by Rob Jones
“Let’s do it,” he said at last. “The clock’s ticking.”
They emerged into a hot, dry evening and slowly made their way toward the cave up the same gravel track carved into the slope above the small parking lot. Passing the tourists, they exchanged friendly nods and smiles and then found themselves at their destination.
Ryan stepped off the path, his face now shaded from the moon’s silver light by the cave’s marble overhang. Raising his arms, he said in a loud, theatrical boom, “I give you the Idaean Cave!”
“Thanks for that.” Scarlet pushed past him into the cave. “Berk.”
Empty of tourists as they had speculated, they stepped down into the cave and made their way along a path, passing below some impressive stalactites until they reached the first of three cavernous compartments. A dark, black pool of water beside the path receded into the darkness and gave the place a muted, dangerous atmosphere. “We go through here,” Ryan said. “And then two more until we reach the sanctuary.”
“The sanctuary?” Lea asked.
He sighed and lifted his arms in the air in a show of despair. “Does anyone listen to anything I say in my briefings?”
“On and off,” Scarlet said coolly. “They can go on a bit.”
“The cave sanctuary is the most sacred place in the whole mountain. It’s where Orpheus was buried.”
Lexi peered into the gloom. “And you’re sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure,” he said. “I know everything about this place.”
“And how deep is that water?”
“Apart from that. I don’t know how deep the water is.”
As they moved through the compartments, Ryan continued his guided tour. “For those who are interested, and Cairo too, the name of the Idaean Cave is derived from dea, as in goddess,” he said more seriously. “Mainstream history tells us that people have worshipped here since the Minoans, but now we know old Orpheus is buried here we know its story goes back way further than that.”
“All hail the walking wiki,” Scarlet mumbled.
Ryan ignored her. “Even though it’s a natural phenomenon, it’s actually a cave sanctuary with the same level of importance as all the most famous ancient Greek temples,” he continued. “And it acquired that significance due to its close connection to the birth of Zeus, the father of all the gods.”
“What close connection?” Lexi asked.
Nikolai answered, cutting Ryan off. “His birthplace. This place is also called the Cave of Zeus. This is where he was raised by the Titaness Rhea, the daughter of the earth goddess Gaia. Votive seals were left here by worshippers.”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Impressive.”
“I guess this sort of thing is on the Athanatoi syllabus?” Lea said.
The Russian nodded. “You could say that. To the Athanatoi, remember, this is real history, and these are real living beings. This place was used by oracles, including the Oracle, a very long time ago.”
Lea shuddered. “Please don’t mention that name.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking around the cave.
“Amazing to think this place was used by the gods though,” Camacho said. “I still can’t get my head around that.”
“Me neither.” Kamala stared up at the moonlight struggling to reach this deep into the cave. “But it sure is beautiful here.”
Ryan stood beside her and looked up at the pale light. “It also has a special meaning as a pilgrimage site. Pythagoras was initiated into one of the ancient mystery cults right here in this very place. It’s massively significant, maybe because they knew what we just found out a few hours ago.”
“That it’s the burial place of Orpheus?” Zeke asked.
Camacho said, “Give that man a cigar.”
“Hold the cigar,” Ryan said. “We’ve reached the sanctuary.”
Inside, there was so little light they reached for the flashlights. Sweeping the beams over the unhewn marble, Hawke let out a long whistle. “I bet this place is keeping a few secrets.”
“The main one being the Tomb of Orpheus,” Lea said.
Reaper kicked a rock into the pool. “But where do we start? I cannot see any obvious place where a tomb might be accessed.”
Scarlet angled her flashlight beam up onto the cave roof. “Are you sure this is the right place, boy?”
“It’s the right place, Cairo. The poem clearly stated Orpheus’s desire to be buried in the sanctuary.”
“Which means only one thing.” Lea raised her chin and looked up into Hawke’s eyes.
He frowned. “Don’t say it.”
“Someone’s going for a swim.”
“I said don’t say it.”
She shrugged. “It’s why I love you, you big macho hunk.”
“All right, all right,” he said. “Stop buttering me up. I know what I have to do. Ryan, dive in that rockpool and see if you can find an entrance to the tomb.”
Ryan looked shocked. “Eh?”
Lea rolled her eyes and slapped Hawke’s shoulder. “Get your clothes off, Josiah.”
“Wouldn’t you rather wait until we were back at the hotel?”
A devilish smirk crossed her lean, tanned face. “Now!”
*
When Hawke resurfaced for the third time, he gave a thumbs up and they all saw the big smile on his face. Pulling himself from the cold water, he grabbed his shirt and dried his face with it, eliciting an eye-roll of despair from Lea. “Looks like we’re in business.”
“What did you find?” she asked.
“At the far end of the pool, just under that rocky ridge over there that almost reaches the surface. There’s a loose rock with an opening to one side. It’s all underwater and the rock wouldn’t budge when I tried to move it.”
“What can we do?” Zeke asked.
Ryan scratched his chin. “If we had a winch on the SUV we could drive it up here and pull it out.”
Lexi put her hands on her hips and let out a long sigh. “Yeah, and if Iron Man was on our team he could fly down there and blast it out with his repulsors.”
“What’s your point?” Ryan asked.
“My point, Peabody, is that we don’t have a goddam winch on the SUV, so why bring it up?”
“Just thinking out loud.”
“I wondered what that smell was,” Lexi said. “I thought it might be some kind of cave mould.”
Ryan grinned. “Seriously though, you watch The Avengers?”
“Maybe.”
“I never had you down as a superhero sort of gal.”
Lexi raised her hand and wiggled the steel prosthetic fingernails. “Really?”
He dipped his head. “Come to think of it…”
Kamala gave them both a long, withering glance as she walked over to Hawke and came up with her own suggestion. “What about dynamite?”
Hawke shrugged. “Submarine blasting is a dangerous business.” He ran a hand through his hair and swept as much water out of it as he could. Flicking the water from his hand onto the cave floor, he said, “But at least the water’s not moving because that makes it much harder.”
“Like a river?”
“Precisely.”
“So what the hell are we going to?” Zeke asked.
“I’ll drive back to Heraklion and pick something up.”
Lexi crossed her arms and slumped against a boulder. “I don’t think the local supermarket stocks dynamite, Zeke. Plus, the shops are probably shut.”
“Opening hours really don’t apply to us,” Scarlet said.
“And dynamite is rarely used these days anyway,” Hawke said. “Water-gel explosives are the go-to blasting agent now. Tri-nitro-toluene. Much safer to handle than stuff like nitro-glycerine and perfect for underwater demolition. Problem is, they’re unlikely to stock that at the local supermarket either, or the primer and detonating cord we need to make it go pop – whatever the opening hours.”
Kamala raised an eyebrow. “Make it go pop?”
&nbs
p; “Yeah, you know,” he said with a smile. “Detonate it.”
“I know what you meant,” she said. “I just thought your choice of words was a little misleading.”
“Hawke is a master of understatement,” Camacho said with a laugh.
“So can we make this stuff ourselves?” Ryan said.
Hawke shrugged. “If we had the right ingredients, maybe. We’d need some sodium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and methylammonium nitrate… fuel oil, silica…”
Lea sighed. “In other words, no.”
“So we’re as fucked as the ship’s…”
“Thank you, Ryan,” Scarlet said, “but please leave the crude gags to me. I pull them off with so much more panache.”
“Yes,” Ryan said without hesitation. “Word on the grapevine is that you certainly are able to pull things off with panache.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “In your wildest dreams, Sputnik.”
“Can we get back to business now?” Lea said. “Because right now it looks like we’re pretty much screwed.”
“Nil desperandum, plebs,” Ryan said. “If we can get some solid CO2…”
Kamala frowned. “Huh?”
“Dry ice.”
“Ah.”
“Wait a minute,” Reaper said. “Did you just call me a pleb?”
“As I was saying.” Ryan took a big step away from the Frenchman. “If we can get some dry ice, a few sealable containers and a watertight bag, then all we have to do is fill the containers with it, stuff them into the rock fissures and then we get our pop.”
“A dry ice bomb?” Nikolai looked sceptical. “And this will work?”
He nodded. “You fill a sealable bottle with some water, then add the dry ice chunks. As the dry ice warms up it turns to gas and that gas expands causing an explosion. As the explosion hits the surrounding water it oscillates. This is because the water pressure is going to be greater than the power of the CO2 gas as it expands, meaning it forces the explosion inwards again until the power of the explosion becomes greater than the water pressure once again, and then you get another expansion.”
Zeke took a step back. “What the hell?”
“He means you’ll get more than one explosion,” Lexi said, looking at Ryan. “Right?”
“Absolutely right, and I only wish I had a treat to throw you.”
Lexi raised her middle finger. “Try it.”
“Thanks for your input, Lex.” Hawke stepped up. “Ryan, would this produce enough force for what we want?”
“How much does the rock weigh?”
Hawke took a second out to estimate what he had seen underwater. “It’s not massive, but I’d say at least a hundred kilos.”
“But you said there was already a fissure?”
He nodded. “That’s right, about six inches across and twenty in the vertical.”
“Then we’ll need several containers and quite a bit of dry ice.”
“But who stocks it?” Nikolai said.
Lea stepped into the light, iPhone in her hand. “According to this, Ice Tech Supplies in Chania.”
Hawke couldn’t resist grinning. “Where’s that?”
“It’s on the north coast, three hours to the west.”
The grin faded. “Damn, that’s a long trip. Ryan, you’d better go to make sure we get the right stuff. When you’re in town pick up as much kit as you can – anything that might be useful for caving and so on.”
“You mean?”
“Yes, I mean breaking and entering. Leave some cash to pay for what you take.”
“Got it.”
“Who wants to keep him company?”
Zeke put up a hand. “Count me in.”
“Great stuff,” Hawke said. “And you too, Cairo.”
“Why me? He’s being insufferable today.”
Hawke glared at her. “Go.”
Scarlet saw the look in his eyes and got the hint.
“Thanks,” Hawke said quietly. Raising his voice, he said, “The rest of us will stay here and pray Kashala doesn’t turn up.”
Ryan nodded. “Especially considering we’re only armed with a tire repair kit and my devastating wit.”
“Time you were on your way then,” Lea said with a smirk.
As they walked to the cave entrance, Hawke called out and stopped them. Ryan turned in the light and looked back at him. “What?”
“Watch out on the roads, mate. Remember our friend with the high-power sniper rifle.”
“Will do,” he called back. “He’s not taking me out, no matter how good a shot he is.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When Ryan, Scarlet and Zeke returned, Hawke felt a wave of relief. He had played his fears down in front of the team but the prospect of the sniper being out there was very real. The road from Mount Ida to Chania was long and deserted and offered endless possibilities to anyone with a high-powered rifle and a job to do. Scarlet was the most experienced on the team and a former SAS officer, and while his insistence she should accompany Ryan and Zeke had made him feel better, he was still glad to see their safe return.
“You get the stuff?” he asked.
Ryan waved a chunky insulated container in the air. “All present and correct. We were as quick as possible to stop it sublimating.”
Zeke looked apologetic. “I literally begged him to say melting.”
Ryan huffed out a sigh. “How many more times must I say it? Dry ice is frozen gas, and gas can’t melt. It can only…”
Zeke’s heavy Texan drawl drowned him out. “It can only sublimate. I get it. I feel like I could write a physics paper.”
“Good,” Ryan said. “And of course, you mean a chemistry paper.”
Behind his back, Zeke raised his hands in the air and pretended to strangle the young man, while Scarlet snatched the container from him. “You get some idea of the journey back.”
Lea covered her mouth and suppressed a pity laugh as Hawke took the container from Scarlet and walked it over to the water’s edge.
“You’ll have to work fast,” Ryan said. “The dry ice is still in the cold bag. When you get underwater, push the chunks inside the bottles and let some water go in too, then screw them up tight and put them into position. Given the temperature of the water here I’d say you’ll have a minute or two before they explode. That’s why they’re in the insulated container.”
“Thanks, mate. I’ll swim down, stuff the bottles in the fissure and then take cover. After I’ve taken a quick look-see to see the damage I’ll be back.”
Wading out into the pool, he slung the container over his shoulder. “Wish me luck.”
“And be quick!” Lea called out with a sideways glance at Ryan. “Before it melts.”
“I’m not even going to bother responding,” Ryan said.
Lea didn’t hear him. She was too busy watching the last sight of Hawke as he disappeared beneath the black water, leaving nothing behind but a streak of tiny bubbles. Looking at her watch, she checked the time. “Okay, he can hold his breath for six minutes.”
“How the hell does she know that?” Zeke asked.
Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “Use your imagination, darling.”
The Texan took a step back. “Really?”
With the banter going on behind her, Lea watched two minutes tick away and then she felt it. They all did. A deep, bass thump under their feet and then a series of ripples spreading out across the rockpool’s surface. “He did it.”
“What now?” Kamala asked.
Nikolai looked unsettled. “Now we wait, right?”
Reaper gave a shallow nod. “Oui.”
“Sure,” Lea said. “Now we wait.”
One minute later, Hawke emerged and walked out of the pool until the water was waist-high. “As you probably heard, the rock is no longer blocking the tunnel, and after a short underwater swim you come up again in another rock pool. There’s a breathable atmosphere and what looks like a sealed archway on one of the rock walls. Looks like we found it.”
>
After a round of whoops and high-fives, he ordered them to bring the rest of the caving equipment and swim down behind him.
“But you’ll need to hold your breath for three minutes.”
“Count me out,” Nikolai said. “I hate swimming.”
“Okay,” Lea said. “We need some people to stay up here and keep a look out anyway. Maybe Kolya and…”
“I’ll do it,” Camacho said. “I’m a good swimmer so if we get any trouble I can swim down and tell you.”
Hawke smacked his hands together and waded back out into the gloom. “Looks like we’re set, and still no sign of Kashala.”
“Yeah,” Zeke said. “What a slouch.”
*
Hawke spearheaded the team as they swam through the newly blasted hole and into another rockpool on the other side of the cave wall. The underwater tunnel declined steadily by another twenty feet until he saw the surface of the pool, and then angled up to reach it.
When all of them had climbed out of the pool and assembled on the sandy shore, they opened their equipment bags and started work on the sealed archway. After half an hour, they all realized that the job was harder than they had anticipated. Chipping, hacking and brushing, each inch they made was hard won.
“Isn’t there some sort of magic lever somewhere?” Scarlet asked.
Reaper chuckled and Zeke gave her a sideways glance. “Huh?”
“The usual routine is we find an ancient portal and the boy here translates a riddle and then we’re in. If it’s going to be like this from now on, I want a raise.”
“Cut the whining and keep digging, Cairo,” Lea said. “We’re not doing so bad.”
Hawke wasn’t so sure. He felt the sweat drying on his back as he hacked at the rock with the mattock. The work was slow and monotonous but there was no other way to reach the other side. His arm swung into the sandstone yet again and blasted another shower of slivers and powdery dust out of the rockface.
He shielded his eyes as he continued to chip away at the wall and his mind drifted to what Ryan had briefed him about Orpheus and Hades. Considering the existence of hell itself was not a pleasant pastime, but even worse was wondering what Dimitrov and Kashala wanted with the place. The Congolese mercenary king would follow the money to the end of the earth and turn around as soon as it ran out. That was his motivation, but why was Dimitrov funding such an expensive operation? What did he know about the Underworld that no one else did? He put the thought out of his mind and swung the steel head of the pick mattock into the sandstone one more time.
