In April 1982, Quinton McCord took Nola Reardon on a business trip to London, where he soon met up with his former fiancée, Helena Manzini, a scheming hot-blooded Italian. Helena had helped Quint in his work, only to desert him on the eve of their marriage for his unscrupulous competitor, Silas Crocker. Silas and Quint had been rivals since their days as archaeology students at Oxford University. However, Quint, as the fair haired boy, always seemed to outshine Silas, and soon they became arch enemies. While Quint was an honest and good archaeologist desiring only to uncover the earth's treasures for the good of all mankind, Silas was nothing more than a pirate who wanted to exploit the archaeological finds for his own personal gain. Putting her own life in danger, Nola got entangled in this rivalry, and naturally sided with the dashing Quint to get back important maps that the "charlatan" Silas had stolen, after he presumably killed one of Quint's venerable colleagues, Professor Taylor. On one trip to New York City, Nola lied to both Helena and Silas that she was no longer with Quint and wanted to side with them. Believing Nola, Helena brought her to the lab where Silas was working. Nola pretended that she had stolen a diary from Quint that included important information and notes about deciphering the maps they had stolen from Professor Taylor. When Helena left the laboratory to give the faked book to Silas, Nola quickly took photos of the stolen stone maps with a tiny camera. Quint was hugely grateful toward Nola when he received the photos. Nola, however, was still curious about Silas as she had never yet laid eyes on him.

Their archaeological missions would later evolve into real intrigue when Quint and Silas competed in the quest to find the temple of gold from which the ancient gold cradle came. Quint had been searching for this early civilization for many years. In June 1982, the adventure brought Nola, Quint, his assistant Gunther, Helena and Silas to an uninhabited island near St. Croix, where Silas and his cohort, Davie Lance, abducted Nola and held her hostage on the edge of a volcano. Quint and Gunther had a knife fight with Silas and Davie when it was revealed that Nola had been abducted. Silas tried to psyche Quint out by telling him that Nola was already dead, but Helena shouted out that it was a trick, knowing that Quint would just, as soon, die himself if his Nola was dead. After victory in the fight, Quint and Gunther went to rescue Nola just as the volcano started to erupt! Through a crack in the rock, Quint spied the golden temple of the lost civilization he'd been searching for. Unable to save both Nola and the temple, a devastated Quint watched his years of work disappear in the volcanic fire. Nola assumed Quint blamed her for the loss and returned to Springfield ahead of him. Helena accompanied Quint, presumably to realign herself with her former lover, but she actually intended to double-cross both Quint and Silas! Soon, Silas stole into Springfield and kidnapped Nola yet again, this time taking her to a rotting freighter boat teeming with rats. A few weeks later, Nola was rescued by a distraught Quint and her brother, Tony. Unknowingly, aiding in Nola's rescue was Silas's cohort/stooge, Jamie Loomis. After retrieving Nola's ransom of the golden cradle, Jamie carelessly allowed Quinton and Tony to tail him all the way back to where Nola was being held hostage. Silas later caught up with, and killed, Jamie because of his stupidity and carelessness. Helena tried to make another play for Silas, but Silas realized he was now illegally in the United States and left.

As Nola recuperated in the hospital, Quint did not hear anything from Silas. In November 1982, that would change when Nola and her friend, Gracie, ran into Silas in a dark alley after they had seen a movie. Silas wanted to use Nola and Gracie to get on Quint's property so that he could kill McCord. At gunpoint, Nola and Gracie were led back to Thornway Road. Gracie pretended that she tripped and hurt her ankle, giving Nola enough time to knock the gun out of Silas' hand and get away. Shortly thereafter, Silas was in communication with Helena and arranged for a meeting with her. However, knowing he would kill her for betraying him and siding with Quint, Helena was terrified to meet with her ex-lover. She told Quint this, so gallantly Quint went in Helena's place to the meeting. Quint met Silas in an alley behind a bar, where he asked Silas why he had this vendetta against him. Refusing to answer, a fight ensued. In the chaos, a gun fired. Tony Reardon was in the nearby bar and ran to find the source of the blast. Silas was accidentally shot with his own gun, but with his last bit of strength struck Quint with a heavy piece of lumber, getting back his gun. Tony came to the rescue of a beaten Quint. Brandishing the gun at Quint and Tony, Silas warned Quint that nothing could make up for the terrible wrong he did to him, not even his death. Silas let Quint go, telling him to "live in fear." He later called Quint with the following parting words, " . . .you won't know when, but I am coming back. So you enjoy these few days, weeks or even months that you have left with Nola. But you remember this, Quinton, you marry her, and you make her a young widow. Can you do that, Quinton? Seems a pity, she's so young."

In March 1983, Quint returned to mythical Tanquir with his assistant Gunther to uncover the truth about what happened ten years earlier when his mentor Prof. Archibald Renfield was fatally injured in a cave explosion. All those years, Quint had believed that he was somehow responsible, thus forcing him to change his name from his birth name of Sean Ryan to the alias Quinton Ryan McCord. Helena also showed up on the Tanquir scene, as she too felt responsible for Professor Renfield's death and wanted to know the truth. While at the location of where the original explosion happened, Gunther, Helena and Quint encountered Silas Crocker again. Silas knew the exact whereabouts of the threesome because he had paid off some unethical Tanquir "officials." A fight ensued in the cave and Silas fired his gun, causing the weak structure of the cave to collapse. Helena escaped with injuries, Gunther was crushed to his death, and Silas and Quint were trapped inside. While in the cave, Quint learned the whole truth about Professor Renfield's death. It turned out that while Quint, Helena and Silas were archaeology students at Oxford ,studying under Professor Renfield, Silas was in love with a young woman named Devon Wayne. Silas, always feeling in the shadow of Quint (then known as Sean), incorrectly believed that his nemesis had an affair with Devon. In a rage of jealousy, Silas wanted to kill Quint for taking away the only woman he ever loved. Silas set explosive charges to go off in the cave when he knew Quinton was scheduled to be at the site. However, at the last minute, Quinton and Professor Renfield switched their schedules and Renfield went in place of his protégée. Though Helena was in charge of checking the explosives, she over slept the morning of the tragedy. It was revealed that Silas had drugged her so she would oversleep. Ironically, Devon Wayne also went with Professor Renfield that morning and she too was killed in the planned blast, making Silas responsible for the professor's death, as well as the life of the young woman he loved. While suffering in the cave, Silas took every opportunity to taunt Quint about how they were both going to die, and how Quint would never see his beloved Nola again, but that she would be "wiggling her hips in front of the next rich sucker she found." While in the cave with Silas, Quint discovered a buried city, which he later named after his beloved mentor, Professor Archibald Renfield. Both Quint and Silas almost died in the cave, but finally through the combined efforts of Henry, Nola and the authorities of Tanquir, Quint was rescued. Silas was found, but he was already dead. However, his body was never shown.

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