The crab continued its remorseless advance. ‘What do we do?’ said Nina in rising panic.
Eddie desperately searched for any weak spot in the metal monster. Disabling even one claw would give them enough space to jump over it… but whatever moved the pincers was buried inside the shell. The only visible part of the workings was the support pole through the track—
The sight stirred an unexpected memory. ‘Jared!’ he yelled. ‘Those spears — I need one of ’em!’
Zane broke off from his defence to shout back. ‘What? If bullets don’t stop it, what’s a spear going to do?’
‘Just do it, quick!’ The crab was now more than halfway up its path, squeezing those trapped above into an ever-smaller space.
Zane fired a burst at the Nazis — then sprang up and ran for the spears. Bullets hit the pathway behind him. He thumped against the wall, then grabbed one of the bronze shafts and tossed it base first down the slope. It clanged on the stone flags, skittering downhill until Taubman snatched it up. ‘Here!’ He passed it forward.
‘Nina, give me some light!’ Eddie said as he grabbed the ancient weapon and flipped its point towards the approaching crab. She shone her flashlight at the bronze behemoth. ‘All right, you shellfish bastard,’ he said, raising the spear…
He lunged, stabbing it down — not at the crab itself, but under it. The tip caught against one of the cracks between the stone slabs. Eddie crouched, keeping the weapon pressed into place as he lowered it almost flat against the slope. The crab ground over the shaft — and he pulled it up.
The monster’s weight almost wrenched the spear from his hands. He held on, straining to lift it. The metal shaft bent — but the crab tipped upwards as the chains dragging it uphill forced it on to the makeshift ramp.
The claws swung at the Englishman. He tried to dodge, but couldn’t move without releasing the spear. The tip of a bronze pincer slashed through his sleeve, tearing leather — and skin. He yelled in pain, but held his ground.
Another claw stabbed at him, its sharp point racing towards his chest—
The crab suddenly lurched as the spear lifted it up — and came loose from the post beneath. With nothing to support it, the metal creature skidded back downhill with a horrific screech, claws flailing, and flew off the precipice. No longer carrying a ton of bronze, the counterweighted pole shot past the startled group and hit the slab at the end of the track with enough force to split it in two. A moment later, the crab slammed into the ground with a boom that reverberated through the entire chasm.
Eddie dropped the bent spear, wasting no time worrying about his wound as he ran down the path. ‘We’re clear — come on!’ The others rushed after him.
Zane darted from his cover and raced pell-mell down the slope. ‘What did you do?’ he called to Eddie.
‘Ramped it out of the slot,’ the Englishman replied as he reached the foot of the steep section. ‘I remembered how I used to make racing cars do Dukes of Hazzard jumps when I was a kid by putting lolly sticks on the track.’ The lack of any immediate response made him add: ‘What, you don’t have Scalextric in Israel?’
‘No, all we have to play with are dreidels,’ the younger man said sarcastically.
‘You were a weird kid, Eddie,’ Nina told her husband. ‘Although it explains a lot: you spent your childhood wrecking toys, and now you do it for real.’
‘Tchah!’ The path ahead continued its descent around the chasm wall. ‘Okay,’ Eddie said, surveying it, ‘this goes all the way to the bottom.’
Nina’s own flashlight revealed a rubble-strewn rock floor below. But something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. At first she thought it was a fallen torch that had fared better than its owner, but when she looked directly at it, it disappeared. She glanced away and the faint glow returned — revealing itself to be coming not from the chasm, but another chamber entirely. ‘There’s a way out over there,’ she said, her light finding an arched opening, clearly man-made, at the base of the cliff.
‘Must be what we’re looking for,’ said Eddie. ‘This fucking spring’d better be in here after all this!’
Nina followed him down. Banna and Taubman were right behind her, Zane bringing up the rear. A shout came from above, followed by another fusillade of gunfire, but the incoming bullets hit only stone.
They reached the ground. ‘Turn off the lights!’ the Englishman ordered as he ran for the passage. He could see a shimmering luminescence from beyond the opening, only low but still enough to show that the way ahead was clear.
Torches clicked off. The Nazis fired a few more shots, but their targets were now lost in the darkness. Some way above Rasche’s group, Kroll shouted a command for them to speed their descent.
Eddie reached the entrance. The passage was almost ten feet high, turning a corner ahead. The soft light rippling over the walls grew brighter. ‘What the hell is that?’ he asked.
‘Water flashing like lightning,’ Nina replied. They rounded the corner, catching their first sight of what lay beyond… and stopping in amazement. The others stumbled to a halt, equally awed.
They had reached the Spring of Immortality.
35
‘Bloody hell,’ said Eddie as he took in the sight. ‘Andreas was a busy boy.’
They had entered a large subterranean chamber. The high ceiling was raw and natural, but everything below the level of the entrance had been worked upon by hand over a long period of time, the walls smooth and vertical. The stone was streaked with veins of silver, gleaming in the eerie light.
The source of the illumination was a pool of water fifty feet below. The glow came from within the water itself, foxfire coursing gently through its unreadable depths.
Incredible as the sight was, it was not what had reduced the visitors to gawkers. The walls were not the only man-made feature. A stone viaduct led from the entrance across to the far side. Two thirds of the way over was a low structure: a tomb. On top of the little mausoleum was the statue of a kneeling man, his back to them — facing a much bigger figure sculpted from the opposite wall.
Nina recognised it, as did Banna. ‘It is Alexander!’ the Egyptian exclaimed.
‘You’re right,’ she said, amazed. The handsome yet cruel features were the same as those she had seen in the tomb in Alexandria, though on a far bigger scale. This Alexander was not merely larger than life, but an actual giant, towering over everything else. Even in the half-light from the pool, his haughty, almost sneering expression was clear, the king regarding everyone beneath him with disdain.
‘What’s he holding?’ Eddie asked. Both Alexander’s hands were raised to his chest, something made from polished metal cupped in them. A set of stone steps led up to it.
‘It looks like a bowl,’ said Nina. ‘Come on, we need to see!’ She started across the viaduct, Banna following eagerly.
‘No, we need to poison the spring,’ countered Zane. He gestured for Taubman to cover the entrance, then set down his pack and took out a white plastic container.
Eddie, torn between going with his wife and preparing for the inevitable attack, looked over the viaduct’s wall-less side. The glowing pool was large, the far wall over a hundred feet away, and it was impossible to tell how deep it was. ‘How much have you got? Half a kilogram? I know cyanide’s lethal even in small doses, but there’s a lot of water down there.’
‘It’ll be enough,’ the Israeli insisted.
Nina paused beside the tomb, Banna continuing ahead. ‘I don’t even know if that’s the spring down there — the water isn’t flowing,’ she said. ‘It might just be a storage pond. If you poison that but don’t take out the actual source, you’ve wasted your time.’