Tomb of Odin

Chapter 28

From the entry pool something emerged. The water splashed wildly, brimming over the edges of the rock pool as something massive crawled from it. Seeing in the dark was not a problem for the creature. In fact, low light was the best light for eyes so sensitive to light that shades or goggles were usually the order of the day. This far back, the noise of the surfacing made very little difference, since the quarry he stalked was too far down the tunnel to note anything amiss.

Sam and Purdue made quick work of pulling away the debris to make the chasm accessible for them to investigate. Nina stood nearby with another green flare, lighting their way for them.

“Guys, we are down to six flares. Just saying,” she reminded them.

“Don’t fret, dearest, we will not be long. We know basically what we are looking for,” Purdue called back to her. Save for Sam and Purdue’s panting and groaning from their labor, Nina pitched her ears. There was another sound that was previously absent, but she could not quite separate it from the other noise. Since they were pressed for time she did not merit it important enough to halt the progress of her companions to excavate whatever was hidden there.

“Now, Purdue,” Sam started in his loathsome mocking tone, “tell me, if we should happen upon the rest of that leviathan chain—”

“Yes? Sam?” Purdue said through his gritted teeth, catching his breath.

“Tell me how you propose to carry that out of here, my very industrious friend,” Sam completed his taunting.

“I don’t know yet. We’ll find a wheelbarrow or something and wheel it out, hoist it through the water… whatever. We have ample implements down here to rig something up to get it done, don’t you think?” Purdue puffed, a few words at a time.

“Whatever you do, just make it quick. I have a feeling we are not alone,” Nina warned, looking around with the flare in her hand pointing where she was looking.

“Hey!” the men shouted. “You’re taking the light away!”

“Sorry,” she winced. Her eyes studied the dark track from which they had come, but she saw nothing to prove that she really heard something.

Finally, they had cleared enough away for her to join them.

“Look here, the tiny side tunnel actually has tracks, unlike the mainline,” Sam remarked, walking among the steel rails.

“Not only a track, my friend,” Purdue said as he took the flare from Nina and walked deeper into the tunnel, “but that track also actually carries… a train!”

Sam and Nina gasped in awe. Although the steam locomotive and its three cars were covered in dirt, making it hard to tell it apart from the wall of the cavern, its shape and weight were unmistakable. In the darkness, with only the slight illumination of Purdue’s flare and a flashlight that Nina held, the static iron horse seemed quite ominous. A huge, black piece of machinery it was, like a giant, coal stove that had not cooked a meal in centuries — rather creepy.

What made the train look even more odd and surreal was the fact that it had no wheels. Either they had constructed the thing in full, bar the wheels, or the entire wheel base had sunk into the ground it stood on. Giving it the appearance of a boat made it look quite disturbing and out of place.

Purdue, Sam, and Nina planned to silently pillage the undiscovered treasure trove, if the legends were accurate and Josef Palevski did not have a sick sense of humor. Each in their own train car, they inspected every corner and cupboard, under every bunk, and even inside the floor, using the tools they picked out of the debris in the tunnel.

“Anything?” Purdue asked.

“No.”

“Nope, nothing,” Nina could be heard inside the last car.

“Shit,” Sam said. “He was fucking playing us, man.”

“I hope you’re wrong, Sam. I certainly don’t want to go back to Finland to find Jari’s hidden house again,” Purdue exhaled hopelessly.

Nina walked past Sam and Purdue’s cars. Hers was stripped bare, with nothing to show for it, so she thought she would at least make good of taking pictures, since the site was a rare find she wished to take credit for with Sam and Purdue. Her phone battery was almost dead, so she set it rapidly so that she could prove she was here. Angle by angle, she shot the dead, black machine for her records, making for a collection of very macabre-looking photos. At least she would have something to show for all her trouble.

In the cab of the black engine, Nina placed her flashlight pointing upward against the cab roof, so that it would light up the whole compartment. Around the firebox there was what would strike a layperson, such as herself, as a mess of wires, copper and black. Between those she scrutinized the intricate workings of the bolts, meters, and what looked to her like steering wheels or valves near the top of the cowl unit.

As in the lighthouse, a careless etching stood out to her.

“What the hell is this?” she said softly to herself, wiping the face of what she reckoned was a pressure gauge. Nina gasped. In the transparent mock glass, several names were etched, forming two vertical columns. She took her pocket knife and worked away at the edge of the plastic until she could carefully wedge it loose. With a gentle grasp she pulled it free and held it on her palm to read it against the blinding white light.

A sudden break in her flashlight beam startled Nina so that she called out, “Hey! Sam, stop stalking me and come look here!” It had been a moving shadow of something solid that passed in front of the light for a second, but it was not Sam.

“What?” Sam asked, hanging by one arm from the door of his chosen train car.

Nina’s blood froze. “Where’s Purdue?”

“Still slowly being disappointed,” Purdue cried from the other car’s window, holding up some papers and files. “This is all I’m getting. Any luck there with you?”

Making a distinct decision that the tunnel was merely haunted by both her unsound mind as well as proper spectral apparitions, Nina dismissed the notion that there really was someone in there with them. If only to spare her nerves, she summoned the men to come and see the etching on the plastic cover of the gauge.

“Look at this list,” she told Sam and Purdue. “Note the method and the basic hand on this?”

“Yes, the same as the lighthouse artist. You think Josef left this here?” Purdue asked.

“Great, more clues to follow while Paddy’s sitting on a time bomb,” Sam sighed. “I thought this was where we would get what we came for.”

“Me too, but there is more to his legacy than just the chain. I think he wanted Jari to find the ‘Tomb of Odin,’” Nina argued. “The copper inlays on the cross refers to Odin’s grave, and I think that is what he wanted Jari to find — Agartha.”

“Say what?” Sam frowned.

“Agartha is according to legend, the realm under the earth where the Vril Society’s master race lives. It is a magical Shangri-La of higher power, godhood, super human ability, and all that, remember? I think the chain has something to do with opening the portal, or the cave, to gain entry to ‘Odin’s Tomb,’ to use the metaphor,” Nina lectured them.

“This list, as far as memory serves, is various places where the Nazis sent the POWs to build railroads, but three of these do not fit in,” she reported excitedly.

They read the list:

“Here, ‘Uppsala,’ ‘Kyrka,’ and ‘Gamla’ are anomalies. They were not complexes of Project Riese,” she noted.

“You sure are intelligent, little Olga,” a deep growl emanated from the darkness. Nina screamed and grabbed Purdue’s hand. From just outside the cab, the colossal man stepped into the faint white light, planting his hands on both Sam and Purdue’s arms.

“Thomas?” she shrieked at the sight of the monstrous German she thought had perished with his brothers in the lighthouse.

“Or is it Dr. Nina Gould? I was going to just follow you to lead me to the generator, but now that you three are literally threatening to expose us by opening up Agartha prematurely, I can’t let any of you see the light of day again,” he bellowed.

Sam nudged at Purdue beyond the attention of the giant. With his eyes, he led Purdue’s gaze toward the firebox of the cab, on which the Valknut symbol was scratched. Purdue nodded surreptitiously and felt Sam pulling another flare from Purdue’s rucksack, ever so carefully that Thomas did not notice.

“Hey, Thomas, just before you dispatch us, can I ask one thing?” Sam asked.

“I’m not the generous type,” Thomas replied. “Why? What could you possibly need from me?”

“I need you to carry something out for us,” Sam said.

Nina turned to look at him as if he was insane. Her eyes stretched wide and she shook her head to discourage him from doing something stupid.

“What?” Thomas thundered, livid for Sam’s audacity.

Sam pulled out the flare and cracked it right in Thomas’ face, blinding him instantly. Screaming in fury, the cruel German fell to the ground, holding his eyes with his palms.

“I bet that must be one hell of a migraine, Sam,” Purdue smiled.

“What are you doing? Are you out of your fucking mind?” Nina screeched, but Sam held the flare on the cowering giant.

“Nina, calm down. He is probably completely blind. In hospital you muttered a lot of things about your experience in the tunnels,” Purdue clarified with his hands on her shoulders. “You told us that these boys cannot see in bright light, that they would go blind if they were struck with a sharp beam.”

“He is immobilized,” Sam affirmed. “Probably for good.”

“Now, let us see what the firebox is hiding from us, shall we?” Purdue suggested, and took Nina’s hand to accompany him. Sam stood sentinel over Thomas’ furious staggering.

Purdue opened the firebox. Nina lit the interior with her flashlight.

“No fucking way!” she gasped, unable to process what she saw before her. “Sam! Sam, we found the rest of the chain!”

Sam winked at Purdue. “See? Told you.”

“Yes, you did point it out in the last place I would have thought they hid it. This is why the engine has no wheels. The giant chain takes up the whole section between the floor and the rock floor below,” Purdue described the scene to Sam.

“Brilliant. And now we have a big German lad to carry it for us too,” Sam smiled happily. Thomas roared like a beast and lashed out at him, but Sam held the flare toward the half-blinded man and reminded him of his new handicap. His one eye was completely blinded, while the other managed nothing more potent than haze.

“Now, remember, Thomas. If you give us any shit we will leave you in here to roam around the network of railway lines until you starve to death… or end up living on rats. Typhus is apparently rife down here. Just ask the Polish, Russian, and Italian prisoners of war lugged in here from their respective concentration camps from 1943 to 1945 who died in droves,” Sam spelled it out for Thomas.

But Nina thought to get a word in on her bully too.

“Imagine spending the rest of your super life in here, blind, hungry, a proverbial Minotaur in a maze of pitch-dark channels with only the ghosts of Jews to keep your Nazi ass company, Thomas,” she whispered dreamily in his ear, while his eyes burned.

“That sounds ghastly, Nina. Shame on you. Then again, it is truly the fate you would suffer, big man… unless you carry this golden chain out for us and accompany us to where it belongs. If you play nice, we will help you find your generator,” Purdue offered. His last statement was a bit of a fib, but Thomas would never behave that long anyway.

That much, his judge of character assured him.