Die Tryin' (10 page)

Nick Black watched on as the guard urged Taki to move forwards, and the barrier fall back down. Taki’s Mini remained stationed in front of it. The guard finally lost his rag. He threw his cigarette butt on the ground and raised his arms again towards Taki. He said something at the same time, something along the lines of
‘fucking what you fucking doing you fucker,’
but they were too far away to hear it clearly. Taki stepped out of his car, pointing with both hands towards his bonnet, his head still shaking. He then urged the guard to come and help him as he made his way to the front of his car. The guard left his post and went down to the road to join him. Taki flipped up his bonnet and stared at his engine, pointing and gesticulating at it, scratching his head for effect.

‘He’s fucking doing it!’
Tony repeated, now even more excited.

Nick Black caught a glimpse of Nick XR2’s eyes in the rear view and he could tell from the way they were squinted that he was grinning. He looked back round to now see the guard bent over the engine and fiddling around. Taki stood upright and grinned behind his back, nodding his head in appreciation of the con he had just sold him.

Nick Black glanced to the left to see Charlie now sitting on the park bench, Snoop sniffing round the fence way behind him. Charlie looked from Taki and the guard to the others in the car. He raised a thumb and gave them a solemn nod.

‘Gotcha!’
Marco said, clapping his hands, and then rubbing them together.

‘He’s fucking done it!’ Nick XR2 exclaimed in almost a whisper, now and only now allowing himself to get excited by proceedings. ‘I told you he’d sort it, didn’t I?’

Nick Black could sense the relief inside XR2.
Maybe even ice cool Nick Theodorou was having some doubt for a while there. Who knew?

‘We better get moving ’cos that old bastard’s gonna be looking to get him out of the way ASAP,’ Marco said.

‘Couldn’t agree more,’ Nick Black said, wanting to get moving, wanting to get this over with.

They all got out of the car. Behind them, the guard was still fiddling with the engine, while Taki spoke in his ear. The coast was clear, not another car, person nor animal in sight, and Nick Black reflected that things so far couldn’t have gone any sweeter. Marco led them over to the mausoleum—the nice, shiny, polished mausoleum. They scampered over, the sound of their trainers slapping on the tarmac suddenly sounding in Nick’s ears like thunder claps.

They reached the mausoleum, and crowded round the entrance like shoppers waiting for the opening of a new store. They all looked round nervously, Tony bouncing on his haunches.

Marco stuck the key in the lock. ‘She had this door put on to try and keep the thieves out.’

‘You mean us?’ Nick Black asked, looking up and down the front of the mausoleum, noticing the name ‘PANVCCI,’ etched into the stone above the iron door.

‘Precisely us,’ Marco said as he turned the key. ‘But, where there’s a will…’ There was a click and he swung the door open. Its hinges groaned loud and long before the inner sanctuary was exposed—a small stone room, swamped with shadow.
‘There’s a way,’
Marco finished with a smile.

He flicked the torch on. The beam bounced off every corner of the mausoleum, illuminating it. The massive granite tomb in the centre was now exposed, shining like liquid onyx under the fluorescent light. A lithe iron dragon strode majestically across its lid, snarling at them, two plumes of fire shooting from its nostrils. To Nick Black, it looked angry. Pissed as hell, in fact.
Fucking thing was probably put there to ward off intruders.

And look what the cat dragged in…

‘What is that thing?’ Nick XR2 asked, pointing at the dragon.

‘She was into some weird shit,’ answered Marco, shrugging at the same time.

‘Did you know her?’ Tony asked.

Marco didn’t answer at first. After a second or two, he said ‘Not really.’ Then, ‘Let’s get in quick.’

Nick Black glanced round. Snoop was still sniffing the fence. Charlie was talking to himself, and the guard was fiddling with engines. Things couldn’t have been better right about then.

‘Remember to wipe your feet,’ Marco quipped as he quickly stepped into the mausoleum, followed single file by Nick XR2, Tony, then Nick Black.

Once they were all in, Marco shut the door, and they were encapsulated in that mausoleum, all four of them, and whoever it was that lay inside the tomb.

*****

Charlie turned his head slyly to the side and watched them all disappear into the mausoleum. He closed his eyes and lifted his head up to the sky; he opened them again to see that the sun had disappeared behind a swarm of grey cloud.

‘I hope they’ll be all right,’ he mumbled, and then sighed.

‘It looks very scary in that place,’
a little girl’s voice whispered in his mind. Gemini Number 2.
‘I wouldn’t want to be in there,’
she added.
‘Might be ghosties in there.’

Charlie shook his head.
Oh, the irony!

‘You’re just a scaredy cat!’
a little boy’s vicious reply cut through his mind. Gemini Number 1.

‘Am not!’
Gemini Number 2 abruptly retorted.

‘Are too!’

‘Am not!’

‘Are too!’

Charlie clenched his fists together and looked away, frustrated. ‘This isn’t the time…’ he said through clenched teeth.

‘You are too a scaredy cat! Scaredy cat, scaredy cat, sitting on the doormat!’
Gemini Number 1 chided, ignoring Charlie.

‘No I’m not!’
said Gemini Number 2.

‘Can you two please shut up!’ Charlie snapped in a hushed voice, using his hand to cover his mouth in case Taki or anyone else spotted him talking to himself.

‘Well, she’s a scaredy cat and everyone should know,’
Gemini Number 1 said.
‘There’s nothing in there to be scared of, but
she
is!’

‘Am not!’

‘I really haven’t got time for this,’ Charlie said.

Just then a growl to his right made his head turn. He found himself staring at Snoop who was on all fours, in full on attack stance, his back legs trembling. He was glaring at Charlie with something akin to hate (or was it fear?) in his eyes, his lips pulled back in a snarl, baring his razor sharp teeth. He barked once, twice.

‘That doggy doesn’t like us,’
Gemini Number 1 observed.

‘I think you’re right,’ Charlie said.

‘He’s a bad doggy!’
Gemini Number 2 added.

Snoop barked again, and then again, between incessant growls.

‘Quiet, Snoop!’ Charlie ordered, pointing at him, but Snoop ignored his command, remaining in the stance he had taken up.

‘We better get away from that bad old doggy!’
Gemini Number 1 suggested.

‘Yes, let’s leave the mean old doggy alone,’
Gemini Number 2 agreed.

And then they were gone.

Snoop suddenly switched. He stopped growling, his legs ceased trembling, the fear/anger left his eyes as if he had just had a brain wipe, or the Gemini twins had never even been there in the first place. He turned around and began sniffing behind the park bench for whatever it was he was so keen to find.

Charlie was grateful. He turned his attention back to the mausoleum, concentrating on it, keeping a watch out, just like Snow White told him to. But, a sudden wave of paranoia hit him from nowhere.
I should be in there,
he thought with alarm.
If anything goes wrong, I won’t be there to help them.
And now it hit home what Snow White meant when she said to keep an eye on them. He had to be
in
there with them, not out here.
What could he do from out here to help them inside there?

He grabbed his head with both hands and started shaking it, a sense of guilt now overpowering him.

He took in a deep breath, and lifted his head to the grey sky. ‘Please don’t let anything happen to them,’ he said. ‘Please!’

He looked back down to see Snoop now staring at the mausoleum that stood eerily quiet in the near distance, whining constantly to himself as he stared. Charlie followed his line of vision, and sighed. And waited.

Waited and prayed.

*****

Nick Black could suddenly hear his own breathing, feel his heart thumping in his chest. Adrenaline flooded his system, and he was glad for it because it was diluting both the creepiness of his new surroundings and the negative thoughts suddenly circling round his head.
You shouldn’t be doing this. This is not good.
Why are you even here?

Monetary gain, monetary gain…
he kept repeating in his mind in an attempt to neuter them.

A sound made him jump.

Marco had put the torch on the ground. The scratching sound it made amplified way beyond what was normal, and it echoed over and over for a few seconds afterwards.

‘That thing looks pretty fucking heavy,’ Nick XR2 observed, pointing at the tomb itself.

‘I told you, two hundred K,’ Marco reminded him.

Nick Black stared at it. The lid not only covered the top, but came down almost to the ground, meaning they had to get it up and over the rim. There was enough space around them to place it down on the floor, but it would take a big lift, and he was starting to understand just why Marco wanted three of them in there with him. If it contained what Marco said it contained, he understood just why she’d chosen this particular final resting place. She was well and truly encased with her gold.

‘Right, grab an edge each,’ Marco said, not wasting any time. ‘And on three we’ll lift.’

Nick XR2 and Tony nodded. Nick Black remained silent. He was becoming rapidly intoxicated by the situation and the surroundings. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this, and on top of that was suddenly not sure he wanted to see what was in that tomb. It was like a box of secrets—Pandora’s Box; the Ark of the Covenant. And he now contemplated how good the chances were of finding himself lying in his bed at midnight, sweating, unable to sleep, unable to tear the horrific image of what was waiting in there from his mind. Suddenly, vampires and zombies and demons were very real, and their images were bombarding his mind, ready to tear him limb from limb.

He felt the blood flood from his face and he staggered towards his corner of the tomb.
‘Wait. Wait…’
he gasped.

Nick XR2 looked at him, puzzled. ‘What’s wrong?’

Nick Black reached out and steadied himself on the tomb, it was ice cold beneath his touch, and the dragon was somehow staring at him from the side of its head with hot, angry eyes, making him feel even worse. ‘I-I-can’t do it,’ he stammered, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

‘Oh Christ!’
Nick XR2 exclaimed and looked away. He huffed, put his hands on his hips, and turned back to face Nick Black. ‘And I thought it was Taki who was gonna chicken out!
He
done his bit.’

‘Re
, we’re in this together,’ Tony reminded him in a surprisingly calm voice. ‘We agreed. We can’t bottle it now.’

‘You know what’s inside here?’ Nick Black blurted, nodding his head forcibly towards the tomb. ‘You sure you wanna
see
it?’

And his words made a flicker of doubt cross Nick XR2’s face. It was so subtle, so tiny, but spoke a thousand words to Nick Black because he knew at that moment that he had got through to the son of a bitch.

But, just as quickly, Nick XR2 regained his control, shook it off, and frowned. ‘You knew what we’d be doing here, Nick. You can’t back out now. Whatever is in there is in there, and we just have to face it. That’s the deal.’

‘Now you know why I wanted this done so soon,’ Marco said, hands on hips, the torchlight reflecting off his visor like shades in barcode lines. ‘If there’s too much time to think, you’ll make up all kinds of shit, and you’ll start believing it.’

‘Well, come on then, tell us. What is waiting for us in there?’ Nick Black asked.

‘Gold!’
Marco said out loud, bending over and cupping his hands together, the word reverberating around the tomb. ‘Shitloads of it. And that’s all you should be thinking about.’

‘What about the dead body?’

‘Bodies,’ Tony corrected, and Nick Black stared at him confused for a second or two. ‘He said her old man’s in there too,’ Tony added.

Nick Black grabbed his forehead and rubbed.
‘Oh Jesus,’
he groaned.

‘Look,’ said Marco stepping towards the tomb.
‘She
is fresh. We’re talking weeks; the formaldehyde they pumped into her probably hasn’t worn off yet, so she won’t be all green and mouldy.’ Nick Black looked away in disgust.
‘He
on the other hand has been in there a lot longer. Around ten years, so, yeah, he should be bones by now.
You ain’t scared of a few bones are you?’

Nick Black glanced back at the tomb with that dragon breathing its fire out at him. He still felt a horrible mixture of nausea and anxiety worming around inside his stomach.
You knew what you were getting into from the off,
a voice inside him said.
That’s the bottom line. Chicken out now and not only will lose face, but you’ll be branded a fucking wuss for the rest of your days.

Now, do you want that?

He closed his eyes and took in deep breath of old, musky air. He curled his fists up into balls and clenched. ‘No,’ he replied, trying his best to be brave. ‘I ain’t scared of bones.’

Marco grinned. ‘Good! Now grab a fucking corner, we’ve wasted enough time already.’ Nick Black felt a massive smack on his back, which forced his eyelids open again.

His head spun round and he was faced with Tony’s grin. ‘Come on
re
, we can do this shit,’ he said, now rubbing Nick Black’s back instead of slapping it.

Nick Black nodded and grabbed a corner.

‘Just close your eyes,
re,’
Nick XR2 advised as he took hold of his corner.

Nick Black thought that maybe wasn’t such a bad idea.

Once each of them had a corner in their grip, Marco counted them down. ‘Ready?’ he said. ‘On three.’