The Legend of the Phantom (29 page)

Chapter 42

The noise from the movement of the stone slabs mingled with the cries and screams of the men made the hall where the Black Widow, Les and Stripes stood deafening.

As the door slab fell into place the threesome
found that a grooved cut into the stone allowed them to watch the inevitable death that would shortly ensue below them. There they stood transfixed, unable to pull away from the horrific view any more than spectators can pull away from gawking at a deadly and gruesome car crash.

Even calloused Stripes seemed shocked by the event. Les turned to pull Heloise into him, and abruptly realized she was gone.

“Stripes! Where’s Heloise?”

Stripes looked around and returning to watch the room fill with water as the men attempted to find some way to survive, simply said, “Probably was too much fer her.”

Les was unconvinced. “I’m going to look for her.”

“Yeah, whatever
.” Stripes turned his attention back to the men inside. One man was already floating face down in the swirling water. “Youse better swim youse bastards!” he shouted gleefully.

As the Black Widow, Les and Stripes watched the door slam down, a large hand covered the girl’s face. Though she struggled hard, the Phantom dragged the Black Widow out of sight behind the other two.  A short moment later the girl ceased struggling as she passed out. Quickly the Phantom scooped her up into his massive arms and carried her into an adjoining chamber. With deft precision, he searched her clothing and shortly came across what he was after: his two large rings made of indestructible material.

Even as he slipped them on his own hands,
Les came calling, looking for the girl.

The Phantom slid into the shadow behind the entrance to the chamber as Les spotted the girl.

Moments later Les’ heavy footfalls approached the door. As he entered the chamber, eyes focused on Heloise, he felt his head crack open and stars exploded into his mind before he collapsed onto the hard stone floor, his jaw permanently tattooed with a death’s head motif. He had several hours of sleep ahead of him.

It was a few moments later when Stripes heard the
Black Widow call his name. The frantic call forced him to pull away from his sport of watching his companions succumb to death and regrettably move toward the sound. Immediately cocking his pistol he waved it around as he made his way towards the girl.

When he arrived at the
Black Widow’s side he found her stooped over Les’ inert form.

“What the…” he began, but was unable to speak as fear gripped his throat from the bruised and bloodied mark that was left on what once was Les’ fine jaw. “…The Phantom!?”

“I know…” began the Black Widow, “he grabbed me from behind…”

“…and now has his rings back…” stammered Stripes,
fingering his gun, as he looked all around him. He all too well remembered the promise that the Phantom had given him.

“I can’t do this anymore, Stripes.”

“I’m with you,” Stripes responded, misinterpreting her remark.

The Black Widow realized what he interpreted and decided to leave it at that.
It took them no time at all to come to the decision. Leaving Les behind, Stripes and the Black Widow made their way out of the chambers with Stripes firing random shots into the shadows. Quickly they returned to the surface.

As Stripes moved away from the doorway, the Phantom worked his way around him, using the rocky walls of the antechamber as a means of cover within the shadows. As he neared his victim, the Black Widow called out, and Stripes pulled out his pistol and moved away from the blocked doorway that separated him from the fates of many of his men.

The Phantom knew the man was the desperate type and decided it would be better to take him out at a later moment
than when he was half-cocked. The cries of the men trapped inside of the treasure chamber drew his more immediate attention.

From
his vantage point the Phantom was unable to see the spillway but the sound of water filling the chamber made apparent the desperate situation the remaining men were in. Quickly he assessed the situation and followed the top of the blocked entranceway upwards with his eyes.

There
, above the door and off to one side, he spotted the recessed area where the heavy chains of the door disappeared. Climbing up the rock wall he quickly made his way over to where the chains reappeared, where he found a massive turnstile that controlled the door.

With a mighty heave of his bulging muscles,
the Phantom moved the turnstile; the first time in centuries. Cakes of dust and flecks of rust poured off as the heavy wheel turned. The Phantom slowly cranked the door up. No one man alone would ever have had the strength to do so, short of the Phantom himself.

Inch by inch
as the door rose the flow of water lessened. Inch by inch, as the door rose the remaining two pirates showed hope in their eyes as survival appeared to become a reality.

Above them all, Stripes and the Black Widow ran for the boat that they had taken from the old captain not too many nights before.

As the door rose, water spilled out and so did the two remaining survivors. Ripping the shirt off of one of the men, the Phantom apologized as he tied them up. However, the men were in fine spirits to be tied up as it meant they were alive.

Pulling the dead from the spilling water, the Phantom dragged them to one side of the chamber and having assured himself they were beyond revival, he left the men and bodies below and hurried to the outside beach area.

When Les awoke he found himself in the boat, snug up against Stripes, the two remaining men that were alive, and the three dead ones. All of the living trussed up like himself. Including the Black Widow, who crouched asleep in the boat, not from a punch like the others but from sheer exhaustion.

His head felt like it was hit with a jack hammer, which wasn’t too far off. Had he been able to see himself in a mirror he would have found a new tattoo on his jaw,
similar to the two that now graced Stripes’ jaw. The rolling of the boat over the choppy ocean waves made him feel more than a little queasy. No land was in sight.

“I see you are awake,” stated the Phantom.

“I guess I didn’t kill you after all,” remarked Les angrily.

“Nope,” answered the Phantom.
“But don’t feel too disappointed. Stripes has tried before and he failed as well,” the Phantom sarcastically replied.

“So now what?” asked
Les, cringing at what he expected the answer to be.

“Once we land in Puerto Rico, you will go away to prison for the rest of your life, as will all the rest of those with you. Seeing as they don’t look on murderers very well there,
‘life imprisonment’ could be quite short but I suspect a pretty agonizing time at that.”

“I see,” said
Les, remembering his previous stint in the penitentiary in Mexico. Thinking back on it, his mind and face repulsed the images that surfaced and he made a quick decision. He wasn’t going to go back. Anything was better than that. With his mind made up, he stared at the Phantom and simply asked, “And you?”

“
Although the tattoo on your face will do sufficiently, I will make certain that you remember me Les.”

“
And you’ll remember me, Phantom,” replied Les. “For as long as you live.” He paused to see what the Phantom’s reaction to his threat would be. When none came, he innocently asked, “By the way, how do you feel about sharks?”

“What?” began the Phantom as
Les launched himself at the Phantom and the controls.

Slamming into the Phantom and the controls
, Les’ body crumpled across the steering wheel which suddenly turned the boat. The high speed mixed with the choppy waves and the sudden turn did as Les expected. With a sharp bounce the boat flew up into the air and rolled, spilling its occupants into the dark waters.

Chapter
43

The sudden spill into the water immediately woke the Black Widow. Bodies landed near her, some dead, some mostly alive. Some that were alive, now dead from broken necks and backs. Among them, Stripes.

With her hands and legs trussed she had no means of saving herself.
Screaming she slipped under the waves which cut off her scream and changed it into a gurgle instead.

As she twisted and turned in an attempt to surface, she felt something brush up against her. Suddenly she felt herself being pulled up
ward as something caught her shirt. Before she could close her mouth her head popped back above the surface of the waves.

“Do you know how to swim or float?” the Phantom asked her as she coughed out that which had gotten into her lungs and sought air in place of water.

She nodded assent.

“Good. Hold still.” With a mighty pull he ripped the cloth that bound her wrists and then diving under did the same for her ankles.

Free, she flipped over so she could float.

A body brushed past her
face down, and as she pushed it away, she spied something that made her blood curl: shark fins.

Meanwhile the Phantom was swimming with a speed and force that would have put Olympic athletes to shame. He had spied the boat and meant to get it. Fate was shining down on him as the boat had landed right side up. It took him a few moments but shortly he was able to pull himself into it.

The engine was not willing to work right away, but eventually caught.  Working his way back he called out to the survivors.

“Here!” screamed the
Black Widow.

Shortly he pulled alongside and with a mighty heavy of one arm, lifted her
in as if she had been nothing more than a doll being plucked up from a bath tub.

As he lifted her, he heard
Les chuckle from a distance.

“
Les? Is that you,” called out the Black Widow.

“
It’s me,” chuckled Les.

“Quick, Kit, get him.”

“Oh no you won’t!” called out Les. “I will never go to prison again. Nope…I am going somewhere that you two won’t be able to get me.”

Despite Les’ bravado, the Phantom turned the boat and raced it towards him.

As they approached Les made a show of his bare arm, and before they could reach him, he took a large bite out of it. Then, with teeth stained red, he spit out a mouthful of flesh as blood poured into the shark infested sea. Laughing, he called out to the Phantom, “Live long Phantom! But remember, I won.” Then he screamed as he lost his arm to the first of many sharks that converged upon him. Then his legs and eventually died in the frothing argument over his flesh.

By that time, anyone left in the water was doomed and the Phantom knew it.
Looking sadly across at the Black Widow he shook his head at the greed and stupidity of man and then announced, “Time to go.”

From that time on, t
here was no need to tie up the Black Widow. She didn’t dare try to escape nor did she say a single word the entire trip back to Puerto Rico.

Once the boat was safely gliding in she finally spoke.
As the boat docked upon the Puerto Rican harbor, she turned to the Phantom and much to his surprise said, “You know, I don’t think our relatives were pirates.” The Phantom stood still watching her as she continued. “And I never really believed they were.”

“That’s good to hear,” he replied, “but it doesn’t change the fact that you committed piracy and were an accomplice to murder. So whether you like it or not, I need to turn you over to the local authorities.”

She nodded as a single tear slid down her cheek.  Stretching out her arms she placed her wrists together to be tied.

As the night faded into morning, the officer at the Boquerón precinct heard a loud knocking on the door that sounded like it was followed by a scuffle.

Opening the front door, he found a beautiful woman trussed up and gagged with a note attached to her that read, “This woman is one of the head of the pirate organization that stole the Costa Rican gold from the
salvage ship Scavenger, and is party to murder of several of the same crew and others.”

With his burden collected, the Phantom slipped off into the shadows and returned to his boat. A few hours later found him on his return to the Island of Mona.

This time
not a moment was wasted as the Phantom went straight back into the well, to explore the rest of the chambers. Directly opposite the door of death that lead to the open treasure he found a large chain ring securely fastened into a large stone set into the wall. Above the ring was a simple motif: two crossed swords.

“X marks the spot,” he said aloud. Studying it, he realized it was the only stone
not mortar set into the wall. Curious he pulled on it. It seemed a bit loose. Pulling harder the stone slid out a few inches. With patience and much strength the Phantom slowly worked the stone loose. There on the back side of the stone, was an etched map, a map he knew well, coupled with but one word: Eyrie. Behind the stone was a small pocket occupied by a simple scroll tied to a key; a duplicate to the scroll and key that the Father of the First left behind in Whitby.