CHAPTER 98

__________________________________

The wind pulled at Ardia’s hair. It ran through her hair, tugging at it, making it whip wildly around her face. She gripped the tiny crevice in the rock with her fingers and, despite knowing better, she looked down.

The SUV, and the two figures that stood watching them, were tiny dots below them. An eternity of space seemed to stretch between them. She saw the ground below her and could not even begin to estimate how high up the mountain they had climbed.

She turned her attention back to the rock face and knew that Slayer had been correct. She was holding herself to the stone with a grip that could crush steel. Homer was attached to the face of the mountain a few feet from her, using a grip that was at least as strong, to support himself.

‘Only you have feet that can grip as well,’ she grunted to herself as she reached up and found another hand hold.

Homer watched her as she ascended. He seemed to be relaxed and completely untroubled. He climbed alongside her but seemed to spare all of his attention for her.

Then the next handhold turned to dust. She couldn’t know if was because of her superhuman grip or because it had simply been a poor point of contact. It didn’t matter because she was suddenly swinging out into the abyss of nothingness behind her. Clinging to the rock face with only her other hand, with a grip that was sure to fail, she thought her end had arrived. With her legs dangling helplessly into nothing, she closed her eyes.

Then Homer was behind her, around her. In a heartbeat, he was there. His monstrous hands seemed to adhere to the rock. He was behind her, his arms reaching out to hold onto the mountain, on either side of her. She felt his massive, strong chest pressed to her back. He cocooned her to the face of the mountain. Even through the biting wing, she could feel the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck.

He said, ‘You don’t need to worry.’

She gasped. Adrenaline still shook her muscles. This was not her element. She said, ‘Homer, I don’t like this. I’m afraid.’

‘Then I have another idea,’ he said.

He clasped her abdomen in the crook of one hand and wrist and picked her up. Effortlessly, and easily, he slung her around and onto his back. Without even thinking about it, she wrapped her arms around his neck.

‘Is that better?’ he asked.

Holding on to him, feeling the massive strength of his back pressed against her, she marvelled. She was the antithesis of the maiden in distress. She could fight, strike and kill better than virtually any man she knew. Yet, somehow, the universe had found a way to make her feel helpless except for the aid of a male.

Of course, Homer hadn’t created this situation. And, somehow, there was a part of her that didn’t hate being rescued. For all of her power, a part of her enjoyed being helped by another being that was as powerful, if not more powerful, than she was. It excited her.

‘It will do,’ she said.

Then Homer started to climb. He moved up the mountain as quickly as she might have walked along a horizontal surface. And she went with him, her arms wrapped around his neck.

Homer gripped the edge of the platform and heaved them up.

The entrance to the facility was a steel door, set into the wall of the mountain. The door would be invisible from above and below as it was recessed into the face of the mountain. In front of the door the mountain jutted out, forming a small rock platform on which they could both stand.

Ardia slid from Homer’s back and stood alongside him. They both stood for a moment then. Ardia just stared at the door, considering what might be behind it. Was this the place where her mother had come from? Was this the facility that was referenced so frequently in her mother’s diary? Was The Crucible waiting for them, behind these doors? And, what was it?

Homer stood alongside her. His ribs and chest heaved as he regained his breath and gathered his strength.

‘Here we are,’ said Ardia.

Homer echoed her, ‘Here we are.’

Ardia gestured towards the steel door. She said, ‘Would you like to do the honors?’

Homer waved her forward and said, ‘After you.’

Ardia stepped forward and grasped the edge of the steel door with both hands. She tensed herself, bracing all her muscles for the effort she would need to rip the door open. But, when she pulled, the door swung open easily.

‘Makes sense,’ she said. ‘If Troy was back here, or sent someone back here, to hide The Crucible, then they would have already broken the latch.’

They both spent a moment staring into the darkness of the doorway. Then, as one, they moved forward and entered the darkness.

CHAPTER 99

_____________________________________

Slayer paced back and forth in front of the SUV. His head continued to incessantly swivel up towards where he imagined the door was, and back down to the ground where he paced. Behind him, O’Connor leaNed against the bonnet of the SUV and smoked. O’Connor’s eyes stayed fairly well fixed on the spot where they had seen Homer and Ardia disappear.

Slayer said, ‘How long has it been?’

O’Connor glanced at his wristwatch. He said, ‘Barely ten minutes.’

‘How long do you think it’s going to take them?’

O’Connor said, ‘I don’t know anything about the interior of the place. You’re the one with the knowledge. So, how long do you think it will take?’

Slayer kept pacing, kept watching. He said, ‘Metis told me that there’s a large central chamber up there. She said it was used for storing what I assume were specimens, or test subjects. I think I saw a cage in Berlin that may have been used for storing some of those specimens. She said that The Crucible is hidden under the floor at the back of that room.’

‘So how long do you think it's going to take?’ O’Connor asked, smirking slightly.

‘It really shouldn’t take that long. I can’t imagine how they could take more than twenty minutes.’

O’Connor said, ‘Ah, there’s a lot of things that could eat up time. There could be locked doors. It might be harder than you think to find it. There’s also the sightseeing element.’

‘Sightseeing?’

O’Connor said, ‘This is the place where Ardia reckons, and I reckon too, that Patil, her mother, came from. There’s history here for her that she’s been dreaming about. Homer, too, probably feels like this is part of the trail. I’d give my back teeth to have a look up there myself.’

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Slayer stopped pacing and stood, watched the place where he imagined the entrance was. He stood rigidly, peering up the vast distance. O’Connor sensed the change in his behavior and walked up to join him.

O’Connor said, ‘What is it?’

Slayer kept staring as he said, ‘I’m not sure. I thought I saw movement.’

‘They’re back out already?’

Slayer said, ‘I’m not sure.’ His tone of voice was ominous. It sounded like he was, in fact, quite sure of what he’d seen.’

O’Connor said, ‘I’ll get the binoculars from the car.’

Slayer continued to stare as O’Connor hurried to the SUV. Again he saw a flicker of movement, this time he was more certain of what he’d seen.

When O’Connor came back and stood alongside him, he was carrying a heavy pair of binoculars. O’Connor raised the binoculars and peered through them, towards the hidden entrance. He froze, only for a heartbeat, then said, ‘Holy shit.’

‘Yeah…’ Slayer seemed to agree with him. ‘What do we do?’

‘Does Ardia have her cell phone?’ O’Connor asked.

Slayer said, ‘Yeah, but it’s not like she’s going to have reception.’

O’Connor gripped Slayer by the shoulder. His eyes were bulging and urgent. He said, ‘We’ve got to try at least!’

Slayer took out his phone and looked at it with little optimism. As he selected and dialed Ardia, he said, ‘I’ve barely got any bars. It’s not going to get better when you put God knows how many feet or solid rock in the way.’

O’Connor said nothing, he just continued to look through the binoculars. His posture grew more and more tense. ‘Jesus Christ.’

Slayer stood with him, with the phone held to his ear. After a few seconds he brought it back and shook his head. He said, ‘Nothing.’

O’Connor didn’t remove his face from the binoculars. He said, ‘Keep trying. For the love of God, you keep on trying.’

CHAPTER 100

____________________________________________________

Ardia and Homer stood in the darkness, Ardia wielding a flashlight in front of her. The blackness in the place was almost impenetrable. Somehow, it seemed even bleaker and darker than the facility in the subway under Berlin had been.

The beam of the flashlight revealed little detail. They seemed to be standing in a tunnel, or corridor. The walls of the corridor were the rough stone of a cave. The floor was concrete. She could see recesses ahead that may have been doors. She could see some steel reinforcing beams in the ceiling.

‘Wow,’ she said.

‘Yes,’ Homer said.

They walked slowly forward. As they walked, Homer pushed open one of the doors in the corridor and Ardia played the flashlight beam into it. It was oddly reminiscent of the facility in Berlin. This little room was an abandoned office.

They move further into the tunnel. The light of the beam showed that the tunnel was winding, and sloping slightly downward.

‘I can’t believe how big this place seemed to be,’ said Ardia.

Homer gestured to a lightswitch on the wall. He said, ‘Maybe that will help.’

Ardia smiled, ‘No Homer. There won’t be any power.’

Homer had flicked it anyway. Immediately, a lamp mounted to the cave wall, flickered with light and then exploded in a spray of glass. Ahead, several more lamps flickered. Most of them died. A couple remained glowing, casting a trembling glow into the tunnel. The glass windowed door of one of the offices ahead of them grew illuminated. The light was very uncertain, flickering chaotically. It was still a great deal better than the single flashlight. Another light exploded.

‘How can there be… This doesn’t make sense, there can’t be power. How can the lights even work after, what? Sixty years? What kind of tech did they have here?’

‘From what we’ve seen, they had technology that the rest of the world is still dreaming about?’ Homer said.

‘Did you know the lights would work?’ Ardia asked.

Homer smiled sheepishly. He shook his head and said, ‘Modern technology is still quite mysterious to me. Most of me still seems to think of it like magic. Flick a switch, and let there be light.’

‘Well, this should make our job a lot easier, at least,’ Ardia said.

‘So, we just keep going?’ Homer said.

Ardia nodded, ‘Slayer seems to think that if we just keep going, we’ll reach the end of the main corridor. That’s where we’ll find the big room.’

They continued to walk. As they did, Homer said, ‘How does this place make you feel?’

Ardia shrugged, still playing the flashlight around to augment the poor light. She said, ‘Confusing. Is it weird that I’m a little excited by this place? I mean, I know my mother has only had terrible things to say about it. But still, I can’t help but feel like there’s a big part of my story here. Is that weird?’

Homer said, ‘No. I felt the same thing in Berlin. When you’re like we are, different, I think you need explanations. I know where, what, I came from. But, my father, Prowler… There’s no explanation for what he is, where he came from. That means there’s no explanations for what I am either. And I think that’s something that all people need. To know what they are.’

Ardia said, ‘What about what Stryker said? About the scientist, Ilya Ivanovich? And his experiments?’

Homer said, ‘Yes. That makes a lot of sense. We’ve all naturally used the word hybrid to describe the others. When I look in the mirror, I think I can see that as well. It’s hard to think about sometimes, that I might be part human and part animal. I really don’t think of myself like that. I think of myself as a man.’

A silence fluttered between them. Then Ardia reached out and put a hand on his arm, while they walked. She only let it rest there for a moment, giving a small squeeze. She said, ‘We all think of you as a man. If anything, you’re something more than that.’

‘Like you,’ Homer said.

The silence resumed and stayed with them as they walked. The corridor kept winding down, in an ever widening arch.

‘We’re out of leads now,’ said Ardia.

‘What?’ said Homer.

Ardia said, ‘The mad dash we’ve been on, it’s drying up a little. Sure, the facility in Berlin is still there to go through, and there’s this place. By and large though, I think we’ve reached either the end of the line, or a break.’

‘Not the end,’ said Homer. ‘But, maybe a break would not be so bad. Everything has happened so fast.’

‘And maybe we’ll have time to do some of that training we’ve talked about.’

Homer said, ‘I’d like that.’

As they rounded the last bend, two double doors blocked their path.

Ardia said, ‘This is probably it.’

Homer didn’t hesitate, he pushed the doors open and waited for Ardia to enter in front of him.

Flickering lights illuminated a huge room. It was a cavern, somehow formed here, in the heart of the mountain. The ceiling was dozens of feet high, and domed. The floor was covered in a vinyl or linoleum floor covering. There were doors on the walls, presumably leading to further corridors and rooms.

The room itself was full of equipment. Much of it was unfamiliar to Ardia. Large steel cases, covered with switches and dials. The machinery looked ancient, vintage. There were hoists and what looked like ancient battery powered trolleys with massive flat beds for moving cargo.

And there were cages. Dozens of cages. The smallest was big enough to contain Homer at a squeeze. They all looked like they had been built to contain animals that were at least as powerful as he was.

Ardia produced a thermite grenade and they walked towards the back of the room.

‘This is where it’s meant to be,’ Ardia said.

Homer walked to the wall of the cavern and plucked at the edge of the linoleum floor. He pried a little of it free and pulled. The floor moved and came loose in a huge sheet. As he peeled it back, Ardia saw that the floor beneath was solid concrete. As he pulled further, a concrete panel was revealed.

Ardia felt her breath catching in her throat. So, here was The Crucible. This was the thing that the hybrids had considered valuable enough to slaughter an entire village to attain. This was the item that had, at least partially, been used to make her and Homer.

‘Shall I?’ Homer said, pointing to the hatch.

‘Please,’ said Ardia, clutching the grenade.

Homer lifted the concrete hatch aside, revealing a small steel box. The box was no bigger than a shoe box.

Ardia locked eyes with Homer. They both seemed to have a sense of enormity about this event.

‘Here we go, I guess,’ said Ardia.

‘No,’ a voice echoed to them. It spoke calmly, and surely. The voice was refined and patient.

Homer and Ardia spun to face the source of the voice. Before them stood eight hybrids. Six of them were of the generic description that they had already encountered. The seventh was the monstrous Hercules. The eighth was new to them.

The newest Hybrid was bigger than the others, save for Hercules who still dwarfed even this specimen. He was fat, unlike the solid slabs that stood around him. His gut and neck ran in rolls. His fur was grey, with flecks of white. More than any other hybrid that they had met so far, this one looked like a gorilla. Incongruously, a pair of spectacles rested on its nose.

The creature spoke again. His voice was disconcertingly small. It did not possess the booming growl of Homer. It was a polite, refined voice, with careful pronunciation.

‘It is good to finally meet you, Homer. My name is Zeus. I am your grandfather.’