by Bella King
“Violet Sommer,” the monk says, as though he’s having trouble believing it.
Rurik and I nod.
A smile cracks the monk’s calm face. “I wondered if I would have the chance to meet you. Come inside, out of the sun.” The monk quickly turns around to lead us into the temple.
Rurik gives me a thumbs up and follows the monk into the temple, placing his hand on the small of my back as we enter. The calm energy here is a stark contrast to the violence that just occurred this morning. It’s as though we’ve been transported to another dimension entirely.
“Welcome to the temple,” the monk says. “Let’s take a moment to meditate together, shall we?”
Rurik clears his throat. “I’m looking for something, actually. Time is of the essence.”
“I believe you can wait,” the monk replies. “Please, remove your shoes.” He pauses in the outer hallway before we reach the center of the temple.
Rurik looks impatient, but he listens to the monk. I’m not entirely sure what to make of all this, but I go along with it. I want to remain respectful and polite, as Rurik advised. I would have regardless of what Rurik told me, but I know that we don’t exactly have all the time in the world. Theta-Y might be close on our tail.
I slip out of my shoes and follow the monk inside with Rurik. The main portion of the temple is a courtyard without a roof. The floor is made of thick slabs of oversized brick, worn smooth by the pacing of a hundred years of activity across them. Half of the courtyard is still shaded from the sun, and in the shadow along the wall opposite from us, there is a large statue of the Buddha.
“Sit with me,” the monk says, pointing to a spot in front of the Buddha statue in the shade.
I walk with Rurik and the monk to the spot, and the monk sits down, facing the statue. Rurik and I follow his lead, but Rurik obviously wants to start searching for the vault. The monk hasn’t given us the chance to do that yet, and I doubt Rurik wants to get kicked out for being disrespectful.
I plant my ass on the ground beside Rurik, looking toward the statue. It’s beautiful, and far more detailed than the one outside. Even the texture of the Buddha’s robe is carefully carved into the pewter gray stone.
The monk sits still beside us, with his eyes closed in peaceful meditation. I watch his stomach move slowly with his breath. I look to Rurik, widening my eyes as though to ask, “When are we going to get on with the search?”
Rurik shrugs and closes his eyes, following the monk into meditation. I try to do the same, but the second I close my eyes, the events of the past few days flash through the darkness, causing me to gasp and open them again. I don’t think I can handle sitting still right now.
I look at the statue, admiring the artwork. As long as we’re not sitting here for longer than a few minutes, I won’t lose my marbles. Things don’t look promising, but the statue is keeping my attention and entertaining my unfocused brain for the time being.
At the base of the statue, there are flowers carved into the rectangular stone. I’m not close enough to tell for certain, but I think they might be violets. Excited, I turn my head to Rurik to tell him about it, but I stop when I see that he’s in a state quite similar to the monk. They are both stoic, eyes closed, exploring the stillness.
Frustrated, I look back to the statue and lean in, trying to make out the shape of the flowers. I saw violets recently in the yard with Rurik, and these look the same. Rurik doesn’t know exactly where the vault is, but I think I just found a clue to its whereabouts. Now, all I can do is wait until the monk awakens from his meditation.
I close my eyes again, trying to meditate with them, but I’m unable to. My head is buzzing with ideas of what could be in the vault. Money is the least of my concerns. It’s never been terribly important to me, but the sentimental value of what else could be inside is what excites me.
“Rurik,” I whisper, but I get no reaction. “Rurik,” I say again, giving him a nudge.
Rurik’s eyes pop open, and even though he’s expressionless, I can see annoyance behind his thousand-yard stare. He doesn’t say anything.
“Rurik,” I say again, leaning in. “There are violets on the statue.”
Rurik holds up a hand. “Wait.”
The monk stirs, then awakens from his meditation. He looks at me, and I sit straight, heat rising to my face from embarrassment.
“I apologize for Violet,” Rurik begins, but the monk holds up a hand.
“There is no need for apologies here. Violet has gained all there can be gained from this meditation. My job here is done,” the monk springs to his feet with surprising speed and vigor. “I will be in the garden out back if you need me.”
Rurik looks just as surprised as me as the monk strides out of the courtyard and disappears through a large arched doorway.
“So, I guess he wanted me to see the violets,” I say, standing up.
Rurik shrugs. “I suppose so. Where are they?”
I point to the bottom of the Buddha statue. “Right there.”
Rurik walks up to the statue, and I follow him closely, gripping his large bicep as he strides confidently up to the violets. I’m scared of what could happen when we get to the vault. What if it’s boobytrapped or something? I think I’ve seen too many Indiana Jones movies.
“Look at the violets,” Rurik says, running his finger along the stone. “They’re done so meticulously.”
I hunch over with him, examining the violets in awe. They look as though I could reach out and pick one, despite being the color and texture of stone. They’re the perfect piece of art on an already beautiful statue.
“How about this one,” Rurik says, running his finger along the stone to one of the flowers that’s different. “It’s not a violet.”
“Weird,” I say. “It’s totally not like the other ones.”
I grip Rurik harder as he presses into the flower as though it’s a switch. Maybe he’s hoping for it to be, but it doesn’t react.
“Okay, so there has to be something to this. These violets aren’t just a coincidence,” Rurik says, shaking his head.
I press my fingers into the stone flower as well, but nothing happens. I was sort of hoping that it could tell who was touching it and something would activate. I don’t have such luck, however, which brings us back to square one.
I look at Rurik’s face as he studies the statue, his eyes darting over the engravings as though he’s reading them like hieroglyphics. I pause my own frantic thinking for a moment to admire his handsome face. If we get out of this alive, I want to spend a lot of time with him, even if it does mean staying close to the mafia.
“How do we open it?” I finally ask, knowing that he has no clue.
Rurik shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
That’s the answer I expected, but I don’t want to hear it. We’re wasting time standing here. I need to find a way into the vault. I circle around the statue, following the flowers until I hit the back wall and come to a stop. The only flower that’s not a violet is the one in the front. I check the other side just to be sure.
“There’s something with this flower,” I say, leaning in.
Rurik stands behind me so closely that I can feel the heat radiating off his massive body. Now isn’t the time to get horny, but the way he’s standing behind me makes me wet. I jerk my body back up to hide the shudder that runs through me. Then, I bend back down to examine the flower again.
My necklace drops loose from the confines of my t-shirt, the circular pendant dangling close to the statue. I go to tuck it in, but as my fingers meet the warm gold, I stop. There seems to be an engraving in the center of the flower that’s the same size and shape as the pendant on my necklace.
I lean in, and the pendant snaps into the stone, something inside of it pulled in by a magnet. There’s an electrical beep, and then things start to happen.
“What did you do?” Rurik asks, stepping back as the sound of heavy stones being moved indicates we’ve revealed the entra
nce to the vault.
“My necklace was like a keycard,” I say, removing the necklace from over my head and leaving it dangling off the flower. I look up and see nothing at first, but Rurik is ahead of me. He’s hurrying over to the side of the statue, where a doorway as appeared out of thin air.
“You go first,” Rurik says, stopping just outside the doorway.
“What?” I yelp, stepping back. “Are you afraid?”
Rurik nods. “I know your father.”
“Well, I don’t want my head sliced off when I walk inside. Why don’t you go?”
Rurik laughs. “Do you want my head sliced off? I doubt it’ll have a problem with either of us, but I’d rather you go in because your father wouldn’t have built it to kill you.”
He has a point. I’ve never done something quite this uncertain, but the time has come for me to be brave. I have to trust what my father has done here. He wouldn’t want to hurt me. He put far too much effort into protecting me, even after his death.
I take a deep breath, and step through the doorway on the side of the Buddha statue, into the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The lights come on a moment after I step into the statue. Inside, there are four white walls, a white ceiling, and a white floor with a square hatch. On the hatch, there is a scanner. I assume it’s for my eyes.
“What’s in there?” Rurik calls from outside.
“A room,” I reply, getting down on all fours. I feel like I know what to do here, as though this place is made for me. Hell, it was created by my father. Of course, it’s made for me.
Rurik steps into the room cautiously as the scanner blinks red and flashes into my eye. There is the sound of a release beneath the floor, and the hatch pops up an inch. I crawl back and stare at it, but I’m afraid to open the hatch.
“Open it,” Rurik urges. “We have to get in.”
I look up at Rurik. “Promise me that you’ll destroy whatever is in here when we leave.”
“Aside from the money, yes. I don’t want that information,” Rurik says. “It’s too dangerous in the hands of Theta-Y, and I can’t guard it forever.”
“You promise?” I ask again, wanting to hear the actual word come from his mouth.
“Yes, Violet,” he says, getting down on his hands and knees with me. “I promise.”
I nod. I believe him. He may not have always been truthful with me, but everything he has done so far has only been for my own good. I’ll give him that much.
I reach my hand for the hatch and grip the handle that’s embedded in the steel frame. It’s time to find out once and for all the truth about my father. I know that it will be inside.
“Let’s do this,” I say, more to myself than to Rurik, as I pull open the heavy hatch. The light inside turns on as I open the door, and I immediately drop inside, giving myself no time to hesitate. The time to act is now.
My feet hit the ground hard, and I tumble over onto a glossy wooden floor. This is my second major fall today, and my body is not happy with me. I groan and roll over on my side as Rurik comes down after me, taking the provided ladder that I must have missed.
“Jesus, are you okay?” Rurik asks as he climbs off the ladder.
“Oh, just peachy,” I say dryly, picking myself off the ground and dusting off my jeans.
Rurik looks me up and down before letting himself get distracted by the room. It’s filled with all sorts of things from my father, from books, to literal piles of cash, to guns and ammunition. It looks like a bunker, but a lot classier, and it smells like wood and leather.
“Okay, let’s get some of this money out of here, and then we’re going to have to burn this place. I hate to do this in the temple, but the fire shouldn’t leak out of the vault. The whole temple is made of stone,” Rurik says as he scans the array of items stored inside the vault.
I nod. “Good, what are you going to start a fire with?”
Rurik points at a large stack of money. “That,” he says, then moves his finger a few inches to the right. “And that.” He points at a grenade.
“Sounds dangerous,” I say.
“Not if we’re outside before I toss the grenade in. I’m going to need to destroy some of these computers first. I recommend you plug your ears,” Rurik says, taking his own gun out from inside of his suit jacket.
“Not yet,” I yelp, jumping back. “Let me look through this stuff.”
Rurik lowers his gun but doesn’t put it back in his shoulder holster. He’s eager to get rid of everything that Theta-Y might find useful, but it’s not the time for that yet. I need to explore for a minute.
My eyes immediately lock onto a cassette player sitting on the only desk in the room. It has a strip of pale yellow tape with my name, Violet, written on it in black marker. I approach it curiously, picking it up and looking through the translucent gray window to see if there is an audio cassette inside. There is.
“I think he left a message for me,” I say, placing my finger over the play button.
“Play it,” Rurik says, not looking back as he flips through a few journals on a shelf.
I’m afraid to hear my father’s voice again if that’s what this is. I don’t know how I’ll feel about it. It’s taken years to let the memories fade to the point where they don’t hurt to think about, and this will add new ones that will inevitably sting.
However, I’m not going to let this place burn without listening to what my father has to say to me first. I press my finger into the play button, and the tape starts rolling.
Violet, my precious daughter,
If you are hearing this, it means that you know more than I ever wanted you to. It also means that I’m no longer on this earth.
My heart skips a beat at the sound of my father’s voice. It’s like he’s in the room with us. Even Rurik has paused to listen to the tape.
I wish that I could have kept all of this from you for the rest of your life, but somewhere along the way, I have failed. I was so sure that I would be able to keep you separate from the mafia life, but the world is a messy place. Sometimes things don’t go as planned.
You should listen to Rurik Petrov, my right-hand man. Since I’m no longer alive, he will be the one to take over. If he’s no longer alive, then, well, god help the Sommer mafia.
I glance back at Rurik. I’m glad that he is alive to bring me here. I couldn’t think of a better man to take over the mafia and lead me than him.
Being in the mafia is a gift and a curse, Violet. You can choose to embrace it if that’s the way you want to go in life, but I also wouldn’t be upset if you rejected it. At this point, however, you’re probably already involved. It’s hard to escape once you get in.
Rurik had said that to me before, and I’m quickly finding that it’s true. People know who I am now, enemies know, and there isn’t much I can do to start over and be forgotten.
Please take what you need from the vault, but don’t let anyone gain access to it. If anyone, including Rurik, finds it, please destroy it. The temple will understand. Buddhists know that nothing lasts forever. Everything is temporary.
I urge you to be safe, paranoid even, if you must, to make sure nothing bad happens to you in the way that it happened to me. I love you, Violet, and I always will.
I look at Rurik as the tape ends. “Well,” I say. “I guess you weren’t supposed to come here with me.”
He laughs. “Your father didn’t trust anyone. Smart man.”
“Yeah, I say, but I think he could have trusted you.”
Rurik shrugs. “I do my best.”
“Okay, so let’s blow this place sky high and get the hell out of here before Theta-Y arrives,” I say, walking over to the pile of cash. “I want some of this.”
Rurik smiles. “You know, we have plenty at home.”
“What if I want to buy lunch on the way back?” I ask jokingly, grabbing one of the stacks of hundred-dollar bills.
“Fair point,” Rurik says with a chuckle.
I return to the desk and pop the tape out of the cassette player, tucking it into my back pocket to save and listen to again later. It’s the only thing I have with my father’s voice on it, and I don’t want to lose it.
Rurik finishes piling up the books, the remainder of the cash, the hard drives, and anything else he can find that is flammable. “You’re going to want to plug your ears,” he says, looking at me as he points a gun to the hard drives in the pile.
I place my hands over my ears as he squeezes the trigger. Even with them covered, the sound is loud. That’s no small gun he has in his possession. It’s putting serious holes into the computer parts at his feet. I can smell acrid gunpowder and melted metal as he fires off an entire magazine.
Rurik drops the hot clip to the floor and pulls out another one from his back pocket, shoving it into the gun and aiming again. I watch as his finger comes down on the trigger again but stops. He frowns, looking up toward the entrance to the vault.
I uncover my ears. “What is it?” I ask.
Rurik’s eyes widen as the faint sound of gunfire can be heard popping off outside, muffled by our position underground. It’s probably closer than it sounds.
“Fuck, get a gun,” Rurik says, pointing to the pile of rifles beside the stuff he was shooting at.
“I don’t know how to use one,” I say, hesitating.
“You pull the trigger,” Rurik growls.
I follow his command, remembering my promise to him earlier. He’s the one in charge now, and it looks like my trust in him is about to be tested earlier than I expected. My hand closes around a black rifle, and I check that it’s loaded, feeling for the magazine at the bottom of it. It’s loaded alright, and it’s a lot heavier than I had imagined.
Rurik frowns at my struggle with the rifle and he quickly steps in to take it from me, handing me his pistol in exchange. “Let’s trade.”