet away and moving faster.
Langdon stepped in beside me, moving as fast as he could. Just as he entered the crack, I heard a deafening boom as the walls met each other, shaking the whole cave to its foundations. If I weren’t propped up by the tight squeeze, I would have been thrown to the ground.
“Langdon!” I screamed.
“I’m okay. Go! Go!”
We moved through the crack and back out into the wider pathway. We ran, Langdon in the lead again, holding tightly to my hand. We ran as fast as we could, my lungs sucking in air, as the rumbling continued. I thought it would stop after the walls met, but things kept shaking. Terror shot through me, and for a second I thought that I was going to die in this cave.
The pathway snaked upward, ever upward. I hadn’t noticed it when we were coming down, but I noticed it when trying to run up it as fast as I could. My legs were burning and my chest was heaving, but I kept moving, legs pumping.
Ahead, sunlight burst in through the opening in the cave. It hurt my eyes but Langdon drove us forward until finally, we burst out of the cave and onto the tiny platform we had rappelled down onto.
But we weren’t safe yet. The whole cave was still madly quaking and shaking, and rocks were falling from the roof and into the ocean.
“There!” Langdon shouted. Anchored in the water was a speedboat. “The Syndicate men must have used this to follow us. Come on!”
We jumped into the boat and Langdon cut the rope that tethered it to the platform. He turned a key in the ignition, starting the engine, and we leapt forward, flying through the water. Rocks fell rapidly all around us, sending up huge waves and splashes into the air. We were yards away, and then feet, and finally we escaped into sunlight and open ocean as rocks fell rapidly behind us.
Langdon brought the boat around and we sat there in stunned silence as an enormous cave-in happened, filing up the mouth of the entrance and burying everything inside of it.
After ten minutes, it finally stopped. We sat there in stunned silence, staring at the place where the cave used to be, now buried in tons of rubble.
I didn’t know what to say. Somewhere down in there was millions of dollars of gold and even more priceless artifacts, probably all destroyed now. What was left of them would pale in comparison to what we saw.
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “We got what we came for.”
I looked over at him and he held up the book, grinning.
“But all that other stuff . . . “
He shrugged. “We’ll dig it out one day. Come on. Let’s go back.”
I nodded, sat down, and held on as Langdon drove the speedboat back toward shore.
Chapter 18
My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Was A Dirty Dirty Man
The sunlight streamed in through the slightly curtained back windows as I stretched out on the bed, groaning to myself. I was sore and tired from all that running and climbing, but I also felt better than I ever had in my entire life.
Langdon was sitting at the little table, several books opened around him as he pored through the manuscript. As far as he could tell, he said that the manuscript was the real deal. It was written in ancient Greek and Aramaic, which would make sense given Nicholas’s background. He was translating it the best he could.
I sat there, marveling at him, remembering what had happened down in the caves. Langdon saved my life and risked his to keep me safe when the walls were collapsing in on us. He pushed me through first and nearly got caught himself, but miraculously survived. I had never met a man so dedicated and serious before, not to mention handsome and smart. The fact that he was translating the manuscript already turned me on more than I was willing to admit.
Once he got started, he basically tuned out the outside world. I was pretty sure I could strip down naked in front of him and he wouldn’t even notice. Well, maybe not that, but I definitely tried to talk to him a few times and he only grunted in response.
Outside, the sun was starting to go down. I couldn’t believe I had come to Aruba and had followed through with all of this. I was a skeptic at first, but after everything that had happened down in the cave, I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t lie to myself.
Everything he told me was real. The war with the Syndicate was real, my mother’s life's work was real, and maybe even the magic of Christmas was real.
It was a lot to wrap my head around.
Langdon suddenly barked out a laugh, scaring me half to death.
“What?!” I asked, surprised.
He looked up at me, grinning hugely. “Listen to this.”
“What is it?”
“This is an entry toward the middle of the book, written by your ancestor.
This morning, I went to see her. Long dark hair, she had graceful lines and curves and every beautiful bounty a woman like that should possess. She is my Sheba, my witch, my wanted girl, my lovely morning dew. I ran my fingers through her dark silky hair and felt her soaking wonder. I tasted her even, lapped her like a thirsty mutt, for she is my rutting bitch and I am her dog in heat. I want to feel her skin against mine, every day and night, but I know I cannot. The law forbids it, and yet I
break the law to take her as I need to take her. I bend her, enter her, and fill her with my passion as she fills me with hers. I dream of her nipples between my teeth, under my tongue. I need her nightly, for my body remains rigid without her.”
Langdon shook his head. “Nicholas was a dirty, dirty man.”
“Holy crap,” I said, laughing. “That’s really . . . “
“Explicit?”
“Yeah,” I said, blushing. I stared at Langdon and noticed the way that he was looking at me. “I guess I’m descended from very dirty people.”
He stood and walked over to me. “You were great down there,” he said.
“Thanks. You did all the work.”
“Maybe. But most people, most normal people, would have run away screaming. You didn’t.”
“I couldn’t get back alone.”
“That wouldn’t stop other people. Don’t downplay what you did.”
“So I hung in there. So what?”
“You’re brave,” he said, kneeling down next to me. Our faces were level with each other. “You’re incredible.”
“No I’m not.”
I stared deep into his intense blue eyes. Gently, he reached out and took my cheek, angling my lips toward his.
“You’re so much more than you even realize.”
And then he kissed me. I knew in that moment that it was what I needed more than anything else, to feel Langdon’s mouth against mine. We kissed long and deep, desperate for each other. Everything had led to this, every moment and every word. I had been falling for him down in that cave, and now I was going to give myself over to him.
Chapter 19
All’s Hot That Ends Hot
He slowly pulled my jeans off before kissing me again, deep and hard. I felt his fingers press against my soaking panties, my dripping and useless panties, as he began to rub my clit through the fabric. I groaned into his kiss and he pulled back again, yanking off my panties and tossing them aside.