The Medusa Stone

Chapter 33

Fortunately for Nina, Donovan and Costa, the rain persisted in Poland. They had spent a few hours scrutinizing the architectural plans of the historical site of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. As it was now a memorial site and museum, there was no way in which they would ever have been granted permits to investigate Block 11 for a mythological relic. They had to resort to illegal procedures once more to save lives.

Now and then the clouds would empty over the town, concealing any sound and most movement the three made as they gained access through a hidden tunnel pin-pointed on the blueprint. Supposedly, the tunnel was once a drainage chute that ran from the torture rooms of Block 11 to dispose of body waste after interrogations. And there was no doubt about that by the smell of the place.

“Jesus! I never thought I would hold my breath this long without being drowned by a fat lass sitting on my shoulders at a pool party,” Don grunted as they crawled through the filthy cement pipe. It was narrow enough to hug a big man like Don just short of a claustrophobic fit, but he soldiered on behind Nina and Costa. They wore black overalls, unfortunately, made of fabric, since waterproof protective clothing rustled with movement.

“There, ahead, to the left, Nina,” Costa whispered as they came to the last bend in the subsystem under Block 11.

“Thank God for that!” Don whined. “This, people, is why we mercifully do not remember our births.”

Nina giggled up front, just before she used the pen-sized laser Purdue gave her to cut through any obstacles in their way. The device made no sound and reflective minimal light. Her rubber gloves gripped the drain cover tightly while the beam melted the old iron to sever it from the bolts in the cement. When she was done, they crept through into a dark corridor between Room 4 and one of the gas chambers.

“My overactive imagination is telling my lungs that there is Zyklon-B everywhere in the atmosphere,” Nina whispered.

“Me too,” Costa said. “Only in my case, it feels like I cannot breathe like something heavy is on my chest.”

“I bet if we did not know where we were none of that would have occurred,” Nina smiled. “It is all psychosomatic.”

“I’m just unsettled by the paranormal aspect, myself,” Don chipped in, his eyes reluctant to look too far into the dark green corridor through his night vision goggles.

Nina slapped him playfully. “Okay, guys, we have to get to the main gas room, from there, Don check if there are any discrepancies in the construction of the room.”

“What do you use that instrument again?” Costa asked again in amusement.

Proudly, Don obliged by saying the suggestive name in a German accent for the umpteenth time.

“Zis is my penetrator.”

“Oh God,” Nina rolled her eyes. “Grow up, you two.”

She wanted to smile, but not only were they pressed for time, but they were in a building where atrocious things had been inflicted on innocent people and jesting about a ground-penetrating radar instrument was just disrespectful. “Come on. Prof. Barry and her assistant’s lives are in our hands. Let’s not fail them.”

They proceeded in the pitch dark toward the location of the main gas chamber. Behind them in the dark, they heard a scuffling.

“Did you hear that?” Nina whispered, grabbing onto Costa’s arm. “Like boots on gravel.”

“I am not happy about this,” Don said under his breath. “Listen, you guys go ahead so long. Whatever it is, I’ll hold it off. Just hurry so we can get out of here.”

“But we need you to use the radar device inside…” Nina started, but she instantly kept quiet when two pairs of footsteps approached them.

“Fuck this, I’m moving on,” she whispered in panic. Don and Costa stood listening a second longer, hearing the phantom footsteps of heavy soldiers’ boots coming toward them. But they could see nothing on their night vision. The walking cadence hastened, gradually until they could hear the boots fall heavier and faster, clearly running towards them.

“Oh my God! Run!” Costa rasped. They took off, bolting in terror. Both raced in the opposite direction from the approaching soldiers, catching up to Nina, who had just reached the gas chamber they had been looking for.

“Jesus Christ! Hurry, get inside!” Don cried out loud. His voice echoed along the hallway as all three of them stumbled into the large sinister room with its grotesque atmosphere and froze with their backs up against the wall. Dead quiet, they waited against the barren grey walls where the scratches of the dying told their final story.

There was no sound whatsoever. The running had ceased completely, not even down to a trot — just gone. Costa was the first to dare peek around the entrance to determine their status. The other two held their breath as well as they could, considering their hearts were about to burst from fear-induced adrenaline.

“Clear,” Costa whispered.

“How sure are you?” Don asked while Nina wheezed audibly. “There is no way they could just not be there anymore. You heard them. There are only two flanking walls, man. There is nowhere they can hide.”

Costa shrugged, “Unless they are not actual soldiers.”

Nina shivered at the suggestion while Don went off on a tangent, bitching at Costa for bringing up ghosts while they were in the dark bowels of a concentration camp.

“Come on, let’s survey the floor first,” Nina urged. Although she sounded in control, she really only pushed them to get to the task so that she did not have to let her own imagination get the better of her.

The dank old chamber was huge, stretching over several divisions.

“Just remember, the Soviet Union reconstructed the original Krema I chamber,” Nina whispered. “That means that not everywhere we tread will be the original rooms.”

“Great,” Don remarked. “Just to make it more difficult they had to turn the bloody place into a Rubik’s Cube?”

“Try here,” Costa pointed to a place on the floor of the oven room where there was significant discoloration over a precise square area near the wall.

Don used the ground penetrating instrument, scanning the floor where Costa pointed out.

“No fucking way! Zorba, you genius!” Don shouted in an excited whisper as the screen yielded unmistakable images of a deep cavernous area under the first few meters of the floor.

“What did you find?” Nina asked.

“Look on the screen. This instrument uses radar to indicate fluctuations in the substructure. What does that look like to you, love?” Don asked her. Nina was astonished.

She gasped, “A flight of stairs!”

From the other chamber, the haunting footfalls started once more, pacing irregularly. Nina’s chest heaved as she realized that the sound of the boots were closer than before. She sank to her haunches and proceeded to utilize her laser cutter to burn hard into the concrete above the staircase.

“Hurry! Hurry!” the men pressed frantically. “Can’t you set it to a stronger beam?”

“This is the top setting, guys,” she hissed in frustration as the first side was cut halfway through the concrete.

“Listen!” Costa said.

In the next room, the boots were now accompanied by whispers.

“No ghosts?” Don asked.

Costa shook his head. “No, but they might turn us into ghosts soon.”

“Oh Christ, I cannot do this any faster!” Nina sneered, sweat trickling down her temple and cheek as she completed the second of three incisions.

“They are coming!” Don groaned. “Fuck that, I’ll deal with them. You guys get down there and find the stone. I’ll meet you at the minivan at dawn. Later than that, take off and get the stone to Dave.”

With that, he rounded the broken wall of the oven room and started a fight. Costa lunged to follow, but Nina grabbed him by his suit and pulled him back. “Please stay with me! Please! I cannot do this by myself.”

The third border was cut, leaving a roughly cut square in the floor.

“The laser did not cut right through,” he said.

They could hear a mighty altercation where Don was. Costa abandoned his efforts to do things quietly. With a hefty kick, he brought his foot down in the one corner where two incisions met, breaking the already sliced cement and forcing the thinner layer beneath it to fail under the pressure.

A shot rang out from the hallway, but Nina could not ascertain whether Don was dead or alive. Only gunshots and shouting ensued. Nina knew that museum security would not open fire like that.

“Hurry, Costa! We have unauthorized company, if you know what I mean!” she growled as she stomped her boots down on the other unbroken parts to speed things along. The floor caved in with a terrible rumbling, but in the cacophony of the firefight, the collapse went unnoticed.

Costa helped Nina into the hole and took her hand once they were under the floor. They could hear the heavy footfalls of the men in the chamber scuffle. As the shooting stopped, Nina and Costa could hear the footsteps running toward the outside of the building.

“That must be what we heard,” he told her. “The footsteps chasing us were a floor above us. That is why we couldn’t see them. Just like now. There they go, but it sounds like they are right here.”

“I just hope Don is alright. I hope those bullets fired were his, Costa” she said softly.

Costa comforted her, running his hand over her tied back hair. He pulled her against him and continuously stroked her crown a few times before he pulled the black scrunchy from her hair.

“What are you doi…?”

Costa pressed his lips on hers, snuffing her words in a deep kiss. Nina could not believe what was happening, but she had wanted it for so long that she abandoned all responsibility.

‘Sam’

In the pitch darkness, she allowed Costa to ravage her, her passionate moans contained by the hidden hall under the ground of the killing floor.