“What?” Purdue gasped, going pale at the news.
“Is that not good news?” Sam asked lazily.
“Well, yes, of course, but it’s remarkable. Nina, how do you know this?”
Nina checked the status of the argument between Rita and Guido before continuing. “Your old pal Rita apparently saved him from certain death while he was strapped to a kitchen chair in...in...some fucking dried up desert town somewhere.”
“Strapped to a kitchen chair?” he frowned, trying to make sense of her revelation.
“Her hubby-wubby tortured him to find out where you were and he almost bit it when the whiny bitch with the Italian shoes got fed-up…until Rita interfered. Now, because of her sweet disposition, your Egyptian assistant is probably hanging upside down in a basement somewhere, but he is very much alive,” she explained, to Purdue's elation.
“Excellent,” he smiled. “Not that the poor man’s being held, but that he’s not dead after all. You know, my escape from the locals in Aksum and my attainment of the relic are all thanks to Adjo and his brother. I have to find out where he’s being kept.”
“You don't have time to go out and save your assistant,” Nina reprimanded him. “You have to get off the grid and stay there until...”
Purdue did not understand. Neither did Sam, who peeked over his laptop screen and waited for an explanation for her urgency regarding Purdue. Of course, Sam did not want Purdue to go off the grid until the journalist had enough on him to tighten the net for Paddy's people.
“Nina,” Purdue asked softly, “what do you know that I don't, my dear? And please, be specific.”
Nina sighed anxiously. Looking at Sam always melted her defenses, so she tried not to look at him. But she felt obliged to tell Purdue now that they were safely passing over the German border to Austria and a good distance from Edinburgh. “Charles...”
“I knew it!” Purdue said a bit too loudly, momentarily drawing the attention of the fighting spouses. The three Scots merely smiled and pretended to be engaging in trivialities to misdirect them. “I knew it,” Purdue said again. “The way he was looking at you was just too...wait, how does he fit into this?”
Sam was fascinated with what Nina was sharing. “Charles didn’t want to jump the gun and get into his boss' business, that’s all, Purdue. Geez! He approached me so that he could protect you without confronting you personally.”
“About?” Sam chipped in.
“His brother-in-law works for a government agency responsible for the smashing of antique syndicates. He wouldn't say, but I think it may be loosely the same intelligence people Paddy works for,” she said under her breath. “There is a dragnet active, Purdue, for your arrest. Interpol is assisting on a superficial basis to locate you, but the Ethiopian Government and several international Historical Preservation organizations are calling for your indictment on contraband charges.”
“Fuckin' hell,” Sam said. “Sounds like you really stepped in it this time, old boy.”
“Most sites are protected by 1906 Antiquities Act and the 1979 Archaeological Resource Protection Act,” Nina added, “so any theft of artifacts on federal land is a turd in their punch bowl.”
“So he didn’t want to tell me personally,” Purdue wondered out loud. He admired his butler for his professionalism in this regard, but it was shocking to only learn about his wanted status now that he was en route to do it yet again.
Sam said nothing. He couldn’t deny that it stung him a bit to see his friend vulnerable, but it was time for Purdue to be struck down to size by the authorities he’d always eluded so easily, almost arrogantly, because of his wealth and contacts. Instead, the journalist did some background research on Guido Bruno, the man who had them all at his mercy, the man who had the gall to practically take over their respective lives to get what he wanted.
Later, the excitement between the spouses had died down mostly from exhaustion. Purdue was taking a nap and Nina was watching a movie on her laptop. Sam used this time to snoop on the man-child who threw a tantrum every time he was not in charge. There was not much on Guido Bruno, although the Familia he belonged to did not disappoint Sam's assumptions.
Inside the jet it was quiet of conversation, giving Sam time to hear himself think. There was a lot at stake, all of it depending on him. Having to make a choice between Purdue and Paddy was weighing heavily on him, but he was certainly more fed-up with one than the other. Flashes of horrible pictures from scenes perpetrated by the Cosa Nostra was nothing new to him, but what he was after were those easy-to-ignore, small report pieces in insignificant newspapers. Fortunately Sam knew exactly how to obtain information from those, and he knew just where to find them.
Then his heart jumped. He found what he was looking for, but it was more than what he’d bargained for. Sam's eyes stretched as his heart rate accelerated. His dark eyes instantly dashed up over the screen to find the reprehensible scum that suddenly sank to the bottom of his shit pool. Sam clenched his fists, wishing he could just shove a butter knife into the Sicilian snake's eye, but that would compromise his entire mission to keep tabs on Purdue so that Paddy's associates could arrest him.
On Sam's screen there was an old picture from 2009, the subject of which he didn’t even bother or care to read. All he needed to know was what the photograph confirmed—that Guido Bruno and Igor Heller were celebrating together after the infamous Agrigento Massacre, during which Bruno's business partner was killed, coincidentally after taking Bruno to court over a real estate dispute.
“What are you looking at, Mr. Cleave?” Guido dared ask in his condescending manner.
Sam's skin flushed with rage. “Nothing,” he replied with equal contempt. “Absolutely nothing.”
25
Two hours later the party touched down in Athens. Purdue was smart enough to carry his alternative identification documents with him even before he knew that he was being trailed. It paid to be paranoid, thanks to the recent precautions he’d had to take to keep clear of the Order of the Black Sun and their spies. Nina walked with Sam, while Purdue strayed on his own, carefully watched by Rita and her husband. Being an awkward hour, the group elected to get something to eat at an all-night restaurant. Again, irony prevailed as the opposing groups sat down together with French wine and Greek cuisine.
Purdue seemed unperturbed by the recent revelation that he was a wanted man, and chatted heartily with Nina about mundane things. Even Guido and Rita had a normal conversation while Sam appeared to be distancing himself from the group altogether. Nina noticed, but didn’t elect to address it until the moment was right. He kept looking at his phone, pretending to play a game while waiting for the main course. In truth, Sam was corresponding with a contact from the Archaeological Crimes Unit, patching through their global positioning coordinates. While he was pretending to play on his phone, an unexpected e-mail came through.
The tone sounded so loud that the entire table looked to Sam with quizzical expressions. Guido, for one, looked awfully suspicious, but Sam simply shrugged and said, “Angry Birds. I'm addicted.”
It did the trick for the time being, but Sam knew he couldn’t afford to be in contact with any of his associates further than this dinner. From here on in, he’d have to get rid of his phone and take things upon himself, rather than be discovered and put Nina in danger for it.
The e-mail that had come through was in fact from Purdue, who’d decided to CC both Nina and Sam just in case something happened to him. The linguist he’d approached for advice on the markings had responded to his inquiry, revealing that the symbols translated to mention of a 'substance' within the 'chamber room' that could somehow 'make in children, godlike powers.'
Sam looked up in amazement at Nina and Purdue, neither looking disturbed in the slightest from their chatting and drinking. Nina had disabled her phone and had no way of receiving Purdue's mail, but Sam would share it with her somewhere along the line. Although she and Rita had examined the club, they hadn’t known what the
symbols meant exactly. Now only Purdue and Sam held this knowledge.
This is why the SS was trying to take children to the Vault of Hercules, Sam thought. They experimented on the child in the ark relic and something went wrong.
Now it made sense why Guido Bruno would do Igor Heller's bidding. While Heller was in prison for his crimes for the Black Sun, he needed Bruno to experiment on children for the same end Himmler and his goons had sacrificed the poor dead girl from the 1940s. At the same time, Bruno would benefit from the find as long as he could get his wife to locate the chamber. And who better to garner the sacrificial lambs from countries all over Europe than Bruno's sick associate, Valdi?
Sam could feel his stomach drop as it all fell into place. No longer was Purdue Sam's biggest concern. Now that he knew who the true threat was and how perilous it was for all involved, Sam had to keep his head more than ever. Hoping that he was the only one privy to the information, he had to increase his vigilance a hundred fold. The question was, how much did Prof. Medley know about the Vault of Hercules? Another point he needed to clarify was if she knew what her husband's true motivations were behind funding her expedition.
He desperately needed to speak to Nina, but Guido's three watch dogs followed them everywhere, making it impossible to be alone with her. Even the sleeping arrangements were proof of Guido Bruno's distrust, not to mention his megalomania. He stationed one of his men at Purdue and Sam's room and another at Nina's. The other was for his own protection, as he called it. And after what Sam had figured out about him it was a wise investment into his safety. Fortunately for Guido, Sam Cleave had promises to keep, otherwise the journalist would have sealed the man’s fate without thinking twice.
They checked into the Heradorm Hotel near the Acropolis, paid for by Guido Bruno. Purdue deliberately played the Omega male to Guido's imagined Alpha male status. Not only did it allow Purdue to remain undetected by authorities, but his subordination allowed him to appear non-confrontational, thus leaving Bruno's attention on Sam. As long as Sam retained his blunt, slaphappy demeanor, it would irritate Bruno. Inadvertently, both Sam and Purdue were adapting favorable behaviorism for a coup should the chance arise.
Playing along with Guido allowed them to see things objectively.
The next morning was mild and calm over Athens. It was a tourist’s paradise, with temperate days and not too many people due to the fact that it was off-season. Just before 9 a.m. the party gathered in the lavish dining hall for breakfast.
“Everyone sleep well?” Rita asked amicably as they all sat down around a circular table. Everyone seemed well rested as they approved of the rooms they’d occupied. They ordered a solid breakfast, as this would be their first day into the excursion to locate the Vault of Hercules. During the night, Sam had written Nina a note that he could slip her, just like he used to do in school before every single person on the planet had a technological device strapped to their asses. All he had to do was find the opportune time to pass it to her, but she was strategically seated between Guido and Rita. Purdue was seated on Guido's other side, flanked by his bodyguard.
“How do you stay up for so long?” Sam asked the watchdog. “It’s truly admirable, but I’m sure after eighteen hours of guarding you’re not as sharp as you should be, hey?”
The man did not answer. He wasn’t allowed to speak unless he was responding to his boss. Rita watched her husband purse his lips, waiting for an eruption, but he refrained from an outburst. It was evident that the annoying journalist was indifferent to Guido's authority, which she found quite entertaining. On the other hand, she didn’t know Purdue to be a man easily overshadowed, and that scratched at her just a little.
“So, tell me, why are we in such a hurry to uncover the Vault of Hercules?” Nina asked innocently as she spread a thick dollop of margarine on her toast. “It has been there for thousands of years, so why the rush?”
Rita was afraid that her husband would jump in with some condescending answer and embarrass her again, so she answered Nina quickly. “According to previous discoveries of the chamber, the water level is steadily rising inside it. If we don't get inside it soon we might miss the chance—forever.”
“Shit,” Nina replied. “How much time do we have, according to your calculations?”
“Less than a week,” Rita revealed, seething at Purdue as she spoke. “Had we been able to retrieve the faux-Ark when we were supposed to, we would’ve had more time. But we didn’t count on it being stolen and abducted to another country, the pursuit for which would cost us almost an extra week.”
“Oh, shut it, Rita,” Purdue snapped. “If you were so bloody adamant on stealing it first, why the hell did you wait until now to get to Ethiopia?”
“Because you took so goddamn long to figure out were it was buried, idiot,” she roared as softly as she could. “Hadn't it occurred to you that you were the one leading us to the Ark relic? If you hadn't taken your sweet time to research its origins, we would have gotten to Aksum much earlier, before the rising water had actually become a threat to the chamber.”
“Wait, you have been waiting for Purdue to choose to find this artifact all this time?” Nina asked.
“Of course,” Guido chimed in. “Why would we break our heads to get the information if we could just entice someone like David to find it for us? Just like he’s going to find the actual Vault of Hercules for us now.”
“Genius,” Purdue remarked. “Carrion raptors who can’t hunt their own prey. You must be so proud.”
“Listen here, pal,” Guido shrieked, waving his finger at Purdue and making a scene, “the best hunters know when to kill their own prey and when to set up others to do it for them.”
“Relax, Guido,” Rita advised.
“So true,” Purdue retorted calmly. “Hunters like you go after the weak and leave the difficult kills to those of us who are able.”
“What the f...?” Guido bellowed, but his wife pulled him back into his chair and lifted her hand in a wavelike motion. Sam just watched the whole affair, desperately wishing he could weigh in about Purdue's remark so accurately hitting on Guido's operation taking on children.
“Remember, love, this will be over soon. Remember?” was all Rita repeated, a rather troubling notion to anyone who paid attention. Nina was not sure if Rita was insinuating that the three of them—Purdue, Sam and Nina—were expendable during this expedition. That’s how she construed it, but she decided to defuse the situation by asking about the task ahead.
“Um, Rita, do we have a location in Kalavryta or are we just going on the works of Tacitus and the Allied soldier to leave us clues?” Nina asked, neglecting her breakfast. “Where do we start?”
Rita unfolded an old, ragged map and spread it out on the table between them, pushing aside saucers and utensils so that they could all see. “The soldier gave us the why, not the where,” Rita shrugged. “But Kalavryta is reputed to be the entrance, according to some other sources.”
“Other sources? Are these other sources reliable?” Purdue asked, sipping his black coffee.
“Yes, David. They’re sources who have actually been there,” Rita told him sternly.
“And yet they didn’t come back or report on this spectacular find,” Purdue kept pushing, knowing full well that those explorers were of the Nazi variety and deemed the mission a failure.
“Purdue, from what Rita and I have gathered between all the items in the relic, the chamber is under a lake near where Hercules completed a labor that was not counted as successful because he had help,” Nina explained.
“In other words, where he killed the Hydra,” Rita added. “During the Twelve Labors of Hercules, there were two that did not count because he had help completing them.”
“Right, and Kalavryta boasts the famous Spilaio ton Limnon, or 'Cave of the Lakes,' which places the Vault of Hercules at this location. The Hydra legend was located at Lake Lerna, which has since dried up, but there are endless water bodies beneath the area,” Nina said
. “But where, Rita?”
“The entry point, according to those archaeologists who reported on the water level problem, would be situated here, in Kastria,” Rita informed, tapping the point of her index finger upon the village name on the map. “But according to the writings Dr. Gould and I perused, it’s not the same entry point as the well-known cave network.”
“Aye, from those notations it states that the entrance to the Vault of Hercules should be between Mount Kyllini and the village of Kastria in Kalavryta.,” Nina added. “All we have to look for are two pillars or two columns.”
“Yes, that’s the part we havn’tquite identified,” Rita said, looking at Purdue and Sam.
“But if I supply all this stuff on this list, you can find it, eh?” Guido asked his wife, looking threatening as he wiggled the inventory list she’d printed out for him.
“Absolutely,” Rita assured him, taking a deep breath that came across as concern rather than contentedness.
26
It was just short of midday when the party arrived in Kalavryta. The only contribution Purdue had made to this expedition was done through Nina's credit card, with extra funds funneled to her account via a financial affiliate of Purdue's. This way he could not be traced, he figured, while allowing for some back-up equipment, should they need any.
Nina had followed protocol, for once under Purdue's guidance, and procured a permit for three days in the mountains of Kalavryta, just to cover their asses to some extent without the inclusion of their opposition. Of course, it was issued to Dr. Gould for a historical research quest with a few colleagues. No big deal.
“Geez, this is a stunning little patch of land, don't you think?” Sam nudged Nina.
“Aye, I see what all the fuss is about, even for those of us who are not obsessed with history,” she replied, shading her eyes with her hand as she surveyed the panoramic beauty from the rendezvous point up on Mount Aroania's eastern face. “Look at the endless skyline.”
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