The Medusa Stone (Order of the Black Sun Book 12)

by P. W. Child

  There was no sound whatsoever. The running had ceased completely, not even down to a trot – just gone. Costa was the first to dare peek around the entrance to determine their status. The other two held their breath as well as they could, considering their hearts were about to burst from fear-induced adrenaline.

  “Clear,” Costa whispered.

  “How sure are you?” Don asked while Nina wheezed audibly. “There is no way they could just not be there anymore. You heard them. There are only two flanking walls, man. There is nowhere they can hide.”

  Costa shrugged, “Unless they are not actual soldiers.”

  Nina shivered at the suggestion while Don went off on a tangent, bitching at Costa for bringing up ghosts while they were in the dark bowels of a concentration camp.

  “Come on, let’s survey the floor first,” Nina urged. Although she sounded in control, she really only pushed them to get to the task so that she did not have to let her own imagination get the better of her.

  The dank old chamber was huge, stretching over several divisions.

  “Just remember, the Soviet Union reconstructed the original Krema I chamber,” Nina whispered. “That means that not everywhere we tread will be the original rooms.”

  “Great,” Don remarked. “Just to make it more difficult they had to turn the bloody place into a Rubik’s Cube?”

  “Try here,” Costa pointed to a place on the floor of the oven room where there was significant discoloration over a precise square area near the wall.

  Don used the ground penetrating instrument, scanning the floor where Costa pointed out.

  “No fucking way! Zorba, you genius!” Don shouted in an excited whisper as the screen yielded unmistakable images of a deep cavernous area under the first few meters of the floor.

  “What did you find?” Nina asked.

  “Look on the screen. This instrument uses radar to indicate fluctuations in the substructure. What does that look like to you, love?” Don asked her. Nina was astonished.

  She gasped, “A flight of stairs!”

  From the other chamber, the haunting footfalls started once more, pacing irregularly. Nina’s chest heaved as she realized that the sound of the boots were closer than before. She sank to her haunches and proceeded to utilize her laser cutter to burn hard into the concrete above the staircase.

  “Hurry! Hurry!” the men pressed frantically. “Can’t you set it to a stronger beam?”

  “This is the top setting, guys,” she hissed in frustration as the first side was cut halfway through the concrete.

  “Listen!” Costa said.

  In the next room, the boots were now accompanied by whispers.

  “No ghosts?” Don asked.

  Costa shook his head. “No, but they might turn us into ghosts soon.”

  “Oh Christ, I cannot do this any faster!” Nina sneered, sweat trickling down her temple and cheek as she completed the second of three incisions.

  “They are coming!” Don groaned. “Fuck that, I’ll deal with them. You guys get down there and find the stone. I’ll meet you at the minivan at dawn. Later than that, take off and get the stone to Dave.”

  With that, he rounded the broken wall of the oven room and started a fight. Costa lunged to follow, but Nina grabbed him by his suit and pulled him back. “Please stay with me! Please! I cannot do this by myself.”

  The third border was cut, leaving a roughly cut square in the floor.

  “The laser did not cut right through,” he said.

  They could hear a mighty altercation where Don was. Costa abandoned his efforts to do things quietly. With a hefty kick, he brought his foot down in the one corner where two incisions met, breaking the already sliced cement and forcing the thinner layer beneath it to fail under the pressure.

  A shot rang out from the hallway, but Nina could not ascertain whether Don was dead or alive. Only gunshots and shouting ensued. Nina knew that museum security would not open fire like that.

  “Hurry, Costa! We have unauthorized company, if you know what I mean!” she growled as she stomped her boots down on the other unbroken parts to speed things along. The floor caved in with a terrible rumbling, but in the cacophony of the firefight, the collapse went unnoticed.

  Costa helped Nina into the hole and took her hand once they were under the floor. They could hear the heavy footfalls of the men in the chamber scuffle. As the shooting stopped, Nina and Costa could hear the footsteps running toward the outside of the building.

  “That must be what we heard,” he told her. “The footsteps chasing us were a floor above us. That is why we couldn’t see them. Just like now. There they go, but it sounds like they are right here.”

  “I just hope Don is alright. I hope those bullets fired were his, Costa” she said softly.

  Costa comforted her, running his hand over her tied back hair. He pulled her against him and continuously stroked her crown a few times before he pulled the black scrunchy from her hair.

  “What are you doi…?”

  Costa pressed his lips on hers, snuffing her words in a deep kiss. Nina could not believe what was happening, but she had wanted it for so long that she abandoned all responsibility.

  ‘Sam’

  In the pitch darkness, she allowed Costa to ravage her, her passionate moans contained by the hidden hall under the ground of the killing floor.

  Chapter 34

  Purdue was worried sick.

  He could not get hold of Nina or Don, causing him even more stress. Everything in him screamed to return to Poland and seek them out. At least he knew where they were supposed to be, but he had to wait here in London for them. They would bring the Medusa stone so that he could arrange for Helen’s release. One thing he did have going for him was what he found on the security footage – which the kidnappers accessed the administration building with Soula Fidikos’ code.

  But that only proved that the same people responsible for killing Soula were behind the abduction. And he already knew that just by deduction. Now his team members in Poland were off the radar, even from him, which was never a good thing. All he could do was hope that they were just delayed. Otherwise, he would be in for a long month of friends’ funerals to attend.

  While he waited for the second of three calls from the Black Sun, he chugged back one Scotch after the other. It was a dumb idea that he knew, but it did not seem to matter to him if his friends were in trouble. His phone rang, like the expected tolling of an execution bell.

  “Hello.”

  “Mr. Purdue, how are you?” the distorted voice asked.

  “I’m just peachy, thank you,” he answered casually.

  “Do you have the Medusa stone?” the voice inquired.

  “I have not been able to find it yet,” Purdue replied. He did not expect understanding from Helen’s captor, but he answered truthfully nonetheless because he had nothing else.

  “That is a pity. Tomorrow is the last day, Mr. Purdue, as you know,” the voice reminded him. “Then we take Professor Barry.”

  “I know. I know,” the exhausted billionaire slurred. “And if I don’t save Prof. Barry? You might kill her, but you will still not have the Medusa stone.”

  A pause followed just as Purdue had hoped. He had them in a corner with that one, he thought.

  “Then we kill Dr. Gould.”

  Purdue’s heart stopped. He fought to keep from throwing up as the voice continued to clarify matters for him. “We have three men currently exploring Auschwitz with her, actually.”

  Tears welled in his eyes and his voice cracked.

  “Is she in their custody?” he asked.

  “If she were, Mr. Purdue, she could not find the Medusa stone for us, could she? She is not in our custody, but she is in our sights. One word from me and Nina Gould joins Soula Fidikos,” the voice threatened.

  Purdue could not utter a single word in response. It was not because he had nothing to say, but that his throat had closed up at the thought of Nina’s fate if he did not d
eliver the Medusa stone within the next day.

  “Tomorrow, then,” the man signed off. “Good day, Mr. Purdue.”

  He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry like a child; like he had not cried since the shock of his twin sister’s death when he left her behind in Venice long ago. Dave Purdue always had a way out. Wealth and genius had always provided him with a guaranteed way out of everything, even when all seemed lost. There was a reason he was always cheerful and suave.

  Until now he had never known what it is like to lose control. No longer was he able to take the reins in every sticky situation.

  But just as the despair overcame him, his mind became clear one more time. Like the final gasp before the last exhale, he focused on what he had, meager as it was.

  “That accent,” he sniffed, wearily propped up on his elbows on the wall desk of his London penthouse. “Why do I know that accent?”

  He got up, wiped his eyes and picked up his cell phone again. Pacing up and down, he waited for the call to be answered.

  “Hey!” he exclaimed. “It’s Purdue. How are you?”

  On the other end of the line, an old friend was amazed to hear from him, but Purdue soon made it clear that it was not a social call. After giving his friend a brief twenty-minute account of recent events, Purdue was back to his confident self.

  “I need your help. I think I know who the kidnapper is. Can you find out if he is involved with the Black Sun organization? Please get back to me by tonight, latest. Sooner if you can!” Purdue pleaded.

  After the call, he arranged to get what he needed to save Helen, and subsequently, Nina too. It would be the most unorthodox rescue he had ever implemented, but he had a good feeling about it. Having been so worried about Nina, it was ironic that the voice of Helen’s captor was the one who notified him that Nina was not dead or missing after all.

  He had one night and a morning left to get the Medusa stone before the last call, that call that would seal the fate of two women he adored.

  Chapter 35

  The sudden silence under the floor of the oven room was almost uncanny. All Nina could hear now was Costa’s heavy breathing as he gradually recovered from his climax. His hands were still firmly on her hips while she tried to absorb what really just happened. In the dark, she smiled to herself. He was not Sam, and she could not even imagine him as Sam since they were unable to see one another, but she did not care. Sometimes a release was just a release, and she needed it after all. Physical heaven granted her reprieve from emotional hell.

  ‘Well done!’ she thought to herself.

  “When you are done, Professor Megalos, we still have a relic to find quite urgently,” she said, half whispering.

  He snickered somewhere in the pitch blackness, “Way ahead of you, Dr. Gould. Unlike you, I have my pants on already.”

  “How do you know I am not dressed?” she challenged defiantly.

  “For one thing, I am wearing my night vision goggles,” he laughed, slapping her on the haunches.

  A few seconds later, she had her hair back in the ponytail and was fully dressed as before, only, everything had changed. She could not put her finger on it, but she had bigger matters to take care of right now.

  “Shall we dare light the flare?” she asked Costa.

  “We will have to if we want to see anything down here,” he replied.

  “But it will mark our whereabouts,” she argued with concern.

  “Nina, the sooner we find the stone, the sooner we can leave. And what is more, once we have the stone, we can turn anyone into a damn statue if they fuck with us down here,” he snapped. Nina did not like his tone, but she was not going to spoil the moment with a confrontation.

  Nina said nothing in retort. She felt around in her backpack for the smooth tubular object she needed. Twisting the cap off and striking the exposed end with it, she pinched her eyes shut to ease in the blinding light. While her eyes were shut, she heard Costa gasp in fascination. When Nina opened her eyes, she let out a yelp in fright.

  “Jesus!” she cried as the ignited flare revealed the colossal face on the wall, crumbling around the nose and mouth to leave it looking like a grinning corpse. Costa was spellbound by the massive staring eyes, essentially two deep holes. One was black and the other appeared to glimmer. Nina stepped backward, in awe of the concrete shrine of human bones and snakeskin strewn on the floor in front of the face.

  “Costa?” she called out to reduce some reaction from her companion. “Have you turned to stone?” Jesting seemed wasted on him for some reason. He was so serious, so focused all of a sudden.

  “Do you know what this is?” he asked monotonously. She passed him a flare, and he ignited it.

  “It looks like the head of Medusa,” she remarked. “May I add that it is creeping me the fuck out?”

  “Isn’t she breathtaking?” Costa marveled.

  Nina raised an eyebrow. “Maybe being straight makes me blind to the allure of females, but this chick is far from breathtaking.”

  Costa looked around the chamber under the oven room, seeking out the meaning of the construction apart from the obvious. There were no elaborate markings or anything to indicate that it was a temple, yet the heap of bones denoted some sacrifices were made to the Gorgon.

  Nina was reluctant to approach the hideous stone thing, but the one glimmering eye intrigued her no end, begging to be explored. While Costa moved along the walls of the crumbling makeshift temple to find clues, Nina gathered her courage and stepped up against the horrific face. Arduously, she struggled to elevate herself high enough on loose skeletons to stick her arm into the eye.

  “Please don’t eat me,” she groaned as she wrestled with the long tubular hole. Her arm was just long enough to reach the shining object deep inside. Nina’s fingertips tap-tapped on the smooth surface until it fell forward and allowed her to claim it. Her heart pounded wildly when she pulled it out and realized that she had just uncovered the elusive Medusa stone.

  “Thank you, Dr. Gould,” she heard Costa say. Shrieking in victory she turned to face Costa, but her smile vanished instantly. He stood in front of her, the Stheno stone lifted, but not yet over his eye.

  Nina gulped and stumbled backward against the giant face. Her legs threatened to fail her at the betrayal she was facing.

  “Give me the Medusa, please,” he requested.

  “You wouldn’t!” she shouted. Her voice sounded furious, but it was not anger that filled her words – it was disappointment. “No, Costa!”

  “Give me the stone,” he commanded coldly. “I will not ask again.”

  “I cannot believe you would be this underhanded,” she frowned in disbelief.

  “Not underhanded, just ambitious,” he replied. “Please, Nina, don’t make me do this.”

  “You’re going to do it anyway, you bastard! Once you have the stone…”

  “Once I have the stones I will have no reason to intimidate you. Don’t you see? I just want the stone,” he coaxed, but still his eyes remained fixed on her, the marble Stheno quivering in his raised hand.

  “Right, hand them over!” a voice shouted from the stairs. Costa turned to see a group of men standing there, guns toting. Three of them were the men in the Volvo. One of them winked at Costa, “Hello again, comrade.”

  “Fuck you, Commie!” Nina sneered and lifted the Medusa stone to her eye. Costa followed suit as the men opened fire. Neither of them could feel the impact of the bullets as the white fire of Vril charged the stones, collectively engulfing Deon Fidikos’ fire team and rapidly dousing their screeches of agony in casings of eternal stone. As soon as the opposition was silenced Nina fell to the ground, bleeding.

  “Nina!” Costa shouted. He rushed to her side. “Oh my God! Nina! Can you hear me?”

  “Aye, but not for long,” she groaned.

  “The stone is supposed to make you resistant…like an immortal…I don’t understand…,” he muttered as he gathered her small body up in his arms. Nina had been hit three time
s. Two were flesh wounds, but the third slug lodged in her chest. Costa at once realized why Nina was struck down.

  He looked up at the face on the wall and whispered to himself, “Of course. Unlike her sisters, Medusa was the only Gorgon… who was mortal.”

  The barrel of a .44 pressed against Costa’s skull and the hammer clicked back.

  “Vril cannot protect you from a point blank widow-maker, Zorba,” Don declared with labored words. He had been wounded during his run-in with some of Deon’s men earlier, but he was resilient.

  “N-no..no, no,” Nina murmured weakly.

  “You’ll never make it out of here, idiot!” Costa sneered. “Nothing can kill me while I have Stheno. And when I go to pay Deon Fidikos a visit, I am taking him a nice statue of a kilt-wearing moose from Dundee.” Before he finished his sentence, he had Stheno ready, staring straight through it at Don. The archeologist’s gun jammed, leaving him unarmed. Costa retreated out of striking distance from the Scotsman, aiming his potent beam of energy at his chest.

  Nina watched as the foil Don tucked in his chest as a joke reflected Costa’s weapon back on him. Like the old Greek heroes used their shields to deflect the deadly stare of the Gorgons, Don closed his eyes to keep from going blind as the dissonance of the freshly generated light doubled back onto itself. Its intense heat enveloped Costa instantly, securing the Stheno into the solid stone of his face.

  “Holy shit!” Don gawked, utterly amazed that he not only survived the attack, but saw the process in action. He quickly dislodged the marble relic from the surface of the rock and did his best to carry Nina to the nearest office where he could alert any security to get her to a hospital. He kept both stones in his boots, preparing to be arrested when he called for medical assistance.

  Chapter 36

  “I have the Medusa stone,” Purdue said over the phone. “Shall I just send it with Costa? He is dying to ask you the details of Soula’s death.”