by Rob Jones
“Exactly my thinking,” said Hawke, and smiled at her. Her face looked younger in the gentle light of the glow-sticks, and for the first time he saw her more as a woman and less just another ex-soldier.
Ahead of them, Grobel emerged from the pool and spat some water out of his mouth as he crawled out into the cave. He looked like a drowned rat.
“If I could just get a closer look,” Ryan said, clambering up on the boulder.
“Get down!” said Hawke, as urgently as he could in a whisper.
Ryan whispered almost to himself: “I wonder how deep…” but then he lost his footing and slipped over, bringing a pile of stones and dust tumbling down on top of him.
Zaugg spun around and pointed toward them. He screamed more orders and Baumann and some men lunged forward with guns blazing.
Before they could even work out their position, Hawke was on his feet, grabbing the gun from Baumann, and forcing the barrel to point down into the dirt as he raised the back of his hand into the Bavarian’s face at the same time. Baumann screamed as his nose smashed into pulp and then he staggered back into the wall.
Then pandemonium as Zaugg’s forces scattered to defensive positions and Grobel ducked back down into the water to save himself. Zaugg turned his gun on Hawke but it jammed.
In the chaos, Hawke grabbed Zaugg around the neck and held him at gunpoint, slowly pacing backwards away from the Swiss and toward the relative safety of his own people behind him.
“Put your guns down or I’ll kill him!” Hawke shouted, pushing the Uzi into Zaugg’s neck. He watched as Zaugg’s men looked to their leader for their next command. Hawke felt Zaugg tense with rage, and then reluctantly order his men to lower their weapons.
They began to put them on the dirt when everything changed.
“Not so fast!” a voice shouted behind him. The men stopped what they were doing and picked their guns back up. Before Hawke could react, he felt the muzzle of a gun pushing into the base of his skull. “All of you are to stay armed! It is you, Mr Hawke, who will be lowering his gun, or I will blow your head off.”
Only now did he recognize the voice.
Demetriou.
Hawke’s mind raced with possible plays, but he knew it was over.
“Release Herr Zaugg, please,” Demetriou said.
Hawke released Zaugg, who turned around slowly and took the Uzi out of his hands, grinning as he did so, and never taking his eyes from Hawke.
“Thank you, Yannis,” Zaugg said. “I knew I could rely on you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Demetriou stepped swiftly away from Hawke, covering him with the Uzi at all times, and moved over to where Zaugg was rejoining Grobel. Baumann was nursing his broken nose.
“You filthy traitor!” Lea said.
Demetriou shrugged his shoulders. “I have been working with Zaugg for many weeks. He promises me all the funding I need for my researches. When your team arrived at my office I knew all I had to do was play along and I could deliver you to him as easy as one, two, three.”
“Are you insane, professor?” Hawke said. “You can’t trust a man like Hugo Zaugg.”
“Well, I…” Demetriou began. Hawke wondered if he was thinking about the dead man on the spear further back in the complex – Zaugg’s canary in the coalmine. “I…”
Zaugg’s hoarse cackle filled the cavern. “This is actually most fortuitous,” he said, cutting off Demetriou’s reply. “I find myself wondering what terrors might lurk in this watery hole and then you turn up, the perennial bad penny.”
He pointed at the pool with the Uzi. “And I also wonder who among us has demonstrated an amusingly entertaining capacity to hold his breath for extended periods of time.”
Hawke knew where this was going.
“Mr Hawke – I desire of you that you climb into that pool and swim to wherever it leads and return with the news of your discovery. If you do not return, I will kill your friends. If you try and double-cross me, I will kill your friends. If you are not climbing into the hole in ten seconds I will kill your friends.”
For added effect, Zaugg cocked the Uzi and pointed it at Lea’s face. “I will start with this one.”
Hawke knew he had no choice, and watching the smug realization of his victory dawn on Zaugg’s face was almost more than he could bear. He moved forward slowly, silently mouthing the words “I’m sorry” to Lea as he passed her, and climbed down into the rock pool.
“Grobel!” snapped Zaugg. “You will go with him, and take this.” He handed Grobel the golden key. “If we have the right place then you will need it. If you too think about double-crossing me, simply remember that I know where your family lives.”
Zaugg tossed Hawke a dive-light from the pile of equipment at the side of the pool, and Grobel climbed down beside him, clutching the tiny golden disc in his hand. Before he went under the surface Zaugg handed him one of the harpoons from the equipment box.
Hawke dived into the black water, shining the light ahead of him. Behind him, Grobel tried to keep up, harpoon in one hand and disc in the other. The tunnel stretched ahead, narrow at first but gradually turning into a much wider space. After swimming for a minute or two it twisted upwards and Hawke realized they were at a dead end.
He turned in the tunnel and made a signal with his hands to indicate to Grobel that there was nowhere else to go, but then he noticed a small carving in the rock, lit for just a second as his light passed over it in the cold, watery darkness. He returned the light to it and saw it was the same shape and size as the disc.
Grobel swam forward and pushed the disc into the slot, twisting it to the left and then to the right. There was a judder almost like an earthquake and the end of the tunnel began to shift to the side.
It was a door fashioned from a massive boulder. They swam through the new aperture and Hawke saw a strange kind of mechanism was built into the rock. It looked like it was using gravity to slide the boulder downwards and to the side when the key released a metal bar from behind it.
Inside, Hawke saw the familiar sight of surface water above him. He swam up toward it and surfaced to see he was in another huge underground cave. He shone the torch into the blackness and was almost blinded by the flash of gold reflecting back at him.
It was an enormous pile of gold bigger then he could possibly have imagined before setting his eyes upon such a thing. In the distance was a heavy-looking stone monument covered in ornate carvings and the same strange, ancient inscriptions he recognized from the golden key – something told him it could only be the sarcophagus.
He had found the Vault of Poseidon.
*
Swimming back through the underwater tunnel, Hawke considered taking Grobel out and snatching the harpoon. It would be easy enough, he considered, but where would it get him?
He would have to emerge in the rock pool surrounded by Zaugg’s men. He would do anything to protect the others now, even Ryan who had saved his life back in the sea. He couldn’t risk their lives in some crazy attempt to play the hero.
He ruled out attacking Grobel and emerged in the other cave, crawling out of the rock pool soaking wet.
Zaugg was overcome with excitement when Hawke and Grobel gave their report. He had his team set up a pump connected to a generator and began to suck the water from the underground tunnel. His destiny was almost upon him.
Hawke joined the others while Zaugg oversaw his men as they put down a line of pipes and connected them to the generator set up in the bigger cave behind them. Its tinny engine roared in the enclosed space and started to fill it with fumes. They watched as the water was slowly removed from the tunnel and pumped into the larger cave. It spilled out and began to form an enormous pool.
Lea sidled up to Hawke in the semi-darkness. “If this is your idea of a date, Joe Hawke,” she said, “You’re not even getting to first base, never mind second.”
“Are you warming to me, Miss Donovan?”
“I could get a guy like you if I clicked
my fingers,” she said, smiling, embarrassed by her words the moment they left her lips.
“Oh, you think so, do you?”
“Listen, Joe,” her words were quiet now, and vaguely hesitant. She looked at Scarlet who was standing closer to Zaugg’s team, and then to Sophie. “There’s something I have to tell you.”
“I know, you could have me anytime you please.”
“No, it’s important. I shouldn’t be telling you this but...”
“If it's about what you started to tell me in New York, you don’t have to justify anything to me. You don’t have to explain yourself, expecially if it’s about something that happened in the army.”
Lea moved closer to him, but then moved away again, as if frightened of getting too close, physically and emotionally. “No, it’s not that. It’s something else, something about Eden.”
Hawke turned to look into her eyes. He had known all along she and Eden were keeping something back from him. “What is it, Lea?”
Ahead of them, the operation to pump out the water was coming to an end. All that remained in the previously underwater tunnel was a few inches of water. Zaugg ordered his men to remove the pumping equipment and shut down the generator.
Seconds later Baumann threw the switch and the engine sputtered for a few seconds before quitting completely, leaving a new, deafening silence in the cavern complex.
Hawke turned to Lea and held her gently by the shoulders. “What is it?” he asked. “What do you want to tell me about Eden?”
Lea looked up at him, her eyes filled with uncertainty. She glanced at the others and then back to Hawke. “I... I can’t tell you now. I’m sorry.”
She moved out of his grasp and stepped away.
Zaugg began barking orders at Baumann, who in turn shouted at the men, who then scurried about with boxes of equipment, flashlights and glow-sticks. Slowly, they slipped into the tunnel.
“You!” Zaugg shouted, aiming his gun at Hawke and the others. “I hope you will accept my invitation to die in the vault of Poseidon. Get moving!”
Hawke moved forward first, and Lea and the others followed his lead. He knew there would be few chances of survival deep inside the tomb, but they were covered by at least half a dozen submachine guns and Zaugg wasn't about to take any chances after the disaster on the Thalassa. He didn’t look like the kind of man to underestimate the same enemy twice.
As they approached the tunnel entrance, Zaugg stepped up to Hawke, muzzle of the Uzi aimed at his stomach.
“You thought you could save the world,” Zaugg said. “But instead, you have helped me to bring about its total destruction. A glorious new dawn is about to rise over mankind, Mr Hawke, and you are here to witness it!”
Hawke’s heart sank. All he could do was hope to heaven that Hugo Zaugg had badly misjudged the power of whatever he thought was inside the tomb.
Slowly, with guns at their backs, they entered the darkness of the final tunnel and moved towards the vault.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
With the water gone they were able to walk through the tunnel to the vault of Poseidon. Once inside the giant cave they turned the corner by the boulder-door and were instantly speechless when they saw the treasure before them.
It was mostly gold in the form of coins, jugs, flasks and goblets, but there were vast piles of glittering diamonds forming a strange, warm amber in the light of the glow-sticks. Other heaps of gems – rubies, sapphires, emeralds and even opals littered the vault’s floor and left Hawke stunned with awe.
It didn’t seem possible, Hawke considered, that so much wealth had been hidden down here for so many countless centuries, lost to history, lost to mankind. But however awe-inspiring he thought the treasure was, he knew Zaugg was here for another reason.
And Ryan saw it first. “It’s Poseidon’s sarcophagus!”
With his exclamation still echoing in the cavernous space, everyone turned to see the ancient stone sarcophagus in the center of the tomb. It was partially obscured by another great pile of gold coins pushed up against its carved stone sides like a golden snowdrift, but there it stood, formidable, undeniable. The legend turned real.
Hawke found himself moved in a way he hadn’t thought possible until this moment. For the briefest of seconds he thought he knew how Zaugg felt, the obsession with power and immortality coursing through his veins like adrenalin and taking over his rational mind. Was Poseidon really inside that sarcophagus? Where was the trident? And, most intoxicating of all, where was the source of eternal life?
Zaugg was even more captivated by it all, and was now wandering among the heaps of diamonds and golden goblets muttering to himself like a madman. He picked up a simple coin and tossed it casually back down again when he saw something that pleased him even more.
“Finally my destiny will be fulfilled!” Zaugg said. “I will raise the greatest army known to man.”
Hawke smirked. “I’d be surprised if he could raise an erection.”
Baumann struck him hard in between the shoulder blades with the butt of his gun. “Enough!”
The Englishman staggered back to his feet and his mind turned slowly away from the treasure and back to the tactical situation. He noticed that on the wall behind the sarcophagus there was a small trickle of water running through a split in the rock. Baumann saw it too.
Zaugg saw nothing but the glistening gold before him and his eyes crawled over the treasure. He was beginning to look nervous. “Open the sarcophagus!” he screeched.
“Be careful, Zaugg!” Lea shouted. “You have no idea what you’re doing. You’re playing with fire!”
“Silence!” said Zaugg, reddening with rage. “No one tells me what to do! This is a great moment in history. I have waited all my life for this! What my father tried and failed to do, his only son has succeeded in achieving. Inside that sarcophagus Poseidon keeps the greatest secret of all time and now it is rightfully mine to use as I wish.”
Hawke turned to Lea and whispered in her ear. “Now there’s your guy who was smacked too hard as a child.”
Zaugg ran his hands over the smooth, carved edges of Poseidon’s tomb as if he were caressing a lover. His eyes sparkled with a crazed, obsessive look. “With the power of immortality my victory over the world will be final. I will rule in the way that even Hitler was too weak to do.”
“You can’t say he lacks ambition,” Hawke muttered.
Then Zaugg ordered Demetriou to approach the sarcophagus.
The Greek scholar looked anxious, but did as he was told, picking up a crowbar and walking through the piles of gold coins to the sarcophagus. Zaugg barked another command in German and seconds later two more men joined Demetriou.
Demetriou muttered a series of inaudible words – prayers, maybe – and began to jam his crowbar into the gap running around the lid of the ancient sarcophagus. A cloud of dust billowed up into his face and he coughed and wiped his eyes. He seemed to be having trouble getting any further.
“What’s the problem?” Zaugg said.
“It’s not moving,” Demetriou said, his voice wobbling. “Perhaps we should remove the sarcophagus to another location before…”
“Open the sarcophagus!”
“I can’t,” Demetriou said. “I won’t!” He stepped back in fear. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
“Very well,” Zaugg said. He raised his gun and filled Professor Demetriou full of holes, exploding his chest with the impact of the bullets and knocking him down with a heavy thud in the dust at the base of the sarcophagus.
“You!” Zaugg screamed at the two men. “Remove the lid!”
With startled terror on their faces, the two men tried their best, but they too found the lid unmovable.
“It weighs more than lead!” one said, desperately trying to avoid the same fate as Yannis Demetriou.
A few garbled sentences in German and Zaugg stalked over to them, knocking one out of the way and trying with all his might to force the bar under the stone lid of the s
arcophagus.
“The real treasure will be in here,” he said. “It must be opened!”
On the wall behind the sarcophagus the trickle of water had grown larger. Hawke realized it was some kind of booby-trap, activated if anyone tried to tamper with Poseidon’s sarcophagus.
Several minutes of puffing and panting later, Zaugg cursed and kicked the side of it with his boot. “Verdammt!”
“That’s not very respectful,” Lea whispered.
“I wonder if this place puts a curse on everyone who enters it, like Tutankhamen’s tomb did?” Ryan asked casually.
‘Silence!” Zaugg shouted. “Baumann, place a charge on the sarcophagus and get that lid off, now!”
Hawke watched the former German Special Forces man place a couple of modest charges around the lid of the sarcophagus before ordering everyone back behind the safety of some boulders.
Zaugg watched with zeal as Baumann blew the charges and the tomb filled with a fine gray dust and the smell of burned explosives.
“Grobel! To the tomb, now. Tell me what is inside.”
Grobel was hesitant, but Zaugg’s Uzi helped him make the decision to go. He walked slowly over to the shattered tomb and held his glow-stick over the lid as he peered inside.
Hawke and the others watched him in the settling dust, their flashlights illuminating him from a safe distance as he craned his neck over the giant sarcophagus.
“It’s safe!” he called back. “There’s a lot of rubble inside, and dust, but…”
Zaugg clambered to his feet and pushed Baumann roughly out of his way as he moved forward to the sarcophagus. Hawke watched him closely as he too leaned over the edge beside Grobel. He lowered his hands inside and began to rummage around inside, muttering to himself incoherently.
For a moment he simply stared into the dusty sarcophagus, then turned away, wide-eyed with either fear or amazement.
Then the split in the far wall began to grow in size, and small pieces of rock started to crumble out of it. The trickle of water doubled in size and began to flow out into the tomb like a small river.
