Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
STASIE
Iloathed leaving Thanatos, but my job beckoned, and I would not give that up.
Not even for the perfect guy. Once I got him settled in at the hotel, I told him I had to leave for work, and he let me go with a light smile on his lips.
It could’ve been the incredible night we spent together on the jet that Jack had arranged to get me here or just that he wanted to give me space and freedom to think.
Either way I’d never felt so fulfilled in my life.
It’d only been three days since we met yet I’d gotten more comfort with him in those few days than I had in all my life.
“Anastasia, are you listening to me?” Jack’s voice brought me out of my thoughts and into the present.
“Yeah. I’m listening.” I turned my attention back to him as he handed me a duffel bag full of gear.
“The shackles are hidden in a chamber beneath the structure here.” He motioned to the ruins in front of us.
Night had fallen and the structure was empty of tourists.
Even so it felt wrong to even come close to the ancient ruins.
This was a part of history, and I respected the history of the Greeks and their gods.
My brow furrowed. “Isn’t this a little . . . odd?”
“What do you mean?” He pulled a rope from the bag, then a grappling hook and gloves.
“We acquire things from more modern places. If it’s under these ruins, that feels more like theft. More importantly, feels like messing with an archeological site.”
Jack sighed. “Look, the chamber has been hidden from the human population for years. All we have to do is find it and open it.”
“Indiana Jones style?” Something felt off. I snuck into homes, banks, and museums, not ancient ruins.
“I like to think of it as pirate style. Buried treasure and all that.” He winked and pulled a knitted black hat over his blond hair.
We were dressed similarly in black shirts and black cargo pants with combat boots.
I had my utility belt wrapped around my hips with all of my crucial supplies.
We blended in with the darkness, and from what I could tell, the only security they had were a few patrolmen.
It wouldn’t be a difficult job. It just felt wrong.
“Damaging ancient ruins isn’t in my job description, Jack. ”
“I’ve never seen you hesitate before.” He glanced up at the towering columns, then to the decaying stone walls surrounding it. The columns held up only a small piece of a roof and even the walls looked delicate. “I see what you mean, but Stasie, this is a job for Phillis.”
“I don’t care who the job is for, Jack. If it feels wrong, then it’s wrong. We can’t just break into a hidden room under the ruins. Corinth is ancient. It’d be messed up to even think about damaging a piece of history like this.”
“She’s never asked us for anything before.” He groaned. “Look, I’ll make you a deal, if at any point in time we even come close to doing any kind of damage, then we bail.”
I hesitated. This was my job, and she was my employer, but damn this was shady as hell. “I don’t know.”
He nudged me with his elbow. “It’ll be quite the adventure. Plus, I’m going with you this time.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “But one thing out of place and I am gone.”
He threw his shoulders back and smirked down at me. “It’s gonna be fun.”
“If you say so.” I rolled my shoulders and faced the ruins. “Where do we go?”
He pulled an old and worn map from his pocket and held it out in front of us. “Just past the columns is a large boulder that is supposedly blocking the entrance to tunnels that run beneath the structure where the shackles are hidden.”
“A boulder? Right, okay then.” Just do your job and get out, Stasie.
We slowly moved closer to the spot he pointed out, keeping to the shadows and darkness.
It was quiet, too quiet, yet we kept on moving.
I stepped over smaller boulders and wound my way around the larger ones.
It was hard to believe that this was once Ancient Greece and these were the remains of great buildings.
When we reached the boulder, I stood beside Jack and motioned to it. “Now what?”
“There should be a handle of some sort. You just have to reach into that hole and pull the lever.”
I found the small opening on the bottom of the boulder hidden by tall blades of grass. “You want me to stick my hand in there?”
“Well, mine isn’t going to fit.” He nodded. “So, yeah?”
“This is some National Treasure type bullshit. I swear . . . the crap you get me into.” I bent down to one knee and slowly reached my hand into the opening. The rock was rough against my skin and scratched at it, but at the back of the hole was a distinct little switch. “I got it.”
I wrapped my hand around the lever and gave it a pull . . . nothing. I tried again and something sharp cut into the palm of my hand. I dropped the lever and yanked my hand out. “Ouch.”
A small line of blood formed in the center of my hand. It wasn’t deep or gushing, just a thin cut. I studied it for a moment, then Jack grabbed my hand and pulled it toward him. “What happened?”
I pulled my hand back. “Just a scratch.”
Before I could think about it, a grinding sound came from deep in the boulder. I took a step back and the boulder began to slide to the side. “Holy shit.”
Dust and pebbles fell from it onto the grass. Though it moved only a few feet, it revealed a tunnel that was only about three feet wide. I chuckled and turned toward Jack. “You still want to come with?”
He pulled a pen-light from his pocket and dropped to his knees. “I’ll go first.”
“And here I was thinking the saying was ladies first.” I pull out my own pen-light.
“If you’d like to climb into a dark hole that’s been sealed up for centuries, then by all means.” He motioned to it.
“Well, there’s also the other saying, age before beauty, so you’ve got this one.” I watched as Jack shimmied his big body into the too small hole. He used his elbows to pull himself forward and swished his hips in an army crawl.
Once his feet disappeared, I crawled in behind him. My clothing grew damp and covered in a thin layer of dirt as I moved forward. “How are all those spiderwebs?”
Jack’s hand flailed out in front of him. “It’s gonna be your turn next time.”
“I really hope there isn’t a next time.” His shoulders and hands were covered in what I hoped were old webs.
Thin but strong roots grabbed at my clothing and held me back as I slowly moved forward. I didn’t know how long we crawled for or how deep we’d gotten, but I just kept on moving forward. The job wasn’t always pretty but it was my job. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
Jack paused. “I think there’s an opening up here.”
He moved forward and crawled from the tunnel. He bent down at the opening and flashed his light into my face. “You gotta see this.”
I pulled myself forward, and when my arms breached the end of the tunnel, Jack grabbed a hold of me and dragged me forward. When I came to a stand, I snorted at him. He was covered in spiderwebs, dirt, and a few stray roots stuck out from his hat.
He pointed to my shirt. “Not much better.”
I looked down at myself. I was covered in dirt, small twig-like roots, and sticky webs. “Great.”
“But look at this.” Jack shined his light across the wall, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
There on the walls were depictions of a scene with worshipers kneeling before a god cloaked all in white. Golden light shone behind the god and more worshipers floated around him. They were lighter than the others, almost ghostly. “This is amazing.”
“I didn’t even know there were any paintings like this left in Greece.”
“There aren’t many. They used a fresco technique. It’s basically pigment on plaster. It’s rare for one to survive in this condition.” I couldn’t take my eyes off it. “It is beautiful.”
Jack took a step forward to get a closer look and something clicked under his foot. He froze. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah.” I didn’t move but I squatted down lower to take a look at what he stepped on. The second I did, a thick wall slammed down over the opening of the tunnel. I glanced around and there was no other way out. We were trapped.
“Is there a fucking landmine in here? And did I just trap us?” His eyes went wide and sweat beaded his face.
“One thing at a time. Let me just take a look.” I pointed my light down to where the ball of his foot was. A tile in the floor was dented in lower than the others. “There’s a tile that looks like it cracked under your foot, but no trigger for a bomb that I can see.”
“That you can see.” His voice rose with nerves.
“I’d say since the webs are so thick and everything is covered in dust, we might be the first people down here since they closed it up. And landmines weren’t a thing back then.” I tried to sound confident, but we were trapped in here with no way out.
Jack didn’t move. “What do we do?”
“I think you just triggered the door to close. There has to be a lever to open it.”
“Has to be? How do you know?”
I rose to my feet and met his eye. “Because if there isn’t, we’re gonna die trapped in here and no one will find us.”
“You suck at making people feel better.” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“It is not my strong suit. That’s true.” I shrugged and started walking around the small room, which was no bigger than a walk-in closet. “Help me look for a way out.”
“Help you? If I move . . . boom.” He made an exploding motion with his hands.
“I don’t think so.” I shook my head.
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.” He was panicking.
I turned toward him and sighed. “Oh, Jack.”
Without warning I shoved him back and he lost his balance. His arms pinwheeled and he staggered back, then threw his hands over his head. When nothing happened, he peeked at me. “That was fucked up.”
“Nothing happe . . .” My words trailed as the sound of cracking rock filled the room. “Shit.”