Nina felt a chill as a ghostly echo of the rope pulled around her throat. ‘All I ask is that you let me see the spring flowing first. That’s my only condition.’
‘You are in no position to make demands!’ the Nazi snapped. ‘I should kill you right here.’ He started to raise his gun, but a shout from the next chamber caught his attention. A brief exchange, then: ‘Your companions are also surrendering. You said there were five of you; if we see anyone else—’
‘There’s nobody else,’ Nina told him. ‘You have my word.’
‘Your word is worth nothing, American.’ But the moment of imminent threat had passed. ‘Move!’
He pushed her into the tunnel. As they rounded the corner, Nina saw that Taubman had joined the others – all of whom were now kneeling before the tomb with their hands behind their heads, surrounded by Nazi soldiers.
Not even the sight of his captured enemies could prevent Rasche from being amazed by the chamber, however. He stared up at the towering statue as they crossed the viaduct. ‘So it was real all along . . .’
‘You didn’t believe it?’ Nina asked. ‘Even though the water kept you young?’
‘I do not believe in myths as Kroll does. But . . . he was right.’ Rasche shook his head as if astonished at making the admission, then called to the other men. A reply came in the affirmative, one soldier indicating a small pile of weapons and equipment. ‘Stand with them,’ Rasche ordered Nina.
‘You okay?’ Eddie asked as she joined the prisoners.
‘Yeah,’ she answered. ‘I just hope I’ve done the right thing.’
‘So do I,’ said Zane, not concealing his bitterness.
‘Silence,’ barked Rasche. He looked the prisoners over, ending with Zane. ‘You too were sentenced to death, Jude,’ he said with a sadistic smile. ‘I will enjoy ending what we started.’
The Israeli stared coldly back at him. ‘It doesn’t matter how long you live. The Mossad will find you.’
‘I will live longer than you,’ Rasche scoffed.
The rhythmic tramp of marching feet echoed down the passage. The rest of the Nazis arrived, some bearing the empty water barrels. Kroll was at their head.
The Nazi leader was visibly struggling not to show his breathlessness from the effort of the descent. But his physical weakness did not make him any less threatening. He took in the spirit-lit wonders of the cavern with triumphant awe, then fixed his gaze gloatingly on the redhead. ‘Dr Wilde. Thank you for leading us to the Spring of Immortality. It will give us life . . . but for you, it will bring only death.’
36
The obese Nazi laughed at his own joke, his men joining in obsequiously. Eddie was unamused. ‘Christ, and I thought my one-liners were shit.’
A soldier clubbed him across the back. ‘Shut up,’ said Rasche.
Kroll gave the moment of violence only the briefest glance. ‘Where is the spring?’ he asked Nina.
‘There,’ she said, pointing at the huge statue. ‘It’s waiting for you to take it.’
Rasche spoke to his leader, mistrust clear in every word. Kroll nodded. ‘He is right,’ he told her. ‘Why should we believe that you would hand over the spring now, after all you have done to keep it from us?’
‘Because . . . there’s nothing we can do to stop you,’ she replied. ‘We couldn’t have held you back for more than a few minutes.’
‘And that?’ Kroll gestured at the plastic container amongst the weapons on the floor; a soldier presented it to him. He shook it; it was full. ‘Potassium cyanide,’ he said, reading the label. ‘You were going to poison the water? Why did you not do so?’
‘There wouldn’t have been any point. The water down there isn’t the spring, it’s only an overflow. The statue is the source.’
He stared past her at the stern figure of Alexander. ‘Show me.’
Nina helped Eddie up. Rasche spoke sharply, and one of the Yorkshireman’s guards pointed his gun at them. She gave Kroll a scathing look. ‘If you don’t mind?’
‘Let them stand,’ the German ordered. ‘But at the first sign of treachery, kill them.’
‘Why wait?’ said Rasche as the group started for the statue. ‘We are going to kill them anyway.’
‘I’ll tell you why,’ Nina said to Kroll. ‘Maybe none of the others are, but you’re a scholar. You studied the history of Alexander the Great – and because of that, you realised the importance of the water you found in Greece when anyone else would have just stolen the treasure. There’s more to this for you than money, or securing the water. This is a confirmation of what you’ve always thought: by beating Andreas the cook, you’ve proved you’re Alexander’s equal.’
Kroll’s already ample chest swelled still further in pride. ‘That is true. And it is only the beginning. Once we have control of the water, we will lead the world into a new age. And we will have you to thank for opening the door.’
‘Which is why I’d like to make a last request.’ He stopped to listen, everyone else following suit. ‘I know I’m not going to leave here alive, but I want to ask you, one scholar to another, if I can watch you draw the first water from the spring. To prove that I was right.’ Nina’s voice became pleading. ‘I got involved in all of this because I wanted to find one last great secret from history before I die. Will you let me see it through to the end? Please?’
Rasche let out an impatient snort. ‘No. No more quests and riddles; just kill them, Kroll.’
Kroll flushed with anger. ‘You do not give orders to me, Rasche! Dr Wilde is right – this place is a part of history. And today, we shall make history.’ He addressed his men. ‘The New Reich was born in exile, building its strength in secret. But today, we shall use the Spring of Immortality to retake our rightful place in the world!’ What began as a speech became a rant, as spittle-flecked as an address by Hitler himself. ‘Our victory is inevitable! We came to this place as soldiers – but we shall leave it as conquerors!’ He pointed at the towering statue. ‘And I shall lead you to glories that not even Alexander the Great could imagine!’
‘Sieg heil! Sieg heil!’ his men chanted, arms snapping into salutes. Even Rasche joined in.
Leitz had remained slightly apart from the Nazis, keeping a gun on the prisoners. ‘So where is this spring?’ he asked. ‘I would like to see what is worth so much money.’
‘Dr Wilde, show us,’ Kroll ordered.
Nina led the way to the far end of the bridge. ‘It’s up there,’ she said, pointing at the statue’s hands. ‘You can see the Greek text: “He who believes himself equal to Alexander, step up and receive your reward.”’
Kroll swept his light over the carved words. ‘Then I shall. The secret of eternal life . . . and it belongs to me!’
‘It belongs to us,’ Rasche said pointedly.
Kroll ignored him, starting up the steps. ‘We’ve given it to them,’ Zane said in disgust.
‘It’s not over yet,’ Nina replied under her breath.
Eddie instantly picked up on her undertone of anticipation. ‘Wait, what’s going to happen?’
‘I’m not sure – but Kroll might get more than he expects.’ Her husband became more alert, poised to react. Zane also prepared himself for action.
The SS officer reached the top of the stone flight, standing fifteen feet above the viaduct. He shone his light first over the polished basin in Alexander’s cupped palms, then at the chest of the great figure just above it. A silver tube six inches across protruded from the stone. The precious metal was clearly an intrinsic part of the water’s strange properties, Nina realised; the dense veins in the rock must have played some part in its creation, and Andreas and his followers had contained it in the same material to keep it active. The Nazis were similarly taking no chances, their own silver-lined containers standing ready to be filled.
Kroll m
ade an impassioned proclamation in German to his men, rousing cheers, then sneered down at Nina and her companions. ‘Now you will have your last request, Dr Wilde. You will see me draw the water from the spring . . . and then you will die.’ The men holding them raised their guns.
‘What about my last request?’ Eddie complained. ‘A cheese and Marmite sandwich?’
Kroll looked irritated, but turned back to the statue. He took hold of the silver bowl to lift it from Alexander’s hands . . .
It didn’t move.
Impatient, he tried again, harder. Resistance for a moment, then it came free – with a sudden rattle like a chain being released—
Water flowed from the spout. But it was no mere trickle.
A jet blasted out of the metal pipe, hitting Kroll square in the chest and bowling him down the steps. As he fell, the geyser passed over him and into those below like a water cannon. Men were knocked to the floor, others scattering to dodge the powerful surge—
Eddie and Zane were already moving. The Englishman smashed an elbow into a soldier’s face before twisting to wrest the gun from his hands. He pulled the trigger as he spun, sending a swathe of bullets into the crowd. Nazis fell screaming.
The Israeli, however, had a single specific target. He lunged at Rasche. The German snapped up his gun, but Zane kicked it from his hands and over the edge of the viaduct before whirling into a Krav Maga leg sweep to slice Rasche’s feet out from under him. The Nazi slammed down on his back. Before he could recover, the younger man leapt on him and pounded a fist into his face.
Nina grabbed the bewildered Banna as chaos erupted around them. ‘Behind the tomb!’ she cried, pushing him through the mob. They had only seconds to get clear—
A new noise warned her that even that was optimistic. The high-pressure roar was joined by echoing cracks of splintering rock. The statue’s chest was splitting, jagged rents radiating outwards from the silver nozzle. ‘Eddie!’ she cried. ‘It’s gonna collapse!’
Kroll had landed at the base of the steps. He looked up in horror as one of the great hands broke off and smashed on the floor. The whole viaduct trembled as the thunder grew louder. He scrambled away, slipping on the wet surface—
The statue exploded as the pent-up water burst free.
A tsunami crashed on to the bridge. Kroll was snatched up by the churning flood and hurled along the viaduct. He ploughed into the panicked soldiers, knocking several down like skittles before they too were swept away. The silver-lined barrels were sent flying by the water they had been meant to hold.
Eddie saw the wave rushing at him. He immediately ceased fire and ran, making a flying leap to climb up on top of the tomb. Zane abandoned his attack on Rasche, using one of the dead men as a springboard to jump after the Yorkshireman.
Others were not so quick to react – and it cost them their lives. Taubman had hesitated for a critical moment after Kroll was blown from the steps, and was now trapped amongst a crush of Nazis as they tried to flee. The surging water hit the men like a train, hurling them into the inescapable pit below.
Banna was luckier, the water sweeping him past the low structure. He slithered spreadeagled along the flagstones, catching himself at the edge.
Nina, though, was slammed against the tomb. She tried to cry out, but couldn’t draw a breath as frothing water hit her face. She clawed at the stone wall, fighting to hold on against the relentless current—
Something rushed at her. She only had a fraction of a second to recognise it as Kroll – then the Nazi leader collided with her, knocking her down. The torrent swirled them down the steps into the crypt below.
Nina hit the sarcophagus shoulder first, the inrushing wave bowling her over it and sending the battered silver jar into the water. She fell after the amphora, sound suddenly muffling as she was submerged.
Her skin tingled, an electric charge running over her body. But she wasn’t thinking about the spring’s strange properties, trying only to get her head above the surface. One arm felt dead, numbed by the impact. She groped with the other to push herself up. A gasp as she took in air—
Then she choked as Kroll shoved her back underwater.
She managed to twist on to her back just before he pinned her to the floor, but couldn’t move any further against his great weight. One of his hands clamped over her mouth and nose, the other pushing down on her neck. ‘You American bitch!’ he shouted, voice distorted through the rising water. ‘You really are wilde, a maniac! You have killed us all – but first I will kill you!’
Eddie and Zane clung to the statue of Andreas as spray washed over them. A Nazi tried to scramble on to the tomb’s roof to escape the surging water – only to take the Englishman’s boot to his face. He tumbled off the bridge with a scream.
But the wave’s power was rapidly dissipating as it sluiced over the sides of the viaduct. Several Nazis had survived the flood – Rasche amongst them. Without so much as a glance back at his troops, he sprinted past the mausoleum towards the cavern’s entrance.
‘I’m going after him!’ Zane shouted. He jumped down, wincing at a sharp pain in his injured leg, then snatched up a dropped flashlight and ran after his nemesis.
The soldiers spotted him. Guns swung at the Mossad agent—
Eddie’s own gun barked on full auto as he swept its fire across the clutch of Nazis. Blood fountained from bullet wounds – but then the MP5 fell silent, its magazine empty.
A flash of white. He whirled – to see Leitz below him. The middleman was bringing his gun to bear on the Yorkshireman—
Eddie hurled his own useless weapon at him. Leitz whipped up his left arm in defence. The MP5 cracked against his elbow – then spun over it and hit his head, knocking him off balance.
Before he could recover, Eddie jumped off the tomb to deliver a flying kick to his chest. ‘Leitz out!’
The Luxembourger flew backwards – over the viaduct’s edge. The white figure plunged towards the pool . . . then twisted in mid air, bringing his arms down to vanish under the water in a swan dive. ‘Bollocks!’ said the Englishman, reluctantly impressed as Leitz resurfaced. ‘Got to give him at least a seven-point-five for that—’
A crackling boom echoed around the chamber as a six-foot hunk of stone broke from the statue. It rolled down the steps, driven by the jet of water, before falling over the side and arcing down at Leitz.
He looked up – and screamed—
The boulder hit him, kicking up a plume of pink spray. ‘Okay, that’s worth a perfect ten,’ said Eddie. He turned to locate his wife, only to find with alarm that she was nowhere in sight. ‘Nina!’
Nina tried to blow water from her mouth and nostrils, but the Nazi’s palm blocked her airways. A surge of primal terror: she was going to drown! She swallowed, gulping down as much liquid as she could to keep it from her lungs, but there was no air to replace it.
Kroll’s hand twisted to get a firm grip on her throat. Nina tried to pull his blunt fingers open, but his hold was too strong. The numbness in her other arm had passed, replaced by a dull pain – she brought it up, but still couldn’t prise him off.
The Nazi leaned closer, his face just above the surface of the rising water. She glimpsed his snarling mouth, his eyes—
She lashed her hand up, trying to blind him – but the water slowed her movement. He jerked away, yelling in German, then spread his hand over her face like some huge loathsome spider and shoved her head down hard against the stone flags.
All Nina could do was squirm as what was left of her breath knotted in her chest. She groped uselessly for his face, then her hand dropped back into the water as her strength faded. A terrible pressure rose within her, a balloon swelling inside her skull with each pounding heartbeat—
Her fingers touched something. Not stone, but metal, a rounded shape on the floor . . .
The silv
er jar.
The vessel with which Andreas had first taken the water from the Spring of Immortality. The start of everything – and now her final hope to end it—
Her hand closed around the handle – and she used her last dregs of energy to swing it at Kroll’s head.
Brimming with spring water, the metal jug weighed almost three pounds. There was a flat clunk as it struck his skull. The Nazi fell against the sarcophagus.
Nina broke his hold and pushed herself out from beneath him. She dragged herself up, expecting to breach the surface – but the water had risen higher. Panic hit her, a fear that the entire chamber had flooded—
She burst from the water. It was at stomach height, and climbing rapidly as the torrent cascaded down the steps. The new air burned in her tortured lungs. She gasped, still feeling as if Kroll’s hand was clenched around her throat . . .
It was.
The SS commander grabbed her again, bellowing in German as he tried to drag her back underwater—
The entire bridge shook – and Andreas’ sarcophagus broke apart. The lid slid off and slammed down on Kroll’s leg like a guillotine.
The Nazi leader screamed as the heavy stone block snapped his shin bones and crushed his foot. He fell back into the churning pool, chin only just clearing the surface – but the water was still rising. ‘Hilfe!’ he cried between breaths. ‘Help me!’
Nina forced her way through the deluge to the steps, then looked back. The water reached Kroll’s mouth. He spat, desperately straining to raise his head higher, but the stone slab was an immovable anchor. ‘Dr Wilde! Please!’
‘You brought this upon yourself,’ she replied in a cold echo of his own words when she had begged him to save Macy. ‘You wanted the water? It’s all yours. Drink up.’
‘No! No! You—’ His yells became an unintelligible gargle as the flood rose over his face. Nina watched as he flailed and squirmed, bubbles belching from his mouth . . . then he went still.
Kingdom of Darkness Page 47
