The Medusa Stone (Order of the Black Sun Book 12)

by P. W. Child

  “Aye, I know, love,” Nina soothed him, “but you can avenge her by completing this mission and getting to the bottom of these bastards’ business, hey?”

  Heidmann appreciated her sympathy. Of them all, Nina was the only one who gave a damn about his personal stake in this. But then again, how could she not? Of them all, she was the one most like him in that emotional state, knowing the pain of losing someone you love and not being allowed to grieve until the sorrow subsided. Having to just pick up and live again as if nothing ever happened while there was a gaping chasm in one’s chest.

  “This way,” he whispered.

  They followed him toward a hidden, smaller door under the stairs that led to the office. He clearly recalled passing through the unassuming entrance to the tomb of stone corpses and even remembered how the handle of the door had to be lifted before it could turn.

  Don and Purdue remained just outside the entrance to make sure they were not discovered. The clatter of the metal sheets the structure was made of impaired their ability to hear the guards all the time. Every now and then, the sound of their voices would simmer through the roar of the coming rainstorm, but most of the time it was virtually impossible to keep track of their position.

  Chapter 22

  Behind Nina, the doorway grew smaller as she followed Heidmann into the sunken chamber. Beside her was Costa, holding his flat hand just behind her back in a gesture of protective care and also to make sure she did not lose her nerve and run back, which was what he feared most. Purdue made it clear that Nina had to complete her task as best she could because the entire expedition relied on the information gathered about Medusa and the strange collection of ancient effigies.

  She looked at Costa with apprehension, but his handsome face and tender eyes quickly spurred her on. Nina felt safe with him; almost invincible.

  “Nina, here is where I found ‘Son of Zyklon-B’, but unnamed at the time. Note these,” he whispered, pointing out the more dilapidated specimens just three rows behind the marked pieces, “are all named. Their clothing is still on them because the transformation only affects living tissue. Look, some of them have uniforms with name tags on them. Those we can identify.”

  “Aye, that must be the older ones, not the World War II victims. Give me that torch, please,” Nina requested from Costa, who promptly crouched down beside her to study the faint markings on some and then proceeded to the military looking statues.

  He ran his fingertips gently down the fabric of the statue’s pants, hardened by mold and age. “This is just less than a century old, yes. But what baffled me is this,” Costa whispered.

  “What?” Heidmann asked with intrigue.

  “These motifs on the collar are from the Second Century Movement in Greece, which is very odd for a German soldier to have. It is as if the two worlds fused somewhere,” the art professor noted.

  Nina went from one to the other, all of them in different stances and expressions as if they were either caught off guard or they were trying to escape whatever confronted them. The effigies were not lined up as she expected, like the stone army in rows she imagined, but scattered and mixed up in age and era, making it exceedingly difficult for her to determine where the Nazi ones specifically would be.

  “Over here, Nina,” Heidmann called in a whisper and motioned for her to come to the back near the one side wall. There stood in the corner what appeared to be an SS officer, his dusty uniform eaten by insects and tattered at the seams. His face looked unassuming as if he expected what was coming or maybe just did not care. The man had his fists clenched by his side as if he was standing attention and his sleeves were a tad too long, covering most of his hand just past the wrist.

  “Look at him, so at peace. I mean, he almost looks proud,” she remarked as she studied him up close. “You guys look for more Nazi pieces, please?”

  The two experts complied with her request, separating to cover more ground. In total, there were no more than 70 statues, again countering Nina’s expected army of hundreds. With morbid curiosity, she reached out to touch the soldier’s left hand, hoping that it would not affect her own skin. Between his contracted fingers and his palm, she felt something inconsistent with the texture of his hand. At first, Nina quickly recoiled at the alien sensation, but on closer inspection, she found that it was the remnants of paper sticking out on both sides of his fisted hand.

  “What have we here?” she whispered in fascination.

  A scuffling ensued near the door, and Don’s rasping voice warned, “They are coming in! Nina! James! Zorba! Can you hear me? The guards are coming! We’re taking shelter. Stay put!”

  Costa gestured a thumbs up to Don as he and Purdue promptly disappeared from the doorway, closing it gently as not to be detected.

  “Oh my God, I hope they don’t come in here,” Nina heard Heidmann panic.

  “They won’t. They are here every night,” Costa argued, hoping to God he was right.

  Nina quickly used her torch to obliterate the soldier’s hand with a loud crack to retrieve the paper.

  “Nina! Jesus!” Heidmann grunted from his hiding place inside an old unused furnace nearby. Costa swooped down on Nina and grabbed her small body with ease in one movement to abduct her with him to his refuge. They rapidly scuttled into one of the large wooden crates used to ship the statues and Costa wrapped Nina up, using his body as a shell over hers.

  The door cracked open violently, and several voices spoke softly, some orders uttered and some speculating. Footsteps spread out among the stone people, some passing right next to where Nina and Costa were concealed. The dust from their scuffling on the sandy concrete was overwhelming, and Costa had to pinch his nose not to sneeze. Nina was shivering with terror, knowing the dreadful fate she would suffer is they were discovered. In her mind, she already imagined what she would look like, standing in her own stone casing, a woeful tomb that would play testament to who she was for others to discover one day. Her dead eyes would be blind, staring out to the onlookers in some museum where she would be on display. The thought horrified her beyond reason. Instead, she spent the time absorbing Costa’s protective presence. She had to concede that being his prisoner was a deep pleasure she had denied given the situation, but now she had to use it to distract her from her other nightmarish thoughts.

  Briefly, she wondered where Purdue was hiding, but soon the scent of Costa’s exotic skin bewitched her – an odor of shampoo and leather with a hint of musk. Her eyes closed inadvertently so that she could savor the sensation of his hands over her forearms and his powerful physique against her back and buttocks. Nina could not believe that amidst the tense anticipation of certain death upon discovery, she could be so aroused.

  The boots stopped right in front of their crate and lingered. Both Costa and Nina held their breath, just waiting for that sudden violent exposure. Costa’s heart pounded hard against her back as his fingertips shifted nervously on her skin, his breath hardly stirring her hair as he held his breath as best he could.

  In what sounded like Ukrainian or Russian, the guard by the crate said something.

  ‘Fuck, he sounds so close!’ she thought. ‘It is like he is right here with us. I wonder what he just said. Did he just tell the others that there is someone in the crate? Oh God, please don’t let that be what he said!’

  Only the stormy gale that rattled the roof sheets of the structure made noise. There was dead silence otherwise, leaving Purdue’s entire team baffled and scared in their respective hiding places. Nobody had any idea what the guards were doing or saying. Had they been discovered? Were they being stalked, each hider by his own seeker? Nina tensed up and felt Costa’s arms pull her closer.

  His warm breath slowly permeated through her hair onto her scalp. The sensation made her flesh crawl, and she moved her head for his mouth to find her cheek instead. Again, two of the men exchanged words, but in clear voices this time. Costa’s lips fell soundlessly on Nina’s skin in what she construed as a loose kiss. Her heart
jumped, and she ached to utter a whimper at the sensual surge that possessed her, but she held her breath. Besides, she was not even certain it was a kiss. For all she knew, he could have just pressed his mouth against her face.

  They heard the men engaged in normal conversation and by the sound of their fading voices they were leaving the hall. In mute anticipation, Heidmann, Nina, and Costa waited to hear the door. A moment later, they heard the lock click shut, and the voices trailed away on the other side.

  “Thank God,” Nina sighed quietly in the confines of the crate. Costa said nothing and did not move as Nina tried to get out. He held her tightly. “Costa, what the fuck?”

  She looked back at him. The attractive art professor just grinned, restraining her every time she tried to get out. Nina started giggling at his playful capture.

  “Hey, we have work to do, before those apes come back again,” she reminded him.

  With a boyish sigh, he relented. “You are no fun, Dr. Gould,” he smiled.

  “I am. I just don’t want to end up as a fucking doorstopper,” she muttered as she got out and dusted herself off. She heard Heidmann open the door of his hiding place too, while Costa followed her out of the crate, fumbling at his clothing.

  Nina looked up to Heidmann, whose face was distorted in horror. He stood frozen in place, looking towards the door at something behind Nina and Costa. Both spun around to see a single guard still standing there, his gun firmly pointed at Nina.

  “You move, I kill the bitch,” he said in a thick accent with steely eyes on the petite historian. Nina felt her body grow numb. She dared not reach for Costa’s hand for fear of the hair trigger zeal of the Russian. The guard shouted loudly for his colleagues over the rumbling thunder and wailing wind. Their heavy boots approached the door, and the latch opened. A tear ran down Nina’s cheek.

  In the door, stood three massive mercenaries, smiling at the three intruders.

  “Oh God,” Heidmann could be heard on the far side of the room.

  “You are dumber than we thought,” the leader laughed, boasting about leaving one man behind to trick the three prowlers into thinking them gone. “Oldest trick.” He stepped inside but did not approach yet. “When I was a little child we played the game…what you call it? Hide and go seek? Eh?”

  “Wow, what a genius move for a professional soldier to pull,” Costa remarked.

  “Shut up!” the man roared, his pale blue eyes flaring with rage.

  His last word still echoed in the hall when his face exploded in a crimson mess of bone fragments and brain matter. Splattering brains everywhere, the man’s body fell to its knees and collapsed onto the dirt with a thump. Nina screamed in horror and sank to her haunches as another guard’s neck split open from the precision shooting of Dr. Donovan Graham that cleaved the guards from behind. Purdue came through the falling bodies, dodging bullets to grab Nina and pull her to safety.

  Clasped under his arm, he held an M16 assault rifle. Nina could not believe her eyes.

  “Purdue?” she gasped in the hail of gunfire and the crack of thunder. “Where did you get that?”

  “No time now, love,” he replied in a serious tone. “Come quickly! Come with me!”

  They ducked under the external piping along the wall to find another exit through to the smaller main hall. With the gunfire in the background, she could hear the hard rain on the corrugated iron roof of the high structure as they cowered towards the door.

  Nina glanced back to see if Costa and Heidmann had emerged as well, but all she could see was the muzzle flare lighting up Don’s wince each time he pulled the trigger. Outside the rain was coming down hard, making it difficult to navigate the challenging and unknown terrain.

  “Watch out for potholes, Nina!” Purdue shouted through the loud clatter of bullets and raindrops. The icy rain almost instantly drenched Nina’s hair and clothing, and her combat boots felt like anvils on her feet as she raced toward the fence. With some unintended, but well-placed moves, she and Purdue made it through the treacherous rusty thorns of the fence and made for the lone van.

  “Get in!” he shouted.

  “But what about the others?” she asked.

  “Don will take care of them. Just get in the van!” Purdue insisted.

  Spinning the wheels on the soft mud, Purdue threw the van into second gear a few meters into their escape, leaving the war in their trail. Nina wept in shock, putting her hand in her pocket where she had stashed the piece of paper she retrieved from the proud Nazi statue.

  Chapter 23

  Don looked for Heidmann and Costa but found no trace of them. Assuming they had been hit by stray bullets, he searched the hall for them. The smoke had cleared, and dust had settled, leaving the archeologist alone in the tomb of rock and ash, listening to the shower outside. The smell of gunpowder floated around him and as he passed the strewn bodies the coppery odor of fresh blood and raw flesh overcame him. Don’s body convulsed and he fell to his knees, vomiting from a combination of disgust and nervous release.

  After he had emptied the contents of his stomach on the dusty floor, he staggered to his feet. He could not find Costa or Heidmann. No matter where he looked, they were absent, both in stone and flesh. In his light headed daze of shock, Don completely overlooked the scaffolding against one wall, where Heidmann was perching low over the limp body of Costa Megalos. Heidmann did not want to confront the robust and accurately aiming archeologist from Dundee. Therefore, he elected to remain hidden.

  Don eventually gave up and headed for the exit. He hoped Purdue and Nina had gotten away safely. The rain was like a soothing shower of frigid water over him. For a moment, Don stood still to revel in the pleasure of being washed clean of all the dust and blood that tainted his body and face. He looked up at the sky and closed his eyes, unafraid of the lightning, and opened his mouth to receive the soothing cool water. In all the adrenaline-fueled panic, his mouth had dried up, and he eagerly gulped down every bit of water his mouth collected.

  When he had had enough, he stumbled ahead to where they had entered. This time, he made sure that he did not get caught on the sharp teeth of the junk metal and die of tetanus. In fact, he pictured his large body being caught up in the tangles of steel and rust, being left there to starve to death with nobody coming to find him. Don wondered what it would feel like to have infected scratches, bleeding out while the starvation and thirst tormented him day after day until he went mad with despair.

  “Christ, aren’t you a bloody ray of sunshine, Donny-boy?” he reprimanded himself as he climbed through the other side and realized that he would not be spending his last days as dried Scottish jerky. On the other side of the fence, there was nothing, but a heinous thought suddenly surfaced in his head to prompt Don to dash toward the tree line.

  ‘What if that ugly snake-headed thing was around here?’

  The very thought of the repulsive girl he saw in the weak headlights of the van kept Don unaware of his fatigue or the sting in his side as he ran for shelter under the dark trees. He had to stick to the road, though, to make sure he did not get lost. And with his luck, he would probably end up at some shack to ask for directions and get captured by the serpent monster and become dinner.

  It was too dark to see anything and his cell phone screen was of no help. The rain prevented any listening for movement, but he could have sworn that he could hear the sound of an engine idling somewhere nearby. Thinking that it was just his hopeful ear being mean to him, he took rest briefly against a tree. From where he leaned with his back against the trunk and his legs folded under him in a crouched position, he surveyed his surroundings.

  With no light whatsoever, Don was practically blind as he stretched his eyes to see into the blackness. As his sight adapted to the dark, he saw something in the distance. Narrowing his eyes to see better, he discerned two tiny red specs floating stationary in the dark. Again the occasionally calming rainfall allowed for him to hear the engine again.

  At once it hit Don like
a hammer. “Holy shit! It’s the van! Oh please don’t be dead. Don’t be dead, guys!” he gasped, forcing his weary body to scamper for the red lights. He barely made it past a ditch he did not see, falling like a fallen tree as his ankle twisted under him.

  “David!” he cried, unworried about being heard by enemies or snake-haired women. “David! Over here!”

  From the darkness nearby a rustle of leaves announced the approach of footsteps. Too tired to care, Don just held his ankle and waited. From the wet night, a sharp beam of white light darted all over the place, lighting up tree bark, leaves, branches, weeds and falling droplets as it grew brighter. It fell on Don’s face, and he gladly stared into the painful sting of the glary light. His heart throbbed with elation as he recognized the sweet voice of Dr. Nina Gould in the cold black ahead of him.

  “Nina!” he called.

  “Aye! We’re coming, Don. I can see you,” she answered, sounding better than the crisp hiss of a popped beer bottle cap.

  “Thank God!” he panted. “I thought you had left already.”

  They picked him up, flinging his arms over their shoulders. “We were leaving, but Nina asked me to stay a while longer, just in case,” Purdue smiled. “And here you are.”

  Nina did not ask for Costa, the true reason she had asked Purdue to wait for a while. As they approached the minivan and she glanced back into the emptiness, a feeling of depression gripped her as she realized that Costa had been lost to her.

  Chapter 24

  With the news from Don that he had not been able to find Costa or Heidmann in the wake of the close call, Purdue decided to return to the lodge to regroup and ascertain the damage.

  Nina kept her discovery in the hand of the petrified soldier secret for now, just until she had time to peruse the scribbling on it. It was not a small note as she first through when she saw it in the statue's fist. In her hand, it felt like a few pages about the size of a writing pad, folded neatly, hopefully holding valuable information.