She simply laughed derisively and moved over to Susan. “Mr Danger, you have an option. Admittedly it is your only option, but it will safeguard Miss Kirkmuir’s immediate future.”
Dodge narrowed his eyes. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”
“I want you to help my father discover the Tree of life.” Reptilia said simply.
Dodge began to laugh. “If I help you you’ll just kill us at the end anyway!”
“Probably,” Reptilia shrugged. “However, it will give you extra time to think of an escape plan. If you refuse the last thing that you will see is the lovely Miss Kirkmuir being torn to shreds under a train! I know this puts you in a dilemma, but that’s the idea! Time is running out, Mr Danger!”
Dodge glanced down at Susan. She twisted her head to look up at him, and he cursed under his breath.
The train whistle blew - it was almost upon them!
“Come on Mr Danger! Surely it can’t be so hard a decision. You stood by and watched her brother die ... do you really feel so little for her?” Reptilia sneered and Dodge realized that he really hated this woman.
“Dodge?” Susan looked at him with imploring eyes. She wasn’t a coward, but she did not want to end her life tied to a railway line. Dodge looked to the skies and slowly dropped his gun.
“Okay Reptilia. You win for now.” He looked at Susan and shrugged - and then suddenly his world exploded into darkness!
Susan watched in horror as two Chinese guards sprang from seemingly nowhere and clubbed Dodge to the ground with the butts of their guns. The adventurer crumpled to the sound of Reptilia’s hideous laughter.
“Untie the girl!” the villainess ordered.
Dodge found himself back in the cavern. Looking down he saw that he was sitting on one of the tree’s enormous branches. Although the ground lay far below he felt extremely safe.
Yggdrasil would look after him.
He heard a curious scraping behind him and slowly turned his head around. Perched on the branch next to him was a small grey squirrel. It was eating an acorn and peered up at him through two intelligent black-button eyes.
Dodge smiled as the squirrel’s nose started twitching “Hi, little guy!”
“Hi yourself!” the squirrel spat out some fragments of nut and replied; “So, what’s a nice archaeologist like you doing in a place like this? Don’t bother answering that. I was being rhetorical!
“You look worried, Pal,” the squirrel continued. “Well, don’t be. Yggdrasil wants you to know something and even though it can’t tell you itself, it asked me to give you some clues to help you on your way.”
“You’re a talking squirrel!” Dodge finally managed to splutter.
“And you’re a hero stuck four hundred feet up a tree!” the squirrel replied. “It’s a funny old world, isn’t it?”
“But squirrels don’t talk!” Dodge reasoned.
“That’s a good point, well put, but you need to check your mythology. Animals talk all the time. You humans just choose not to listen.” The squirrel turned his back and ruffled his tail in disgust. The leaves of the tree seemed to rustle in response and the branches swayed in an agitated manner. The squirrel chattered back angrily, not speaking but obviously communicating with the tree. A few moments passed and the squirrel turned and looked at Dodge. Its tailed drooped slightly as though it had been chastised.
“Yggdrasil wants me to help you! It says that if I don’t then it’ll die and the wolf will eat me. Okay, here’s the clue. Think back to the time you were in Atlantis.”
Dodge stared at the creature, bemused.
“The firestones! The Orichalum plays a big part in this - its energy and mysticism. Remember where the Atlanteans had a quarry.”
“I-I don’t follow,” Dodge stuttered.
“Just think about it! It’ll help in the long run.” The squirrel turned and scampered off into a hole in the tree trunk.
Dodge narrowed his eyes and struggled to accept the concept of a talking squirrel knowing that he had been on Atlantis.
A howl of bloodcurdling proportions echoed through the cavern and the tree started trembling violently.
Dodge struggled to hold on, but the branch twisted beneath him and he tumbled off into infinity.
He plummeted towards the ground.
The Peloponnesian Peninsula, 1928
“Svenswede!” Dodge called as he trudged along the rocky shoreline. “Hey, Svenswede!”
A tall figure sat gazing into the clear azure depths of the Mediterranean Sea, completely ignoring him. Ruefully Dodge shook his head. That big Norwegian was always off in some private world of his own. Dodge wondered why Hesuse continued to bring him on these Atlantean expeditions.
“Lars! C’mon, stop staring into the sea, willya? You’ll never find Atlantis that way!” Dodge reached out to put a hand on Svenswede’s shoulder.
“I’m not interested in finding Atlantis, Dodge. I’d like to know how my ancestors interacted with the southern peoples,” The big blonde man turned to look at Dodge and smiled warmly through his huge tangle of beard. “I doubt that Atlantis ever actually existed.” He stood up, towering over Dodge. He was a huge bear of a man, his face weathered by years of harsh climate. His accent was all but gone.
Dodge smiled at Svenswede and clapped the huge man’s arm companionably. “Hesuse has found some pretty convincing artefacts!”
“Yes, he has found nice artefacts, but what makes them from Atlantis? He has no point of reference for making such wild deductions, and he knows it.”
“Jeez Lars, if you feel that way why are you here in Greece with us?” Dodge retorted.
Svenswede just smiled at Dodge. “I have been trying to solve a mystery for most of my life, Dodge, a mystery concerning my cultural background. It may have its roots here.”
“What mystery?”
“A group of Vikings colonized Greenland and lived well on its shores for years. Then suddenly they all vanished. They just got up and left! And nobody knows why. The ancient Norsemen were always recording things in sagas, but on this occasion they didn’t. It remains one of the great enigmas of my heritage.” Svenswede turned and gazed out towards the sea again.
“So, what’s that got to do with Atlantis?” Dodge asked, intrigued by the man’s story but infuriated by his habit of trailing off.
“Hesuse maintains that he has found evidence of Atlantean colonies as far north as Iceland and Greenland. I think in some oblique way this caused the migration from Greenland.”
Dodge glanced back to the rest of the archaeologists. He smiled as he saw Stephanie’s hair catch the rays of the sun.
“Dodge, there’s an obscure legend about the Viking settlements in Greenland, concerning a rock made of pure evil,” Svenswede continued. “The Elders thought it was the dung of Fenris. It was said to cause living nightmares and insanity in anyone exposed to it for too long. The story says that a village far to the north of the Norwegian coast was plagued by demons and disaster after some men found a strange idol fashioned from this rock. Eventually, after they had attempted to rid themselves of this phenomenon - viewed as a curse from the gods - a decision was made that a longboat full of the village’s bravest warriors accompanied by the village shaman should take this source of darkness far from their home. The ship set sail for a fabled land far to the west. Legend maintains that these warriors never returned home.”
Dodge waited for him to continue, but again Svenswede seemed to disappear into his thoughts.
“Lars?” Dodge coaxed.
The big Norwegian turned to look at him. “You have heard Hesuse’s theories about the Atlantean firestones, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but everyone with theories about Atlantis has their own ideas about the Atlanteans’ strange power sources,” Dodge countered. “Besides, what has this to do with your story?”
“What does Hesuse call the Atlantean firestone?”
“Orichalum.”
“Ah yes! Also known as Orichalc and Orichalcum. W
hat if this idol had been carved out of it by some Antediluvian race? Perhaps the visions and phenomenon were a result of this mineral’s radioactivity. I just want to solve one of the forgotten enigmas of my heritage, Dodge. I’ll travel with anyone who’ll help me achieve my goal. Even a fool like Hesuse!”
And with that the Norwegian archaeologist stood up and strode towards the rest of Hesuse’s team.
Dodge soon forgot about this conversation, thinking it little more than a fairy tale – one of Lars Svenswede’s many flights of fancy. He never even told Twice about it. Thus this piece of information was sealed in a locked box in Dodge Danger’ psyche.
Unwittingly however, Dodge had witnessed proof of Svenswede’s theories years later whilst in the sunken caverns and temples of Atlantis. After becoming exposed to beads of Orichalum, his companion, Stephanie Smythe, started suffering from severe and baffling hallucinations that convinced her she was a long dead Atlantean priest.
Chapter Nine
The North Atlantic Ocean, 1938
The Black Lotus had been steaming northwards for nineteen hours.
Reptilia stood on the deck, wrapped in thick furs. She gazed out across the sea, lost in a pensive mood.
The drugs that had been administered to Dodge Danger and Susan Kirkmuir had ensured that only a minimum of effort was required to guard them.
However, now as the ghostly pale coastline of Greenland loomed out of the night before them, the time had arrived to consider reviving Danger so he would be fit enough to assist them in finding their goal.
In the mists of Norse Legend, their destination was known as Jarmungadr. Within this long-forgotten crevice lay a secret entrance to the subterranean world of Yggdrasil.
Here Danger and her father would both die!
Dodge woke to find his entire body aching. He appeared to be chained by his wrists to a metal strut. He could hear the high-pitched barking of dogs ringing through the air and in the distance, the gentle slap of water against a hull. He must be deep in the hold of some boat! He frowned and tried to focus his attention on the matter at hand - Whatever the Hell that was!
Dodge slowly opened his eyes and scanned the room. It took a moment for his eyesight to adjust to the gloom, but eventually he started seeing shapes emerge from the bleak darkness.
Across the hold, manacled to another pipe, dangled Susan. Her head was hanging on her chest, her golden hair obscuring her face.
A moment of panic grabbed at Dodge.
“Susan!” he hissed, “Susan, are you...?”
To his relief she moaned and her head lolled to the side. At least she wasn’t dead. Dodge started pondering on their location and how they would get out of this dank metal prison.
Somewhere one of those dogs howled ominously.
Dodge hung in his chains, thinking about his vivid flashback to his conversation with Lars Svenswede. Not long after Svenswede had left the expedition citing a “falling out” with Hesuse.
Dodge had heard that he’d travelled north to continue his search. Ironically his true goal had seemed to evade his grasp, but he’d made numerous finds that backed up Hesuse’s theories. Just after finding a small horned idol of Atlantean origin, he died in an exploding Icelandic geyser.
“Dodge ... are you there?” Susan’s voice, sounding very small, brought him to the present.
“Yeah, I’m here sweetheart,” Dodge rasped.
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know. Some kind of a boat.”
“Great, I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise.” Susan raised her head and Dodge could see an ironic smile cross it. “Better than that train-ride I was about to take!”
Suddenly the room flooded with light and Dodge heard a voice he now detested!
“Welcome to the endgame, Mr Danger - I hope you are suitably rested. You have a long and dangerous journey ahead of you.” Her wicked laughter echoed through the hold’s metal confines.
“Mr Danger, why the petulant expression?” Reptilia glided down a set of iron steps, three guards following her down, each armed with a rifle. Dodge smiled grimly to himself - if any of those goons fired their weapons in this confined metal space, the ricochets would finish everyone off.
“You’re not going to be a bad loser, are you Dodge?” Reptilia crossed to the captive archaeologist and playfully stroked his unshaven chin.
“You know something? You’re really starting to annoy me,” Dodge declared patronizingly.
With a petulant snarl, Reptilia punched Dodge in the stomach. He grimaced as the air vacated his body. She glared at him, wishing that she could do more to him. But unfortunately she needed him alive. But she could still inflict her anger on Dodge’s companion when he was gone.
Susan Kirkmuir would soon be obsolete.
“Take the girl to my quarters!” she barked at her guards. They stomped over to Susan and started unlocking her chains. Reptilia fixed Dodge with a challenging smile.
“Get your hands off of me!” Susan snarled, but her assailants took no notice of her protests and dragged her towards Reptilia.
“This woman will ensure your cooperation in finding the valley, Mr Danger. She will remain as my guest until you have completed your quest.”
“And then...?” Dodge queried.
“And then we shall see,” Reptilia said lightly. “Now, Miss Kirkmuir, if you have anything you would like to say to Mr Danger, now would be an opportune moment.” Reptilia glanced at the guards and released their hold on Susan.
Susan pulled her hands through her thick curly hair. Reptilia watched with curiosity as Susan walked over to Dodge, holding a hand to her mouth as though stifling a sob.
“Susan, I’ll be...” Dodge began, but his assurance was stifled as Susan leant forward and kissed him.
Dodge’s eyes widened with surprise.
“Take the girl away!” Reptilia barked. The guards grabbed her and yanked her away from Dodge. She looked back at him without fear.
“I’ll see you soon Dodge!”
Dodge nodded his reply and watched as she was dragged from the ships’ hold.
New Okkulten University, Morton
“So that’s why it is imperative we see Floyd’s notes. It is a matter of life and death ... perhaps even more than that!” Twice fixed Ms Martha Ednaworth with a level gaze.
The secretary was immense – her enormous frame dwarfed her armchair. A cloud of blue smoke shrouded her head. She took another draw from her pipe and gave a non-committal grunt. “Twice, Professor Davidson was just killed in an unfortunate accident. His bones aren’t even cold yet, and here you come making wild accusations about his unethical behaviour!” She leaned forward, casting an ominous shadow over the archaeologist.
Twice tried not to cringe. She could crush him. “Martha, my dear woman, you know as well as I do that the staff of this establishment have on occasion been known to ... suffer from the pressures associated with their working environments. Now I believe that Floyd Davidson had succumbed to the same ... pressures. I assure you that I will do nothing to cause embarrassment to this college.” Twice looked directly into her eyes and a moment passed.
“Very well Twice, in recognition of all the work you’ve done for us over the years, I will allow you access to Davidson’s personal effects. Just be discreet.” The huge woman gave her visitor a smile that she probably thought was charming.
The office door opened with an ominous creak and Twice crept into Davidson’s dark, musty-smelling office. The room lay in the lower levels of the university, not far from the morgue and more dangerous experimental laboratories.
“No wonder he went potty working in an environment like this!” Twice declared with false bravado. However he had heard enough stories about the New Okkulten University to be justifiably nervous.
Dodge languished in his bonds in the empty hold. A few moments had passed since Reptilia and her goons dragged Susan from the room.
But a few moments could change a lot of things.
S
atisfied that he would be left alone for a moment or two, Dodge slowly pushed something from his mouth – something Susan had passed to him during their kiss.
A hairpin!
Carefully he spat the hairpin into his fingers.
“Well done honey,” he whispered to himself as he began to pick the lock holding his chains.
Dodge slowly climbed up the metal staircase and eased himself out of the hold. A bitter fist of icy air punched him in the face and he staggered. It was dark, but Dodge surmised that the ship had crossed the Arctic Circle. He couldn’t begin to hazard a guess at the time. Scarring the sky he noticed the Aurora Borealis shimmering above like an angel’s wing. A faint glow hugged the southern horizon. At this time of the year, the Arctic was almost permanently dark.
Dodge looked cautiously around for any guards, but couldn’t see any. Dodge smiled grimly and moved forward at a crouch, his breath emerging in plumes of steam. He crouched near the side of the ship. Below he could hear the sound of people busying themselves. He peered over the side and below on the pack ice he saw a group of men readying a dogsled for a journey. The huskies barked and yelped with excitement.
Dodge slipped away from the side and started searching for Reptilia’s stateroom. That was probably where he would find Susan.
Dodge crept across the deck towards the bow, where he assumed her stateroom lay. He didn’t know what he was going to do. As usual, he was making it up as he went.
The wind howled through the masts, encased in ice. Behind him he could hear the dogs howling and barking from the camp. He began to feel like the last man on Earth.
Despite his fur-lined leather jacket and hood, Dodge was freezing cold. He could feel ice forming on his eyebrows and stubble. Even his tall boots offered little protection. He couldn’t feel his toes anymore.
He looked over his shoulder. The Aurora continued to dance above him.
Dodge moved forward. He had almost reached the cabin door. A few more feet and he’d be inside, facing off against Reptilia and God only knew how many thugs!
Dodge Danger Page 10