by K. T. Tomb
One of the men had placed his weapon down on the ground and just lit his cigarette.
Phoe casually walked up to them. “Hi, guys. Can you suggest a good hamburger place near here?”
Without giving either of them a chance to respond, Phoe elbowed the armed man in the face. She then kicked the gun away from the reach of the smoker and punched him in the throat. He fell to the ground.
The other man recovered from her elbow attack. He pointed his gun into the air to signal his reinforcements.
That’s when she knew that he couldn’t fight. Their fighting knowledge was similar to the men she had beat up in Germany. They were skilled with firearms, but not in hand-to-hand combat. As long as they had a weapon, they were fine. Where did Mueller recruit these losers?
Even though it was dark, with help from the light that he had on his gun, she could see his finger squeezing the trigger. She instinctively jumped straight for him. Phoe grabbed his wrist that held his gun. She swung her body around while she held his wrist. She heard the wrist bones break as his weapon fell from his hand.
She moved so quickly that she continually punched him into unconsciousness before he had a chance to scream over his fracture. She looked up to see if the scuffle had attracted any unwanted attention. It hadn’t.
She grabbed their weapons and turned off one of the lights. The weapon that still had the light was propped up on a headstone, to give the illusion that at least one of Mueller’s men was still there.
Using pieces of their clothing, she bound and gagged the two men and then continued back to the mausoleum.
* * *
Every few minutes, Selig stopped digging. He sweated profusely and it appeared that he was going to pass out. He rested as he looked at Mueller with pleading eyes. “Sir, I understand that you are most adamant about getting us to dig, but might I direct you to the muscular German man? He is so much stronger than I am.”
Huber glared at his partner.
Mueller looked at Huber. “You may have something there. You! German guy! Take the fat guy’s place!”
Huber growled at Selig as he took the shovel and started to dig.
Selig walked up to Mueller. “Thank you, sir.”
Selig then grabbed Mueller’s shoulders and kneed him in the groin. Mueller doubled over in pain as Huber and Angelica went into action.
Huber swung the shovel at two of Mueller’s men who were near the grave. He hit one in the gut and the other in the kneecap.
Angelica spun around and kicked the weapons out of the hands of the two men behind her. She followed up with both hands jabbing two fingers into each of their solar plexuses. Both men fell to the ground while they tried to regain their breath.
Phoe noticed the disturbance. Mueller’s men noticed it, too. They all started to converge on Mueller’s location with their weapons ready. Phoe was about to join the fracas when she noticed that Eric was continuing to dig, in spite of what was going on around him.
As the remainder of Mueller’s men converged on Angelica, Huber, and Selig, Eric’s shovel hit something solid.
“Don’t kill anyone!” Eric shouted. He had only dug about two or three feet down when he’d struck something.
Mueller recovered and had been about to shoot Selig when he heard Eric. “What did you find, Phoenix?”
Eric was nervous and excited. “I don’t know! Something…metal.”
“This better not be a trick, because I’ll kill the lot of you right now!” Mueller threatened.
Eric started to clear away the dirt from whatever was buried. It wasn’t quite six feet deep, so a casket was ruled out.
Eric wiped the dirt away to reveal a metal door. The door was about four feet long and slightly rounded. There were steel rivets all around the door. Once Eric cleared away the dirt from all around the metal, the shape was cylindrical. Almost like a capsule of some sort.
The hole was now six feet deep. The capsule-shaped metal tube was completely uncovered. Eric got out of the hole.
Mueller decided to try to open it the only way he knew how. He started to fire his semi-automatic weapon directly at the metal tube. Bullets bounced off the tube in every direction. Anyone near the hole had to duck or get shot.
Angelica and Mueller looked at the tube. There wasn’t a scratch on it.
Chapter Eighteen
Phoe walked right through Mueller’s men.
Every time one of them pointed his weapon at her, she just smiled and said, “I’m the only one who can help your stupid boss.”
Phoe arrived at the grave and looked at the metal tube. “Hmm. Interesting. I guess shooting it didn’t work.”
Mueller recognized Phoe. He readied his weapon as he yelled, “You! The bitch who tried to kill me in Germany!”
Angelica was about to speak when Phoe grabbed Mueller’s weapon and turned it on him. She pushed the barrel to the tip of his nose. “I don’t want to help you any more than you want my help, but I’m here. Don’t get in my way! By the way, if you’d actually train your men, I wouldn’t have beaten them silly so easily. Now, are you going to get the hell out of my way so I can open this tin can?”
Mueller was shocked. He looked around at his men and then realized one important fact. He couldn’t open the door himself. He let Phoe take a closer look.
She jumped down into the grave, still holding onto the gun. Eric joined her. He looked at his sister with expectations of violence.
She did something worse.
She ignored him.
She examined the grave’s dirt walls. “Hmm. Interesting.”
Eric’s curiosity got the better of him. “What? What’s interesting?”
She wondered whether she ever wanted to talk to her brother again. After surmising her current situation, Phoe decided she needed someone to bounce ideas off of. “This grave was dug in a hurry. The dirt is uneven and it’s a real mess.” She crouched down and ran the dirt through her fingers. “The soil has recently been disturbed.”
“What the hell does that mean?’ asked Eric.
“What it means, my dear clueless brother, is that this situation is going to get worse before it gets better.”
Phoe examined the metal door. She ran her hands along the rivets. One came off in her hand. It was actually just the top of the rivet. She looked at the bottom and then dropped it back onto the door. “Magnet,” she declared.
Phoe took all of the rivet magnets off of the door. She then thought for a moment and started to place them back. She formed the Star of David. As soon as the star was complete, the metal door popped open.
Eric’s mouth dropped open in amazement. “Damn, sis! You got this shit down!”
Phoe ignored him once again as she opened the door. She shined the light from the gun into the newly revealed tunnel. She jumped down into the tunnel. It was about four feet down from the metal door. She saw that the underground tunnel led to the adjoining grave.
The grave of Patsy Friends O.E.
Phoe had figured that was an anagram for Spear of Destiny. She was right.
The tunnel that led to the other grave was only about two feet high and four feet wide. Phoe was able to make her way into the other grave on her stomach. Good thing she didn’t have that extra breakfast muffin.
Once she was in the other grave, it was hard to breathe. She closed her mouth and breathed slowly through her nose, trying to conserve oxygen. She turned to where she laid face up. The hole there was larger. It must have been at least six feet long.
She pointed the light at what appeared to be a long box. It was similar to a pool stick case. She grabbed it and shoved it through to Danworth’s grave.
Phoe turned back on her stomach and inched her way back the way she came, feet first. When she made it back to Danworth’s grave, she noticed that the long box was gone. Eric.
Phoe climbed out of the hole to see Mueller holding the long box.
Eric stood beside him.
Phoe was pissed.
“So, we’re
good, right, Lukas?” asked Eric.
Selig tried to say something, but Huber held one finger to his lips.
Phoe walked up to Eric and punched him in the face. One of Mueller’s men hit her in the back of the head with the butt of his gun. Phoe fell to the ground, partially conscious.
Angelica ran up to the man who had hit her daughter and punched him once in the neck and once in the nose.
Another man was about to shoot Angelica when Mueller said, “Leave her alone! She is no longer a concern!” Mueller set the box on the ground and opened it up. In it was an old, black rounded piece of wood. It was about six feet long.
Lukas Mueller wasn’t as smart as he liked people to believe. He was a con man like Eric. He always happened to be in the right place at the right time. It would have helped him more, if he had common sense.
Mueller took off his gloves and dropped them on the ground by the box. He then picked up the stick.
Selig’s heart was in his mouth. “Hell, no!” he yelled. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
Angelica looked puzzled. Obviously, Andrew Selig knew something that he forgot to share.
Mueller held the stick up over his head with both hands. “Hah! Do you know what this is?”
Selig lowered his head. “A mistake.”
Chapter Nineteen
Lukas Mueller felt like he was finally in control of his own destiny. Destiny had always been a funny thing.
A black energy started to emit from the stick.
Eric saw it and became more anxious. “We’re good. Right, Lukas? I don’t owe you any more?”
Mueller smiled. “Yeah. We’re good.”
Eric ran toward the beech tree as Phoe tried to stand. She rubbed the bump on the back of her head as she saw the glowing stick. She started to back up and away from Mueller.
Mueller’s eyes turned dark as the black glow surrounded him. He struggled as his hands started to shake.
Selig called out to him. “Lukas! Drop the Spear before it’s too late!”
Phoe glared at Selig. “You should know what that stick is, Selig. You buried it here. That’s not the complete Spear, though, is it? Maybe I should just call you by your given name. Isn’t that right, Charles Danworth?”
Angelica Phoenix turned in anger toward Selig. Huber just shook his head in disappointment.
A small wind originated from the Spear as Mueller’s pupils disappeared. He had an evil grin.
Phoe ran up to the newly revealed Charles Danworth. “It’s only the wooden shaft of the Spear of Destiny. I get that! Charles, you need to stop worrying about your true identity being known and tell me how I can stop Mueller!”
Danworth thought for a moment. “I don’t know if you can. I’ve never touched the Spear without gloves before. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but without the spearhead attached to control the rest of the Spear, what comes next won’t be good.”
Mueller raised the Spear into the air with one hand and then thrust the other end of it into the earth. A shockwave spread out from the point of impact, knocking over headstones and several of those standing closest to him.
Angelica, Danworth, Huber and Phoe ran behind the beech tree with Eric.
Danworth started to sweat. “I see it now. With each use of the Spear, the user grows more in control over it. Mueller will have it totally under his will soon.”
Phoe remained optimistic. “What’s the down side? I mean, seriously. With great power comes great blah, blah, blah. There has to be a down side for Mueller. If anybody knows it, it’s you, Danworth.”
Eric became hysterical. “What the hell is this shit? This kind of crap isn’t supposed to exist!”
Phoe lowered her head. She had to take control over the situation. She always had to take control.
That’s exactly the way she liked it.
Phoe also realized that she had to act like a leader as she gave out her orders. “Mom. Take Eric somewhere safe and leave him there. He won’t be of any help to us any time soon. Huber. Keep Danworth safe, but don’t go too far. I need his expertise. Danworth. You need to think of a way to stop the Spear.”
“What about you, Thalia?” her mother asked.
Phoe looked in the direction of Mueller. “I’m going after the asshole holding the Spear.”
* * *
Mueller was drunk with power. Never had he experienced anything like the Spear. He didn’t care about anything else but the way he felt. He was a god.
He should have watched his back.
Phoe attacked from behind. She used a two-fisted punch to Mueller’s lower back. He hit the ground face first, but still managed to retain possession of the Spear. Phoe then proceeded to kick him continuously in the side. For all of her training, she decided that a good old-fashioned street fight was the best way to go.
Some of Mueller’s men fled when the shockwave hit. Those who stayed remained hidden to see what their boss had planned. Phoe could see them as they poked their heads out from behind headstones and trees.
Mueller was on his back as Phoe continued her assault.
Phoe was an opportunist. She rarely let an opportunity go by when she saw a chance to accomplish something great. She saw Mueller’s grasp on the Spear weakening, so she made a decision she would later regret.
Phoe grabbed the Spear.
Mueller tightened his grasp on it. Everything went crazy from there.
Phoe’s and Mueller’s minds expanded and melded at the same time. She could see him as a child being bullied by other children. Mueller could see Eric leaving his family to pursue a quest for the Spear.
Their thoughts and desires all became part of each other. Phoe was basically a good person and Mueller was basically…not. The mixture of good and not-so-good overwhelmed both of them. Thoughts and feelings became one as the aura around them changed constantly from black to blue and back again.
The struggle for control was overwhelming.
As quickly as it started, it ended. Phoe’s vision was blurred, but she managed to make out a figure towering over Mueller.
It was Eric. “You’re done, Lukas. Nobody fucks with my family! Nobody!”
Phoe noticed the Spear lying on the ground. Eric had found some way to separate them from it. Mueller was slow to recover from the Spear’s mind meld, but he had just enough strength to hold his hand out toward the Spear. It immediately flew into his hand.
Mueller levitated to a standing position and grinned. “Thank you both for showing me how to control the Spear.”
The black aura that surrounded Mueller pulsated as he lifted the Spear into the air. Black energy arched out in all directions. Eric helped Phoe regain her feet as she realized that those energy bolts had specific destinations.
She and Eric looked on in horror as each one of Mueller’s men was hit with the black energy. That was nothing compared to what came next.
The darkness completely enveloped each of Mueller’s men. There was almost a cocoon of ebony energy that writhed and moved in harmony with the men.
When the energy faded, the men had gone through a transformation. Each man stepped forward with a new look. Each man had a short sword reminiscent of the early Romans. In fact, everything about their wardrobe was early Roman. They had broad iron strips fastened to the internal leather straps covering the torso. The strips were arranged horizontally on the body, overlapping downward. The upper body and shoulders were protected by extra strips and breast and back plates. They had no head protection, but the sandals were quite noticeable.
The newly attired minions of Mueller formed a line in front of their boss. There were fifteen men protecting Mueller.
Angelica came out from behind the tree and stood with Eric and Phoe.
Phoe smiled.
“I thought you didn’t know how to fight, Eric,” Phoe said sarcastically.
“I said it before and I’ll say it again. Nobody fucks with my family!” he replied.
Mueller’s men all charged at once wit
h swords in hand. Angelica went into action first by knocking two of them to the ground with a spinning hook kick. Eric grabbed the sword out of one their hands, hit him in the head with the hilt, and continued to parry and counter attacks. Phoe did a flip over one of the rushing men and made a beeline for the head honcho. She started with a thrust kick to the gut, followed by a spin kick to his head and a solid punch to his chest.
He just stood there and laughed.
Uh-oh.
Mueller raised the Spear and thrust it again into the ground. The shockwave was more intense as it not only knocked everyone down, but it started to crack some of the headstones that were close. It even uprooted some small trees.
Once he found his feet, Eric made a discovery of his own. “These assholes still can’t fight! All it did was give them some old armor and shit! Phoe! Take out Lukas! We got these weenies!”
Phoe did a sweep kick and tried to knock the feet out from under Mueller. Still no effect.
Mueller thrust the Spear into the earth again. The shockwave was bigger as it started to uproot the huge beech tree. Several headstones fell into pieces and large crevices in the ground appeared.
Angelica called out to Phoe, “If this keeps up, it will alert someone to the fact that Oregon is about to get its first major earthquake since 1993!”
Phoe nodded. She knew the risks. She always knew the risks, but this time, the risk involved a major population. This hero shit was getting old.
Again and again, Mueller thrust the Spear into the ground. The shockwaves turned to tremors, as larger crevices were created. A couple of the Mini Coopers were lost in one of the bigger cracks. The beech tree was lying practically on its side, and several of Mueller’s men weren’t quick enough—they plummeted to their deaths.
The ground was shifting as Angelica and Eric tried to keep their balance. Eric noticed that Huber and Danworth were gone.
Every time Phoe had gotten close to Mueller, he created a stronger tremor. He laughed maniacally as he raised his hands in triumph.