Suddenly the group ahead of her stopped and she almost walked into Gary's heel.
"What's going on?" she asked Nina, as quietly as she could.
"Drop," Nina whispered from the mouth of the tunnel.
Below the sudden absence of floor, a vast and deep grotto rested in the bowels of the mighty mountain. So enormous was it, that the beams from their torches vanished midway through the air without falling on any object. It made it impossible for them to determine the nature of their environment.
"It's like standing in the middle of a black hole," Sam remarked, as he looked around in the pitch darkness, hoping to hone in on anything solid.
"Yes. Just reach out in front of you. It is as if the dark is solid, as if you can touch it with your fingertips," Nina added.
"As if it is alive," Purdue unsettled them, his voice seeping with wonderment. "Come, we have to make more light. Where are the flares, Gary?"
"Hang on," Gary said, and placed one of the smaller duffle bags on the ground to retrieve a flare for both of them. Purdue volunteered to descend the drop of the wall face first and Gary agreed to follow close behind him.
"My God, this place is colossal," Gary remarked, as he helped Sam tie the rip cord to a jutting stalagmite farther back in the tunnel. Nina shivered from a chill that stung her as she still dealt with the enclosed space they were in. She watched Purdue and Gary disappear over the edge of the tunnel. It was not far, but the step down was deep enough for them to use climbing equipment to abseil to the floor of the Godwomb. Sam passed the remaining flares to the two women and took one for himself. They cracked the flares almost simultaneously. With blinding colored light the cavern lit up. It had a strange moving shimmer to its surfaces, which reminded Nina of liquid phosphorus. One by one they climbed down to the floor a few meters under the tunnel mouth.
"Nothing," Purdue scoffed as he turned to light the place and seek out anything that resembled the object he was looking for. He grimaced with defeat, the disappointment overwhelming him, but he did not show it.
"Calisto wants to stay up there," Sam told the others when he came down. "She says someone should guard the tunnel."
"Good idea," Gary said to himself. Even though Purdue's bodyguard was female, and ill, he had seen her in action and felt assured that she could hold her own and warn them if anything suspicious happened. Purdue kept spinning around, looking in every crevice and crater for a chest or some sort of antique containment device that could possibly hold the Spear of Destiny.
"Okay, I'll just say it," Nina whispered, as her light yielded nothing but rock formation and bat shit, "I don't think there is anything here. How do we know it had not been discovered by someone else before us and removed?"
"We would have heard of such a discovery, Nina. No, it has got to be here somewhere," Sam said.
"Great, why don't you go first?" she snapped at him, pointing at a huge heap of waste behind him. Gary walked from one side of the great hall to the other side, just to measure how big the cave really was. Counting his steps he reached the other side halfway between one hundred and sixty-two and one hundred and sixty-three approximate meters. From where he stood, the rest of the party was barely visible were it not for their handheld lights and the occasional pitch of voice echoing through the watery chamber. He waved his light from side to side to get their attention.
"What the hell is he doing way over there?" Nina asked.
"Well, we cannot shout to him, can we? Just keep looking for anything unusual," Purdue urged them, trying not to sound his frustration.
"Ummm . . ." Nina said, but refrained from anything more. Her eyes traveled somewhere in the air ahead, her countenance frozen in deep scrutiny. She saw something glimmer in a cavity formed by a collection of stalactites hanging from the high ceiling of the cavern.
It had not been there before. Moving slowly toward Gary, Nina kept her eyes fixed on the ethereal sheen above them, only occasionally darting her eyes to Gary to keep track of his position.
"Gary," her whisper echoed loudly across the floor of craters and mounds, "move toward me with your flare above your head."
"What?" he asked, unable to hear what she was saying.
"Shit. Come to me with your flare up like this," she mouthed her words for him to lip read and gestured what she wanted him to do. As the two of them approached each other, Sam and Purdue's attention was drawn to them. The two men abandoned their own seeking to join Nina with their lights and, looking up, they all beheld what looked like a star lodged in the rock.
"What on earth is that?" Purdue marveled.
"A piece of the sun, I venture to guess. Nothing on earth is that bright," Sam replied. They had no idea that the clouds had dissipated somewhat after the showers, so his theory was apt. Anyone who regarded what he did might very well have agreed without hesitation. As they gathered together under the remarkably radiant glare emanating through the rocks, they noticed that it was in fact a large drawing, concealed behind layers of residue accumulated over many years in isolation.
For a while they discussed how to reach the drawing in the rock to rid it of its moldy, layered captor in order to see what it depicted. Sam would also shoot a few frames of the drawing for their records. But suddenly the glare began to wane, abandoning the cave to shadow until finally it was drowned by the swelling clouds. With the powerful light gone the cavern became pitch dark once more.
☼
Chapter 24
Their lights were withering in their hands and the flashlights were useless at this distance, so Nina quickly made her way across the floor toward the tunnel's entrance where Calisto was waiting. She whispered hard, "Calisto, we need more flares!"
No response.
"Calisto?"
Silence.
"Sergeant Fernandez!" she tried. "Yeah, right, as if she would answer you if you addressed her differently. Fucking idiot," Nina cussed herself for the illogical attempt. Her eyes looked up to the silent passage and the dwindling light stirring shadows against the rock walls. She knew she would have to climb up the rope, which discouraged her utterly. Nina felt a wave of worry pulse through the pit of her stomach at Calisto's absence as she started climbing to where the last flares were. She did not know what to think. Purdue's bodyguard had the most difficult psychology to figure out, even by Nina, who was known for her dead-on judge of character. Calisto was polite enough and appeared to be easy to talk to, but there was something about her dark stare and her tough demeanor. It was obvious that she did not tolerate any shit from people, no matter what their status, but in contrast she seemed compassionate and humorous. The culmination of all these traits made her hard to read and Nina was not sure if she could trust her. Now she was gone from her post and it felt dangerously suspicious to the historian, who was laboriously pulling herself up by the rope.
As she reached the last part a hand fell over hers, tugging the unsuspecting Nina upward.
From sheer fright and instinct Nina screamed.
Her cry reverberated through the chasms and crevices, filling the hollow leviathan mountain with thunderous echo. Bewildered the men froze in their place, dying flares being extinguished with every second that passed under the taboo resonance haunting the sensitive stone.
"What the fuck is that about?" Sam gasped. He was violently upset by the prospect of Nina being hurt. And by the sound of her searing screech she was being assaulted. Just then their flares finally expired, leaving them in imperceptible conditions with Nina's cry still fresh in their ears. Calisto pulled Nina over the ledge, unceremoniously dropping her on the cold ground of the tunnel.
"You really should learn to curb that response," she told Nina, as she retrieved the last flares. She noticed that the light in the main chamber had died. Nina panted wildly, still reeling from the terrible fright she was dealt.
"Where were you?" she frowned, trying to keep her voice down while the men were speculating in the distant dark about the imminent penalty that Dr. Gould's cry might bring.
"I went to take a piss, Dr. Gould," Calisto replied casually. "And then I puked my lungs out for good measure." She dropped a flare on the hard wet ground next to Nina and started sliding down the rope with Gary's limp duffle bag and her own flare. When she got to the bottom of the rope she lit hers and went to the men to deliver theirs.
"Is Nina all right? What happened?" Sam pushed.
"She is fine, Mr. Cleave," Calisto replied coolly, "but that lady is way too jumpy."
They watched Nina's light travel from the rope back to them. She felt awfully ashamed at her inadvertent reaction, not to mention the dire consequence of her error if the mountain should collapse under the ensuing tremors. With her head slightly hung she asked no one in particular, "So what do you think it is?" hoping to bury the incident quickly. The group raised their eyes to the obscured depiction above them, which possessed a section made of what looked like pure sunlight.
"I don't know, but we have to move, everyone," Purdue said hastily. "As far as I know this is our last light."
"Apart from that flare gun in the bag," Gary added, looking up at the crude, ancient sketch.
"Maybe it is the sun coming through a crack in the mountain," Sam wondered out loud.
"Can't be," Nina argued, "The sun is on that side by now, right? Besides, it is raining."
"The sun should be almost right above this chamber, by directional timing," Calisto corrected her. Nina thought Calisto deserved a bitchy leer, but she knew it could prove fatal.
Purdue started fidgeting and smiled, "We have to get up there to see what it is, friends."
"I'll go," Sam offered, before Purdue even finished his sentence. He found the picture fascinating, not to mention that it could perhaps harbor the Spear of Destiny itself within the rock. This was more than enough incentive to risk his life climbing up there.
"Do you know how to climb?" Nina asked.
"Does dangling from my ex-girlfriend's balcony count?" he jested. Nina slapped him on the arm with a chuckle as Gary rigged him up for his ascent to the roof of the Godwomb. He tossed the rope over a sturdy horn of rock and tugged hard at it to test its tensile strength. Then he fixed the clasp to it and gave Sam an assuring tap on the shoulder.
"Ready?" he asked Sam. But Sam was occupied by second thoughts as he considered the distance he would fall if anything went wrong. He nodded, eyes still fixed on the target in the light of his flare.
Purdue and Gary hoisted Sam up slowly while Nina held her breath, her wide eyes staring nervously as his progress.
"He'll be fine, Dr. Gould," Calisto said next to her.
"I hope so. We don't have the medical fortitude to remedy a nasty plummet," Nina replied.
Sam had his digital camera strapped around his neck and a tool belt around his waist, comprised of a hammer, chisel, cloth and a bottle of water. He sported Gary's climbing gloves to avoid rope burn on his hands and as they hoisted him higher from the safety of the ground, his heart began to race. Only when he was suspended halfway up the chamber's height did he realize what a bad idea it was.
The landscape under him grew deeper as he ascended, while the occasional bat would dive over his head as he neared the ceiling of the cavern.
"I hope this flare holds out," he said to himself through perspiration and sheer terror. When he arrived at the section of rock that bore the drawing he waved his flare to signal them to hold. Briskly as he could, Sam roughly tossed the water over the thin layer of residue, revealing most of the full shape of the sketch. Outside the rain subsided again and the afternoon sun illuminated the freshly washed world below. The snow-capped mountain ranges circled the valley that looked visibly greener after the rain. Once more an inkling of sun streamed through the chimney of jagged rocks, lighting up the top part of the cavern. Sam was very relieved to have more light as he worked his way carefully around the picture. Purdue had anchored him tightly, but he still exercised caution in his movements, should his weight distribution aggravate the durability of the ropes.
"Look!" Nina exclaimed, "It is a diagram of the Holy Lance!"
Purdue, Gary and Calisto rushed over to her to view it from her perspective.
"By God, that is exactly what it is!" he gasped and stared for a long while at the dagger-shaped lines, which ended in a point crowned by the light. The entire blade of the Spear was gilded by the sun, its beams had now grown strong in the great stone hall.
"Is there anything up there, Mr. Cleave?" Purdue asked with a slight raise in his voice. He figured that, even at a louder volume, his voice could not provoke the damage already tested by Dr. Gould's scream. Sam shook his head. They could hear him say, "It is just a drawing and flat rock here."
"Would it not be a cruel joke of the Nazis to send us all the way here in a hunt for the Spear of Destiny, all the while withholding the information that the item in question is a mere depiction of the relic instead of the real thing?" Calisto smiled, amused thoroughly at the possibility. In truth, this was the first time such a possibility had even crossed Purdue's mind and it sent a dreadful jolt of shock through his entire body to imagine it true.
Nina afforded Calisto a look of warning and a very subtle shake of the head. Inside she hoped that the dark-eyed femme fatale would not take it as an insult, for fear of being stabbed by an animal bone or something. Calisto was sharp enough to recognize that Dr. Gould was trying to convey Purdue's upset at her remark. She promptly ceased her chuckling and went to get her water bottle for a drink and another dose of Diamox to aid her with the awful effects of the thin air. She was feeling a lot better after her last gullet purge.
More frustrated than before, Purdue looked up at Sam and did not seem to care as much about the volume of his voice anymore. "Sam, come on down, then. We have to get going," Purdue said, his voice cracking under the upset of it all. The entire atmosphere changed. Dave Purdue was always positive, always driven to find another way, but he looked utterly defeated. After being betrayed by Eickhart and his goons, after almost getting his party killed, and the loss of Jodh, he had come through all that only to find nothing to show for it. Something else, something far more pressing than his bruised ego, also bothered him. It was extremely important to him to find the Holy Lance, or something at least of equal significance, and now his bodyguard brought to his attention the most basic deduction for their predicament—and he overlooked it. His teeth ground together as he paced back to where Gary was preparing to bring Sam down while the women packed up the rest of the gear. Purdue was deeply disappointed and to a small measure, afraid.
☼
Chapter 25
With everyone below preoccupied with their respective duties, Sam took a moment to gander around the massive chamber one last time. He felt like Indiana Jones, being in such an exotic location and hunting an ancient relic. As a serious journalist he dared not reveal his whimsical side, but that did not mean he did not entertain it once in a while. His right hand pushed against the cluster of stalactites protruding from the side of the grotto as he gently turned in mid-air to face toward the interior.
Straining to balance himself, Sam positioned his camera in his hands while he rocked from side to side on the rope. The view from up there was stunning and he understood where the chamber got its regal name. Through the viewfinder of his camera he framed the best composition and snapped the picture. Sam wished he had his panoramic with him for the beauteous pan of visuals before him. But he only had his basic camera with him, which had to take quite a few pictures in succession to fully capture the scene.
The ceiling was unremarkable, save for the antiquated doodle that he would snap from the ground once he was back down there. However, the ornate stalagmites growing from the floor of the cavern were especially beautiful, towering at different heights as they reached for the meager light coming through the crack above. In the sunlight their moist surfaces glimmered like strewn stars left to sparkle on the extremities of the pointy shapes, presenting very subtle differences in bluish hues dictated by their
individual ages. Sam did not even realize that he smiled. Another fantastical image appeared on his memory card. He zoomed out to get an overall picture of the chamber just before Purdue and Gary started loosening his cord and his eye caught something.
"Gentlemen!" he shouted, as softly as he could. "Wait. Hold the rope. Wait a second."
Purdue knew that expression. His face lit up immediately when Sam's eyes went stiff in their sockets and he eagerly honed his lens on something.
"What, Sam?" he pressed excitedly. Nina and Calisto stopped what they were doing and looked at the dangling journalist seven stories up. "Mr. Cleave. Report, please," Purdue reiterated with immeasurable curiosity.
"You know, I am no geography aficionado, but I think I am looking at a map!" he said absentmindedly as he moved the camera lens to view the floor of the cavern. "Move to the side, please."
The group moved against the walls. By the third shot Sam was convinced that he saw what he thought he did. More and more it became familiar, obvious. Purdue started getting fidgety, "I really must insist, Sam. What are you seeing?"
"I see a map," Sam smiled, arms outstretched like a game show host. His attractive smirk folded into dimples and his dark eyes came alive.
"A map of what?" asked Gary, not buying any of it. "I think you're just reaching now."
"Nope. From up here, at this angle in the Godwomb, I clearly discern the coastlines of England and Scotland, Norway, Germany . . . it's the North Sea!" Sam beamed.
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