Andy McDermott: The Tomb Of Hercules

Nina kicked wildly at the gun. It skidded across the room to end up a few feet from Chase.

But he couldn’t reach it, couldn’t move anything except his eyes…

Sophia drove a fist into Nina’s stomach, then threw the torn leather cushion hard into her face. Nina stabbed blindly with the knife as she staggered, but Sophia dodged it and clamped a hand around her wrist. She struck at Nina’s fingers with her other hand, fiercely bending them back.

Nina screamed as joints crunched beyond their limits, nerve endings blazing. The knife dropped from her hand.

Still twisting Nina’s fingers, Sophia brought her elbow up hard and smashed the point of the bone against Nina’s temple, twice. Dazed, Nina fell onto the chair.

Sophia searched for the knife, but it had ended up amid the broken glass from the table. Instead she turned for the gun.

Nina sat up, head spinning, seeing Sophia running from her.

And beyond her was Chase. Their eyes met, just for a split second. Then he looked away, not at Sophia…

But at his outstretched hand.

Nina instantly knew what he wanted her to do.

She flung herself across the room at Sophia just as she picked up the gun and spun to shoot-

Nina tackled her at shin height. Sophia wavered, then fell backwards, landing on Chase’s hand-and the dart clutched in it.

Sophia’s eyes went wide as she felt the metal spike stab into her back, knowing what it was, what was about to happen to her. “No!” she cried, the shriek falling to a strangled gasp as the toxin took effect.

Nina released her legs and pulled the gun from her trembling hand. She threw the weapon aside, then looked down at Sophia’s terrified face.

“Help me…” Sophia barely managed to whisper. “Please…injection…”

“There’s an antidote?”

“Yes… in dart gun…” Her eyes flickered in the direction of the abandoned weapon.

Nina checked it. Clipped under the barrel was a small metal tube. She opened the cap and tipped the contents into her hand; a syringe.

Sophia watched pleadingly, eyes begging her for help, but Nina just regarded her coldly for a long moment. “There’d better be enough for two people,” she said, holding up the syringe. “Because if there isn’t, I’m going to sit here and watch you die… bitch.”

“Well,” said Chase, surveying the room from the couch, “the apartment’s fucked.”

“You know what?” Nina replied, curling up next to him. “You were right. It’s not really us. We can get somewhere nicer. And cheaper.”

“We’ve probably lost our deposit, though.”

She nodded at the bullet holes in the counter. “Oh, ya think?”

The antidote had worked; it only took thirty seconds before Chase could move again. She had been sorely tempted not to give what was left to Sophia, but he persuaded her to deliver the lifesaving drug-once he had retrieved the gun.

An alarmed neighbor had already called the police after hearing the gunfire, and it didn’t take the NYPD long to arrive, finding Sophia tied up on the couch with Nina triumphantly holding the gun on her. There were some jurisdictional disagreements when the FBI and Homeland Security turned up soon afterwards over exactly who should take custody of the country’s most wanted terrorist, but it was quickly decided they could be settled after Sophia was securely locked in a cell. She gave Nina and Chase a final hateful glare as she was handcuffed, then was hustled away, leaving them alone to contemplate their wrecked apartment.

“So,” Chase said, putting his right arm around Nina, “any chance of that coffee?” She pointed out the broken coffeemaker lying on the floor. “Ah. Guess not. Why’d you throw that and not Fidel? You could’ve finally got rid of the ugly bugger.”

“He’s not so bad. Thought I’d give him a second chance.”

Chase got her meaning. “Well, probably a good thing. Coffee keeps me up all night anyway.”

“I can think of something else that’ll keep you up all night,” Nina told him suggestively.

He feebly raised his broken arm. “What, in this state?”

“Oh, you can just lie there, I’ll do all the work. See? New position.”

They looked at each other, then both burst into uncontrollable laughter, the tension finally released. “Oh, God,” Chase said at last, “I can’t believe we made it. After everything that’s bloody happened, we actually survived. We’re still here.”

“Still together.”

He looked into her eyes and smiled. “Yeah. Still together. Back together.”

Nina seemed about to say something, then stopped. “What?” Chase asked.

“I was just thinking…”

“What about?”

“The question of yours. When we were on the ship, you said there wasn’t much point asking it.”

“Yeah…?”

“Well, we’re not on the ship anymore.”

“But we both know what your answer was going to be,” Chase said with a sly smile.

“I know! But…” Nina smiled back. “I still want to hear you ask me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“All right, then.” Chase slowly and stiffly stood, then carefully lowered himself onto one knee in front of her. He winced as various bruises and battle injuries jabbed at him. “Ow, buggeration and fuckery, that hurt.”

Nina raised an amused eyebrow. “Those aren’t quite the words I was hoping to hear from the man I love when he got down on one knee…”

“How about these, then? Nina Wilde…” He took hold of her hand, then looked into her eyes, his face and voice completely, totally sincere and heartfelt. “Will you marry me?”

Nina smiled for a moment making a show of considering the question. But Chase had been right. They both already knew the answer.

Andy McDermott was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and now lives in Bournemouth. As a journalist and magazine editor, amongst other titles he edited DVD Review and the iconoclastic film publication Hotdog. Andy is now a full-time writer.