‘By killing us outside it, right?’
The German smiled, but there was nothing except cruelty behind it. ‘You are a clever woman, Dr Wilde.’
They descended into the treasury and headed down the central aisle. Nina glanced around in growing fear, searching the shadows for her husband, but there was no sign of him. ‘Eddie, where are you?’ she whispered.
Inside the metal chest, Eddie watched Nina and the others with growing desperation. The archaeologists’ expressions — Banna was close to tears — warned him that they didn’t expect to leave the room alive.
He had to do something. But even if he got out of his hiding place without alerting the guards, he was still unarmed…
The silhouette of a nearby treasure caught his eye as the procession passed behind it. That gave him a weapon, however impractical — if he could reach it.
Rasche held up his hand. The group stopped, Walther putting down the statue. Macy felt Eddie’s muscles tighten. ‘What is it?’
He watched helplessly as the three prisoners were pushed into a line. ‘They’re going to kill them…’
‘Wait!’ Nina pleaded as she was shoved between Assad and Banna. ‘You don’t have to do this. You’ve got what you came for — just take it and go!’
None of the faces looking back at her showed any inclination towards mercy. Rasche could barely contain a rat-like smile of anticipation as he raised his gun.
‘Goodbye, Dr Wilde,’ he said — aiming at Nina’s heart.
9
‘No!’ cried Assad, lunging forward — in front of Nina.
The bullet ripped into his chest, the burst of blood almost aglow in the glare of the tactical light. The Egyptian fell to the floor. His eyes met Nina’s, trying to send her a last silent message… then they rolled back as life left his body.
Banna stared in disbelief at his mentor, then wailed in shock and despair. Nina looked up — to see Rasche’s smoking gun still pointing at her.
His finger tightened again—
A crash from the darkness made him whirl.
The gunshot’s echoes had not even faded before Eddie fought past his horror and threw open the chest to leap out and run for his weapon.
It was a sword, over-ornate and gaudy, but beneath the hilt’s gold and jewels the two-foot curved blade was still honed. He snatched it up without breaking step as he rushed at the nearest Nazi.
The man’s attention had been on his commander, his hearing momentarily overpowered by the gun’s blast — but now he caught a new sound from behind.
He turned—
Eddie slashed the sword at his throat with a two-handed swing. There was a flat chut of tearing flesh and a crack of bone — and the Nazi’s head tumbled off his shoulders with a gush of arterial spray. The nerveless body crashed on to a pile of treasure.
The Englishman dropped his blade and grabbed the dead man’s gun. It was a SIG Sauer MPX-K, an ultra-compact sub-machine gun so new that it was the first time Eddie had seen one in person. Its sales were supposed to be restricted to military and law enforcement agencies, but he had no time to wonder how the raiders had obtained their sidearms.
Instead, he used it.
Another guard spun at the noise, only to take a three-round burst to his face. But the men in black were well trained, and fast. Even as the second Nazi fell, the others near the door were already diving behind pillars and larger relics.
Eddie glanced at the group holding Nina and Banna as he too pulled back into shelter, switching off his weapon’s tac-light. Rasche shrieked orders, his men moving to face the new threat, then whipped around, gun raised to kill his two remaining prisoners—
Another burst from the stolen MPX forced him to scurry back. ‘Nina, run!’ Eddie roared.
Nina pulled Banna after her as Rasche ducked behind a column to avoid her husband’s bullets. ‘Come on!’ she yelled. The young Egyptian was in a helpless daze. She practically had to drag him around a pillar.
The German fired again — but hit only stone. He cursed, then shouted more commands to his men.
Eddie peeked around the column. He now had an advantage, however smalclass="underline" the intruders’ positions were being given away by their tactical lights, while he was concealed in the shadows. There were three men near the door, the rest spread out in the centre of the chamber.
He spotted something else in the sweep of a tac-light: the statue of Bucephalus where the giant had left it in the aisle. That was what the attackers had come for — so if it were taken away from them, they might leave…
He switched the MPX’s selector to single-shot — and fired.
A thumb-sized chunk of the horse’s mane shattered into splinters. He adjusted his aim to compensate for the stubby weapon’s recoil and locked on to the statue’s head. Take out the ancient text inscribed on its reins, and the bad guys had nothing—
Rasche had reached the same conclusion. Another bellowed order — and the chamber lit up with multiple muzzle flashes as the intruders opened fire on the Englishman.
‘Shit!’ Eddie gasped, jerking back as shrapnel spat past. Bullets clanged off gold and bronze, pottery exploding in the darkness. He heard Macy shriek as a ricochet whined off the bronze chest.
The light beams shifted. His attackers were heading for the door. He risked a glance down the length of the chamber, seeing before another onslaught drove him back that Nina and Banna had found cover — but also that Walther had grabbed the statue once more and was hurrying towards the exit.
‘Are you okay?’ Nina asked the hyperventilating Banna. ‘Dr Banna!’
He struggled to focus on her, jabbering in panicked Arabic before slowing and switching to English. ‘I, I am okay, yes. But Ismail and the others, they — they killed them!’
‘We’re still not safe,’ she warned. ‘When I tell you, run for that pillar — the farther we are from them, the better our chances.’ She indicated the next closest column to the burial chamber, then peered back towards Rasche.
He and the rest of the main group were moving away from her. A moment of relief — which was short-lived as she realised they were keeping Eddie pinned down while Walther escaped with the sculpture of Bucephalus. ‘Run, now!’ she shouted over the echoing gunfire. Banna didn’t move. ‘Dammit, go!’
‘I–I can’t!’ he gasped. ‘I don’t want to die!’
She felt a flash of contempt for him — which was immediately replaced by guilt at her own arrogance. Her own reaction only a few years earlier would have been a similar terror. ‘Okay, then get down and stay out of sight,’ she said instead.
Another look at the retreating Nazis. The younger men had formed a protective cordon around Walther and his precious cargo, backing towards the exit as they kept up their assault on Eddie’s position. Rasche shouted more orders, one of the group near the door taking something from his webbing.
A yell of ‘Granaten!’ warned her what it was. The word was easy to translate.
‘Eddie!’ she cried. ‘They’ve got—’
‘Grenades? Fuck!’ Eddie yelped. NATO training exercises during his military career had taught him danger warnings in multiple languages. He looked for shelter, but the dancing shadows cast by the strobing muzzle flashes made it impossible to pick anything out amongst the visual confusion. ‘Macy, shut the lid and stay down!’
He had no idea if she had heard him — and no time to warn her again. All he could do was run—