by Ellie Mack
“There are actually two keys. On the rune stones, the third brother, I’m assuming he’s the one who carved these, states that there are actually two keys that interlock with each other. It takes both keys to open the doors of Valhalla. One key will open the portal enough for Heimdall to sound the horn, thus starting Ragnarok. There is a twenty four hour window from the time that the horn sounds and when Nefflehiem is opened for the last battle.”
“I’m confused.” Gabby tucked her hands inside her hoody pocket. “Two keys? How do we know which one is which?”
“Ah! That’s easy. The base key, the one we need is circular with a cross shape inside, another circle at the center. The key that opens the portal to Asgard for Heimdall to sound the horn is circular with nine swords pointing at the center amber stone.”
“How do you know all of this?” Scott moved closer, flipping through the book.
“I’ve been studying the Havamel, and other ancient Viking scrolls and books.” Brad beamed, proud of his deduction. “There’s just one thing.”
“Why do I feel this is a very bad thing?” Scott looked up at him dreading what was coming next.
“We have no way of knowing which key is in Ireland, or if it’s still there.” Brad sighed deeply. “Basically, we need to get on this as soon as possible and find out if the key is there and if it’s the right key, or we all may be screwed.”
“Let’s get going then. I’m coming with you.” Gabby stood, her face set in determination.
~~~~~
Since Lena was unavailable to make her presentation on time, Erik and Nialls went to the board to present on her behalf.
The drive was mostly in silence. Everyone suspected Nialls of being Montgomery’s stool, and rumors were going around that maybe he had something to do with this mess.
Erik was feeling apprehensive about presenting instead of Lena, but if the meeting was missed, it could jeopardize the entire dig.
The two men sat at the small desk in the center of the U-shaped table arrangement, the board seated before them.
Erik began, outlining the events of the victims found, and how things have been at a halt with Helena missing. He shared images of the tunnel where she was last seen. Then he moved into his personal area of specialty.
“It’s been my job to interpret the rune stones along with Brad Kaarlson, and I believe that we have completed the translation. Now, bear in mind that runes are sometimes written in kennings.” He made a point to turn and look at the leaders on the right table.
“Kennings are a sort of slang, or a code, that is often used in rune stones. They abbreviate what needs to be written in order to fit the whole story down. For example a journey is symbolized by either land or sea or a ship.
From what we have deciphered, there were three brothers protecting the treasure of the village, two brothers hid the treasure while the other brother hid in the caves.
The treasure that is referred to is a key to open the vaults where the riches of the Vikings were stored.”
It was kind of the truth, Erik didn’t get the full interpretation from Brad.
“The runes indicate a great stash of treasure below ground, as well as the key to unlock that treasure, which was moved to Ireland.”
Nialls stood, clearing his throat before beginning.
“You’ll see in the report, that the full translation has been written down. In these slides, you see the runes on the stone wall at the end of the tunnel, and Brad’s deciphered meanings.” He used the laser pointer to indicate what words matched which runes.
“We propose that we send a team to go to Ireland to acquire the key. Funding for this trip would only be the cost of a charter boat for a day.”
The board dismissed the two men, instructing them to wait outside while they came to a decision. For thirty minutes they sat fidgeting on the bench outside the door.
“The board has agreed that it would be in their best interest to fund this trip to Ireland.” It was the department secretary.
“Nialls, Dr. Montgomery would like to meet with you in his office and Erik, Dr. Westergaard would like a word with you in his office.”
“I wonder what that’s about.” Nialls stood stretching his legs.
“I’m sure Montgomery wants a full report with all the scoop about what’s been going on in camp, more than we can share in a presentation.”
“Yes, he probably does. But I meant with you and Dr. Westergaard. He is a very strange eccentric man.”
“Yeah he does. I don’t know. I’ve never talked to him before and Lena didn’t mention that she had meetings with him. Guess we’ll find out.”
Erik strolled down the hallway towards the offices. Dr. Westergaard’s was the last one at the end of the hall.
The door was standing ajar, so he went inside to sit and wait. His office was sparse with only a few items on display. There was a dagger that was encrusted with rubies and emeralds from Morocco, an Egyptian artifact that he wasn’t sure what it was, and a couple other items on a glass shelf that were ancient Viking artifacts.
On the desk was a bound leather journal. It looked old and well used. “Let’s see what a rich man journals about.”
He picked up the journal and began to flip through it. There were a lot of runic writings and translations. There was a sketch of the key that Scott and Brad described. He flipped the page and lost all color in his face.
On the next page was detailed instruction for sacrifices to Tyr, a timeline on when each sacrifice would be made with checkmarks on the sides. The following page had snapshots of each of the girls. He swallowed hard.
Erik stuffed the journal in his backpack and ducked out the door. At the far end of the hall he saw Dr. Westergaard coming out of the meeting room. He had nowhere to go and there was no way he was going to be in the same room with a sociopathic killer.
Glancing around, he ducked across the hall to another office that was unlocked.
There was no way out. He closed the door behind him, pressing his back against the door.
Whispering to himself “Think, think, think.”
If he stayed in here, the other professor would find him. If he went down the hall, Dr. Westergaard would see him.
Erik slowly spun in a circle, his heart pounding inside his chest. He had to get out of here and fast. He darted to the window, pushed up the glass as quietly as he could, squeezing through the opening and lowering the glass back into place. He lowered himself to the narrow ledge, then shimmied over to the drain spout to slide down to the ground.
His heart pounded as he ran towards where the jeep was parked. He quickly unlocked the door and climbed inside, breathing heavily. They had to get out of here. They had to get out of here as fast as they could.
Erik texted Nialls that they had to get back to camp urgently, then he called the main secretary and conveyed that he had been called back to camp urgently, something about the teams abandoning the project.
Impatiently he waited, thumbing a rhythm on the steering wheel. “Come on Nialls.”
Seconds seemed like eons before Nialls appeared at the door. Erik motioned him to hurry.
The drive back was nerve wracking.
“Slow down. I’d rather get there alive than get there before the teams bail.” He held onto the hand loop above the window.
“You don’t understand. There are no teams leaving. Reach back there and get my backpack.”
Nialls did as instructed and pulled the backpack up to sit on his lap.
“Now take out that leather journal and read it.”
Nialls took out the journal and opened the first page. “It’s in runic, I can’t read that.”
“Keep reading. Turn the page.”
Nialls flipped though the notebook. It just seemed like a professor’s notebook.
“You shouldn’t have taken this. Which professor did you take this from?”
“Keep reading.” Erik raced around a curve, the jeep leaning heavily to one side.
Nialls flipped the page to the sketch of the key. “Hey, that looks like the key that Brad described.”
“There’s more.” Erik glanced over at him nervously, then back to the road.
Nialls flipped the next page and turned ghostly pale.
“This”
“Yeah”
“We have to”
“Report it, yeah”
“Pull over, I’m going to be sick.”
Erik slammed on the brakes, causing them both to lurch forward. Nialls jumped out of the jeep and walked a few steps away before bending over, hands on his knees, and vomited.
Chapter 24: Cushendall, Ireland
Ask of Odin, and receive nothing.
Beg of Thor and call his wrath upon you.
Seek of Loki and be ye deceived.
Learn ye thine traits with thine own mind, build thine empire with thine own sword, and control thine enemy with thine own scheme.
Ask not of the gods, for they trust not in a man with no will to take what is his with his own strength. Serve the gods with thine own wit and strength of arms, and rejoice in the bounty that thous shalt gather!
-Beowulf, Nordic Gods
Once they were back at camp, Erik practically vaulted from the jeep. Nialls was slower in moving, but followed behind as quickly as he could manage, his stomach still in knots.
“Brad! Scott!” Erik called out before reaching the Ops tent.
“What’s up? Did they approve the charter boat?”
“Yes, but there’s something you need to know.” Erik spoke panting heavily. He took the journal from his backpack and handed it to Brad, gulping as he took it.
Brad flipped through it quickly landing on the page with the key. “Hey, that’s exactly what the key looks like. Where did you get this?”
“There’s more. Turn the next page.”
Brad did as instructed and sat down hard on his cot. When he looked up at Erik, the color had gone from his face. “Where did you get this?”
“Dr. Westergaard, the angel benefactor. After the presentation, he wanted to meet with me alone in his office so I go in. This was laying on his desk and I was nosy. I wish I hadn’t been.”
“How did you manage to smuggle it out?”
“Ran across the hall, went out a window and shimmied down the drain pipe.”
He handed it to Scott.
“Oh my god!” Scott’s eyes went wide. “Brad, scan this into your computer then we have to hand this off to the detective. We’ll get our things together, Erik can take it to the police station while we go to the marina and get the charter. The sooner we get this underway, the better.”
Brad wasted no time in scanning the incriminating material into a file. He put it on a flash drive for a backup as well as on his cloud, and the hard drive. When Erik came back to get the journal, Brad was just finishing stuffing his backpack for the trip to Cushendall.
Erik drove the group to the marina and dropped them off before driving to the police station. He stopped the detective just before he was heading out the door managing to convince him he needed to see what Erik had. They went into his office and closed the door.
Erik explained what happened and showed him that the next murder was scheduled in Dr. Westergaard’s book in three days, at the full moon. He didn’t share any of the information about the translations they had made on the wall and rune stones. He felt it best to not say anything about it, and let the detective see the madness in the journal.
After leaving the police station, he swung by the pub and ordered an ale and a burger. Erik sat alone for several minutes before he tried to call his girlfriend. Last time he had seen her, she was angry that Lena had called and inferred that there was more going on with her than just chauffeuring her around. It ended in a fight and they broke up. Since then, he’d been spending a lot of time with Gabby.
He swiped his phone to the contacts and pressed hers. “Inga, can you come meet me at the pub? I really need to talk with you.”
After several minutes of arguing, she agreed to meet him. Erik ordered another beer as he waited. He leaned forward, thinking with his chin in his hand, his elbow on the table. It wouldn’t take long for the professor to figure out that his journal was missing, and as quickly as he did, he’d know that it was Erik. He should have asked the detective for a guard or something.
“Erik.” Inga pulled out the chair beside him and sat down. “What is it that you wanted to see me about so urgently?”
He clasped her hand in his and began telling her what was going on, and that he felt he was in danger. He told her that Lena was missing and emphasized that there was nothing going on between him and her, that in fact Scott was her boyfriend.
At first, she didn’t believe him and thought he was making up some ridiculous tale to win her back. But when she realized he was sincerely scared that he was in danger, she softened up.
“I’m sure they will catch him and you’ll be safe. You did the best thing, taking it to the police.” She sat back in her seat, letting out a big sigh. “Erik, I’m with someone else now. I met him before you went on this dig. I’m sorry, but we’ve”
“It’s fine Inga. I liked you as a friend before we ever got involved. Can we still be friends? I really need a friend right now.”
She leaned over and hugged him before rising to leave. “Feel free to call me and talk. Even if you leave a voice mail, I’ll call back when I am able.” She hugged him again before leaving.
Erik slowly made his way to the door, deciding that he would wait at the marina for his friends to return. After all, Gabby was with them.
~~~~~
“According to the description on the runes, it should be right around here. I compared ancient maps with current ones and the spot overlays this location. “ Brad spoke as they climbed the gentle slope from the shore. “We’re looking for a megalith stone, similar to our rune stones.”
They continued to trudge up the hill until they came to ruins of some old stone houses.
“Look around here. This matches the description, we just need to find a marker stone that is different from the ruins.”
They spread out, inspecting the ruins, circling the stones.
“Hey over here!” Gabby yelled excitedly. “Is this it?”
There was a three meter long, one meter wide rock laying horizontal on the ground.
“I don’t see any markings on it, but it matches the description you said.”
Brad and Scott inspected it, kneeling beside it and looking at the ground all around it.
“I think you’ve found it Gabby. We are going to have to make a fulcrum to turn it over in order to read the runes.”
Scott took the rope from his backpack, while Brad searched for a log or something they could use as a lever.
“Shouldn’t we document what we find?” Gabby said as she took pictures.
“Good idea. Write down the coordinates, here’s my gps. Make note of the area, take photos of the surroundings, and then you can write down what we do, and then hopefully, we can turn this over and there will be runes.”
Gabby was already taking multiple shots of the surroundings. Instead of writing down, she took a photo of the gps coordinates.
Four times, the men failed to turn over the stone, but on the fifth try, they managed to get enough leverage to turn it over in the downhill direction.
There were the runes! Scott brushed away the dirt as Gabby photographed them working. She got in close, taking a shot of the runes after he cleaned the caked-on dirt off.
Brad copied the runes in his notebook, then sat down on the ground and began to work through the translation. Over an hour later, he looked up, squinting into the distance.
“OK, it says in line with the Isle off the distant shore, so it will be” he took the edge of his notebook sighting down it as he scanned the horizon for the island. “That one!”
He pointed to one of the ruins they had walked past.
The three scampered down the hill, inspe
cting the ruins.
“Is this safe? I mean how on earth are we going to find this thing?”
“Probably not, and with a lot of luck.” Scott squatted down, calculating where the door would have been, how the village was laid out. “But, luck has been on my side since getting involved in this dig, so let’s hope it stays.”
He made a few sketches before deciding which one would be most accurate. “We dig here.”
The two men took out their fold up shovels, snapped them into place and began the arduous work of digging. After two hours, they stopped to have a break. It was close to noon, so Gabby passed around sandwiches that she’d had Andre make for them.
~~~~~
Erik drove back to the marina, sitting in the jeep reading the book he’d brought with him. It was getting close to sunset when someone tapped on the window of the jeep.
Erik looked up startled.
Dr. Westergaard stood beside his jeep. Erik slowly rolled down the window.
“Afternoon, sir.”
“I thought the reason you missed our meeting was because there were teams abandoning the project.”
“Yes sir. We went back to camp, talked to the crew and convinced most of them to stay. So I drove the expedition team to the marina for the charter boat, and figured I’d just hang out here and wait for them to return.”
“Excellent. Which means, you have time for that meeting now?” Dr. Westergaard wasn’t buying it for a second.
“Ummm, yes sir. I suppose I do.”
That was the last thing he wanted to do was be alone with this killer. “We could get a beer and fish and chips over there and talk.”
Erik figured if they kept it in a public place, then maybe he would be safe.
“Why on earth would we eat such paltry offerings when I have a personal chef on my yacht just down the way.”
He had to think quick. “Thank you for the offer, but I had a big lunch and I’m really not hungry, just thought I’d grab a beer.”
Dr. Westergaard’s expression shifted. He glanced in the direction of the yacht, then with a deep sigh turned back to Erik. He opened his suit jacket exposing the gun tucked into his belt. “Really, I insist.”