Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

Sophia smirked. “Nice try. But I could tell how she really felt about you-and how you felt about her. I knew you wouldn’t risk anything happening to her. She’ll do the same for you. Just because somebody drives you mad doesn’t mean you don’t care deeply for them.”

“What would you know about caring for anybody?” Chase demanded. The jab worked, her face hardening. She turned and walked away, leaving Chase pinned in the sniper’s sights until a car pulled up outside and more of her men entered the station.

Lying on a bench, Chase looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. The cellar he was in wasn’t precisely a cell, but it was windowless, the thick door securely locked. He knew from the brief occasions over the past day when they had opened it to give him food and water that there were at least two of Sophia’s men on guard outside.

One of the sets of footsteps belonged to Sophia. The click of her high heels, the strutting, impatient pace… he remembered them well. So he wasn’t the least bit surprised when the door opened to reveal her, with an armed man at her side. It was the sniper from the dam, a dark-skinned, muscular giant wearing a black leather waistcoat, rows of silver piercings running back over his bald head.

“Hello, Eddie,” said Sophia. Sultry, confident, back in command.

“Hi, bitch-face.”

She pouted. “Really, Eddie. There’s no need to be childish. Not when I’m about to reunite you with your beloved.”

He sat up. “Is she all right?”

“Of course she is! I need her to do something for me, something which requires a clear head, so it would be counterproductive to hurt her. For now, anyway.” She smiled a little at the implied threat; her companion, on the other hand, treated Chase to a malevolent beaming grin, revealing a diamond set into one of his teeth. “By the way, I don’t believe I’ve introduced my friend. Eddie, this is Joe Komosa. My guardian angel, so to speak. And yours too.”

“I’ve been watching you for some time,” said Komosa, flashing his glinting smile again.

“You were the guy in Botswana,” Chase said, remembering the figure he’d briefly seen through the skylight. “At the crusher, you shot the guards.”

“I couldn’t very well let Nina die when I still needed her, could I?” explained Sophia. “And I needed you to get her out of the mine safely. I didn’t expect you to get all the way to London, though! As for parachuting into the factory… It’s a good job I’d planted that tracker on you, or we would never have known you were coming. Still, it all worked out for the best.”

“Except for Dick,” Chase said sarcastically.

“Not all marriages have a fairy-tale ending. As you know. But on the bright side, he left everything to me in his will.”

“I think that you murdering him might sort of invalidate it.”

Sophia laughed. “But I didn’t kill him, Eddie! You did!”

Chase stood up sharply, prompting Komosa to raise his gun. “What?”

“In a fit of jealous rage. It’s quite romantic, actually, in a twisted way. You were so overcome with fury when you found out I’d married Richard that you chased him to two different countries in an attempt to kill him and win me back. At least, that’s what the witnesses to his death will say, once I choose them. And of course, it’ll be a huge embarrassment to the IHA, especially after you assassinated that Botswanan minister. Which,” she added, “was entirely Richard’s doing. I had no part in that… but again, it worked out for the best. After losing that rig at Atlantis as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.N. decides to cut its losses and disband the entire agency.”

“Leaving you free to look for the Tomb of Hercules without anyone knowing, I suppose.”

Sophia raised a patronizing eyebrow. “Well done, Eddie. I honestly wasn’t sure if you’d figure it out.”

“I’ve had all day to think about it.”

“Yes, I’m sorry about that. The owner of this château-well, co-owner now, I suppose,” she gave him a sly smile, “couldn’t get here immediately, and then we had something to take care of during the day. But now you have our undivided attention.” She stepped back through the door, Komosa gesturing with his gun for Chase to follow. He saw for the first time that the hulking man was bare-chested beneath his waistcoat, more lines of piercings running down his chest into the waistband of his leather jeans, a huge silver ring through each of his nipples. “Come along.”

“Do they go all the way down, Sophia?” Chase asked, pointing a thumb at the glinting studs. “Why are you asking me?”

“I just get the feeling you know from personal experience.”

Sophia merely smirked suggestively and walked away. Komosa raised his gun towards Chase’s face as he passed. “Show her ladyship the respect she deserves, hey?”

“I was,” Chase said, grinning coldly.

Komosa smacked him on the side of his skull with the butt of his pistol. Chase staggered, clutching his head. “Now, boys,” Sophia called back to them, “let’s not have any unpleasantness on this special day, shall we?”

Chase glared at Komosa, jabbing a finger at the ring piercing his left nipple. “When you least expect it, mate, I’m going to rip that thing right off and pull your fucking heart out with it.” The Nigerian just gave him a sarcastic smile and followed him out of the room. “And what do you mean, ‘special day’?”

Sophia didn’t reply, leading the way up a flight of stairs to a large and ornate hall. More men lurked at the sides of the room, hands resting on their holstered guns, but Chase lost all interest in them when he saw Nina, wearing jeans and a khaki shirt, at the opposite end of the hall.

“Eddie!” She tried to run to him, but the guards flanking her pulled her back.

Relief flooded Chase. “Oh my God, you’re all right, you’re okay!” The image of Nina from Sophia’s phone, her frozen face of fear, had haunted him the entire time since leaving Switzerland.

“Well, now that we’ve got the reunion out of the way,” said Sophia, hands on her hips, “we can get down to business. Nina, Eddie’s alive and well; Eddie, Nina’s alive and well. If you want that situation to be maintained, you’ll do as I say.”

“Find the Tomb of Hercules for you, you mean,” said Nina, shooting Sophia a look of utter hatred.

“What do you want with it?” asked Chase. “You’ve already got Yuen’s money and a nuclear bomb-what else is there in the Tomb that you could want?”

“A nuclear what?” Nina yelped.

“Actually,” said a new voice from above, “it’s what I want.”

Nina and Chase looked up. Curving staircases swept upwards on each side of the hall to a balcony above. Standing imperiously at its center was…

“Well, well,” said Nina coldly. “René Corvus.”

The billionaire descended the stairs. “Everything that has happened has been according to my design,” he said, moving to join Sophia. “The sinking of the SBX rig, your discovery of the uranium mine, even Sophia’s marriage to Yuen. All part of my plan.”

Chase was shocked. “Wait, you sank the SBX?”

“I built it,” said Corvus, “or rather, one of my companies did. It seemed only fitting that I should destroy it.”

Sophia nodded at Komosa. “Actually, Joe did the hands-on work.” Komosa smiled his diamond smile.

“There were over seventy people on that rig!” Nina shouted.

“Regrettable, but necessary,” said Corvus. “As a non-executive director of the IHA, I knew you were using the Hermocrates text to find the Tomb of Hercules, but I had no access to the IHA’s classified servers. Using the rig’s direct satellite link allowed my people to get that access-and the sinking of the rig then removed all evidence of the intrusion.”