“You’re going to perform a Vaudeville rendition of My Fair Lady?” Scarlet said.
“Shut up, and step away from your weapons — all of you!”
Scarlet turned to Hawke. “Never trust a woman with diamond ear-rings worth more than your house, that’s what I always say.”
“Enough! Get over there!”
Victoria waved the gun menacingly in their direction and then pointed its muzzle toward the treasure.
“So what happens now?” Hawke asked.
“I want you to start filling Sala’s Triton up with some of this gold, starting right now. He wanted the weapons but all we’re interested in is money.”
Scarlet gave a nod of agreement. “Understandable.”
“What then?” asked Hawke.
“Then, Leon and I are going back to the surface and you’re going to live out the remainder of your short and pointless lives in here, with your beloved gods. When I return to the world I’ll be sure to tell Dickie how brave you all were.”
“And how are you getting back to the surface?” Hawke’s voice was heavy with scepticism.
“I’m not a complete fool, Mr Hawke. I’ve trained on Tritons in the Keys, so I know what to do, and there’s always Leon.”
“We’ll just follow in our mini-sub.”
“I don’t think so, because I’m going to destroy it before I leave, and I know the Migaloo is useless to you because it requires a full crew to pilot it. Now, get going!”
Hawke picked up a large golden plate studded with emeralds and handed it to Lea who in turn handed it to Scarlet. Slowly they started their march back to the subs.
Lea looked over her shoulder at the archaeologist. “Who are you Victoria? Is that even your real name?”
“Of course it is, I’m not bloody Poison Ivy, you know. Just get on with it — I don’t want to spend all day here. Leon and I have an early retirement to fly to.”
Hawke heaved a trunk of gold over to the Migaloo and began to load the precious cargo inside the Triton mini submersible in the back of it. They had been slaving away for an hour now, hauling various pieces of treasure and other significant artefacts from the Hall to the lake where the subs were moored up. If Victoria’s plan was executed how she wanted and she forced him to destroy their mini-sub, that would cut off their only other escape route.
He looked up as he worked and watched the traitor as she surveyed their labor. She was now standing beside Leon Smets on a ledge at the side of the cavern running parallel to the water and keeping them under strict surveillance. He wasn’t exactly sure how Sir Richard Eden knew this woman but he thought maybe it was time for the old man to review his list of friends.
While the former SBS man’s mind raced with potential tactics — and none of them seemed particularly conducive to a successful escape — he saw not everyone shared his concerns. Even under threat of immediate execution, Ryan couldn’t contain his excitement as they uncovered one amazing ancient relic after another.
“Check out this incredible spear,” he said, peering inside one of the chests. “How did they make such a thing?”
Scarlet sighed “As pressing as that question is Ryan — and believe me it will certainly keep me up many a night — I think we have other concerns at the moment.”
“Hurry up, you idiots!” Victoria shouted.
After filling the Triton until it was almost dangerously overloaded, Victoria had Hawke pilot it out of the Migaloo and position it near the underwater exit where they had arrived. He sailed it past their mini-sub and returned to shore.
“Right,” Victoria said, turning to Hawke. “Get the C4 out of your bag in the mini-sub and set them to explode in thirty seconds or I shoot Lea.” She turned the gun on Lea and cocked the hammer.
Hawke clenched his jaw but knew he had no alternative. Following Victoria’s orders to the letter, he climbed inside their mini-sub and pulled some explosives from his C4 supply. Then he placed them on the most vulnerable points in the sub and inserted blasting caps.
As he clambered out of the sub, Victoria flicked her hand at him. “Give me the detonator, now.”
He walked toward her, ready to take her down if he had half a chance, but she wasn’t taking any chances. “Not so fast, Superman,” she said, taking a step back. “Put it on the floor and kick it over to me.”
He did as he was told and a moment later she held the detonator in her hand. She turned to face them and raised the detonator. “Any funny business and I’ll blow up your little sub right now! Now get back in the Hall!”
Lea was closest to Victoria as they turned to leave, and without any warning she lunged at her, but missed the gun and fell forward onto her knees.
Victoria turned the gun on Lea and squeezed the trigger. Ryan leaped in front of her and tried to grab the weapon but the archaeologist fired three more times. The sound of the gunpowder exploding so close to them in the enclosed space was deafening.
Ryan fell to the floor in a heap, and in the chaos Hawke punched Smets hard. In one move he smashed his jaw and disarmed him but the Belgian darted into a tunnel.
Victoria fired blindly at the others but quickly ran out of bullets. With no time to reload so close to the enemy, she turned on her heel and sprinted into the darkness of one of the tunnels behind her. In her panic she had dropped the detonation device for the C4 Hawke had put in the mini-sub.
“I’ll have that,” Scarlet said, snatching it from the ground.
“She’s getting away!” screamed Lea.
Hawke watched as Victoria receded into the darkness while Scarlet ran to Ryan. She pulled up his Batman t-shirt and after studying the wound she looked up at Hawke with a rare expression of anxious doubt on her face. “This is bad, Joe.”
Hawke’s mind filled with a desperate déjà vu as he recalled the terrible day Lea had gotten shot in the Tomb of Eternity. He couldn’t believe it was all happening again, but now to Ryan instead.
“Lea — get into your Dad’s research, fast. We know he was a student of Norse healing and we’re in the heart of Valhalla. Scarlet — look after Ryan while Lea’s looking for something to help him — and don’t forget that Smets could be anywhere.”
“Sure, but what about you?”
“I’m going give Lady Victoria Hamilton-Talbot a course in SBS etiquette.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Hawke crossed the bridge by the waterfalls and sprinted for the tunnel leading to the subs. Smets could wait, because right now the priority was stopping the treacherous Victoria. He knew she was planning on taking the Triton back to the shore where presumably the plan was to catch up with Trond and tell him the rest of them had been killed. That didn’t leave him much time to stop her.
If she got away in the Triton and somehow destroyed their mini-sub on the way out, it could block the exit tunnel and they would be trapped. Underwater cave systems like these had viciously strong currents and there was a reason why cave diving was considered a potentially deadly sport. He knew even he would have a seriously hard job getting out of this one, never mind Lea and Scarlet. A badly wounded Ryan Bale stood no chance at all.
He reached the other end of the tunnel a few moments later, and was just in time to see Victoria Hamilton-Talbot sprinting across the cave toward the subs. The Triton packed with gold was at the far end, but the mini-sub packed with C4 was closer and when he opened fire on her she had no choice. Desperate for cover and with the Triton another thirty seconds’ sprint away she clambered inside the explosive-laden mini-sub. She had obviously decided to cut her losses and try to escape with her life, leaving both the gold and her lover behind to face oblivion.
Charming, he thought.
He drew his gun and fired single-burst shots at the woman as she retreated inside the vessel, carefully avoiding striking the sub. She saw him and didn’t hesitate to return fire, blasting her gun in his direction.