Only coercion, and a beautiful government agent, could force Harry Thursday out of retirement. This time to find the mythical Mask worn by the Minotaur over three thousand years ago. The history of the mask resurfaces during the time of Count Bruno...
Sara seemed to be ignoring him and instead was pulling at the chains. Harry noticed the pegs holding the cuffs in the wall were loosening. But not by much.
"I've been doing this all night."
"Yeah, and by the looks of it all you need is another five hours and we'll be free."
"Well, do you have a plan?" She asked. "Because I don't trust Stu."
"Ya think? I left word with David to get help. I told the boat boy to send word to you through David hoping you would bring Reginald Thorsby along with the troops."
"Toynbee."
"Hmm. So the generals are here."
"Not quite," Sara threw in. "We are the colonels."
"Meaning what? As I remember, Toynbee was nowhere to be found when we arrived the other night. Was he planning on coming along?"
"Actually, he was. Even back before I found you in that ratty old barn-house, I had met with him, remember? I was in DC while you flew to Switzerland. He told me then he was moving the plan overseas and had only to meet with the President for approval."
"Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into."
"Must you always make a joke of everything?" Sara said with that same disgusted face.
"Not when I tell you how much I missed you." He smiled, and her face softened, and a tear crept down her dirt-stained cheek. "Don't cry. Stu will get out of this all right."
"Oh Harry you clod." She began to sob. "I don't know why I'm crying now. I just wish this was all a dream." She slumped back to the ground.
He jerked hard on his chains out of desperation. They loosened. Their cuffs were attached at one point in the wall above their heads, and he turned and forced the peg out. "I'm free," he said victoriously, his face red with the strain, and he lifted her up to stand and wrapped his arms around her and they kissed passionately for a few seconds. She pushed him suddenly away.
"Get me out, hurry." And as he pulled on her chain pin, she remembered their feet were fettered as well, and said so.
"One thing at a time." Using his pin as a wrench he twisted hers out with ease and bent down to work her feet.
"Do yours first," she said, but he ignored her and kept working.
"You realize we'll still be attached to the chains."
"Yes, but we can use our feet."
"But where will you go Harry?" Stu stood in the lighted part of the room. Next to him was a large man, fat but brawny, and Kelly behind.
Harry and Sara had stopped working on the chains. Kelly had a gun pointing at them. "Relax." We were going to free you anyway."
"Yes," Stu said and walked over to them. You remember I said it takes five to release the box?" He nodded at them, and the goon came over with a key and released their feet from the wall leaving their hands fettered.
"How about the rest?" Harry urged but went ignored.
Stu stood firmly on the edge of the sunlight which drew a pale circle on the floor of the cave. They could see the fine tiles depicting a man wearing a bull's mask standing on a tiny island, presumably Crete. Stu's eyes were fixed on it.
"It should be any minute, now. The diary said that on the fifth day of each month after the vernal equinox, the sun will direct the seeker to the exact location of the box." He looked up at the others. "I suppose should he ever forget where it was buried, he left that only clue. It took me months to figure out this exact location. I still won't know if this is it until that moment. Thank you for being here to share it, Sara."
Harry said, "How did you know I'd come?"
Stu smiled and looked at Kelly. "Really Harry. Even with your reputation you should have a clue at that."
"Then why do you need five people?" asked Sara.
"Because..." Stu was going to say but he hesitated.
"Because there were five points to his kingdom," Kelly spoke slowly as if trying to remember the exact words, but she knew them by heart. "Five kingdoms from which he exacted tribute. Troy, Athens, Egypt, Sparta, and Samaria. All these countries were his fortune, and he attributed his power and strength to the Mask."
"Exactly," Stu said obviously impressed by his cohort. "But where is the box? Only I know that." And he stood looking down at the floor. "At the exact time the sun will point to it. He says in his journal, the sun will point to the gem of his secret. We only have to wait for the sun."
The five of them stood in a circle staring fixedly at the floor, only Harry was looking at Sara who for now was mesmerized by the moment.
"Look," Stu shouted, and they all looked at him as he pointed to the floor. The sunbeams didn't come through the hole in the ceiling as they had expected but through a window high up on the side of the cavern wall. It cast five beams into the cave highlighted by the dust in the air. "Follow them all; look for the gem."
Harry finally caught Sara's attention and he motioned with his eyes to the others, and lifted his chains slightly hoping she would understand. She winked back.
"Why don't you just tear up the floor?" Harry stated the obvious.
"I thought of that, but the floor is not hollow, not at all. And it alone is worth a fortune." Indeed, it was beautifully decorated with solid gold and silver, green gems and blue, with garnet or ruby, and amber.
"So many gems," Kelly said, "Which one will it be? Look, they are all glowing now." And surely the sun was lighting up all the gems. "It's beautiful," said Sara. Their faces all glowed with the radiance of the gems, "but if it isn't hollow, then where is the treasure buried?"
But the goon walked over to the wall by where Harry and Sara had been chained. "Look," he said. They all looked at once. Stu pushed them aside. The sunbeam had stopped on a bright shiny patch of mica set into the stone. "Where?" Stu seemed furious. "Where is it goddamnit?"
"Look, quick. A knife." Harry came aside and drew his knife he had forgotten all about and was hidden in his boot. He knelt and dug at the mica, peeling it away to reveal a keyhole made of iron. Stu reached into his pocket, pulled out the key, and inserted it. The same key he had discovered in the safe deposit box, the same key that lay hidden in the Abbey Salzkammergut for centuries. The same key discovered by Romanov's brother and lost during the war, the same key coveted by so many for so long.
"At last." He stood and looked at the others making sure Kelly and the goon were guarding Harry and Sara. "Unlock their chains, but keep an eye on them."
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