Kingdom of Darkness

20

Nina was speechless. Not at Kroll’s offer in itself, but for what it could mean to her. She had resigned herself to the sickness spreading through her body, accepting that death was drawing ever closer… but now someone was offering her hope.

That someone being a murderous war criminal.

‘Think about it, Dr Wilde,’ Kroll went on, seeing her uncertainty. ‘You would not only be cured, but by drinking the water you would extend your own life. You wanted to make one last discovery — but how many more could you make with another century in which to make them? Find the spring, and I shall give you a lifetime supply of its water.’

Rasche objected sharply in German. Kroll responded with a verbal explosion that made his second-in-command flinch. The leader stalked across the room to stand right in front of Rasche and harangued his subordinate at full volume, spittle flying from his mouth. The younger guards seemed genuinely terrified by the outburst.

Kroll finally stopped ranting — but remained in Rasche’s face, nose to nose as if daring him to reply. Tight-lipped, jaw clenched, Rasche eventually drew himself to attention and said, ‘Nein, mein Führer.’ Kroll nodded in angry satisfaction and slowly stepped back, not breaking eye contact until he drew level with Nina.

‘Trouble in the ranks?’ she asked.

The baleful stare turned upon her. ‘Do not test me, Dr Wilde. My offer is genuine — although Obersturmführer Rasche did not approve. But he is now in agreement with me. As is every other man in the Enklave.’ He looked to Schneider, Walther and Gausmann, all of whom bowed their heads in deference. ‘Did you know that your name in German, Wilde, means a maniac, a savage? But that is not the impression I get from you. You are an intelligent and rational woman, so I will make you a proposal that only a fool could turn down. If you help us prolong our lives, I will help you save yours. I will of course let your friends go, unharmed. That is my offer. What do you say?’

Again, Nina found herself unable to answer. She didn’t believe Kroll for a moment. The Nazis had only resurfaced out of desperation; even if they found their life-extending prize, they couldn’t risk anyone revealing the location of their hideout. They were still on the wanted list of every international law enforcement agency — to say nothing of the blood vengeance sought by the Mossad. Letting their prisoners go would ensure their end, either in a prison cell or with a bullet to the head.

But…

What if the water really could cure her?

She knew it was unlikely. There was no proof of the water’s restorative properties other than Kroll’s word, which she considered absolutely worthless.

But…

His mere existence, decades younger than he should have been, confirmed that part of the legend was true. The Spring of Immortality had been found once — twice, in fact, since Andreas had returned to it after the death of Alexander the Great. Maybe it could be found again.

Maybe she could find it.

You’re insane, she tried to tell herself. Clutching at straws. And she was dealing with mass murderers, ruthless members of one of the most evil organisations in history, who were now actively working to resurrect it. If the spring still existed, then helping the Nazis find it would practically be a crime in itself.

But if she could locate it and keep it from them…

The bronze relic was still in its case. The Greek text inscribed upon the ancient artefact stood out around its edge. Somewhere in the words was hidden the spring’s location. She could find it, she was sure, just as she had found other wonders of the past.

If she made a deal with the devil…

‘Okay,’ she said, looking back at Kroll. ‘You want me to help you locate the spring? I’ll do it — if you promise you’ll keep your word about letting us go.’

‘I promise,’ he replied.

Insincerity was almost painted on his face. But Nina had expected nothing else, and masked her suspicions. ‘All right. Then let’s get started.’ Macy gaped at her, appalled.

‘We already have maps and reference material,’ said Kroll. He gestured towards the door. One of the guards opened it, signalling for the prisoners to follow him down the hall.

‘What are you doing?’ Macy hissed to Nina as the group exited. ‘You actually want to help these people? They’re Nazis!’

‘Just go along with it,’ Nina whispered back.

Macy looked first confused, then conflicted. ‘Wait, you’ve got a plan?’

‘I hope so…’

Further furtive discussion was cut off as they were brought into a large room. One wall was occupied by a chalkboard, smudged remnants of German visible upon it. Several maps were pinned up; Nina recognised one as a street plan of Alexandria, the others showing the Middle East at various scales.

Kroll stood before the chalkboard, the still scowling Rasche alongside him. ‘Now, Dr Wilde,’ he said as the artefact was removed from its case, ‘begin.’

Nina exchanged looks with Macy and Banna, then regarded the metal fish. ‘Okay, based on what we learned when we examined it in Egypt, the first thing we need is a gnomon. How tall did it say it had to be?’

Banna read the text. ‘One dichas.’

‘Which if I remember my ancient Greek measurements was just over six inches, so fifteen-point-four centimetres.’ Kroll appeared surprised by her natural talent for mental arithmetic; clearly his research had not uncovered everything about her. ‘Okay, we need a stick exactly one hundred fifty-four millimetres tall that’ll stand up vertically in this hole.’ She tapped the fish’s eye.

‘I will have one made.’ The Nazi issued orders, one of his men hurrying out. ‘What else must be done?’

Banna kept reading. ‘We are supposed to enter the date using the large dials, then take a reading of the angle of the sun at noon outside Alexander’s tomb.’

‘Just like Eratosthenes,’ said Nina. The first person to make an accurate calculation of the earth’s circumference had done so by measuring the sun’s highest position in the sky over Egypt using the shadow cast by a gnomon. ‘Too bad you didn’t know that when we were actually in Alexandria,’ she said to Kroll. ‘It would have saved you the cost of a flight back there.’

The obese German was not amused. ‘The sun’s position can be calculated using computers.’

‘I know. The IHA has a good app.’

‘Which you will not be using. If you log into the IHA, they will know you are alive — and where you are. I am not a fool, Dr Wilde.’

‘Just a fascist,’ she said under her breath. ‘Ubayy, what next?’

‘We move the pointer until it touches the shadow,’ said Banna. He turned the artefact over, rotating one of the dials. The little bronze marker protruding from the slot moved in synchronisation. ‘Then we turn this small wheel,’ he touched it, ‘which locks part of the mechanism — it becomes a base for all other calculations.’

Nina read on. ‘Okay, then you follow Alexander’s route. Once you arrive in the Kingdom of Darkness, you dial in how many days it took you to get there from Alexandria…’ She straightened, impressed. ‘Wow, Andreas really was quite the gadget master. It adjusts the pointer’s position to take into account the sun’s precession. How much the sun moves up and down over time because of the earth’s axial tilt,’ she added, seeing varying degrees of incomprehension on the watching Nazis’ faces.

‘I know what it is!’ snapped Kroll. ‘Have you located the spring?’

‘Have you located the gnomon?’ she replied. ‘We can’t do anything until we can start taking measurements.’

The Nazi reddened with anger, while Rasche seemed amused that his superior had been made to look foolish. Kroll shouted more orders. Another man rushed out, coming back with the laptop from the study. A couple of minutes later, the first soldier returned, bearing a dowel. Kroll snatched it from him and thrust it at Nina.

The length of wood fitted neatly into the fish’s eye. ‘Okay,’ Nina said, ‘now we’ll need a protractor, a long ruler — and a website that can tell us the sun’s angle in a specific location on a specific day.’

The required tools were quickly procured. Nina held the protractor against the artefact. ‘Find the longitude and latitude of Alexander’s tomb. Then use them to calculate the sun’s position at noon.’ As Kroll began to search for the results on the computer, she took a closer look at the parts of the mechanism visible through the slot. ‘You know…’

‘What is it?’ Macy asked.

‘I just realised that we can work out the spring’s latitude right away! Based on Alexander’s historical route and what’s written in the Romance, it’s most likely somewhere in northern Iran. Which,’ she regarded one of the maps of the Middle East, ‘was a long trek in Alexander’s day — weeks, or even months — but today, you could fly there in a couple of hours. So if we don’t advance the date dial at all, the same result is still valid…’ She faced Banna. ‘How do you find out if you’re at the spring?’

The Egyptian rechecked the Greek text. ‘Once you reach the Kingdom of Darkness, you enter the number of days you have travelled, then take another reading of the sun at noon.’ He indicated the series of small notches inscribed along the slot’s edge. ‘Wherever the pointer is, if the shadow of the gnomon falls exactly five marks from it, then you are the correct distance north of the tomb. You then search for landmarks; the spring is in the shadow of a mountain peak, through the arch of Alexander.’

‘On the north face, I guess that means,’ said Macy. ‘If the sun’s behind it at noon.’

‘So if the travel time between the tomb and the spring is less than one day,’ Nina said, almost to herself as calculations took on form in her mind, ‘five of these marks must be equal to however many degrees of latitude there are between the two places. Right?’

Macy blinked. ‘Ah… if you say so.’

‘They are. Trust me. Five ticks represent how many degrees north you have to go from Alexandria.’ She glanced back towards Kroll. ‘Have you got those figures yet?’

The SS commander was displeased at being on the receiving end of a demand, but he continued to tap on the keyboard until he had a result. ‘Alexander’s tomb is at approximately thirty-one degrees and eleven minutes north, twenty-nine degrees and fifty-three minutes east.’

‘Okay, enter that into the solar altitude calculator. Set the date for tomorrow, and get the figure for twelve noon, local time.’

Still bristling, Kroll did so. ‘The sun’s position at midday is eighty-three-point-five degrees above the horizon.’

‘Eighty-three-point-five,’ Nina echoed. She used the protractor and ruler to find where the tip of a shadow cast by the gnomon would fall along the slot if the sun were at that height. ‘Okay, now we need to work out where the sun would be five ticks from that.’

‘The sun covers half a degree of arc,’ Banna pointed out. ‘We should take several measurements and find the average.’

‘Good point, but let’s just get the basics for now.’

Macy leaned closer, lowering her voice to the limit of audibility. ‘Slow it down, Nina! You’re leading these jerks right to it.’

Nina suddenly realised that her desire to discover the ancient artefact’s secrets had indeed overcome the need to delay doing so. It was a trap she had fallen into before, but never had restraining her archaeological urges been so crucial. ‘Although yeah, we do need to be accurate,’ she added quickly. ‘We’ll take measurements for eighty-three and eighty-four degrees as well. And we should double check that we’ve got the sun’s absolute highest position in the sky — it isn’t always exactly at noon.’

Rasche spoke to Kroll, suspicious, but the leader shook his head. ‘We must be precise. But,’ he went on, with a stern glare at the three archaeologists, ‘if I think you are deliberately slowing the work, you will be punished.’

‘Yeah, we got it,’ said Nina. That meant that they had some leeway to hold things up; the question was how far Kroll’s patience would stretch. ‘Okay, let’s get the other measurements.’

The trio did so, Macy taking notes. Once they had an average result, Banna turned the bronze dial to move the pointer to the indicated position. ‘All right,’ Nina said, ‘we know from Andreas’ text that the spring’s latitude is five ticks from the pointer. So now we work backwards; we measure the angle where the sun would have to be to cast a shadow on that point, and then,’ she indicated the laptop, ‘we keep the same longitude, but keep entering latitude coordinates moving northwards by steps until the sun’s height there matches what we’ve got. That’ll tell us how much farther north the spring is from the tomb.’

Kroll nodded. ‘And then we retrace Alexander’s route until we reach the correct area.’

‘Yes,’ said Banna. ‘The text describes Alexander going north through mountains to reach a sea. Based on the historical accounts of his travels, that must be the Alborz range in Iran.’

‘So when his route gets to the right latitude,’ Nina continued, ‘there’s the spring.’

‘Then find it,’ said Rasche, unimpressed.

Nina and Banna repeated the process of calculating the sun’s position, this time placing the tip of the imaginary shadow on the fifth marker along the slot from the pointer. ‘The sun would be one-point-eight degrees lower in the sky than at Alexandria,’ she finally reported, having slowed things for as long as she could. ‘So now, start putting in more northerly coordinates until we get a match.’

Kroll, still in charge of the laptop, began the laborious procedure. He entered a new position one degree north of the original, scrolled through the results to find the angle of the sun at midday, then recited it to the trio. The process was repeated with gradually increasing precision until eventually a match was found. ‘Thirty-seven degrees, thirty-seven minutes north!’ Nina announced, despite everything still feeling a thrill of discovery. ‘That makes a difference of just over six and a half degrees of latitude between Alexander’s tomb and the spring.’

Kroll went to one of the maps. ‘Show me!’

She exchanged a concerned look with Macy. ‘We don’t know exactly where Alexander crossed the mountain—’

‘That does not matter for now,’ said Kroll. ‘Show me the general area — that will be enough to start making plans.’

‘Okay, then.’ Nina put her finger on Alexandria, at the map’s bottom left. ‘So here’s the tomb. We go north to thirty-seven degrees and thirty-seven minutes,’ she moved her hand upwards, ‘and then east until we’re above the Alborz mountains.’ She sidestepped, sliding her fingertip over the paper. ‘So through Turkey, above Syria and Iraq, across northern Iran to… oh.’

Rasche whirled to face Kroll. ‘I knew she was wasting our time!’

The Nazi leader’s flabby jaw trembled with fury. ‘I warned you what would happen if you tried to deceive us!’

‘I wasn’t!’ Nina protested.

‘Then explain this!’ He stabbed his forefinger at the map. Her path across it had trailed to a stop in the Caspian Sea, many miles off shore.

‘I can’t! You saw the numbers — you read them out to us! That’s the result we got.’

‘Then your work was wrong,’ said Rasche. ‘We do not tolerate mistakes!’ He addressed Kroll again. ‘I should kill one of them as a warning.’

The obese Nazi glared at Nina, considering his subordinate’s suggestion… then shook his head. ‘No. They would not dare give us false results — it would be too easy for us to check their calculations.’

‘The numbers were right,’ Nina insisted. ‘Which means something else is wrong. We need to go through the Greek text on the fish again, see if there’s something we missed.’

‘The Arab had a translation when we captured him,’ said Rasche.

‘Bring it; it will save time,’ Kroll said. ‘No, wait. It is late — take them to the prison,’ he decided instead. ‘Dr Banna will read the text during the night. We shall begin again in the morning.’

Rasche’s reply in German was disapproving. ‘Even prisoners need food,’ Kroll snapped. ‘Take them away.’

Rasche issued orders, and the guards escorted Nina, Macy and Banna from the room. As they left, Kroll spoke. ‘Dr Wilde? I do not make empty threats. You will locate the Spring of Immortality… or you will suffer extreme consequences. Do you understand?’

‘Yeah, I do,’ said Nina, trying to conceal her fear.

‘Gross,’ said Macy, pushing away the metal tray containing the half-eaten remains of her meal. ‘This stuff tastes like it came from World War Two.’

‘At least they gave us something,’ Nina replied. She had been hungry enough to eat the whole of the unappetising mash of boiled potatoes, shredded cabbage and grey mystery meat.

‘Yeah, it’ll help us keep up our strength so we can bust out. Oh no, wait, we’re in frickin’ Alcatraz!’ The young woman swept a hand around their cell. The door was a heavy slab of metal with a small peephole, while the only opening in the concrete walls was a ventilation slot high on one wall, too narrow to fit even an arm through. ‘And they’re not going to let us go — whatever deal you made with them,’ she added sharply. ‘You really think they’ll give you a lifelong supply of magic water? They’re using you, Nina! Kroll wants you to believe you’ve got a chance of being cured so you’ll find the spring!’

‘You think I don’t know that?’

Macy blinked. ‘Wait, you do?’

‘Of course I do! I don’t trust him any farther than I could throw him, and… well, the guy’s a frickin’ blimp!’

‘So you do not want to find the water?’ Banna asked, looking up from his translation notes.

‘Are you kidding? Obviously I want to find it, if there’s any chance at all that it might help me. Right now, though, I’m just trying to keep us all alive. The longer we can string them along, the more chance we have of getting out of this.’

‘So you weren’t really going to cooperate with these Nazis?’ Macy asked, now considerably happier. ‘I knew it!’ Nina gave her a questioning glance. ‘Well, I was fairly sure. Pretty much.’

‘Thanks for your confidence,’ said the redhead with light sarcasm.

Macy blushed. ‘Well, you did sound convincing.’

‘The hard part was trying not to convince myself. I mean, he was offering me a possible cure. I can’t deny that I considered it.’

The admission caught the young woman by surprise. ‘Oh, wow. God, yeah; it must have been hard for you. I’m sorry.’ She took Nina’s hand in sympathy.

Nina smiled, grateful. ‘Thanks.’

‘Okay, so… what the hell do we do now?’

‘All we can do is delay locating the spring for as long as possible and hope someone finds us.’

Banna shook his head miserably. ‘What chance is there of that? We are not even on the same continent any more!’

‘There are some very resourceful people looking for us. The IHA, the UN — and Eddie.’ The mere thought of her husband gave her a surge of hope. He would move heaven and earth to rescue her — and probably destroy large chunks of both if necessary.

Banna seemed unconvinced, so she switched subjects, trying to keep the Egyptian’s mind occupied. ‘Have you found out anything new about Alexander’s route — like where he crossed the Alborz mountains?’

He flicked back through the notes. ‘He went east of Damavand — the tallest mountain in Iran. There is also a reference to a pass, but I am not sure which one. A map would help me identify it.’

‘Work out as much as you can,’ Nina told him. ‘Then try to stretch the rest out as long as possible before telling Kroll—’

A faint scrape of metal, then: ‘Dr Wilde?’

The voice was male, whispered. Everyone turned in alarm to its source — the ventilation slot. ‘Shit,’ Nina whispered. If the spy had heard them plotting and reported them to Kroll…

‘Dr Wilde, are you there?’ The voice was still low, and strained, as if the speaker were afraid of being overheard.

Bewildered, Nina replied: ‘Yeah?’

‘Please, quiet! I do not want the guards to know I am here.’

She stepped up on to the bed to look through the little opening. The metal cover at its other end had been lifted. A pair of blue eyes peered nervously back at her. ‘Who are you?’ she demanded.

‘You are Nina Wilde?’

‘Who’s asking?’

‘Please, I must be sure!’ The eyes glanced away as if checking for sentries, then back at her.

‘Yeah, I’m Nina Wilde,’ she said, curiosity taking hold. ‘And you are?’

Relief was clear even on the small visible part of the man’s face. He was young, Nina could tell; no older than twenty, if that. ‘I thought it was you when I saw you outside the Führer’s house. I recognised you from your photographs on the Internet. My name is—’

‘Koenig,’ she cut in, remembering the youth she had seen while being marched to Kroll’s residence — the twin of Jaekel’s victim in Los Angeles. ‘You’re Volker Koenig’s brother!’

‘Yes, I am Roland.’ His surprise turned to hopefulness. ‘You have seen Volker?’

‘Yeah, I saw him.’

‘Where is he? He told me he would find you, but… I did not think that you would come here.’

‘Right, we came here. That’s why we’re sitting in a prison cell,’ said Nina, her voice overflowing with sarcasm. ‘Your brother found me in Los Angeles. He wanted me to stop your people from raiding the tomb of Alexander the Great.’

Roland’s expression told her that while he knew something about his brother’s intentions, he had not been aware of the whole story. ‘Where is he?’

As much as she hated the Nazis, she couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for the youth, knowing what she was about to tell him. ‘Your brother, Volker… he’s dead.’

Roland flinched in shock. ‘Nein — no, no. That cannot be.’

‘He was gunned down in the street by one of your leaders! A guy called Jaekel — big scar on his face.’

‘Herr Jaekel, yes, of course. But — no, he would not have killed Volker.’

‘It happened right in front of me. And then Jaekel tried to kill me too.’

‘Then… where is Herr Jaekel?’

‘On a slab. Dead,’ she clarified; Roland’s English was good, but he apparently didn’t understand slang. ‘The police shot him.’

He drew back. ‘I… I do not believe you.’

‘Why? Your brother came looking for me; he never came back, but I’m here as a prisoner instead. What does that tell you?’

There was no answer. The vent cover clanked into place. ‘No!’ Macy gasped, jumping up beside Nina. ‘Don’t go, please!’

A pause… then the plate rose again. Roland looked back at the cell’s occupants. ‘Who else is there?’

‘I’m Macy, Macy Sharif. This is Ubayy Banna.’ The Egyptian stood and moved into Roland’s view. ‘We’re all archaeologists; we were kidnapped.’

Again the young man was shocked. ‘Kidnapped?’

‘You’ve got to get us out of here, please!’

‘I–I cannot. The front door is guarded. They will not let me in.’

‘Then get word to someone outside!’ said Nina. ‘Call my husband — or the United Nations in New York. There’s a man called Oswald Seretse; tell him where we are.’

Roland retreated again, agitated. ‘Only the Oberkommando may use the telephone, it is not permitted—’

‘Screw what’s permitted! Just do it!’

‘I am sorry, but — but I cannot help you…’ He jumped down from whatever he was standing on, and the cover clanged shut.

‘So, I guess he’s not going to bust us out of here,’ said Macy, breaking the glum silence that followed.

‘I guess not.’ Both women stepped down from the bed, the younger sitting heavily upon it. Nina, however, stalked across the cell in frustration. ‘Dammit! Nobody will even be looking for us here, but one frickin’ phone call would fix that. If Seretse knew we’d been taken from Egypt to Argentina, he could start searching in the right place—’

She broke off as her mind suddenly found the missing piece of the puzzle. ‘My God,’ she gasped. ‘How the hell did we miss it?’

‘Miss what?’ Macy asked.

‘I just realised why we can’t find the spring. We’ve been starting our search from the wrong place!’ Her companions looked mystified; she continued: ‘The text on the relic said to take a sun reading outside Alexander’s tomb — but it didn’t say which tomb. We all assumed it meant the one in Alexandria, because that’s where we found the statue of Bucephalus. But that wasn’t where Alexander was originally buried!’

‘Memphis!’ Banna exclaimed. ‘Of course — Ptolemy the Second moved the tomb from Memphis to Alexandria.’

‘Yeah — but Andreas didn’t know that when he made the fish! He went back to search for the spring after Alexander’s death, and evidently found it again, but the tomb was relocated while he was away. So all the clues, all the calculations you have to make using the relic to find the spring’s location… they use the original tomb as their starting point.’

‘Wow,’ said Macy. ‘Andreas must have been pissed when he got to Memphis to put the statue inside the tomb and found it wasn’t there any more.’

‘Maybe not. It actually worked to his advantage — it makes locating the spring even more of a challenge.’

Banna’s expression became thoughtful. ‘But we know. So now we can find it.’

‘Yeah. How far apart are Alexandria and Memphis?’

‘I do not know exactly,’ he said. ‘Memphis is south of Cairo, so… two hundred and fifty kilometres?’

‘We’ll need to work out the difference in degrees of latitude, though. And we can’t do that without a map.’ Nina paced across the cell, frustrated. ‘But now we know what we’ve got to do tomorrow. We string the Nazis along for as long as we can with the wrong starting point… while we work out where the spring really is using the right starting point. Then when,’ she placed deliberate emphasis on the word, to give hope to herself as much as her companions, ‘we get out of here? We’re going to find it ourselves.’