A deep clang came from a few hundred yards under the floor and the earth shook. Sam wrapped Nina in his arms and pulled her farther from the edge, while the vicar retreated to the third row of seats.
“What do you think the festivals and their human sacrifices were about?” the vicar shouted at Purdue. “Once the grave of Odin is opened, only a human sacrifice can appease the gods not to kill us all and take dominion of the earth!”
A manic howl echoed from closer to the surface and the light brightened slightly.
“How do we close it?” Purdue asked Thomas, his face suspended in terror, now that he believed superior beings lived under the earth.
“You imbecile!” Thomas shouted. “You were warned!”
“Jesus! Let’s get out of here!” Sam told Nina and he ran out of the church, lugging her behind him.
A helicopter was busy touching down on the open grove a few yards from the church grounds.
“Okay, this is surreal,” Nina gasped through her tears.
“It’s Paddy!” Sam exclaimed in surprise. “And he has the generator!”
Patrick Smith ran toward them with a small, black case in his hand. He hugged them both at once as greeting and then he looked at them. His face was scarred and he had a broken nose.
“You found Hilda?” Sam asked.
“She had killed her superior, Beinta Dock, to take the reins of the Vril Society. Now that she had the generator she did not have to develop her mind and psychic abilities to generate vril, so she got greedy and thought to take over the organization,” he informed them while the rotors of the helicopter whipped their hair.
“Good to see you, Paddy!” Sam shouted in the din of the flying machine.
“Is there an earthquake?” Paddy asked.
“Oh, Paddy, you don’t want to know what these tremors are about,” Nina said.
“I have to give this to my mate Thomas,” Paddy smiled.
Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the rotors of the helicopter stopped dead and the engine shut off instantly, leaving only the clicks of a cooling engine to be heard. The rain had turned red. Like blood it streamed over everything and it looked like nature was hemorrhaging.
Nina yelped in horror.
“What the fuck just happened?” Sam screamed, his eyes wide with the supernatural physics the vicinity was subjected to all of a sudden. “Come, Paddy!”
They ran back to the church and stopped in their tracks when they saw the light filling the whole church. Purdue came rushing out into the lobby, away from the sub-octave voices in the hole. “I think I went a bit too far on this one,” Purdue said. His eyes were wet and his voice shivered. “Hello, Patrick.”
“Hello, David.”
“Thomas!” Sam shouted. “Thomas! We have your generator!”
The voices ceased, but the thunderous hum and rumble continued. Their watches had stopped, their hair filled with static, and the electricity in the church was disengaged. From the smoky white glare, Thomas’ massive muscular frame came into view.
“Thomas?” Paddy asked.
“Patrick, I presume,” Thomas replied and shook the agent’s hand. “I cannot thank you enough.
“And I you,” Paddy smiled. “Hilda Kreuz and Beinta Dock are no longer operating.”
“That is good. Can you incarcerate this maniac too?” Thomas asked, putting his hand on Purdue’s shoulder. Purdue and Paddy laughed nervously, but somehow they knew the German was not bluffing.
Thomas shook Sam’s hand, then Nina’s, and at their befuddled looks he explained.
“Please. PLEASE. Keep the two parts of the chain separate… forever,” he implored.
“I’ll make sure of it,” Purdue promised. “I give you my word, Thomas Thorsen. I’ll do that one thing right.”
“Are you going back, Thomas?’ Nina asked.
“I have to. Either I go back down, or they will come up to the surface. And one day they will. Just see me as a modern-day human sacrifice to the gods,” he smiled awkwardly.
“But they won’t kill you… as a blood sacrifice,” Nina worried.
“They won’t. I’m already half like them and besides, they killed us in 1944 already,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ll be back when the world comes to an end. Hope not to see you here.”
He took the black case and walked into the light, the blinding shaft of white enveloping his large frame until he was gone.
“Kind of sounds like Jesus Christ, doesn’t he?” Sam remarked.
The vicar sat on the opposite side of the room, watching the light die slowly as the portal receded. Under their soles, the Earth became still again. By the time the pew had recovered its place, the rain was clear again. The chemicals exuded by the portal had reacted with the water and colored it crimson. Now that the Earth’s atmosphere had recovered the balance of its compounds, the electrical currents were restored.
“Makes you appreciate the term ‘playing God,’ eh?” Nina said.
“This is what happens when we try to manipulate the power of gods,” Sam concurred.
“Yes, yes, I get the picture, you two,” Purdue admitted. “I have learned my lesson. From now on I’ll keep to skiing resorts and science symposiums.”
“Yeah, right,” Sam and Nina said together.
Purdue approached the shocked vicar, who was still muttering in Swedish. The old man’s whole body was shivering and he prayed without ceasing.
“Vicar,” Purdue started,
“No, just leave! Please just leave and take that accursed gold with you!”
“Vicar, I was wondering if you would like to keep the shorter chain,” Purdue said. “I can even send someone to melt it down for you. It would fund the work you do for the local community and that way, that door could never be opened again.”
“What?” the old man asked in amazement. “You cannot be serious.”
“I am. This… what happened here, should never be risked again,” Purdue said. “Sam and I will carry it to where you want to store it until I send someone to melt it down.”
“God bless you, Scotland,” the vicar smiled. “But never come back, okay?”
“Not soon,” Purdue chuckled.
Paddy took Sam and Nina aside.
With a grave expression he sighed. What he wished to convey would be deeply uncomfortable and unpleasant, especially after all ended relatively well.
“Sam, I don’t know how to begin,” he said. “Before, when I have helped you, or when I used my resources to give you guys a hand with your… your… problems, it was not too much of a problem. I have managed to keep it from the service and so on,” he rambled, hoping that saying it quicker would lighten the blow.
“You can’t help us anymore,” Sam stated, seeing his best friend’s dire efforts.
“Aye,” Paddy said. “I’m your best friend, Sam. I’d give my left nut to get you out of a crunch. You know that.”
“Aye.”
“But this time… my wife…” Paddy started sobbing like a child, and Sam spared no time in grabbing his friend in an embrace to console him.
“I know, Paddy. I know what you both went through because of us,” he admitted to his weeping friend.
“Because of me,” Nina said. “Had I not gone back to the site, none of this would have happened with the generator.”
“Nina, we would still have almost brought on the end of the world,” Sam comforted her, but she was adamant.
“Paddy,” she said sincerely, “I absolutely understand. But please, don’t discard Sam because of me. “All these innocent people who were killed in pursuit of this device — it was all because of my returning to the dig site, Sam. And I agree. We should stop calling on Paddy for everything we cannot do ourselves.”
“That is all… I ask… is just,” Paddy sniffled, trying to compose himself, “don’t get me involved anymore, all right? Two colleagues died, hospital staff is dead and injured, flight staff dead and injured, me and Cassie… Jesus! Cassie,” he whined. Sam grabbed him again.