Deep Sea One

Chapter 13

It was one of the most notorious myths of all time, the hunt for the Spear of Destiny, also called the Holy Lance. Purdue could not believe his fortune at finding a hidden guide to the possible location of the relic that had nations killing one another to possess its power. The very blade used to pierce the body of the dying Jesus during his crucifixion, blessed by the blood of Jesus himself and said to bestow unconquerable power on whoever owns it, was within Purdue's grasp. This would be a profound new level of renown for him. All these thoughts of what possibilities the attainment of this artifact would amass left him insatiable and restless. Purdue's heart did not cease in its incessant wildness and he found it impossible to sleep.

Hitler sought it, owned it, along with a network of royal bloodlines and warlords who wielded unmatched supremacy and exhibited unnatural invincibility, it was said. Now he had the chance to reach out and touch it, hold it, keep it.

Purdue had done extensive research on the relic, especially when he first learned about it during a lecture on the apocrypha that he attended in 2003 at Cambridge. But there were simply too many discrepancies as to the location of it, not to mention that most of the Spear of Destiny had been missing since its reported discovery.

Through his many resources the authenticity of most of the recorded lances found him befuddled and unconvinced. St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, then the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Echmiadzin in Armenia — so on and so forth, even accounts of replicas, such as the spear given to the Hungarian king, bloodlines of Odin and a dizzying number of other so-called true legends of where the Spear of Destiny had ended up. Their locations varied as much as the men who coveted the piece and ultimately it could very well be anywhere by now.

"Nepal."

He knew of it, but it was one of the few places on earth Purdue had not visited. It would be an amazing adventure, not to mention the most prosperous venture he had ever embarked on. As an insanely wealthy man he was not programmed to be greedy and he tried, in this instance, not to allow the possibilities to engulf his ego.

"I would need a special but small team. No more self-righteous academic professors, no celebrities, no bullshit," he muttered, as he paced in the pale white light of his lamp. His shadow stretched across the length of his chamber wall as he passed the beam and outside the voice of the storm acknowledged his ponderings. Contrary to his other expeditions this one had to be kept secret, so clandestine that not even his own staff could know about it. Nina Gould and Sam Cleave had already proven themselves as invaluable members of his team. All he needed now was a security expert, preferably a brave and deadly protector who knew what to do when danger loomed. That protector came in the shapely form of Calisto Fernandez.

Purdue would get his colleague, Walter Eickhart, from a prestigious and secret society to facilitate the seamless tour for them by paving the way past the nuisance of permits and visas. Walter could reach beyond the basic red tape of entering the holy landscape where Nina told him a shrine was built. They would find the entrance to a cave just below the altar located there. Dealing with covert operations all over the world for the past thirty years made Walter an expert on fashioning holes for little rats to find their way in without the knowledge of powerful governments.

Purdue had made up his mind. He was going to fund this expedition and get it off the ground as soon as possible.

Nina had her concerns, but she had to stick it out to see how far she could be privy to something this big. If it failed and they hit a dead end, she would have lost nothing but a few weeks, of which she would have spent most of her days battling Matlock and her own ideals anyway. If this turned out to be real, well, she did not even have to consider the magnitude of her career and bragging rights to leave Matlock as nothing but a smear under her boots.

It was late, but the sky was light above Deep Sea One and she could see the restless water offer threats in the dead of night with its foaming tongues and hissing whispers.

Nina was not superstitious and she was certainly far from psychic, but something about this place felt off to her. It truly felt as if the water here was darker than anywhere else in the world. Her skin crawled from more than the cold here. Something sinister lived in these waters, not the monstrous variety one reads about in classic science-fiction novels, but something human, humanly menacing. She felt as if every moment on Deep Sea One was like moving behind enemy lines and it gave her a foreboding sickness in her chest.

Out on the platform she noticed that the skeleton crew was absent entirely. Even though she did not know the precise workings of an oil rig, she reckoned that there should at least have been some men running the night shift.

Footsteps sounded from the corridor. It passed her door and piqued her curiosity. All this profound business of the Spear and its possible location had her adrenaline on overdrive and she was not about to sleep for a long while yet. The rhythm of the footfalls moved toward the north exit onto the platform. Nina pulled on her windbreaker and zipped it up tightly, opened her door and checked the left side of the corridor first, before slipping out of her room to trail the sound that went to the opposite side. The door had just clicked shut when she came out and she stole along the wall in the frail illumination from the security lights outside. They made everything yellow and gave Nina a horrible sense of dread, of abandonment. It reminded her of when she was a little girl and her father took her with him to check on the factory staff who worked nights. Outside the factory it was always empty and sallow with only the howl of the wind to accompany the crunch of their feet on the tarmac gravel stones. The tall posts spat out the same miserable yellow light to expose the building as these on the deck of the platform now did.

Outside on the open platform the wind whipped the loose rubber flags, wailing through the steel poles and webbings of iron that erected the towers. For once the sky was clear and crisp, playing host to the full moon, which shed a lonely blue tinge on the deserted mechanical arms and steel beams. Nina slowly peeked around the doorway where she heard the footsteps leave and caught a glimpse of Purdue as he made his way to the southern building section where the stacked buildings plopped on one another like an overcrowded collection of post-war tenements. Under the silent leer of the small black square windows his frame melted into the shadows. Nina narrowed her eyes.

"Where the hell is he going?" she whispered to herself, pulling up her collar to fight the cold on her neck. Under the main drill tower Purdue stood still and looked about him, then he slipped into a section between two posts. Nina smelled smoke. She hated that smell, like the smell of an old, abusive lover beckoning. It had been too short a while since she quit and she still found it very enticing. Her eye caught billows of it pass by from behind her and she watched the blue smoke get swooped up in the currents of the gale.

"I think he is up to something too," a voice cut the silence behind her and Nina jumped with a little shriek. It was Sam, sucking on a fag while he leaned against the wall at her heel.

"Jesus Christ, Sam! Do you want to give me a fucking heart attack?" she hissed through clenched teeth, taking care not to speak too loudly. Sam smiled. It was that same smile he always gave her when she did something amusing. But he said nothing further and just motioned with his head for her to return her attention to Purdue. They watched him enter a lift, but it was not a typical platform elevator. It was a cocoon of what looked like fiberglass and a frame of some unknown silver metal, which could withstand pressure and corrosion.

"He is talking to someone," Nina whispered. Sam finished his cigarette and dropped it to the ground where he snuffed it with his boot sole. He leaned over Nina's shoulder, not too close to make her uncomfortable but close enough that she could pick up his scent on her hair. She wanted to close her eyes from the sensation, but Purdue had her interest locked.

There were two other men with him — large men who reminded Sam and Nina much of Ziv Blomstein. He seemed to be giving them orders and they nodded in the shadows as his elevator closed.

"I bet you the bastard has a cushy patch of luxury on the sub level," Sam whispered.

"I would have to concur," said Nina, "no way is he sharing it with his… employees, either. Asshole."

"Pardon, Dr. Gould and Mr. Cleave," a deep thunderous voice spoke from the rail of the balcony above them, "but Mr. Purdue asked us to lock up the quarters for the evening, if you don't mind." They started at the sudden appearance of the tall blond man who spoke with a heavy German accent.

"How did you know we were here?" Nina asked.

"We saw the orange burning of Mr. Cleave's cigarette from over there," he smiled coldly. "Those things will be the death of you…" he added and cast a special look of warning to Sam, "… especially if you smoke while you are hiding in the dark."

"Noted," Sam replied, and placed his hand lightly on Nina's back to usher her back inside. She and Sam exchanged glances of similar distrust for the undertone of their confinement and both of them felt the same menacing feeling they had when they were about to be killed in Antarctica.

"I don't like the smell of this," she whispered, as they paced down the corridor with the external door slamming hard behind them. The lock was fastened with a cold steely noise that voiced more of an imprisonment than closing quarters for the night.

"Me neither, Nina, but you have to keep in mind what magnitude of legend we are dealing with here. If anything in that book is accurate and Purdue chooses to entertain the potential of such a find, we are involved in one of the biggest discoveries of modern world history," Sam said.

"That fails to bring me any consolation, old boy," she answered, with a tone shivering with concern. As they got to Nina's door she opened it and turned in the doorway to look at Sam. He looked tired, but focused.

Sam took her by her upper arms and spoke softly, "Remember one thing — they need us. Nothing can happen to us while Purdue needs us, so don't think of updating your last will and testament just yet." He winked, but she found it annoying that the journalist had read her mind so effortlessly.

"I know, I know, but somehow I feel that the fuse is much shorter than we realize and I fear that since translating that book it seems to be burning down to the stick at an alarming rate, Sam," she caught her breath with her words.

"We are going to Nepal with him to see this thing through and soon we'll be laughing over a single malt about our unfounded paranoia while we wipe our asses with paper money," Sam feigned humor and lied to himself to cheer Nina up.

"I can see through your bullshit, Cleave," she said, and smiled, "but the ruse is appreciated nonetheless. Just…" He eagerly awaited her words. "… just refrain from fucking smoking around me." Sam chuckled and left her with a curtsy to try to get his night's rest.

They would soon depart for Nepal, as Purdue had suggested to them earlier. Both Nina and Sam could not help but infuse their brew of excitement with a tot of fear and uncertainty, but whatever happened, it would be a most interesting hunt that would shape both their futures or rob them of any.