Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

Her fear rose. The slower she moved, the closer the two men got-and they didn’t need to catch her. Just shoot her.

Gasping for breath, she ran faster, forcing her knees higher as her feet pounded through the sludge. The noise of running water ahead grew louder-as did the splashes from behind.

She didn’t dare look back. Another bend in the tunnel, a faint glow of daylight on the walls as well as the greasy yellow of the bulbs-

One of the sets of chasing footsteps suddenly stopped.

A clear shot-

The flat thumps of the silenced shots were amplified by the confined space, but they were nothing compared to the splintering crack of bullets hitting the walls as Nina threw herself headlong around the corner. Chunks of broken brickwork rained on her as she landed in the disgusting pool.

The firing stopped. She pushed herself up, something awful crunching under one hand in the muck. Cockroaches slithered away from her. The tunnel sloped upwards again, the source of the daylight visible at its end. An opening into a larger chamber.

A way out.

Nina ran up the slope. Water trickled from above the opening. She reached the end-

And grabbed desperately at an overhead pipe as she almost fell down an open shaft.

She hung for a moment, one hand around the pipe and her toes clinging to the edge of the tunnel. Then, very carefully, she shifted her weight and leaned back, wobbling on the brink before regaining her balance.

The tall chamber she had entered was about ten feet across, some sort of sewer shaft. Pipes entered it at various heights and angles, spewing their contents into the void below. The daylight came through grubby glass bricks in the ceiling some forty feet above. As she watched, somebody walked over them, for a moment blotting out the sky.

Rusted rungs protruded from the wall, a ladder leading up to a manhole cover at street level…

A locked manhole cover. Even from this distance, she could see the padlock holding it shut.

She looked down. The rungs descended into the abyss below, but she couldn’t even guess how deep it went. Not that it mattered. Whether she went up or down, the gunmen would reach the end of the tunnel long before she reached either end of the ladder.

But there was something on the other side of the shaft, another passage. The entrance was smaller than the one in which she was standing, but she could see the distant glimmer of a light within. Another way out.

If she could reach it. There was no bridge across the shaft, only the metal pipe above her head-

Nina cradled the heavy book on her shoulder, squeezing it as firmly as she could between her cheek and her upper arm as she reached up and took hold of the pipe with her left hand. Then she stretched out her right hand, took a deep, fearful breath…

And swung out over the shaft.

The book wobbled, threatening to pitch forward. She pushed her face harder against the leather to keep it in place. If the book fell, the jolt when the chain pulled taut would tear her loose.

Gripping the pipe as tightly as she could, she slid her right hand forward by about a foot. Then she jerked her left hand along behind it, a couple of inches at a time, trying to keep the book in position. Its hard edge dug savagely into her shoulder. Another foot, another series of little jerks to catch up…

She heard splashing from the passage behind.

Nina let out a strained gasp as she tried to move faster. The book slipped again. She wrestled it between her head and arm, forcing it back into place. Another foot, then the frantic catch-up, right hand forward once more…

Halfway across. She had no idea when the gunmen would be able to see her hanging there, an unmissable target.

But if they shot her, she would fall into the unknown below, taking the book with her. If the shaft opened into a main sewer line, their prize would be swept away. That might deter them from firing.

Maybe…

Every move made her gasp now, panic rising. A line of pain seared through her shoulder as the book’s brass frame ground into her muscles. Three feet, two, boots clattering up the sloping passage behind her…

Rancid water, and worse, spewed onto her from an outlet above, drenching her hair and clothing. The pipe was slick under her hands. Nina could feel the book shifting, sliding backwards this time. She pushed her cheek against it, trying to hold it in place, but it was moving towards the point of no return.

Less than a foot to go-

The book tipped. Leather rubbed against her face, then the cold edge of its frame. And gone .

It fell, the chain snaking past her head just as she grabbed the edge of the passage with her right hand. Her fingers closed around metal. The sudden weight of the book wrenched her left hand from the pipe-

Her grip on the frame held. Just. Stifling a scream, Nina stretched out one leg and managed to get a toehold on the edge of the low tunnel. The book swung below her like a pendulum. It banged against the side of the shaft, the clasp that held it shut breaking. Every muscle on fire, she hauled herself onto the solid floor of the tunnel entrance, dragging the book with her.

One of the gunmen appeared at the end of the passage opposite, raised his weapon, and pulled the trigger-

Click .

Nothing happened. The Asian man tried again, then pulled out the magazine to examine it and shouted what she was certain was an obscenity. Out of ammo.

The ponytailed man appeared behind him. He snapped out an order. The first man gave him a dubious look, then reached up to grab the overhead pipe.

Nina turned to run. The man swung out over the shaft-

The end of the pipe sheared off from the wall.

With a piercing scream, he plunged down the shaft and disappeared into the darkness, the pipe breaking loose at its other end and falling after him. The splash from below took longer to arrive than Nina expected.

She looked back at the ponytailed man, who seemed more annoyed than shocked by the death of his associate. His eyes locked on to hers. Apparently he too was out of ammo. With no way across the shaft, the chase was over.

“Say hi to the C.H.U.D.s for me!” said Nina, slamming the book closed and hurrying down the passage.

She got about ten feet before hearing movement behind her.

She looked around to see the man leap across the shaft, coat billowing like a cape. Arms outstretched, he slammed against the lip of the passage, grunting at the impact before gripping the metal frame and pulling himself up.

“Oh, shit!” She ran again, more terrified than ever. The dim maintenance lights whipped past just overhead. This passage, while more confined than the last, was at least dry, and she could hear something else ahead, a familiar sound-the rumble and clatter of a passing train. She was rejoining the subway tunnels.

The lights brightened, the cold blue of fluorescents shining on concrete walls. She emerged in a rectangular chamber, more tunnels leading off in different directions. After the darkness of the passage, the glare was almost blinding. Bare walls, service access for the subway-with an open elevator.

Nina threw herself into the cramped car and hammered at the topmost button on the control panel, waiting for the doors to close. It took her a moment to realize that she had to close the old-fashioned cage gates herself. She grabbed the handles of the outer doors and dragged them together, the concertina-like metal framework clashing shut.

Fang burst out of the tunnel and ran straight at her. He had something in his hands, a black cane, one hand whipping back-

She slammed the inner gate. A motor whined.

He thrust his hand at Nina, a silver line stabbing between the bars of the gate. She instinctively raised the book like a shield-