12-The Cup of Osiris

12

The Cup of Osiris

Karl watched as, first E, and then Sam were herded into the tunnel to begin the long climb into the ground.  Bomani popped a few flares and dropped them down the hole then popped one to hold and begin the climb after them.

Before his head disappeared through the hole, he looked at Hoi and smiled.  “Wait till we are out of ear shot, then do what you want with him.”

Hoi’s broken, shark-toothed smile showed through and he turned back to Karl.  “This is going to be fun.”

Karl stood, appraising the situation.  One man stood directly behind him with a submachine gun leveled at the back of his head.  Two men, also carrying guns, stood to his left about fifteen feet away.  Hoi stood a couple of steps in front of him, and the final henchmen stood a couple of feet to his right.

Hoi reached into his sport jacket and pulled out a large and nasty looking S shaped knife.  “So, let me ask you this Karl.  Should I split you side to side, or stem to stern?”

Karl frowned.  “Maybe we got off on the wrong foot, Hoi.  Why don’t we start over?”

Hoi began to laugh.  He looked at his men and they joined in and all five of them shared in the inside joke.  “You want to start over?  Start fresh?”

Karl didn’t find any of it funny.  “I think so.  Maybe give us a chance to be friends.”

Hoi shook his head breathing hard from the good laugh.  “Think it’s a little too late for that.”

“He’s going to cut you out,” Karl said pushing through.  “You’ve figured that out by now, right?  You’re not going to see a red cent.”

Hoi frowned at that.  “You stole from me.”

“I stole something you had already stolen.  I think that’s hardly a crime.” Karl shot back.

Hoi shook his head.  “It is to me.”

Karl decided to return to his original point.  “You are getting screwed.”

Karl had lost Hoi’s attention.  “Maybe I am, maybe I am not, but one thing is for certain, I got you.”

“Have it your way.”  Karl growled.

“Let’s kill this mother fucker.”  Hoi said.

****

They heard the shots from the tunnel and stopped.

It was a quick series of machine gun shots and then nothing.  Sam and E fought the urge to climb back up and go to Karl’s aid.  To do that, they would have to go through Bomani, and neither of them had the ability for that.

“Keep moving.”  Bomani said, pointing the gun at them.

They continued their downward climb for what seemed like forever until E reached the bottom of the ladder.  She could see the flares lying on the floor below them, some fifteen to twenty feet.  They were lighting some kind of chamber.

“Jump,” Bomani said cleanly.

Sam answered for her.  “Are you insane?!  There might not be a way out of that room! That’s suicide!”

Bomani had enough of the arguments and quickly kicked Sam in the face.

Sam had no way of seeing it coming and the shock of the blow stunned him into letting go.  He toppled onto E and, with nowhere to go, E was forced to let go.  The two of them fell to the stone floor below with a sickening thud.

E and Sam coughed as the wind had been knocked out of them.  They then heard the sound of Bomani’s boots hitting the stone floor.

Sam managed to get his bearings and, for a second, the dreadful situation they were in seemed to fade away.  They were in a huge circular room, carvings right out of the stone looked down on them eerily from the walls bathed in the flickering red light of the flares.

Bomani pulled three more flares and they surged to life with a hiss, taking the place of the old and dying light.  They were on one side of a large circular platform in the center of the room.  It was held to the ceiling by three large lines of chain.  Around and below the platform was an endless amount of sand that Sam was very curious about.

He kicked one of the dead flares over the edge and watched the sand swallow it whole in a flash of speed.  It was as if the sand hand been hungry for a long time and was finally getting food.

“Amazing,” He muttered and E turned toward him.

“What?” E asked, finding everything about the room amazing but still wanted to hear what Sam found particularly special.

“Whoever built this must have tapped it into the Nile, and made all the sand in the room into lighting quick sand.” Sam said, still staring at the sand.

“It’s truly a marvel of human ingenuity to create a chamber like this.”  Sam finished.

“Humans had nothing to do with it.”  Bomani’s voice suddenly interrupted the silence. “This is the work of the Gods.”

Both E and Sam looked to Bomani, who’s interest was solely on a pedestal in the center of the platform on which sat an old golden cup.

****

Karl’s first move was like lighting as he snapped a sidekick into the henchmen on his right, putting his boot’s sole into the face of the Mongolian, which sent him heels over head backwards to the stone floor.

Karl set his feet and stepped backward into the machine gunner behind him and trapped the gun under his right arm.  As he did this, he slammed his head backward, driving it into the man’s nose.

The man grunted and Karl’s hand slid over his on the butt of the machine gun.  Karl’s other hand went to the grip and he swung the rifle around to sweep across the other two captors.  As he did this, he depressed the Mongolian’s finger on the trigger and the gun kicked one clean sustained burst.

Karl wasn’t sure of the number and the high speed he was moving but enough of the burst hit the two men to send them both to the ground.

“Whoa,” Hoi said, helpless to do anything but watch.

Karl let off the grip and twisted his body sending his left elbow into the bridge of the broken nosed man standing directly behind him.  This sent the Mongolian into unconsciousness, which forced him to release his grip on the gun.

“Whoa,” Hoi said again, slightly louder.

Karl spun, bracing the automatic weapon to his shoulder and turned just as the first Mongolian he had kicked was pulling his gun up to bare on Karl.  Karl fired a quick three round burst into the man’s chest and he dropped.

Karl spun and leveled the rifle at Hoi’s head.

“WHOA!” Hoi yelled and dropped his knife.

Karl steadied his hand and stared at Hoi.

“Hold up, hold up.  God damn, are you bionic or something?!” Hoi yelled out of frustration and panic.

Karl didn’t flinch, continuing to stare.

“I don’t even need this job,” Hoi said, becoming calm.  “I lost seven guy, now.  That’s my limit on giving a shit, so let’s just call it a day.”

Karl continued to stare.

Hoi broke the awkward silence.  “So I am just going to go then…”

Hoi didn’t get a response.  Instead, Karl just continued to stare.  Hoi then decided to slowly start moving toward the door.  Karl’s gun continued to track him.  Hoi started to pick up his pace thinking he was going to make it, when Karl stopped him.

“Hoi.”  Karl spoke sternly and Hoi stopped and turned.  “Leave your clothes.”

****

Sam pulled himself to his feet as Bomani lifted the cup from the table.  He watched the man pull out his canteen and pour some water into it.  Sam was seized by an uncontrollable amount of curiosity.  What would happen when he drank from it?

E stood.  “Should we try to stop him?”

Sam shook his head.  “He’s got the gun.”

“Now I will have my eternity.”  Bomani spoke to himself more than to anyone else.

Bomani drank from the cup like he had been in the desert for an eternity.  It poured down the sides of his face and then onto his shirt.

He then began to laugh long and loud.  Sam raised an eyebrow as he stared at him.  E couldn’t turn away either.

“I can feel it.” Bomani said to no one.  “The power coursing through me.  I am like a God!”

“No you aren’t.”  Sam said and Bomani’s attention turned to Sam in an instant.  “You’re just an idiot who drank water out of a dirty cup in an old basement.”

Bomani frowned and almost growled.  “I will show you.”

****

Karl had climbed down the shaft as fast as he could with the small amount of light coming up from below.  But now he had reached the last step and as much as he wanted to drop into action and rescue the people he loved, he knew better then to leap head long into a situation he didn’t fully understand.

He surveyed below, unable to get a good vantage point on Bomani.  He could see his brother and E directly below him.  He could hear them talking.

“Let me show you,” He heard Bomani from somewhere out of his sight line and readied his gun.  He would take the shot as Bomani entered his field of vision to attack Sam.

Karl prayed he didn’t shoot them both.

Suddenly there was a flash of movement in the flickering red light of the flares below.  Bomani had Sam by the throat already and he was lifting him off the ground.

Karl was stunned.  How had Bomani moved so fast?  It didn’t matter now.  He had to move quickly as Bomani’s free hand was coming up with the pistol in it.

Karl let go and entered a controlled fall landing on Bomani’s arms and sending him staggering slightly.  Sam fell to the ground gasping for air.

Bomani’s pistol hit the concrete floor and skidded away from them.

Karl pulled himself up, shouldering the machine gun to take Bomani down, but somehow Bomani was faster and came around with a hard roundhouse kick.  It was perfectly placed to catch the side of the machine gun and despite Karl’s perfect grip, the gun flew away and over the edge into the quick sand below.

Karl was again confused as to where Bomani was getting this from.  Bomani just smiled.  “Lambs to the slaughter.  I am Immortal now.  Bow before me and I will make your deaths quick.”

“Fuck that!” Sam yelled as he rushed past Karl, having gotten to his feet already.

He charged Bomani and took a big hooking right hand.  Sam’s inability to fight showed through and Karl frowned as Bomani side-stepped under the wild haymaker and side kicked him with enough force to send him sliding in the opposite direction.

Karl charged with teeth bared, determined to take this man down.  His first two punches were hard low jabs to the body.  Both connected with full force but Bomani didn’t move.

Instead he chuckled.

Bomani then roundhouse kicked Karl to the side of the head and sent him sprawling backward towards the pistol.  The blow made Karl cough hard and he felt it through his entire body.

“What the hell is going on?”  Karl muttered, looking back at the once-terrorist turned invincible warrior.

“I will say it again, I am immortal.” Bomani said as he began to stride toward Karl.  Karl’s eye caught the pistol and he scrambled for it.

Bomani realized what he was doing and had no interest in testing his God theory and broke into a sprint.  Karl came up with the gun but Bomani was there already, side stepping it, catching his arm and twisting it back toward Karl’s own face.

His strength was incredible and Karl had to use his other hand to stop the barrel of the gun from centering on his face.  Bomani kicked the back of his knee and Karl dropped to a kneel.  Now Bomani had both hands invested in turning Karl’s weapon on himself and Karl slowly began to lose ground.  The barrel edged closer to his face.

“Hey!” E’s voice suddenly broke the melee and everyone looked up at the woman they had forgotten about.

She was holding the cup.  “I’m pretty sure you need this, right?  To stay immortal and all.”

Bomani’s jaw flexed as he stared in horror as to what she would do next.

“I have to be honest.  I’m not interested in immortality.” She said and she summarily tossed it toward the edge of the platform.

“NO!” Bomani shrieked and released Karl, sprinting after the cup.

“NO!” Sam shrieked as he began to pick himself up.

Bomani stretched out one hand and caught the chain as he outstretched the other and grabbed the cup at the last second.

 He had left Karl with the gun, however.  Karl fired three times.  Each shot found their mark in Bomani’s chest.

Bomani did not stagger, he just looked down at the bleeding holes, then back up at Karl and smiled.

It was at this time that Sam collided, head first, into the wannabe Demi-God.

“No!” Karl yelled, and took two steps and leaped.

 “Shit!” E mumbled.  She had already been in motion.

Bomani and Sam went over the edge.  Karl managed to catch Sam’s foot by the ankle, then turned, outstretching his other hand to grab E’s.  E wedged herself against the chain and howled in pain as the enormous weight yanked at her arm.

Bomani caught the handle of the cup with one hand as Sam clasped the base.  Bomani was now dangling inches above the quick sand.

“THIS HURTS BAD!” E yelled in pain as the muscles in her arm were pulled to their limit.

“Sam! Let it go!” Karl yelled as he clutched Sam’s ankle with everything he had and held to E’s wrist knowing he had broken her arm.

Bomani smiled up at Sam.  “You can’t let go, can you Sam?  It has always been your weakness.”

Bomani began to pull himself up and Sam frowned at him before smiling.

Bomani hesitated confused by the smile.

“Enjoy your immortality.”

Sam released his grip on the cup and Bomani wailed in rage and frustration as the sand took him and the ancient artifact.  His sound was abruptly cut off and then there was silence.

****

E rode back to the embassy in the back of a large van.  Her arm was in a sling that the medics on site had done up for her.  It was pretty obviously broken.  Karl had called Kim with his phone recovered from Hoi’s pockets and she had called in the Calvary.  They hadn’t shown up for nearly a half an hour but she wasn’t going to complain about that.  It had nearly taken them that long to pull themselves up without following Bomani into the sand.

She had a brief moment of wonder about Bomani.  Nothing that happened in the cave proved he had really become immortal but a whole lot of things suggested he could have been.  Had he really gained powers or just the power of suggestion?

She looked back to see both of the brothers staring at her.

“What?” She asked.

“Are you going to quit?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.

She thought about it for a second.  “No, not yet anyway.”

Sam smiled.  “Well, in that case, which one of us are you going to pick?”

E shook her head.  “Excuse me?”

“You can’t have both.” Karl said leaning forward.  “Which one of us is it?”

E mocked thought about that for a second, then smiled back at them. “The jury’s out, boys.”

Karl chuckled and grinned slyly, leaning back in his seat.

Sam made a noise of frustration.  “That is total bullshit!”

E just continued to smile and looked back out the window.  Just then, in the light of the new day’s sunrise, she could swear they passed what looked to be a small Mongolian man running through the streets of Cairo.

END OF SEASON 1