Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

“Why should I care?” Sophia sniffed. “They’re just the little people.”

“And what about me? Is that all I ever was to you?” She didn’t answer him, not quite able to meet his gaze. “What happened to you, Sophia?” Chase asked despairingly. “Jesus Christ, you’ve murdered people in cold blood, and now you’re going to set off a fucking nuclear bomb! How the fuck did you end up like this?”

Now she looked back at him. “I have you to thank for that, Eddie,” she said. “And I really do thank you, sincerely. If there’s one lesson I learned from our time together, it’s that.”

“What lesson? What the fuck are you talking about?”

Sophia stepped closer, just outside the range of his legs, and crouched down. “My family always had power, Eddie, but it was the kind of power that came from wealth and influence. But when I met you, when you rescued me from the terrorist camp…you showed me an-other kind of power. The power of life and death.”

Chase couldn’t answer, unable to do anything more than listen in horror as she went on. “When you wiped out the members of the Golden Way, you taught me how to truly exercise power. The unwavering pursuit of an objective, without remorse. Anyone in the way of that objective must be destroyed.”

“You’re fucking mental,” Chase finally managed to say. “I went in to rescue you. I only killed people who were trying to kill us.”

“You can’t deceive yourself any better than you can me,” Sophia snapped. “You were ordered to exterminate them, Eddie. Not to drive off or capture, but to wipe them out. You were an assassin, a killer . You didn’t feel anything when you shot them or stabbed them or slit their throats. I saw how you acted. I’ll never forget it-because it taught me that I needed to be like you. You were pursuing an objective, exercising power. Just as I am now.”

“I was on a military mission to rescue British citizens from terrorists,” countered Chase. “What you’re doing is mass murder for personal gain and… and fucking childish revenge!”

“You can say whatever you want!” said Sophia as she stood, voice rising to a shriek. “You made me! All of this happened because of you !” She whirled and strode to the door, heels striking the deck like shots. “Joe!” she shouted. “Bring it in!”

“Don’t do this, Sophia!” Chase said, pulling himself upright. Still trapped by the pipe, he could only move a couple of feet in any direction.

“You started all this the moment we met,” Sophia told him malevolently. “It’s only fitting that you should be here at the end as well.” Behind her, Komosa and the nuclear technician entered the hold, carrying the bomb between them. She pointed to one side of the room, well away from Chase. “Over there.”

The two men carefully set the heavy device down. Komosa had something over his shoulder on a strap; at first Chase thought it was a weapon, until he saw that it was actually a bolt gun, six-inch steel shafts loaded into an open magazine protruding from its top. There were three holes spaced equidistantly around the bomb’s metal base. Komosa placed the end of the gun into the first hole and pulled the trigger. A sharp crack of compressed gas, and a bolt was blasted through the deck with a piercing clang. Two more clangs, and the bomb was immovably secured. Komosa put down the bolt gun beside it.

Sophia went to the bomb, taking the arming key from a pocket. She inserted it, then with a dismissive glance back at Chase turned it. The screen lit up, still showing the time of detonation: 0845. A push of a button, and the display changed to a countdown.

Seven hours, two minutes, seventeen seconds.

Sixteen.

Fifteen…

She pulled out the key, but the display remained lit, the seconds flicking away. “I think I’ll pop up to the deck and throw this into the sea,” she taunted, holding up the key as she headed back to the door. The two men followed her. “By the way, Eddie, the timer has an anti-tamper mechanism. If anyone attempts to stop it without the key, the bomb will explode. I just thought you should know.”

“Good-bye, Chase,” said Komosa, grinning his diamond smile. “Enjoy the afterlife.”

The door closed behind them with a decisive thud.

Chase pulled and kicked at the pipe again, with no more success than before. Then he drew back his arms so that the chain of the handcuffs was around the metal and hauled on it with all his strength. Blood oozed from his wrists as the steel cut into his flesh, but the cuffs were too tightly fastened for him to slip his hands through.

But he kept trying. He had no choice.

“We’re almost there,” Trulli said above the constant shrill of the engines. “I think.”

Nina, stiff and sore from being stuck in her cramped position for more than two hours, twisted to look up at him. “What do you mean, you think?”

“The inertial navigation system isn’t as accurate as GPS. Especially when the ride’s this bumpy-it throws it off. Worst-case scenario, we could be nearly ten kilometers from where we think we are.”

Nina touched her pendant. “Let’s hope for the best-case scenario, then. So what happens now?”

Trulli examined the instruments. “Well, first, I’ve got to bring us out of supercavitation drive without squashing us like a cane toad under a road-train!”

Nina’s eyes opened wide. “Wait, what, squashing? You didn’t say anything about squashing!”

“I’ve never been this fast before!” Trulli explained. “I can’t just stop the engines, ’cause when the supercav shock wave collapses it’d be like running the sub into a brick wall. I’ve got to ease it down, get us to a safe speed before shutting off the steam.” He made adjustments to several controls, then took hold of the throttle. “Okay. Let’s give this a crack…”

Nina took hold of the seat and braced herself.

Trulli pulled the throttle back slightly. The noise of the engines didn’t alter as far as Nina could tell, but the Wobblebug’s vibration changed, a snaking sideways motion slowly building up.

“Is that bad?” Nina asked.

“I hope not!” Trulli moved the throttle again. This time, the shriek from the engines lowered slightly in pitch. But the oscillation continued, the weaving sensation worsening. “We’re down to three hundred knots. It’s working!”

“What about that shaking?” The sub’s movement was making Nina seasick, but she couldn’t help thinking that nausea was the least of her problems.

“I dunno why it’s doing that-just have to hope it goes away on its own!” Another push of the lever. “Two-eighty, two-seventy… Come on, you bugger! Two-fifty-”

The back end of the submarine suddenly slammed sideways as if kicked, only to hit something that flung it back the way it had come.

Another impact, and another-

Nina clung desperately to the seat as she was thrown about. Trulli fought with the controls, the submarine’s stern swinging violently like the clapper inside a bell. “Tail slap!” he screamed.

“What?”

“The back end of the sub’s bouncing off the inside of the shock wave! If I don’t get us under control, it’ll collapse!”

Trulli struggled to bring the Wobblebug back in line. The submarine lurched sickeningly, bashing against the edge of the swirling vortex surrounding it a few more times before its motion began to dampen down.

He reduced the throttle further. “I think that’s got-”

Skrench!

Something ripped loose from the bow and screeched back along the sub’s length before being lost in the water behind them.