Andy Mcdermott - Temple of the Gods

‘If he hadn’t gone for the gun, he would have survived. It’s regrettable, but I’m afraid it was his own fault. And besides,’ he said loudly, raising a hand to overcome the vocal objections from around the table, ‘you have emergency measures to ensure that if a member dies, their interests remain under the Group’s control. I suggest you activate them as soon as possible.’

‘We should have you fired,’ growled Meerkrieger. ‘No, we should have you shot!’

‘I’m surprised at your attitude,’ said Stikes smugly. He gestured to a pair of his men, who roughly pulled Eddie, Nina and Larry to their feet, confiscating the MP7 and the case. ‘We have the statues, we have Dr Wilde… and Glas has been eliminated as a threat.’

‘Not quite yet,’ said Sophia. Glas was writhing in his chair, both hands squeezed against his stomach wound in a futile attempt to stem the bleeding. He tried to speak, blood bubbling in his mouth. ‘I’m sorry, Harald, I didn’t quite catch that. A little louder, please?’

‘Why?’ gasped Glas. ‘Why did you… do it? I saved you — I protected you!’

‘You used me!’ she snapped, striding round his wheelchair to stand before him. ‘You’d wanted me for years, and then you finally had me — as your slave . Your harem girl.’

‘No, that… wasn’t—’

‘Oh, you made it very clear what would happen if I didn’t do exactly as I was told. I could either obey you or go back to prison — or worse.’

Despite the pain, Glas managed to shake his head. ‘No, that’s… not true. I–I loved you!’

‘Love?’ she said scathingly. ‘You loved me in exactly the same way that you loved those coins and stamps in your precious collection! I was just one item amongst all the rest to you, something to make other people jealous because they couldn’t own it.’ She bared her perfect white teeth. ‘Well, nobody owns me, and nobody uses me. Goodbye, Harald!’

‘No, Sophia—’

She fired six rapid shots into Glas’s chest. The crippled billionaire flailed with each impact, then slumped over an armrest, twitching.

The shocked silence in the room was finally broken by Nina. ‘ That’s got to bump the list up to fifty per cent.’

Warden clenched his hands together to stop them from trembling. ‘Stikes, I… I assume this was something else you chose not to tell us?’

‘Of course,’ Stikes replied. ‘The only reason Sophia went on the run with Glas was that she had no choice. But she contacted me in secret whenever she had the opportunity, and together we set all of this up.’

‘And you trust her?’ There was disbelief in his voice.

‘Completely. You see, Sophia and I weren’t merely working together. We have a more… intimate relationship.’ He smirked at Sophia, who in return kissed him.

Eddie made a gagging noise. ‘For God’s sake! The two people I hate most in the world, and they’re shagging each other? That’s fucking disgusting.’

Nina was equally appalled by the revelation. ‘That’s about as revolting a picture as Genghis Khan getting it on with… with Margaret Thatcher!’

‘You’ve just seen a man murdered,’ said Larry, voice shaky, ‘and this is what makes you both want to throw up?’

Warden ignored them. ‘Just because you’re… involved , that doesn’t mean she’s reliable,’ he told Stikes. ‘We all know her reputation. She acts solely for her own interests, not anyone else’s.’

‘In this case, Sophia’s interests and the Group’s are perfectly aligned,’ Stikes responded. ‘She’s actually a very firm believer in the plan.’

‘Absolutely,’ said Sophia, smiling. ‘There are those who deserve simply by their superior nature to rule, and then there are…’ She turned her gaze to Eddie. ‘The little people.’

‘Oh, fuck off,’ he replied. ‘Just ’cause you think you’re better than everybody else doesn’t mean you actually are. You’re a stuck-up, selfish bitch with a superiority complex. Who can’t play the low notes on a piano any more.’

Oddly, it was the last silly insult that erased her smile. She clenched her left hand into a partial fist, the two prosthetic fingers jutting stiffly from it. ‘You know, Eddie, so many of the bad things in my life are directly attributable to you. I think it’s high time I paid you back for them.’

‘Being married to you was like punishment in advance, so we’re square.’

‘Ha ha,’ she said, scathing enough to strip paint. She advanced on him, raising the gun. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time.’

‘Just a moment, Sophia,’ said Stikes. ‘If you don’t mind, I’d like to kill Chase.’ A malevolent smile. ‘For old times’ sake.’

She glowered at him. ‘Excuse me, Alexander? I think I have the greater right.’

‘I had to serve with him.’

‘I had to sleep with him.’

‘Anyone else want to join in?’ Eddie asked of the room — using the opportunity to assess his chances of either fleeing or grabbing a weapon. Neither option seemed likely to succeed. None of Stikes’s men were close enough for him to reach without being shot down, and the exits were even further away.

The doors, at least. There might be another way out — if he could get to it…

‘All right, I think that trumps mine,’ Stikes admitted. ‘Very well. Enjoy it.’

‘Oh, I absolutely will,’ Sophia said. She brought up the Glock again—

Nina moved to block her line of fire. ‘You’ll have to go through me.’

The smile returned. ‘Two for the price of one? Excellent.’

‘No!’ Warden barked. ‘We need her! Are you insane?’

‘You have to ask?’ said Nina.

Stikes issued orders to his men. ‘Move her away — and him as well,’ he added, indicating Larry. ‘Careful, Chase. Don’t try anything foolish. We may need your wife, but we don’t need her conscious. Or even fully intact.’

‘Go on,’ said Eddie to Nina and Larry as the mercenaries approached. ‘Both of you.’

Nina clutched his hands. ‘Eddie, I’m not going to let this crazy bitch shoot you!’

‘I’ll be okay. Go on.’

The guards pulled her away. ‘Eddie!’

‘I must admit, Eddie,’ said Sophia, striding towards her ex-husband with the clack of stiletto heels, ‘if there’s one thing that I’m very slightly jealous of about your relationship with Nina — and there is only the one thing, and it is only very, very slightly — it’s that no matter what annoying and petty personal issues you have, when the chips are down you always support each other. If you’d had that kind of commitment to our marriage, who knows where we’d be now?’

‘ I’m the one who didn’t have commitment?’ said Eddie. ‘You were the one who was off like a shot to open your legs for the first rich guy who came along!’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘That’s hardly an accurate description.’

‘No? You lost interest in me the moment your dad cut you off from his money, and you started trying to fuck your way back into high society. Sex for cash? You know, there’s a name for people like you.’

Sophia pointed the gun at his face. ‘Don’t you dare call me that.’

‘Or what, you’ll shoot me? You’re going to do that anyway, so I might as well clear the air while I can. You’re fucking pathetic, Soph. Daddy’s little girl doesn’t get what she wants, so she takes it out on everyone else. Same old story, only now “everyone else” is literally everyone in the world!’

Eddie could tell from her increasingly angered expression that the mentions of her father had touched a raw nerve. He pushed on with a sarcastic sneer. ‘Yeah, his lordship was a great example of the superior classes, wasn’t he? Turns his back on his own daughter, and then loses everything he owns to people like this lot —’ he waved a hand at the Group, who were watching as if transfixed by a soap opera — ‘because he’s a chinless fucking idiot who thought having a title made him immune to how the real world works. The only thing you could be with a role model like that was a whor—’