The Seven Swords of Diya: An Indiana Jones Fan Fiction Part 1

Chapter 76: Kamchatka, Russian Wilderness, 1960

Kamchatka

Russian Wilderness

1960

Shorty was standing outside the plane admiring his landing. Indy and Emily joined him.

"What are you proud of?" Emily asked. "I can parallel park a tank better than this."

"But can you fly a tank?"

"Don't give her ideas, Shorty," Indy mused, studying the mountains. "Where are we?"

Shorty unfolded a map and pointed to a spot. "There."

"Ok. Where's everything else?" He looked at the kids, expecting answers.

"What's everything else, Dad?" Emily wondered. "I've been through all Abner's stuff. Its an UN-seen realm. You don't just walk into it, because its not on any maps."

"A map with no names," Indy remembered.

"There were no maps in Abner's books," Emily replied.

"Legends, Em. What are the legends?"

Emily was quiet, organizing her thoughts. "There were seven shamanesses, they each had a sword. They would go around wherever there was trouble and fight the apkallu and the half human descendants of the apkallu...."

"What else?" Indy asked.

She shrugged. "That's it."

"There has to be more than that!" Shorty declared.

"There would be," Emily replied, "If I knew what I was looking for inside my brain. Or if you could narrow the questions..."

"Shorty, hand me the map," Indy murmured. "Sometimes legends are cover for landforms. Em, what's the legend about opening hell?"

"Sure. So the seven shaman ladies run around the world, collecting these creatures... banishing them to hell. But they wanted to make certain that the apkallu aren't just dead, they're locked away, because the apkallu aren't human... they're spirits, so they sort of float around if they don't have a body who's playing host."

"Possession? Like voodoo rituals? Like the Temple of Doom's cult?" Shorty asked. "The witch doctor or priest has or asks something to take over them?" He stared at Indy, remembering the trance and how he'd nearly died.

"That's pretty standard when dealing with the unnatural or supernatural," Emily told Shorty.

"Em," Indy paused. "There's something I should tell you. I got drugged and possessed when Shorty and I were held captive to a cult. I almost performed a human sacrifice." He turned to Shorty. "That's not going to happen again. I promise you, Shorty. It won't happen again."

Shorty stared at his trembling hands, then shoved them into his pockets, mumbling, "Okay."

Indy looked under Shorty's ball cap. "Is it really, ok, son?"

Shorty lunged, hugging Indy. Indy accepted the grown man, just as he would have the child... looking at Em's curiosity. "You've got your bad memories too, hon."

"Right." Emily touched the scars on her face in acknowledgement. Then she picked up the map. "Hey, Dad?"

Shorty separated from Indy, embarrassed and fiddling with his black leather bomber jacket and lowering his ball cap.

Indy just grinned. "Yes, Em?"

"Mac gave us some photographs... aerial photographs. Can I have a look at those?"

Shorty came close to her. "You think you've spotted something on the map?"

"I'm not sure."

Shorty set his compass down, and watched the needle spin. "What's going on here?"

"Volcanic activity and volcanic rocks keep compasses from working. Seen it a few other places," Indy explained. He swung the pack off his uninjured shoulder and handed over the file. "This what you're thinking of, Em?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Dad." She unfolded the dossier and began paging through the images. "There was one of a lake framed by two volcanic mountains and a trail. It had some square features on it. Maybe not a building, but something..."

"These are higher up than the reconnaissance photographs I saw during World War II," Indy noticed.

"New technology," Shorty explained. "I'm not supposed to know about it, but they're called U-2 planes. They fly real high, are lightweight and they take photographs. The CIA uses them to keep an eye on the Soviets."

"What are they finding?" Indy asked.

"That... I couldn't pry out of the pilot," Shorty replied. "But I'm pretty sure some of that whiskey would have him talking."

Indy glanced at Emily. "Find something, Em?"

"Its a guess... but its what we've got." She held up a photograph. "Shorty, there's what looks like plane crash, and right next to it is a building. I'm thinking that's where you lost your crew in 1944. Its by a triangular shaped lake, between three volcanic mountains." She pointed to the map. "I think that lake... is here. We find that, we find Diya."

"What about Lizavet?" Shorty asked.

Emily gave a shrug, tucking the maps into a map case hung over her shoulder. "We have to guess that Edo... through whatever weird knowing means he has... knows we're coming. And..." she looked at Indy.

Indy looked beyond them uneasily searching the mountainous landscape."It's been my career that whenever I'm on the trail of an artifact or ancient mystery - bad guys show up. ...I guess we start hiking."

There was the sound of a jeep motor and Shorty waved. Indy shook his head. "Oh no, Shorty. You are not driving."

"Neither are you, Dad - it's a manual transmission and your shoulder's busted, along with your arm." Emily smiled. "Dad, you can navigate."

"My least favorite job," Indy muttered.

"You taught me," Emily replied.

"That's why I taught you, Em."