Andy McDermott - The Hunt For Atlantis

For a moment Kari’s eyes lit up with something approaching awe. “It’s the key to the past… and the future.” Then she tipped her head slightly, giving Hajjar a seductive look. “You could be a part of it, Failak. Sell us the artifact and I promise you that my father will take no action against you over this. And I…”

“You will what?” asked Hajjar, caught between suspicion and intrigue.

“I will forgive you, completely. And maybe even more than that. As I said, few men have the courage to stand up to my father.” She shifted position slightly, rolling her hips and shoulders under her coat. “I was very impressed.”

Intrigue won out. “Really?” He licked his lips, watching her movements intently. “Then maybe we could-”

“Sir,” interrupted Kari’s guard, the one who had spurned her in the cells. “Qobras will be calling soon. You need to be ready for him.”

Irritation flashed across Hajjar’s face. “You’re right. I do. Yes.” He took a deep breath, then turned his back on Kari. “Wait with her over there until her father calls back. You,” he added, clicking his fingers at the other guard, “bring Yuri over here.”

“Nice try, bitch,” Kari’s guard whispered in her ear. She sighed. It had been worth a shot.

But for Hajjar to turn down twenty million dollars… how much was Qobras offering?

“I look ridiculous,” Nina protested.

Leaving Hafez, who was both relieved at not having to move and frustrated at being unable to help, in the van, Shala led the rest of the group down to a small river winding along the foot of the crag. The far bank rose steeply before leveling out thirty feet above-with the electric fence surrounding the entire fortress running along the top.

Although fast flowing, the river was shallow enough for them to wade across. Shala took off her shoes and pulled up her coat as Chase and Castille helped her across, simply splashing through the cold water without even bothering to remove their boots. Nina, on the other hand, felt incredibly silly as she hurried across-in a wet suit.

“I dunno,” Chase told her, helping Shala sit down, “you look pretty good to me. But then I’ve always had a thing for women in rubber.”

“Shut up.” The one-piece wet suit Shala had brought was more suited to surfing than to stealthy infiltration work: black with a hot-pink insert running from her neck down to her crotch and then up again over her back, with equally lurid strips down the legs and arms. The wet suit itself seemed fairly new, but the too-tight and grubby sneakers on her feet were another matter. “Are you absolutely sure neither of you can fit into this pipe?”

“See for yourself,” said Shala, pointing. A stub of rusting metal protruded from the steep bank a foot above the surface of the river, water trickling from it. Nina’s hopes that she could persuade the lanky Castille to take her place were dashed when she realized how thick the metal was. The actual interior of the pipe was barely eighteen inches in diameter-too small for Castille, and she doubted Chase would even be able to get his head and one shoulder inside.

For that matter, she wasn’t sure if she would fit.

“You’ll fit,” Chase said, as if reading her mind. “Might be a squeeze around your bum, but…”

“Hey!”

“Just kidding.” He smirked, then opened the rucksack they had brought from the van. “Here’s your gear. Torch, two-way radio and a headset-it’s not exactly Bluetooth, but you’ll be able to tell us when you’ve shut off the power to the fence. Gun-”

“I’ve never used a gun,” Nina said as Chase took out a small automatic in a canvas holster with a belt wrapped around it.

“Yeah? Thought you Yanks were shooting stuff before you could walk. Turn around.”

“I’m really not sure about this…” she said as Chase fastened the belt high around her waist, turning it so that the holster rested in the curve of her lower back.

“Just a precaution; hopefully you won’t meet anyone.” He clipped the walkie-talkie to the belt, then turned her around and fitted the headset, giving her a wink. “But if you do, just think Lara Croft. Bang-bang.” His gaze moved to her neck, and her pendant. “Do you want me to look after that for you?”

She considered it. “No thank you. It’s sort of my good-luck charm.”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “Considering the day you’ve had, you’ve got a bloody funny idea about what’s lucky.”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

“Good point.” Nina tucked the pendant inside the wet suit, then pulled the zipper all the way up her neck as Chase’s gap-toothed grin returned. “Let’s get you shafted.”

Nina’s trepidation turned to outright disgust as she kneeled to examine the pipe. “Oh my God! It stinks!”

“What did you expect? It’s a sewer!”

Her stomach churned. “I feel sick. God, I don’t think I can do this…”

“Hey, listen,” said Chase, resting a hand on her arm, “I know you can. You’re an archaeologist, right? You must have dug about in muck and all kinds of horrible stuff before this, right?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“The pipe’s not all that long. Fifty yards, tops, then it opens out into the access shaft. That’s got a ladder, you can just climb right up. You can do it.”

“But what if there’s somebody at the top? What if-”

“Nina.” He squeezed her arm. “My job’s to look after you. If I thought you were going to be in danger, you wouldn’t be going.”

“But you still gave me a gun.”

“Yeah, well… nothing’s totally safe, is it?” She wasn’t reassured. “Look, once you’ve shut down the fence, Hugo and I’ll be inside in less than five minutes. Simple plan-we come in, punch Hajjar in the face, rescue Kari, done.”

“Punching people in the face is pretty much your solution to everything, isn’t it?” said Nina.

“Hey, if it works… Anyway, I’ll be with you all the way on the radio. And we’ve got the plans of the place-I’ll tell you exactly where to go. Once you’ve done it, just stay out of sight and you’ll be safe. Trust me.”

Nina tied back her hair, then, with extreme reluctance and a look of undisguised revulsion, climbed headfirst into the filthy pipe. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“That’s… better than nothing,” Chase said, switching on his own radio. “Here, I’ll help you in. Give me a radio test.” He lifted her feet and pushed her inside.

His radio crackled. “Don’t you even think about grabbing my ass.”

“Never crossed my mind,” said Chase, raising an appreciative eyebrow at her wet-suit-clad buttocks as they wriggled into the pipe. He pushed her feet again, and Nina disappeared into the darkness.

The flashlight in one hand ahead of her, she crawled up the sloping pipe. It was a tight squeeze, but she was-just-able to fit. She paused for a moment to shine the light straight along the pipe. Nothing but darkness at the far end.

“I bet Lara Croft never had to crawl up somebody’s toilet,” she muttered, before beginning her laborious ascent.

Kari watched Hajjar’s frustration grow as he waited for Qobras to call, his fingers drumming on his desk. It seemed he wasn’t a man accustomed to waiting for anything.

“Failak,” she said, “I need to use the bathroom. Please?”

“Not again,” her guard complained quietly, but Hajjar waved his hand dismissively at the door. Kari stood and made a little noise of triumph at the guard. “I’m not taking off your handcuffs,” he muttered as he led her from the room.