Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

“You okay?” he asked Sophia.

“I’m fine!” she replied, somewhat winded. “That was… that kind of reminded me of how we first met!”

“Yeah, but I had a machine gun then, and there weren’t any civvies around to worry about. Mind your head!” He turned sideways to slam open the double doors with his right shoulder, emerging in the brightly lit lobby. Sophia’s legs waved in front of him, her spike heels glinting. “I told you to take off your bloody shoes!”

“I didn’t realize you were going to burst in like some crazed rhino halfway through the opera!” Sophia objected as he hurried for the exit. “I was expecting something more subtle!”

“You really didn’t know me at all, did you?” More shouts came from above. He looked up to see Yuen’s two remaining bodyguards hurrying back down the stairs, guns in their hands. The handful of people in the lobby screamed when they saw the weapons and ran for the exits. “Hellfire! Will these guys shoot at me if I’ve got you?”

“I certainly hope not!”

“Then make sure and tell them not to!” He looked back as Sophia shouted commands in Mandarin. He was only halfway across the lobby, and the two bodyguards were almost on him-

“Put down Lady Sophia!” one of the men yelled in heavily accented English. Whatever Sophia said had worked; neither guard had put away his gun, but nor were they aiming them at him. “Put her down now!”

“Come and get her!” Chase called as he turned to face them, right arm outstretched to counterbalance Sophia’s weight over his shoulder. They were moving to flank him, one on each side. “You keep up with the fight training?” he asked her.

She was puzzled. “Yes?”

“Good, because you just became my weapon! Get ready-”

One of the bodyguards rushed at them. Chase whirled around and hit him square in the face with Sophia’s feet as she kicked out, the heavy platform soles cracking into his jaw. The man’s head snapped to one side and he dropped to the floor, dazed and bloodied.

“Nice one!” Chase told her, spinning to look for the second guard. He had been closing from the other side but had now stopped abruptly, realization spreading across his face that Sophia was helping her kidnapper. He brought up his gun.

Chase turned faster, hoping Sophia still thought as quickly as she used to. She did , lashing out with one expensively shod foot-

The gun flew out of the bodyguard’s hand and clattered away across the lobby’s marble floor. He stared in surprise at the tip of the spike heel protruding through his palm. Sophia pulled her leg back, a little spout of blood jetting from the hole in the man’s hand as her heel withdrew. He howled-only for the cry of pain to stop abruptly as Chase punched him in the face and knocked him flat on his back.

“Aren’t you glad I kept my shoes on now?” Sophia said.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Chase replied, jogging for the exit.

“It would have been much simpler if you’d just shot him, though.”

“I didn’t bring a gun,” Chase admitted.

Sophia’s voice filled with disbelief. “What? Why not?”

“I’m trying to cut down on shooting people. Too much paperwork.”

“Since when do you care about paperwork?”

“My life’s changed!” He booted one of the glass doors open and hurried outside, looking back for signs of pursuit. Yuen was running down the stairs, and the bodyguard Sophia had kicked in the head was struggling to his feet.

A car horn hooted frantically. A taxi charged across the plaza towards the front of the Grand Theatre, pedestrians jumping out of its way. “That’s our ride!” he told Sophia, waving to Mei as she brought the taxi to a screeching stop in front of them. He pulled open the rear door, then quickly bowed to deposit Sophia on the pavement with a click of her heels. “Get in, quick,” he ordered, now all business. Behind, Yuen was rallying his troops, the bodyguard now helping the second man up, and another coming down from the balcony level.

Chase shoved Sophia into the taxi, then leaped in after her. Mei stamped on the accelerator before he even had a chance to close the door, the taxi taking off with a shriek of rubber. He poked his head up to look through the rear window-

“Duck!” he shouted, shielding Sophia with his body. Yuen and one of the bodyguards were now outside the theater, the guard raising his gun. Chase heard four shots, but none of them seemed to hit the speeding taxi.

“Good thing this isn’t my cab!” Mei yelled, swerving the taxi onto a grass verge. It skidded over it in a shower of turf and careered across a pavement. People dived out of its path, yelling obscenities after them as Mei turned again, merging into a line of identical cabs as they sped along the street.

Chase looked back. Yuen was an angry silhouette against the illuminated glass foyer-then trees blocked him from sight. “Okay, we’re clear. Nice driving, Mei.”

“That was nothing. You should see me when I need to get home to pee!” She looked at Sophia in the mirror. “So, you rescued your lady friend? Hi, I’m Mei.”

“Sophia Blackwood,” Sophia told her. “I’m very happy to meet you!”

Mei’s expression became confused. “Sophia? But wasn’t that your first wife’s…” She glanced back at Chase. “Is she who you told me about before, the one you-”

“No,” said Chase emphatically. “Let’s get to the station. The sooner me and Sophia get out of here, the better.”

“We have to go to my husband’s company headquarters first,” said Sophia. It was a command, not a request.

Chase raised an eyebrow. “You what?”

“I can’t leave the country otherwise-Richard keeps my passport in his office safe.” To Chase’s disbelieving look, she went on, “I said in my letter that he was controlling.”

“Wait, and you let him? You? ”

“Can we not start, please?” Sophia sighed, exasperated. “And there’s more there than just my passport. I can access his private computer files-and give you the proof that he’s connected to the sinking of the SBX rig.”

“And you couldn’t have done this before?”

“Don’t you think I would have done if I could?” she snapped. There was a brief, frosty silence. “I’m sorry. Eddie, I’m so grateful that you would do this for me, you have no idea. But you don’t know what Richard is like. He’s very… suspicious. Paranoid, even. And now that I’ve found out what he’s involved in, I know why.” She touched his hand. “Once we’re in his office, it’ll only take me ten minutes, less, to get what I need.”

Chase looked down at her hand on his, thinking. Then he gave it the briefest of squeezes before leaning forward. “Okay, Mei. Looks like we’re making a detour. Take us to the Ycom building.”

Half a world away, Nina sat back and rubbed her eyes, frustrated but unwilling to admit defeat. She had arrived at the anonymous Art Deco office building a few blocks from City Hall just after six in the morning, excitement blowing away any tiredness, eager to see the ancient parchments with her own eyes. Met in the lobby by an unsmiling-and almost certainly armed-man, she was taken to the fifth floor to meet Popadopoulos.

There was a second man with him, another well-dressed but grim-faced guy with the build and pug features of a boxer. He too was armed; Nina was now familiar enough with concealed weapons to spot the telltale bulge beneath his tailored Italian jacket. He carried a black leather case, which at first glance Nina took to be chained to a steel cuff around his wrist. On closer examination, she realized that the wrist chain actually disappeared into the case, attached to something within.