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!’