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Key West, Florida
Dane Maddock sat on the deck of his condominium, eyes closed, letting the sun kiss his skin, deepening his tan. He knew better than to fall asleep in direct sunlight, but he also knew that the sun would set over the Gulf of Mexico long before sunburn became a concern. He lingered in a sort of half-awake state, hovering just above slumber. But then his phone rang, shattering the blissful peace of his almost-nap. Groaning, he opened his eyes, blinking awake, and glanced at the device’s screen. He groaned again, seeing an unlisted number.
Begrudgingly, he answered. “This is Maddock.”
“Hello, Dane.”
Maddock sat up quickly at hearing the voice. “Tam, hi. What’s up?” A call from Tam Broderick could go one of several ways: interesting, exciting, annoying, dangerous, or some combination thereof. In any case, he owed her a few favors and she wasn’t shy about calling them in.
“I need your help with something.” Tamara Broderick, leader of the Myrmidon Squad, an arm of the CIA, was never one to beat around the bush. This phone call wasn’t an exception either.
Completely awake now, Maddock stood. Whenever Tam needed his team’s help it was serious. And dangerous.
“I’m listening,” Maddock said, quickly guzzling down a bottle of water as she spoke.
“We intercepted a message from a small town in Norway earlier in the week. Apparently, there was an archaeological discovery made up in the mountains north of Vikersund. We need you to take a careful look.”
Careful? So, it’s off-the-books then....
“Why us?” Maddock asked unsure why he was contacted in the first place.
“You owe me.”
He sighed. Tam kept scrupulous track of favors owed. “That’s not what I asked. Why us, specifically?”
“ScanoGen is involved.”
“ScanoGen?” Maddock asked. ScanoGen was a biotech company with whom Maddock and his crew had crossed paths a few times in the past. “Wait, I’m confused, Tam. I didn’t know they were still in play. Besides, I thought they were more interested in exotic botanicals than archaeological discoveries?”
“I’m getting there. The man who found the site sent out a chain email to some colleagues of his, asking some strange questions. The verbiage was odd too, like he couldn’t choose his words. Weird for a man with his education and reputation. We picked up on it when we flagged a few choice words.”
“And those are?”
“Legend. Death. Treasure. Creatures. Weapon,” Tam said, listing them off.
“Oh, well, that would do it then, wouldn’t it?”
“It would,” she replied. “Seems to be right up your alley I’d say.”
Maddock rubbed his face with his free hand and thought. A hush-hush mission meant a small team, if any team at all. Bones would most definitely accompany him. What of the others?
Tam answered the question.
“Just you and Bones on this one. Vikersund is a beautiful, little, out-of-the-way town on the southwest bank of Lake Tyri. Too many outsiders would send up red flags everywhere. ScanoGen may already be in route and we need to get you there first. And if they beat you there, we need you to arrive unnoticed.”
Not really knowing what to say and realizing she was right about them owing her, Maddock capitulated. “Okay, Tam, you win.”
“Good...” He heard something coming in low and loud, his shoulders slumping as he did, “Because we’re outside waiting.”
Even as she said it, Maddock heard the roar of a jet engine. The air was suddenly filled with a deep, rhythmic vibration. He turned and ran inside the condo to the front windows, threw aside the curtains and saw it. Fifty yards away, in the center of the street, hovering not twenty feet off the ground, was an unmarked black helicopter.
His hand fell away from the side of his face as the aircraft turned and the side door opened. A familiar form—a female one—edged out and stood, one foot on the landing strut. She wore khaki trousers and a black T-shirt, both of which nicely accentuated her curvy figure. A headset outfitted with a lip mic covered her ears. Her chocolate brown face was split with a big toothy grin.
He brought the phone back up to his ear. “What if I said no?”
She laughed. “You never say no.”
––––––––
“So, what exactly are we going after?” Bones asked, tying his hair back in its customary ponytail. The rotor wash of the helicopter had messed it up upon entering the rear hold. Satisfied with his work, he leaned back against the uncomfortable seat. He’d sat in relative silence since take off, waiting for Tam to further explain their mission.
Not one to keep his mouth shut for too long, the large Native American was still trying to wake up, yawning every few minutes. After his fifth such yawn, Tam took exception to the act.
“Are we boring you, Uriah?” she asked. If she was trying to get under his skin, using his given name would work.
Bones leaned forward, looking hard at the brown-skinned beauty. “First of all, girl, don’t call me that.” He winked. Willis would be proud. “Secondly, yes, you bore me big time.”
“Lord Jesus give me strength,” Tam said, rubbing her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut.
He grinned and glanced at Maddock, getting a scowl in return. Bones held up his hands in surrender and sat back, motioning for Tam to continue.
“Go ahead,” Maddock said.
Tam nodded a thank you and did. “As I said earlier, an email was sent speaking of a tomb that, as far as we know, doesn’t exist. There is no account of anything in any historical records we have.”
“Whose tomb is it?” Maddock asked.
She shrugged. “No idea. That’s what we’re hoping you can find out when you get boots on the ground. All we know is that it has something to do with an ancient king of the region.”
“I imagine there’s a few of those,” Maddock said, not liking the lack of specificity. Tam was normally much more prepared than this. “Anything else, or are we shooting from the hip on this one?”
“There’s one more thing.” She dug into her pack and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. Handing it to Maddock, she explained what it was.
“The only other thing in the message was this symbol. The emailer, a man named Torbjorn Sorenson, asked a few of his contemporaries to check into it. While well-versed in Viking lore himself, Sorensen seems to have some friends at a few of the larger Norwegian universities that are even deeper into it than him.”
“What is it?” Bones asked as Maddock unfolded it and looked.
Maddock knew what one of them was. It was a common knot used in many cultures.
But what does the spear mean?
“This, my friends,” Tam said, “is a little-known symbol belonging to the Norse god, Odin, or rather his weapon of choice, a spear named—”
“Gungnir,” Maddock finished. “I know it.”
“Gung-what?” Bones asked, lost.
“Gungnir,” Maddock replied. “It was Odin’s lance and said to be mightier than Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.”
“Ah, yes, Thor,” Bones said.
“Not the superhero,” Tam added getting a frown from Bones.
“Are you telling me that this Sorensen guy found Odin’s spear?” Maddock asked.
“We aren’t sure, but he seems to think so.”
Maddock nodded thinking. Something else was bothering him about this. “What about the creatures from the email. What does that have to do with this?”
She leaned forward. “Have you heard of the berserkers?”
“Like Wolverine going berserker on people?” quipped Bones.
No answer.
“Never mind,” he said, sitting back again.
“I thought the Norse berserkers were just crazy Viking warriors sent in first as shock troops,” Maddock said. “They supposedly got massively intoxicated before battles. Some were even said to use a narcotic of some sort. Either way, they fought without feeling pain or backing down. They literally went ‘berserk.’”
Tam didn’t answer. Her normal stoic expression actually looked nervous.
“What is it?” Maddock asked.
“Sorensen seemed frightened by what he found. Unfortunately, he didn’t go into any further detail.” She leaned on her knees. “I think he may have found something far worse than just a bunch of dead drunken Vikings and a spear.”
“Sounds like the first thing we need to do is talk to this Sorensen guy,” Bones said, re-entering the conversation. “There’s a reason he didn’t mention more, I’d guess.”
“Why do you say that?” Tam asked.
“Why wouldn’t he mention it if it wasn’t something terrible?” he replied. “Where’s the harm in it if you’ve already gone to all the trouble of writing the damn message in the first place.”
Maddock nodded, staring off into space, thinking. “He’s right. Our first stop needs to be Sorensen. We need to know what else he found.”
Again, Tam was quiet.
“Your silence is never good for us, you know that?” Bones laughed as the aircraft bounced beneath them. Being a former SEAL, like Maddock, the bucking of a helo could eventually rock him to sleep like a baby in a swing.
Maddock didn’t speak. He just waited for Tam to continue. He didn’t want to verbally agree with Bones again. His big friend was right, but he didn’t want it to go to his head.
“Sorensen went missing yesterday morning,” she finally said.
“Told you,” Bones said, rubbing his temples.
“He didn’t show up for work this morning and no one has seen him since the night before. He’s regarded as overly punctual, especially when it comes to his teaching career. The students love him and he never misses a class.”
“What about his family?” Maddock asked.
“None to speak of,” she replied, pulling a file from her backpack.
Maddock flipped it open. It was the portfolio of one, Torbjorn Johan Sorensen. He was a history major from a school Maddock couldn’t pronounce, in a city and county he also couldn’t pronounce. It seemed that Sorensen was also handy with a splitting axe. A local legend of sorts.
Small town people....
“Something spooked him,” Maddock mumbled, getting Bones’ attention. “Something made him go underground.”
“ScanoGen?” Tam asked, trying to think of what could’ve scared the man so badly. “Maybe he got wind of people coming for him?”
“Or whatever he found in the forest,” Bones added, getting a nod from Maddock.
“Regardless,” Maddock said, “we need to tread softly. Best case scenario is that ScanoGen never hears of our involvement.”