The Medusa Stone

Chapter 22

Behind Nina, the doorway grew smaller as she followed Heidmann into the sunken chamber. Beside her was Costa, holding his flat hand just behind her back in a gesture of protective care and also to make sure she did not lose her nerve and run back, which was what he feared most. Purdue made it clear that Nina had to complete her task as best she could because the entire expedition relied on the information gathered about Medusa and the strange collection of ancient effigies.

She looked at Costa with apprehension, but his handsome face and tender eyes quickly spurred her on. Nina felt safe with him; almost invincible.

“Nina, here is where I found ‘Son of Zyklon-B’, but unnamed at the time. Note these,” he whispered, pointing out the more dilapidated specimens just three rows behind the marked pieces, “are all named. Their clothing is still on them because the transformation only affects living tissue. Look, some of them have uniforms with name tags on them. Those we can identify.”

“Aye, that must be the older ones, not the World War II victims. Give me that torch, please,” Nina requested from Costa, who promptly crouched down beside her to study the faint markings on some and then proceeded to the military looking statues.

He ran his fingertips gently down the fabric of the statue’s pants, hardened by mold and age. “This is just less than a century old, yes. But what baffled me is this,” Costa whispered.

“What?” Heidmann asked with intrigue.

“These motifs on the collar are from the Second Century Movement in Greece, which is very odd for a German soldier to have. It is as if the two worlds fused somewhere,” the art professor noted.

Nina went from one to the other, all of them in different stances and expressions as if they were either caught off guard or they were trying to escape whatever confronted them. The effigies were not lined up as she expected, like the stone army in rows she imagined, but scattered and mixed up in age and era, making it exceedingly difficult for her to determine where the Nazi ones specifically would be.

“Over here, Nina,” Heidmann called in a whisper and motioned for her to come to the back near the one side wall. There stood in the corner what appeared to be an SS officer, his dusty uniform eaten by insects and tattered at the seams. His face looked unassuming as if he expected what was coming or maybe just did not care. The man had his fists clenched by his side as if he was standing attention and his sleeves were a tad too long, covering most of his hand just past the wrist.

“Look at him, so at peace. I mean, he almost looks proud,” she remarked as she studied him up close. “You guys look for more Nazi pieces, please?”

The two experts complied with her request, separating to cover more ground. In total, there were no more than 70 statues, again countering Nina’s expected army of hundreds. With morbid curiosity, she reached out to touch the soldier’s left hand, hoping that it would not affect her own skin. Between his contracted fingers and his palm, she felt something inconsistent with the texture of his hand. At first, Nina quickly recoiled at the alien sensation, but on closer inspection, she found that it was the remnants of paper sticking out on both sides of his fisted hand.

“What have we here?” she whispered in fascination.

A scuffling ensued near the door, and Don’s rasping voice warned, “They are coming in! Nina! James! Zorba! Can you hear me? The guards are coming! We’re taking shelter. Stay put!”

Costa gestured a thumbs up to Don as he and Purdue promptly disappeared from the doorway, closing it gently as not to be detected.

“Oh my God, I hope they don’t come in here,” Nina heard Heidmann panic.

“They won’t. They are here every night,” Costa argued, hoping to God he was right.

Nina quickly used her torch to obliterate the soldier’s hand with a loud crack to retrieve the paper.

“Nina! Jesus!” Heidmann grunted from his hiding place inside an old unused furnace nearby. Costa swooped down on Nina and grabbed her small body with ease in one movement to abduct her with him to his refuge. They rapidly scuttled into one of the large wooden crates used to ship the statues and Costa wrapped Nina up, using his body as a shell over hers.

The door cracked open violently, and several voices spoke softly, some orders uttered and some speculating. Footsteps spread out among the stone people, some passing right next to where Nina and Costa were concealed. The dust from their scuffling on the sandy concrete was overwhelming, and Costa had to pinch his nose not to sneeze. Nina was shivering with terror, knowing the dreadful fate she would suffer is they were discovered. In her mind, she already imagined what she would look like, standing in her own stone casing, a woeful tomb that would play testament to who she was for others to discover one day. Her dead eyes would be blind, staring out to the onlookers in some museum where she would be on display. The thought horrified her beyond reason. Instead, she spent the time absorbing Costa’s protective presence. She had to concede that being his prisoner was a deep pleasure she had denied given the situation, but now she had to use it to distract her from her other nightmarish thoughts.

Briefly, she wondered where Purdue was hiding, but soon the scent of Costa’s exotic skin bewitched her — an odor of shampoo and leather with a hint of musk. Her eyes closed inadvertently so that she could savor the sensation of his hands over her forearms and his powerful physique against her back and buttocks. Nina could not believe that amidst the tense anticipation of certain death upon discovery, she could be so aroused.

The boots stopped right in front of their crate and lingered. Both Costa and Nina held their breath, just waiting for that sudden violent exposure. Costa’s heart pounded hard against her back as his fingertips shifted nervously on her skin, his breath hardly stirring her hair as he held his breath as best he could.

In what sounded like Ukrainian or Russian, the guard by the crate said something.

‘Fuck, he sounds so close!’ she thought. ‘It is like he is right here with us. I wonder what he just said. Did he just tell the others that there is someone in the crate? Oh God, please don’t let that be what he said!’

Only the stormy gale that rattled the roof sheets of the structure made noise. There was dead silence otherwise, leaving Purdue’s entire team baffled and scared in their respective hiding places. Nobody had any idea what the guards were doing or saying. Had they been discovered? Were they being stalked, each hider by his own seeker? Nina tensed up and felt Costa’s arms pull her closer.

His warm breath slowly permeated through her hair onto her scalp. The sensation made her flesh crawl, and she moved her head for his mouth to find her cheek instead. Again, two of the men exchanged words, but in clear voices this time. Costa’s lips fell soundlessly on Nina’s skin in what she construed as a loose kiss. Her heart jumped, and she ached to utter a whimper at the sensual surge that possessed her, but she held her breath. Besides, she was not even certain it was a kiss. For all she knew, he could have just pressed his mouth against her face.

They heard the men engaged in normal conversation and by the sound of their fading voices they were leaving the hall. In mute anticipation, Heidmann, Nina, and Costa waited to hear the door. A moment later, they heard the lock click shut, and the voices trailed away on the other side.

“Thank God,” Nina sighed quietly in the confines of the crate. Costa said nothing and did not move as Nina tried to get out. He held her tightly. “Costa, what the fuck?”

She looked back at him. The attractive art professor just grinned, restraining her every time she tried to get out. Nina started giggling at his playful capture.

“Hey, we have work to do, before those apes come back again,” she reminded him.

With a boyish sigh, he relented. “You are no fun, Dr. Gould,” he smiled.

“I am. I just don’t want to end up as a fucking doorstopper,” she muttered as she got out and dusted herself off. She heard Heidmann open the door of his hiding place too, while Costa followed her out of the crate, fumbling at his clothing.

Nina looked up to Heidmann, whose face was distorted in horror. He stood frozen in place, looking towards the door at something behind Nina and Costa. Both spun around to see a single guard still standing there, his gun firmly pointed at Nina.

“You move, I kill the bitch,” he said in a thick accent with steely eyes on the petite historian. Nina felt her body grow numb. She dared not reach for Costa’s hand for fear of the hair trigger zeal of the Russian. The guard shouted loudly for his colleagues over the rumbling thunder and wailing wind. Their heavy boots approached the door, and the latch opened. A tear ran down Nina’s cheek.

In the door, stood three massive mercenaries, smiling at the three intruders.

“Oh God,” Heidmann could be heard on the far side of the room.

“You are dumber than we thought,” the leader laughed, boasting about leaving one man behind to trick the three prowlers into thinking them gone. “Oldest trick.” He stepped inside but did not approach yet. “When I was a little child we played the game… what you call it? Hide and go seek? Eh?”

“Wow, what a genius move for a professional soldier to pull,” Costa remarked.

“Shut up!” the man roared, his pale blue eyes flaring with rage.

His last word still echoed in the hall when his face exploded in a crimson mess of bone fragments and brain matter. Splattering brains everywhere, the man’s body fell to its knees and collapsed onto the dirt with a thump. Nina screamed in horror and sank to her haunches as another guard’s neck split open from the precision shooting of Dr. Donovan Graham that cleaved the guards from behind. Purdue came through the falling bodies, dodging bullets to grab Nina and pull her to safety.

Clasped under his arm, he held an M16 assault rifle. Nina could not believe her eyes.

“Purdue?” she gasped in the hail of gunfire and the crack of thunder. “Where did you get that?”

“No time now, love,” he replied in a serious tone. “Come quickly! Come with me!”

They ducked under the external piping along the wall to find another exit through to the smaller main hall. With the gunfire in the background, she could hear the hard rain on the corrugated iron roof of the high structure as they cowered towards the door.

Nina glanced back to see if Costa and Heidmann had emerged as well, but all she could see was the muzzle flare lighting up Don’s wince each time he pulled the trigger. Outside the rain was coming down hard, making it difficult to navigate the challenging and unknown terrain.

“Watch out for potholes, Nina!” Purdue shouted through the loud clatter of bullets and raindrops. The icy rain almost instantly drenched Nina’s hair and clothing, and her combat boots felt like anvils on her feet as she raced toward the fence. With some unintended, but well-placed moves, she and Purdue made it through the treacherous rusty thorns of the fence and made for the lone van.

“Get in!” he shouted.

“But what about the others?” she asked.

“Don will take care of them. Just get in the van!” Purdue insisted.

Spinning the wheels on the soft mud, Purdue threw the van into second gear a few meters into their escape, leaving the war in their trail. Nina wept in shock, putting her hand in her pocket where she had stashed the piece of paper she retrieved from the proud Nazi statue.