His warm breath slowly permeated through her hair onto her scalp. The sensation made her flesh crawl, and she moved her head for his mouth to find her cheek instead. Again, two of the men exchanged words, but in clear voices this time. Costa’s lips fell soundlessly on Nina’s skin in what she construed as a loose kiss. Her heart jumped, and she ached to utter a whimper at the sensual surge that possessed her, but she held her breath. Besides, she was not even certain it was a kiss. For all she knew, he could have just pressed his mouth against her face.
They heard the men engaged in normal conversation and by the sound of their fading voices they were leaving the hall. In mute anticipation, Heidmann, Nina, and Costa waited to hear the door. A moment later, they heard the lock click shut, and the voices trailed away on the other side.
“Thank God,” Nina sighed quietly in the confines of the crate. Costa said nothing and did not move as Nina tried to get out. He held her tightly. “Costa, what the fuck?”
She looked back at him. The attractive art professor just grinned, restraining her every time she tried to get out. Nina started giggling at his playful capture.
“Hey, we have work to do, before those apes come back again,” she reminded him.
With a boyish sigh, he relented. “You are no fun, Dr. Gould,” he smiled.
“I am. I just don’t want to end up as a fucking doorstopper,” she muttered as she got out and dusted herself off. She heard Heidmann open the door of his hiding place too, while Costa followed her out of the crate, fumbling at his clothing.
Nina looked up to Heidmann, whose face was distorted in horror. He stood frozen in place, looking towards the door at something behind Nina and Costa. Both spun around to see a single guard still standing there, his gun firmly pointed at Nina.
“You move, I kill the bitch,” he said in a thick accent with steely eyes on the petite historian. Nina felt her body grow numb. She dared not reach for Costa’s hand for fear of the hair trigger zeal of the Russian. The guard shouted loudly for his colleagues over the rumbling thunder and wailing wind. Their heavy boots approached the door, and the latch opened. A tear ran down Nina’s cheek.
In the door, stood three massive mercenaries, smiling at the three intruders.
“Oh God,” Heidmann could be heard on the far side of the room.
“You are dumber than we thought,” the leader laughed, boasting about leaving one man behind to trick the three prowlers into thinking them gone. “Oldest trick.” He stepped inside but did not approach yet. “When I was a little child we played the game… what you call it? Hide and go seek? Eh?”
“Wow, what a genius move for a professional soldier to pull,” Costa remarked.
“Shut up!” the man roared, his pale blue eyes flaring with rage.
His last word still echoed in the hall when his face exploded in a crimson mess of bone fragments and brain matter. Splattering brains everywhere, the man’s body fell to its knees and collapsed onto the dirt with a thump. Nina screamed in horror and sank to her haunches as another guard’s neck split open from the precision shooting of Dr. Donovan Graham that cleaved the guards from behind. Purdue came through the falling bodies, dodging bullets to grab Nina and pull her to safety.
Clasped under his arm, he held an M16 assault rifle. Nina could not believe her eyes.
“Purdue?” she gasped in the hail of gunfire and the crack of thunder. “Where did you get that?”
“No time now, love,” he replied in a serious tone. “Come quickly! Come with me!”
They ducked under the external piping along the wall to find another exit through to the smaller main hall. With the gunfire in the background, she could hear the hard rain on the corrugated iron roof of the high structure as they cowered towards the door.
Nina glanced back to see if Costa and Heidmann had emerged as well, but all she could see was the muzzle flare lighting up Don’s wince each time he pulled the trigger. Outside the rain was coming down hard, making it difficult to navigate the challenging and unknown terrain.
“Watch out for potholes, Nina!” Purdue shouted through the loud clatter of bullets and raindrops. The icy rain almost instantly drenched Nina’s hair and clothing, and her combat boots felt like anvils on her feet as she raced toward the fence. With some unintended, but well-placed moves, she and Purdue made it through the treacherous rusty thorns of the fence and made for the lone van.
“Get in!” he shouted.
“But what about the others?” she asked.
“Don will take care of them. Just get in the van!” Purdue insisted.
Spinning the wheels on the soft mud, Purdue threw the van into second gear a few meters into their escape, leaving the war in their trail. Nina wept in shock, putting her hand in her pocket where she had stashed the piece of paper she retrieved from the proud Nazi statue.
Chapter 23
Don looked for Heidmann and Costa but found no trace of them. Assuming they had been hit by stray bullets, he searched the hall for them. The smoke had cleared, and dust had settled, leaving the archeologist alone in the tomb of rock and ash, listening to the shower outside. The smell of gunpowder floated around him and as he passed the strewn bodies the coppery odor of fresh blood and raw flesh overcame him. Don’s body convulsed and he fell to his knees, vomiting from a combination of disgust and nervous release.
After he had emptied the contents of his stomach on the dusty floor, he staggered to his feet. He could not find Costa or Heidmann. No matter where he looked, they were absent, both in stone and flesh. In his light headed daze of shock, Don completely overlooked the scaffolding against one wall, where Heidmann was perching low over the limp body of Costa Megalos. Heidmann did not want to confront the robust and accurately aiming archeologist from Dundee. Therefore, he elected to remain hidden.
Don eventually gave up and headed for the exit. He hoped Purdue and Nina had gotten away safely. The rain was like a soothing shower of frigid water over him. For a moment, Don stood still to revel in the pleasure of being washed clean of all the dust and blood that tainted his body and face. He looked up at the sky and closed his eyes, unafraid of the lightning, and opened his mouth to receive the soothing cool water. In all the adrenaline-fueled panic, his mouth had dried up, and he eagerly gulped down every bit of water his mouth collected.
When he had had enough, he stumbled ahead to where they had entered. This time, he made sure that he did not get caught on the sharp teeth of the junk metal and die of tetanus. In fact, he pictured his large body being caught up in the tangles of steel and rust, being left there to starve to death with nobody coming to find him. Don wondered what it would feel like to have infected scratches, bleeding out while the starvation and thirst tormented him day after day until he went mad with despair.
“Christ, aren’t you a bloody ray of sunshine, Donny-boy?” he reprimanded himself as he climbed through the other side and realized that he would not be spending his last days as dried Scottish jerky. On the other side of the fence, there was nothing, but a heinous thought suddenly surfaced in his head to prompt Don to dash toward the tree line.
‘What if that ugly snake-headed thing was around here?’
The very thought of the repulsive girl he saw in the weak headlights of the van kept Don unaware of his fatigue or the sting in his side as he ran for shelter under the dark trees. He had to stick to the road, though, to make sure he did not get lost. And with his luck, he would probably end up at some shack to ask for directions and get captured by the serpent monster and become dinner.
It was too dark to see anything and his cell phone screen was of no help. The rain prevented any listening for movement, but he could have sworn that he could hear the sound of an engine idling somewhere nearby. Thinking that it was just his hopeful ear being mean to him, he took rest briefly against a tree. From where he leaned with his back against the trunk and his legs folded under him in a crouched position, he surveyed his surroundings.