Secrets Of The Shaman

by Stanimir Mirov

  “No problem, brother. I am used to. Bratvata are decent. I accepted their apologies,” the Russian turned to his company and presented them. “These are Countess Natasha Nikolaevna, Ivan, Vasco, his brother Pisco, professor Parlatov and his son Valeri. Archaeologists from Bulgaria under my protection.”

  Strangers shook hands.

  “The friends of my friends are my friends too. This hotel is mine, and tonight there will be a variety show in the bar. Be my guests. Relax a bit, there is time to dig. The road from Moscow is long.”

  Everybody settled in their rooms and rested from the great journey. In the evening, they sat at the tables, and the program began. All eyes looked at the front door. The professor was the last to join, appearing dressed in a green cape, cylinder, and cane in hand because he had thought that the invite was for a special celebration. Seeing his appearance, the DJ immediately changed the music and let Frank Sinatra. Wacko wasn’t embarrassed at all. He unbuttoned his cape and threw it back with a quick motion, leaving only a tuxedo on. He calmly sat in the chair next to Ilyata, who smiled for the first time in his life.

  “Professor, were you also a paratrooper?”

  “No son, your invitation requires it.”

  “Well, have fun and order. You are my guest.”

  A group of Chechens was drinking noisily at the neighboring tables. After some time, Natasha, who had drunk 1-2 vodkas too many, hit the dance floor and started dancing provocatively. From the speakers sounded old disco from the 90’s and part of the Chechens quickly joined, dangerously surrounding her. Visibly drunk and quite tough, one of them pulled her to him and spoke to her ear. Valeri, who watched the entire scene as he was in love with her, clenched his fork. The Ninth shot him with a look because he had already noticed the situation, planning his next move. He abruptly stood up from his chair and angrily hit him with his leg. The chair flew away and hit one of the Chechens at the next table. Ilyata gestured, and his bodyguards prevented the fray. Ivan was not happy and turned to the host, “The one with the big ears, who is disturbing Natasha. If he is such a man, he should come and try to pull me!”

  The long-eared heard him and grinned. He dropped the girl and headed for the Ninth. The Russian gestured to his guards not to interfere. Nikolaevna sat down at her place, and the dance floor was emptied. The music had long since stopped. Both tough guys jumped against each other. The Chechen was in no way inferior to Ivan, with a shaved head, big muscles, tattoos, fierce expression, experienced in street fighting and having served in Afghanistan. He crouched and made a sweep with his right leg, throwing the Ninth down to the ground on his back, who immediately bounced on his feet, already rampant. At this point, he received a left hook in the nose and was back on the ground. Staring at the ceiling, blood came gushing in his mouth. Becoming berserk without losing his strength, Ivan jumped to his feet again. He almost met a straight right, but he managed to block it with his left hand and with a grip twisted him. After dislocating his arm, the Bulgarian hit him with his right foot, breaking the bone of his left foot. In other situations he would stop, but not today. The last strike was with his head and crushed the Chechen's nose as he fell lifeless to the floor.

  The crowd was ecstatic. There were applause and lively shouts. Some of the guests had thought that this was part of the program and the coming months, the restaurant was making big money. Chechens got their half-dead friend and moved out.

  The Ninth washed in the bathroom and rejoined the table by raising his glass of vodka. Valeri was pleased and thanked him by nodding his head. Ilyata smiled for the second time, “You should have finished him at the beginning.”

  “The bastard surprised me with the kick. He was fucking quick. Come cheers, "God forgives Stamboliyski".”

  Most on the table had no idea who Stamboliyski was, but they drank anyway.

  Valeri, however, foresighted said, “Chechens will not leave the matters this way. They will probably want revenge, even though it was a fair fight. Can we do something about it?”

  Ilyata nodded, “How many people do you want?”

  “Ten should be enough. How much for the service?”

  “I do not know whether you are poor archaeologists, but fifty grand here will make you immortal.”

  “Good,” said Ivan, who knew the prices in the security business. “For safer reasons brother, you spend and use gasoline, cartridges, etc., you have another twenty grand when we leave.”

  The evening ended, and everyone was happy.

  Chapter IV

  Chinaman

  The next day, the boat was moving along the Volga River and the group was checking the coast, hoping to find something that resembled the outline of the map from the notebook. Everyone had a copy in hand and used binoculars to watch locality after locality. However, this expensive pleasure, besides the boat trip, did not bring anything else the first day.

  The second day, they went upstream.

  “Professor, your knowledge might have sent us on a wild goose chase?”

  “Volga is a big river Pisco. Unlike your IQ. Leave the brain activity to me.”

  “Hah, finally!” Cried joyfully Vasco and all looked at him, thinking he had found something.

  “What happened, did you see the rock?”

  “No, I managed to open my beer! There isn’t a single opener around!”

  “Fuck you! I thought you’d found something,” wacko got angry.

  “We should have taken fishing rods at least. I could eat fresh fish. We won’t find anything here.”

  “In addition, we can make an expedition by land. Maybe we have better luck there,” said Ivan.

  “Sure. Yesterday in the cafeteria, a man was asking me interesting questions. I think we will find him there. If nothing else, we will use him as a guide, I feel that he has information. People call him "Chinaman".”

  “We’ll see. If he has something to offer, we will pay.”

  The Chinese, whose earnings came from information, liked to snoop. He knew everything that happened around. His meeting with the professor was not accidental. While Parlatov was drinking his coffee and looking at his notebook, he insensibly went behind him and was able to examine the map. His adder typical Chinese smile was showing that he will earn money again. The man "dropped the fly" on the professor and waited. And, the fish bite. An unknown group, led by the wacko sat at his table. They pulled a few extra chairs.

  “Peking Duck,” called Ivan the waitress as he shifted next to the Chinese.

  “I’m sorry sir, we only offer drinks and sandwiches.”

  “Well, then give me two sandwiches and an espresso.”

  Everybody ordered, and Ninth slapped the neck of the little Chinese, “What’s up brother, do you want me to order you something?”

  Shao Tzu replied confused, “An herbal tea with honey.”

  “Give tea to my friend.”

  The waitress write the order on a piece of paper and left.

  “How should we call you?” Vasko asked.

  “I’m known as Johnny.”

  “Well, John, start talking.”

  “How valuable is this information for you?” Rubbing his hands slyly, the Chinese asked.

  “If you find what we are looking for, you will get a substantial payment.”

  “I know what you are looking for, but I want a thousand dollars.”

  “Well, how do you know what we are looking for?”

  “I saw what was in the black book of the older gentleman. I know the place.”

  “What else do you know?”

  “There were years of excavations. Nobody knows what they have found. There are legends. But I’m no yesterday, give me a thousand dollars and I will bring you there. Nobody has dug in that spot.”

  Professor reached into his ear, “Ave Johnny, take these one thousand euros because we have no dollars. Do you know how much more I’ll give you, are you crazy or something? Can you imagine, to take us to the place we are looking for?”

  And the China
man answered, “I saw your picture. My brother had parked his truck there. Wild place indeed. When he removed his foot from the break though, the car didn’t move downwards but up the hill. There is something there! Some time ago, a little down in the rocks, one looter disappeared. Nobody has seen him ever since. I would not think of this place if I did not see the designation of Latin V on your map.”

  “OK, let's jump into the jeeps and see this place!”

  “The promise for more money stays right?”

  “If the place is what we seek.”

  Cars drove and stopped at a rocky, overgrown area. The soil was clay with rusty color. The professor immediately saw what he wanted. The opposite of them was a hill, with a carved V in the rocks that had naturally occurred over time. Its layout resembled a narrow door leading up.

  The group approached a huge rock at the foot of the V-shaped hill. For a long time, Parlatov walked around, “This is a Proto-Bulgarian sanctuary. Do you see this bat inside the crack? Wind is blowing from there, which means that there is a cavity or cave. We need to get there.”

  Alyosha took the phone and dialed, “Hello, Ilya, I’ll send a man to see you for a moment, I need something.”

  “Send him to the house.”

  Two hours later, Pisco appeared with the necessary explosive. He put a stick of dynamite in the hole, lit the long fuse and hid. The powerful blast managed to break the entrance of the cliff. Having lifted the cloud of dust, they stood at the entry because the professor stopped them.

  “The ancients did spells, and if we go now, we risk our lives. Let’s put ashes and wait until morning to see if steps emerge from it. If they do, we have to kill an animal in the place to lift the curse. There will be enough time for the place to ventilate if there are poisons in the air…”

  Parlatov had not yet uttered when Vasco and Pisco entered the cave and turned to him…

  “So as I see, there are no spells, professor.”

  The sanctuary inside was a small square room with smooth walls, in one of which had another door space. Wacko slapped his forehead, “This is the real entrance. We have made a second exit. Let’s just hope we did not affect any important clues.”

  Ivan, shaking his head, looked around with a lantern in his hand, “Here, however, there is nothing?”

  On which professor answered, “There must be, look carefully. Nobody goes through the real door, there may be traps.”

  Pisco, who already had a phobia of large tiles on the ground, lightly cleared the dust from a plate on the floor with his foot. In the middle was outlined an engraved loop.

  “Clear out all the plates,” said the younger brother. “They have some signs on them!”

  “You have luck with these traps,” joked Ivan. “Just don’t disappear at some point, astride a cat.”

  “Haha, very funny!” Pisco answered bravely while looking around goosey.

  The group carefully cleared the entire floor, which was written in Bulgarian runic signs. They lit up the whole room. The professor copied all the content and went out to read it in fresh air. After some time, he summoned the rest, having finally deciphered the signs, “The disc is not here! But we are on the right track.”

  “Is this written on the floor?” Asked Natasha with interest.

  “No, it says something else. I will try to interpret it so you can understand the translation. Legend has it that the so-called disk was given to the Bulgarian tribe by the gods thousands of years ago. They created a secret community who passed the secret from shaman to shaman. In the VII century of our era, when the Old Great Bulgaria was conquered by the Khazars, part of the Bulgarians migrated north, creating Volga Bulgaria. This secret community went along, carrying the disk with them. This society has always been close to the Bulgarian capital cities as khans and shamans lived there, and only they were educated in the secret. In the XIII century, when the great invasion of the Mongols led by Genghis Khan happened, shamans anticipated the fall of Volga Bulgaria, so they moved to the Danube Bulgaria, which, at that time, flourished under the rule of Tsar Ivan Asen II. And here the legend ends. My conclusion is that they moved to Turnovo in the capital at the time of the Bulgarians. We need to seek the disk there.”

  “Is that all is says? Isn’t there something more particular?”

  “This is all that is written, but I think we should check the other entrance for more inscriptions.”

  “Well, you said that there could be pitfalls?” Pisco looked scared. “I’ll smoke a cigarette while you check it.”

  Natasha also stayed out, and the rest went back inside. Moving very slowly and making every step carefully, they found a niche carved into the rock at the beginning. Inside was laid a ritual knife and several other gold objects. A few meters farther down, a door was buried. Apparently, the outside was littered with stones and soil, so the group went back through the hole, which they themselves had made.

  “Unique knife!” Alyosha watched it. “What I’d give to have it in my collection!” He thinly hinted.

  The archaeologists exchanged glances. Ivan nodded to the professor, and he handed it to him with a smile, “Here you go, this is a Bulgarian relic, so keep it as your eyes. You have the pleasure to hold in your hands a knife transmitted by generations of shamans. Even in Hermitage, there is no such artifact. I guess you can find a market for the rest of the antiques and transfer half of the money?”

  The Russian maliciously shook his head in assent.

  “Just leave me your bank account!”

  They paid off the Chinese and headed back on the road to Moscow as their mission here was over. In Alyosha’s mansion, all rested, some with girls others with alcohol, according to their wishes, and two days later, they landed in Sofia. On the way to Varna, Parlatov remained in Turnovo for a few weeks in an attempt to seek out clues in excavations, archives, and libraries. The rest of the group returned home.

  After three days of wild parties, orgies Roman type, etc., Natasha went for a time in New York to visit her father, most likely to personally report for what happened.

  Chapter V

  The find

  At breakfast, Valeri started the conversation, “The ship is already equipped with everything, I suggest we take it out for a spin and test out the technology.”

  “Bravo, finally something to do. I am sick of the pool. I wanted to use my diving suit anyway, and the weather is great. With the harpoon I bought, we can eat shark filet tonight,” joked Ivan.

  Phantomas laughed, “Try to catch at least one mullet.”

  “What sharks are you talking about?” Got interested Pisco. “I will not go into the sea. I’ll drink vodka on the ship. I’ll get one for you too when you get tired of the diving.”

  “Are we going to take whores or we act seriously?”

  “A woman on board, no, no. It’s bad luck! She may spill the vodka or something else... Weren’t those around the pool enough?”

  “Nine, pull out the Hummer and let’s go the harbor. We will call the Bazil to come directly there. And we will surprise Lyudtskana because he has been alone for quite some time and he may be feeling more lonely than Robinson Crusoe’s goat. Just hope he hasn’t wrapped rags around his ass too.”

  “Let’s hope he isn’t too drunk and will be able to recognize us!”

  The jeep stopped at the pier and at this moment, on the gangplank, a mat girl in a short skirt and high heels went down on it, managing to keep her balance. She winked at ours, “Guys, if you need me, your colleague will give you my phone.”

  “Bray, Lyudtskana lives like a king and even orders geishas. We shouldn’t think more about him. Apparently, he is not as lonely as we thought.”

  The treasure hunters boarded the ship and went down to the dining room. There, the engineer was just frying eggs with rum. Pisco joked, “All you have to do now is to shred a truffle on top of them…”

  The joyous prisoner forgot about the eggs and rushed to shake hands with them, “Come on, how long should I wait for you. My
balls grew a beard. I’m talking only with the fishes. They are tired of listening to me. Well, it’s good that Aisha visits me from time to time. But the money began to…”

  There was a terrible collision-like sound from the parked car, followed by a curse, “Well, fuck your mother!”

  Bazil got on the ship and joined in the cafeteria, “Vanko, I apologize, I did not see your Hummer. There’s nothing wrong with it. I gently stopped in it from behind.”

  “Gosho, if you broke my stop, I’ll tie you with the rescue belt, and you will swim behind the ship.”

  “No problem, I will swim. I only hope there are no mermaids.”

  Vasco grinned, “Well, then he broke it.”

  “Give a destination and let’s go for gold.”

  “I give a course at St. Anastasia Island to see Bourgas bay too. Someone against it?” Asked Valeri.

  “Let’s go already. Everything is sea,” Fantomas spoke logically.

  They sailed in the calm sea, the weather was pleasant and windless. On the way, the group tested the radar, sonar, and other technologies. They approached the cliffs and then went back into the sea. In the evening, the small ship stopped at a suitable place and dropped anchor.

  Gosho thinly sliced the appetizers and poured them with his home made red wine.

  “Cheers guys and try my last year’s harvest.”

  They drank, praising him because of the wine’s great quality.

  Ivan asked with interest, “Captain, why did we stop here? We could still go another mile.”

  “As we were moving, I watched through the binoculars. In the distance more to the shore, I noticed a speedboat with two men inside. One tossed a rope into the water and was pulling it consistently. I’m informed that the Russians tied a special magnet and trawl the bottom with it until something sticked.”

  “You would like us to check out the place tomorrow morning, right?”

  “That’s the idea. We do not need a magnet, we have the technology and if we see something, you dive directly with the suits. Those are hardly strangers. Many treasure hunters work around. Entire families make a living that way.”