Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

Nina kept running, trapped between two dangers. She desperately scanned the walls for any kind of exit or alcove, but the warning stripes continued as far as she could see.

The noise was almost unbearable. Light flared ahead, the flat front of the train coming into view around the curve and still nowhere to hide-

Except between the tracks.

A trench, maintenance access for cables running under the track. No more than six inches deep, but it was all she had.

Nina dived into the filthy channel with the book held out in front of her, the driver reacting with shock as she flashed through his headlights. Sparks spat from the train’s underside. The front coupler whooshed over her, catching her hair and tearing out a clump. She screamed, barely hearing herself over the noise of the train as its wheels pounded over joints in the line like colossal hammers.

Then she heard another scream, abruptly cut off by a crunch of breaking bones as her pursuer was hit by the train even as he tried to flatten himself against the tunnel wall.

The driver slammed on the emergency brakes. Nina screamed again, pressing her hands against her ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. Carriage after carriage shrieked overhead, more sparks spraying out from the wheels, scorching her…

The train stopped. Silence suddenly descended. Nina wasn’t sure whether it was because the train had shut off its motors or she had gone deaf. Cringing, she opened her eyes.

The last car hung over her like a black shroud. Lights inside the carriages illuminated the tunnel. Shaking, taking enormous care not to touch the rails, she lifted herself out from beneath the train. Looking back, she saw a huge splatter of blood along the wall, a ragged smear of red trailing away like a stroke of paint from a giant brush.

Hearing began to return, sounds fading in. The grumble of the train at idle, creaks and moans of metal still swaying from the emergency stop…

And voices.

The second pair of men, temporarily stopped by the train blocking the narrow section of the tunnel, but it wouldn’t take them long to bypass it.

Nina crawled along the side of the track, ducking under the train’s overhanging tail end, then jumped to her feet and ran again. The tunnel opened out ahead, lightbulbs and even a faint sheen of daylight gleaming on ornate patterns of tiles in cream and olive green and brick red…

City Hall subway station.

Nina had been here before, with her parents as a child. The family’s interest in history wasn’t limited to the ancient; New York itself had its own lost treasures. Built as a showpiece for the Interborough subway line, the station had suffered from low passenger traffic compared to its close neighbors, and its sharply curved platform made it impractical to extend when the length of trains was increased. As a result it was closed in 1945, forgotten and unseen by all except a handful of curious visitors on the rare occasions when it was opened to the public.

She had been one of those visitors. And she remembered the layout. Steps from the single platform led to a mezzanine, stairs from there emerging on each side of Murray Street just a short distance from City Hall.

Where there would be cops.

Frosted glass skylights in the vaulted ceiling let in enough illumination for her to see the elaborately tiled walls, but Nina couldn’t spare even a moment to appreciate the sight as she clambered up onto the platform and looked back. The rear lights of the train stared at her like demonic eyes. Somewhere beyond them she could hear her remaining pursuers coming after her, scrambling under the carriages.

She gripped the book to her chest and ran up the stairs into the mezzanine. The staircase to her right would emerge closest to City Hall-

Shit!

Nina stopped, cursing her own stupidity. The station was closed- and so were its entrances . There was no daylight visible at the top of either flight of stairs. They had been sealed off.

No way out.

Noises from the platform below. She couldn’t go back into the tunnel-

She spotted a space in one wall, an alcove where there had once been a ticket booth.

And a hatch set into it…

Nina ran to it, having no other options. There was a handle-and a small lock.

She tugged the handle. It didn’t move. Running feet on the platform.

She slammed the end of the book hard against the panel, once, twice. Glass cracked, but she didn’t care as she drove it against the closed hatch like a battering ram one last time-

The lock broke, pieces of metal popping free.

Nina threw the hatch open, not caring what was beyond as she climbed through and pulled it shut behind her. Low ceiling, a short passage leading to a vertical shaft.

Which only went down.

She looked over the edge. There was a very faint light below, a lone bulb at the bottom. The shaft went down deeper than the subway tunnel. She had no idea where it led.

Not that she had a choice. The running men were drawing closer.

Struggling to support the book in the crook of her elbow, Nina hurriedly descended the ladder.

The glass elevator ascended the sheer face of the Ycom building, giving Chase and Sophia a spectacular view out over Shanghai as it rose. Mei had parked her taxi in a lot beneath the building, and was waiting for them. There was a security station at the entrance to the lower ground lobby, but the two guards on duty had practically saluted Sophia, quickly ushering her through.

They weren’t alone in the elevator. As an Internet service provider, Ycom was a twenty-four-hour operation, and ascending with them was a nerdy young Chinese man in a Buffy T-shirt-like yuppies, geeks too were apparently the same anywhere in the world-who had just received a bag of delicious-smelling food from a delivery boy on a moped. He also seemed to recognize Sophia, smiling bashfully while never quite having the nerve to look directly at her.

He got off on the twentieth floor. “Looks like you’ve got a fan club,” said Chase as the doors closed and the elevator resumed its ascent to the top floor.

“Richard likes to show me off,” Sophia told him. “I’ve been paraded around the building a few times.”

“Right. And I bet all the geeks like him couldn’t wait to crack one off afterwards.”

“Eddie!” Sophia chided him. “That’s disgusting.”

He grinned. “Well, you know me.”

“All too well, but you never used to be that vulgar.”

“Hey, I didn’t have to come,” Chase said, raising a hand as if about to push a button to stop the elevator. “I can go home again if you want.”

“I’m sorry.” She looked away from him, out at the shimmering Blade Runner neon of the city. “It’s just that… I didn’t know how I was going to feel when I saw you again. Especially after the way you reacted on Corvus’s yacht. And in all truthfulness? I still don’t know.” A sidelong glance. “And I can tell that you’ve still got some issues. Eddie, I-”

“You asked for help, so I came to help,” interrupted Chase firmly. “Especially since it affects the IHA.” Something occurred to him. “How did you know I worked for the IHA in the first place? You’d obviously written that note before the party; you knew I’d be there.”

“Richard has a file on you,” Sophia said. “And one on your… your girlfriend. Dr. Wilde.”

“Nina?” Chase exclaimed, filled with sudden alarm.

“Yes. I don’t know why he has them, but they were with the other files I think he stole from the IHA.” She turned to face the door. “We’re here.”

Chase had more questions, but held them back as a soft bell chimed and the doors parted. Sophia stepped out into a reception area of black marble, her heels ticking on the polished stone. He followed.