Fantomas, as a pious man, noticed a thick bible on the last row. He climbed on a chair and pulled out the dusty book. The moment he opened it, a large iron key fell out.
“What the fuck is that? Is it for the nunnery?”
The Professor took a stand of an attacking gorilla, and with the speed of anaconda throw himself on the tiles.
“This is a key!” He concluded.
Ivan pointed to his head, showing how mad the professor was. They laughed a little and started to think about the find.
Valeri checked the object, “Yes, it’s very old. I’m interested where the lock is? Obviously, we will be looking for a door!”
“Did you think of that by yourself? It’s easy to tell that you are father and son!” Interrupted the Ninth.
“This is a bit like the joke about the three brothers and the cow. But I will tell it some other time.”
“Oh, say it, say it,” the others shouted in one voice.
“Okay. In one village lived three brothers known for their logic. They had a cow. One day, however, they entered the barn, and the cow was missing. The oldest brother said, "Someone from the neighboring village stole it." The middle brother said, "If it’s from the nearby village, it’s some gay." The youngest brother added, "If it is a gay, it’s George." They decided to put the thief on trial. In court, the judge asked, "How did you determine that George stole the cow?" One of the brothers answered, "Logically, it’s this gay who stole it." The judge continued, "Well, let’s test your logic then. If you guess what’s in this box, there will be a trial." The big brother stood up and said, "The box is a square, so there is something circular inside." The middle brother stood, "If it’s round, it’s an object of orange color." The little one stood up and said, "If it’s an orange color, it’s an orange!" The judge looked at the brothers, then at George and snapped, "Hey gay, you should return the cow to the people!"
Laughter lightened the place. The Professor checked if the key was for one of the doors in the house, but without success. Finally, everybody went down to the basement. Miscellaneous junk was scattered there, but nothing exciting.
“This is not working,” said the professor. “Valeri, give me the tape measure. We will measure outside and inside everywhere, to see if there are hollow spaces. We will calculate the perimeters, length, width, height...”
And so they benighted in measurements and calculations.
“Everything leads to the basement. We’ll have to break the eastern wall.”
Ivan took a pickaxe, hammer, and awl from the shed in the yard and joined the others to break the wall. They managed to remove several of the masonry stones and lit up inside through the opening.
“There is a door,” exclaimed Valeri. “I was right!”
“This wall was built in front of the door perhaps during the Second World War, so the Nazis won’t find it. Remove all the bricks so we can go inside.”
The Ninth vigorously started working with the pickaxe and removed the rest. One meter in front of them stood an iron door. Parlatov came up with the key in hand. He tried to unlock the door, but with no success.
“Big problem! It jammed...”
“Wait a bit,” said Fantomas and soon returned with a bottle full of oil drained from the car. He began pouring the oil into the lock to eat away the rust while he was vigorously turning the key. So after several attempts, he managed to unlock it.
With a pretty hard time, Ivan was able to open the door of which the hinges were also rusted. The group went inside, lit with lanterns, saw an old Jewish candlestick with large candles and lit them too. The whole place was illuminated now.
“Ehee, check the sword on the wall!” Said Pisco.
“Leave the sword, check out the collection of gold coins on the shelf.”
Pretty rare objects were placed around, however, there was no diary.
“These antiques are worth a lot of money, but what we are looking for is missing,” taking a seat on the old chair, Pisco joked. “We’ll have to bring in the logic of the three brothers!”
Professor rubbed his ear and looked at the table.
“Let’s transfer everything from here upstairs in the living room.”
The items were too small to be hidden the diary, so the group returned to the already empty room. The five hunters stared at the walls. Ivan had taken a knife from the kitchen and used it to check whether he could find a secret compartment within the walls. Then suddenly, the door of the room was shut and the click of a key was heard.
“What happened?” Panicked Pisco jumped to the door, trying desperately to open it. “Somebody locked us out!” He looked this time like a sprayed cockroach.
Ivan said, “Only Natasha is missing. Fuck, they fooled us! We will die here, young and green.”
“I told you to not to deal with the Jews!” Hissed Fantomas.
“Fucking bitch, and I had a crush on her!” Valeri vented.
“Apparently, she found the diary, and because her father does not want to part with the ten mills, they have decided to eliminate us.”
“The Jews don’t want the secret out, and we know too much,” added the professor.
“What equanimity and a hard heart does this woman have, to kill five people this way?” Mused Fantomas.
“She must be joking to scare us. She will unlock it in a minute,” Pisco hopefully added.
“Blessed are the believers,” laughed Ivan. “Nobody would’ve made such a joke.”
Valeri pulled out his phone and looked at him, “This is bad. We are out of range! Help from outside is none. Nobody knows we’re here, and the air will be over at some point.”
Ivan strengthened and with all his power slammed the door, but it did not move at all.
“Do not make unnecessary movements. Save the air. The door won’t open, didn’t you see that it is iron and at least 5 inches thick?”
Panic seized them even more and the trapped men felt their end. Valeri asked the Ninth for the knife and began to dig the grout of the tiles on the floor with a last desperate attempt for freedom.
“There’s no point,” said Pisco. “Maybe if the the pickaxe was here...”
“Are you going to dig a tunnel with this knife?” Ivan was fidgeting.
Panic turned to hopelessness and the group sat down on the tiles. Valeri threw the knife and also sank with them.
“My dear friends, I too have a sin. At least to share it before the one with the scythe takes us,” started the professor. “A few years ago, I slept with one of my female students…” he sighed.
“If that is a sin, I will need hours to confess,” Ivan added. “At least it was a female student.”
Silence fell upon the group in the subsequent hours. Strange echoes beneath them brought them back to the present.
“Am I the only one who heard that?” Looked around Fantomas.
Valeri took the knife again and went back to digging the tiles…
“It was a sound of a large vehicle!”
“Behind the house is a large street and, apparently, the vibration of the passing machines are felt here too. I wonder if it was a tram?” Asked the professor.
His son during that time rose one of the plates. Below shone a bronze floor.
“Quick, help me remove the other tiles!”
They cleared part of the floor and a bronze square cover appeared in front of them. The hunters lifted the lid with the knife, caught it with their hands and moved it away. Lit the way with the flashlights and stairs appeared, leading to an underground tunnel.
“Well, I’ll be damned. It’s good that I didn’t confess my sins!” Smiled Pisco. “Apparently we are not going to die today. Lord heard my prayers.”
“This tunnel probably leads to the house of Baron Hirsch, who constructed both buildings.”
The group descended carefully on the stairs and walked in the dark tunnel. Ivan went first and illuminated the path. At one point, a staircase leading up appeared ahead of them.
“And
how are we going to get out of here?” Inquired Fantomas. “From what I can see, there is no way out!”
The Professor coolly nudged him and climbed to the top. He looked around and saw an iron torch stand jutting from the wall. He tried to pull it down, but without success. He pushed the wall in front of him with his hand and, to his amazement, it succumbed. The others helped him and managed to open it. In the place where the wall was closing gaped a small cavity. Professor reached out and pulled out a small silver box with the initials M.H. With a trembling hand, he opened the lid. Pointed the light and saw a leather notebook inside, “What luck. Without wanting to, we screwed the Jews. Natasha took a fake diary the Baron’s butler had.”
Someone asked him in amazement, “How do you know?”
“The initials M.H. These are the names of the Baron.”
Through the open gap, they went into a large room.
“This must be Hirsch’s cabinet!” Concluded Parlatov.
“Let’s move out quietly before someone notices us!”
The treasure hunters pushed the library and closed the entrance to the tunnel. Going through the other room, they saw a sleeping elderly woman. Silently opened the door and went outside. The hunters went unnoticed in the street and calmed down when saw that the rental car was standing in front of their house. Ivan had to jump over the fence because the front door was locked. He took the documents and the luggage before coming back. The group got into the car and drove to the airport.
Chapter IX
Untying the knot
The next day, already in the villa, Ninth dialed the Mason on the phone, “Tiberius, your plan has failed! We are alive,” angrily shouted the former prisoner.
“What’s happening? What nonsense are you talking about, Ivan?”
“You had decided to remove us from the very beginning!”
Jew replied, confused, “Calm down a little and explain because I can’t understand!”
“Didn’t Natasha bring you the diary?”
“What diary, we work together, and why would the notebook be with Natasha? Are you drugged, Ivan?”
“Together? Is that why Natasha locked us in the basement to die?”
“Can not be! She hasn’t even called me yet, and I thought she was with you. I’ll find out what happened and will come to you in Varna the fastest way I can.”
“Will you come? Ha ha, you are fearless. We will be waiting!”
The next day, the helicopter of the Jew landed in the courtyard, and Tiberius descended alone, without security. Ivan had prepared a baseball bat, but the professor pulled him, “Ivan, don’t do shit. Something has obviously happened. Let him explain.”
“Well,” answered the Ninth, “if he isn’t believable, I will smash his head!”
The Jew sat on the chair pointed by the professor, and they all sat around.
“Now, gentlemen, I will explain the situation we are all in. The only good news is that Natasha took a fake diary. I have friends in some circles in Moscow who scouted as far as they can. From the report became clear that Nikolaevna is recruited by the Russian ex-KGB and has a different name now. I could not believe it, I loved her as my own daughter.”
“Wait, wait,” interrupted Parlatov. “Very slippery story. Are you trying to mislead us with something?”
“No, and to prove my loyalty, we continue to work as we agreed. You give me the disc, I give you ten million. As long as you find the real diary, which of course makes no sense to give it to me as you will need it. What else do you want as proof? Everything is very simple. It’s not even clear to me when and how she was recruited. She had everything. It’s contrary to all logic, but the Russians are known for that.”
Valeri added, “I’m such a fool...”
Ivan patted him on the shoulder, calming him down, “Relax, it’s not just you. You see what a bitch she is.”
“In this briefcase, there is another million to facilitate your search,” continued the Mason. “And to show you how serious I am!”
Ivan took the money and replied, “Well if you so decided, okay. We have good news for you. The real diary is on us.”
There was a brief pause…
“We even have the next clue…”
“I was certain I could count on you. Now I leave because I have a flight to catch. We will keep in touch.”
They shook hands, and the hunters sent him to the helicopter. The group sat around the table again and began to dissect the notes in the diary. The Professor translated everything, checked the drawings and concluded, “Baron Hirsch had not found the disk because his relations with the Ottoman Empire cooled off when they understood from their spies that he did illegal excavations too. For that, he had to leave the Empire. Our trail leads to Pliska plain. The Baron knew even back then that this town was the old Bulgarian capital. But Karel Shkorpil is the one who gave that information to the Bulgarian history guild. Things are knotted because after that information was revealed, the first official excavations in Pliska were made by the archaeologists from the Russian Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, along with Shkorpil back in 1899.”
“Ahhh, the Russians began to search the disk so early...”
“And to finish. In the 19th century, in Pliska, there were still many stone signs taken later by the Russians, only to disappear through the endless basements of Hermitage. But Hirsch copied them here in his diary, and we have access to them. They are in the old Bulgarian language. We are interested in only one of these inscriptions, the one which states that, at the time of Khan Asparuh in Danube Bulgaria, which was created alongside the Volga Bulgaria, there had also been shaman worshippers, but not of the disc, but of the God who left it on Earth. Their sanctuary was Madara. In the IX century, however, Danube Bulgaria adopted Christianity as their only religion and the temple was closed. Then they moved and made a sect to save the secret. Here comes to the rescue another inscription copied by Hirsch, but from Madara, giving estimates where the new sanctuary is. By my calculations, it is east from the “Fisek” locality. On the other hand, Volga Bulgaria accepted Islam in the X century for official state religion and shamanism became an illegal sect there as well. The two branches kept in touch, and when the Mongols attacked Volga Bulgaria in the XIII century, the native shamans moved the disc into this sanctuary. It means we have to dig there.”
“Well, why didn’t Hirsch dig in that sanctuary?”
“Because he had no time. Now I will go to Sofia to arrange legal excavations in this place, but I will need time and money.”
The professor began to organize everything and returned to Varna after a month.
“All documentations are settled, we had to pay a hundred grand. Otherwise, nobody knows how many years it would take for them to allow us to begin excavations.”
“I hope you spent it on whores?” Joked Ivan.
“Call them whatever you like, but the money is gone!” Pouted the old man. “You are talking to chief archaeologist Parlatov,” he looked like Caligula before killing someone and grabbed his ear.
“And what is our job on the site?”
“What do you think? You are laborers!” The wacko looked even more haughty.
Fantomas, fainting from laughter said, “How will you put me as a laborer? I’m applying to be director of the Winery!”
The euphoria came over the group. Ivan writhing added, “I haven't laughed so much since the fair in Vurbitsa when Vasco pissed himself because he drank too much beer!”
“Remember that there was a great race - meatball, beer, meatball, beer!” Justified Fantomas.
“What are the Seawolves doing? Will we take them too?” The chief archaeologist got curious.
“How do you see Bazila digging? Most likely with his drunken head to fall into some whole and to break his neck!” Answered Pisco.
“Theirs is easy. They get a good salary to watch the boat. And Lyudtskanov is not allowed to leave the ship without permission from the Warden. You make a list of the needed goods, we are t
he sponsors.”
The Professor, who had already made a complete inventory of the necessary staff, handed the paper to Ivan, “Here it is, let’s go shopping!”
The Ninth looked at the written words vaguely and goggled his eyes, “What are these mules? Are you going on an expedition in the Andes?”
“How are you going to bring the equipment in the mountains?”
“In any case, I will not go with mules from Varna! We’ll buy a couple of donkeys from the nearest village. From Varna, we will leave with the pickup and the hummer.”
Chapter X
The expedition
They rented a house in the village Kochovo, because it was closest to Fisek, parked the vehicles in the courtyard and settled. Ivan went looking for cargo animals for the expedition.
“What’s going on, brother? What are you looking for?” Asked the Bulgarian gypsy.
“I’m looking to buy donkeys. Is your father around?”
“Now I’ll say to him. Bubba, gial borda,” cried through the fence the barefoot child in broken Bulgarian language.
An old gypsy with a big smile appeared at the door, anticipating the jiggery-pokery.
“Oh, Maraba, Effendi. Are you looking for someone?”
“I was told that you are dzhambaz (cattle dealer). I want to buy 5-6 donkeys.”
The old man stroked his mustache with his hand, “I have three donkeys and two horses. You can see them in the lawn in the back. They are meek Effendi, you will be happy. There aren't better around. The horses are small, Karakachan breed. Very robust. You can either ride them or use them for cargo. The donkeys are females too, of average race.”
Treasure Hunters: Secrets Of The Shaman (Adventure Novel) (The Lost Temple Book 2) Page 4
