The Prynnes followed a few steps behind O’Neil and Jim. The hem of Genevieve’s dress was already torn to shreds by the jungle floor. She held up surprisingly well despite the less than ideal conditions. Her father, on the other hand, was covered in sweat. He stumbled through the uneven surface and generally didn’t look like he was ready for the bush.

  Abel took up the end of the procession, flanked by two more Nazi soldiers. Each man held a Karabiner at the ready. O’Neil knew that Abel and his men wouldn’t think twice before shooting them all down.

  “How much farther is this place?” Harold Prynne asked Abel.

  “We will know when we find it,” Abel said. “Now, be quiet. Who knows what is in this jungle.”

  O’Neil looked to Jim. As he took another swing, he quietly said, “What is out here?”

  Jim tilted his head towards O’Neil. “This is a bad place to be. They say spirits haunt this land. Only the cannibals dare tread on these grounds.”

  “Great,” O’Neil said. “Nazis, ancient relics, and now cannibals. Remind me to walk away next time someone wants me to take a ride down the Nile.”

  Jim only smiled broadly, as he did every time a white man said something he thought was foolish. He took another swing against the foliage. A large chunk of tree fell forward.

  The branch smashed down onto the foliage in front of them. It collapsed the jungle floor. The wood crashed down onto the layer of jagged spikes that rested beneath the trap.

  Jim almost stumbled forward into the spike pit. O’Neil reached out with his hook and quickly grabbed him. He pulled Jim back up and away from the edge of the pit.

  “That’s not the kind of spill you want to take.”

  “This is dug by the man-eaters,” Jim said. “They must be close.”

  “Dear God, man!” Harold yelled. “What is that?”

  Jim rushed back and clamped a hand across Harold’s mouth. But it was already too late. A spear whistled through the air. It struck one of Abel’s men directly through the throat. He went down in a bloody heap without even a chance to scream.

  Abel and the other Nazi raised their weapons as they searched across the jungle floor. O’Neil slid under their line of fire. He sheathed his machete, and then yanked the Karabiner from the dead Nazi’s hand.

  He sprang back to his feet as the Nazis fired wildly into the jungle.

  Genevieve and Harold Prynne stared at him, even as Jim turned back towards the jungle. “Run,” O’Neil screamed. “Run, run, run!”

  This time they detected the urgency in his voice. They fell in behind O’Neil as he charged forward, passing around the pit trap and into the thick jungle. Any thought of cutting through the foliage was gone. He could only hope to run and avoid any headhunters.

  With headhunters all around and a German waiting to kill him back on the Heart, O’Neil knew he had only one chance: to find the Palladium.

  He tried to keep up with Jim as the bushman bounced through the jungle with the gracefulness of a cat. It was a fruitless endeavor, but he did manage to keep Jim in his line of sight as he charged forward for the first few seconds.

  But after a minute of steady running, the bushman turned sailor disappeared into jungle. O’Neil cursed as he stumbled. His foot caught against a stray tree root. He tripped and fell forward. His body crashed through the jungle foliage. The light vanished as he slid down a buried path. O’Neil clenched his eyes shut, ready for a painfully—and hopefully quick—death.

  It never came. Instead, he crashed down hard against a pile of bones. The bones cracked as he struck, but they saved him from being impaled on the spikes the skeleton rested against it.

  O’Neil scampered away from the spike trap. Light shined down from above, just barely illuminating his location. He reached into the knapsack at his side and pulled out a gas lantern. He quickly lit it with the Zippo in his pocket.

  He held up the lamp and found himself staring down the tunnels of some kind of temple. Mosaic art lined the walls. By purpose of God or accident of fate, he had found the Palladium’s resting place.

  Chapter Nine

  “O’Neil, are you all right?”

  Genevieve peered down the darkened tunnel, but only the faintest flicker of light emerged from below. She bent down, trying to see any sign of the one armed sailor, but could make nothing out through the gloom.

  “I’m down here,” O’Neil finally said from the darkness. “You and your father should probably head down here before the headhunters find you. Just slide down slowly.”

  Genevieve turned to her father. Harold Prynne looked completely exhausted, but he nodded his agreement to O’Neil’s plan. Genevieve gently pushed herself onto the sharp dirt incline and pushed herself down, making sure not to go too fast.

  She gasped as she reached the bottom and saw the human skeleton against the wall. Her shock was broken up by the sound of her father sliding down behind her. She stepped out of the way in time for him to land on the hard packed earth floor, just a foot from the spiked wall.

  “This place certainly seems cheery,” Harold said.

  O’Neil stepped forward, a lantern in his hand. He held it out to Harold, and then pulled another from his knapsack.

  “They didn’t build it to be friendly. They built it to keep folks like you and me out. If we’re lucky, maybe it will do the same for the Nazis and the headhunters.”

  O’Neil lit his own lamp and turned towards the cavernous room.

  “I suggest you stay behind me. These aren’t the kind of places you want to wander freely in.”

  O’Neil stepped forward and his light bathed the walls of the temple structure. Images of Greek warriors leapt from the walls everywhere. He stepped forward and let his light bathe the walls in search of any sign of the Palladium.

  Genevieve followed him into the cavern. Her father, still looking haggard, followed a few steps behind.

  Genevieve studied the walls. She saw stories she knew: Hercules and his ten labors, Arachne’s transformation into a spider, even images of the Trojan horse and Achilles’ death. She could feel the age of the walls, just as she could when she and her father visited the pyramids weeks before.

  “This is two thousand years old,” she said. “But these pictures look as though they were drawn yesterday. It’s amazing how perfect they still are.”

  “Too perfect,” O’Neil said.

  They continued forward. The chamber grew narrower as they moved down it. O’Neil took careful aim before he stepped, but Genevieve couldn’t imagine any ancient spring trap could still be active millennia later.

  “Strange,” O’Neil said in front of her. He came to a stop and bent towards the ground. He scratched his chin as he studied it.

  “What?”

  “I expected more traps, but it’s almost if they want us to find the Palladium—if it’s still here.”

  Genevieve shrugged. “Maybe they thought the trip down the Nile would be enough to keep anyone from finding it. Or that the trap at the gate would be enough to kill any stray passersby. It seemed to have worked, at least for one chap.”

  “I suppose,” O’Neil said as he took another step forward. “It just feels off somehow.”

  They continued forward. O’Neil remained cautious, but he moved faster. Genevieve followed him as she scanned the walls of the temple for any sign of a clue. They went for another thirty seconds or so until O’Neil stopped short.

  “What the hell?”

  He ran forward and flashed his light against a wall, a dead-end on their path. No altar, no shrine, and definitely no Palladium.

  “Nothing at all,” O’Neil said. “It’s completely empty. We’ve went on a damn wild goose chase.”

  Genevieve studied the images on the wall. It showed an intricate pattern and in its midst was a man with the head of a bull. She knew the story of the Minotaur and the labyrinth in which it lived. No one could escape the confines of the maze. Her eyes traveled across the rest of the wall as the labyrinth stretched ever outward and into the darkness of the cave.

  “It’s here,” she said. “We just have to find it.”

  O’Neil turned and stared at her. “What are you talking about? We’ve walked through the entire place!”

  “They didn’t trap it because it wasn’t designed as a trap. They thought people would come in here, look around and think the Palladium was gone. But it’s not. It’s hidden. Odysseus was legendary for his mastery of puzzles and mind games. When he sent the Palladium to be hidden, he just created another one. And we’re standing in it.”

  “We’re in a puzzle,” O’Neil said. “How?”

  Genevieve grabbed the lantern from her father’s hand. She flashed it across the wall.

  “It’s in the pictures. The Palladium is hidden among them. We just need to find the image of it. And I think I know where it is.”

  She ran back along the wall of the temple. She waved the lamp wildly until she found the images of the Trojan War. The horse loomed large on the wall, followed shortly by an image of Achilles with an arrow through his ankle. She slowly followed the images back toward the entrance.

  She stopped short as she saw an image of a cloaked figure, a beautiful woman and a tiny statue of a second woman.

  “This is it,” she said. She walked towards the wall. O’Neil ran forward and hooked her dress. He pulled her back from the wall.

  “Let me. They do have at least one trap down here. I’m not going to risk you on this one.”

  O’Neil stepped forward. He reached out for the image of the statue. He touched it and the stone crumbled as his hook pushed through. His entire false arm disappeared into the hole on the wall. He moved the hook around until it clicked against something, then dragged it back out of the hole.

  It was tarnished heavily by time, but as he held it up, it was clearly shaped like a woman. Not just a woman, Genevieve thought, a goddess.

  “Well, that was easier than I thought,” O’Neil said.

  He only had time to smile before he fell suddenly forward. The shaft of a spear stuck out of his back.

  ***

  Genevieve and her father rushed forward to the side of Armless O’Neil. She saw the shaft’s origin point, a tiny hole hidden in the image of Odysseus.

  Her father bent over O’Neil. He slowly pulled the spear free from O’Neil’s back. He quickly placed his kerchief over the wound and pressed down hard to stop the blood flow.

  “Tell me,” O’Neil said through gritted teeth. “Is it bad?”

  “It is far from good,” Harold Prynne said. “But we’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

  “Not this time, I don’t think. I think it’s time for Armless O’Neil to take his final voyage.”

  Genevieve reached into her pocket and pulled out the vile of liquid held there. “But father, if we use it, we may never find more of the plant.”

  Harold met his daughter’s eyes. “We lost your mother because we couldn’t get here in time. I won’t lose the man that saved your life for the same reason.”

  Genevieve nodded.

  “You don’t know how lucky you are, Mister O’Neil.”

  Her father pulled the kerchief away. O’Neil cried out through his clenched teeth.

  Genevieve poured the salve onto the wound. It hissed as it struck the blood. It flowed down into the wound and burned away the blood. Harold held O’Neil down as the sailor roared in pain.

  A minute later it was over. O’Neil’s back was clear of any wound. Not even a scar remained.

  “What was that?” O’Neil asked as he rose to his feet.

  “I don’t know,” Prynne said. “I’ve encountered it only once before, and the person who gave it to me had no name for it. But I think perhaps the best name might be Ambrosia, nectar of the gods.”

  “It’s a flipping miracle is what it is,” O’Neil said. “But we sure as hell aren’t out of the flames quite yet.”

  Genevieve rushed forward and hugged O’Neil.

  “I’m glad you’re all right. Whatever happens, I’m glad that it will be happening with you, O’Neil.”

  He handed her the Palladium. “Hey, I’m sure as shooting happy to have a bit more time with you and your pa. But we have to get moving and I need my hands free in case it comes down to a firefight.”

  O’Neil retrieved his Karabiner and headed back toward the upward path. It took a bit of effort, but he was able to start the climb up and away from the sunken temple.

  Genevieve followed him up. Her torn and dirt-stained dress slowed her down, but her father was just behind her to help her up. It took her nearly a minute longer than O’Neil to make it to the surface, but what she saw there shocked her.

  Trees were fallen everywhere, still smoking from the mortar fire that felled them. And waiting for them was Wagner, flanked by Abel and his Nazi goon squad. All held Karabiners. All were ready to shoot.

  “Thank you so much for retrieving the Palladium for me, Ms. Prynne. My men and I appreciate it, but unfortunately it seems like you have all outlived your usefulness. Hand it over and I will let you and your father live.”

  Chapter Ten

  O’Neil stepped in front of Genevieve and her father.

  “You’ll kill them anyway, Wagner. You and I both know it.”

  Wagner smirked, but it wasn’t Wagner that O’Neil was worried about now. With his hook he held his knapsack open behind him. In his hook, he swung the open Zippo.

  He felt Genevieve lift the Zippo from his hook. He felt her lift the final object from within as well.

  Wagner spoke with the tone of a man victorious. “You are a very smart man, Herr O’Neil. I think in another day and another time we could have been great allies.”

  “I doubt it,” O’Neil said. “I’m not a cold hearted scumbag that kills kids for the joy of it. I think we’re nothing alike, Wagner. I may not like the mainland all that much, but I don’t feel so callous about others that I could kill so easily.”

  “Perhaps,” Wagner said. “But alas, we will never find out now.”

  O’Neil heard the hiss of the fuse lit behind him.

  “I think you’re very right about that,” O’Neil said. “I don’t plan on ever seeing you again, Wagner.”

  The smoke bomb flew out and over his head. It burst just over their head and instantly buried O’Neil, the Prynnes, and the Nazis in waves of smoke.

  “Run!” O’Neil’s words rang out over the battlefield. He heard the Prynnes start to move away from the Nazis and back towards the coast.

  O’Neil went the opposite direction. He charged forward straight at Wagner. He heard the Karabiners fire around him, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. They could shoot him, but it wouldn’t stop him now.

  O’Neil struck Wagner shoulder first. The Nazi leader went down under him. O’Neil wasted no time. He pulled his machete free from his belt and drove it down hard through the man’s chest. He leaned in close in order to see the Nazi through the fog.

  “Goodbye, you Nazi bastard!”

  O’Neil left the machete behind as he rose up and hurled his body back towards the shore. It took him only a few seconds to catch up with the Prynnes as they charged towards the ocean line.

  “What about the other Nazis?” Genevieve yelled to him. “How do we get past them?”

  “I’ve got it taken care of,” O’Neil said.

  They came out on the shore to find Jim waiting for them next to a landing boat. He waved them forward. O’Neil didn’t need to stop and think about it. He leapt into the boat next to his sailing companion. The Prynnes followed him in a second later. The motorboat was already nearly to the Heart when the Nazis hurtled out onto the shore.

  When O’Neil climbed back aboard his ship, the rest of the Heart’s crew waited for him with the boat at the ready. The four remaining Nazis sat tied with their backs to one another on the foredeck.

  O’Neil laughed as his crew saluted. “Good work, sailors! Now let’s get this ship back down the river before the Nazis can get that mortar up and ready to fire.”

  The ship turned in the water, away from the lake and back upstream. It took only a few moments for the motor to get them going.

  “Captain!” Jim’s voice rang out over the motors and the din of activity. “They’re firing!”

  O’Neil peered out over the water and saw the Nazis with three mortars set up on the riverbank. Abel shouted in German. Shells launched through the air, straight for the ship.

  “Incoming!”

  O’Neil’s words rang out, but for nothing. Despite their perfect aim, the shells dropped wildly into the water around the Heart. O’Neil couldn’t believe his eyes. He looked incredulously at the Nazis as the ship headed out of their range.

  “How? How could they miss?”

  He looked towards Genevieve. She held the Palladium in her hands. Could it actually…?

  O’Neil pushed the thought aside as Jim called his name. Jim pointed toward the jungle as they passed away from the Nazis. A mass of black bodies rushed through the trees. It was the headhunters and they were on a collision course with the Nazis.

  O’Neil could only smile. It looked like Abel would finally meet killers even more insane than him.

  “Let’s get moving, boys! We’ve got a long trip back up the Nile!”

  As the sailors rushed around the ship, O’Neil turned back to Genevieve and her father. He took off his hat as he moved in close to Genevieve.

  He looked at Harold Prynne. “With all due respect, sir, I’ve been waiting to do this for weeks.”

  He didn’t wait for a response. He hooked Genevieve, pulled her close and planted a kiss straight on her lips. After a second of shock, she kissed him back.

  Armless O’Neil was back on the water and all was right with the world.

  THE END

  ARMLESS O’NEIL AND THE CHASE FOR THE KUBA MASK

  by R.P. Steeves

  When the Professor’s Daughter found O’Neil, she was desperate and hunted. Then O’Neil himself became the hunter, seeking the one artifact that could turn the tables in a worldwide war. But first he had to believe…