Kingdom of Darkness

by Andy McDermott

  The rope jerked taut. The drop had been less than a foot, but it was enough to snap the noose tight. Zane’s eyes bulged, and he thrashed helplessly as his throat was crushed by his own weight . . .

  Eddie whipped up his gun and shot the rope.

  The bullet hit the vibrating line just below the pulley. It snapped, but not fully—

  Zane felt the impact. He kicked, hard, and the remaining strands broke. He dropped heavily to the ground.

  Shouted orders from the crowd. Eddie saw a tall Nazi in a junior officer’s uniform yelling to his underlings as he stabbed a finger over the dying flames at the Englishman. A counterattack would come at any moment . . .

  Another gunshot turned the clock back by several seconds as the officer’s brains splattered over the men behind him. Panic took hold of the mob once more.

  Eddie snatched up the jacket, hearing a faint clink of metal. He pulled out a set of keys and ran back to Nina. ‘Here,’ he said, freeing her right wrist. He pushed the keys into her hand. ‘Unlock Jared.’

  She hurried to the slumped Israeli as Eddie used a foot to drag two Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine guns away from the burning guards. He kicked one to Zane as Nina released him, then collected the other. The weapon was hot from the fire, but not unbearably so. He fired a sweep into the crowd, sending a clutch of Nazis falling, then joined his wife. ‘Can you walk?’ he asked Zane.

  The Mossad agent grimaced as he sat up, collecting the MP5. ‘As long as I can shoot, I’ll crawl if I have to.’

  ‘Running’d be better.’ The initial shock of the assault was fading; though most of the audience had fled the parade ground, he spotted Nazis now running back into the square – carrying weapons, metal glinting under the remaining floodlights.

  Nina helped Zane stand. The Israeli had also seen the new threat and unleashed two bursts from his own weapon. Screams sounded above the hubbub as four more Nazis were cut down.

  ‘Come on, this way.’ Eddie pointed towards where he had made his entrance, near the stage. ‘There’s a place we can hide.’

  Nina saw another MP5 lying by one of the dead guards. ‘No, we need to find Banna!’ she said as she snatched it up. Eddie’s questioning gaze flicked between her and the gun. ‘If I see Kroll, I’m going to kill him,’ she told him. ‘He murdered Macy.’

  ‘I know.’ An exchange of grim looks, then they ran down a narrow passage between two buildings. ‘Where’s Banna?’

  ‘Kroll was forcing him to work at his house.’

  ‘Well, that’s convenient – we can take out that fat bastard at the same time.’ Eddie looked around the corner. People were still running from the parade ground, but none were close by, the fires and gunshots having deterred anyone from coming in the direction of the stage. He heard the piercing shrill of whistles rising above the confusion – more junior officers trying to regroup their squads. ‘Where’s the house?’

  She pointed. ‘Over there.’

  Eddie hesitated – it would take them away from the red hut where Roland had told him to hide – but Nina was right: they had to find Banna. ‘Okay, come on.’

  They hurried through the settlement. Away from the floodlights, the Enklave was not well lit. Keeping to the shadows, they made their way towards the houses. More whistles screeched behind them. ‘It won’t be long before they come after us,’ Zane warned.

  ‘Then we’d better be quick,’ Eddie replied as they crossed the railway. ‘Which house?’

  Nina pointed at Kroll’s residence. ‘That one.’

  Lights were on inside. ‘I’m guessing that Banna’ll be guarded.’ She nodded. ‘Be careful, then. Jared, you ready?’

  The battered Israeli held up his MP5. ‘Yeah.’

  Eddie was first to the door. He waved for Nina to take cover to one side as Zane readied his weapon, then pushed it open, snapping up his own gun. Nobody was in the hall. ‘Okay, where?’ he whispered.

  ‘Second door on the left,’ Nina replied.

  They entered. Eddie went to the door, about to kick it open . . . when he had another idea and rapped on the wood.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Zane whispered.

  ‘Being polite.’

  ‘But—’

  Eddie waved him to silence as a voice came from inside the room. ‘Ja? Wer ist da?’

  ‘Das Flugzeug ist bereit! Es kann beladen werden,’ the Englishman replied, to mystification from his companions.

  The man inside the room was equally bewildered. ‘Was?’ A creak of floorboards from the other side of the door, then it opened—

  Eddie punched the surprised soldier hard in the face, sending him to the floor. A kick to the head knocked the Nazi out cold. ‘Dummkopf,’ he told the unconscious man as he moved inside. No other guards – but Banna looked up in shock. Several maps of the Middle East and Iran were spread across the table, along with translations of the Greek texts and numerous notes.

  ‘I didn’t know you spoke German!’ said Nina.

  Her husband gave a wry smile. ‘I don’t. One of the Nazis says it in Raiders of the Lost Ark. No idea what it means, but I always thought it sounded cool.’

  Zane took up position to guard the entrance. ‘It means “The plane is ready—”’

  ‘Don’t tell me!’ Eddie protested. ‘It’ll spoil it.’

  Banna hurried to Nina, shocked and relieved. ‘I – I thought they had killed you!’

  ‘I’m okay,’ she said, greeting him with a brief embrace. ‘But we’ve got to get out of here.’ Though Banna was keen to leave, his face warned her that he had bad news. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I . . . I located the spring. And I told Kroll where it is.’ The young man looked miserably at the floor. ‘I had no choice. I am sorry.’

  ‘Shit.’ Nina regarded the Egyptian’s work in dismay. ‘What if we take all this? Can he find the spring without it?’

  ‘I am afraid so. I showed him the location – here.’ He pointed at a spot on one of the more detailed maps. As the archaeologists had deduced earlier, it was in the Alborz mountains, below the Caspian coastline. ‘But . . .’ His expression showed a flicker of hope.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The text on the relic – it said that after you pass through the Gate of Alexander, if you do what Andreas did, the fish will show you the spring.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ asked Eddie.

  Nina shook her head. ‘I don’t know, but if Kroll doesn’t have the fish, maybe he won’t get the spring either.’ There was no sign of the bronze artefact. ‘Where is it?’

  ‘In his vault,’ Banna told her.

  ‘Then we’d better get it.’ She hurried back to the door. ‘Eddie, this way. Kroll’s got the Andreas relic in a safe.’

  ‘But he has the key,’ objected Banna.

  ‘We can’t let him take it.’ She went to the Nazi leader’s study and opened the door.

  ‘We could just kill the bastard,’ Eddie suggested as the others followed her – then froze when he saw the room’s interior. ‘Fucking hell,’ he said in disgust, staring at the portrait of Hitler. ‘Definitely kill the bastard.’

  Nina pulled aside the swastika banner to reveal the vault door. ‘It’s in here – and so’s their supply of the water from the Spring of Immortality. Without it, they’ve got nothing.’

  ‘So how do we get it open?’ asked Zane.

  ‘I was kinda hoping Eddie had brought about half a ton of explosives with him.’

  Eddie shrugged apologetically. ‘Sorry, love. What you see is what you get.’

  ‘Yeah, I accepted that when I married you. But we’ve got to—’

  A sound from the hall – someone entering the house. ‘Get back,’ Eddie whispered. Everyone moved to the study’s periphery as he quietly closed the door.

  Someone spoke
in German: Kroll. The Nazi leader was angry, barking orders. ‘Ja, mein Führer,’ said a subordinate, hurrying back outside.

  Eddie brought up his gun – as did Zane, then Nina. The floorboards creaked as Kroll came towards the study. The Englishman gave Zane a look: nobody had closed the door to the map room, and the unconscious soldier was lying in plain sight . . .

  But Kroll walked past without pause. The door opened—

  Eddie was about to greet him with his gun, but Nina beat him to it. ‘Don’t fucking move,’ she snarled, pointing her MP5 at his head.

  Kroll froze. ‘Dr Wilde!’

  ‘Yeah, that’s right. And I’m sure you remember Jared.’

  Zane advanced on the obese Nazi. ‘I remember you,’ he said in a menacing tone.

  ‘Go to the vault,’ Nina ordered. Kroll raised his hands and stepped into the room.

  Eddie shut the door. ‘Ay up. So you’re the leader of the master race, eh? Master bators, more like.’ He nodded at the portrait. ‘You’ll need a wider frame than Shitler there to fit your gut in the picture.’

  ‘Who are you?’ Kroll demanded.

  ‘Eddie Chase. Nina’s husband.’

  ‘But I was told you were . . . Of course. Did you kill Santos? Silva would never have dared betray me if he was alive.’

  ‘Shut up,’ Nina snapped. ‘I ought to kill you for what you did to Macy.’ The image of her friend’s last moments came unbidden to her mind.

  The dark glare turned upon her. ‘Then why do you not, Dr Wilde?’

  ‘Don’t tempt me.’ She could – and she should, the desire for vengeance rising within her. All she had to do was pull the trigger . . .

  ‘They’ll hear the shots,’ Eddie warned, but that wasn’t what stopped her. The Nazi leader was unarmed, defenceless. Just like his victims – but that would make her no better than him. Her face twisted with anger, but her forefinger did not move.

  ‘I knew you could not,’ said Kroll smugly. ‘You are a product of your modern and civilised democracy.’ The words oozed sarcasm. ‘America and the United Nations are both the same – weak, degenerate, cowardly. Too squeamish to do what must be done.’

  Zane pressed his own gun against Kroll’s head. ‘She may be. I am not. You know that I came here to kill you.’

  ‘No, you came here to find me, boy,’ the Nazi sneered. ‘To bring me to your so-called justice. You still fear us, don’t you? Even after all this time. The Mossad does not hesitate to assassinate Arabs, Muslims, even Canadians – but Nazis, no, you dare not just murder us.’

  ‘You’re right,’ said Zane, after a moment. ‘We don’t murder Nazis. We make examples of them.’ He tilted his head to show the red ligature mark around his throat. ‘The last person to be executed in Israel was Adolf Eichmann. He was hanged. I’ve felt the rope around my neck – and I’ll be there when you feel it too. Only you’ll have no friends to rescue you.’

  ‘One man, in over fifty years,’ was Kroll’s disdainful response. ‘The Mossad fears us more than we fear you—’

  ‘Oh, bollocks to this,’ snapped Eddie. ‘This vault – how does it open?’

  ‘There’s a combination lock,’ Nina told him, ‘but he’s also got a key. Around his neck.’

  Eddie reached under the folds of fat overflowing Kroll’s collar to pull out the chain holding the key. A sharp tug, and it snapped. He put the key in the lock and turned it. A faint clunk came from the metal door, but it did not open. ‘All right, Das Bloat, what’s the combination?’

  ‘I will not tell you,’ said the Nazi.

  The Englishman shrugged. ‘Okay, then I’ll shoot you.’

  ‘And you will never open the vault.’ He gave the others a look of contempt. ‘The New Reich will still rise, even without me. You cannot change the course of history!’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ Nina fired back. ‘I’m getting quite good at it – I’ve had a lot of practice. You still need Andreas’ fish to find the Spring of Immortality – so if we take it and the last of your water, then even if you get to Iran, you’re left with nothing.’

  ‘Except ulcers from worrying about Mossad catching you before Interpol do,’ added Eddie.

  The Nazi leader was still defiant. ‘But you cannot open the vault. Even if you kill me, my men will soon come looking for me – you will have to leave here or die, and once you are gone, they will open the vault and find the spring.’

  Nina stared hard into the repulsive man’s eyes, just as his gaze had once drilled into hers to seek hidden truths . . . and this time, it was she who caught a flicker of fear. ‘No,’ she said quietly, remembering something from her first visit to his study. ‘No, they won’t.’

  ‘I assure you that they will!’

  ‘I don’t think so. You’re the only one who knows the vault’s combination, aren’t you? You hid it from the others when you opened it before.’ Kroll tried to maintain his angry mask, but now the others saw the worry behind it. ‘That’s how you keep your power, isn’t it? You’re the only one who can give them the water, so they have to follow your orders or they start getting older, just like everyone else. And you’ve all gotten so used to staying young, you can’t bear the idea of ageing.’

  ‘Even without me, they will open the vault soon enough,’ he growled.

  ‘But only to get the water. Rasche and the others aren’t as convinced by the legend as you, are they? Now that your hiding place has been exposed, they’ll just take what they can and run. Your dream will die with you.’

  Kroll’s silence spoke for him. Eddie pushed his gun against the German’s head. ‘Okay, unless you think your magic water’ll cure a bullet in the brain, you’d better open that fucking door in the next five seconds. Fünf, vier, drei . . .’

  ‘Englisch Schwein!’ the Nazi hissed – but he still reached to turn the combination dial. Eddie waited until he heard a click, then shoved Kroll away and pulled the handle.

  The steel door swung open, revealing the treasures inside. ‘Not a bad collection,’ said the Englishman, seeing the glint of gold and jewels. ‘Alexander’s was better, though.’

  ‘And Alexander’s wasn’t stolen,’ Nina added. Banna moved alongside her to gaze in wonderment at the relics. The metal fish was not in sight. ‘Okay, where is it?’ Kroll said nothing. ‘Eddie, see that big jar at the back? Can you smash it?’

  Eddie grinned. ‘Love to.’ He raised his gun.

  ‘No, wait!’ Kroll gasped. ‘I will get it.’

  ‘I’ll watch him,’ said Zane. He pushed Kroll forward with his own weapon.

  Nina and Banna moved to let the Nazi into the vault. Zane stood at the door, MP5 locked on to the obese man. Kroll licked his lips as he glanced back at the Israeli, then he lifted the twin of the Antikythera Mechanism off a case and opened it to reveal the Andreas relic. ‘It is here,’ he croaked.

  ‘Great,’ said Nina. ‘Bring it out.’

  He reached for the bronze fish—

  ‘Herr Kroll!’ called a voice from the hallway. ‘Wir haben noch sie nicht gef—’

  The door opened, a harried man in his forties rushing in – only to stop in alarm at the sight of the intruders as they whirled to face him. He shouted a warning and groped for his holstered gun.

  Eddie pushed Nina aside and fired. The new arrival fell backwards in a spray of blood. Zane turned back to cover Kroll—

  The astrolabe smacked hard against the Israeli’s head. He stumbled away from the entrance. Eddie also spun, but Kroll had already dropped the mechanism and pulled the startled Banna to him as a human shield. The Nazi retreated into the vault, grabbing the door’s inner handle and using his considerable weight to haul upon it.

  Eddie took aim through the rapidly narrowing gap, but he couldn’t shoot without hitting Banna. The last he saw of Kroll was a snarling half-smile, then t
he door closed with a heavy bang.

  Nina ran to the vault, hearing a rattle as the combination tumblers were reset from within. ‘Damn it! We’ve got to get it open!’

  ‘There’s no time,’ Zane said. Shouts came from outside the building as the Nazis reacted to the gunfire. ‘We need to get out of here!’

  Eddie grabbed a chair and hurled it through the window. Wood and glass disintegrated. ‘Quick route,’ he said.

  ‘But what about Ubayy?’ said Nina, with a helpless look at the closed vault.

  Zane ushered her to the new exit. ‘We can’t help him.’

  Eddie knocked out the remaining daggers of glass, then climbed through to a lawn behind the house. Nina followed. ‘They’ve still got the relic!’ she said. ‘They’ll be able to use it to find the spring—’

  ‘Herr Chase!’ A strained whisper from nearby.

  Eddie searched for the source, spotting movement behind a bush. ‘Roland?’ he called.

  The young man emerged from the shadows. He had changed into a Nazi uniform since the Englishman last saw him. ‘Yes! I went to the red hut, but when I saw you were not there, I thought you had either run for the ruins or come here after Herr Kroll.’ He regarded Nina grimly. ‘Dr Wilde, what you told me, about Macy – it was true.’ A glance at his left arm – then he tore off the swastika armband and threw it aside.

  ‘Yeah, it was,’ she replied as Zane landed behind her, ‘but we don’t have time to talk about it.’ A crash from inside as the front door was kicked open.

  ‘Follow me,’ said Roland, running down the lawn. The others hurried after him, Zane limping from his leg wound. ‘I know another hiding place.’

  A wooden fence surrounded the garden, but it was quickly vaulted. Eddie glanced towards the centre of the compound, seeing men heading for the house. The Nazis had regrouped and were now out for vengeance. ‘Where do we go?’

  ‘This way.’ The young blond led the way to the rear of a barn. The ground sloped away into a drainage ditch, exposing part of the structure’s foundations. Roland went to a particular section of planking and pulled at it. The boards came away to reveal a dark space behind. ‘Under here.’