Poseidon's Secret

by Preston William Child

  “When I tried asking Julian about it...the way he talked about it...he made it sound like these people are above the Order. It was like the Black Sun had to answer to them.”

  Sam folded his arms. That was worrisome but it was hard to believe that it could really be the case. “We would have known about that. With the amount of times we fought the Black Sun, don't you think someone would have said something? Especially once you became the leader...”

  “It's not like there was an instruction manual or anything.”

  “That would have been nice.”

  “Aye, real nice,” Purdue said. “Instead, I walked into this with very little insight into the secrets the Order had. That might have been a mistake...since now I'm completely blind to whatever this actually is…”

  The whole room shook. The rumble almost knocked Sam off his feet and crashing into the field of paperwork on the floor. He regained his balance and waited for the quaking to settle. It did after a few moments.

  “Earthquake...” Sam said.

  There was the sound of metal groaning and grinding around them. A large drop of water came down on Sam's brow. He looked up and another droplet plummeted onto his nose. More drops of water started falling, soaking through the ceiling. Purdue was pelted by a few more drops. Suddenly, water was raining down on them like they were right beneath a storm cloud. It was a torrential downpour in the room.

  Purdue scrambled to pick up all of the papers around him, trying desperately to salvage whatever he could from being drenched. Sam moved to help him as pipes in the walls burst and jet streams of water exploded all around them. Sam had to pull Purdue from trying to save anymore documents and nearly dragged him out of the room. The hallway outside wasn't much better. Pipes all around them were shooting water out violently.

  “What the hell is going on!?” Sam shouted over the sound of rushing water.

  Puddles already started to form and were building up around their shoes. Purdue shook his head, looking extremely agitated. He still clung to the sopping papers he had managed to pick up—not that it mattered since water was spraying everywhere and those papers were practically disintegrating in his grip.

  Other members of the Order of the Black Sun were in the halls, yelling to one another. Pipes all over the facility had burst, spilling water throughout the compound. The strangest part was how erratic the streams of water were; they bent and twisted around through the air like the limbs of a flailing animal. They were like tentacles, desperately trying to reach out. None of it seemed to make sense logically, but the puddles were defying gravity and physics. It was like the water had a mind all of its own.

  August Williams was soaked from head to toe, and that was an impressive feat considering the size of that man. He pushed through water that was blasting him to get to Purdue and Sam.

  “Purdue!”

  “What is it?” Purdue asked, looking around with confusion.

  “This all started in the deep vault!” August yelled, wiping water off his face. “That's where it is coming from!”

  Sam and Purdue looked to one another with confusion before following August at a brisk pace toward the vault room. Their steps splashed loudly beneath them as they ran to the apparent source of this catastrophe.

  August called back to them as he moved down the corridor. “I was dropping off a diamond I found in India, for Elijah to store away, when everything started to go crazy. Water just came out of everywhere.”

  “The diamond you brought here is doing this?” Sam asked. “Where did you get it from? Because it seems like you brought a bomb into our headquarters.”

  August looked a bit embarrassed but shook his head. “It wasn't the diamond. This wasn't me. This was something else. It started inside the deep vault itself!”

  Sam had never been a fan of the deep vault, a pit in the floor of the vault room where the world's rarest items were kept safe from outside forces. It just felt too locked away, like they were forgetting about the relics rather than protecting them. But he didn't blame Purdue for wanting the collection to be extra secure—not after what Purdue had been through with his own private collection. The Order of the Black Sun had already built and developed the deep vault so they might as well use it.

  The massive door leading to the vault room was closed. August put his hand on the scanning pad in the hall and the huge metal doors slowly opened, revealing chaos inside of the vault room.

  Elijah Dane, the Black Sun's curator, was practically wresting with the huge amounts of water that rushed around him, ensnaring him with its tendrils. The walls of the room had numerous holes punched through them from the pipe water that had forced its way out. Water was everywhere, but the majority of it was swirling around near the deep vault pit in the floor.

  Elijah saw them through the water in the air and yelled across the room to them. “It's that pearl, Purdue. That pearl!”

  The curator pointed to a pearl that was on the floor in the middle of the room. It was a mixture of pure white with blue swirls running across its smooth surface. It was the pearl that Purdue found at the bottom of the ocean...the one that Sam knew could control water. Someone just had to be holding the pearl, and they could bend even the sea to their whim with just a thought.

  Purdue tried to go pick up the pearl but was slapped across the room by a funnel of water before he could get to it. August tried as well, probably hoping his larger size would give him a better chance, but it just helped him take a few extra hits from the water blasts before being knocked aside too.

  Sam watched the chaos unfold but didn't launch himself at the pearl like the others had. Instead, he took a breath to examine what was happening. The water seemed to be guarding the pearl like a defense mechanism but only within a certain radius.

  “Purdue!” Sam called to him as he was getting back up. “Go stand directly across from me on the other side of the pearl. The second it gets close, you grab it!”

  “How's it supposed to get close?” Purdue asked, but still slowly made his way across the room to get into position. He knew Sam well enough to know to follow Sam's lead when he seemed like he had a good idea of how to fix a problem. Purdue was careful to avoid getting too close to the pearl or to the spurts of water that were ready to hit him.

  “You'll see,” Sam said. He took off one of his shoes and threw it at the pearl but his throw was slightly off. The shoe plopped harmlessly down beside the pearl. He stepped down with his free foot and immediately felt the water soak through his sock as he took off his remaining shoe to try again. Both of his feet were sopping now but he ignored it and aimed his footwear carefully. He threw the shoe and it hit the pearl, sending it rolling across the floor like a marble.

  The water that swirled throughout the room tried to follow the pearl but Purdue pounced on it before its defenses could catch up. Once his hand was around the pearl, all of the water in the air spilled to the floor, like it had suddenly run out of all of the mystical energy that was causing its unrest.

  With the pearl in his grasp, Purdue could manipulate the water with nothing but mental commands. It had made the pearl a powerful weapon during Purdue's guerilla war against Julian Corvus some time back. Sam had seen the pearl's capabilities firsthand. It had done them a lot of good when they used it then—but why was it malfunctioning now?

  The water relaxed so that just weak and thin streams of liquid were coming out of the broken pipes. The pearl's power was incredible but was limited to just the water itself. It couldn't fix the plumbing issue unfortunately. Purdue held the pearl tightly and closed his eyes. The water throughout the facility settled and stopped attacking people.

  “What is that thing?” August asked, exasperated.

  Purdue kept the pearl in his clenched fist and turned to August. “It's something I found a little while ago at the bottom of the ocean.”

  “Like the very bottom?” August asked, his eyes growing wide.

  “The very bottom, aye,” Purdue said. “The Mariana Trench.”<
br />
  “Oh,” August said with a nod like it was just something to be mildly impressed about, but in reality looked stunned. “Has anyone ever told you that you are absolutely insane?”

  “Aye.”

  Sam cut in. “But why did the pearl decide to start tearing up the place?” He shifted his attention to Elijah and August. “Was anyone holding it when it happened?”

  “No one,” Elijah said. “That's the strangest part. It was in its storage unit in the deep vault. I only had it brought up with the crane once I realized what the source of all of this water could be. But once I had it up here, the water didn't let me get close to touching it.”

  “Has anything like this ever happened before?” Sam asked.

  “Not that I've seen,” Purdue said. He kept his fingers closed around the pearl like he was afraid it would go on a rampage again if he even slightly loosened his grip at all. “But we still don't know much about it. Just that it was at the bottom of the ocean and before that...it belonged to a pirate named Walton Ogden. His crew found it in a lock box. Before that...well, I'm not entirely sure.”

  “It was mine.”

  The voice echoed throughout the room. It was somehow both as quiet as a whisper and as loud as a yell at the same time. They all looked at each other uncertainly, making sure that the others heard it too. None of them had said the words.

  “It belongs to me.”

  The puddles on the floor rippled.

  “Give it back. Give it back now.”

  The water in the room started to move on its own again but with less chaotic fervor this time. The water coalesced and joined together, rising from the floor to the air. It took shape, becoming a human-like silhouette. The shape stepped toward them and stray drops of its body spilled on the floor as it moved.

  They were all paralyzed. The people in that room had collectively seen all kinds of unusual things in the world but this had to be one of the strangest.

  The water man took another step toward Purdue and the pearl. The plume of water that made up one of his legs nearly collapsed in on itself when he stepped, but the water managed to hold together in a nearly solid form. The figure reached a hand out to Purdue's own.

  “That pearl belongs to me. It is mine. Mine.”

  The shape was barely keeping itself together but more puddles moved into the vault room from the corridors outside, joining the figure’s form and making the silhouette grow in height, as it started to tower over Purdue threateningly.

  “Return what is mine or you will drown.”

  It was practically a living wave, all condensed down into the enormous shape of a man.

  “Return what is mine!”

  The giant water man exploded and his liquid body splashed over everyone in the room, instantly drenching them all. They all stood in shock, drenched and damp from all of the water.

  “What the hell was that?” August yelled out. “Like, seriously what the hell did we just see!?”

  Purdue looked at the pearl in his palm uneasily. “I have no idea.”

  The water didn't try to kill them again—so that was an improvement.

  3

  THE DAMP ONES

  A woman that Sam had only seen a few times walking through the corridors was the first one to talk to Purdue, immediately rushing over to him and talking in hushed tones.

  The Order of the Black Sun members spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess that the pearl made. Sam mopped while others tried to patch up the damaged pipes, or at least put buckets under them to slow down the flooding. Sam continued to mop up the puddles but the entire time he looked at the water, all he could really think about was that figure walking toward them, demanding the pearl back. As August had said, what the hell was that? Who did the voice belong to? The pearl was supposed to control water and Purdue had been holding it, so how was the water even doing that against Purdue's will? Those questions jabbed at his brain, scratching away as he moved the mop along the floor. He wanted answers but it didn't seem likely that he would get any by just cleaning up the water damage.

  Sam put down the mop and went to Purdue's office to check on him. He was cleaning up all of the paperwork that he had out when the pipes burst. Purdue still had the pearl cupped in one of his hands, probably concerned that the water would erupt again if he didn't. The papers were a lost cause. They had all pretty much melted and disintegrated in the shower of water. Sam wasn't sure what exactly was on them but Purdue looked quite sullen about it. Hopefully, the identity of their mysterious new enemy wasn't on there after all. That would just be terrible.

  Purdue didn't seem to notice Sam in the doorway and looked startled when he finally did.

  “Sorry about your research.”

  Purdue gave a stifled, disappointed laugh. “The files weren't helping me much anyway. They gave me very few answers. This wasn't how I expected the day to go...”

  “Getting attacked by water?” Sam laughed. “Getting our asses kicked by puddles? Is that what you mean? Yeah, I can't say that I anticipated that either.”

  “There's always someone after our relics...” Purdue said distantly, looking at the pearl that rested on his palm. “But this wasn't just a thief, aye? Or some rival organization trying to steal from us. That thing was...well, I would safely say that I've never seen something like it.”

  “Maybe this mysterious old woman and her top secret group realized you were looking into them.” Sam said it jokingly but the paranoia probably running through Purdue's mind couldn't seem to distinguish between seriousness and teasing. “I'm just kidding, Purdue.”

  Purdue nodded, but still seemed to be seriously considering the possibility. He probably wanted it to be this new enemy. That way, he would have more information about them. This attack might even give him insight on how the Order of the Black Sun could defend themselves against them. They both knew that it was just wishful thinking. This wasn't a manmade ambush. This—whatever that voice and shape was—was something else entirely.

  A woman came into the room and Sam was shocked to see Purdue immediately hand her the pearl. She was a pale woman with a very poor sense of fashion and large glasses that were too big for her face.

  “Sam, this is Daisy Judge.”

  Sam recognized her from around the facility. She was one of the many new recruits that had been brought on board to the Order of the Black Sun in recent months. More importantly, she was the woman who Purdue was speaking with after that water man demanded that they hand over the pearl.

  “It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cleave,” Daisy said, shaking his hand.

  Sam was still getting used to working with so many colleagues in the Order of the Black Sun. It was hard remembering what positions people had, what their strengths were, or even whether or not he had ever met them before.

  “Daisy believes she knows who was responsible for this mess,” Purdue explained. “Isn't that right, Miss Judge?”

  Daisy nodded and with complete seriousness spoke one name. “Poseidon.”

  “Huh?”

  “Poseidon. The Greek god of the sea.” Daisy said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world and that he was an imbecile since he was having trouble figuring out what point she was trying to make. “That pearl belonged to him.”

  “And just how the hell do you know that?”

  “Simple deduction, especially when my mind is almost always thinking about the Greek gods. Not to mention...well...look around you. That's a lot of water, don't you think? Kind of makes it obvious. He should have left a more mysterious calling card.”

  Sam looked down at the water on the floor. “Yeah, but Poseidon is the god of the sea, not the god of plumbing. Oh, and he also doesn't exist.”

  “Sam...” Purdue said with some shame.

  “I just didn't know we were recruiting people who were specialists in fairy tales and fables. I just never thought that a myth would be much help in finding something of historical significance.”

  “Of course it would
be,” Daisy said with an amused laugh. “History has always influenced mythology and some mythology has even influenced history. It's how the world works. And not all myths are just stories, they're only regarded that way because they haven't been proven to be true without any uncertainty.”

  Sam shook his head. “So you really think Poseidon himself strode up to land and paid us a visit?”

  “Not in the flesh, but that voice and that shape the water took. It could have just been some sort of manifestation of him, yes. It had to be.”

  “Or you really want it to be...you need it to be.”

  “This pearl is one of three that legend said belonged to Poseidon. They used to decorate his trident.”

  That was one of the only things that Sam really knew about the sea god—he was some tough guy with a big beard and an even bigger trident. Sam didn't really care what the legends said about tridents or these pearls. None of it proved anything. It was hard to believe that that pearl was once the property of a god.

  Purdue clapped his hands together. “You and Daisy are going to figure this pearl out.”

  Sam couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was foolish enough to think that he would finally get a chance to work with Purdue or Nina again like the good old days. He even would have been content working with some of the new people on a team; people like Elijah Dane, August, or Riley Duda. Instead of any of those options, he was stuck working, one on one, with a woman who specialized in things that weren't even real. She could claim this was all Poseidon's doing but it would take some real, indisputable and concrete evidence that a sea god was demanding his property back to win Sam over.

  “Can I talk to you for a second?” Sam blurted out to Purdue, before Purdue could finish with his instructions. Purdue looked puzzled by the interruption. Sam put a hand on Purdue's back and started leading him toward the door. “It will only take a moment...just a personal matter...it'll be quick.”