Soul Intent (23 page)

“What’s he saying?” she asked Dieter.

“He promises on the graves of his wife and oldest son to tell everybody to stay away. But you must tell the
strigoi
that he is a good man.”

Flora nodded and pulled out her purse from under her shirt. She gave Vlado triple his negotiated fee, and he took the money and shoved it in his pants.

“Tell him this—I will give the
strigoi
his name. Any mistakes…” she let her voice trail off and clasped her fist over her heart.

Dieter repeated this to Vlado, who shook his head, stood up, and shuffled out of the clearing without looking back.

Major Callaghan cleared his throat. “That was a sight to behold. What did you tell him?”

“That we’re hiding cognac.”

He shook his head. “I heard you say that. But what put the bee in his bonnet?”

She grinned “I told him about the
strigoi morti
in the boxes.” At his blank look, she said, “Undead vampires.”

The Major chuckled. “That’ll keep anybody away—including me,” he said. He pointed at the horizon. “The sun goes down early in the mountains. We ought to set up camp.”

The men raised two tents, close to the mine’s entrance, and Flora built a fire next to the abandoned ore carts. They heated their “K” ration meals in the coals and ate quickly.

“So this is where your grandfather worked before coming to Australia,” the Major said.

Flora nodded. “Baba gave me his old map of the tunnels. I need your help choosing the best place to hide everything.”

“I’ve seen his map,” he said. “Raddy had it hanging on the wall in his front room before we went to war.” He was silent for a moment. “Your grandfather told me a story of those ghosts Vlado was hollering about.”

“Do you really believe in ghosts?” she asked.

“We miners are a superstitious lot, Flora. And every mine has its share of ghosts.” The Major rummaged in his bag and pulled out a pocket knife.

“What did he tell you?” she asked.

He reached over to the firewood pile and selected a long and straight stick. He used the knife to strip the branches, tossing the shavings into the fire. “I reckon I shouldn’t be scaring you with the story.”

She shivered. “I can handle it.”

Callaghan sharpened the end of the stick to a point and ran his finger over it. He cocked his head at the other man. “You listening, Dieter?”

“Yes, sir.” He sat across the fire from Flora and Callaghan, as far away as possible from the boxes.

The Major smiled. “Good. Then I only have to tell this once,” he said. He cleared his throat. “I’m reciting the story your grandfather told me, Flora. I cannot vouch for its accuracy.”

She nodded.

The Major used the pointed end of his stick to stir up the fire’s embers. “Raddy told me these mines have been active for a thousand years, and he reckoned even longer. Many generations of families spent their lives chasing the opals. And for most of that time, Dubnik was the only opal mine in the world.”

He cleared his throat. “Flora, your grandfather told me that when he first came to Dubnik, he and three other miners were dropping a new shaft under the Viliam and Fedo galleries. They had sunk it down forty or fifty feet chasing an opal vein when bam!” He smacked the fire’s embers with his stick, sending sparks flying in the air.

Both Flora and Dieter jumped.

The Major looked at them and chuckled. “Nervous Nellies, hey? Raddy and his mates fell right through the collapsed floor. The four of them tumbled down a steep and slippery chute that opened into a large cavern. They dropped twenty feet or so and landed in a small lake of water.”

Callaghan drove the stick point-first into the ground and reached up with his hand to the top of it. “About this deep—halfway up their chests. Their torches and lamps and tools landed in the water, and it was pitch black in the cavern. The water was cold, and they didn’t dare move for the fear of stepping in a hole and drowning.”

He looked at Flora. “Your grandfather said they hollered for help, all the time getting colder. They heard nothing but the drip, drip, drip of water from above. They started poking around, and one of them found a ledge they could clamber on.

“Once on the ledge, they dove into the dark water and retrieved their lamps. They somehow got one lit, and looked around to see where they had fallen.”

The Major used his stick to prod some red and orange embers out of the fire. “Look how these glow,” he said. “That’s what old Raddy and his mates saw in the cavern walls.”

“
Die opale
.” Dieter said.

He nodded. “Aye. Opals, glistening in the walls, lit by the lamp. Opals the size of your fist, reflecting and amplifying the lamplight in grand swaths of green and red. And on the roof, around the stalactites, opals glinting back at them in deep purples and blues. A huge nest of the noble opals, guaranteed to make the four of them rich.

“There was a problem—the opals by rights belonged to their employer, Solomon Goldschmidt, the Viennese jeweler who had leased the mine,” he said. “Another problem—and I reckon it was bigger than the first—was how Raddy and his mates were to get out of the cavern and return to the surface.

“But they didn’t let either of these bother them. Instead, they dove for their picks and shovels, and they pulled the fattest, juiciest opals they had ever seen out of the wall behind the ledge. They filled their pockets, then they made a pile of the larger ones at their feet on the ledge.”

The Major poked at the now-dim embers. “The lamp was low on fuel, and the glimmer from the opals was weak, just like this. They lit another lamp, and then their last one.” He looked at Dieter. “And only then their opal lust died down enough for them to think about how they were going to get out.

“Your grandfather, Flora, was the scrawniest, smallest man among the four. After hours and maybe even days of arguing in the dark, they decided to send him up to get some ropes and buckets. The chute’s opening was high over their heads, and the cavern’s wall was slippery from the water and slime that oozed out of it.

“They were in a fine fettle, I reckon. To encourage him to return all the quicker, they made Raddy leave his pocketful of opals behind, and warned him not to tell anybody about the treasure. Then the biggest miner planted himself in the water up against the wall, and the next stood on his shoulders, and the next on his. Raddy climbed this human ladder, and he was able to touch the base of the chute.

“Raddy asked his mate to lift him up by his ankles, and after many tries and many tumbles back into the water, he was finally able to pull himself up and into the slippery tube.”

Callaghan shook his head. “He told his mates he’d be back soon, and then Raddy shimmied up the chute in the dark. He was bone tired by the time he reached the shaft, but he made it to the ladder and pulled himself up.

“The gallery was deserted. Your grandfather had to drag himself in the dark out of the mine. When he finally reached the entrance, he collapsed on the ground.” The Major looked around, then pointed at Dieter. “Probably right about where you’re sitting, young man.”

Dieter shuddered, and Callaghan smiled.

“Right before he passed out, Raddy told the foreman about the shaft and the chute and his three trapped mates, but he kept mum on the opals.” The Major dropped his voice to a whisper. “He didn’t wake up for a day and a half.”

“Did they rescue the other miners?” Flora asked.

He sucked some air through his teeth. “The foreman told Raddy that he sent a boy down the chute with a rope tied around his waist, but after a few minutes they heard a piercing scream. They hauled on the rope, and found it had been cut, its end soaked red with blood. The screams continued for another hour, but the foreman refused to send anybody else down.

“Your grandfather told me he climbed down the shaft, but when he reached the bottom, he found the chute full of water. In it floated the cut-off piece of the rope, strung through the belt-loops of an empty pair of trousers.”

A chill ran up Flora’s spine.

Callaghan was silent for a long minute. Then he spoke in a soft voice. “They reckoned the other miners had gone crazy and had mistaken the lad for food, and God had drowned them for their cannibalism. The foreman had the shaft plugged, never knowing about the opal nest.” Callaghan paused and then said, “Old Raddy told me that on the nights of the new moon, you could still hear that boy’s scream echoing up from the shaft, pleading with the miners.”

The three of them sat and stared at the fire. Then Dieter looked up. “Is it true, sir?”

Major Callaghan shrugged. “I don’t rightly know. But I’d trade me arm and leg for an hour in that opal nest.”

forty-one

Present Day

Dubnik Mine, Slovakia

Just as Madame Flora finished, George drove the van into the clearing and parked.

“Welcome to Dubnik Mine,” George said. “Once the only known source of opals, and now an important refuge for five thousand Euro-bats.”

Marie shuddered. “There will be bats flying around us?”

“They live in another section,” George said. “We shouldn’t see too many.”

I shot a quick glance at Val, but the mention of the bats didn’t seem to bother her.

George had parked halfway up the side of a tree-covered hill. A set of narrow gauge railroad tracks ran past a dilapidated wooden building and into an opening in the hill the size of a front door. Two rusted ore carts sat on the rails, close to the mine entrance.

Madame Flora was the last to climb out. She stood on the van door’s threshold and looked around. “Nothing much has changed in the last six decades,” she declared.

“This is where you camped?” Rose asked.

“Right by the entrance,” she said. She pointed to the building. “That shack had a roof on it, and there’s more trees on the hills, but the rest is pretty much the same.”

Archie walked to the opening and turned back to face us. “This is where you buried the gold, Flora?”

She nodded. She had a grim look on her face.

Marie came up and put her arm on Madame Flora’s shoulder. “We’ll get it out for you, Grandma.”

“If it is still in there,” Archie said.

“It’s in there,” Madame Flora said. “I can smell it.”

A small blue Skoda hatchback drove up and parked next to the van. A young man in jeans, boots, and a blue sweater got out. A blond ponytail hung halfway down his back. He popped his trunk, unloaded six large plastic cases, and stacked them close to the entrance.

George and Sue walked over and shook his hand. The air was chilly, and their breath came out in puffs as they talked.

Then George headed over to us. “Come and meet Cesar,” he said. “We’re renting the diving suits and rebreathers from him.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I told him that Scott and Val are super-rich celebrities, here to have some very private fun.”

Some cover story.

“Are you diving with us?” I asked Cesar.

He shook his head. “I’m only delivering the equipment. Mr. George paid extra money for your exclusive and private use of our site.” He smiled, and with a jerk of his head, he flipped his ponytail over his shoulder. “It’s beautiful diving in the mine.”

“How many times have you been down there?” I asked.

“Not nearly enough,” he said. Then he pursed his lips. “Normally we only allow cave-certified dive masters.”

“Rose and I are certified,” Marie said.

Cesar nodded. “Let’s do the inspection.”

While George and Sue set up camp, Cesar opened the cases and had Val, me, and the twins examine the equipment. We tested the regulators and monitors, checked the gas mixes, and verified the work-to-breathe levels. We examined the batteries and the bailouts, then checked the dry suits.

Once we were comfortable with the gear, we lugged the cases into the mine. It was a quarter-mile hike down from the mine’s entrance to Viliam Gallery, but to get there, we had to crawl and drag our gear through three low spots. The mine was cold, damp, and dark.

“Why not fix the place up?” I asked Cesar.

He turned and shone his light in my face. “And let the rest of the world ruin it? We save it for serious divers.”

And gold diggers like us.

He led us down a stone staircase carved out of the rock many centuries ago. We stepped off the stairs and onto a landing, and Cesar set two battery-powered lanterns on the floor. We were in a basketball court-sized cavern, standing on a ledge above a twenty foot wide shaft filled with water. Several nylon lines ran below the surface.

Val knelt down and dipped in her hand. “It’s freezing!”

“Three degrees Celsius,” Cesar said. “That’s why you have dry suits and full face masks.” He tied a dive light to a line and dropped it in the water. “Take a look at this.”

The water was perfectly clear and very deep. I could see the shaft’s brown walls, fading into a deep blue at the end of the light’s reach. The nylon lines stretched down into the darkness below.