by P. W. Child
“Don't worry about those, Herr Purdue. I promise you will not be forced to stand on them for at least another day,” a snide voice swam through the air from the direction of the door. “You slept like dead, but it is time to wake up. Three hours is enough sleep.”
“Klaus,” Purdue sneered.
The slight-built man strode leisurely toward the table where Purdue was lying with two cups of coffee in his hands. Tempted to chuck it into the German's mousy mug, Purdue elected to resist the urge on to quench his terrible thirst. He sat up and grabbed the cup from his tormentor, only to find that it was empty. Furious, Purdue hurled the cup to the floor where it smashed into smithereens.
“You really have to mind that temper of yours, Herr Purdue,” Klaus advised in his cheerful voice, sounding more amused than surprised.
‘This is what they want, Dave. They want you to act like an animal,’ Purdue thought to himself. ‘Don’t let them win.’
“What do you expect me to do, Klaus?” Purdue sighed, appealing to the German's personable side. “What would you have done in my position? Tell me. I guarantee you would have done the same.”
“Ouch! What happened to your voice? Would you like some water?” Klaus asked cordially.
“So that you can deny me again?” Purdue asked.
“Maybe. But maybe not. Why don’t you give it a try?” he replied.
‘Mind games.’ Purdue knew the game all too well. Instill confusion, and leave your opponent in the dark whether to expect punishment or reward.
“May I have some water, please,” Purdue tried. After all, he had nothing to lose.
“Wasser!” Klaus shouted. He gave Purdue a warm smile that bore the authenticity of a lipless corpse as a woman brought in a sturdy container with pure, clean water. Had Purdue been able to stand on his feet, he would have run to meet her halfway, but he had to wait for her. Klaus set the empty mug in his hand down next to Purdue and poured some water.
“Good thing you bought two cups” Purdue grated out.
“I brought two mugs for two reasons. I assumed you were going to smash one of them. So I knew you would need the second one to drink the water you'd be begging for from,” he explained while Purdue grabbed the bottle to get to the water.
Ignoring the cup at first, he stuck opening of the bottle between his lips so violently that the heavy container hit his teeth. But Klaus took it away and offered Purdue the cup. Only when he had finished two cups did Purdue catch his breath.
“One more? Please,” he begged Klaus.
“One more, but then we talk,” he told his captive, and filled his cup again.
“Klaus,” Purdue gasped after finishing it to the last drop. “Could you please just tell me what you want from me? Why did you bring me here?”
Klaus sighed and rolled his eyes. “We have been through this. You are not supposed to ask questions.” He gave the bottle back to the woman, and she left the room.
“How can I not? At least let me know what I am being tortured for,” Purdue implored.
“You are not being tortured,” Klaus insisted. “You are being reconditioned. When you got first got in touch with the Order, it was to entice us with your Holy Lance that you and your friends had found, remember? You invited all of the high-level Black Sun members a secret meeting on Deep Sea One to show off your relic, yes?”
Purdue nodded. It was true. He had been using the relic as leverage to get into the Order's good graces for possible business.
“When you played with us that time, our members got into a very dangerous situation. But I am sure you meant well, even after you departed with the relic like a coward to leave them to their fate when the water came rushing in,” Klaus lectured with flamboyance. “We want you to be that man again; to work with us to obtain what we need so that we can all thrive. With your genius and wealth, you would be the perfect candidate, so we are going to… change your mind.”
“If you want the Spear of Destiny I'll be more than happy to give it to you in exchange for my freedom,” Purdue bartered, and he meant every word.
“Gott im Himmel! David, have you not been listening?” Klaus exclaimed with juvenile disappointment. “We can have anything we want! We want you to come back to us, but you offer a trade and want to negotiate. This is not a business deal. It is an orientation and only once we are convinced that you are ready, you will be allowed to leave this room.”
Klaus looked at his watch. He got up to leave, but Purdue tried to hold him up with a triviality.
“Um, can I have more water, please?” he croaked.
Without stopping or looking back, Klaus hollered, “Wasser!”
As he closed the door behind him, an enormous cylinder with a radius almost the size of the room lowered from the ceiling.
“Oh God, what now?” Purdue cried out in utter panic as it locked into the floor. The center panel of the ceiling slid open and started releasing a stream of water into the cylinder, drenching Purdue’s sore, nude body and muffling his cries.
What terrified him more than the fear of drowning, was the knowledge that they did not intend to kill.
Chapter 11
Nina had finished packing while Sam had been taking one last shower. They were due at the airstrip in an hour, bound for Edinburgh.
“You done yet, Sam?” Nina asked loudly outside the bathroom.
“Aye, just giving me ass one more foaming. Be right out!” he answered.
Nina laughed and shook her head. Her phone rang in her purse. Without looking at the screen, she answered.
“Hello.”
“Hello, uh, Dr. Gould?” the man on the phone asked.
“This is she. Who am I speaking with?” she frowned. She was being addressed by her title, which meant that it was business or some insurance salesman.
“My name is Detlef,” the man with the heavy German accent introduced himself. “Your number was given to me by one of Mr. David Purdue's assistants. I am actually trying to get hold of him.”
“So why did she not give you his number?” Nina inquired impatiently.
“Because she has no idea where he is, Dr. Gould,” he replied in a gentle, almost timid manner. “She told me you might know?”
Nina was stumped. That made no sense. Purdue was never off the radar to his assistant. His other employees, perhaps, but never his assistant. It was pivotal, especially with his impulsive and adventurous nature, that one of his people always knew where he was going, in case something went wrong.
“Listen, Det-Detlef? Right?” Nina asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
“Give me a few minutes to locate him and I’ll call you right back, alright? Give me your number, please.”
Nina did not trust the caller. Purdue would not just vanish like that, so she reckoned it was a shady businessman trying to get Purdue's personal number by bullshitting her. He gave her his number and she hung up. When she called Purdue's mansion, his assistant answered.
“Oh, hi Nina,” the woman greeted her when she heard the familiar voice of the pretty historian Purdue always kept company with.
“Listen, did a stranger just call you to speak to Dave?” Nina asked. The answer caught her completely by surprise.
“Aye, he called a few minutes ago, asking for Mr. Purdue. But truth be told, I have not heard from him today. Maybe he was gone for the weekend?” she speculated.
“He did not check in with you about going somewhere?” Nina pushed. It worried her.
“The last I had him in Las Vegas for some time off, but he was going to travel to Copenhagen on Wednesday. There was a posh hotel he wanted to visit, but that's all I know,” she reported. “Should we be worried?”
Nina sighed hard. “I don’t want to start a panic, but just to be sure, you know?”
“Aye.”
“Was he traveling with his own jet?” Nina wanted to know. It would give her a place to start looking. On affirmation from the assistant, Nina thanked her and ended the call to try Purdue'
s cell phone. Nothing. She rushed to the bathroom door and stormed in, catching Sam just wrapping his towel around his waist.
“Hey! If you wanted to play, you should have said so before I got all cleaned up,” he grinned.
Ignoring his jest, Nina rambled, “I think Purdue might be in trouble. I'm not sure if it is Hangover 2 kind of trouble or real trouble, but something is off.”
“How so?” Sam asked, following her into the room to get dressed. She filled him in on the mysterious caller and the fact that Purdue’s assistant have not heard from him.
“I suppose you have tried his cell?” Sam suggested.
“He never switches off his phone. You know he has that funny voicemail taking messages with the physics jokes or he answers, but it is never just dead, right?” she said. “There was nothing when I called him.”
“That is very strange,” he agreed. “But let’s just get back home first and then we can snoop around. This hotel he went to in Norway…”
“Denmark,” she corrected him.
“Whatever. Maybe he is just really enjoying himself. It is the man's first ‘normal people' kind of holiday in - well, forever- you know, the kind where he does not have people trying to kill him and such,” he shrugged.
“Something doesn't seem right. I am just going to call his pilot and get to the bottom of this,” she announced.
“Fine. But we can't be late for our own flight, so get your stuff and let's go,” he said, tapping her on the shoulder.
Nina had forgotten about the man who had pointed her to Purdue's disappearance in the first place over trying to think where her former lover could be. Boarding the plane, they both switched off their phones.
When Detlef tried to contact Nina again, he was met with another dead end, leaving him infuriated, immediately thinking that he was being played. If Purdue's female associate wanted to protect him by eluding the widower of the woman Purdue killed, Detlef figured, he would have to resort to what he had been trying to avoid.
From somewhere in Gabi's little office, he heard a hissing sound. At first, Detlef ignored it as an outside noise, but soon after it turned into static crackling. The widower listened to locate the origin of the sound. It sounded like someone hopping through channels on a radio and occasionally a scratchy voice would come through in unintelligible muttering, but no music. Detlef moved quietly toward the spot where the white noise was growing louder.
Finally, he looked down to the air vent just above the floor of the room. It was half concealed by the drapes, but there was no doubt that this was where the sound was coming from. Feeling the need to uncover the mystery, Detlef went to get his toolbox.
Chapter 12
On the flight back to Edinburgh Sam had a hard time keeping Nina calm. She was worried about Purdue, especially since she couldn't use her phone during the long flight. Unable to call his crew to confirm his whereabouts, she was extremely restless for most of the flight.
“There is nothing we can do right now, Nina,” Sam said. “Just take a nap or something until we land. Time flies when you're sleeping,” he winked.
She gave him one of her looks – one of that kind she tossed him when there were too many witnesses for anything more physical.
“Look, we will call the pilot as soon as we are there. Until then you may as well relax,” he suggested. Nina knew he was right, but she just could not help but feel something was amiss.
“You know I will never be able to sleep. When I worry I can't function properly until I have closure,” she grunted, folding her arms and leaning back and closing her eyes so she didn't have to deal with Sam. In turn, he rummaged through his carry-on bag, looking for something to do.
“Peanuts! Shh, don't tell the cabin crew,” he whispered at Nina, but she ignored his attempts at humor, flashing the small packet of peanuts and shaking it. With her eyes shut, he figured it would be best to leave her be. “Yeah, maybe you should get some rest.”
She said nothing. In the dark of the locked-out world, Nina wondered if her ex-lover and friend had just forgotten to contact his assistant, as Sam had suggested. If that were the case, Purdue certainly had a good talking to on the way. She did not like being worried about things that might turn out to be nothing, particularly with her tendency to overanalyze things. Occasionally, the turbulence of the flight would shake her from her light sleep. Nina did not realize how long she had been dozing on and off. It felt like minutes, but it stretched for over an hour.
Sam slammed his hand down on hers where her fingers rested on the edge of her arm rest. Instantly annoyed, Nina's eyes shot open to sneer at her companion, but he was not being silly this time. There was also no turbulence that might have startled him. But then Nina was shocked to see Sam stiffening all over, similar to the seizure she had witnessed back in the village a few days ago.
“Jesus! Sam!” she said under her breath, trying not to draw attention yet. She grabbed his wrist with her other hand, trying to pry it loose, but he was too strong. “Sam!” she ground out. “Sam, wake up!” She tried to keep her voice low, but his convulsions started to draw attention.
“What is wrong with him?” a plump lady on the other side of the isle asked.
“Please, just give us a moment,” Nina snapped as amicably as she could. His eyes shot open, once again milky and absent. “Oh God no!” she moaned a little louder this time as despair gripped her, fearing what might happen. Nina remembered what had happened to the man he had touched during his last seizure.
“Excuse me, ma'am,” the stewardess interrupted Nina's struggle. “Is anything wrong?” But as she asked, the flight attendant saw Sam's eerie eyes staring up to the ceiling “Oh shit,” she muttered in alarm before going to the intercom to ask if there was a doctor among the passengers. Everywhere people turned to see what the commotion was about; some shrieked and others hushed their conversations.
As Nina watched, Sam's mouth opened and closed rhythmically. “Oh, Christ! Don't talk. Please don't talk,” she prayed as she watched him. “Sam! You have to wake up!”
Through the clouds of his consciousness, Sam could hear her voice begging from far away. Once again she had been walking next to him toward the well, but this time, the world was red. The sky was maroon, and the ground was dark orange, like brick dust under his feet. He could not see Nina, even though he knew in his vision that she was present.
When Sam reached the well, he did not ask for a cup, yet there was an empty cup on the crumbling wall. He bent forward again to look down the well. Before him, he saw the deep cylindrical interior, but this time, the water was not deep down in the shadows. Below him was a well full of pristine water.
“Please help! He is choking!” Sam heard Nina scream from somewhere far away.
Below, in the well, Sam saw Purdue reaching up.
“Purdue?” Sam frowned. “What are you doing in the well?”
Purdue was gasping for air as his face barely broke the surface. He was coming up towards Sam as the water rose higher and higher, looking terrified. Ashen and desperate, his face contorted as his hands clawed at the sides of the well. Purdue's lips were blue, and he had dark circles under his eyes. Sam could see that his friend was naked in the churning water, but when he reached in to rescue Purdue, the water level dropped considerably.
“He cannot seem to breathe. Is he asthmatic?” another male voice came from the same place as Nina’s.
Sam looked around, but he was alone in the red wasteland. In the distance, he could see a broken-down old building reminiscent of a power station. Black shadows lived beyond the four or five stories of empty window openings. No smoke rose from the towers, and the walls had sprung large weeds through cracks and crevices brought by years of neglect. From far away, deep in his being, he could hear an incessant hum ensue. It grew louder ever so slightly until he recognized it as a generator of sorts.
“We need to open his airway! Pull his head back for me!” he heard the male voice again, but Sam tried to make out the other sou
nd, the impending hum that was still growing louder, possessing the entire wasteland until the ground began to shake.
“Purdue!” he shouted, trying one more time to save his friend. When he looked back into the well, it was empty, save for the sigil that was painted on the bottom's wet, muddy floor. He knew it all too well. The black circle with the precise rays that looked like lightning streaks lay in silence at the bottom of the cylinder like a spider in wait. Sam gasped. “The Order of the Black Sun.”
“Sam! Sam, can you hear me?” Nina persisted, her voice drawing closer from the dusty air of the deserted place. The industrial hum escalated to a deafening level and then the same pulse he had seen under hypnosis clapped through the atmosphere. This time, nobody else was there who could have been burned to ashes. Sam screamed as the waves of the pulse came toward him, forcing its blistering hot air into his nose and mouth. As it made contact with him, he was spirited away in the nick of time.
“There he is!” the male voice cheered as Sam woke up on the floor of the aisle where they had put him to perform emergency resuscitation. His face was cold and damp under Nina's gentle hand, and a middle-aged Indian man stood over him, smiling.
“Thank you so much, doctor!” Nina smiled up at the Indian man. She looked down at Sam. “Honey, how are you feeling?”
“Like I’m drowning,” Sam managed to wheeze as he felt the heat dissipate from his eyeballs. “What happened?”
“Don't worry about that now, okay?” she soothed him, looking very relieved and happy to see him. He propped himself up to sit, annoyed about the gawking audience, but he could not lash out at them for pointing their attention to such a spectacle, could he?
“My God, I feel like I have swallowed a gallon of water in one go,” he whined as Nina helped him to his seat.
