by K. T. Tomb
You could put a football stadium in here! she thought.
Peter whistled under his breath. The area was enormous. Phoe stepped onto the marble floor, relieved to be free of a sandy surface. Jonathan and Peter followed. By her count, roughly forty men and women dressed in professional overalls appeared to be studying and working on the walls. They all wore the same brotherhood pendant.
In many ways, it looked like an archeological dig, yet different, too. Some of the workers were trying to dig through the rock with some type of handheld laser, while others continued to take measurements. As the trio walked toward the middle of the cavern, they wore looks of amazement at the detailed painting of Thor battling the Midgard Serpent that had been mostly uncovered by eons of debris. Thor was dressed in fur and donning a metal helmet similar to the Vikings. His right hand was pulled back, ready to smash his foe. The gigantic serpent had its mouth open, ready to strike. The painting looked to be perfectly preserved and in full color, though age cracks were evident.
None of the workers paid the intruders any mind. Phoe’s eyes darted from person to person, looking for Jeremy. No sign of the bastard.
Peter motioned for them to get a closer look at the painting. The group’s awed reaction intensified the closer they came to the exceptional masterpiece.
“Who would’ve thought the brutish Vikes could create something like this?” said Peter in a tone of admiration.
Their first steps onto the scaffolding were ignored, so they climbed up on the one closest to the depiction of Thor’s Hammer ready to be smacked down on the serpent. The painting of the Hammer was about seven feet long. Phoe ran her hands along the rock reverently. Then she noticed something that made her mouth drop.
“What is it, Phoe?” asked Peter.
Phoe started to tell him, but was distracted by a commotion coming from the corridor entrance. Jeremy Riddick stormed into the cavern, drawing the attention of several workers. He angrily pointed to the trio who were, at that moment, thirty feet above the ground.
She looked down from the scaffold and saw two of the men in overalls arguing with Jeremy Riddick. Jeremy angrily looked up and pointed at Phoe again.
She grabbed Jonathan to get his attention. “I need you to run interference for us!”
“What? How? What do you want me to do?” He anxiously looked to where Jeremy continued to point at them. The previously uninterested workers had gained a sudden interest.
“There’s an unoccupied dig area across the way,” she said. “Climb down and run over there. Start yelling in German that you’ve found something big.”
“What am I supposed to say I found?”
“I don’t know. Maybe something about how to use the Hammer?” It sounded plausible... to her.
Jonathan shook his head, doubting that he could pull it off, but quickly climbed down anyway. He managed to avoid the growing crowd on its way toward the scaffolding. Meanwhile, Jeremy continued pointing at Phoe and Peter, and then yelled some sort of accusation in German.
“Hang onto something, Peter. And I do mean tightly.”
Jonathan looked back to Phoe and Peter, and then yelled, “Alle! Ich habe den Schlüssel gefunden hier!”
Everyone in the room stopped to look in Jonathan’s direction. He pointed wildly to the dig site and smiled like he’d just won the lottery. Nearly everyone cheered and ran toward him. Everyone not named Jeremy Riddick.
“Nein! Nein, sie Trottel!” he shouted in a rage.
But he had lost his posse. He moved stealthily toward Phoe and Peter alone.
“Phoe, whatever you’re going to do, it better be now!” Peter warned, seeing the burgeoning malice in their fast approaching adversary below.
Ignoring Peter’s urges, she turned her attention back to the painting. She noticed that the painting of the Hammer bore the same notches that the stone hammer had in the statue of Thor. She pressed both of her hands on the third notch from the bottom as Jeremy reached the bottom of the scaffold.
Peter became frantic. “Hurry up, Phoe—he’s almost here!”
She continued to press her hands upon the third notch on the painting, moving her hands around the perimeter of the notch.
Jeremy began knocking down the scaffold as an excited crowd gathered across the way around a nervous-looking Jonathan.
“Peter! Grab the gun in my fanny pack!” Phoe advised.
He wasted little time in retrieving the weapon, cocking and pointing it toward Jeremy, who looked up and smiled, but paused his ascent.
Phoe used the brief reprieve to keep digging in the notch. Her fingers grazed something small in the notch, and when she grasped it again it felt like a tiny pin. Using her nails to pull it out, she soon determined it was a switch of some kind, made of iron. Relying on her gut instinct, she pulled it. The wall began to shake.
The wall’s shake worsened and Phoe realized she had might have just made a terrible mistake. This is it! I screwed it all up, big time! she thought, and then turned to face Peter, who looked bewildered. “I’m sorry.”
He mouthed ‘it’s okay,’ and turned to watch the wall disintegrate everywhere, except upon the painted Thor. Huge chunks fall from the wall, crushing the workers below, who fled in panic. A perfect three-dimensional figure of Thor remained. Whoever designed the switch also made sure that whatever person triggered the switch would be safe from the falling wall.
But Phoe’s biggest concern was for Jonathan, who couldn’t locate a place to dodge for cover in the crowd of workers he had lured to him only moments before. A large piece of the wall crashed and rolled toward Jonathan, beyond Phoe’s view. She screamed and prepared to dive off the scaffold. Only Peter’s strong grasp kept her from serious injury, and perhaps, death.
She closed her eyes and wept, unable to keep from picturing Jonathan ending up like her beloved brother many years before. She had never forgiven herself for the accident...
“Oh, my God—I killed him!” she cried, collapsing into tears upon the scaffold.
Peter wrapped his arms around her while looking toward the floor below. He didn’t see any sign of Jeremy. Just dust clouds and rubble, which was the case everywhere. There was no sign of life from anyone at all.
Chapter Thirty-two
Phoe screamed as Peter looked over at her from the stone table where he had been tied down.
Jonathan angrily tried to break his bonds from the stone table where he was held. Phoe’s head was covered with a pair of protective goggles which had been electronically modified. There were wires coming out of them and plugged into a television monitor facing the tables. Everything Phoe had just experienced in her mind had been seen by everyone else. Jeremy stood close by with an older man in a lab coat. One of the pendants hung around his neck.
Phoe sobbed as Jeremy took the goggles off of her. Her eyes remained closed.
“What have you done to her? To us?” Peter demanded.
Jeremy grinned knowingly. “It appears you’ve all underestimated me. You have no idea what my inventions are capable of. There are several governments of the world, including America, waiting in line for just a little taste of them. I have made much more money as a free agent than working as a slave for some corporation or government, so I won’t sell myself out! Your employer is a fool for thinking that my interests are limited to the Hammer of Thor. There is so much more money to be made in altered states of reality!”
Peter fought in vain to free himself from the bonds. “What kind of reality did we see in that video? One of your warped and limited imaginary landscapes?”
Jeremy stepped closer to Peter’s table. “What you saw was her subconscious assumption of how the next events in this story would unfold. It is what she believes will happen. This is not even close, of course. There is no big painting on a rock wall of Thor fighting the Midgard Serpent.”
Peter looked confused. “What good will it do to see something fictional going on in her mind? She hasn’t been down here before.”
“I kno
w. Certain knowledge that she keeps to herself is revealed as the drama plays out. She believes that the third notch will again come into play.”
“With this kind of technology, you could help people, instead of acting like a prick,” Peter chided.
“That would be true... if only I had a desire to help people. I choose to use my gifts for my own purposes. Money is always the best motivator to listen to, don’t you think?”
“So, Jeremy... all you care about is starting a new Nazi movement? That’s original!”
Jeremy laughed. “Have you not been listening to anything I have said, Peter? Money is my motivator! The Brotherhood is paying me top dollar to help them find the secret hideout of the Brotherhood of old.”
“How much?” said Phoe, opening her eyes and glaring at Jeremy. “How much are they paying you?”
Jeremy appeared to not know whether to laugh or take her question seriously. “Don’t try to play me, woman!”
“I’m not. Smile and get the old guy out of the room so we can talk. We can’t jump you because we’re tied down.”
Jeremy nodded inquisitively and shooed the older man out of the room.
Phoe made a feeble effort to look around the room. “Are you recording our conversation?”
“No, and there’s no need for me to lie to you.”
“I’m going to ask you one more time, Riddick. How much is the Brotherhood paying you?”
“Not that it is any concern of yours, but they are paying me ten million Euros.”
Phoe snickered. “Bullshit money! Get me to some kind of communication device and I’ll let you know why I ask. I know our cell phones are worthless down here.”
Jeremy laughed nervously. “You just want to get revenge on me for invading your mind! It’s a trick!”
“Then let me prove you wrong.”
Chapter Thirty-three
Jeremy put down the microphone on the radio that he used for situations just like the one he was in.
His face had turned pale. When he was a child growing up in North Dakota, he had never dreamed he would be in such high demand. Always a wiz with anything electronic, unfortunately, the other children called him a freak because he would take the most rudimentary objects and turn them into viable working electronic devices. One time, he rewired the school’s intercom system and with the addition of a pocket radio, he could transmit his own messages from anywhere within the radio’s broadcast distance. He could even be at home and perform his own school announcements whenever he felt the urge.
Now he was in high demand from countries that wished to utilize his genius.
He moved to his laptop with renewed excitement. He put in his secret account information for his Cayman Islands bank account. For a moment, he looked at his account in disbelief. His balance was $3,645,213. There was a deposit about a month ago from the Brotherhood for $3.5 million for his expertise. The balance had since been raised by almost $30 million. He placed his hands over his mouth and started to cry from happiness.
The green light blinked on and off on the radio. His distraction was short-lived as he reached for the microphone.
The voice on the other end had a firm tone to it. “Mr. Riddick, or whatever you call yourself, do you like your new account balance?”
“Yes. Yes, I do, very much.”
“Good. This is how this works. You will turn over any patents for the Taser and dream innovations that we talked about earlier. Agreed?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good. As of five minutes ago, you are now a full-fledged employee of Kessler Industries Incorporated, for the term of one full year. You are not allowed to take a better offer, or betray my trust in any other shape or form. And, you may not purposely attack or hinder any employees of Kessler Industries, Incorporated. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“At the end of the year of your employment, I will have the sole option of continuing our arrangement at no less than what you have been paid already. Agreed?”
“Yes. Anything you want.”
“State your full name and that you agree to all of these conditions.”
“My name is Jeremy Riddick. I agree to all of the terms set by Simon Kessler.”
Both Peter’s and Jonathan’s eyes were locked onto Jeremy. Both wore shocked expressions. Phoe seemed to be fighting the urge to smile.
Peter turned his head to her. “How did you know Simon would go for it?”
“Because I found someone even greedier than Jeremy,” she replied. “Simon has everything to gain on this deal.”
Jeremy appeared happy and still in shock. “Do you need anything else, Mr. Kessler?”
“Just a few things that you won’t need to repeat. First, my reach is worldwide. If you decide to betray me or even slander me in a public forum, you will be erased as easily as one of your computer programs. Am I understood?”
Jeremy’s smile faded slightly. “Yes.”
“Smile at the three people you are holding captive.”
Jeremy smiled at Phoe, Peter, and Jonathan. Jonathan began to laugh. “Ms. Phoenix, you rock!”
“Okay. I smiled at them.”
“Good. Now that you are all working on the same side, I suggest you set them free. Also, you might want to keep watch for your former employers. I’m sure they won’t take kindly to you taking their money and running.”
“How do you know I will keep it?”
The sound of laughing could be clearly heard over the radio by all in attendance.
“Because that’s what I would do if I were in your position. Good day, Mr. Riddick. Make sure you don’t get yourself or my other employees killed.”
“I won’t, Mr. Kessler. I promise.”
“Words are easy to say. Prove it by your actions.”
Acting as if he feared that Kessler could somehow see him, Jeremy freed his prisoners. “We are on the same team now. But, we have a serious problem.”
Phoe rubbed her neck as she was released. “You mean the fact that we don’t have a map of these secret chambers and there’s a possibility that the Brotherhood never finished building their lair, so we might be trapped down here forever?”
Peter and Jonathan looked at her with curiosity while Jeremy appeared to ponder what she said.
“Okay,” he said. “I guess we now have two large problems.”
Chapter Thirty-four
Jeremy led the trio to the end of a small corridor, and then waved them to move along with him. Phoe walked directly behind him, followed by Jonathan and then Peter.
“Just how many of the Brotherhood are down here, Jeremy?” She asked, keeping her voice low. “Is Francis part of them, too?”
He didn’t answer right away. “Francis is dead. Not everything slithering around down here is imaginary.”
“He was killed by the serpent back there?” Jonathan pointed to where he thought they had come from earlier, in the hall of alcoves.
“Yes... but let’s move on, shall we? And to answer your first question, Phoe, thirty-one men and twenty-five women.”
“Great.”
The small corridor opened up into a large room, spanning roughly fifty feet by fifty feet. The Brotherhood’s symbols were engraved on one wall. Just beyond this room, and hidden from their direct view, was another. It sounded like a large crowd had gathered there.
“You better let me handle them,” Jeremy advised. “It’s safer, since they don’t know I’m no longer with them.”
“Take Jonathan,” Phoe suggested. “He speaks German fluently, too.”
Jonathan protested with a look, but seemed to take solace in Phoe’s mouthed, ‘Just trust me, damn it!’
As Jeremy and Jonathan left the room, Jeremy said something to Jonathan before grabbing Jonathan’s arm to drag him along. Phoe realized this was to further sell the notion that nothing had changed since the last time the Brotherhood had seen Jeremy.
In their absence, Phoe and Peter had a quiet look around. The ceiling seemed to be as
tall as the room was wide. Several small openings were spaced about a foot apart all around the room, and three bigger portals were lined in a row at the other end of the room. Each one had something written in German directly above it. The first one was Slutten, the second one was Sentrum, and the last was Begynnelsen.
A look of recognition hit Peter as he mouthed the words.
“Phoe. Those are Norwegian names. Here’s what they mean...”
Peter pushed past her and went out of the room, entering the potentially hostile Brotherhood crowd. She peered around the corner to watch him as he made a nonchalant approach toward Jeremy and Jonathan. Most of the men pulled out handguns and knives until Jeremy assured them that Peter was harmless.
Meanwhile, Peter subtly told him the ‘names in the room’ are an older form of Norwegian, and to come take a look. Jeremy feigned being upset, and pushed Peter and Jonathan back into the room, motioning to the others that he would be back after dealing with the distraction.
“Okay, we’re going to need to be quick about this, or the Brotherhood will kill us all without mercy,” Jeremy advised. “Why is Phoe standing by the portal with Begynnelsen written above it?”
“Peter told me this one means beginning,” said Phoe.
“As in ‘Three tasks’?”
She nodded. “What if we’re supposed to do them in the order they are in the Thor myth? Then again, what if something bad will happen if we take the first of Thor’s tasks in the order they happened?”
“Follow your gut, Phoe,” Peter advised. Both Jonathan and Jeremy nodded their agreement.
That’s what she did. She moved to the first portal to the left, and as she did, Peter noticed something smaller engraved around the doorway in Norwegian. “Repeat after me,” he told her. “Regardless of how it sounds. Okay?”
She nodded for him to continue.
“I know this to be the third Task set out for the God of Thunder, Thor.”
She repeated, “I know this to be the third Task set out for the God of Thunder, Thor.”
