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“Yes, that’s gotta be it! And there were three tasks, right?” Phoe grabbed the hammer and pulled it down all the way to the bottom, and then up three notches. The sand immediately stopped pouring in from the ceiling, and the statue started to slide over to one side, revealing yet another spiral stairway heading deeper into the earth. The sand descended into the darkness below.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Phoe heard someone or something moving around on the lower level.

  She asked Jonathan for the gun and put her index finger to her lips to make sure he didn’t make any noise, and Peter kept a muzzle on Jeremy, whose will to fight seemed to have disappeared. Sensitive ears? Sheesh! Crouched on the stairs, she could see the lower level without actually going all the way down. A cloaked figure struggled to get a piece of the wall to move without success. Whomever it was remained seemingly ignorant of their presence just above. Phoe quietly moved closer to her target, not noticing anything special about the room. It was another ten-foot circular chamber, very similar to the one they had just left, and of course, full of sand. Shit! There are no obvious exits!

  No doors or any obvious sign that there has ever been a way out of the room, except for the way they came in. With the gun pointed at the mysterious figure, she tried not to slip on the sand-covered stairs as she descended. She managed to make it to the bottom with Jonathan right beyond her.

  “Freeze!” ordered Phoe.

  The cloaked figure stopped pushing on the wall and straightened. The voice said it was a male, and he emitted a menacing chuckle, raising his hands and slowly turning around to face her.

  “Interesting. You’re not as stupid as I thought,” she said in a low tone.

  As soon as the cloaked figure was facing her completely, she nearly dropped the pistol.

  Holy shit! “Francis? How did you get here!”

  “You’re just as stupid as I thought,” he said. He motioned to Jeremy, who spoke to him in Norwegian. The two laughed. “Did you really think you could stop all of us from protecting what isn’t yours to take? Well, I had high hopes we would eliminate you before now. Your perseverance has been an unexpected nuisance. I have no time for you, stupid woman!”

  Phoe approached him, determined to hide the powerful rage building inside her. “Hey, asshole. Who’s holding the gun? You will make time for us!”

  Jonathan and Peter joined them, with Jeremy’s arms pulled up behind him to a painful burn by Peter. Jeremy glared at Peter the entire time.

  Peter frisked Jeremy and then Phoe pointed the gun closer to Francis’s head as Peter frisked him, too, removing a meat cleaver and butcher knife concealed inside his cloak. After handing both weapons to Jonathan, the three of them faced the pair of miscreants.

  Jeremy began to laugh nervously, leaning against the wall closest to him and sliding down into the sand with his legs crossed.

  “Now, we’re all stuck in here!” he whined, running his hands through the sand and watching the granules flow through his fingers.

  Phoe looked back up the stairs, and her flashlight confirmed her sudden fear. The openings have closed? What in the... How?!

  “How in the hell did the room close up without us hearing anything?” asked Peter. The color had drained from his face.

  “What, were you expecting Thor to rumble again?” asked Jeremy, chuckling sadly. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. You can even shoot me if you want. I’ve never made it past this room before. Neither has Francis.”

  “What in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Peter demanded.

  Jeremy responded with a blank expression. It appeared all of the fight had gone out of him. “It means that we are all stuck here together for eternity.”

  Jonathan removed his glasses, squinting as he looked around the room. “I’m not ready to give up.”

  “Neither am I,” said Phoe, moving to the nearest wall opposite the Norwegians. She began touching and lightly pounding on the rough rock. “This is a mistake. It’s illogical to make these other secret passageways just to end here.”

  “Search all you want, but you will soon find it is useless,” said Francis.

  “Where were you supposed to be going anyway, Francis?” Phoe glared at him while Peter and Jonathan joined in the search for any possible way out.

  “I was supposed to be meeting some new recruits. We both were. Not that it matters now.”

  She got in his face. “I don’t believe you, you little shit! I think maybe the only truth either of you has told us is that you never made it this far. I think you want us to find the way out for you.”

  Jeremy’s eyes turned black as his anger bubbled to the surface. He stood up and approached her. “I don’t give a shit what you and your henchmen think! This is where we are and this is where we’ll stay!”

  Phoe looked back up the stairs that went nowhere. “Did you know the task challenge right away?”

  He turned away from her and sat down again. “Of course. When it comes to Thor, I know almost all of what I need to know. But if you look around you, there is nothing here that I can use my knowledge on.”

  “Hmmm. You may be right,” she said thoughtfully. “Then we just have to look for something else.”

  The Americans searched the entire room for almost half an hour, to no avail. Meanwhile, the Norwegians watched, wearing wan smiles.

  There must be something we’re missing. Phoe moved up closer to Peter and tried to keep her voice low so only he would hear her. “The room is a puzzle. We’re looking at it wrong.”

  “What do you mean, Phoe?”

  “Think about it. There is absolutely nothing extra in this room except for what?”

  “Us?”

  “I actually thought of that first, but we don’t seem to have any effect on the room. If it were the case, don’t you think we’d be out by now?”

  “Okay,” he said, no longer whispering. Even she could see the other three occupants’ eyes were locked on the pair as they conversed. “So... you’re saying we need to find something that maybe wasn’t in here before, but now it is, even though it could apply to us; but it doesn’t because we would be out of here by now if it did? Oh, Phoe, now my head hurts.”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but—” Phoe stopped in mid-sentence as she stared at the top two or three stone stairs nearest the ceiling. She noted the sand that had come down from the upper level. It couldn’t be that easy.

  She walked back to Jeremy. “How did you get here before us?”

  “You saw me leave in a speedboat. I had a head start. Then you saw me in the parking lot upstairs.”

  “No. I’m talking about how you beat us here. You beat us to Fritzlar and we were in a jet.”

  Of course, it took twenty-four hours to reach the jet, from Hammerfest to Oslo. But her gut instinct told her she was on the right track. So did the guilty look in Jeremy’s and Francis’s eyes.

  Jeremy refused to look her in the eyes any longer.

  She persisted. “What about what happened in the Chosen’s computer lab? The laptop was destroyed with electricity. It may have even been a lightning bolt.”

  Jeremy looked up in surprise. “A lightning bolt is a silly thing to have in a computer lab. How could it get there?”

  “That’s what I’m asking you. I know how to get us out of here. If you answer both of my questions truthfully, then I will get us all out of here. If you don’t, then we will suffocate together. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s getting harder to breathe.”

  Peter and Jonathan nodded approvingly.

  Jeremy looked at all three of them and then back at Phoe.

  “We call it Thor’s Thunder,” he said. “I created it by mistake. It was designed from an ordinary Taser. As you probably know, there are known deaths caused by Tasers used against humans. They are diagnosed with something called ‘excited delirium.’ This is when the body experiences several side effects from being tased, such as psychomotor agitation, anxiety, elevated body temperature, increased strength and more. It is
most common in males with a history of mental illness. Anyway, think of that kind of response, except with anything electrical in nature.”

  “You’re a scientist?” asked Peter, his brow furrowed, obviously struggling to put the asshole and scholar together as one person.

  “Somewhat, yes. I have redesigned the Taser to only harm electrical devices. When Thor’s Thunder is pressed against anything that needs electricity, the juice not only is able to go into any circuit that it has access to via the initial contact, but the charge actually builds in power and absorbs the energy as it travels to complete the circuit. The electricity gives it more power with every circuit it goes through. Once the circuit is complete, it reaches a critical state and can no longer contain the power it has absorbed. It then not only destroys the last item it goes into, but the resulting feedback causes everything it had gone through to short out with an even distribution. You can’t find the point of origin. Once activated, the only way it can be stopped is if you disconnect the next thing in its path to prevent the circuit from being completed. Everything that it had gone through up to that point would still be fried. Do you follow me?”

  Jonathan couldn’t contain his excitement. “That’s frigging amazing!”

  “You can even leave after you have placed the initial charge,” added Jeremy.

  Phoe was impressed, but she refused to let Jeremy see it. “Okay. That may explain the computer lab, but what about being able to beat us here?”

  “I can only assume that whatever jet you may use... mine’s faster.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to call it ‘Thor’s Lightning’?”

  “I suppose, but I like the way ‘Thor’s Thunder’ sounds.”

  Chapter Twenty-six

  The air became staler and everyone could tell the oxygen was getting scarce at an alarming rate.

  Despite the small room being cool when they first arrived, the temperature had steadily risen since they were locked in together. Everyone was dripping with sweat.

  Phoe climbed the stairs, smiling as she reached where the sand seeped in. She pushed off as much sand as she could. Some of it stuck to her sweaty hands. She made sure to get as much sand on her hands as possible while also cleaning off all of the sand she could see before her.

  When finished, she jumped down to the sandy floor.

  Jeremy glared at her defiantly. “That was your plan? To add more sand to the sand on the floor? I’m glad that I told you about Thor’s Thunder. Now I can die in peace.”

  “Maybe I waited because I wanted to make sure that what you told me wasn’t bullshit. But you’re telling me the truth. One more thing... Show me Thor’s Thunder.”

  Jeremy proudly pulled out a small device that resembled a Taser that had been tied around his ankle, and obviously missed by Peter’s frisk. He placed it against the skin of his arm and triggered it. It emitted a small spark that didn’t harm him, even with the sweat on his arm. “See? Harmless to humans.”

  Phoe took her hands covered in sand and sweat and found a random starting point at the base of the wall. She placed one hand in the sand as deep as it would go while keeping her other hand in contact with the wall. Her palm was flush against the wall as she started to follow it. Finding it difficult to keep her balance, she continued this exercise until a rumbling sound emanated from the portion of the wall that she’d just passed. Peter and Jonathan looked on in amazement as one part of the wall descended into the floor, exposing not only a cool rush of air and oxygen, but another corridor.

  Jeremy and Francis were just as amazed. “How? How did you do that?”

  “You shared your secret. I’ll share mine. One thing about basic physics is, you never overlook the obvious. There were no symbols, no riddles, nothing to tell us what to do. You knew that Thor had to accomplish three tasks when you came upon the statue from upstairs. You answered the puzzle quickly, so that you never had the sand fall from the ceiling like Jonathan and I did. The sand didn’t start falling until I approached the statue, which told me that we needed teamwork to solve the puzzle, because it was only after both of us approached the statue that the sand poured out. This is a weights and measurement puzzle. I don’t know how whoever built this managed to get everything so precise, but they did something so that any extra sand placed in the right place would trigger the next door. The sand had something to do with our freedom. It was easy to overlook the obvious, because in this case, the obvious made no sense.”

  They nodded thoughtfully while Peter approached the new doorway.

  “We have to be especially careful from here on out,” he advised. “We have no idea what’s next.”

  Jeremy stood and headed for the doorway. “The least I can do is take point since you saved all of our lives.” He carefully headed into the new corridor.

  Jonathan followed Jeremy as Peter paused to speak with Phoe, whispering his message so that no one else could hear him. “Nice story. Do you really believe that’s what happened?”

  “I don’t know, Peter. All I know is I had to try something. I admit to being desperate. I had no idea my experiment would work. But since it did, I needed to make Riddick think it was my plan all along. I was scared to death. I don’t like being down here, but I dislike something else even more.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I don’t like not knowing what’s next.”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Jeremy put one foot on the sandy bed of the corridor.

  He breathed easier when his foot triggered nothing but an impression in the sand. The two-meter wide corridor led to another wooden door at the end, about fifteen meters away. A swastika graced the door with an engraving of Mjölnir tilted slightly in the middle of it. Along each wall were three small rectangular alcoves. Each appeared to be a mirror image of the one across from it, except for the fact that they each had a different object inside. Starting on the left, the objects were a fox fur, an antique bottle, and an old carpenter’s hammer. On the right side, the objects consisted of an old belt, a clay wing, and an old wedding veil.

  He watched everyone else looking carefully at each object without touching anything. Phoe was also interested in the wooden door.

  “It appears there is another riddle. The obvious thing would be to get the hammer as part of the puzzle,” he suggested.

  “No, I don’t think so,” she said. “For one thing, a carpenter’s hammer and the Hammer of Thor are two different animals.” Phoe examined the hammer in the alcove. “Any ideas, other than the hammer? Anyone?”

  Peter shook his head, for the moment focused on the ceiling. “I, for one, would like to know where the air in here is coming from. Not that I’m ungrateful, mind you. Also, it appears the wall behind us has closed without much noise.”

  Phoe spun around in alarm and gasped to see it was true. She saw what Jeremy knew all along: There was no going back. Ever.

  Jonathan examined the floor around the wooden door. “I would like to know how the builders navigated around the underground sewer system to avoid detection. It must have taken a real long time to reroute the path around it.”

  Jonathan flinched as Jeremy responded aggressively. “The sewer system came later.”

  Phoe upbraided Jeremy, eyeing him suspiciously. “It’s amazing how much you know about the construction of this place and yet, you had no idea how to get past the obstructions; some of which were easy puzzles if you had studied them.”

  “What, you still don’t trust me?”

  “Maybe I trust you. Maybe not. But I have an idea you’re ready for more of what’s to come than we are.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not,” Jeremy’s mimic was followed by a wry smile. He presently studied the bottle of water. “I think we should see which of these items is directly related to the thunder god. The fur could resemble Thor’s raiment. The hammer could be there to throw us off, because it is not the same as Mjölnir.”

  “Right. We can eliminate that.” Phoe looked at the belt. “This belt could represent th
e Belt of Strength, but I believe it should be categorized the same as the Hammer.”

  “Agreed.” Jeremy moved on to the clay wing. “This is interesting. I know the mythos of Thor and would be hard-pressed to accept this as anything but an attempt to steer us from the true goal.”

  Peter laughed while looking at the wedding veil. “What about this? Thor wasn’t married, was he?”

  Phoe smiled. “Yes, he was. Well, in myth, anyway. He was married to Sif and, if I’m not mistaken, they had a couple of sons. The wedding veil could actually represent one of two instances in Thor’s life. The marriage to Sif or the time he disguised himself as a bride to retrieve his hammer.”

  Jeremy was impressed with Phoe’s knowledge of the mythological God of Thunder. “I would go with the story of him disguising himself as a bride, because it makes more sense in the context of the kind of riddles we’ve been getting.”

  Peter looked relieved. “Well, at least this doesn’t appear to be one of those timed puzzles.”

  “Jonathan, you previously mentioned something about a labyrinth,” said Phoe. “I’ve seen everything but a maze, so far.”

  “I don’t know, Ms. Phoenix. Maybe we haven’t hit it yet.”

  “That’s promising. You mean, this could get worse?” Peter looked more pensive than he sounded, as he headed toward the wooden door.

  “I’m sure this is just the beginning,” said Phoe. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Riddick?”

  “I would agree.” Jeremy felt that Phoe was trying to push him into revealing what he hadn’t shared yet. She is incredibly intuitive! But he had played this game before and he had never been broken. Never a loss. Ever since he could remember, he would only reveal what he deemed necessary to gain the trust of those around him. “Should we discount the clay wing?”

  Phoe looked closely at the artifact. She didn’t seem that impressed by the clever reproduction. “I wouldn’t discount anything yet. Is there anything in the bottle?”

  Jonathan picked up the bottle and emptied it out in the sand. A small garden snake came out and slithered under the door.