Deep Sea One

Chapter 26

A rain of knives and machetes lodged themselves in the loose pile of rock behind the bolting trespasser as the monks moved forward and filled the chamber. There were about fifty armed men, all in pursuit of Calisto. She took refuge on top of a ledge behind a cluster of cave formations and waited. When they all climbed up the wall below her, their faces distorted in sadistic delight at what they had planned for her.

These were not the men from the village the Purdue party had passed through. She reckoned that they were men of faith and creed guarding the secrets of the shrine, but they were certainly not blessed with the grace and humility of the Eastern dogmas they served. Perhaps they were like the Templar Knights, warriors of God employed specifically for the dispatch of thieving heretics. They must have known about the rule of silence. Their guns remained quiet and their voices low as they leered at her with vindictive lust and she knew that they would afford her a most exquisitely painful death.

Calisto shifted her feet sideways as she moved toward a hidden chasm she discovered while surveying the walls earlier. Sam swinging from the ceiling was hardly her idea of engaging interest and while the others stared at his efforts on the drawing, she had slipped away to assess the probability of alternative escape routes. As the rest of the group concentrated on finding the relic, Calisto did what she was there to do — she covered their asses. Spending her time assessing the security risks and preparing for any eventuality that might arise should they be discovered, she constantly returned to the entrance to establish the progress of their advancement.

It did not surprise her when she reviewed the surroundings and beheld the spies navigating the rocks and river, drawing ever nearer while Purdue and his colleagues were blissfully unaware that they were being stalked. She elected not to share this information with them, as it would only cause discord and paranoia among them and without a doubt get them killed. When she was not determining the position of their hunters, she was devising a security measure. There was not much to work with, but being grossly outnumbered she utilized what she could.

Now she was about to find out if she was going home or going down.

Calisto detached her belt buckle as her agile pursuers started up the rock face with consummate ease, cutting her expected time for flight considerably. Nervously she fumbled to get the stainless steel plate off, her sweaty fingers slipping awkwardly in her haste. A strong grip restrained her from an unexpected direction, throttling her from behind as another monk leapt onto the ledge from the opposite side. Their silent determination gave her the creeps, as if they were puppets of a willful and dark entity, unable to direct themselves.

Calisto could not employ any combat with only a few inches of rock to set her feet on, but she did her best to rid herself of her attacker. Gnashing her teeth in rage she used her substantial force and weight to fling herself against the wall. The lean monk at her back went with her and with a swift pivot found himself between a rock and a vicious bitch. A devastating crack traveled through his torso as the woman crushed him against the impervious wet wall, disabling him for good. She shed him from her and finally pulled the buckle free. Now they gained on her from all sides at an alarming speed.

Calisto turned and found the crevice she had marked for the occasion a few hours earlier, thrusting the steel item between two dripping curtains of ancient granite and mineral. With that she bolted from the ledge, landing hard on the uneven surface of the cavern floor.

"Shit!" she panted as her legs gave way under her clumsy landing and skinned her palms and knees. With lack of light in the early evening she could not judge the distance below properly before she leapt. A short distance from her was the opening she showed to the others in her expedition and gathering herself and ignoring the stinging in her ankles, she made for the crevice.

The knife-wielding monks changed direction to arrest her while those with guns exited the shape-shifting mouth of the shrine to secure the exterior and look for the other intruders. Dark, monstrous shapes played on the vast walls as the monks lit their fire torches in the tunnel above while the others were charging toward her. Calisto drew her weapon and locked her eye on the glint of her belt buckle. Before the mob realized, the kneeling woman pulled the trigger, just hitting the plate on its edge.

But it was good enough. Alarmed at the noise and its consequences, the men turned to look at Calisto's target. Not only did the clap of her gun resonate through the rock, but her bullet grazed the steel with a damning cling, the ricochet of which conducted its tremor through the rock. She provided four more thunderous shots for good measure, making the grotto reverberate with an unholy clamor. Stumped, the monks stared to see what would ensue while Calisto wasted no time in escaping while they were occupied by their imminent doom.

She had positioned the old copper and steel bowls from the pile Sam had shown her, in strategic places throughout the cavern to escalate the efficacy of the sound waves. The last piece, the metal gong she had lowered from the peak of the shrine into the sun-drenched chimney, would collapse the roof onto the murderous mob should they be lured inside. And that was what she was gazing up at under the blessing of the sunray when her colleagues discovered its significance to the map.

Deep from the bowels of the Godwomb came the low shudder of thunder, emanating through every crack and crater, every fissure and pointed formation that adorned the hall. Racing to reach the tunnel above, they scuttled up the wall to get to the corridor that held their salvation. From above the rumbling became deafening and from the disassembled crack where the sun used to find its way in, a shower of loose debris rained down and crashed to the floor below and all those who could not flee on time. Thus the blade in the depiction on the ceiling was removed from its hilt, much as the true item, before the rest of that roof caved in on the cowering monks who could not climb to the tunnel in time. Even those who made it into the tunnel perished under the falling picks of dislodged formations that plummeted onto them, piercing their flesh and bones.

But the entrance stood firm. The face of the deity prevailed as was expected from a god and from the outside the shrine was perfectly intact, still. However, it was now left in the state it was, unable to close up once more without the necessary acoustics to activate its shift. In silent devastation the remaining armed monks stood, regarding the doorway above which two glaring eyes leered down on them, caught forever in this form. A grotesque ambience came from it and filled them with dread. A broken god was an angry god, so they had to reconstruct the face of Mañjuśrī without delay.

From a distance well away the Purdue expedition listened to the crumbling of the Godwomb with confounded faces and respectful silence. Nina, especially, was shaken to tears for the destruction of the shrine and the end of a holy structure worshipped for centuries. Sam placed his arm around her as she sobbed to the fearsome din of the earthquake under their feet. In the dark of the new night they could not see anything and making a fire for light to still their nerves would be detrimental to their successful exodus.

After an eternity of tense guilt in the shelter of the mountain they had come to defile, the group sat down on by one. In the last few minutes of the shuddering of the earth they could hear a mad cacophony of shouting and gunshots echoing through the valley. Assault rifles rattled out in the darkness of the woodland as the monks chased after the thieves who ruined and dishonored their shrine. Now that it was dark they branded flaming torches and spread out in the trees, but they were well aware that not only was the fleeing woman armed and dangerous, but she and her consorts would be very hard to track in the dark.

From the top of the mountainside the frigid night air started to roll in, grazing the skins, and the hearts, of the small group.

"Can we make a fire? I'm fucking freezing," Gary asked his colleagues.

"That will not be smart. It would lead them right to us," Purdue answered. "Give it some time. If they go back to the village we can find a cave or somewhere to get warm."

Another gunshot clapped somewhere on the lower road and a bunch of male voices called out strategies to one another to encircle the intruder who killed their brethren.

"I suppose we will not see Calisto again," Sam lamented.

"Oh, God, I hope they didn't kill her," Nina answered, but after some thought, her naturally positive demeanor dealt her some hope. "Then again, if she were dead, what would they be shooting at?"

"Aye, that is true. Then again, it could be a hunting rifle somewhere else. There are a few hunters out getting wild," Sam inadvertently put a damper on Nina's rising relief. She clutched a water bottle she took from her backpack and stared into space. They were in trouble, and they were unarmed on top of it. Thoughts of being hacked to death in the high altitudes of Nepal did not sit well with her and she wondered if they would ever be able to make it out alive. They stood out from the locals and word would be spread quickly about something as serious as the destruction of the shrine. Now they were fugitives, out of food and slowly freezing to death while having to keep awake and alert for the people who closed in on them with no good intention.

A rustling came from somewhere down the riverbed, the snapping of branches in the oblivion of the frozen darkness. Nina moved closer to Sam, her body just touching his for comfort.

"Please let that be a fucking yak or something," she whispered in heavy breath.

"Quiet," Purdue whispered. They listened closely, practically holding their breaths the whole time. Another crunch sounded from the opposite direction and they all jumped. Nina shivered against Sam who used his arm to push her behind him protectively.

In the distance the voices still echoed occasionally, but there was less of a furor. Purdue was tempted to switch on his flashlight and just look. His curiosity had always been his bane and he could take the tension no more. If he was going to die from the cold anyway, he might as well take his chances locating the source of the suspicious sounds.

"Don't do that," Sam told him. "We are, for now at least, safe and whole. Don't change the dynamic just because you have to know what that is."

"We cannot stay here. If they discover us here tomorrow, and they will, we are all as good as dead. In the daylight tracking our movement would be exceedingly easy. We don't stand a chance," Purdue retorted.

"Where will we go, Mr. Purdue?" Gary chipped in. "We don't know the terrain in the dark. God, it's bad enough navigating these hills in broad daylight and braving the thin air up here. Moving now would be suicide."

"I agree with Gary," Nina said. Once more she found herself in the middle of a two-faction argument where the most votes would be the way to go. But Purdue was not adamant about his plan and yielded to the opinions of the others.

"Well, it appears, my friends, that we are fucked," Purdue sighed and sat down to face a bitter night ahead.

"I suggest we just stay put and keep quiet so that they don't find us. Once we hear that there are no more voices out there, maybe we can just slowly start changing our location at least," Nina said.

"Look, I know where we are. It's not like we are lost," Gary said, briefly holding his GPS out for them to see, "but we have to worry about hiking in the dark and that cannot end well."

Suddenly, snapping twigs alarmed them into a defensive mode and they huddled together to face what was coming. With the approaching crack and clatter of the branches came heavy panting, the sound of laborious movement.

"Shall I use my light now?" Purdue asked in a low voice, stoking the sarcasm.

Nina's fingers dug into Sam's arm as Dave Purdue switched on his flashlight to see what was coming at them. In the pale beam of his torch the familiar physique of his bodyguard appeared, her arms outstretched to find her way in the dark.

"Calisto!" Nina cried, making her way to the wounded woman to support her.

"We thought you were dead," Gary said, clearly happy to see her.

"So did I," she gasped. "In fact, I still kind of feel like death warmed up. Did you lose this, perhaps?" she asked Purdue. She handed him his satellite phone, which had almost been lost in the chaos of the attack.

"Oh, my God, Calisto! You are worth every penny!" Purdue smiled and took the device from her while Nina retrieved a med pack from her side bag to dress Calisto's wounds. She had a flesh wound from a bullet intended for her head, which had instead ended up just above her collarbone. Other than that and her ankle, sprained in that awkward landing, she was in good shape. Purdue did not wait another moment to call for assistance from one of his aviation companies in Malaysia.

Now they had the good fortune of an extraction, relieved that the next stop on their search would be wonderfully close to home.