Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

“Like what?” Komosa demanded.

“There’s plenty of meat in there!”

Komosa was puzzled, then realized what she meant. With a disgusted look, he picked up Bertillon’s left forearm, the hand flopping as he lifted it.

The mouths of the horses kept chomping, sharp teeth glistening in the light. Every time they opened, they revealed a hole beyond, a channel curving down inside each statue.

Komosa pulled back his arm to make a throw, hesitating to get the timing right-then flung the severed limb into the mouth of the nearest horse.

It caught on the teeth, hanging for a moment as the mouth snapped shut-then dropped out of sight into the hole as the jaw opened again. Komosa and the others backed against the wall. The horses kept advancing… then slowed, the thundering gallop of their legs falling to a canter before stopping, barely four feet from the portcullis. Something rattled overhead. One of Corvus’s men tried to lift the gate, and this time found that it moved.

Sophia whirled on Nina and punched her hard in the face, knocking her to the floor. Enraged, Chase stepped forward, but found guns thrust against his chest. “If you hold anything back again,” Sophia snarled down at Nina, “I won’t just kill Eddie. I’ll cut him apart, piece by piece, and make you watch every second of it. Am I clear?”

Nina spat out blood. “Crystal,” she groaned.

“Good. Now get up. There are three more trials.” Sophia paused thoughtfully, then looked across at Chase. A malevolent smile grew on her face. “Uncuff him,” she ordered one of the men.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” asked Corvus.

Sophia’s smile widened. “He’s going to need his hands free.”

Nina stood, a hand pressed against her cut lip. “What are you doing?”

“I’m giving you an incentive to work as quickly and accurately as possible,” Sophia told her. “Because Eddie’s going to be leading the way. If you make a mistake… he dies.”

Which way?” Chase said into his headset. The winding tunnel had reached another junction. “Left or right?”

“Left,” said Nina through the earpiece after a moment.

“You sure?”

“Will you stop asking me that? Yes, I’m sure.”

“Just checking.” He took a step down the left passage, then looked back. Komosa watched him from about twenty feet behind, a silver Browning longslide pistol with a laser sight in one hand. Past him, Chase could see the flashlight beams of the rest of the party.

Komosa waved the gun for him to keep moving. Chase shot him a foul look, then continued down the next passage.

It didn’t take long before his light picked out something new. “Okay, looks like another trial,” he reported. “What’s next on the list?”

Another pause from Nina. “The apples of the Hesperides.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “What, I’m going to be attacked by giant apples?”

“There’s only one way to find out, Eddie,” Sophia cut in mockingly. “In you go.”

He glanced back to see the smiling Komosa pointing the gun at him. Huffing, Chase entered the chamber.

Unlike the long rooms that had housed the previous trials, this one was square. The floor was laid out in a grid of light and dark tiles like a chessboard, each tile around five feet to a side. The grid itself measured nine squares by nine, a light tile in each corner. Four stone columns carved to resemble trees, a squat metal cage at the top of each, rose to chest height on the light tiles halfway between the center of the grid and the corners. At the far side of the room beyond the chessboard was a figure whom even Chase, with his limited knowledge of mythology, recognized as Atlas, holding the heavens on his shoulders. In this case, the heavens were represented by a large globe of copper or bronze. A pair of rails curved down from behind the statue’s shoulders to the floor.

“Eddie, what do you see?” Nina asked.

Chase described the scene. “I don’t see any apples, though. How does the story go?”

“Atlas guarded the garden of the Hesperides. Hercules wasn’t able to reach the apples himself, so he offered to take the weight of the heavens for a while so Atlas could get them for him. Once Atlas got the apples, he decided to deliver them himself for a reward, but Hercules tricked him into taking back the heavens by saying that he wanted to adjust his cloak to get more comfortable, so if Atlas could just hold them for a moment…”

“So Atlas was thick as shit, then.” Chase scanned the room again. “The globe looks like it moves, so… ah, I get it. I’m supposed to shove the globe off his shoulders so Atlas gets the apples somehow, then I have to roll it back up the rails onto his shoulders again to get out.”

“I doubt that the statue’s going to come to life and collect the apples for you,” Sophia said. “There must be more to it.”

“I’m still working on the text,” Nina told him. “It’s like the description of the Augean stables-it’s a puzzle, a test of wits rather than fighting skills, so it’s more involved than the others. I just need time to transcribe and translate it.”

“Time is in short supply, Dr. Wilde,” said Corvus impatiently. “Chase, go to one of the columns, see if the apples are inside it.”

“I’d rather wait,” Chase said testily. He looked back at the entrance, seeing Komosa signaling with the Browning for him to go on. “But I guess that’s not an option, is it? Oh well, let’s grab some Golden Delicious.”

He moved towards the first column on the left side of the room, stepping onto a dark tile-

“Eddie, stay still!” Nina shrieked through the headset, but too late.

The tile dropped out from under him. It was hinged along one edge, swinging away to pitch him into a black void below-

Chase threw out his arms, his flashlight spinning down into the darkness as he caught the side of the hole with one hand. Pain searing through the wound in his back, he swung helplessly for a moment before struggling to bring up his other arm. With a groan, he finally managed to secure himself.

Nina screamed his name through the headset. “I’m okay, I’m okay!” he gasped. “Well, technically.”

“What happened?” Sophia asked, sounding more professionally curious than concerned.

“The tile was hinged; it gave way when I stepped on it.” Chase turned his head to examine the side of the hole opposite the hinge. Metal strips supporting the tile from beneath had bent under his weight.

“I always said you could stand to lose a few pounds, Eddie,” said Sophia.

“Yeah, ho fucking ho. Get me out of here.”

Her voice became patronizing. “I’m disappointed in you. Can’t you climb out on your own?”

“I would’ve if some bastard hadn’t stuck a drill in my shoulder!” Chase twisted around to see Komosa still lurking in the entrance. “Oi, Silvernips! Give me a hand, for fuck’s sake.”

Komosa smirked, making no effort to move. Behind him, the other members of the expedition arrived, Nina leading. “Help him, then!” she cried.

Corvus directed his flashlight at the dangling Chase. “He fell in the hole, let him get out of it. Why should we help?”

Nina fixed him with a cold, determined stare. “Because if he dies, you might as well kill me too, because there’s no way in hell I’m going to translate another word of this.” She held up the parchments, thumb tightening. Part of one page tore. “Oops.”

Sophia brought up her gun, but Corvus raised his hands. “All right, Dr. Wilde.” He nodded to Komosa. “Get him out.” Annoyed, Komosa entered the room and pulled Chase from the hole.

“Cheers, mate,” Chase said sarcastically, kneeling on the solid light tile that he’d grabbed. He peered into the hole to see his light lying on the ground ten feet below-surrounded by a nest of jagged metal spikes. “Jesus. You’d need more than a tetanus shot if you landed on those.”