Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

Clunk .

A stone slab dropped half an inch beneath his foot. Faint rattles came from beneath the floor, a chain reaction working its way towards the statue to knock out whatever final pin held the mechanism in check.

Cerberus lurched forward, each huge paw rising five feet into the air in turn before smashing back down onto the ground with enough force to crack the slabs beneath. Behind Chase, a gate slammed down to block his exit. The statue was moving more slowly than the mares of Diomedes, but it would still crush him against the back wall in little over a minute.

Each paw had claws curving out from it like scimitars. One more thing to worry about. Holding the flashlight in his left hand, he moved towards the giant statue, waiting for the precise moment to-

Jump!

Chase vaulted onto the statue’s left paw as it hit the ground in a cloud of dust. After a moment, it rose again, lifting him towards the heads. He braced himself, ready to grab the middle head and twist it around. This was easier than he’d expected…

A new noise came from the head above him, sounding oddly like clanking crockery.

Instantly on alert, Chase looked up. A sealed earthenware pot about the size of a grapefruit dropped from a hole at the back of the dog’s mouth onto the gaping lower jaw.

Chase leapt from the left paw onto the right-

The pot smashed on impact, the liquid inside spraying everywhere. He felt some of it splatter onto the back of his leather jacket. A sharp smell stung his nostrils.

Hissing fumes rose from the dust-covered stone, from his back.

Acid!

“Jesus!” He shone the light over his shoulder, seeing that the corrosive liquid had already burned the topmost layer of leather from black to an ugly mottled brown, and was rapidly eating through what lay beneath.

And with his weight now on the other paw as it rose, he heard more clinking sounds from above, another container about to drop from the right-hand head-

“What is it, what’s going on?” Nina shouted in his ear.

“It’s spraying fucking acid at me!” Chase yelled, jumping back onto the left paw just as a second pot smashed, froth pouring from the mouth.

“His spit’s poisonous in the legend!”

“You could have told me that before!” The right paw crashed down onto the floor, pieces of broken paving scattering around it. The left paw began to ascend again. Chase looked up. It was his extra weight on the moving stone that was triggering the acid trap, which meant another would be released at any moment.

The mouth above him was still dripping, fumes burning his eyes and nostrils. He coughed. The statue had already covered half the length of the passage…

Cerberus’s central head sneered down at him. Unlike its outlying companions it was a separate piece from the rest of the statue, its neck fitting into a circular hole.

Another clay pot skittered from the hole at the back of the dog’s throat-

Chase threw himself at the middle head. The pot burst open, a liquid limb sluicing after him.

He grabbed the statue, feeling the acid splash against his arm and side. Pinprick splashes burned his left hand and scalp as he pressed his face against the stone head for what little protection it offered, but he knew they would be nothing compared to what he would feel when the searing corrosive ate away the leather and started on his flesh.

And now he had no footholds, dangling with both arms wrapped around Cerberus’s neck.

He twisted, kicking against the statue’s chest as he got a grip on one of the ears and wrenched at it with all his weight.

It didn’t move.

“Shit!” His sleeve was smoking, the fumes so strong that he could barely breathe.

Ten feet away from the back wall of the passage, nine…

He kicked again, swinging into a new position to grip the top of the statue’s head with his left arm and turn it counterclockwise. Stray drops of acid seared his cheek as he raised his arm over his head.

Fingers closed around the other stone ear. The wall was six feet away.

Last chance-

Roaring, Chase pulled at the head, feet scrabbling against the dog’s chest for every ounce of leverage. Four feet, three… The head turned.

Both the giant paws fell to the floor with enormous force, one of the scimitar claws breaking loose and clashing against the portcullis gate. Cerberus juddered to a halt.

Chase dropped from the head, tearing off his jacket and throwing it to the ground. Swirls of smoke billowed from it, holes eaten through the left sleeve and the back. He wiped frantically at the burns on his head and hands with the material of his T-shirt. “Fuck! Fucking hell, that hurts!”

Komosa and another man lifted the gate. Beneath the central head, a stone slab moved slightly. Komosa shoved past Chase and kicked it open to reveal the exit. “We’re through,” he announced to Sophia and Corvus as they arrived.

Chase looked mournfully down at the smoldering leather at his feet. “Lost my jacket, lost my gun,” he complained. “This hasn’t been a good week.” But his expression lifted-slightly-when he saw Nina behind Sophia. “Haven’t lost everything, though,” he told her. She didn’t quite smile, but her relief at seeing him again was plain.

Corvus turned to Nina. “Is this it? Was that the last obstacle?”

“I’ve still got one more page to translate. But yes, that was the last trial. The Tomb of Hercules is through there.” She indicated the new opening.

Corvus stepped eagerly towards it, but Sophia held his arm. “I think we should send Yorkshire Jones in first. Just in case.”

Komosa prodded Chase with his gun. Wearily, Chase moved to the hole.

“Wait,” said Nina. “Send me instead.”

Sophia snorted mockingly. “I don’t think so.”

Nina turned to Corvus. “This is my discovery. You wouldn’t be here without me. You wouldn’t even know this place existed without me. At least let me be the first to see it.”

After a moment, Corvus nodded. Sophia shot him a warning frown. “René…”

“If she tries anything, kill Chase,” he ordered Komosa. The Nigerian gave Chase an expectant grin as he handed his flashlight to Nina.

“Good luck,” Chase told her as she bent down and clambered through the hole.

The low passage ran under the statue before opening out in the chamber behind it, the cogs and chains and counterweights that had driven Cerberus now still and silent. She ignored them, her flashlight beam falling upon another archway at the far end.

Much larger than the previous exits, this one was far more ornate, decorated in silver and gold and precious stones.

Nina walked to it, shining the light through the opening. More treasures glinted back at her.

“I think this is it,” she called as she reached the opening-and stepped through.

With that, Nina became the first person in thousands of years to enter the Tomb of Hercules.

Wow,” Nina whispered.

The tomb was square, 150 feet to a side with a ceiling rising to form a flattened dome that topped out thirty feet above the center of the huge chamber. Four broad pillars around a central plinth supported it; sloping walls rose diagonally from the foot of each pillar up to the base of the dome at each corner, great stone wedges dividing the room.

But the architecture wasn’t at the forefront of Nina’s mind. It was what lay around it, literally piled head-high against the tomb walls.

Gold.

And more besides-other precious metals gleamed as she panned her light around the chamber. Silver, platinum, even the reddish hue of orichalcum, the gold-copper alloy favored by the Atlanteans. Some was in the form of ingots, but much had been worked into what seemed to Nina like an almost infinite variety of treasures, large and small-statues, cups, shields, bracelets, crowns, plates, ceremonial pieces even she struggled to name…