Kingdom of Darkness

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 made 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 silver 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.

Still gripping the jug, she clambered up the steps. The viaduct trembled again, deep splashes echoing through the cavern as stones broke away and fell into the pool below. She stumbled, the onrushing water threatening to throw her back into Kroll’s sunken tomb…

A hand clamped around her wrist.

She looked up in fear — which became relief as she saw Eddie. ‘Nina!’ he said. ‘Thank God! Are you okay?’

‘Yeah,’ was all she could say.

‘Where’s Kroll?’

‘Drinking his fill.’

He helped her up, starting towards the tunnel. Somehow she forced her leaden legs into motion. Ahead, Banna waited anxiously at the end of the corpse-strewn bridge. ‘Where’s Jared? Did he make it?’

‘Yeah, he went after Rasche—’ Eddie broke off as the viaduct shook as if hit by an earthquake. Booms and cracks erupted behind them as the section beneath the steps disintegrated. ‘Oh shit! Déjà fuckin’ vu! Run!’

Fearful adrenalin gave Nina a new surge of energy. They sprinted along the bridge as it crumbled behind them. What was left of the statue of Alexander sheared from the cavern wall, the smaller figure of Andreas briefly watching it disappear before falling too as the tomb shattered beneath it. The pair raced towards the exit, the wave of destruction following them. ‘Run, run!’ shrieked Banna.

‘I bloody am!’ Eddie gasped.

They kept running, thirty feet to go, twenty—

The viaduct bucked underfoot — then fell away.

Nina and Eddie both screamed and flung themselves into a last desperate leap for safety. They landed hard on the final few intact feet of the bridge, tripping and rolling as the rest of the structure dropped into the frothing pool below. Banna dragged them clear as the thunderous cacophony subsided.

‘Thanks,’ Eddie wheezed. ‘Fuck me! That was bloody close.’ He crawled to his wife. ‘Are you all right?’

She opened her eyes, surprised that they were still alive. Her hand was clamped tightly around the silver jug. ‘Yeah, I… I think so.’ Falling debris had disturbed whatever caused the spring water’s sparkling glow, but there was still enough light to see that the bridge and the great statue had been obliterated, only rubble remaining. ‘What about the Nazis? Did we get them all?’

‘No, one got away,’ said Banna. ‘The Israeli went after him.’

‘It was Rasche,’ said Eddie. He stood. ‘I’m not letting him escape.’

‘Nor am I,’ Nina said, determined.

They hurried into the huge chasm. Eddie saw two torch beams flicking along the rising path above. ‘There!’

Zane pounded after Rasche. The pain from the stab wound was like red-hot iron burning into his leg, but his desire to catch Benjamin Falk’s killer seared even hotter, driving him onwards.

Rasche was now only twenty metres away, slowed by a treacherous section of pathway. The German shone his light downwards, picking his way along step by step. Zane swept his own torch beam ahead, taking in the missing slabs in a flash, and kept running.

The other man’s light flicked back at him. ‘Scheiße!’ Rasche hissed. He increased his pace, caution overcome by fear.

Zane raced in pursuit. He glimpsed lights in his peripheral vision: Eddie and Nina starting up the ledge below. He gained on the Nazi, jumping over a gap without even looking. Rasche glanced back—

And stumbled on a loose stone.

The SS man let out a sharp gasp of fright. He clutched at the wall to stabilise himself—

The Israeli tackled him.

They fell, Zane landing on top — and then both went over the edge.

The Nazi shrieked, fingers scrabbling at the cliff before catching a ragged outcropping just beneath the path. Zane slithered past him, jerking to a stop as he grabbed Rasche’s jacket with one hand. Threads in the seams popped and snapped, but the fabric held… just.

Rasche tried to shake him loose. The Mossad agent tightened his hold — then clenched his free hand into a rock-solid ball and ploughed it into the other man’s stomach.

The impact made Rasche convulse. ‘No!’ he gasped. ‘What are—’ Another brutal blow left him breathless. Zane pulled himself higher, gripping the Nazi’s shoulder, then drew his fist back again. ‘Verrückte! If I fall, we both die!’

‘Then we die,’ Zane snarled. ‘But I’ll take the last Nazi with me!’

He smashed a knuckle-splitting punch into Rasche’s face. ‘This is for Benjamin!’ he cried as the German howled, blood gushing from his nose. A second blow brought a dull snap of enamel from inside the war criminal’s mouth. ‘And every Jew you’ve ever killed!’ The Israeli wound up for a final attack—

Rasche lost his grip with one hand, lurching as the other took the full weight of both men. His jacket slipped around his shoulder — and a seam ripped. Zane dropped several inches, only the garment’s silk lining holding it together. He flailed, fingertips scraping the rock face in a fruitless search for support.

Even straining to keep his hold on the cliff, Rasche saw a chance for survival — and revenge. He reached down to snatch his SS dagger from its sheath.

The blade stabbed at the young man’s throat—

Zane’s hand snapped to intercept it, clapping around the Nazi’s wrist.

But he had only halted the knife, lacking the leverage to force it away. Rasche’s face contorted into a furious grimace as the shuddering dagger crept towards Zane’s neck. ‘You think you can kill me, little Jude?’ he snarled. ‘The Allies couldn’t in the war. The Mossad couldn’t after the war…’ The point pressed against the Israeli’s skin — then sank into it. ‘And you will not now!’

A choked grunt of pain and fear escaped Zane’s mouth. Blood ran down his neck, at first only an ooze, but within a couple of heartbeats it became a thicker, faster flow. Rasche growled with sadistic glee—

‘Jared!’

Eddie’s voice echoed around the chasm. A torch beam locked on to the two men. The Nazi flinched, momentarily dazzled—

The instant of distraction was enough. Zane pushed the knife away with rage-fuelled strength. More blood ran out, but he ignored the wound as he twisted Rasche’s hand up — bringing the blade towards the war criminal’s chest.

Rasche tried to resist, but the quivering dagger edged ever closer. ‘Nein!’ the Nazi shrieked. ‘Don’t do it!’

‘You’ve killed your last Jew,’ snarled the Israeli. The trembling dagger’s tip slowly penetrated Rasche’s shirt — then sank through flesh, between ribs. The arrogance and hatred that had defined the Nazi’s expression vanished, replaced by a single emotion: raw terror. ‘Now you know what they felt.’

Rasche opened his mouth to scream — as Zane thrust the dagger into his heart.

The cry died in the Nazi’s throat, only a choked gurgle emerging. He shuddered… then his hold on the cliff weakened, and released—

Eddie dived and grabbed Zane’s arm as the two men fell.

Rasche clawed at the Mossad agent, making one last attempt to drag the other man down with him, but his grip was too weak. He plunged into the darkness. The scream finally came, only to be cut off by the wet crunch of breaking bones and rupturing organs as he smashed on the rocks a hundred feet below.

The Englishman lay on his front, upper body over the edge as he gripped Zane’s arm. ‘Nina, give me a hand!’ he gasped. She and Banna helped him haul the Israeli up. ‘Jared! You okay?’

Zane slumped against the wall, exhausted. ‘Actually, yes,’ he gasped, pressing a hand to his bloodied throat. ‘Mission accomplished.’

‘Great,’ said Nina. ‘Then let’s get the hell out of here.’

The climb back to the surface was considerably slower than the descent. But eventually they reached the entrance, even the grey daylight of the forest dazzling. The group staggered out through the archway and collapsed on the damp ground. ‘Hope Hafez hasn’t buggered off,’ said Eddie, looking downhill. ‘It’s a bloody long walk back to the boats.’

Zane’s gaze turned to the shrine’s entrance. He spoke softly in Hebrew. ‘A Kaddish,’ he told the others. ‘For those we have lost. All of them,’ he added to Nina.

She nodded. ‘Thank you.’ Banna closed his eyes and bowed his head.

Eddie left a moment of respectful silence, then took the battered silver jug from his wife. Most of its contents had been spilled during the escape, but there was still a small amount of water inside. ‘They all died because of what’s in here. We should pour the bloody stuff away and be done with it.’

‘Maybe,’ said Nina. ‘But… it’s the last surviving relic of Andreas, the only proof that the Alexander Romance was true. It should be preserved just for that — even if we’re the only ones who know the full story.’

‘Yeah, ’cause we’re the only ones who got out of there alive.’ A pause, then he regarded her questioningly. ‘How did you know the statue was a trap? Where was the real spring?’

‘That was the real spring,’ she replied. ‘The whole place was a trap — Andreas never meant anyone to get it.’

‘Then why have a bloody treasure hunt with clues telling you how to find it?’ Eddie demanded.

‘It was a test. The whole thing, not just the clues leading to it.’ She gestured at the arch. ‘When he first found the spring, Andreas thought he’d made a mistake by not immediately telling Alexander what he’d discovered. But that was when he was a young man — and also just a humble cook serving the greatest king in the known world. He was overawed by Alexander, full of hero worship. But as he got older, and wiser…’

‘He figured out the truth about Alexander,’ said the Yorkshireman, realising where she was leading. ‘He was just as big an arsehole as any of the kings he defeated. Maybe even more so. He actually tried to take over the world.’

‘And came as close to succeeding as anyone ever has,’ Banna pointed out.

Nina nodded. ‘Andreas started out thinking that he should have given the Spring of Immortality to Alexander. After he died, his empire very quickly fell apart — but imagine what he could have accomplished if he’d lived for another thirty, sixty, a hundred years! But as Andreas used the water to live longer himself, and saw other rulers continuing the same old cycles of conquest and all the pointless death and destruction that came with them, he changed his mind. If Alexander had been given essentially eternal life, he would have become the world’s greatest tyrant. Imagine if Hitler had ruled unchallenged for a century. Or Stalin, or Mao.’

‘Or the men who paid Kroll millions of dollars for the water,’ said Zane. ‘They want to stay in control of their business empires, but the reason’s the same: they never want to give up their power.’

‘That’s right. Death’s the great equaliser; it doesn’t matter how much you’ve achieved, or how big your kingdom is — you lose it all when you die. But if you can delay death, then you’ll keep accumulating more and more power and wealth.’

‘Compound interest’s great if you’re already a rich bastard, innit?’ said Eddie. ‘I still don’t get why he didn’t just brick up the spring and be done with it, though. Why did he make it into a test?’

Banna’s eyes widened. ‘Because it is a test that you do not want to pass!’

Nina grinned. ‘Yeah. If you fail the test at any stage, then you’re not Alexander’s equal — so not a threat to the world. If you don’t realise that you have to sacrifice the statue of Bucephalus to get the artefact hidden inside it, if you can’t figure out how to use the fish to locate the spring, and if you can’t tell the fake spring behind that arch from the real one, you’ve wasted a lot of time and effort… but at least you stay alive. Anyone smart and resourceful enough, and therefore dangerous enough, to get all the way to Andreas’ tomb, though…’

‘You go to fill up the bowl, like Kroll did, and bam!’ crowed Eddie. ‘You get a Nazi surprise.’

She sighed at the pun. ‘Although Andreas still gave you one last chance to turn around and leave. All along he kept saying that only Alexander’s equal is worthy of immortality… but also that nobody is Alexander’s equal. Even his own coffin had a clue. It said that Andreas was humble, and so was everyone else compared to Alexander.’

Banna nodded. ‘“Remember this if you seek to take what I had denied him.” He meant the water from the spring.’

‘But the statue itself basically said, “If you think you’re as great as Alexander, then step right up and claim your prize.” It contradicted everything Andreas had said before. And that’s when I realised it was a trap,’ Nina told them. ‘You have to be smart and resourceful and dangerous to reach the spring — and then arrogant enough to ignore what Andreas said over and over by claiming it. That proves you’re as much a potential tyrant as an immortal Alexander would have been. And it gets you killed.’

‘There was still a load of water in the pool, though,’ Eddie pointed out. ‘Andreas was taking a gamble that someone wouldn’t just drop buckets on ropes.’

‘The whole place was designed to channel people right to the statue,’ Nina countered. ‘Even if I hadn’t pointed Kroll there, he would have gone to it anyway. How could he resist? And like I said, it targeted arrogance, hubris. No self-respecting Alexander wannabe would waste time lowering buckets when they can literally wrest control of the Spring of Immortality from his hands. And Andreas knew that.’ She looked up at the arch. ‘For good or bad, there’s only one man of Alexander the Great’s stature in all of history — and Andreas wanted to make sure that remained the case. He and his followers built the whole place to honour him and his achievements… while at the same time eliminating anyone who might become the next Alexander.’

‘The question is,’ Zane said, ‘what do we do now? About the spring, I mean. The cave has collapsed, but the water’s still down there. We stopped the Nazis from getting it, but I don’t want the Iranians to have it either.’

‘We leave it down there,’ Nina said firmly. ‘Close the secret door and bury it. If anyone finds it again, they won’t realise its significance — it’ll just be an archaeological curiosity.’

‘But what if somebody comes looking for the Nazis?’ asked Banna.

‘Like who?’ hooted Eddie. ‘The Revolutionary Guard won’t give a crap what happened to them. They took their money and left. If they think about ’em at all, it’ll be like they disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle.’

‘A new legend — thirty men come into the forest searching for the Spring of Immortality, and are never seen again,’ said Nina. ‘The Last Nazis. I quite like the sound of that.’

Zane gave her an approving smile. ‘It has a nice finality to it. Hopefully it’ll be the CSU’s last ever operation.’

Eddie stood and went to the entrance. ‘Come on, then. We’ve got some digging to do.’

They dragged the bodies of the Nazi sentries into the inner tunnel, then pushed the hidden door closed and shovelled soil back into the excavated opening. When the arch was finally covered again, they set off down the hill, leaving behind the secret of the Kingdom of Darkness.