Kingdom of Darkness

by Andy McDermott

  ‘To where?’ Nina protested, bumping into Banna. The Nazis were still shooting, the crack of splintering stone above her almost as loud as Zane’s return fire.

  Krebs sidestepped to the edge of the path and raised his Uzi. ‘Out of the way!’ he shouted.

  Those lower down hurriedly moved against the wall as he fired. Bullets clanged off bronze, the noise like the tolling of a dozen discordant bells. But the crab continued inexorably towards them, the rounds barely denting the metal. ‘Stop, stop!’ Nina cried as a ricochet struck the rock just above her head.

  The Israeli ceased fire – then rose, judging the timing of the claws’ sweeps. ‘I’ll jump over it!’

  ‘No, you won’t make it!’ Eddie warned – but Krebs had already rushed past him. He ran at the crab, making a flying leap—

  One claw lashed upwards as if the creature had seen him coming. Krebs’ foot clipped it, pitching him forward. He threw out both hands to catch himself, but his right arm buckled as he landed hard on the unyielding stone – and he rolled over the edge. The Mossad operative’s terrified wail lasted only two seconds before he hit the bottom of the shaft eighty feet below.

  The crab continued its remorseless advance. ‘What do we do?’ said Nina in rising panic.

  Eddie desperately searched for any weak spot in the metal monster. Disabling even one claw would give them enough space to jump over it . . . but whatever moved the pincers was buried inside the shell. The only visible part of the workings was the support pole through the track—

  The sight stirred an unexpected memory. ‘Jared!’ he yelled. ‘Those spears – I need one of ’em!’

  Zane broke off from his defence to shout back. ‘What? If bullets don’t stop it, what’s a spear going to do?’

  ‘Just do it, quick!’ The crab was now more than halfway up its path, squeezing those trapped above into an ever-smaller space.

  Zane fired a burst at the Nazis – then sprang up and ran for the spears. Bullets hit the pathway behind him. He thumped against the wall, then grabbed one of the bronze shafts and tossed it base first down the slope. It clanged on the stone flags, skittering downhill until Taubman snatched it up. ‘Here!’ He passed it forward.

  ‘Nina, give me some light!’ Eddie said as he grabbed the ancient weapon and flipped its point towards the approaching crab. She shone her flashlight at the bronze behemoth. ‘All right, you shellfish bastard,’ he said, raising the spear . . .

  He lunged, stabbing it down – not at the crab itself, but under it. The tip caught against one of the cracks between the stone slabs. Eddie crouched, keeping the weapon pressed into place as he lowered it almost flat against the slope. The crab ground over the shaft – and he pulled it up.

  The monster’s weight almost wrenched the spear from his hands. He held on, straining to lift it. The metal shaft bent – but the crab tipped upwards as the chains dragging it uphill forced it on to the makeshift ramp.

  The claws swung at the Englishman. He tried to dodge, but couldn’t move without releasing the spear. The tip of a bronze pincer slashed through his sleeve, tearing leather – and skin. He yelled in pain, but held his ground.

  Another claw stabbed at him, its sharp point racing towards his chest—

  The crab suddenly lurched as the spear lifted it up – and came loose from the post beneath. With nothing to support it, the metal creature skidded back downhill with a horrific screech, claws flailing, and flew off the precipice. No longer carrying a ton of bronze, the counterweighted pole shot past the startled group and hit the slab at the end of the track with enough force to split it in two. A moment later, the crab slammed into the ground with a boom that reverberated through the entire chasm.

  Eddie dropped the bent spear, wasting no time worrying about his wound as he ran down the path. ‘We’re clear – come on!’ The others rushed after him.

  Zane darted from his cover and raced pell-mell down the slope. ‘What did you do?’ he called to Eddie.

  ‘Ramped it out of the slot,’ the Englishman replied as he reached the foot of the steep section. ‘I remembered how I used to make racing cars do Dukes of Hazzard jumps when I was a kid by putting lolly sticks on the track.’ The lack of any immediate response made him add: ‘What, you don’t have Scalextric in Israel?’

  ‘No, all we have to play with are dreidels,’ the younger man said sarcastically.

  ‘You were a weird kid, Eddie,’ Nina told her husband. ‘Although it explains a lot: you spent your childhood wrecking toys, and now you do it for real.’

  ‘Tchah!’ The path ahead continued its descent around the chasm wall. ‘Okay,’ Eddie said, surveying it, ‘this goes all the way to the bottom.’

  Nina’s own flashlight revealed a rubble-strewn rock floor below. But something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. At first she thought it was a fallen torch that had fared better than its owner, but when she looked directly at it, it disappeared. She glanced away and the faint glow returned – revealing itself to be coming not from the chasm, but another chamber entirely. ‘There’s a way out over there,’ she said, her light finding an arched opening, clearly man-made, at the base of the cliff.

  ‘Must be what we’re looking for,’ said Eddie. ‘This fucking spring’d better be in here after all this!’

  Nina followed him down. Banna and Taubman were right behind her, Zane bringing up the rear. A shout came from above, followed by another fusillade of gunfire, but the incoming bullets hit only stone.

  They reached the ground. ‘Turn off the lights!’ the Englishman ordered as he ran for the passage. He could see a shimmering luminescence from beyond the opening, only low but still enough to show that the way ahead was clear.

  Torches clicked off. The Nazis fired a few more shots, but their targets were now lost in the darkness. Some way above Rasche’s group, Kroll shouted a command for them to speed their descent.

  Eddie reached the entrance. The passage was almost ten feet high, turning a corner ahead. The soft light rippling over the walls grew brighter. ‘What the hell is that?’ he asked.

  ‘Water flashing like lightning,’ Nina replied. They rounded the corner, catching their first sight of what lay beyond . . . and stopping in amazement. The others stumbled to a halt, equally awed.

  They had reached the Spring of Immortality.

  35

  ‘Bloody hell,’ said Eddie as he took in the sight. ‘Andreas was a busy boy.’

  They had entered a large subterranean chamber. The high ceiling was raw and natural, but everything below the level of the entrance had been worked upon by hand over a long period of time, the walls smooth and vertical. The stone was streaked with veins of silver, gleaming in the eerie light.

  The source of the illumination was a pool of water fifty feet below. The glow came from within the water itself, foxfire coursing gently through its unreadable depths.

  Incredible as the sight was, it was not what had reduced the visitors to gawkers. The walls were not the only man-made feature. A stone viaduct led from the entrance across to the far side. Two thirds of the way over was a low structure: a tomb. On top of the little mausoleum was the statue of a kneeling man, his back to them – facing a much bigger figure sculpted from the opposite wall.

  Nina recognised it, as did Banna. ‘It is Alexander!’ the Egyptian exclaimed.

  ‘You’re right,’ she said, amazed. The handsome yet cruel features were the same as those she had seen in the tomb in Alexandria, though on a far bigger scale. This Alexander was not merely larger than life, but an actual giant, towering over everything else. Even in the half-light from the pool, his haughty, almost sneering expression was clear, the king regarding everyone beneath him with disdain.

  ‘What’s he holding?’ Eddie asked. Both Alexander’s hands were raised to his chest, something made from polished metal cupped in them.
A set of stone steps led up to it.

  ‘It looks like a bowl,’ said Nina. ‘Come on, we need to see!’ She started across the viaduct, Banna following eagerly.

  ‘No, we need to poison the spring,’ countered Zane. He gestured for Taubman to cover the entrance, then set down his pack and took out a white plastic container.

  Eddie, torn between going with his wife and preparing for the inevitable attack, looked over the viaduct’s wall-less side. The glowing pool was large, the far wall over a hundred feet away, and it was impossible to tell how deep it was. ‘How much have you got? Half a kilogram? I know cyanide’s lethal even in small doses, but there’s a lot of water down there.’

  ‘It’ll be enough,’ the Israeli insisted.

  Nina paused beside the tomb, Banna continuing ahead. ‘I don’t even know if that’s the spring down there – the water isn’t flowing,’ she said. ‘It might just be a storage pond. If you poison that but don’t take out the actual source, you’ve wasted your time.’

  ‘Then what do you suggest?’ asked Zane with a flash of anger.

  ‘There are Greek inscriptions by the statue of Alexander—’

  ‘And on this tomb also,’ Banna reported.

  ‘They might help us find the spring itself, or at least confirm that that’s the source down there.’

  ‘And help you make another big discovery,’ said Zane, cynicism now joining displeasure. ‘That’s not why we’re here.’

  ‘It’s why I’m here! You’ve got your mission – and I’ve got mine. It’ll be my last one, but I knew that going in. Do what you have to, but I’m going to see what we’ve actually found.’ Ignoring his glare, she rounded the tomb after Banna.

  ‘Eddie!’ Zane protested.

  The Englishman gave him a shrug. ‘We’re here now, might as well look. And she does have a track record with this sort of thing, so . . .’ With that, he followed her. Zane muttered in annoyance, but went after him.

  Nina joined Banna, who had shone a light over the huge statue before turning to examine the tomb. The little structure was actually set into the viaduct, steps leading down below floor level to its entrance. ‘This is the tomb of Andreas!’ the Egyptian proclaimed in excitement as he read the text inscribed above the opening. ‘If these dates are correct, then he died in 22 BCE – over three hundred years after Alexander!’

  The American aimed her own flashlight at the figure atop the mausoleum. It was an old man, face gaunt, kneeling in supplication to the mighty figure facing him. ‘So that’s what a three-hundred-year-old bloke looks like?’ said Eddie. ‘He doesn’t seem a day over two hundred.’

  Even Zane was impressed, however reluctantly. ‘He must have worked for every day of it to have built all this.’

  ‘He did not build it alone,’ Banna told him. ‘He had followers. They protected the secret of the spring after he died.’

  ‘Long after he died,’ said Nina, reading more of the ancient text. ‘This place wasn’t sealed until the first century AD. And the Greek farmers Kroll stole the pithos from were still guarding it in the 1940s.’

  ‘Talk about loyalty to the cause,’ Eddie said.

  ‘Andreas really did want to make finding this place a challenge worthy of Alexander.’

  ‘Well, we found it – does that make me Eddie the Great?’

  ‘Only in your head,’ she replied with a smile, illuminating the entrance. A stone sarcophagus was visible within. She descended the steps to enter the tomb.

  The plain surroundings of his last resting place suggested that Andreas, a simple cook in life – at least to begin with – had remained uncomplicated until death. A scuffed and dented silver jug, a traditional Greek amphora with a single handle on its long neck, rested on top of the sarcophagus. ‘A silver vessel . . .’

  ‘What about it?’ Eddie asked as he and Banna entered.

  ‘The Romance said Andreas first took the spring’s water in “a silver vessel”. Maybe that’s it. He kept it his whole life.’

  ‘There is something else,’ said Banna, indicating a plaque upon the coffin lid. Words were carved into the polished marble.

  Nina leaned closer to read them. ‘“Here lies Andreas, friend and betrayer and protector of Alexander the Great,”’ she recited. ‘Interesting phrasing . . . “Humble in death as in life, as should all men be who compare themselves to the king of Macedon. Remember this if you seek to take what I had denied him, and if you do not, then go in peace and live your life as it should be.”’ She stared at the plaque, thinking.

  A warning shout from outside. ‘Taubman just saw the Nazis,’ warned Zane. ‘They’ve almost reached the bottom of the shaft. Nina, I need to know, now: is the water below us the spring?’ He held up the cyanide.

  ‘I do not think it is,’ Banna told him. ‘Look, here.’ He backed out and aimed his light at the giant statue of Alexander. Greek text was carved into the wall level with the great figure’s cupped hands. ‘It says, “He who believes himself equal to Alexander, step up and receive your reward.” The silver bowl – the spring must be there.’

  More beams fixed upon the gleaming basin, revealing a feature carved into Alexander’s breast just above his hands. Silver glinted within a small opening in the stone. ‘The water must come out through that hole,’ said Eddie. ‘Jared, that’s where you need to stick your poison.’ He drew his gun. ‘Nina, you and Ubayy—’

  He broke off as he saw his wife’s expression. It was one he had seen before, deep thought turning to realisation . . . or revelation. ‘What?’

  ‘Mixed messages,’ she said, almost distractedly, as she looked between the two stone figures: the great proud Alexander and his weary servant. ‘The statue of Bucephalus, the bronze fish and now Andreas’ tomb all said one thing, but Alexander himself says another . . .’ Another moment of musing – then her eyes widened. ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘What?’ Eddie demanded. The other two men also gave her questioning looks.

  ‘Andreas’ challenge – it’s not what we thought! I’ll explain later – if we stay alive. Right now, though, we’re all in agreement that no matter what, the Nazis can’t be allowed to leave here with the water, yes?’

  ‘Yes, absolutely,’ said Zane, with no hesitation.

  ‘Definitely,’ Eddie agreed. Banna also gave a frightened nod.

  ‘Good.’ Nina steeled herself before continuing. ‘Okay, so here’s what we have to do. Surrender.’

  Her husband and the Mossad agent reacted as if she had spoken in Swahili. ‘You what?’ said Eddie.

  ‘No!’ protested Zane. ‘We’ll be handing them the spring!’

  ‘I know – which is why we’ve got to do it. Jared, tell Taubman to hold fire. It’s our only chance.’

  ‘I’m not giving myself up!’ the Israeli insisted. ‘We have to kill as many of them as we can. Eddie, you’re with me, aren’t you?’

  Eddie hesitated, then stood with Nina. ‘Sorry, but no. I’m with her. To the end. Which,’ he added in a spiky tone, ‘might be very soon.’ Nina nevertheless gave him a loving smile.

  Zane regarded them both with angry disbelief. ‘If you’re not going to fight, then I am!’ He called out to his comrade. ‘Taubman! Get ready to—’

  ‘No!’ Nina cried, breaking away from the group and running past the tomb towards the entrance. ‘Don’t shoot, hold your fire!’

  ‘Hey! Get back here!’ Zane shouted. ‘What’s that stupid woman doing?’

  ‘Oi!’ snapped Eddie. ‘Watch your mouth.’

  Zane looked stung. ‘Eddie, she’s giving up our only chance to stop them! Why are you going along with her?’

  ‘Because she’s my wife – and because I trust her. And so should you.’ The Israeli had no reply.

  Nina reached the end of the viaduct and entered the passage. Taubman turned in surprise as she ran up
behind him. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

  ‘Keeping us alive – I hope. Go and wait with Jared.’ Before he could stop her, she rushed past.

  Fear rising, aware that the only greeting she might get was a burst of bullets, Nina left the tunnel. She saw the lights of Rasche’s team approaching the foot of the spiral path. Higher up was a larger group; Kroll and Leitz were following them down. She summoned her full resolve as the nearer Nazis reacted to her appearance . . . and raised her hands, waving her flashlight above her head. ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! We surrender!’

  Torch beams locked on to her. ‘Do not move! Where are the others?’ Rasche shouted.

  ‘Through the tunnel. We’re surrendering – there are only five of us left, and we’ve got nowhere to go.’

  The Nazis reached the chasm floor. Some came to her, while others held back, weapons raised. ‘If you are lying, you will die!’ Rasche growled.

  ‘I’m not lying. We’re giving up.’

  One soldier roughly pulled her arms behind her back as another searched her. Finding nothing, he shouted to Rasche, who issued an order. The rest of the advance party hurried over, keeping their guns fixed on the tunnel. Kroll called down from above. Rasche replied, then faced Nina. ‘What is through there?’ he demanded, pointing at the archway.

  ‘Andreas’ tomb – and the Spring of Immortality,’ she replied.

  Suspicion was clear on the SS man’s face. ‘And you are willingly giving it to us? I do not believe you. You are trying to delay us while the Jews sabotage the spring!’

  ‘No, I’m not. I’m surrendering because . . . because there’s nothing else we can do.’

  Rasche frowned, then barked commands. His men ran towards the opening, two remaining to guard their prisoner. He shone his torch at her. ‘You have already been sentenced to death,’ he said, seeing the red marks still visible on her neck. ‘We will carry out your sentence.’