Phoenix Quest Adventures: First Three Novels

by K. T. Tomb

  But Phoe’s biggest concern was for Jonathan, who couldn’t locate a place to dodge for cover in the crowd of workers he had lured just moments ago. A large piece of the wall crashed and rolled toward Jonathan, beyond Phoe’s view. She screamed and prepared to dive off the scaffold. Only Peter’s strong grasp kept her from serious injury, and perhaps, death.

  She closed her eyes and wept, unable to keep from picturing Jonathan ending up like her beloved brother many years ago. She had never forgiven herself for the accident....

  “Oh, my God—I killed him!” she cried, collapsing in tears upon the scaffold.

  Peter wrapped his arms around her while looking down to the floor below. He didn’t see any sign of Jeremy. Just dust clouds and rubble, which was the case everywhere. No sign of life from anyone at all.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Phoe screamed as Peter looked over at her from the stone table where he had been tied down.

  Jonathan angrily tried to break his bonds from the stone table where he was held. Both Peter and Jonathan were gagged. Phoe’s head was covered with a pair of protective goggles that had been electronically modified. There were wires coming out of them and plugged into a television monitor facing the tables. Everything Phoe had just experienced in her mind had been seen by everyone else. Jeremy stood close by with an older man in a lab coat. One of the pendants hung around his neck.

  Phoe sobbed as Jeremy took the goggles off of her. Her eyes remained closed.

  “What have you done to her? To us?” Peter demanded.

  Jeremy grinned knowingly. “It appears you’ve all underestimated me. You have no idea what my inventions are capable of. There are several governments of the world, including America, waiting in line for a taste. I have made much more money as a free agent than working as a slave for some corporation! Your employer is a fool for thinking my interests are limited to the Hammer of Thor. There is so much more money to be made in altered states of reality!”

  Peter fought in vain to free himself from the bonds. “What kind of reality did we see in that video? One of your warped and limited imaginary landscapes?”

  Jeremy stepped closer to Peter’s table. “What you saw was her subconscious assumption of how the next events in this story would unfold. It is what she believes will happen. This is not even close, of course. There is no big painting on a rock wall of Thor fighting the Midgard Serpent.”

  Peter looked confused. “What good will it do to see something fictional going on in her mind? She hasn’t been down here before.”

  “I know. Certain knowledge that she keeps to herself is revealed as the drama plays out. She believes that the third notch will again come into play.”

  “With this kind of technology, you could help people, instead of acting like a prick,” Peter chided.

  “That would be true...if only I had a desire to help people. I choose to use my gifts for my own purposes. Money is always the best motivator to listen to.”

  “So, Jeremy...all you care about is starting a new Nazi movement? That’s original!”

  Jeremy laughed. “Have you not been listening to anything I have said, Peter? Money is my motivator! The Brotherhood is paying me top dollar to help them find the secret hideout of the Brotherhood of old.”

  “How much?” said Phoe, opening her eyes and glaring at Jeremy. “How much are they paying you?”

  Jeremy appeared to not know whether to laugh or take her question seriously. “Don’t try to play me, woman!”

  “I’m not. Smile and get the old guy out of the room so we can talk. We can’t jump you because we’re tied down.”

  Jeremy nodded inquisitively and shooed the older man out of the room.

  Phoe made a feeble effort to look around the room. “Are you recording our conversation?”

  “No, and there’s no need for me to lie to you.”

  “I’m going to ask you one more time, Riddick. How much is the Brotherhood paying you?”

  “Not that it is any concern of yours, but they are paying me ten million euros.”

  Phoe snickered. “Bullshit money! Get me to some kind of communication device and I’ll let you know why I ask. I know our cell phones are worthless down here.”

  Jeremy laughed nervously. “You just want to get revenge on me for invading your mind! It’s a trick!”

  “Then let me prove you wrong.”

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Jeremy put down the microphone on the radio that he used for situations just like this one.

  His face was shocked. When he was a child growing up in North Dakota, he never dreamed he would be in demand. Always a wiz with anything electronic, unfortunately the other children called him a freak because he would take the most rudimentary objects and turn them into viable working electronic devices. One time, he rewired the school’s intercom system and with the addition of a pocket radio, he could transmit his own messages from anywhere within the radio’s broadcast distance. He would be at home and perform his own school announcements whenever he felt the urge.

  Now he was in high demand from countries that wished to utilize his genius.

  He moved to his laptop with renewed excitement. He put in his secret account information for his Cayman Islands bank account. For a moment, he looked at his account in disbelief. His balance was $3,645,213. There was a deposit about a month ago from the Brotherhood for $3,500,000 for his expertise. The balance had since been raised by almost $30,000,000. He placed his hands over his mouth and started to cry from happiness.

  The green light blinked on and off on the radio. His distraction was short-lived as he reached for the microphone.

  The voice on the other end had a firm tone to it. “Mr. Riddick, or whatever you call yourself, do you like your new account balance?”

  “Yes...Yes, I do, very much.”

  “Good. This is how this works. You will turn over any patents for the Taser and dream innovations that we talked about earlier. Agreed?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Good. As of five minutes ago, you are now a full-fledged employee of Kessler Industries Incorporated, for the term of one full year. You are not allowed to take a better offer, or betray my trust in any other shape or form. And, you may not purposely attack or hinder any employees of Kessler Industries, Incorporated. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.”

  “At the end of the year of your employment, I will have the sole option of continuing our arrangement at no less than what you have been paid already. Agreed?”

  “Yes. Anything you want.”

  “State your full name and that you agree to all of these conditions.”

  “My name is Jeremy Riddick. I agree to all of the terms set by Simon Kessler.”

  Both Peter’s and Jonathan’s eyes were locked onto Jeremy. Both wore shocked expressions. Phoe seemed to be fighting the urge to smile.

  Peter turned his head to her. “How did you know Simon would go for it?”

  “Because I found someone even greedier than Jeremy,” she replied. “Simon has everything to gain on this deal.”

  Jeremy appeared happy and still in shock. “Do you need anything else, Mr. Kessler?”

  “Just a few things that you won’t need to repeat. First, my reach is worldwide. If you decide to betray me or even slander me in a public forum, you will be erased as easily as one of your computer programs. Am I understood?”

  Jeremy’s smile faded slightly. “Yes.”

  “Smile at the three people you are holding captive.”

  Jeremy smiled at Phoe, Peter, and Jonathan. Jonathan began to laugh. “Ms. Phoenix, you rock!”

  “Okay. I smiled at them.”

  “Good. Now that you are all working on the same side, I suggest you set them free. Also, you might want to keep watch for your former employers. I’m sure they won’t take kindly to you taking their money and running.”

  “How do you know I will keep it?”

  The sound of laughing could clearly be heard over the radi
o by all in attendance.

  “Because that’s what I would do if I were in your position. Good day, Mr. Riddick. Make sure you don’t get yourself or my other employees killed.”

  “I won’t, Mr. Kessler. I promise.”

  “Words are easy to say. Prove it by your actions.”

  Acting as if he feared Kessler could somehow see him, Jeremy freed his prisoners. “We are on the same team now. But, we have a serious problem.”

  Phoe rubbed her neck as she was released. “You mean the fact that we don’t have a map of these secret chambers and there’s a possibility that the Brotherhood never finished building their lair, so we might be trapped down here forever?”

  Peter and Jonathan looked at her curiously while Jeremy appeared to ponder what she said.

  “Okay,” he said. “I guess we now have two large problems.”

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Jeremy led the trio to the end of a small corridor, and then waved them to move along with him. Phoe walked directly behind him, followed by Jonathan and then Peter.

  “Just how many of the Brotherhood are down here, Jeremy?” She asked, keeping her voice low. “Is Francis part of them, too?”

  He didn’t answer right away. “Francis is dead. Not everything slithering around down here is imaginary.”

  “He was killed by the serpent back there?” Jonathan pointed to where he thought we had come from earlier, in the hall of alcoves.

  “Yes...but let’s move on, shall we? And to answer your first question, Phoe, thirty-one men and twenty-five women.”

  “Great.”

  The small corridor opened up into a large room, spanning roughly fifty feet by fifty feet. The Brotherhood’s symbols were engraved upon one wall. Just beyond this room, and hidden from their direct view, was another. It sounded like a large crowd had gathered there.

  “You better let me handle them,” Jeremy advised. “It’s safer, since they don’t know I’m no longer with them.”

  “Take Jonathan,” Phoe suggested. “He speaks German fluently, too.”

  Jonathan protested with a look, but seemed to take solace in Phoe’s mouthed “Just trust me, damn it!”

  As Jeremy and Jonathan left the room, Jeremy said something to Jonathan before grabbing Jonathan’s arm to drag him. Phoe realized this was to further sell the notion that nothing had changed since the last time the Brotherhood had seen Jeremy.

  In their absence, Phoe and Peter had a quiet look around. The ceiling seemed to be as tall as the room was wide. Several small openings were spaced about a foot apart all around the room, and three bigger portals were lined in a row at the other end of the room. Each one had something written in German directly above it. The first one was Slutten, the second one was Sentrum, and the last was Begynnelsen.

  A look of recognition hit Peter as he mouthed the words.

  “Phoe. Those are Norwegian names. Here’s what they mean....”

  Afterward, Peter pushed past her and went out of the room, entering the potentially hostile Brotherhood crowd. She peered around the corner to watch him nonchalantly approach Jeremy and Jonathan. Most of the men pulled out handguns and knives until Jeremy assured them that Peter was harmless.

  Meanwhile, Peter subtly told him the ‘names in the room’ are an older form of Norwegian, and to come take a look. Jeremy feigned being upset, and pushed Peter and Jonathan back into the room, motioning to the others that he would be back after dealing with the distraction.

  “Okay, we’re going to need to be quick about this, or the Brotherhood will kill us all without mercy,” Jeremy advised. “Why is Phoe standing by the portal with Begynnelsen written above it?”

  “Peter told me this one means beginning,” said Phoe.

  “As in ‘Three tasks’?”

  She nodded. “What if we’re supposed to do them in the order they are in the Thor myth? Then again, what if something bad will happen if we take the first of Thor’s tasks in the order they happened?”

  “Follow your gut, Phoe,” Peter advised. Both Jonathan and Jeremy nodded their agreement.

  That’s what she did. She moved to the first portal to the left, and as she did, Peter noticed something smaller engraved around the doorway in Norwegian. “Repeat after me,” he told her. “Regardless how it sounds. Okay?”

  She nodded for him to continue.

  “I know this to be the third Task set out for the God of Thunder, Thor.”

  She repeated, “I know this to be the third Task set out for the God of Thunder, Thor.”

  The portal’s darkness was suddenly replaced by a silver glow. Silver smoke began rolling out from the portal.

  Phoe felt a surge of panic. “Isn’t this the task where Thor was supposed to wrestle an old woman and couldn’t? Shit! She represents old age!”

  “Phoe, have you ever felt that you were getting old, in spite of your actual age?”

  “Huh?” She looked at her hands— she was aging by the second. She let out a scream, collapsing to her knees.

  Jonathan ran to her aid, grimacing as her hair began to fall out and her smooth complexion mottled up with age spots and deep wrinkles. Men and women of the Brotherhood had by then crept into the room, perhaps intending harm, but became distracted by the aging affecting them, as well. With a wary eye on his former cohorts’ condition, Jeremy rejoined his new American partners.

  Meanwhile, Peter shook his head compassionately for Phoe. “I’m so sorry, Phoe. I had no idea you thought about aging so much.”

  Great, she thought. I am powerless to stop it now!

  In desperation, Peter moved to the middle portal. “I know this to be the second Task set out for the God of Thunder, Thor.” He didn’t need Phoe to repeat the line this time, and the look on his face told everyone that he was well aware of the demon about to arrive. Hell, the entire room shook with the monster’s approach.

  Jeremy yelled to him. “What in the hell have you done?! Is that what I think it is?”

  Peter frowned while nodding.

  Jonathan scrambled back from the portal.

  A moment later, the portal was destroyed from within by a giant serpent. It’s viper-like head crashed through the barrier and was soon snapping its menacing jaws at everyone close by. Phoe sat on her knees in despair, too tired and pained to move. Her hair had thinned and what remained was white. Her skin had become a sallow patchwork of liver spots and more wrinkles than a rhinoceros, and her hands had become twisted with arthritis.

  Thankfully, the bulk of the serpent’s body remained stuck inside the portal.

  Jonathan bravely returned to Phoe while the serpent retreated. “Please, Phoe! Don’t give up—we’ll figure out how to bring you back!”

  By then, her face had aged more than seventy years. She lifted her shaking head at the retreating snake and then toward the last portal. She hobbled to it and stood slumped in front. “I can guess what the last portal’s writing is,” she said in an elderly whisper. “Jonathan...go to Peter and try to help him. Now!”

  He obeyed and ran to assist Peter, and she turned her attention to the last shot she had of being restored to her youthful state.

  “I know this to be the first Task set out for the God of Thunder, Thor.” She hobbled backward, and once her geriatric body began to recover, she limped to rejoin the others.

  Jonathan came to her, offering to carry her, if necessary.

  Her legs steadily became stronger. Her breathing became more controlled, and her hair returned to the full, lustrous blonde it had been before. The muscles in her body were toning with each step. By the time Jonathan reached her, she was the young Phoe again. His eyes were as big as saucers, in shock.

  “Jonathan. Do you hear a sound like rushing water?” she asked.

  “Yes, I guess I do.”

  “That’s water from the sea.”

  “Which one?”

  “Does that really matter?” she chided.

  “No. I guess not.”

  Everyone’s attention wa
s drawn to the last portal, where water rushed in, as if a nearby water main had broken.

  Peter and Jeremy rejoined them. Peter had a look in his eye that Phoe recognized from their early days, and although she felt glad to see it, she turned away. Besides, the serpent sounded like it might be preparing to make a return. Its angry roars were enough to get the Brotherhood to scatter.

  “I can’t swim!” shouted Jonathan, as the water level begins to rise around them.

  “Trust me—and Peter—together we will make sure you don’t drown,” said Phoe, grasping his shoulder and forcing the younger Kessler to meet her eye to eye. “I won’t let anything happen to you! Okay?”

  He nodded tentatively. In this crazy world of illusion and stretched reality, the water began to rise swiftly. But after getting knocked down and thrown under water, Phoe pulled Jonathan to the surface.

  When Phoe took another breath, she could see that since the water’s rising, it’s taking her and Jonathan up to the ceiling. This was supposed to happen...there must be a way for it to end, too. Her mind could scarcely comprehend that a giant snake was drowning in a whirlpool created from a myth. None of it seemed real, except people were dying. But...if they could outlast the serpent’s death, it stood to reason that some sense of normalcy would return.

  Phoe spotted Jeremy and Peter clinging to a wall where the water’s current seemed much more calm. Getting Jonathan to doggy paddle with her, she soon rejoined the others. Jonathan would be safe. So would Peter and Jeremy. Meanwhile the water was beginning to go down, draining through portals except the first one. Until the water could drain completely, she realized they would be stuck there. And who knew what other menace could come for them?

  From a distance, it appeared to be blocked. But once Phoe swam underwater to have a closer look, she found no logical reason for the blockage. She rejoined the others again.