Chapter 21
“Open it!” The Marquis Xavier de Venoma demanded.
“I will not.” Professor DeWulf sat on the ground holding his head in one hand while Sophie knelt beside him dabbing away blood that flowed from a nasty gash above the old man’s eye.
Colonel Wolfgang drew back his hand intending to inflict another blow in hopes of persuading the professor to comply. Sophie reached around her father’s neck placing her body between him and the big German SS officer.
Quaid Grissop and the others had searched everywhere for a lock or mechanism to open the mammoth stone doors barring the way to their prize. In the process they had discovered two more hideous traps that reduced their number from twenty to seventeen.
Schmidt pulled the girl off the old man as Colonel Wofgang cudgeled him with repeated blows. Sophie struggled and cried out in horror but could not escape Schmidt’s grasp.
“Enough.” Venoma called a halt to the attack. Kneeling down beside the half conscious man he removed a white handkerchief from his breast pocket and, wetting it with water from a canteen, brushed it gently across the professor’s lips.
“Professor, we stand at the threshold of our destiny.” Venoma spoke quietly and softly. ”You and I have come to this place and this moment in time not by chance. Who else on this earth can appreciate what lies beyond these doors? Together you and I must enter and complete our pilgrimage. You have come here to unlock the enigma of the Katch’. You are the Oracle and I the Numen. You will show me the way of ascension and I will administer the benefaction of my grace upon mankind. The salvation of all is within our grasp professor.”
“You are insane.” Was DeWulf’s only response.
“Poor man. You persist in rejecting the inescapable truth. Your communion is inevitable!”
Turning away he motioned for two soldiers to raise the injured man to his feet. He then directed Schmidt to bring Sophie forward.
“Colonel? Her hand please.” While Schmidt held her tight Colonel Wolfgang grabbed Sophie’s left arm twisting her wrist so that her palm and elbow were facing up. Venoma produced the long thin blade he kept hidden in his clothes.
“No! Please! I beg you, no!” The professor cried. “Alright, I will do whatever you want, please do not hurt her.”
Calmly, cooly, Xavier Venoma removed his glasses exposing the one, repulsive, dead eye.
“Yes professor, I know that you will.”
Sophie let go a horrific, blood curdling scream as Xavier Venoma methodically carved through her wrist. The gruesome ordeal lasted more than five agonizing minutes. The pale fiend slashed, severed and hacked his way through tendons, bone and muscle leaving a disfigured, mangled stump, spewing bright red blood onto the black ground.
Schmidt, overcome by the dreadful scene, collapsed to his knees releasing Sophie. Wolfgang removed his own belt and made a makeshift tourniquet for her arm. Professor DeWulf, sobbing uncontrollably moved toward his daughter.
“The doors professor. If you please?” Venoma cut him off.
Fritz called for a first aid kit and bound Sophie’s wound while Venoma and the professor approached the door. Placing his hands on the surface of the giant granite slabs he pushed with all his weight. The doors opened smoothly and quietly. Venoma chuckled and then broke out in a hearty laugh.
“Now why didn’t we think of that?” Grissop said.
“Major, station two guards here, the rest of you will come with us.” Colonel Wolfgang ordered. “No one will attempt to communicate with the inhabitants. Only the Marquis will speak for us, is that understood?”
“Do you really think you can communicate with them?” Grissop asked incredulously.
“Ramsell’s party did, why should we fail where they succeeded?”
“Ramsell wrote that everyone in his party was killed, that is not what I would consider successful.”
“Very true Herr Grissop however where he pilfered we recompense. The Katch’ will be only too happy to accommodate once I have handed over their lost artifact.”
“And if they are not so gregariously disposed, then what?”
“Then Colonel Wolfgang will persuade them to be more sociable.”
The Colonel and his two remaining Waffen-SS guards fortified themselves with miscellaneous forms of hardware and ordnance in preparation for any threat from within.
“Do not fear Herr Grissop, I will guarantee their full cooperation.” Colonel Wolfgang assured him, a cruel grin pasted on his face as he slammed an ammunition clip into his Luger.
“Doctor, are you able to walk?” Fritz asked sympathetically as he and the professor helped Sophie to her feet.
“I will manage.” Her quivering voice belied the pain she suffered.
Colonel Wolfgang ordered three soldiers to lead the way and two to bring up the rear. He and the remaining Waffen-SS guards surrounded Venoma and walked with weapons at the ready. The group found that the polished granite road continued beyond the great doors however the totems that lined the avenue outside were absent here. They had entered a cavern a hundred feet wide and two hundred feet high. Bright sunshine filtered in through the opening behind them eventually fading to blackness ahead.
Three hundred yards beyond the doors they came to a second archway marked by two more giant black obelisks. No doors barred the way here and passing under the archway they entered a long hall with a high, arched ceiling.
Thin posts, ten feet high made of solid gold and topped with glass orbs, lined each side of the wide hall. Running horizontally along each wall approximately sixteen feet above them a wide shelf stretched the entire length of the room. Upon these shelves were placed immense grotesque idols, a dozen on each ledge, rendered in gold depicting human males with a snakes head. Each image sat upon a black granite throne.
Behind these statues the mountain wall had been smoothed and painted with one continuous mural. Everyone in the party walked slowly past the imposing figures, holding lanterns aloft, marveling at the images painted across the walls and ceiling.
Depicted here was a map of the world. North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica, all represented in surprising accuracy. Even smaller land masses and islands were shown in detail.
Portrayed upon each of the continents, and a few of the larger islands, were one or two ambiguous pictographs. A pattern of grid lines spread out across the map connecting these images.
“Look, there in South America, the symbol of the snake, isn’t that our present location?” Colonel Wolfgang asked the others.
“Yes it is.” Quaid responded. “These symbols must represent locations of cities all over the earth.”
“Nazca!” Venoma spoke the single word.
“What?” Grissop asked.
“In 1927 Toribio Mejia Xesspe discovered a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. The glyphs are etched into the landscape and are of immense size. The images depicted here are very similar to those found in Nazca.” Venoma responded.
“Look over here.” Fritz called to the group.
On the opposite wall a second mural depicted only the South American continent but in greater detail. At the center of the continent the image of the snake was repeated. At various points around the map additional smaller symbols could be seen.
“Herr Grissop, do you see the glyph there at the Andes mountain range? Is that not the location of Machu Picchu?” Venoma asked without turning.
“Yes. I believe that it is.” He answered, wonder in his voice.
“Professor, can you explain what the grid lines represent?” Venoma asked.
Professor DeWulf had been contemplating the images around him but now defiantly remained silent.
“Come now Professor, do not make your daughter suffer for your continued stubbornness.” Venoma scolded.
“The pattern is very similar to Tesla’s wireless power grid.” He replied praying this response would satisfy the pale little psychopath.
> “You’re joking?” Schmidt scoffed. “Surely you are not suggesting these cities were all interconnected somehow. This painting is hundreds if not thousands of years old. Mankind has only just now discovered that kind of technology.”
Xavier Venoma focused his attention on the twenty four statues looming over them.
“These are not men now are they Major.” Venoma lowered his lamp and moved off deeper into the mountain. The others fell in behind him.
Exiting the great Hall they traversed a descending road that wound around the edge of a deep crevice. Ahead the road bent sharply to the left near a steep cliff that towered above them. As they rounded this corner the great cavern opened up before them and El Dorado lay at their feet.
“You see Professor! It is true! Can you deny it any longer? Now will you embrace the truth? Mere men could not be responsible for this.” Venoma spoke excitedly gesturing toward the fantastic city below. “You have witnessed their power with your own eyes Professor. Now, see from whence that power comes.”
“What are you saying Herr Venoma?” Grissop asked cautiously.
“You cannot deny what you have seen Professor.” Venoma ignored Grissop. “Behold now the dwelling place of the god’s and the source of their power. Behold the home of our ancestors Professor. We are their progeny, you and I. Embrace your legacy, your birthright.”
“You believe you are descended from gods?” Sophie leaned heavily against Fritz, her brow and upper lip beaded with perspiration. A condescending smile spread across her ashen face as she mocked the pasty, freakish, little man. “I thought that you were simply insane Monsieur Venoma. It appears that you are stupid as well.”
Venoma eyed the DeWulf’s balefully and Sophie noticed that his one blood red eye was twitching.
“Come Colonel, our future awaits us.” With that he turned and walked away. Sophie gave her father a wry grin satisfied that she had aggravated and embarrassed the little German. It was a minor blow but she took great satisfaction in it.
“Jack would be proud of me.” She chuckled in her father’s ear.
They could see that the road switched back upon itself up ahead leading down to a long bridge spanning a surging river above a cascading waterfall. Bewitched by the marvelous spectacle laid out below they paused here for some time drinking in the cities grandeur.
High above them near a dark hole in the opposite wall of the chamber Quaid Grissop spied a familiar form. The man was too far away to identify positively but Quaid knew exactly who it was. Grissop watched the others confident that no one else had spotted the man.
“We should move out.” He said.
Grissop had been stunned by Venoma’s sudden manic outburst and appalled by his violent act toward Sophie. The little sociopath was coming unhinged and becoming unstable. He knew now that the Marquis had no intention of allowing him or anyone else to leave this city, with or without any gold. If Jack Cage was here he would be making a play for the girl any time now. This might just provide the distraction Quaid needed to cut and run. For now he needed to play it cool and keep the Colonel’s attention focused elsewhere.
Schmidt walked cautiously a few paces in front of him. The man was afraid and startled by every shadow and sound. Quaid knew that Schmidt’s cowardice and whining were a source of constant irritation to the Colonel and that with a little nudge Schmidt might just be pushed to the breaking point.
“Schmitty, you okay?” Grissop walked up close behind so that only Schmidt could hear. “You’re not worried about running in to more Indians are you?”
“Ramsell reported in the diary that these Katch’ were deadly so, yes, I am concerned, and you are a fool if you are not!”
“It’s not the Indians I’m worried about.”
“No, then what?” Schmidt scoffed.
“Have you thought about what will happen once the Marquis de Venoma finds what he’s looking for? I don’t know about you but after the incident with Sophie at the gate I’m a little concerned about my future employment. What about you Schmitty, how valuable do you think you are to this little science experiment?”
Grissop drifted back and watched his words wriggle their way down into Schmidt’s insecure, suspicious psyche.
After a few moments Schmidt hurried his steps to catch up to the Marquis.
“Herr Venoma? Sir? May I have a word please?” Schmidt called out after the man, waving his upraised arm in Venoma’s direction.
“Shut up you idiot!” Wolfgang struck Schmidt with the butt of his rifle. The blow caught Schmidt unaware and in his exposed rib cage. Venoma walked on completely ignoring the incident and Major Schmidt.
“Well there’s your answer Schmitty.” Grissop offered as he walked passed Schmidt who lay crumpled on the ground gasping for air.
Chasing El Dorado Page 21