Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

Seated behind a large semicircular black desk was a single uniformed security guard. He reacted with pleased surprise on seeing Sophia, then wariness when he noticed Chase behind her. “Good evening, Lady Sophia,” he said in a thick accent, standing and lowering his head in a slight bow.

“Good evening, Deng,” Sophia replied pleasantly. She rounded the desk, gesturing with one hand for Chase to stay where he was. “How are you tonight?”

“Very good, Lady Sophia,” said Deng, breathing faster. Chase couldn’t decide whether the man was nervous or excited. He got a fairly good idea a moment later when Sophia stepped right up to Deng and whispered something in Mandarin. Deng’s eyebrows rose with the distinct delight of somebody who couldn’t believe his luck. He stuttered a reply. Sophia leaned even closer, whispering into his ear, then giving him a very soft kiss that left a little smudge of glossy red lipstick on his cheek. Chase narrowed his eyes.

Deng fiddled with his tie, then bowed again and hurriedly backed away through a side door into a washroom. “What was that?” Chase demanded.

“Deng and I have an arrangement,” Sophia answered.

“Yeah, it bloody looks like it!”

There was a flash of irritation in her dark eyes. “Not like that . Although that’s what he thinks now -I just told him to, well, get ready for me in there. I’ve been nice to him, given him little gifts, and he’s been useful in return. Like looking the other way when I need to get into my husband’s office without anyone knowing.”

Chase glanced at the door. “He’s getting ready for you, eh?”

“Eddie, we don’t have time for this. Come on.” She went to the double doors behind the desk.

“You go in,” he told her. “Be with you in a sec.”

“Eddie!”

He ignored her, going to the bathroom door and quietly tapping on it. Deng’s eager voice came from the other side. He slowly opened the door to be greeted by the sight of the security guard, back to him, pulling off his shirt. Deng said something else, full of enthusiastic anticipation, and turned around-

Chase punched him in the face. Deng wobbled backwards until he bumped against the wall, eyes crossed, then slowly slid down to the floor and passed out.

“In your fucking dreams, mate,” Chase told the inert figure with an angry jab of his forefinger. He emerged from the bathroom to find Sophia waiting, her arms crossed impatiently. “What?” he asked, semi-innocently. “You didn’t seriously think I was going to let the dirty little sod get away with that?”

“Just come on,” she snapped, opening the door.

Beyond was a suite of interconnected rooms, softly lit and expensively decorated. Dominating the central hall were several large sheets of copper-colored metal hanging down from the ceiling like stiff banners. “What the hell are these?” Chase asked. The metal had a weathered, hand-beaten look to it, with long, coiling strips in other colors winding at random across its surface.

“Richard’s latest installation. He changes them every month or two,” said Sophia, leading him past them to an office at the far end of the suite. “They’re by a German artist called Klaus Klem. Worth about eight million dollars altogether.”

“Eight million?” Chase cried. “I wouldn’t give eight pence for them!”

Sophia sighed. “You never did have an eye for art, did you? Anyway, here we are.” She went to one wall and moved aside an abstract painting, which Chase imagined was probably worth another eight million dollars, to reveal the door of a small safe. Rather than a dial, it had an electronic keypad.

“You got the combination?” he asked.

Sophia gave him a sly smile. “Some champagne and a big bed, and I can get whatever I want.”

“Yeah, that was never a problem for you, was it?” He turned away before she could reply, looking out of the huge floor-to-ceiling window behind Yuen’s oversized desk. Below, the rear wall of the Ycom building dropped away in its long sweeping curve. At the base of the structure was an ornamental lake. Fountains swelled within it, lit from below the water by slowly pulsating colored lights.

There was a bleep, and he looked around to see Sophia opening the safe. She held up a maroon British passport with a triumphant wave, then took out a couple of other items and went to the desk. A quick tap on the keyboard recessed into the desk’s surface woke up a computer, a trio of large flat-screen monitors smoothly rising from slots in the black marble. Chase noticed that a list of folders in a window on the central monitor was sorted by names of politicians, including Victor Dalton, but then his gaze switched to the small white object Sophia held. “What’s that you’ve got?”

“Flash drive. I’m pretty sure this is how Richard obtained the files I saw, but I want to check.” She reached under the desk and plugged in the drive. “The password I have to the copies on the server only has read privileges-I can’t copy or e-mail them.”

“Guess you couldn’t get everything you wanted, then.”

As the computer accessed the drive, Sophia fixed Chase with a hard-but also somewhat pleading-look. “Eddie, please , can you put your problems with me on hold for now? I know you can’t resist making your sarcastic little comments at every opportunity, but try . This is too important.”

“Okay, I’ll try,” said Chase, feeling uncomfortably chastened. On the screen, a new directory window appeared. “Is that it?”

Sophia quickly scanned down the list of files. “These are the files I saw, yes. And here’s the one on you.” She pointed a glossy red nail at the title of one of the documents: CHASE, EDWARD J.

Chase was more concerned by the file below: WILDE, NINA P. But then his attention was seized by something else on one of the other monitors-a live feed from a security camera. It showed the marble lobby outside, and four uniformed men cautiously entering it from a side door. All were armed. “Uh-oh.”

“What?”

“Company’s coming. Time to go.” Sophia unplugged the drive and put it in her handbag along with her passport. On the screen, one of the men looked into the bathroom, then reacted with alarm as he saw the unconscious Deng. “Well, I guess strolling out casually’s not an option now. Are there any other exits?”

Sophia shook her head. “Just the lift and the emergency stairs. We can go up to the helipad, take Richard’s helicopter-”

“Can you fly a chopper?”

“No.”

“Nor can I.”

She looked dismayed. “I thought you could!”

“Learning’s on my to-do list,” Chase quipped. The guards moved out of frame on the monitor; he heard the doors at the far end of the suite open. “You’re still the boss’s wife. They won’t shoot you.”

“They might! What if they’ve been told what happened at the opera, that I helped you escape?”

“Trust me, when they see you looking like that it won’t be their guns they’ll be shooting. Just buy me a few seconds. Go!” He ducked and headed for an adjoining room.

“Lady Sophia!” came a shout from outside the office. “We know you are in here. Please, come out-Mr. Yuen has asked us to bring you to him.”

Sophia stepped into the hall, coming around one of the hanging metal art pieces to see the four men waiting for her. Their guns were in their hands, but not aimed at her. She advanced slowly, slinkily, one high-heeled foot in front of the other as she swayed her hips in the tight red silk dress. That caught the attention of three of the security guards, at least.

The fourth was more professional, however, looking cautiously into the nearby rooms. “Where is the man?”