She sighed, feigning defeat. ‘Okay, okay. I had a half-million dollar offer to write my autobiography and I needed time to work on it. It was a mercenary thing to do, and I’m not all that proud of it, but half a million bucks is a lot of money.’
‘That was not a lie,’ Kroll said after a moment. ‘But… it was not the whole truth, either. There is something more. Why did you resign?’
‘Who am I, Patrick McGoohan? I told you the reason. Half a million reasons, actually.’
Kroll’s stare remained locked on to her. ‘Rasche,’ he said, ‘shoot one of the others in the knee. The girl or the Araber, I do not care which.’
Rasche’s face lit up. ‘Jawohl, mein Führer!’ He drew his gun and pointed it at Macy’s leg—
‘No!’ Nina cried.
Kroll raised a hand. ‘Halten.’ Rasche froze, angry disappointment upon his face. ‘Well, Dr Wilde? The truth — or I will command him to fire.’
Nina looked helplessly up at her friend. This time, her expression of defeat was not faked. ‘I resigned because… I’m ill. Terminally ill. I’m dying.’
Kroll regarded her closely, also noting Macy’s dismay at the admission. ‘The truth at last. Of what are you dying?’
‘I was poisoned. By something the Soviets discovered in the Cold War, an organic toxin. I don’t know how long I’ve got left, but probably not long. And that’s why I came back to the IHA,’ she admitted. ‘So I could make one last discovery, by opening Alexander’s tomb. And stopping you from raiding it.’ She sat up, pressing a hand to the new bruise where Walther had kicked her. Revulsion instinctively crossed her face as her fingers felt the line of tumorous bulges beneath her clothing.
Again, Kroll caught the blink-fast flicker of her expression. ‘What was that?’
‘What was what?’ Nina asked, confused.
‘When you touched your side. There is something under your clothes.’
‘She was searched,’ Rasche insisted. ‘There is nothing hidden.’
‘Did you look, or did you just feel?’ Kroll snapped. ‘Dr Wilde, raise your shirt.’
‘What?’ Nina protested. ‘What the hell for?’
‘Do it!’ The Nazi leader glanced at Rasche, whose gun was still aimed at Macy.
‘Okay, okay! Jesus,’ Nina tugged up her grubby top. ‘There! Happy now…’
She had meant to say that with as much defiance as she could muster, but the words faded as she saw the growths on her skin.
In the whirlwind chaos of her visit to Egypt, she had not given them more than a cursory glance. But now she saw to her disgust and horror that even in the few days since she’d revealed them to Eddie, the loathsome excrescences had visibly grown. Worse, more had appeared, several angry red blisters extending the line of infection further around her torso. ‘Jesus,’ she repeated, this time in a whisper.
Macy gasped. ‘Oh my God! Nina…’
Kroll bent to peer at the tumours. ‘They are worse than you expected.’ It was not a question.
‘That’s right,’ Nina said, determined not to let the Nazi see her despair. ‘So you can’t threaten me. I’m already dead — I just haven’t stopped moving yet. And putting a bullet in my head would probably be doing me a favour.’
‘We still have your friends,’ Rasche warned.
‘We may have something more.’ Kroll straightened, a smile slowly oozing on to his lips. ‘I think you will help us find the Spring of Immortality, Dr Wilde. And you will do so because you want to.’
‘And why would I do that?’ demanded Nina.
The smile widened, exposing crooked, nicotine-stained teeth. ‘In the seventy years that we have been taking the water,’ said Kroll, ‘not one of us has been ill, even for one day. Not with so much as a cold. And the water does not merely prevent sickness. It cures it. Schneider had pneumonia when we found the pithos; after he drank from it, the infection disappeared.’ Schneider nodded in confirmation. The SS commander regarded Nina with the air of someone making an offer that could not be refused. ‘The spring is your only hope of staying alive, Dr Wilde. Help us find it… and we will share it with you.’
20
Nina was speechless. Not at Kroll’s offer in itself, but for what it could mean to her. She had resigned herself to the sickness spreading through her body, accepting that death was drawing ever closer… but now someone was offering her hope.
That someone being a murderous war criminal.
‘Think about it, Dr Wilde,’ Kroll went on, seeing her uncertainty. ‘You would not only be cured, but by drinking the water you would extend your own life. You wanted to make one last discovery — but how many more could you make with another century in which to make them? Find the spring, and I shall give you a lifetime supply of its water.’
Rasche objected sharply in German. Kroll responded with a verbal explosion that made his second-in-command flinch. The leader stalked across the room to stand right in front of Rasche and harangued his subordinate at full volume, spittle flying from his mouth. The younger guards seemed genuinely terrified by the outburst.
Kroll finally stopped ranting — but remained in Rasche’s face, nose to nose as if daring him to reply. Tight-lipped, jaw clenched, Rasche eventually drew himself to attention and said, ‘Nein, mein Führer.’ Kroll nodded in angry satisfaction and slowly stepped back, not breaking eye contact until he drew level with Nina.
‘Trouble in the ranks?’ she asked.
The baleful stare turned upon her. ‘Do not test me, Dr Wilde. My offer is genuine — although Obersturmführer Rasche did not approve. But he is now in agreement with me. As is every other man in the Enklave.’ He looked to Schneider, Walther and Gausmann, all of whom bowed their heads in deference. ‘Did you know that your name in German, Wilde, means a maniac, a savage? But that is not the impression I get from you. You are an intelligent and rational woman, so I will make you a proposal that only a fool could turn down. If you help us prolong our lives, I will help you save yours. I will of course let your friends go, unharmed. That is my offer. What do you say?’
Again, Nina found herself unable to answer. She didn’t believe Kroll for a moment. The Nazis had only resurfaced out of desperation; even if they found their life-extending prize, they couldn’t risk anyone revealing the location of their hideout. They were still on the wanted list of every international law enforcement agency — to say nothing of the blood vengeance sought by the Mossad. Letting their prisoners go would ensure their end, either in a prison cell or with a bullet to the head.
But…
What if the water really could cure her?
She knew it was unlikely. There was no proof of the water’s restorative properties other than Kroll’s word, which she considered absolutely worthless.
But…
His mere existence, decades younger than he should have been, confirmed that part of the legend was true. The Spring of Immortality had been found once — twice, in fact, since Andreas had returned to it after the death of Alexander the Great. Maybe it could be found again.
Maybe she could find it.
You’re insane, she tried to tell herself. Clutching at straws. And she was dealing with mass murderers, ruthless members of one of the most evil organisations in history, who were now actively working to resurrect it. If the spring still existed, then helping the Nazis find it would practically be a crime in itself.
But if she could locate it and keep it from them…