Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

“Then you set Yuen up to make it look like he was responsible,” Chase said. “And set me up to make it look like I killed him.”

“He’d served his purpose,” Sophia remarked, as casually as if she’d killed a fly. “Now all of his businesses belong to me.”

“Which means they also belong to me,” Corvus said, smiling.

Nina frowned. “What?”

Sophia held up her left hand. For a moment, Nina thought she was flipping her the bird-until she realized that Sophia was holding up her ring finger.

Which had a new and very large diamond ring on it.

“Well?” said Sophia. “Aren’t you going to congratulate the new bride?”

“You fucking married him?” Chase spluttered.

“About an hour ago,” Sophia told him. “A little civil ceremony, nothing gaudy.”

Corvus slipped an arm around Sophia’s waist. “A perfect union, a merger of both personal and business interests. Yuen’s companies will now become part of the Corvus empire. And Sophia,” he beamed at her, “will at last be with me. I’ve waited a long time for this day. You have no idea how hard I found it to see her married to another man, even if it was necessary.” He paused. “Well, perhaps you know, Mr. Chase.”

“Au contraire, mate,” Chase growled, folding his arms. “Far as I’m concerned, you can fucking have her. Word of advice, though.”

“And what would that be?”

“Don’t turn your back on her. She’s got a habit of screwing over her husbands.”

Corvus sniffed dismissively as Sophia wrapped her arms around him. “Bitterness doesn’t suit you, Eddie,” she said. “Now, Nina, this is where you come in. A wedding isn’t a wedding without a honeymoon. The thing is, we simply don’t know where to go. I’d like you to help us find a destination.” Her voice became pointed.

“Somewhere with a lot of history …”

Nina carefully aligned the pieces of ancient parchment, matching up the faint brown markings, then leaned back to take in the entire image. For the first time in more than two thousand years, the map concealed on the pages of Plato’s Hermocrates was complete.

She gave Chase a nervous glance. The Englishman sat in a chair in a corner of the château’s library, hands cuffed behind his back, Komosa and another guard flanking him. It had been made very clear to Nina that any delay or mistake in assembling the map would result in Chase’s suffering severe pain. As emphasis, Komosa had lined up various implements on a little table nearby, ranging from a blackjack through pliers to an electric masonry drill.

Chase returned the look. He knew as well as Nina that once the Tomb was found, their usefulness to Corvus and Sophia would be at an end. All they could do for the moment was play along and look for any opportunity to escape…

“Well?” Sophia asked impatiently, striding across the room to look at the map. “Where is it?”

“Jesus, give me a chance,” Nina complained as she opened an atlas. “I don’t have every coastline in the world memorized.”

She did, however, have a reasonably good idea of where to start looking. One of the previously missing pages featured a compass rose, so now she knew the coastline was at the southern edge of a sea. Considering the limits of exploration for the ancient Greeks, it was almost certainly the Mediterranean, placing the Tomb in North Africa.

Which made sense, she realized. According to legend, Hercules had spent much time traveling through ancient Libya-a far greater expanse than the boundaries of the modern country of that name. The Tomb could well be located at the site of some great deed from those years.

It only took a brief examination of the atlas to narrow down the list of possible locations. The coastline ran roughly southeast to northwest, but at its northern end it made a sharp turn to head almost directly northeast. Given the scale of the ancient map, just one area matched that description.

Nina’s finger fell upon the coast of Tunisia, the Gulf of Gabès. “Is that it?” Sophia demanded.

“It matches, yes,” said Nina, looking back and forth between the two maps. “River mouths here and here, this island just off the coast to the east…”

Corvus stepped up to the table. “Tunisia?”

“Maybe not,” Sophia told him, tracing the route over the parchment from the coast to the site of the Tomb. “The scale doesn’t-”

“Do you mind?” snapped Nina, academic annoyance at being second-guessed overcoming any worries about retribution. “Let’s see, this lake off to the west must be this one here on the modern map, which is about fifty miles from the coast. Even taking inaccuracies of scale into account, it’s roughly a third of the way from the coast to the end of the route, so the Tomb must be about a hundred and fifty miles inland, southwest of Gabès. Which would place it in-”

“Algeria,” Chase announced from across the room. “Know it well.”

“Oh yes,” said Sophia with a disparaging sigh, “stargazing in the Grand Erg, the most incredible sky you’ve ever seen, how many times did I hear that story?”

“Photograph it,” Corvus ordered one of his men, who clambered onto a stool to take pictures of the completed map from above. “Thank you, Dr. Wilde. Now that you have located the Tomb of Hercules, I believe my people will be able to take things from here.”

“Let me guess,” said Nina, eyeing him defiantly. “You’re going to fly us back to New York in your private jet?”

“Hardly.” He turned to Komosa. “Dispose of them.”

“No.” The authority in Sophia’s voice surprised even Corvus; an absolute command. “We still need them.”

“Why, my dear?” Corvus asked slowly.

“Because, my dear , Dr. Wilde hasn’t told us everything.” She grabbed Nina’s ponytail and pulled her head back. Nina gasped in pain. “Have you, Nina?”

“Don’t know what you mean,” Nina said through her teeth.

“Oh but you do. Remember on the flight to Botswana, you told me how you thought there were more clues hidden within the text of Hermocrates , clues that didn’t just concern the location of the Tomb, but also how to get inside it?” Sophia twisted her wrist, pulling Nina’s hair still harder. “I think you’re holding back, that you’re hoping that even if we find the Tomb we won’t be able to gain entry-or even fall victim to booby traps.”

“Booby traps wouldn’t still be working after thousands of years,” Nina growled. “This isn’t a game of Tomb Raider.”

Chase cleared his throat. “Er, actually, there were some in Tibet that still worked. Sort of. They nearly killed me and Jason on the way out.” Despite her pain, Nina glared at him. “Yeah, I know. Should have told you about that. Sorry.”

“This is why your relationship isn’t working,” said Sophia to Nina. “Lack of communication.” She let go of her hair. “So, enlighten us. How do we get in?”

“I don’t know,” Nina told her truthfully.

Sophia nodded to Komosa, who swept down his huge fist to punch Chase in the stomach. He whooped for breath. “How do we get in?” she asked again.

“Jesus!” said Nina, horrified. “I don’t know!”

Another nod, and Komosa took the blackjack and smacked it viciously down on Chase’s neck. He let out a cry of agony as he fell from the chair, banging his head on the library’s hard wooden floor.

Sophia stared down coldly at him. “How do we get in?”

“You fucking bitch!” Nina screamed. “I told you, I don’t know! Leave him alone!”

Sophia didn’t need to nod this time for Komosa to turn to the little table and pick up the masonry drill. He pumped the trigger twice, the device making a sinister robotic whine each time, then bent down and placed the tip against Chase’s shoulder blade. Before Nina could say a word, he squeezed the trigger.