"Or even just a nail, who knows," she nodded. "But the bottom line is that the metals are consistent with the composition of the Spear of Destiny."
"It's genuine?" Purdue shivered with anticipation.
"It is authentic, older than the Holy Lance examined in 2003, but I would have to wait for the carbon-dating data to process," Nina said.
A flash momentarily blinded Purdue as Sam snapped a picture of his face. The millionaire's facial expression was too good to ignore. It was a stunned look of absolute glee that filled his face at the historian's revelation and he wrapped Nina in his arms and shook her lightly in a tight embrace. Taken by surprise, all she could do was groan and smile and Sam wasted no time in also capturing that, if only to tease her incessantly for the rest of her days.
Chapter 38
Wind brushed across the calm ocean as the night wore on. On Deep Sea One most of the crew was asleep, save for two engineers and one mechanic, who were thoroughly worried about what was afoot at the platform. Steadily the feeling of impending disaster lodged itself in their reality and by now they were discussing concrete escape maneuvers without unnecessarily alarming anyone. What they were told by Mr. Purdue's bodyguard, and what they had witnessed — the supernatural tides — had convinced them to prepare for something larger than a normal evacuation. What bothered the men, though, was the distinct silence on the matter from management and the fact that other crew members did not notice anything suspicious.
"I wonder what that bird was talking about when she said 'down there' is a laboratory with dangerous explosives," Tommy said, as he flung his boots aside and sat down on the comfortable chair next to the beds.
"I tell ye, I saw Peter go down the stairs with that big bloke and they just disappeared. I think Mr. Purdue's elevator must be the way down 'ere, but I dun't really want to go and see for meself, see?" Liam groaned, stretching out on his bed. "Don't get curious, son. If you get caught that's your ass. He'll fuckin' fire you right there."
"I know," Tommy said as his foot tapped on the balding carpeting that filled the floor of the room. The night was quiet for a change, apart from the breeze that raised and eased the watery darkness, which threatened to engulf the oil rig. All over the platform, loose signs and rubber flaps swung and twirled under the force of the wind, producing all manner of creaky sounds on the otherwise deserted place.
Something black and fast darted from one prefab building to another, pausing and then sliding past the steel poles of the drilling equipment. It glided smoothly, mute and undetected toward the elevator used privately by the boss and within a few seconds, the doors opened with a hiss. The figure slipped in and the capsule sank beneath the platform.
"Now who could that have been?" Tommy whispered to himself, as he lit his cigarette. Smoke curled around his face where he stood watching from the safety of a double-steel barrier a few meters away.
Below, the double doors opened and Calisto took a moment to survey the area. From Purdue's office she had disabled the security system while he was in the mess hall celebrating the Spear's authenticity with Cleave and Gould. She had but a short time before they would finish drinking and she needed every second to complete her tedious task. The on-duty scientists were immersed in their work, skeleton staff just there to monitor the experiments and subjects for the evening. They hardly noticed the stranger wearing the hazmat suit among them. Calisto punched the code for the green section, where the object of her mission was located.
This late, the only scientists associated with this particular lab were in the lounge, having coffee and playing cards. After all, there was not much movement in minding Petri dishes, growing cultures and frozen strains. That was beneficial to an intruder like Calisto and swiftly she gained access to the normally heavily guarded casings inside the cryo-chambers, which held what she was looking for. Her alert dark eyes read each label rapidly as she picked the lock of the first chamber. Inside a container marked "Variola" and another with "Ebola" on the label lay static and harmless while inside these two receptacles held the vilest viral nightmares known to humankind, save one. That one, marked "USSR Chimera: Small Pox/ Ebola mutation strain," was in the next chamber.
Quickly the thief passed the containers to the specially made box she had brought with her, making sure not to agitate the samples for fear that these deadly bio-weapons would escape containment. Now and then Calisto would scan the corridor for movement, but she sank to her haunches to open a yellow and black chamber, marked with a red triangle with a biohazard sticker applied.
"Hello, mumsy," she smiled, as she picked the lock and entered the codes she had stolen from Purdue's briefcase when she moved it for him earlier in the day while he was chatting on his satellite phone. "C. Botulinum" was on the label and she took a moment to prepare for moving this strain.
"Eickhart, you sick bastard. Do you really think this will be your saving grace, you stupid fuck?" she whispered, as she removed the airborne nerve killer from its cradle. With great care she lifted the holder and slid it into the compartment in her case. She closed all the chambers and made sure that she was not seen before punching in Purdue's code to leave. Calisto got rid of the suit and made her way in her skintight black clothing, her pants designed with various zipper pockets and ribbing in which she could stash her weapons, keys and anything else she wished to carry on her person. The specially designed container fit on her back like a satchel, the inside was temperature controlled.
When the elevator closed, she saw Johann Storhoi pass from one door to another and she shook her head. It baffled her how they would create an Aryan race below the North Sea as an end to their plan, unless there were other places across the world doing the same. Since she had been involved in the secret world of the post-Third Reich organizations she had come across the most disturbing remnants of Nazism that were being perpetuated by an alarming amount of businesses and companies. There was a whole submerged underworld thriving on Hitler's ideals, but society was too busy concerning itself with what color shoes a celebrity wears, who is dating who and following a bunch of losers through their in-fighting and pointless shenanigans to cheat one another into winning money on cable television. It frightened Calisto to know what was really going on behind broadcast politics and exposed treaties. Something far more ancient and monstrous was waiting on the doorstep and very powerful men were avidly working at answering that door.
When she exited the elevator, she made her way in the cold night air to the waiting motorboat, which had arrived from the coast of Teesside an hour before. It was sent by her superior to collect her and the strains she was supposed to procure. In her wet suit, she was busy adjusting her watch as she walked toward the docking station. But her escape was perturbed. As the sergeant brushed her hair back into a bun and fastened it, a figure stepped out behind her. Calisto could feel his presence and turned to face her stalker.
"What have we here?" he asked, running his eyes over her curves. Her front zipper was still open to just below her navel, the mounds of her ample breasts decorating the upper part of the V-shaped suit. Without flinching over his presence, she continued to slowly pull the zipper upward while his eyes were fixed on her chest. Calisto had many weapons, not all took a magazine. Her glistening wet skin shimmered over the curvature and Tommy could not get enough before the suit came together, married by the motion of her hand.
"Are those the Wolfenstein strains?" he asked nonchalantly. She knew at once what he was after.