Kingdom of Darkness

  ‘Keep pulling!’ Kroll bellowed. ‘Get it open! Pull, pull!’

  Schneider took up the shout, turning it into a chant. The soldiers hauled in unison. The slab tilted outwards, little by little – then suddenly broke free and slammed to the ground.

  Kroll pushed through his men. There was indeed a passage hidden behind the slab. ‘It’s here!’ he shouted. ‘Bring the lights – we’ve found it!’

  The triumph in Kroll’s voice told Nina that he had reached his goal. ‘What do we do?’

  ‘Attack now, while they’re still off guard,’ said Zane, checking his Uzi sub-machine gun. ‘We’ll cut most of them down before they can react.’

  ‘And you’ll cut down Ubayy too.’ Rasche was pushing the young Egyptian after the Nazi leader.

  ‘It’s a price we’ll have to pay.’ He signalled to the other Mossad agents.

  ‘It won’t work,’ Eddie told him urgently. ‘We’re too far off, and there’s too many trees in the way. You won’t even get half of them before they regroup.’

  ‘We can still take out the leaders, though.’ Weapon ready, Zane started to move out from his hiding place.

  Eddie pulled him back. ‘Jared,’ he said, fixing the angry young man with a firm stare, ‘trust me. It won’t work.’

  Zane glared at him, the other operatives watching intently. Then he muttered a curse. ‘So what do we do?’ he demanded.

  ‘Nothing we can do; not yet, anyway. We need to get a better position, for a start.’

  ‘But we’ve got the higher ground here – and surprise.’

  ‘Which means sod-all if you don’t have decent line of sight.’

  Zane clenched his jaw in frustration, but finally nodded. ‘Okay. We’ll wait.’ Another signal, telling his men to hold. ‘But we can’t let them get away with the water. If they start to pull out, then we attack – whether we’re in a good position or not.’

  ‘We might not need to,’ said Nina as furious shouting arose from below. ‘I don’t think they’ve found what they expected . . .’

  Kroll eagerly led the way through the entrance. Schneider, Leitz and Rasche followed, the latter bringing Banna with him. The Nazi leader shone his torch around the underground space, the beam finding . . .

  Very little. The short passage from the surface opened into a small chamber, the walls lined with murals and Greek text. A stone basin was set into a side wall. Kroll’s eye was instantly caught by the glint of silver. He hurried to it, finding the elongated oval bowl lined with the precious metal. It was filled with water – but only a small amount, the shallow receptacle not much larger than the size of two cupped hands. A thin silver spout projected from the wall just above it. Glistening at the tip of the metal pipe was a water droplet. He watched it intently, but it showed no signs of growing larger.

  ‘Is that it?’ asked Leitz.

  ‘Is that it?’ echoed Rasche, with scathing disappointment instead of curiosity. ‘I could spit more than that! That much water wouldn’t even last us a month!’

  ‘Shut up,’ Kroll snapped, dipping a fingertip into the liquid. He felt the same electric tingle as he had over seventy years earlier, the very first time he touched the water hidden beneath the farmhouse.

  ‘Have we found it?’ said Schneider. ‘Is it the spring?’

  ‘It is,’ Kroll replied, feeling relief . . . and a rising anger. Rasche was right: the amount of water in the brimming basin was only a tiny fraction of what they needed. ‘But—’

  Rasche completed his thought. ‘But not enough. There isn’t enough!’ he erupted. ‘We would have been better off if we’d stayed in the Enklave and never even gone to Egypt!’

  The Nazi leader turned upon him. ‘Are you questioning me?’

  ‘You’re damn right I am! We’ve lost our base, we’ve lost over half our men, we’ve lost what little water we had left – and you’ve taken money from a lot of very powerful people with the promise of a share of – of this piss-puddle!’ He stabbed a finger at the basin.

  Schneider glanced towards the soldiers staring through the entrance. ‘Not in front of the men. We can’t afford to seem divided.’

  ‘Don’t tell me what to do, you degenerate little shit!’ Rasche shouted, before glaring at the white-clad man. ‘And I doubt even if we refund them that Leitz will return his percentage.’

  The Luxembourger raised his hands in feigned apology. ‘All transactions are final. That has always been our deal.’

  ‘There won’t be any refunds,’ growled Kroll. ‘This is an all-or-nothing mission. And I’m not willing to accept nothing.’

  Rasche made a disgusted sound, then stalked out. ‘We’ve thrown it all away!’ he fired back over his shoulder.

  Kroll scowled after him before rounding on Banna, who had been watching with fearful incomprehension. ‘Dr Banna!’ he barked, reverting to English. ‘We followed your instructions to this place. But this is not a spring; it is not even a trickle.’ The droplet of water on the spout’s tip had still not swelled enough to drip into the basin. ‘Where is the spring? Tell me!’

  ‘I – I do not know!’ Banna cried. ‘This is what Andreas described – we came through the Gate of Alexander, just as the text said.’

  ‘And what else did it say? If you’re hiding something—’

  ‘You still have pictures of the relic!’ Banna interrupted, finding some small cinder of defiance. ‘You read the Greek text yourself – and you did what it said to do! It brought us here.’ He gestured at the bowl. ‘That is the spring, where Andreas said it was hidden. I am sorry it is not all you hoped for, but there it is.’

  Kroll’s hand moved as if to draw his holstered Luger, but then withdrew. ‘I will bring the photographs. Read the text again, and make sure you have not missed anything.’ He glowered at the young archaeologist. ‘If you cannot find the spring, you are of no use to me – just like the American girl. Remember that. Schneider, watch him,’ he ordered as he left the chamber. Leitz followed, leaving Schneider to hold his prisoner at gunpoint.

  The soldiers looked on uncertainly as he emerged. ‘Well?’ demanded Rasche. ‘Now what do we do?’

  ‘We wait for the Arab to read the Greek text again,’ Kroll replied. He ordered an underling to give a folder of photos to Banna, then mopped his damp brow. ‘We’ll make camp in the meantime. On the flat ground, down there. I’ve had enough of hills.’

  ‘And what if the Arab doesn’t come up with anything?’

  ‘Then I’ll tear this mountain apart until we find the spring.’ The obese SS officer stared at his subordinate, daring him to make a challenge; when none was forthcoming, he began to waddle down the slope.

  ‘Are they leaving?’ Nina asked, partly in hope and partly disbelief, as the Nazis filed away after Kroll. From the team’s position above the dig site she had been unable to see what was inside, but even at a distance it was clear from Rasche’s body language alone that it had not lived up to expectations.

  ‘No, Kroll said something about making camp,’ Zane told her.

  ‘Must be going back to that flat bit to do it,’ Eddie said. He had taken a rough headcount; there were between twenty-five and thirty Nazis, and nearly all were now on the move. ‘Fat bastard can’t handle steep ground.’

  Nina thought back to their circuitous ascent. ‘That’s, what? A hundred yards down the hill?’

  ‘At least. Why, what’re you thinking?’

  ‘If they leave the site unguarded, we can walk right down to it!’

  Zane surveyed the scene below. ‘I see four men standing watch – and Schneider went into whatever’s down there and hasn’t come out.’

  ‘Five against ten,’ said Eddie. ‘I like those odds a lot better.’

  ‘We still have to save Ubayy, though,’ Nina reminded him. ‘They might kill him rather than give him up.?
??

  ‘They won’t get the chance,’ said Zane, with understated menace. ‘Okay, once the rest of them are clear, we’ll move closer. We won’t do anything until we’re sure we can secure Banna,’ he assured Nina.

  They waited for some time. The main group of soldiers was now out of sight farther down the hill, though occasional sounds of activity as they set up camp reached the observers. The four men guarding the entrance were initially alert, but quickly settled into what Eddie knew from experience was an occupational hazard for any soldier: boredom. They were not expecting trouble . . . so neither were they prepared for it.

  ‘Safe to move?’ Zane asked the Englishman, who nodded. ‘Then let’s go.’

  The little group began its cautious descent towards the arch. They were not wearing camouflage gear, but their dark clothing provided adequate concealment in the pervading gloom beneath the trees. Moving as stealthily as they could, they closed on the Nazis below.

  They were about fifty feet from the dig when one of the guards turned. Everyone froze, but he looked into the tunnel, not up the hill. After a moment, Schneider emerged. He spoke briefly to the sentries, one of whom went into the shrine to replace him, then headed downhill.

  ‘I like the odds even better now,’ Eddie whispered to Zane.

  ‘So do I,’ said the Israeli. He gestured for his comrades to stop, and mimed attaching a silencer to a gun.

  Eddie shook his head as the men fitted suppressors. ‘It’s too risky. The shots’ll still be heard.’

  ‘Not by anyone in the camp. They’re too far away.’

  ‘Maybe, but what about the bloke in the cave? If he hears the noise and looks outside to see his mates all keeling over dead, then he’ll scream for help – and Kroll and his goons’ll hear that.’

  ‘What do we do, then?’

  ‘Keep it old-school. You brought knives, didn’t you?’

  ‘We did.’ A small, grim smile.

  Zane issued new orders, then he and two of his men, Arens and Galitz, dropped to their bellies and slithered down the hill. Eddie and the others hung back, silenced weapons ready in case anything went wrong. But the three sentries were oblivious to their approach, two of them chatting off to one side of the opening. The third was farther away, looking longingly towards the encampment.

  The latter was the danger, Eddie realised. Despite his clear desire to join the rest of the group, he still occasionally glanced back at the arch. If he caught movement in his peripheral vision, everything would go to hell . . .

  Galitz and Arens reached a position ten feet from the pair of guards and stopped, silently rising into crouches. Zane continued towards the third man, going around the other side of the archway to keep himself hidden from the two sentries. Timing was everything; it would be almost impossible to eliminate both men without making some noise, giving him only a couple of seconds to reach the third.

  He shifted the hefty combat knife in his hand, the matt-black blade barely more than a shadow. The guard was still gazing downhill. Zane nodded to his comrades. They started across the last few feet to their targets, their leader readying himself to strike the moment they reached them . . .

  The lone guard turned his head.

  It was just a glance back at the entrance – but it snapped into a double-take as he saw the pair of dark figures descending upon his fellows. He opened his mouth to scream a warning—

  Zane was still eight feet away – but his knife crossed the distance in a fraction of a second. It stabbed deep into the sentry’s neck, rupturing his windpipe with a spurt of blood.

  The other Mossad operatives darted forward to grab both their targets simultaneously, yanking their heads back and slashing their throats. But the danger wasn’t over. Zane’s victim was still alive, clawed hands pulling at the knife as he staggered in front of the arch. If the man inside saw him . . .

  The Israeli ran to drag him back – but heard a startled sound from the entrance. He spun to see both Banna and his guard staring at him.

  The Nazi whipped up his gun—

  The Egyptian leapt at him, slamming him against the tunnel wall. The Nazi staggered, but retaliated by smashing his weapon against Banna’s stomach.

  The young archaeologist fell with a winded gasp. His attacker recovered, bringing his gun to bear—

  Three bullets ripped into his chest. The Nazi collapsed as the muted thumps of Zane’s gunshots echoed through the trees.

  Eddie watched with dismay. ‘Shit!’ he said, raising his Cherokee and looking down the slope. Only in Hollywood did a suppressor reduce a weapon’s discharge to a soft sneeze; three shots from a silenced gun still sounded like three shots, just quieter. He had heard them clearly from his vantage point – but had the Nazis down the hill?

  Zane and his companions dragged the twitching bodies behind nearby trees, then took up positions to cover the slope below. The other agents moved to back them up. Everyone waited, senses straining to detect the first sign of danger . . .

  Noises came from down the hillside – but not shouts of alarm or screamed orders. Instead they were almost comically innocuous, faint laughter from some shared joke. A scent of cooking food reached them. ‘Must be their lunch break,’ said Eddie, lowering his gun.

  ‘Are we safe?’ Nina asked.

  ‘For now, but we can’t hang about.’ He jogged down the slope, his wife following.

  Zane met them at the entrance. The young Israeli was breathing quickly. ‘Are you okay?’ Nina asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ he replied. ‘That was close, though.’

  ‘What about Ubayy?’ She looked through the arch. Banna got to his feet, surprise and relief on his face as he saw her. ‘Oh, thank God. Ubayy! Are you all right?’

  ‘Yes, yes, I am okay,’ he replied, emerging shakily. ‘What about you? You came after me on the train, but then I heard an explosion – and Kroll told me the bridge had been destroyed . . .’

  ‘We jumped off,’ Nina told him, before embracing him. He was quivering with the release of tension. ‘Then we followed Andreas’ instructions on the relic to get here – but I see you did too.’

  ‘Yes, I am sorry,’ he said, stepping back with a hangdog expression.

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ She looked up at the arch, taking in the Greek text upon it, then past Banna into the tunnel. ‘What did you find in there? I’m guessing from Rasche’s reaction that it wasn’t what they’d hoped for.’

  Banna managed a faint smile. ‘No, it was not.’ He led her into the dark little shrine.

  Her husband and Zane came with them, the other Mossad operatives keeping watch outside. ‘Is that the spring?’ said Eddie, seeing the basin. ‘Just that?’

  The Egyptian nodded. ‘There is only a tiny amount of water. Kroll and Rasche argued about it. I do not know what they said, but Rasche was very angry.’

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ said Nina. ‘They came here thinking they’d find enough water to last decades, and all they got was this? It wouldn’t even make a decent cup of coffee.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter,’ said Zane. ‘What does is that we can stop them from getting it. Permanently. If we blow up this room, they’ll have nothing.’

  ‘That’s pretty much all they’ve got now,’ Eddie noted as the Israeli headed back outside.

  Nina used a flashlight to examine the walls. ‘Yeah, I know. But . . .’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘It doesn’t feel right. This place was obviously built by Andreas and his followers – his name’s here, and here.’ She darted her light across the Greek text. ‘But it’s just a room – and that little puddle’s not the big prize we’ve been led to expect.’

  ‘I had thought that also,’ said Banna, collecting the photographs. ‘Kroll ordered me to read the text again to see if I had missed something. There was a line about the f
ish . . . but it came after the clues that led us here, once we were through the arch.’

  ‘Yeah, I remember. Something about doing what Andreas did with the fish. But why would you need the fish to find the spring when you’re already at the spring?’ She turned back to the basin. ‘Unless . . . this isn’t the spring.’

  Eddie dipped a finger into the water. ‘Ow!’ he said, in surprise rather than pain. ‘I just got zapped.’

  ‘That fits what Kroll said about the water he found in Greece – and the FBI analysis of that flask in LA.’ She thought for a moment, then switched off the flashlight.

  The basin was plunged into shadow. Banna joined them, drawing in a startled breath. ‘It is alight!’

  A faint shimmering glow came from the water, reflecting off the precious metal lining the basin. ‘Just like the Alexander Romance described it,’ said Nina. ‘It looks like it’s flashing like lightning, don’t you think?’ She hesitantly put her fingers into the bowl. The initial electrical tingle made her flinch, but she held firm, lowering them into the water until she touched the silver containing it.

  It was mostly smooth . . . but as she slid her fingertips around, she felt faint impressions in the surface. ‘There’s something here.’

  Eddie leaned closer. ‘I don’t see anything.’

  ‘Hold on.’ She switched the flashlight back on and directed it at the basin, but the reflected glare obliterated any detail. ‘Ubayy, hold this, but don’t point it at the water. Aim it over there.’ She indicated the far wall.

  Banna did so. The light was now more diffuse – providing just enough relief for her to pick out shapes imprinted into the metal. ‘Here, look,’ she said, running a finger over one of the oval bowl’s long sides. ‘There’s a little ledge here, just under the surface – and another opposite, like something’s meant to rest on top of it.’ A probe uncovered a third at the narrow end beneath the spout, but this was different: a tiny metal protrusion, square in cross-section, set between two indentations. ‘And this looks like it fits into something . . .’

  Zane returned, an agent called Haber following. ‘I’ve got the explosives,’ he announced, three blocks of yellowish C-4 in the crook of one arm. The other man put down a pack and took out several more. ‘We don’t have time to plan a proper demolition, so we’ll have to collapse the ceiling.’ He set down his cargo and took out a string of detonators.