The Vault of Hercules

Chapter 29

After Nina had lowered herself down, they all crossed the cavern to the next series of tunnels.

“Okay, now it's not easy anymore,” Purdue sighed. “We have to rouse Rita.”

They all tried to wake her, but only her steady pulse assured them that she was still alive. Sal was carrying the archaeologist through the shallow water that Nina's tumbling river had now become. It was no effort for him, a huge ex-wrestler, to carry a woman hardly bigger than Nina.

Guido kept looking back as they traversed the cavern that still smelled like a dead horse's ass. Just in front of him was Sal and Rita, with Purdue and Sam leading the way with Nina. He didn’t like being at the back of the line, but it served him well. He was also leaving breadcrumbs, but of a different variety and for a different reason than they would have imagined. To their relief, the thunder had ceased, but Sam did not like not knowing what had caused it.

“Which do we pick?” Nina wondered as they came to three tunnels that were similar in size. Purdue gently grasped her arm and protectively pulled her in behind him. He checked both corridors, but they were identical in size and height.

“I suggest we split up,” he proposed.

“Of course! So that you can find the Vault of Hercules and run off with the treasure? I don't think so, Purdue!” Guido Bruno objected fervently.

“What treasure?” Purdue frowned. “I can assure you that there are no gold doubloons or precious stones in there, Bruno.”

“Not all treasure is shiny, you mook!” Guido shouted. “I know what’s in there and it’s greater than any money or gold. Whatever is in there makes demigods of average people!”

“Did Rita tell you that?” Nina asked.

“No, a Mafioso brother told me a long time ago. He had friends in a secret Nazi organization who told him about it, and that he still wanted to find the Vault of Hercules to transform those in his family into becoming half-god, half-man,” Guido barked conceitedly. “The SS expedition couldn’t do it, and neither could the friend who told me about it, but I will. By God, I will use the Vault for all its worth!”

“We know why the Nazi's failed, but why was your friend unsuccessful in finding this Vault he knew so much about?” Nina asked.

He sneered at the woman he was dying to repay for the painful blow to his nuts. “Because I had him whacked, that's why!”

“How are you so sure you can pull it off, then?” Purdue asked, calling Guido's bluff.

“Because when the Nazis tried it back in World War II, they used one little girl; a four-year-old British child named Dorothy Mansfield, but she could not take all that juice and her body gave in,” he grated, contemptible in every syllable he spat. “I will not be making that mistake.”

“You sound awfully sure of yourself.” Purdue was baited him, aware that Sam was recording it all.

“Oh, but I am,” Guido smiled. “You think I’m here for some gold and gems, just feeding my wife's useless career like a slot machine in Atlantic City? Fuck that! All this time I’ve been using her to find these secret places for me so that I can take superior Roman history back to Italy, where it belongs! And with every relic I bring back to the Familia in Roma, I go up in the books!”

“So you get made, and then?” Sam asked. “You keep on using Rita to get more historical wealth until you own the Mafia? You are deluded.”

“Use Rita? The Vault of Hercules is my crown achievement, so I won't be needing her any more,” Guido chuckled. “Forget about it!”

The echo of thunder started once more, a chilling sound that created the image of a giant grinding his teeth. It came from far down the tunnel to the entrance and in intervals of a few seconds, as if it were controlled.

“What is that?” Nina whispered. “Leave Rita here and tell Sal to investigate.”

Sal glared at Nina with more worry than anger. For a moment he actually believed it was a possibility, but gave a sigh of relief when Nina waved and shook her head, changing her mind.

“Now, are we getting to the Vault or shall I just waste you all right here and go on by myself?” Guido bellowed as he pulled out his gun and waved it about. Sam's blood was boiling. What he would not have given for one minute alone with this limp dick. “I take Dr. Gould into the right tunnel. Sal, you take Purdue and Cleave into the left one.”

“What about your wife?” Sam asked.

“What about her? If Sal wants to carry her, it's up to him,” Guido shrugged, grabbing Nina roughly and shoving her hard into the right tunnel while gesturing with his gun. “Now you boys behave. Remember, I have this sweet piece of ass at the end of my barrel… and that metaphor could change anytime I feel like it, capiche?”

“Oh, Jesus!” Nina rolled her eyes, wishing a boulder would just fall on him.

The thunder from afar suddenly became more distinct. When it approached, it sounded as if something heavy was dragging down the tunnel, bit by bit. Guido seemed unfazed by it as he pushed Nina ahead of him into the dark tunnel. Reluctantly, Purdue and Sam explored the left tunnel, feeling a distinct presence in the cave system with them.

“I'm not a superstitious lad, but does anyone else feel like they're being watched?” Sam asked in the half-dark of the tunnel.

“Been feeling like that all the way, old boy,” Purdue answered.

“Whoah!” Sam shouted, slamming his heels in to pull Purdue backwards. As the first in the line, Purdue was about to step off the end of the walkway. Holding his chest in fright, he panted with widened eyes. “Thank you, Sam.”

There it is again, that sincere gratitude, Sam thought. “No worries. Goddamn! I didn’t expect this tunnel to be so short!” he remarked. Sal put Rita down, pulled Purdue to his feet, and then helped Sam up. They soon heard Nina shriek too, in the corridor next to them.

“You alright, Nina?” Purdue asked.

“Aye, still alive,” they heard her respond.

Both tunnels spilled out onto a lake inside the next cavern. “My God, it’s so beautiful,” Nina marveled. Purdue took out his flares and lit three of them to see what exactly lay before them. In front of them was a tranquil, turquoise underground lake the size of a hundred swimming pools. On the other side of the lake was a dead-end, a rock face that reached over six stories in height.

“So I guess we came up the wrong way,” Nina lamented. “It's the end of the line, guys. We’ve literally hit the wall.”

“Don't be so certain, my dear,” Purdue said, shining his super bright flashlight against the glimmer of the wet wall. He had pushed the headlamp back up to its blinding light, penetrating even the subterranean world under Greece's mountain ranges. “There are symbols on the wall, similar to those on the Donar's Club here. Do you see them?”

He threw another flare for her to see. “I see it!” she exclaimed. “Symbols in a circle, aye!”

“So let's get on with it!” Guido shrieked in his annoying childish tone. Another squeal escaped Nina as she fell into the lake water.

“Jesus Christ! I have had it with that c…”

“Sam, you can kick the snot out of him as soon as we have Nina back, alright?” Purdue restrained him.

Nina was treading water, her headlamp illuminating the cavern as she looked around. It certainly was a place of remarkable beauty. The high roof was decorated with glistening stalactites, lazily yielding their tears to the pristine water below. In the light of Purdue's colored flares, the cave looked almost magical, with green, blue, and red playing against the curious formations against the walls. Faces and animals loosely formed in front of the crevices and smaller caverns, sculpting a billion-year-old mural of fascinating forms and shapes in multicolor. Only the cool perfection of the lake trumped the art of calcium deposits and mountain stone.

“Swim out to the wall and see what it's hiding, Dr. Gould!” Guido's command echoed, spoiling the serenity of the silent underworld utterly. “Or I'll shoot you in the water!”

“You will do no such thing, you son of a bitch!” Rita said suddenly. From her pocket she produced a Desert Eagle and she pointed it straight at him. Guido only laughed.

“What are you going to do with that? You can't even find the safety, you stupid bitch,” he spat.

Rita promptly pointed the gun at his bodyguard and shot Sal three times in the chest, sending him to the floor in a three hundred and fifty pound heap. Nina, Purdue, and Sam dropped their jaws.

Swim! Now he has a reason to shoot you! Nina's inner voice cried frantically. Go! Go!

Guido was furious at his wife's betrayal. He cocked his gun and aimed at Nina, but someone caught his arm in the dark. All the others could hear was a series of claps against bone and the weepy cries of Rita's cowardly husband. “Hey, Bruno!” a man said in the dark corridor with Guido. A few more punches cracked. “Long time, eh? Turncoat motherfucker!”

Nina recognized that voice. It was the eloquent man with the broadcast voice that she’d given their destination to purely by accident. She smiled, “Good to see you again, Strongman!”

“Lovely to join your company, Dr. Gould,” the man answered, leaving Sam and Purdue really curious. Sam was holding Rita against him so that she could stand on her good leg. “Do you know that bloke?” he asked her, but Rita shrugged and shook her head.

“But anyone laying a beating on my husband has my vote,” she whispered.

“The name is John Arthur Armstrong,” he introduced himself with a small salute to Nina's colleagues. “I happened upon Dr. Gould while searching for you, Mr. Cleave.”

“Me?” Sam asked.

“Long story, but it’s of little consequence now. May I suggest you get out of that lake immediately, Dr. Gould?” John suggested.

“Why?” Nina asked. “I am about to proceed to the…”

“Yes, the Vault of Hercules,” he interrupted. “Please, please just get out of the water.”

“What’s wrong with the water?” Purdue asked.

John's voice was gentle and calm, the exact opposite of the message he conveyed. “Nothing is wrong with the water, my friend. It’s what is in the water that bothers me.”

Nina needed no more encouragement. Briskly she swam back to the ledge of the tunnel, but it was too late. A hideous and deep guttural slurp emanated from the depths of the lake, filling her with horror. Screaming in terror, Nina tried to swim toward Purdue, but she was pulled under by a powerful force. Purdue swung around to face Rita. “Medley! Medley, what is the next labor of Hercules?”

Agitated, she asked, “After what? How long have I been out cold?”

“Only the stables came before this one! We’ve not had any significant labors after that!” Sam said quickly. On the ledge of the other tunnel the bald man stood, indecisive, whether he should save Nina or risk losing Guido Bruno after years of sworn revenge.

“The stables did not count, because Hercules was compensated,” Rita thought out loud, her fingers entwined in calculation as she stared upward for an answer. “That labor did not count, Purdue! Two labors were disqualified because Hercules had help to complete them!” she stammered as Nina fought the thing that drew her back into the depths. Rita had her hand on Purdue's arm. “That was one labor. Another one was completed but did not count — the slaying of the Hydra! Oh my God, Purdue! The water snake!”