Chapter Twenty-Five #2
But Maurice shuffled forward, brandishing the gun. “Stop what you’re doing!”
Theo threw up his hands. “I’m getting my gloves to handle the piece,” he explained.
“Leave the backpack alone!”
“But it’s an important archaeological artifact. I shouldn’t handle it without gloves,” Theo tried to reason.
“Leave it,” Maurice said again.
“Quit wasting time, Dr. Galanis, and open the box,” Vautour said.
“I need her help,” he said, motioning to Dani. “It’s probably heavy and I don’t want to damage the piece.”
“Fine, fine,” Vautour said, waving his hands in front of him like he was bored. “But hurry up.”
Theo looked at Dani and tossed her a sympathetic glance.
I love you, she mouthed.
As impossible as it seemed, Theo smiled. “I love you, too.”
They turned their backs to Vautour and Maurice, and each took a deep breath before placing their hands on the lid of the larnax.
“Lift on the count of three,” Theo said. “One. Two. Three.”
They lifted the heavy ceramic lid and carefully lowered it to the ground. Having watched Raiders of the Lost Ark one too many times, Theo was almost afraid to look inside, as if soul-sucking demons were going to fly out and melt the skin off his face.
He’d always believed in myths and fairy tales, but this box tested the extent of his beliefs. His heart pounded as he and Dani stood back up and peered into the box.
But they didn’t find the skull of a bull’s head. Or the body of a half man, half beast. Instead, the only thing inside the three-by-four-foot box was a single gemstone the color of blood. An unrefined ruby the size of a football with jagged edges.
The eye of the Minotaur.
“Fuck me,” Dani said under her breath.
Theo had never seen a ruby this size. Especially in Greece. It couldn’t have originated here.
“What is it?” Vautour called out from behind them. “Show it to me!”
Theo reached into the box, lifted the heavy ruby from its resting place, and turned around.
“Yes! Yes!” Vautour cried out.
“This is it. This is all that’s in there,” Theo said.
“Then bring it to me,” Vautour said, waving him forward.
Theo took a step but then stopped. “And then what? What happens after I hand this to you?”
“Do not be an imbecile. Bring it to me and I won’t leave you trapped down here for the rest of your miserable existence,” Vautour said.
“How do we know you won’t do that anyway?” Dani asked.
“I suppose you’ll have to trust me.”
Theo wanted to laugh. Trust a wanted criminal. Sure, sounded like a great idea.
“Hey, Theo,” Dani said, tearing his attention from Vautour. “Remember Bobby.”
Theo furrowed his brow for a minute. Why the fuck would she bring up that time he almost got his ass kicked by Bobby Thomas in the seventh grade?
Then Theo looked down at that football-shaped ruby. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. But like so many of Dani’s pranks and antics, there wasn’t time to think. So without further hesitation, Theo called out, “Hey, Maurice! Catch!”
Theo tossed the ruby in the air at Maurice. In that split second, Theo watched Maurice make a decision between the gun and the lantern, or the ruby. Unsurprisingly, he chose the ruby.
Dani reached down and picked up a clump of dirt in her hand, tossing it in Vautour’s and Louis’s distracted faces.
They each yelled out and dropped their flashlights to reach up for their eyes.
Maurice’s lantern hit the ground, bursting into a million pieces at the same time the gun hit and went off.
But now, with only a few light beams from their flashlights, it was almost impossible to see who was where or if anyone had been hit.
Theo grabbed Dani’s hand, and they headed toward the flashlights Vautour and Louis had dropped to pick them up and then they ran.
They ran faster than he’d ever run before, thankful that Dani’s strong thighs gave her power that should have been impossible for a person of her stature.
Vautour’s, Louis’s, and Maurice’s yells came from behind them.
Their lack of flashlights would slow them down, but it wouldn’t stop them for good.
Dani and Theo made it to the rope.
“You first,” Dani said, handing the rope to him.
“No! You go!” he insisted. He wasn’t leaving her down there.
“You’ll be faster. Get up there and then pull me out.”
“Juicy—”
“We don’t have time for this! Go!”
Despite the struggle in his heart, Theo did as she said. He climbed the rope faster than any high school gym test and as soon as he made it out, he called down for her.
“I’m ready!” she called out.
Pure adrenaline rushed through his body as he pulled up the rope.
With all his strength, one hand over the other, he pulled, bracing his feet against another rock at the top of the hole.
Once Dani’s head finally poked out the top and her arms crested the opening, Theo finally felt as though he could breathe again.
He reached down to pull her out the rest of the way by her armpits, heaving her body on top of him. They lay there for a moment with panting breaths, unable to move, and holding each other tight. Finally, Theo released his hold and then grabbed her face and inspected her.
“Are you hurt?” he asked. “Did you get shot?”
She shook her head in his hands. “I’m fine. You?”
“I’m not sure I’d describe what I’m feeling as fine, but I’m alive. Though more important, so are you.”
A gunshot fired out of the hole, startling them.
“Get us the hell out of here, you son of a bitch!” Maurice shouted.
Theo and Dani scooted away from the opening to avoid any stray bullets as Maurice, Louis, and Vautour continued to yell profanities.
“What do you think we should do?” Dani asked.
“Well, if he keeps shooting, I don’t know that we’ll have to do much of anything. Maybe we get the hell out of here and let the police find them?”
“Then we’d better hustle,” Dani said, climbing off him and offering her hand to help him up.
Right as they turned to flee, however, a group of uniformed men came running up the path shining flashlights on them.
“Ψηλ? τα χ?ρια! Hands up!”
Theo and Dani raised their hands in the air as the men circled them, pointing guns at them. The ΕΛ.ΑΣ., the Hellenic Police force.
“Μην κινε?στε!” one of the men yelled at them to stay put.
As if they had any intention of trying to flee when surrounded by a dozen armed men.
Theo called out they were innocent, speaking in Greek. As quickly as he could, he blurted out that he was Dr. Theo Galanis, the Greek American archaeologist who’d gone missing, but that he’d been captured by the notorious smuggler Pierre Vautour, who was down in the hole below them.
When an officer peered over the edge and Maurice fired a shot, the officers all swarmed the hole. While the men yelled back and forth with Maurice, Louis, and Vautour in Greek and French—clearly not being paid on the side by Vautour—a police sergeant approached Theo and Dani.
“Eλληνικ??” the sergeant asked.
“No, English, please,” Theo said.
“I’m Sergeant Diakos. This man here alerted us to some unusual activity at the Acropolis,” he said, motioning to Harold at his side. “Said he saw some people sneaking around with flashlights after closing time.”
“Yep, saw some rather suspicious-looking gentlemen who were up to no good,” Harold said.
“I suspect the ones down in that hole there.” He pointed to the opening.
When Sergeant Diakos turned his head to look, Harold gave Dani a wink, and she reached for his hand and squeezed it quickly, letting go before the sergeant saw them.
“And who did you say you were?” Sergeant Diakos asked, turning his attention back to them.
“Dr. Theo Galanis and Daniela Guiterrez. We were abducted by Pierre Vautour and forced to search for artifacts,” Theo explained.
“What sort of artifacts?”
“Would you believe me if I told you the eye of the Minotaur?”
Sergeant Diakos laughed. “You mean the eye of the mythological bull at Knossos?”
But Theo and Dani didn’t laugh.
“You’re serious?” Sergeant Diakos said, his face turning solemn. “Did you find it?”
“We did,” Theo said. “We need to call Dr. Andreas Demetrious from the National Museum as soon as possible. Once those men are removed from down below, this area needs to be cordoned off and fully excavated by professionals. No one else should go down there until Dr. Demetrious arrives.”
Sergeant Diakos stared at them for a few moments, and then he took a phone out of his pocket. “We have a situation here at the Acropolis.”
Theo and Dani stood there, waiting while the sergeant explained what was going on to whoever was on the other end of the call. Once he was off the phone, he turned back to them and said, “You will need to stay here until this gets sorted out.”
“We understand,” Theo said.
Sergeant Diakos nodded, and then joined the officers arguing at the cave opening with Vautour, Louis, and Maurice. Dani then turned to Harold.
“I’m sorry I called the police, but I saw those men creeping around and it seemed like you might be in some trouble,” Harold explained. “And if any of what you said is true, seems like I was right.”
“No, it’s a good thing you did,” Dani said. “Those men have been holding Theo captive for the last year. That’s why he went missing.”
“Thank you,” Theo said, shaking Harold’s hand. “You have no idea how incredibly grateful we are.”
“Well, I may have only known Daniela for a few days,” Harold explained, “but I could tell she was a special person the minute I met her.”
Theo wrapped his arm around Dani’s waist and looked down at her. “Yeah, she is.”