“Fine with me,” Heidmann said, “but I will be staying close to you then, Dr. Graham. If those men recognize me, I may as well shine a neon bull’s eye on my forehead.”
“Fair enough,” Don winked, raising his bottle before emptying it.
“Yes, since James will be leading the way to where he… procured… the relics,” Purdue smiled, “I think it is only fitting that he and Don lead the way while Nina checks for more Nazi trademarks. Costa and I will be there for any support because we are all in this together.”
Costa stared at Heidmann with scrutiny. Over his bottleneck, he peered into the darting eyes of the nervous archeologist and collector. Heidmann did not like it, but he nodded and smiled to the Greek art professor.
Nina saw this exchange and wondered what it was all about. Did the two men know one another? If so, they had been very convincing as mere acquaintances thus far. She sank her hand under the table and gripped Purdue’s thigh, hoping that she could direct him to the two men with her eyes. But Purdue only returned the gesture while he chatted to Don. Nina slapped his hand from her leg.
“What did I do?” he whispered, confounded.
“I’m not coming on to you, you jackass!” Nina sneered as quietly as she could. “I am trying to get your attention.” The daggers in her eyes ceased long enough for her to motion for him to see the two leering men jousting.
“Curious,” Purdue whispered.
“Do you think they have a history?” she asked.
“No, curious that you still know just how to arouse me,” Purdue remarked nonchalantly.
Nina swallowed her words for once, excusing herself and retiring with hellfire in her stride, leaving Purdue sufficiently entertained. Not that he did not take note of her insinuation, but he could not pass on that flirtation. Nina’s hand did not often find its way to his body anymore, and it was a rare gift for the taking.
Purdue thought to address the issue in a diplomatic way. “Professor Megalos, are you acquainted with Dr. Heidmann’s work, I mean, before the two of you collaborated here?”
“Not really, no,” Costa replied indifferently. “In fact, I had never heard of him until we first met. What can I say?” he smiled snidely at Heidmann, “Most of James’ collection is already familiar to the Greek Arts.”
“Apart from these two pieces, right, Costa?” James Heidmann retorted sarcastically. “Not even the well-informed Greek collector Soula Fidikos knew about Son of Zyklon-B and Klónos², did she?”
Purdue saw what Nina was trying to point out.
“Soula Fidikos is a collector, like you, James. She knows what she learns in books and what her advisors instruct her to purchase. She is hardly an authority, hardly someone to upstage with two… stolen artifacts,” Costa rejoined conceitedly.
“Alright, gentlemen. We are in this thing together. Kindly settle your differences on your own time, please. I am sure we will all benefit from what we achieve in the coming days,” Purdue reprimanded them genially. “Now, I think it is time we turn in, don’t you all agree?”
The group of men muttered in concurrence as they tossed their Euro’s on the table. Purdue was concerned about the tension, but he hoped that it was merely the result of the drinking and fatigue.
Chapter 18
Nina knocked on Purdue’s door the next morning ready to go. She was still expecting his smugness when he opened the door but found Don sitting at the small round table and chairs near the window of the room.
“Good morning, pretty Nina!” the jovial Don exclaimed.
Nina’s face immediately lit up in a bright smile Purdue found very welcome.
“Good morning, Dr. Graham,” she smiled. “Am I intruding?”
“Your impositions are not only tolerated, my dear, but I actually wish for them,” he winked at the small brunette.
“Tea, Nina?” Purdue asked as if he had never pissed her off at all. She wanted to decimate him, but she decided to eject her bitchiness for once and enjoy the attention instead.
“Please and thank you,” she replied kindly.
The morning light looked icy in its pallid powder blue on the window. Curtains drawn wide open, the two men were apparently examining some of the data from the analysis. Don was frowning heavily above his slanted glasses halfway down his nose, his eyes seeking something in the chemical Babel scripted on the paper.
“Incidentally, I believe you are right about Heidmann and Megalos, Nina,” Purdue said as he sat down on the chair between Don and Nina, setting her tea down carefully. She looked surprised at his statement. He had actually listened to what she was trying to say?
“How so?” she asked. She noticed that his expression showed no ridicule or naughtiness as the night before when he teased her, so he had to be serious.
“They look at each other with a familiarity and some hostility that you don’t see between strangers, really. Besides, the way in which they crossed swords after you left was a testament to bad blood,” Purdue explained while he was struggling to open the sample size margarine tub with his clumsy fingers. “Odd, I can usually open these with no effort,” he moaned.
“Let me,” Nina sighed, and she took it from him to peel the foil-like seal off with her slender hands. “There.”
“Thanks,” he said and proceeded to spread it on his whole wheat toast while Don groaned at something he noticed on the myriad of inked lines on the data sheet.
“What is it? Anything we should know?” Purdue asked just before biting into the crispy bread.
“I am not sure, but from the chemicals in the stone, along with the remnant tissue material I have reason to be pretty sure that this condition was brought about not by calcination from mummification techniques or any of that shit, Dave,” Don gasped, looking up as if he had struck oil.
Purdue shifted in his chair, “Explain?”
“What I see here, my friends is evidence of ancient Alchemical working, but even though I have extensively studied the philosophical and practical elements of Alchemy I have never before seen substantiation of this variant before,” he marveled. “From what I see here, in both instances, the subject had been calcinated on the spot. The very chemistry of their bodies had been reshuffled and instantly dehydrated; then turned to stone by an immeasurable amount of heat which, with the application of a certain chalk could be prevented from turning to ash.”
Purdue worked out the theory in his head while Nina did not bother to hide how confounded she was.
“Look, I take full responsibility for being uninformed in this field, but please, can you explain that more plainly, Don?” she asked, reaching for one of Purdue’s slices of toast. “I mean, how is the chemical process supposed to work then? You know, in short.”
He formulated a very basic explanation in his head to effectively relay the complex structures of chemistry to the historian.
“The process of calcination, in its most common application, usually comprises of the decomposition of calcium carbonate….” he said, but was met with Nina’s blank stare. “Calcium carbonate is limestone, which incidentally is overwhelmingly present in the composition of these statues. But that is to be expected since the mineral is prevalent in Greece anyway.”
“Okay, I’m with you,” she nodded, chewing on the crust of her toast.
“Good. Now, calcination is usually carried out in furnaces or kilns, you know, really high temperatures. With anything less than immense temperatures, this process is impossible,” he described. “Generally, with limestone, this chemical procedure causes carbon dioxide to be driven off to effect the transformation, decomposing carbonate minerals.”
“Like what supposedly turned animals and birds into stone at Lake Natron in Africa,” Purdue muttered inadvertently as he recalled the strange phenomenon he read about.