Phoenix Quest Adventures: First Three Novels

by K. T. Tomb

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Peter wondered how the passageway could produce light, but he was grateful it wasn’t pitch black.

  He hated being alone. It seemed like he always ended up on his own, whether it was high school, college, retrieving the Head of Olmec, or running into a narrow passage. He always ended up alone. That loneliness seemed to surround him now. Constrictive. Every decision he had ever made had left him alone in the end. He hated the solitude, but never knew how to be with anyone for long. He once thought he loved Phoe, but even that didn’t make him feel alive. However, she’s obviously made her decision to love her passion of finding relics. There was no room for love and romance...and hell, it would just make things uncomfortable for him, too. He knew she could never return his feelings.

  He stopped walking and leaned against a wall. When he was ready to continue, he looked up and was surprised to see Phoe. He rubbed his eyes, because there was no way this could be real.

  “Phoe?”

  He found himself praying she was really there, because she was the only one in the world who could take his loneliness away. She walked up to him. No sign of Jonathan anywhere.

  “Did you get separated from Jonathan?” She just stared at him. She smiled slightly, but the whole situation was just plain weird. “Answer me, Phoe! Where’s Jonathan?”

  There was something wrong with Phoe’s eyes. They were no longer green, and appeared to be golden and glowing. His frustration was steadily building. “Answer me, damn it! I’ve had it with this roller-coaster ride! You will answer me....”

  Or what?

  Did he just think her saying that? Her lips didn’t move. She moved closer.

  What’s the matter, Peter? Aren’t I what you want? Maybe it’s not me you want. Maybe you just want to humiliate me the way I’ve humiliated you all these years. Don’t you get it? You’re a sad sack of a man that I keep around when I need something. You’re my puppet and my bitch! No matter how many times I abuse and use you, you will come crawling back on your hands and knees to appease me. You know how I feel about you, don’t you? I would rather be with Jonathan than you! You’re a lame joke!

  He was having a hard time processing what was happening. He wanted to believe this was some kind of hallucination, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Phoe would say these things to him if she had a chance. The words hurt. He pictured Phoe having this conversation with him thousands of times, but now here she was performing the speech he’d dreaded for years. He’s a confident, successful man. How can he let one person do this to him?

  Come on, Peter. Is that all you can do? Just stand there while I take your manhood from you? I control every movement you make. Just when you think you make a decision, that’s just me pulling your strings! Ha! You’re not even a real man!

  He realized, increasingly, that none of this was real.

  “Stop it, Phoe! You have no right to talk to me like that!”

  She slowed but still crept toward him. Her moves were less and less human. Like an insect....She became fluid and smoother as she advanced. It’s like she can read my mind! He choked on a strong burning smell that made it hard to breathe. His head was clouded with what was real and what may not be real. Confusion made it hard for him to concentrate. She pushed him against the wall.

  He hit his shoulder and it actually hurt. “You’re not real!” he shouted.

  His act of defiance succeeded only in amusing her. Your mother always wanted a girl, didn’t she? She rejected you, Peter. Hated you for the fact that you’re a male. Why is that, Peter?

  “Shut up!” He was out of control. Lost it! The barrier between fantasy and reality had become so distorted he didn’t even know where he was.

  Poor little Peter. Because your sweet daddy cheated on your mother with anyone who would have him, your mother despised all men. That includes you, Peter. You are a follower in need of something to make you feel like a man, but you lack the balls to work for it!

  Peter tried to fight the despair, but eventually gave in. The precious release of letting go and letting life beat him up had totally encompassed him. He dropped to his knees in defeat and terrible despair.

  You’re pathetic....

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Phoe and Jonathan ran through the small passageway. Abruptly, she stopped and Jonathan almost ran into her. She had to stop, because about a foot in front of her was a deep chasm.

  The chasm appeared bottomless. She picked up a small rock near her foot and tossed it down the hole. She didn’t hear it hit bottom.

  “We have a problem, Jonathan.”

  “Yeah. I see it. So, what do we do now?”

  A hissing growl sound was getting louder behind them. The passageway continued on the other side of the chasm, roughly fifty feet away.

  “Do you think we can jump it?”

  “You first, Jonathan....Let me think about this.”

  “Ms. Phoenix! There’s nothing to think about! We need to do something and quick!”

  Phoe remembered that the alcove-turned-passageway they went into was the one with the clay wing. Maybe we can fly.

  Phoe pushed Jonathan back a little and prepared to take a running jump. She hit the end of the passageway with a head of steam and compacted her body as she left the ledge. She tried to not look down, but she couldn’t help it. It seemed as if time slowed down until she made it to the other side. She stood up, shocked at what she just accomplished and realized there was something more to this passageway than met the eye. Or perhaps less than what met the eye.

  “Jonathan! You can make the jump! Run and jump! You can do it!”

  “I don’t know! It’s really far! What about the laws of physics, Phoe?”

  “Hurry up! There’s something behind you that may want you for lunch!”

  Jonathan looked behind him and screamed more reminiscent of a young girl than an adult male. He took a running start and jumped. He screamed through the entire jump. He landed short, grabbing the ledge and hanging on for dear life. Phoe tried to help him up, but her right hand was suddenly in tremendous pain. She looked at the other side of the chasm from where they both jumped and saw a pair of red eyes coming out of the darkness. She gazed down at Jonathan.

  “Jonathan! Did your father ever tell you there were no monsters?”

  “What the hell? Can you help me up, please? And yes, he said there were no monsters!”

  “He lied.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Peter put his hands over his ears to block out the incessant verbal battering by Phoe. He just wanted her to shut up! He told her to stop it, but she wouldn’t. He told her to stop, but he realized he needed to make her stop.

  It’s up to him—not her. It’s always been up to him. He always allowed another to decide whether he’d be happy or not. Not this time!

  It took every ounce of inner strength he had to stand up and face Phoe, who continued to taunt him. To laugh at him without mercy.

  “I don’t need your approval, Phoe.”

  Bullshit! Your world is based on my existence!

  Peter smiled. “Not anymore. Leave me alone! You don’t own me!”

  Phoe’s eyes started to glow orange and red, like sizzling coals. This new turn of events startled him. He turned to run deeper into the passageway. As he ran, fiery warmth came up fast behind him. He glanced over one shoulder and saw fire spreading quickly through the passageway behind him. He ran faster.

  Chapter Thirty One

  Phoe managed to pull Jonathan up to safety.

  They ran as fast as they could through the passageway, until they came upon another chasm. This one was a mere ten feet to reach the other side. Compared to the previous jump, this one seemed incredibly easy. The ledge they landed on opened into a wider passageway than before. Thinking salvation could be near, they ran until they came to a dead end.

  “Now what?” Jonathan worried.

  “Look!” Phoe pointed to four men coming out from a secret passage in the wall.
They each wore pendants around their necks. The familiar swastika and Hammer of Thor graced each pendant.

  Phoe aggressively approached the men, making it obvious she was ready to do battle. When they didn’t heed her warning, she launched into an attack that relied on quick punches and kicks. It appeared she was gaining the upper hand, when a deep male voice resounded from nowhere.

  “Do you think they inhaled too much?” asked the voice.

  “They came very close,” said another similar voice. “Let’s try to bring them out of it.”

  Everything suddenly got blurry around her. When she could focus her eyes again, she found herself lying on a stone table. Strapped down, the men she fought were no longer present. Instead, two men wearing the same pendants stood nearby. Craning her neck she soon discovered Jonathan strapped to a similar table, and the other had Peter confined to it. The struggle to understand what is real versus what wasn’t seemed to have been lost.

  One of the men appeared to be in his mid-fifties. The other man was Jonathan’s age.

  “What’s going on here?” Phoe couldn’t raise her head for long, as she quickly grew dizzy.

  The older man approached. He carried a pleasant smile and a calming nature. “There is nothing to worry about. You are safe. As are your companions. As soon as you entered the passageways, you were exposed to a non-lethal dose of a hallucinogenic gas.”

  Phoe feigned feeling relieved. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was going crazy. You can let me go now. I feel much better.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. You’ve stumbled upon something that can never be seen by anyone’s eyes except members of The Brotherhood of the Hammer. I’m glad you speak German, because it is so troublesome to try to understand Americans.”

  His last statement made no sense to Phoe at all. Why would he say that? I can’t speak a word of German—much less understand it clearly. But, I also understand him perfectly in English....So why would I even wish to speak German?”

  It sounded like Jonathan and Peter were waking up.

  Peter groaned. Jonathan sounded as if on the verge of severe panic.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Brotherhood person.” Phoe smiled sweetly at the older man.

  He walked back to her. “What would Sie gerne meine Liebe?”

  She did a double take. Did he just mix German and English together?

  “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

  He looked at her as if he couldn’t understand her.

  “Was meinen Sie? Nicht sprechen sie Deutsch?”

  “He’s wondering why you don’t speak German anymore,” said Jonathan.

  Phoe forced a peaceful smile. “Jonathan, dear....Please tell him that we’re here to become members of The Brotherhood of the Hammer.”

  Jonathan cleared his throat. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay,” he said, drawing in a deep breath. “Da muss ein Irrtum vorliegen. Wir sind hier, um sich anzumelden Die Bruderschaft der Hammer.”

  The younger man approached Jonathan with the older one close behind. When they arrived at the table they mumbled to each other and did a lot of pointing, first at Jonathan, then at Phoe.

  “Wer sponsert euch in der Bruderschaft?” asked the younger man.

  Jonathan glanced in Phoe’s direction. She remained silent, praying Jonathan seized the solo role in this conversation. This was his chance to shine.

  “Jeremy Riddick.”

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Phoe stretched out her neck and legs as she smiled at Jonathan. She and Peter deferred all of the talking to the Germans to Jonathan.

  I still don’t understand how I could have understood that German guy!

  The two German men waved goodbye as they made their way through a long, winding well-lit rocky corridor. They kept their voices low.

  “Spill it, Jonathan. What were they talking about?” asked Phoe.

  “Well, I told them what you told me to tell them, and old guy asked who our sponsor was. I told him it was Jeremy Riddick.”

  Peter chuckled. “Mr. Riddick will be most unhappy when he finds out!”

  Phoe shushed him. “You do realize that we are in some serious shit if Riddick is trying to breathe deadly life into Nazism, don’t you?”

  “Good point,” Peter agreed, turning serious again. “Phoe, I’m also concerned about this gas we were exposed to in the alcove corridor. A mere hallucinogen? Last I checked, there is absolutely nothing on this planet that can cause someone to spontaneously speak and understand a foreign language.”

  Phoe nodded thoughtfully, noticing a new opening in the room. “A mystery for another time, I’m afraid. We’ve arrived...I think?”

  Jonathan peered into the passageway over her shoulder. “What are you...holy shit!”

  The small corridor seemed to go on for nearly a mile, opening to a large basin. The rocky ceiling above seemed at least one hundred feet high.

  You could put a football stadium in here! she thought.

  Peter whistled under his breath. The area was enormous. Phoe stepped onto the marble floor, relieved to be free of a sandy surface. Jonathan and Peter followed. By her count roughly forty men and women dressed in professional overalls appeared to be studying and working on the walls. They all wore the same brotherhood pendant.

  In many ways, it looked like an archeological dig. Yet different, too. Some of the workers were trying to dig through the rock with some type of handheld laser, while others continued to take measurements. As the trio walked toward the middle of the cavern, they wore looks of amazement at the detailed painting of Thor battling the Midgard Serpent that had been mostly uncovered by eons of debris. Thor was dressed in fur and donning a metal helmet similar to the Vikings. Right hand pulled back, ready to smash his foe. The gigantic serpent had its mouth open, ready to strike. The painting looked perfectly preserved and in full color, though aged cracks, or crazing, were evident.

  None of the workers paid the intruders any mind. Phoe’s eyes darted from person to person, looking for Jeremy. No sign of the bastard.

  Peter motioned for them to get a closer look at the painting. The group’s awed reaction intensified the closer they came to the exceptional masterpiece.

  “Who would’ve thought the brutish vikes could create something like this?” said Peter, admiringly.

  Their first steps onto the scaffolding were ignored, so they climbed up on the one closest to the depiction of Thor’s Hammer ready to be smacked down on the serpent. The painting of the Hammer was about seven feet long. Phoe ran her hands along the rock reverently. Then she noticed something that made her mouth drop.

  “What is it, Phoe?” asked Peter.

  Phoe started to tell him, but was distracted by a commotion coming from the corridor entrance. Jeremy Riddick stormed into the cavern, drawing the attention of several workers. He angrily pointed to the trio presently thirty feet above the ground.

  She looked down from the scaffold and saw two of the men in overalls arguing with Jeremy Riddick. Jeremy angrily looked up and pointed at Phoe again.

  She grabbed Jonathan to get his attention. “I need you to run interference for us!”

  “What? How? What do you want me to do?” He anxiously looked to where Jeremy continued to point at them. The previously uninterested workers seemed interested now.

  “There’s an unoccupied dig area across the way,” she said. “Climb down and run over there. Start yelling in German that you’ve found something big.”

  “What am I supposed to say I found?”

  “I don’t know...maybe something about how to use the Hammer?” It sounded plausible...to her.

  Jonathan shook his head, doubtfully, but climbed down quickly. He managed to avoid the growing crowd on its way. Meanwhile, Jeremy pointed at Phoe and Peter, and then yelled some sort of accusation in German.

  “Hang onto something, Peter. Tightly.”

  Jonathan looked back to Phoe and Peter, and then yelled, “Alle! Ich habe den
Schlüssel gefunden hier!”

  Everyone in the room stopped to look in Jonathan’s direction. He pointed wildly to the dig site and smiled like he’d just won the lottery. Nearly everyone cheered and ran toward him. Everyone not named Jeremy Riddick.

  “Nein! Nein, sie Trottel!” he shouted in a rage.

  But he had lost his posse. He moved stealthily toward Phoe and Peter solo.

  “Phoe, whatever you’re going to do, it better be now!” Peter warned, seeing the burgeoning malice in their fast approaching adversary below.

  Ignoring Peter’s urges, she turned her attention back to the painting. She noticed that the painting of the Hammer bore the same notches that the stone hammer had in the statue of Thor. She pressed both of her hands on the third notch from the bottom as Jeremy reached the bottom of the scaffold.

  Peter became frantic. “Hurry up, Phoe—he’s almost here!”

  She continued to press her hands upon the third notch on the painting, moving her hands around the perimeter of the notch.

  Jeremy began knocking down the scaffold as an excited crowd gathered across the way around a nervous-looking Jonathan.

  “Peter! Grab the gun in my fanny pack!” Phoe advised.

  He wasted little time in retrieving the weapon, cocking and pointing it toward Jeremy, who looked up and smiled.

  Phoe used the brief reprieve to keep digging in the notch. Her fingers grazed something small in the notch, and when she grasped it again it felt like a tiny pin. Using her nails to pull it out, she soon determined it was a switch of some kind, made of iron. Relying on her gut instinct, she pulled it. The wall began to shake.

  The wall’s shake worsened and Phoe realized she had likely just made a terrible mistake. This is it! I screwed it all up, big time! she thought, and then turned to face Peter, who looked bewildered. “I’m sorry.”

  He mouthed ‘it’s okay’, and turned to watch the wall disintegrate everywhere, except upon the painted Thor. Huge chunks fall from the wall, crushing the workers below, who flee in panic. A perfect three-dimensional figure of Thor remains. Whoever designed the switch also made sure that whatever person triggered the switch would be safe from the falling wall.