The Medusa Stone

Chapter 30

Purdue could not shake the feeling that his efforts would fail, as optimistic a person as he was. He was up against the insidious Black Sun once more and he knew the measures these people would go. Too many times had he seen the reach of their influence and the perils of crossing them. When Helen Barry sheltered him a few years ago, he urged her not to get involved in any way, no matter how she asked about the kind of organization it was. Now he was hoping she had at least taken the liberty to have researched them to sate her curiosity so that she would know that they were not to be challenged.

On the other hand Purdue hoped that she really was still alive. There was no indication during the phone call that she had not been disposed of yet, so he was concerned about that too. Leaving Nina behind also did not sit well with him, especially on his expedition into such a dangerous situation, never mind the fact that the relic had all the while been a desire of the Order of the Black Sun. Of this he never had any knowledge.

As he boarded the jet he had hired in Prague, he could not stop entertaining a myriad of horrid scenarios, but he had to return to the British Museum to find some hint of where Helen was taken. Knowing her, she would have left at least some clue, he hoped. As the jet took off, he devised a plan to elicit the help of someone he could trust completely. He left behind another person he could trust completely, Dr. Don Graham, who would no doubt protect his beloved Nina at any cost.

He opened his tablet screen with a sweep of his thumb, the almost holographic substance of the details on the device appearing rapidly as he paged. A few minutes later, he made another call ahead to Baden in Aargau and London to arrange for the necessary release forms and transportation. Then he called Don to make sure the three remaining members of the project were on their way to Krakow to pick up the less than legal blue prints of the concentration camp from a cousin of a friend of Alex, or whatever order these ruffians arranged their clandestine doings.

His call to Baden in Aargau was swift and positive before he asked a staff member at the British Museum to pick him up from Heathrow via shuttle. Purdue sat back and had two neat Scotches to calm his nerves, but had no more so that his senses and deductive reasoning would remain sharp. Inside, he felt sick and depressed. Being back in the claws of the Black Sun meant that he never really shook them after he and Sam Cleave almost destroyed a third of their members in Venice a few years ago.

But he had to deal with them. He had to get Helen Barry back, even just as a matter of principal. She had after all protected him when he was in dire trouble. Her assistant he was not sure of. They had no reason to keep the young woman alive if they were serious enough to make away with an influential and powerful individual like Soula Fidikos. Claire would be of no use to them, he reckoned.

Or would she?

The notion unsettled Purdue. Many times before he had been blindsided by innocent looking women who were puppets steered by the Black Sun. Heidmann’s disappearance bothered Purdue as well.

‘He was the one man who knew about the finer details of the stone, who was to say that he was not aware of the other two stones as well?’ Purdue thought. ‘Then again, the fact that Costa knew Soula and that Heidmann and the Greek could not stand one another… I can only speculate.’

It all made Purdue realize that there were literally a handful of people in this world he could rely on not betray him or try to kill him. Still, that did not mean that Heidmann or Claire were necessarily bad people. Perhaps they were just desperate — and expendable.

“Mr. Purdue, we will be landing in approximately 10 minutes,” the private flight attendant told him. “Is there anything else you need?”

“No, thank you. Just get me to the ground as soon as possible,” he smiled, effectively hiding the immense worry he carried.

When he arrived at the British Museum he was met by the head of security, a big tough Scouse called Duncan that Purdue knew well.

“Welcome back, boss,” Duncan said. “Although, I wish I'd be seeing you under better circumstances.”

“I know, Duncan. How have you been, sir?” Purdue asked cordially, shaking the man’s hand while tapping his back with the other.

“Oh, with the coppers finally gone, like, they say there is not much leads to go on. They did take the ladies to their lockers though, for what I don’t know,” the strappy veteran informed Purdue as they walked to the office of Prof. Helen Barry. “But the bastards took the security footage from the earthquake too, boss.”

“Why would they do that? Just that one day’s reel?” Purdue asked. Duncan nodded in affirmation. Then it hit Purdue. The day of the earthquake was the day the remaining intact security camera in the exhibition hall captured the remnants of the broken statue. It was proof that the stone statue had been a human being.

‘Oh, of course,’ he pondered. ‘They would not want the world to see what they already know.’

When they entered the cordoned-off section of the administration section, Duncan stepped aside for Purdue to enter.

“Go on, boss,” he said. “I’ll wait here outside, like, just to make sure nobody comes bothering, alright?”

“Very well, Duncan. Thanks,” Purdue nodded and closed the door behind him. Contrary to what he thought would greet him, the office was virtually unmarked. Nothing was out of place, save for a small loose mat Helen had under her desk to warm her feet when she worked late capturing new inventory. The curator loathed her designer shoes and loved walking on her socks or bare feet, he recalled. But from what Purdue noticed, the mat had been rumpled from the wrong side. It had been disturbed from the inside under the desk, instead of the outside where her chair would have stood on the frayed edge.

Frowning at the oddity Purdue kneeled to see what was muddling up the little blue rug. Lifting his tablet to provide adequate light from its internal LED assembly he only found a crow’s nest of wiring, pulled violently from the wall.

“Why would she pull out the wall fixtures?” he asked out loud, inching deeper in under the desk to examine the origin of the various cables. There was nothing significant about any of the electrical points that would pertain to security, yet he knew that Helen would never do something like this for any reason. Eventually, having found no correlation between the damage and Helen’s way of thinking he retreated slowly on his elbows and knees. Minding his head as he drew back, his LED light caught something messy and prominent etched in the right wooden panel of the desk.

There it was, roughly scratched, yet very clear. He instantly recognized the symbol of the Order of the Black Sun, but instead of being construed as a helpful hint, it was unfortunately already known fact.

“Oh, Helen,” Purdue remarked softly, “you are too right, my dearest. But I already know who took you.” He sighed, “If you could only have left me a note on where they took you, on the other hand.” But Helen did not know where she was going to be taken. So both of them were left separated from the other.

“Duncan,” Purdue called.

“Yeah boss,” Duncan said from a crack in the door.

“Could you come in here quickly, please?” the confounded benefactor asked him.

“Sure, sure, Mr. Purdue,” Duncan said. He came in and closed the door behind him, looking eager to help with his hands on his sides and a reddened face glowing with zealous attention. “How can I help?”

“Tell me, were you here when they were taken?” Purdue asked.

“No, boss. It was McGinty, my alternate. He was on duty, then, but there was no indication that the ladies were leaving all against their will, like. But he is here today,” he reported. “You want me to get him?”

“Please, Duncan. It would help a lot,” Purdue implored. “I’ll wait here.”

A few minutes later both men returned to the office. Duncan closed the door and leaned against it while McGinty exchanged pleasantries with Purdue.

“McGinty, do you have any recorded footage of the men leaving with Claire and Prof. Barry three days ago?” Purdue asked.

McGinty looked at Duncan, reluctant to answer. Duncan urged him on, nodding to assure his colleague that Mr. Purdue could be trusted. “This man pays your salary, so to speak,” Duncan told his colleague. “If he needs help, like, we are going to give it to him. You know full well the police have no freakin’ idea where to start.”

“Ayah!” McGinty agreed. “That is for certain. Mr. Purdue, the police pulled all that data off the security recordings, sir. The servers have no files form any time before yesterday anymore.

Purdue grinned like a kingpin criminal, wringing his hands together. It provoked a curious smile from Duncan who had always admired the well-known explorer and inventor’s penchant for rule breaking to serve justice. “What you thinking, boss?” he smiled with his massive forearms folded over his chest.

“Can you get me into the control room server station?” Purdue asked. “There will be backed up files, data equivalent to the exact footage the police annexed.

“Of course, I can, Mr. Purdue!” McGinty boasted. “I can get you in anywhere. Just out of interest, what if you don’t recognize the men?”

“That does not matter, McGinty,” Purdue reassured him. “I just need to see which code they used to gain access to the administration wing. If they are not employees, they must have used the access code of whomever helped them.”

“Geezuss, the man really is a genius, eh? Eh, Duncan?” McGinty marveled, slapping his colleague’s upper arm with the back of his hand.

“Aye, we know that,” Duncan laughed. “I’ll watch the perimeter while you get the boss into the computer room.”

“Alright, Mr. Purdue,” McGinty gestured forward, “this way.”

With the help of the two private security experts Purdue found himself sitting in front of the server where the security data was stored, on and offline. Briskly he expanded his tablet into its A4 size and placed it on the desk next to him. Dislodging a small catch tucked in the side of the device, he extracted a built in USB-type connector on a cable already connected to the internal storage chip of the tablet. Narrowing his eyes to determine the opposing port of the particular drive, Purdue slipped the connector in and activated his retrieval program on the tablet.

Soon the load bar appeared in translucent blue on the transparent screen, and Purdue proceeded to punch in the time stamps, from the morning of that Friday to the last shift change last night. As he waited for the data transfer to complete Purdue realized for the first time how fatigued he was. All the excitement of decrypting the mystery of the Nazi officer’s writings to the adrenaline fueled worry for the welfare of his old friend Helen Barry, had him neglecting any thought of sleep.

In fact, he only now came to realize just how exhausted he was. In essence, he had not slept a wink since he woke up to ready the group for the trip to Markvartovice! Even he was amazed at the lack of sleep he had managed to suppress thus far in order to keep things steady.

“Some tea, boss?” Duncan asked in the hum of the machines, holding up two mugs.

“Aye, thank you, Duncan,” Purdue smiled, feeling considerably less lonely. “You are a godsend!”