“Newfoundland, please, Mr. Purdue,” Joanne said from the door. “I'm sorry Nina. I suck.”
“I suck too, Earle-girl. Purdue, this is Joanne Earle, expert on Alexander the Great and an old friend of mine,” Nina introduced them.
“Alexander the Great,” Purdue smiled. “Powerful king. Military genius.”
“I like him already,” Joanne winked at Nina.
“Aye, you seem to have a penchant for suave men with lots of money,” Nina joked, and dragged Joanne with her down the hallway. “We have to call Virgil.”
After Joanne called boat captain Virgil Hecklund to procure his services once more, Purdue offered to pick up the fee. Utterly relieved, after practically donating the medallion to Nina and being left penniless to settle with Virgil, Joanne accepted the offer gracefully.
“As if he would have allowed you to decline,” Nina smiled at her friend.
“Very nice of him,” Joanne agreed happily, as they took to their comfortable seats aboard the Scarlet again. In the cockpit Purdue and Virgil exchanged deep sea angling stories and laughed at marine puns for almost the entire distance back to Martin Bay.
Before they had departed the archipelago of Nunavut, Purdue asked Captain Hecklund to procure certain supplies for him, for which he would pay extra. It felt so good to have ready access to his own accounts again, Purdue thought, relishing the peace of mind to do so without fear of being tracked. In truth, he’d had access to his accounts while laying low, but they were being monitored.
“So, that’s what we were about to unearth, we believe,” Nina concluded, having told Purdue every detail that led to the awful attack on their colleague and friend, now leaving him fighting for his life.
“I have heard about the hidden treasure before, but I did not know about a letter from Olympias to her son,” Purdue admitted. “That is remarkable, something that has to be almost… godlike… in nature.”
“So do you think the hidden Treasure of Alexander the Great is something other than riches?” Joanne asked Purdue. He shrugged. “Being a scholar of his life, I’m surprised that his treasure would not be located in Iraq, Turkey, or Egypt, you know?”
“That was my initial thought when you told me about it on the phone,” Nina told Joanne. “Why would you have found a medallion like this on Canadian soil?”
“Look, there have been many archaeological theories from discoveries on a great many Inuit tribal lands. There have been European artifacts found that predate the Vikings, even,” Purdue informed them. “That makes it plausible that Alexander the Great would have had the wherewithal and the need to send an armada out here to make sure his enemies would never find it. The Persian Empires and Egypt were vastly wealthy, yet they would not have thought to send scouts or ships west, I would guess. Not for any reason but it was not necessitated. For Alexander, especially after his conquests and his army eventually becoming discontented with his greed, it was probably the most remote land he could have reached.”
“But Alexander was never reputed to have sailed this way,” Joanne challenged.
“No, he never did. But there is a very good chance, like the Mommy's Boy he was,” Nina teased again, “that members of his mother's order could have facilitated the mission, not his own army.”
“Ooh, that makes a lot of sense!” Joanne marveled. “She outlived him, after all. After his death she could have sent delegates from the Cult of Dionysus to stash the treasure here in what is now Canada.”
“That would explain the snakes,” Nina remarked. Her face fell into sadness again. “Sam.”
Joanne embraced her. “Don't worry, honey. We'll get those slimy bastards.”
“Oh!” Purdue exclaimed. “On that note…”
He limped away to the open cabin door and excused himself before disappearing below deck.
“Where is he going?” Nina asked.
Virgil smiled and dusted his hands as he sat down. “Only an hour before we reach Martin Bay. Mr. Purdue asked me to bring a few electronic wares so that he could fashion a device he jovially calls a Snake Charmer,” Virgil announced proudly.
“What does it do?” Joanne asked.
“Does it matter? If Purdue names anything it usually has a good reason,” Nina smiled as she tilted her beer.
Chapter 32 — The Unearthing
“With the right attitude, self imposed limitations vanish.”
Although Purdue was moving with great labor, he insisted on coming along to retrieve the Olympias Letter — if it was still there — and secure a few of the serpents that attacked Sam for medical use. He had been filled in on the kind of snake it was and Purdue took a minute to learn about the Ohia snake and its origins.
“I am no expert on snakes, but when you told me this specific breed is found only in Greece, I could not help but see some kind of supernatural connotation, which is odd, for a scientist like myself,” Purdue groaned as he helped Virgil lift the Snake Charmer over the rocks from where the Scarlet was moored.
“What kind of contraption is this?” Nina asked, astonished. “I know what you named it, Purdue, but did you have to make it look like a fucking snake too?”
“That part was unintentional,” Purdue smiled. “I cannot help that the construction resembles a constrictor,” he attempted some form of loose homonym that had Nina rolling her eyes. “I know. I know it is an adder!”
Virgil chuckled as the women went ahead with the tool box and Sam's gear. Nina was greatly worried about Sam's deterioration and Purdue picked upon it. He made a point of watching her keenly to offer support because he knew her well enough to see that her skin only served as a casing for the collapse going on inside her. Having not slept for over a day, the three previous explorers were dangerously fatigued and Purdue had more physical trouble than he would ever admit.
It was the afternoon after the night they had spent rushing Sam out of the septic tank and they could all feel the fickle, lazy sun tempt them to slumber. But knowing that Sam's time was running out and that his recovery depended on their success inside a full blown snake pit, impelled them beyond their limitations. The only consolation was that they had already located the site and had a good idea of the threats and distances inside.
“This time is far more difficult than the last time,” Joanne puffed as she lugged Sam's gear with hers. “But it isn't dark and it is much warmer, so I am better for it.”
“I feel like collapsing, I won't bullshit you there,” Nina groaned as they approached Weather Station Kurt once again. Pinching one eye shut, Nina remarked, “It looks much friendlier in the day,”
“But underneath it is still night,” Virgil burst her bubble, and with a wide-eyed stare added, “and still unfriendly.”
“Ta, Captain,” Nina nodded. “Good thing we have this monstrosity here, hey? Whatever it does.”
Purdue just smiled.
“Where is the perimeter?” Purdue asked Virgil. Nina gave him the blueprint on the document issued by Karl Wolff to better effect the accuracy of his mission.
“So that is where the tablet is supposed to be,” Nina pointed on the diagram. “That is where the snakes got Sam. Purdue, please be careful.”
“I thought we're all going in,” Joanne frowned.
“Aye, we are. But he has not been down there yet, that's all,” Nina shrugged.
“Well, I’m braving my fear of snakes and you are braving, for the second time, your fear of confined spaces,” Joanne smiled reassuringly from under her beanie, looking like a lovable nerd.