“You know that cannot really be, right?” she assured him while she was in fact convinced that Don was not imagining things. From the things she had seen and experienced in the past years, Nina knew well that anything was possible in the underworld of clandestine dealings. Costa nodded, locked his big eyes on hers and smiled timidly. His hand found hers and pressed it with affection.
“I will not let them get you, Dr. Gould. That I promise,” he whispered in her ear, so close that Nina’s flesh grew taut from his warm breath. It felt like Sam. His dark allure and his honesty mirrored Sam’s to a fault, and she wished that she could just surrender to him there and then, even if it was just to be with Sam in essence.
The engine died. Now it was real. The moment had come when their plan would have to be meticulously executed in the threat of almost certain discovery and peril. Not one of them uttered a word as they prepared to exit the relative safety of the minivan. Around them, the silence was deafening, only broken by the eerie wailing of the wild gusts that rocked the vehicle with its force.
“Let’s go,” Purdue announced like a judge delivering the capital punishment.
“I hope that freak is lost in the dark,” Don said. “I swear I will shoot that thing on sight. There is no way that such a creature is harmless.”
“Maybe she is just deformed, Donovan,” Heidmann reasoned. “Some people are born with physical defects, especially here in the Third World. You cannot just assume she is dangerous based on how she looks. If you shoot her, you will betray our presence here, remember?”
Don was not impressed. “Well, if she shows up I’ll be sure to send her your way so that you and your bleeding heart can keep her occupied, alright?”
With Heidmann leading, and an armed Dr. Graham beside him, the party stole through the long black shadows outside the warehouse. They all clumped together, sneaking as quietly as they could toward the least impregnable heap of steel junk.
“Thank God for the vicious wind,” Nina whispered. “It helps mask any noise we make.”
“On the downside, these winds mean that there would soon be a storm, Nina,” Heidmann told her. “I learned that the hard way when Tessa and I spent eight months excavating at Ostrava.”
“Shit. We’ll just have to hurry,” Costa said. As Purdue nodded in agreement, he caught a glimpse of Heidmann and Costa locking hostile looks again before Heidmann proceeded to the hole in the fence he recalled being there. The billionaire could not help but think that he made a huge mistake trusting Helen’s word to bring the Greek professor on board to help.
He had nothing against Megalos, but Heidmann was more valuable in pointing them to the location of the place. More so, the apprehensive archeologist was a pivotal part of finding the origin of the anomaly, whereas Megalos was merely a consultant on the authenticity of the art they uncovered.
One by one they braved the spiky protrusions of the unforgiving rusty rods and razor wire. Nina got through the easiest, being so petite, but Don had trouble. He got stuck for a moment and had to be untangled by Costa and Purdue, who were behind him while Nina and Heidmann waited on the other side. Heidmann tapped Nina on the back to draw her attention to a shimmering warm glow a small way ahead. She nodded affirmatively. It was caused by two drum fires lit by the night watchmen to simultaneously keep them warm and to lend some light to the silent storage hangar.
Once they were all through, they separated as discussed in their meeting in Purdue’s room and continued in formation to flank the warehouse and meet where Heidmann had estimated the entrances by memory. They could hear the four large men at the fires chatting and laughing.
“They look like soldiers,” Costa remarked.
“More like war criminals,” Don guessed.
Heidmann’s face visibly sank as they entered the smaller main hall. It was vast and empty, apart from the upstairs office where Heidmann claimed to have overpowered the seller that tried to kill him.
“What is the matter, James?” Nina asked. “Where are the statues kept?”
“Come on, son. We have very little time,” Don urged.
Heidmann snapped out of it. “I’m sorry. It’s just…the last time I was here…” he caught his breath, “…I lost my Tessa.”
“Aye, I know, love,” Nina soothed him, “but you can avenge her by completing this mission and getting to the bottom of these bastards’ business, hey?”
Heidmann appreciated her sympathy. Of them all, Nina was the only one who gave a damn about his personal stake in this. But then again, how could she not? Of them all, she was the one most like him in that emotional state, knowing the pain of losing someone you love and not being allowed to grieve until the sorrow subsided. Having to just pick up and live again as if nothing ever happened while there was a gaping chasm in one’s chest.
“This way,” he whispered.
They followed him toward a hidden, smaller door under the stairs that led to the office. He clearly recalled passing through the unassuming entrance to the tomb of stone corpses and even remembered how the handle of the door had to be lifted before it could turn.
Don and Purdue remained just outside the entrance to make sure they were not discovered. The clatter of the metal sheets the structure was made of impaired their ability to hear the guards all the time. Every now and then, the sound of their voices would simmer through the roar of the coming rainstorm, but most of the time it was virtually impossible to keep track of their position.
22
Behind Nina, the doorway grew smaller as she followed Heidmann into the sunken chamber. Beside her was Costa, holding his flat hand just behind her back in a gesture of protective care and also to make sure she did not lose her nerve and run back, which was what he feared most. Purdue made it clear that Nina had to complete her task as best she could because the entire expedition relied on the information gathered about Medusa and the strange collection of ancient effigies.
She looked at Costa with apprehension, but his handsome face and tender eyes quickly spurred her on. Nina felt safe with him; almost invincible.
“Nina, here is where I found ‘Son of Zyklon-B’, but unnamed at the time. Note these,” he whispered, pointing out the more dilapidated specimens just three rows behind the marked pieces, “are all named. Their clothing is still on them because the transformation only affects living tissue. Look, some of them have uniforms with name tags on them. Those we can identify.”
“Aye, that must be the older ones, not the World War II victims. Give me that torch, please,” Nina requested from Costa, who promptly crouched down beside her to study the faint markings on some and then proceeded to the military looking statues.
He ran his fingertips gently down the fabric of the statue’s pants, hardened by mold and age. “This is just less than a century old, yes. But what baffled me is this,” Costa whispered.
“What?” Heidmann asked with intrigue.
“These motifs on the collar are from the Second Century Movement in Greece, which is very odd for a German soldier to have. It is as if the two worlds fused somewhere,” the art professor noted.
Nina went from one to the other, all of them in different stances and expressions as if they were either caught off guard or they were trying to escape whatever confronted them. The effigies were not lined up as she expected, like the stone army in rows she imagined, but scattered and mixed up in age and era, making it exceedingly difficult for her to determine where the Nazi ones specifically would be.
“Over here, Nina,” Heidmann called in a whisper and motioned for her to come to the back near the one side wall. There stood in the corner what appeared to be an SS officer, his dusty uniform eaten by insects and tattered at the seams. His face looked unassuming as if he expected what was coming or maybe just did not care. The man had his fists clenched by his side as if he was standing attention and his sleeves were a tad too long, covering most of his hand just past the wrist.
“Look at him, so at peace. I mean, he almost looks proud,” she
remarked as she studied him up close. “You guys look for more Nazi pieces, please?”
The two experts complied with her request, separating to cover more ground. In total, there were no more than 70 statues, again countering Nina’s expected army of hundreds. With morbid curiosity, she reached out to touch the soldier’s left hand, hoping that it would not affect her own skin. Between his contracted fingers and his palm, she felt something inconsistent with the texture of his hand. At first, Nina quickly recoiled at the alien sensation, but on closer inspection, she found that it was the remnants of paper sticking out on both sides of his fisted hand.
“What have we here?” she whispered in fascination.
A scuffling ensued near the door, and Don’s rasping voice warned, “They are coming in! Nina! James! Zorba! Can you hear me? The guards are coming! We’re taking shelter. Stay put!”
Costa gestured a thumbs up to Don as he and Purdue promptly disappeared from the doorway, closing it gently as not to be detected.
“Oh my God, I hope they don’t come in here,” Nina heard Heidmann panic.
“They won’t. They are here every night,” Costa argued, hoping to God he was right.
Nina quickly used her torch to obliterate the soldier’s hand with a loud crack to retrieve the paper.
“Nina! Jesus!” Heidmann grunted from his hiding place inside an old unused furnace nearby. Costa swooped down on Nina and grabbed her small body with ease in one movement to abduct her with him to his refuge. They rapidly scuttled into one of the large wooden crates used to ship the statues and Costa wrapped Nina up, using his body as a shell over hers.
The door cracked open violently, and several voices spoke softly, some orders uttered and some speculating. Footsteps spread out among the stone people, some passing right next to where Nina and Costa were concealed. The dust from their scuffling on the sandy concrete was overwhelming, and Costa had to pinch his nose not to sneeze. Nina was shivering with terror, knowing the dreadful fate she would suffer is they were discovered. In her mind, she already imagined what she would look like, standing in her own stone casing, a woeful tomb that would play testament to who she was for others to discover one day. Her dead eyes would be blind, staring out to the onlookers in some museum where she would be on display. The thought horrified her beyond reason. Instead, she spent the time absorbing Costa’s protective presence. She had to concede that being his prisoner was a deep pleasure she had denied given the situation, but now she had to use it to distract her from her other nightmarish thoughts.
Briefly, she wondered where Purdue was hiding, but soon the scent of Costa’s exotic skin bewitched her – an odor of shampoo and leather with a hint of musk. Her eyes closed inadvertently so that she could savor the sensation of his hands over her forearms and his powerful physique against her back and buttocks. Nina could not believe that amidst the tense anticipation of certain death upon discovery, she could be so aroused.
The boots stopped right in front of their crate and lingered. Both Costa and Nina held their breath, just waiting for that sudden violent exposure. Costa’s heart pounded hard against her back as his fingertips shifted nervously on her skin, his breath hardly stirring her hair as he held his breath as best he could.
In what sounded like Ukrainian or Russian, the guard by the crate said something.
‘Fuck, he sounds so close!’ she thought. ‘It is like he is right here with us. I wonder what he just said. Did he just tell the others that there is someone in the crate? Oh God, please don’t let that be what he said!’
Only the stormy gale that rattled the roof sheets of the structure made noise. There was dead silence otherwise, leaving Purdue’s entire team baffled and scared in their respective hiding places. Nobody had any idea what the guards were doing or saying. Had they been discovered? Were they being stalked, each hider by his own seeker? Nina tensed up and felt Costa’s arms pull her closer.
His warm breath slowly permeated through her hair onto her scalp. The sensation made her flesh crawl, and she moved her head for his mouth to find her cheek instead. Again, two of the men exchanged words, but in clear voices this time. Costa’s lips fell soundlessly on Nina’s skin in what she construed as a loose kiss. Her heart jumped, and she ached to utter a whimper at the sensual surge that possessed her, but she held her breath. Besides, she was not even certain it was a kiss. For all she knew, he could have just pressed his mouth against her face.
They heard the men engaged in normal conversation and by the sound of their fading voices they were leaving the hall. In mute anticipation, Heidmann, Nina, and Costa waited to hear the door. A moment later, they heard the lock click shut, and the voices trailed away on the other side.
“Thank God,” Nina sighed quietly in the confines of the crate. Costa said nothing and did not move as Nina tried to get out. He held her tightly. “Costa, what the fuck?”
She looked back at him. The attractive art professor just grinned, restraining her every time she tried to get out. Nina started giggling at his playful capture.
“Hey, we have work to do, before those apes come back again,” she reminded him.
With a boyish sigh, he relented. “You are no fun, Dr. Gould,” he smiled.
“I am. I just don’t want to end up as a fucking doorstopper,” she muttered as she got out and dusted herself off. She heard Heidmann open the door of his hiding place too, while Costa followed her out of the crate, fumbling at his clothing.
Nina looked up to Heidmann, whose face was distorted in horror. He stood frozen in place, looking towards the door at something behind Nina and Costa. Both spun around to see a single guard still standing there, his gun firmly pointed at Nina.
“You move, I kill the bitch,” he said in a thick accent with steely eyes on the petite historian. Nina felt her body grow numb. She dared not reach for Costa’s hand for fear of the hair trigger zeal of the Russian. The guard shouted loudly for his colleagues over the rumbling thunder and wailing wind. Their heavy boots approached the door, and the latch opened. A tear ran down Nina’s cheek.
In the door, stood three massive mercenaries, smiling at the three intruders.
“Oh God,” Heidmann could be heard on the far side of the room.
“You are dumber than we thought,” the leader laughed, boasting about leaving one man behind to trick the three prowlers into thinking them gone. “Oldest trick.” He stepped inside but did not approach yet. “When I was a little child we played the game…what you call it? Hide and go seek? Eh?”
“Wow, what a genius move for a professional soldier to pull,” Costa remarked.
“Shut up!” the man roared, his pale blue eyes flaring with rage.
His last word still echoed in the hall when his face exploded in a crimson mess of bone fragments and brain matter. Splattering brains everywhere, the man’s body fell to its knees and collapsed onto the dirt with a thump. Nina screamed in horror and sank to her haunches as another guard’s neck split open from the precision shooting of Dr. Donovan Graham that cleaved the guards from behind. Purdue came through the falling bodies, dodging bullets to grab Nina and pull her to safety.
Clasped under his arm, he held an M16 assault rifle. Nina could not believe her eyes.
“Purdue?” she gasped in the hail of gunfire and the crack of thunder. “Where did you get that?”
“No time now, love,” he replied in a serious tone. “Come quickly! Come with me!”
They ducked under the external piping along the wall to find another exit through to the smaller main hall. With the gunfire in the background, she could hear the hard rain on the corrugated iron roof of the high structure as they cowered towards the door.
Nina glanced back to see if Costa and Heidmann had emerged as well, but all she could see was the muzzle flare lighting up Don’s wince each time he pulled the trigger. Outside the rain was coming down hard, making it difficult to navigate the challenging and unknown terrain.
“Watch out for potholes, Nina!” Purdue shouted t
hrough the loud clatter of bullets and raindrops. The icy rain almost instantly drenched Nina’s hair and clothing, and her combat boots felt like anvils on her feet as she raced toward the fence. With some unintended, but well-placed moves, she and Purdue made it through the treacherous rusty thorns of the fence and made for the lone van.
“Get in!” he shouted.
“But what about the others?” she asked.
“Don will take care of them. Just get in the van!” Purdue insisted.
Spinning the wheels on the soft mud, Purdue threw the van into second gear a few meters into their escape, leaving the war in their trail. Nina wept in shock, putting her hand in her pocket where she had stashed the piece of paper she retrieved from the proud Nazi statue.
23
Don looked for Heidmann and Costa but found no trace of them. Assuming they had been hit by stray bullets, he searched the hall for them. The smoke had cleared, and dust had settled, leaving the archeologist alone in the tomb of rock and ash, listening to the shower outside. The smell of gunpowder floated around him and as he passed the strewn bodies the coppery odor of fresh blood and raw flesh overcame him. Don’s body convulsed and he fell to his knees, vomiting from a combination of disgust and nervous release.
After he had emptied the contents of his stomach on the dusty floor, he staggered to his feet. He could not find Costa or Heidmann. No matter where he looked, they were absent, both in stone and flesh. In his light headed daze of shock, Don completely overlooked the scaffolding against one wall, where Heidmann was perching low over the limp body of Costa Megalos. Heidmann did not want to confront the robust and accurately aiming archeologist from Dundee. Therefore, he elected to remain hidden.
Don eventually gave up and headed for the exit. He hoped Purdue and Nina had gotten away safely. The rain was like a soothing shower of frigid water over him. For a moment, Don stood still to revel in the pleasure of being washed clean of all the dust and blood that tainted his body and face. He looked up at the sky and closed his eyes, unafraid of the lightning, and opened his mouth to receive the soothing cool water. In all the adrenaline-fueled panic, his mouth had dried up, and he eagerly gulped down every bit of water his mouth collected.
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 4 Page 50
