Deep Sea One

by Preston; Child

  Nina and Sam were having breakfast in the mess hall.

  "What are you going to do when the Spear's carbon dating shows it to be real?" Sam asked the pretty petite academic as she bit off half a sausage.

  "Ish not up tha me," she said through her stuffed mouth, and Sam could not help but chuckle at her charming reply. She swallowed. "As soon as we know for sure I think I should tell him what I really think."

  "Nina, he won't give a shite, love," the handsome journalist shook his head.

  "Look, the guy is smitten with me. I'm sure I can impress the severity of this thing's power on him if we were alone," she whispered. Sam could not believe what he heard. Nina Gould? Using her ass as an asset, for once? He could not deny it was a smashing idea, but he could not see Purdue give up the "power of gods" to fuck Nina. Not even Nina.

  "Well, I can't steal the fucking thing now, can I?" she snapped, when his expression betrayed his cynicism.

  "I didn't say that . . ." Sam started, but Nina's eyes moved with something behind his back and he knew they had company. "What?"

  Nina's face changed from catty to terrified. The last time he saw that look on her was when a gun was against her head. His heart sank. "Nina."

  Tommy stood behind him, Beretta drawn. He held it close to his body, not to be noticed by anyone but them. Sam turned to face him.

  "Jesus, mate!" he shouted.

  "Shut the fuck up, Cleave!" Tommy gritted his teeth, looking around for anyone who might have heard Sam. The mess hall was empty and all the men were at their stations.

  Nina started shaking, her eyes welling with tears again. She placed her hands over her mouth in shock at the vision of Eickhart's spy. Sweating profusely with burning red skin, he sniffed constantly. In between his breaths, he coughed profusely.

  "Where is the Spear of Destiny?" he sneered, through fits of coughing that shook his body.

  Sam looked at Nina as calmly as he could, but they both knew that in their close vicinity stood a man infected with something that came from inside the platform. It dawned on them that the only bacteria here was kept from the Wolfenstein Ice Station.

  "We don't have it, Tommy," Nina's quivering voice bent.

  "Don't you fucking lie to me, Gould! I know you have been working on it."

  "It's in the lab down below," Sam said quickly, to avert attention from Nina. "I can take you."

  "No, you'll both take me, son. And you'll take me now," Tommy said and motioned with the barrel for them to get up. His eyes looked horrifying from the fever, coloring the whites a dark pink, which melted grotesquely into the light brown of his irises. It gave the impression that his eyes were entirely red and with his sweat-soaked hair it only added to the unnatural sight.

  Sam took Nina by the arm and led her with him, holding her body tightly to his. It was a great comfort to her that he would not leave her even an iota behind him. Through the walkways they headed to the elevator. Nina prayed that Purdue would be down there and that someone could inoculate them against whatever Tommy had. Little did she know that Calisto, in her vindictive nature, had also taken the antidotes with her. After seeing the evil breeding of human beings according to a lunatic doctrine, she decided to leave them all to their fate. The keepers were as bad as the kept, and she wanted all to perish in her wake.

  When they stepped out of the elevator, Nina went ahead to punch in her code. On the other side of the glass she saw the scientists locked in furious argument about something.

  "What is going on?" she asked, as she rushed toward them.

  "The Wolfenstein viral strains have been stolen!" said one woman.

  "WHAT!" Nina shrieked, her stomach tying itself in a nightmarish knot at the prospects of their fate. "The antidotes?"

  The woman shook her head gravely and Nina followed her gaze to the empty chests.

  "Oh, my God, no!" Nina cried out, as she turned to Sam and Tommy. This was the opportune moment to get away from the gun-toting dead man walking. Suddenly she shouted, "Look! A carrier! He is infected!" Nina pointed to Tommy and stood back as the scientists with the protective clothing swarmed at him in panic to contain him. Sam was not taking any chances by grabbing the gun. There was no knowing what kind of strain infected him and human contact was too risky.

  Tommy raised his Beretta and shot one of the scientists, provoking a full-fledged riot to apprehend him. Sam and Nina could hear him cussing and hissing about the Spear as they headed to her lab to get the relic.

  "Nina, we have to get out of here before they take us too," Sam said, as Nina stopped in her tracks.

  "Where is the Spear?" she gasped, breathing hard in oncoming hysterics. She turned to one of the assistants, a blond, blue eyed German woman. "Where the fuck is the relic I was working on?"

  "Mr. Purdue came to take it this morning, doctor," the assistant replied snidely, "It belongs to him, after all," she smiled, and without another consideration she left the lab. Nina's jaw dropped.

  "Something really bad is going down in this place, Sam. We have got to get the fuck out of here," she implored with her hands on his folded forearms. "Let's just get our shit and get away from here."

  "How?" he asked. "How will we get out of here without a chopper?"

  In her desperation she had neglected that fact.

  "Let's go up and talk to Purdue. I want to know why he took the Spear from me before I was done," she bitched, her face distorted in a nasty scowl.

  "Listen, let's just take it easy. Don't agitate things again," Sam warned her.

  "Again?"

  "Yes, your volatile temper always blows things out of proportion, Nina, and you know it. You can't always just go off on someone when they piss you off. You have to remember where we are," he pulled her closer by her upper arms and looked her seriously in the eye, "Pissing off Purdue while stranded on his island, is not a good idea. Let's go chat to him and see. Maybe he is just having a look at it himself. No big deal."

  But Sam changed his tune quickly when they reached the platform. Finding the place crowded with helicopters, one arriving after the other, he knew something was going on that Purdue did not share with them. Eight or nine flying machines stood stationary, their rotors quiet as the last one circled the platform once and then descended slowly to set itself down.

  From it stepped a middle-aged woman, well-groomed, wearing a fur coat. Her short hair was blond and she wore large sunglasses. Accompanied by a huge blond haired man she was shown to the same elevator as the previous guests.

  "Dignitaries?" Nina frowned.

  "On an oil rig? I think not," Sam replied. His journalistic instinct told him that this was not a friendly gathering with birthday cake and party games. Sam ran over to the man directing the visitors and over the noise of the last helicopter he shouted, "What is going on here? Where is Mr. Purdue?"

  The man looked at Sam with contempt and simply said, "Please return to the laboratory with Dr. Gould and stay there. This is none of your concern, Mr. Cleave."

  Sam hesitated and was going to insist, but the man casually put his hand on the butt of his gun to reiterate his order and Sam got the message.

  They'd actually shoot us? What the hell is this? he thought as he returned to Nina, who stared at him in anticipation.

  "Let's go to the community room," he said.

  "What is going on?"

  "I don't know, but we are not welcome. I'm going to talk to Liam. See if he can call out for an extraction for us," Sam huffed, his demeanor on borderline panic that worried Nina no end. He was the level-headed one, the logical one. If he was worried, she had reason to be.

  Under the platform, concealed inside an undersea cavern, Purdue had a boardroom where his organization could meet. Only he and one maintenance manager knew about it, and this is where the members of the order congregated after his call for an urgent meeting. The massive chamber was impressive by old-world luxurious standards and in the middle stood an enormous table in black wood. Around it were twelve high-back chairs, pointed
at the ends like horns. The floor was ground stone and on the floor, in a great size circling the table, the symbol of the Order of the Black Sun was inlaid with black marble—a circle with a center in gold, from where twelve lightning bolts met the outer circle. On the walls of the chamber hung flags of various nations and Himmler's SS, embroidered and fringed with rich cording.

  Etched into the walls, expertly done, were the sigils of Aryan races from ancient history. Norse gods were represented—the Hammer of Thor, The Lightning of Zeus, swastikas and pagan wheel symbols. All over the ceiling geometric shapes in succession were etched, representing the order's claim that occult geometry along with the energy of the Black Sun could together bring forth unimaginable power from other dimensions. This energy was said to regenerate the Aryan race and was widely considered a replacement for the swastika. For the Tempelhofgesellschaft of bygone eras the Black Sun had a distinct relationship with alchemy. The sun above was a mere symbol of the invisible anti-sun, material things being mere representations of their spiritual counterparts, the shadows thereof.

  These geometric measures and shapes resembled exactly those that Eickhart designed to be placed above the chamber he was having built behind his mansion. Unlike Purdue, he knew precisely what their purpose was and that the manner in which they were arranged was of pivotal importance—to summon the dormant abilities contained in the Spear and harness it for the ends of his nefarious greed.

  The members convened and Purdue entered last to address the meeting. He could not stop smiling.

  "My esteemed associates, I thank you for coming on such short notice and welcome you to the Black Sun gathering of Deep Sea One, where I have great pleasure in presenting you with an item we have long been searching for—an object of godly power now finally in our hands once more," he announced in a boisterous tone, which echoed against the stone walls of the converted cave. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Order of the Black Sun . . . I present the Spear of Destiny."

  He pulled it out, unwrapped it and placed it on the table for all to behold. Gasps of amazement and grunts of jealous zeal emanated through the room as the members of the order scrutinized the item. Purdue assured them that the piece was authentic, being examined by Dr. Nina Gould herself and that it was placed on record.

  While he was boasting, the iniquitous spirit of the relic charged itself with the mystic numbers above. The acoustics of the cavern activated the matching of the geometric shapes, metallurgical properties and sound frequency employed to ignite what the Nazis had failed to attain in the 1940s. The Spear of Destiny had come to life.

  ☼

  Chapter 41

  "Where were you, Herr Braun?" Elsa asked, and although she smiled, her blue eyes stung with ice. Patrick was puzzled, "With respect, how is that any of your business?"

  Elsa lunged forward before he could defend. With her forearm against his throat she slammed him against the wall of his cottage and with her foot she kicked the door shut.

  "It is every bit my business what you do," she whispered menacingly. Elsa released him.

  "Sit."

  He sat down, knowing that she was not a housekeeper after all. "Who are you?"

  "I am the avenging angel, my dear, sent to make sure you don't fuck up for one thing," she rasped with deadly eyes, her arms folded over her voluptuous breasts. He was speechless, so she continued, "I was bred by Purdue's science freaks, funded by Eickhart before the whole Spear of Destiny search made them enemies."

  "My God," he whispered.

  "Yes, Herr Braun, I am a living, breathing Aryan, the Führer's wet dream."

  Patrick felt his heart slam against his chest. It was unbelievable and disturbing. She sat down and lit a cigarette, "and I am here to kill Eickhart. What I need from you is to keep that to yourself. You will not tell a living soul. In exchange I will tell you where the Order of the Black Sun is meeting, so that your company can find that Portuguese swine sent by Eickhart to steal the Spear of Destiny and the Wolfenstein viruses. Do we have an accord, Herr Braun?"

  He nodded, "How do you know where they are?"

  "I listen. And Walter has a reckless trust."

  Patrick took a cigarette from her and she lit it.

  "In 1942 a German Navy U-boat captain with a sick penchant for torture, assisted in the hiding of the Spear in an undersea cavern previously used by Allied forces as a secret base. He was asked to design clues as to the relic's location, which would ultimately be kept safe by a monastery in Tibet, the map locked in a shrine," she inhaled the smoke and it disappeared into her nostrils in two perfect streams of hazy white. "He scribbled it in a book wrapped in human skin and hid it. But a seaman onboard knew and by gunpoint insisted the captain reveal the location, but he would not, which profited him a bullet in his skull. The seaman shot the operations crew just as the U-boat passed the old Allied station and disabled the rudder. The submarine settled on the ocean floor right where he had heard rumors of the Spear's location from a group of drunken German officers playing cards one night. With the hatches locked and the water pressure too much, the crew could not escape and suffocated, forever entombed in their steel coffin in the icy North Sea."

  She dragged on the cigarette and sighed, "That seaman was Walter Eickhart. After he could not locate the relic, he bided his time and waited for decades, befriending members of the Black Sun, hoping to find out where it was. Thanks to Dave Purdue's boasting, he did. When Purdue asked him to facilitate his expedition's illegal presence in Tibet, Eickhart knew he had found his foothold."

  "Elsa, I never saw you."

  She smiled.

  "I have to make a call. NOW," he said and stood up.

  "By all means," Elsa smiled, as he rushed from the cottage. With the agent out of her way she was free to finish her task. Tossing her smoke aside, she strode confidently into the mansion and on the second floor she pulled her garrote wire from her apron and closed Eickhart's office door.

  Patrick could still not get through to Sam's phone. He called Mrs. Lancashire's office and insisted on speaking to her immediately.

  Liam and Darwin called the mainland for assistance. Their boss was nowhere to be found. The place was overrun by suspicious characters and from what happened to Tommy they knew a virus might be loose on the rig. The crew decided to depart the platform as soon as help arrived. Nina and Sam also packed up. He met her in her room, "Hurry, Nina. This is a bus we don't want to miss."

  Johann Storhoi's enormous frame appeared in the doorway, "You are not allowed to leave until Mr. Purdue says so. Those are his orders."

  "Fuck his orders!" Sam snapped and leered at him. The Aryan simply laughed and closed the door. They could hear him locking them in.

  "God, no!" Nina screamed and slammed her fists against the door, but Sam pulled her into his arms, restraining her gently. He just held her as she cried, shaking from frustration and fear. They sank to the floor and he sat against the wall with Nina in his embrace. All he did was to keep comforting her with soft words of consolation and she could feel Sam kissing her head every now and then. If she was going to die, this was the way she was happy to go.

  Outside on the open sea two boats approached to collect the crew. Their respective captains came against their better judgment as the horizon darkened rapidly with black clouds, the thunder growling at the growing swells below. The mariners were perplexed and unsettled by the sudden storm, which arose from nowhere. Climatically the birth of the tempest was impossible and even beholding its very real presence was a foreboding omen.

  Liam looked everywhere for Nina and Sam, but he had no time to spare as the waves around the oil rig began to crest the edges of the platform. His Tiamat had risen again and he was not going to risk his life for Purdue's historian and her journalist. With a heavy heart and a feeling of cowardice Liam boarded the boat with Darwin, who assured him they were probably on the other boat already.

  Inside the lab, the chest that held the Spear for decades, suddenly shattered into three pieces, the sacred
wood catching fire and the shooting splinters turned to embers in flight. Tommy had begun to deteriorate rapidly, bleeding from every orifice and left paralyzed to movement, while his pain receptors still functioned perfectly. He screamed curses at the staff members, who flocked quickly toward the exit, having no idea that the elevator shaft had already been flooded.

  The members of the order noticed a hellish rumble and their attention was diverted from the relic to seek the origin of the sound. Water began to trickle through the steadfast crevices, drenching the flags of the swastika and those tapestries beneath it. Under the water a crack of geological shifts pulsed through the deep sea as the furious ocean thrust its power onto the failing columns of Deep Sea One. Thunder seemed to surround them and at once the Hammer of Thor fell from the wall, evoking screams and shudders from the members. Purdue grabbed the Spear and looked toward the trapdoor, which led to a subterranean docking bay for his personal minisub, in case of emergency.

  Along the stone walls, cracks formed vertically, creeping along the folds and decorations. A fracture appeared across the floor, splitting the black marble insignia in two. The attendants of the meeting rushed for the exit to the elevator, possessed by panic. Purdue opened the trapdoor and shut it behind him while the muffled cries of his guests still permeated through the hinges of the door.

  Outside the pilots fired up their helicopters as the ocean started rising higher and higher, threatening to wipe them from the platform. The sea spray clattered against the bodies of the machines as they lifted, some crashing into one another from locking rotors. Thunder bellowed through the diabolical skies and shook the platform surface. Occasionally the lightning would spark against the electrical cables of the drills.

  With such fury the wind pulled the roofs off some of the buildings, sending flying shards of steel and iron into the bodies of pilots who had not been able to lift off. Their helicopters slid from the tilting platform, the rain impairing their vision as the mouth of Poseidon opened up to receive them.