The Tomb Of Hercules

31

Well,” said Chase as Nina helped him through the door, “it’s good to be home.”

“I thought you didn’t like this apartment,” she said mischievously.

“You know what? So long as you’re there, we could live in a fucking cave for all I care.”

“Yeah, right. As long as it’s a cave with cable, I bet. Oh, by the way…” She pointed at the coat hook behind the door.

Chase’s bruised face split into a delighted smile. “Oh, fucking awesome!” he cried on seeing the new black leather jacket hanging there. He kissed her. “Thank you. Pity I won’t be able to wear it for a while…” He held up his left arm, which was encased in a plaster cast and supported by a sling.

“It’ll be there when you need it.”

“Fantastic. Don’t suppose you got me a new Wildey as well?”

She smiled. “You don’t need to compensate for anything, Eddie.”

“Tchah!”

She laughed and guided him to the couch.

Six days had passed since they had been rescued from the Ocean Emperor-six days of hospital treatment and radiation exposure tests, all of which had been within safe limits… and six days of intensive questioning by Homeland Security and the FBI. The numerous agents finally convinced that they had stopped the bomb plot rather than been a part of it, Nina and Chase had at last been released.

From what they’d been told, the Swiss and Algerian governments had been contacted so that Yuen’s factory and the remains of the Tomb of Hercules could be investigated. The Botswanan government had also been contacted, partly so that the uranium mine could be sealed off prior to a U.N. examination-but also, to Nina’s and Chase’s intense relief, to see that the murder charges against them were dropped.

Also to Nina’s relief, Matt Trulli had been rescued. He had released the Wobblebug’s emergency beacon just before climbing out of the hatch, managing to don a life jacket as the submarine sank. After spending a couple of hours adrift in the Atlantic before a Coast Guard helicopter located him, the unconscious Australian had hypothermia to add to his cracked rib, but was expected to make a full recovery.

The only loose end was Sophia. After leaving the yacht, the tilt-rotor had landed on Staten Island close to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge so she could view the explosion from a safe distance-but once it became clear that the bomb wasn’t going to go off, the aircraft took off again and headed for JFK airport. When its unusual behavior and lack of a flight plan raised an alarm with air traffic control, it had hurriedly set down on an empty plot of land not far from JFK in the outer borough of Queens and been abandoned, its passengers fleeing. Two of them were later arrested in a stolen car, but of the others-including Sophia-there had been no sign.

She was now the subject of the biggest worldwide manhunt since Osama bin Laden. Engineering a plot to detonate a nuclear weapon in New York-and almost succeeding-had earned her the title of America’s Most Wanted.

Chase started to put his feet up on the glass coffee table, then thought better of it, giving Nina a look. She grinned. “No, go ahead. I’ll let you off. Y’know, just this once. Seeing as you saved New York and everything.”

He glanced down at his immobilized left arm. “Yeah, I should get a T-shirt made. ‘I saved New York and all I got was this lousy plaster cast’…”

Nina kissed him, then walked over to the kitchen area. “I’m sure you’ll get something more once all the secrecy clears. Do you want anything?”

“A pint’d be nice. Although I’ll settle for coffee if you don’t have one.”

“Coming right up,” Nina told him, taking a bag of coffee beans from the fridge.

“Speaking of secrecy, what’s going on with the Tomb of Hercules? Have they told you if you’ll be able to take credit for finding it?”

“I’d damn well better! Although I think it could take a while for everything to be sorted out.” She tipped the beans into the mill. “The Algerian government wants to take full control, for a start. I bet their eyes went kaching! like something from a Bugs Bunny cartoon when they heard there was a treasure trove worth billions of dollars inside their borders. The IHA might have its work cut out trying to persuade them to open up the site.”

“Well, at least you won’t have to deal with that.” Chase glanced back at her, uncertain. “Or will you?”

She gave him a smile as she started the grinder. “Not a chance. Right now? I’m on vacation. And so are you. And that’s an official IHA decision.”

“I like the sound of that.” He stretched out, and was about to put his feet up when somebody knocked on the apartment door. “Oh, buggeration. Never a moment’s peace.”

“I’ll get it,” Nina offered.

“Nah, it’s all right,” Chase told her as he stood. “I’ll get rid of ’em. You keep grinding them beans.” He padded across the living room and opened the door-

Sophia stood in the hallway, a gun in her hand.

Before Chase had a chance to react, she fired.

A metal dart stabbed into his chest. Gasping in pain, he pulled it out… only for his shaking hand to halt midmotion as the paralyzing toxin spread through his body. Spasming, he fell on his back, plaster cast clonking against the wooden floor, the dart still clutched in his raised hand.

Sophia tossed down the dart gun and pulled a black automatic from her jacket as she slammed the door behind her. “Hello, Eddie,” she said as she stepped over him. “And Nina! I can’t say it’s a pleasure to see you again… but it will be in a minute.” She pointed the gun at Nina, summoning her out from behind the kitchen counter.

Heart racing, Nina eyed the knife block as she passed it. “Don’t even think about it,” Sophia warned her, stepping closer.

“What’ve you done to Eddie?” Nina demanded, looking across at Chase.

“Don’t worry, he’s alive-for the next few minutes, at least. I wanted him to watch.”

Nina stepped into the center of the living room. “Watch what?”

Sophia walked towards her. “Watch you die, of course. God!” She stopped a few feet away and glanced scornfully around the apartment. “You have no idea how much I despise you, you vulgar little American bitch. I can understand why you’d have some kind of hero-worship love for Eddie, but what he sees in you, I have absolutely no idea. Even someone as low class as him deserves better.”

“I don’t love Eddie because he’s a hero,” Nina countered. “I love him for being the man he is. Not that you’d ever understand that.”

“Oh shut up,” Sophia sneered, raising the gun towards Nina’s face. “Eddie, I hope you can see this. I’m going to kill your little tart. What do you think about that?” For just the briefest moment, her gaze flicked sideways to look at Chase-

Nina lunged forward.

She grabbed Sophia’s arm with one hand as she twisted out of the line of fire, using the other to knock the gun from her grip. It hit the floor, a sharp edge gouging out a chunk of polished wood, and skidded under the coffee table.

Momentarily startled, Sophia stared after it before looking back at Nina, a mocking smile forming. “Oh, you have been practicing with Eddie, haven’t you?” Her other hand snapped up and seized Nina’s upper arm.

“But so did I,” she hissed, yanking Nina towards her and sweeping her right leg at the other woman’s feet.

Nina tripped and fell to the floor, landing hard on her elbows next to the African statue. Old bruises flared with new pain. Across the room, Chase’s eyes met hers, but he was powerless to help.

Sophia ran to the glass table, bending down to get the gun.

Nina jumped up, needing a weapon of her own, finding one-

Sophia’s hand had just closed around the gun when the statue cracked down across her back like a baseball bat, so hard that the head of the sculpture broke off and bounced across the room. Before Sophia could respond with anything more than a cry of pain, Nina swung the carving again, this time hitting her shoulder. Sophia staggered and fell, the gun spinning from her hand.

Nina raised the statue, about to slam it down on Sophia’s head-

Sophia kicked, catching Nina just above one knee and sending her stumbling backwards. Her calves braked against the edge of the coffee table and she fell onto the glass. It exploded beneath her, only her outstretched arms against the frame stopping her from landing on the broken shards.

Clutching her shoulder, Sophia got to her feet, hunting for the gun. It was on the far side of the room, near the balcony window. She rushed for it.

Nina painfully rolled over the side of the table’s frame and crunched down on her knees among the broken glass, blood oozing through a dozen cuts in her back. She looked for Sophia-

She had the gun!

Nina threw herself behind the kitchen counter as Sophia fired, three shots blasting chunks of fractured marble out of its top. She crashed against the cabinets on the back wall, the door of one popping open to reveal an assortment of cleaning products.

She grabbed a plastic spray bottle, frantically unscrewing its cap…

The gun raised, Sophia advanced on the counter. She saw movement behind one end and turned to fire-

An arc of liquid flew from the end of the open bottle as Nina swung it, bleach splashing across Sophia’s chest. The Englishwoman managed to bring up an arm to protect her face, but even diluted to act as a kitchen cleanser the chemical gave off a pungent stench strong enough to sear her nostrils, choking her. Sophia reeled, coughing and rubbing her eyes.

Nina jumped up, looking for another weapon. She saw Chase’s Castro figurine on the counter and thought of hurling it at Sophia, then changed her mind and yanked the cord of the coffeemaker out of the wall before flinging the machine over the counter. A dark spray of coffee grounds burst from the lid as it hit Sophia’s gun arm, jolting the weapon from her grip and sending her staggering back against one of the armchairs.

Nina snatched a large carving knife from the wooden block and ran out from behind the counter. If she could reach the gun…

Eyes red and streaming, Sophia saw her coming and pulled the leather seat cushion from the armchair, raising it like a shield as Nina slashed the blade at her. The leather split open, sliced yellow stuffing bursting out like fat from a surgical incision.

The gun was on the floor between them. Sophia rammed the heavy cushion against Nina’s face and upper body, knocking her back a step. Then she dropped, hand outstretched-

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.