"Yeah, I don't think I was prepared for that. Look at my nipples!" Nina joked, as she put her hands over her breasts. On the intercom they heard the control room summon Purdue. It did not sound like the usual monotonous announcements they normally heard. There was a shiver in the announcer's voice, denoting that something profound was about to be revealed. Sam emerged from his room, having loaded all his pictures and arranged them accordingly. He stepped out in the corridor behind them. Purdue's sexy bodyguard had her long black tresses free and it snaked over her back and shoulders like a regal fur coat. It softened her considerably and he actually observed her as a beautiful woman now, instead of a wayward mercenary.
"Ladies!" he exclaimed, as he trailed them closely, "What are you running from?"
"Jesus, Sam, don't you take note of anything when you work with your pictures?" Nina snapped. "We are being hammered by another storm."
"I had my earphones in, Dr. Gould," Sam retorted, "that way I don't have to remember that I am stuck on an oil rig in the middle of nowhere with you." He smiled sweetly, as Nina gave him the finger.
"Don't worry, laddie, I'll make sure your time here is A-grade excitement, all right?" Calisto winked from the other side of Nina.
Sam was about to call her bluff when the announcement came, "Dr. Gould, please come to the control room immediately. Dr. Gould to the control room."
Nina looked very surprised. She looked at Sam, who shrugged, and then she gave Calisto her cup before she hastened to the office where she was summoned.
"I wonder what that is about." Sam said.
"Maybe Mr. Purdue wants her alone," Calisto purred.
Sam would not be surprised. He still remembered the advances Purdue had made numerous times toward Nina and suddenly he almost considered the possibility.
"You are sweet on her. We can see that," the bodyguard smiled without looking at Sam.
"What gave you that idea?" he asked, feeling a bit vulnerable and inept at concealing the fact that she was correct in her assumption.
"In case you have not noticed, I am very perceptive. And you are easy to read," she replied as they turned into the kitchen where she rinsed out the two mugs.
"Do you always read men this well, sergeant?"
"Yes, in fact, I do," she smiled. It was a suspicious little grin that felt more like a warning.
It turned him on in a twisted way, but he played into her hand.
"So, when are you leaving? Tuesday?" he asked, with a less-than-subtle scratch in his throat.
"My contract was for the trip to Nepal this time. I am still waiting to hear when I am leaving," she said, as she dried her hands. "Are you going to miss me?"
Her onyx eyes glinted with confidence as she stared him down intently. She rested her hip against the table and tapped her fingers seductively on the wooden surface. Sam felt his body grow warm at the thoughts she instilled in him and he smiled slyly.
"Of course, I'll miss you. Who else is going to save my ass from the maniacs?" he smiled suavely, and felt compelled to move closer to her. He could smell her hair and her skin. It was intoxicating.
"Hmm, yes, that ass," she remarked, as she cocked her head and had a look as she had done before. "Going to miss that especially."
Sam could not put his finger on it, but Calisto possessed something that made him delightfully uncomfortable, ultimately making him feel that awkward teenage excitement he used to enjoy when schoolgirls flirted with him. She was somehow unattainable, just like those girls, but she was kind enough to entertain him with her wiles. Had she not been so dangerous he might well have trusted being alone with her in a toilet cubicle.
"Sam!" Nina exclaimed loudly from the doorway, catching the two in the middle of an intense moment she did not like one bit. She composed herself and hoped that she was making unfounded assumptions at what she had just interrupted.
"You need to see this! They found something amazing in the minisub," she continued and grabbed Sam by the hand to lead him away. It was the instinctive thing to do. And around the likes of Calisto, it paid to have your instincts on alert.
Chapter 28
Dave Purdue stood in the control room when Nina and Sam entered. He was pacing up and down, fingers rubbing his chin in deep thought over some conundrum in his brain.
"Mr. Purdue?" Sam said.
Purdue snapped out of whatever thinking war he was engaged in and seemed excited to see them.
"Ah! Mr. Cleave, Dr. Gould! They found an object in the recovered minisub. An interesting looking object, at that. I was hoping you could have a look at it?" he said hastily and stepped aside to show them. His hand extended with great display as Nina beheld a chest on the table. It was a sublime piece of antiquity that immediately piqued her interest. At the control board stood one of the engineers she had seen before. Seemingly terrified, he stood as far as he could from them, leering at the piece. She frowned. The other staff member had the same countenance and both men appeared to be very wary of the chest they could not look away from.
"Everything all right, gentlemen?" Nina asked them. They both suddenly acted as if nothing was amiss and smiled with a nod, but she knew better. She had seen such expressions before and she took it as a sign.
"How old do you reckon this is?" Sam asked, as he set his camera settings to fully capture the details on the chest. Dr. Gould slowly approached it and bent down to scrutinize the symbolism and the design. It was the size of a cinder block, carved from a few variants of wood, from dogwood to rosewood, pine insets and pewter for decoration.
Nina's eyes grew wide in silence and Purdue fiddled impatiently to wrench an answer from her.
"No way," she said. "I could be mistaken, but I don't think I am. It's from the time of the Roman Empire, I'd say."
Purdue got excited.
"How do we open it?" he asked eagerly, ready to send Liam for the proper tools.
Nina took a while to fully study the lock. It was set inside the wood, made of granite and steel.
"How odd? Look, this lock is made of stone, not steel. The steel is used to fix the granite to it and to keep the corners intact, almost like a bumper guard," she pointed for Sam to get a few close-up shots.
"How do we open it?" Purdue asked again. He only had one goal in mind, to see what was held inside. While waiting for Nina he had picked up the chest and found something decidedly weighty inside.
"Well, clearly this is not a lock you just pick with a nail file and a hair clip," she said, as she stood up and stepped back to observe the full size of it.
"Please just remember that it could contain something harmful. You should not just go and bust into it," Sam remarked. Liam and Darwin both vocalized their wholehearted agreement with that. Nina and Purdue looked at them with question.
"I'm not gonna lie, sir, that thing gives me the jeebers," Liam said seriously. Darwin nodded.
"What do you suppose is in it?" Purdue asked, folding his arms with interest.
"I'm sure I dunno, sir. But I know when I am in the presence of somethin' intelligent," Liam answered. Purdue found his choice of words quite odd, but he understood what the mechanic was trying to say. He could not argue that he had the same foreboding feeling when he fiddled with the thing, but he thought it best not to perpetuate the notion, for fear of procrastination on account of superstition.
"Hmm," was all he uttered in return and pinned his attention back on the chest.
"What symbols are these, Nina? Looks like those they found in the caves outside Jerusalem," Sam noted.
"These here are Runic. Norse. I would have to look it up, but it looks like a spell — a containment spell," Nina declared.
The two men on the other side of the room passed one another a suspicious look riddled with fear.