Deep Sea One

Chapter 24

Their lights were withering in their hands and the flashlights were useless at this distance, so Nina quickly made her way across the floor toward the tunnel's entrance where Calisto was waiting. She whispered hard, "Calisto, we need more flares!"

No response.

"Calisto?"

Silence.

"Sergeant Fernandez!" she tried. "Yeah, right, as if she would answer you if you addressed her differently. Fucking idiot," Nina cussed herself for the illogical attempt. Her eyes looked up to the silent passage and the dwindling light stirring shadows against the rock walls. She knew she would have to climb up the rope, which discouraged her utterly. Nina felt a wave of worry pulse through the pit of her stomach at Calisto's absence as she started climbing to where the last flares were. She did not know what to think. Purdue's bodyguard had the most difficult psychology to figure out, even by Nina, who was known for her dead-on judge of character. Calisto was polite enough and appeared to be easy to talk to, but there was something about her dark stare and her tough demeanor. It was obvious that she did not tolerate any shit from people, no matter what their status, but in contrast she seemed compassionate and humorous. The culmination of all these traits made her hard to read and Nina was not sure if she could trust her. Now she was gone from her post and it felt dangerously suspicious to the historian, who was laboriously pulling herself up by the rope.

As she reached the last part a hand fell over hers, tugging the unsuspecting Nina upward.

From sheer fright and instinct Nina screamed.

Her cry reverberated through the chasms and crevices, filling the hollow leviathan mountain with thunderous echo. Bewildered the men froze in their place, dying flares being extinguished with every second that passed under the taboo resonance haunting the sensitive stone.

"What the fuck is that about?" Sam gasped. He was violently upset by the prospect of Nina being hurt. And by the sound of her searing screech she was being assaulted. Just then their flares finally expired, leaving them in imperceptible conditions with Nina's cry still fresh in their ears. Calisto pulled Nina over the ledge, unceremoniously dropping her on the cold ground of the tunnel.

"You really should learn to curb that response," she told Nina, as she retrieved the last flares. She noticed that the light in the main chamber had died. Nina panted wildly, still reeling from the terrible fright she was dealt.

"Where were you?" she frowned, trying to keep her voice down while the men were speculating in the distant dark about the imminent penalty that Dr. Gould's cry might bring.

"I went to take a piss, Dr. Gould," Calisto replied casually. "And then I puked my lungs out for good measure." She dropped a flare on the hard wet ground next to Nina and started sliding down the rope with Gary's limp duffle bag and her own flare. When she got to the bottom of the rope she lit hers and went to the men to deliver theirs.

"Is Nina all right? What happened?" Sam pushed.

"She is fine, Mr. Cleave," Calisto replied coolly, "but that lady is way too jumpy."

They watched Nina's light travel from the rope back to them. She felt awfully ashamed at her inadvertent reaction, not to mention the dire consequence of her error if the mountain should collapse under the ensuing tremors. With her head slightly hung she asked no one in particular, "So what do you think it is?" hoping to bury the incident quickly. The group raised their eyes to the obscured depiction above them, which possessed a section made of what looked like pure sunlight.

"I don't know, but we have to move, everyone," Purdue said hastily. "As far as I know this is our last light."

"Apart from that flare gun in the bag," Gary added, looking up at the crude, ancient sketch.

"Maybe it is the sun coming through a crack in the mountain," Sam wondered out loud.

"Can't be," Nina argued, "The sun is on that side by now, right? Besides, it is raining."

"The sun should be almost right above this chamber, by directional timing," Calisto corrected her. Nina thought Calisto deserved a bitchy leer, but she knew it could prove fatal.

Purdue started fidgeting and smiled, "We have to get up there to see what it is, friends."

"I'll go," Sam offered, before Purdue even finished his sentence. He found the picture fascinating, not to mention that it could perhaps harbor the Spear of Destiny itself within the rock. This was more than enough incentive to risk his life climbing up there.

"Do you know how to climb?" Nina asked.

"Does dangling from my ex-girlfriend's balcony count?" he jested. Nina slapped him on the arm with a chuckle as Gary rigged him up for his ascent to the roof of the Godwomb. He tossed the rope over a sturdy horn of rock and tugged hard at it to test its tensile strength. Then he fixed the clasp to it and gave Sam an assuring tap on the shoulder.

"Ready?" he asked Sam. But Sam was occupied by second thoughts as he considered the distance he would fall if anything went wrong. He nodded, eyes still fixed on the target in the light of his flare.

Purdue and Gary hoisted Sam up slowly while Nina held her breath, her wide eyes staring nervously as his progress.

"He'll be fine, Dr. Gould," Calisto said next to her.

"I hope so. We don't have the medical fortitude to remedy a nasty plummet," Nina replied.

Sam had his digital camera strapped around his neck and a tool belt around his waist, comprised of a hammer, chisel, cloth and a bottle of water. He sported Gary's climbing gloves to avoid rope burn on his hands and as they hoisted him higher from the safety of the ground, his heart began to race. Only when he was suspended halfway up the chamber's height did he realize what a bad idea it was.

The landscape under him grew deeper as he ascended, while the occasional bat would dive over his head as he neared the ceiling of the cavern.

"I hope this flare holds out," he said to himself through perspiration and sheer terror. When he arrived at the section of rock that bore the drawing he waved his flare to signal them to hold. Briskly as he could, Sam roughly tossed the water over the thin layer of residue, revealing most of the full shape of the sketch. Outside the rain subsided again and the afternoon sun illuminated the freshly washed world below. The snow-capped mountain ranges circled the valley that looked visibly greener after the rain. Once more an inkling of sun streamed through the chimney of jagged rocks, lighting up the top part of the cavern. Sam was very relieved to have more light as he worked his way carefully around the picture. Purdue had anchored him tightly, but he still exercised caution in his movements, should his weight distribution aggravate the durability of the ropes.

"Look!" Nina exclaimed, "It is a diagram of the Holy Lance!"

Purdue, Gary and Calisto rushed over to her to view it from her perspective.

"By God, that is exactly what it is!" he gasped and stared for a long while at the dagger-shaped lines, which ended in a point crowned by the light. The entire blade of the Spear was gilded by the sun, its beams had now grown strong in the great stone hall.

"Is there anything up there, Mr. Cleave?" Purdue asked with a slight raise in his voice. He figured that, even at a louder volume, his voice could not provoke the damage already tested by Dr. Gould's scream. Sam shook his head. They could hear him say, "It is just a drawing and flat rock here."

"Would it not be a cruel joke of the Nazis to send us all the way here in a hunt for the Spear of Destiny, all the while withholding the information that the item in question is a mere depiction of the relic instead of the real thing?" Calisto smiled, amused thoroughly at the possibility. In truth, this was the first time such a possibility had even crossed Purdue's mind and it sent a dreadful jolt of shock through his entire body to imagine it true.

Nina afforded Calisto a look of warning and a very subtle shake of the head. Inside she hoped that the dark-eyed femme fatale would not take it as an insult, for fear of being stabbed by an animal bone or something. Calisto was sharp enough to recognize that Dr. Gould was trying to convey Purdue's upset at her remark. She promptly ceased her chuckling and went to get her water bottle for a drink and another dose of Diamox to aid her with the awful effects of the thin air. She was feeling a lot better after her last gullet purge.

More frustrated than before, Purdue looked up at Sam and did not seem to care as much about the volume of his voice anymore. "Sam, come on down, then. We have to get going," Purdue said, his voice cracking under the upset of it all. The entire atmosphere changed. Dave Purdue was always positive, always driven to find another way, but he looked utterly defeated. After being betrayed by Eickhart and his goons, after almost getting his party killed, and the loss of Jodh, he had come through all that only to find nothing to show for it. Something else, something far more pressing than his bruised ego, also bothered him. It was extremely important to him to find the Holy Lance, or something at least of equal significance, and now his bodyguard brought to his attention the most basic deduction for their predicament — and he overlooked it. His teeth ground together as he paced back to where Gary was preparing to bring Sam down while the women packed up the rest of the gear. Purdue was deeply disappointed and to a small measure, afraid.