The Hunt For Atlantis

knowing what else to do, she turned around and regarded the text carved into the coffin once again.

So this was how the story of Atlantis ended. Not with a crash of waves wiping a great power from the face of the earth, but in mundane ignominy, dying out through decay and corruption like every other fading empire in history.

In some ways, it was a good thing. The legend would remain exactly that, a story of wonder. The greatest mystery of all time.

But it didn’t make her feel any better.

Nina heard sounds from over the wall, clankings and clatterings as Qobras’s men opened the crate and prepared the bomb. She wondered how long she had left to live. Fifteen minutes? Ten?

Raised voices outside. She lifted her head. Their tone had suddenly changed: confusion mixed with concern.

The glow stick in her hand, Nina quickly descended the steps to stand by the wall, straining to hear the voices outside. Qobras was demanding answers, Starkman talking into his radio.

And getting no reply.

Then Qobras shouted something all too clearly, freezing her breath in her lungs. “Start the timer!”

Running footsteps. The sound quickly faded as they hurried up the road towards the tunnel.

“Oh, shit…” The urge for survival kicked back in; she ran around the wall, looking for any sign of an exit.

There was none. It was a solid ring of metal, the gold supported by iron, completely enclosing the temple.

The temple…

Maybe there was some hidden escape route like the one in the Temple of Poseidon! She raced back up the steps into the mausoleum, a flicker of hope in her heart.

But it was quickly extinguished. The interior walls and floor seemed solid, the only possible place anything could be concealed being inside the coffins-and she quickly found she wasn’t strong enough to open the heavy stone lids.

Helpless minutes passed, and the bomb was still ticking down to detonation-

A sudden noise made her jump. Not the bomb, but… gunfire!

The distant rattle of automatic weapons. Distant-but getting closer.

What was going on? She ran down the steps, listening at the wall. More gunfire echoed through the huge chamber-as did the thud of an explosion. A grenade? Another followed moments later, a scream abruptly cut off by the sharp bang.

Red light flooded the cave above her. Flares. She rushed back to the top of the steps to see over the wall.

A group of people-Qobras and his men, though fewer than before-were running towards her, firing wildly behind them at a larger force that was spreading out between the surrounding buildings. Muzzle flashes licked out from the new arrivals. One of the running men fell.

Other weapons fired, deeper thumps followed by explosions ahead of Qobras and his team. Their attackers were using grenade launchers! Debris flew in all directions. Nina ducked.

Qobras had been trying to reach the bomb. But he was now cut off from it, hemmed in by grenadiers who had his range.

The attackers had much greater firepower than the Brotherhood’s team. More weapons joined the fray, new notes added to the symphony of destruction. Dazzling bursts of light and piercing bangs came from flash grenades, blinding the defenders. Machine guns opened up, streams of bullets ripping into the ancient palaces and the men hiding behind them. More grenades exploded-followed by a thunderous crash as one of the buildings collapsed. Screams echoed through the cavern.

She heard Starkman’s voice over the din. “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Gradually the noise of guns died down.

They were surrendering!

Nina heard other men charging towards the temple. “Hey!” she cried, jumping down the steps two at a time. “Hey! I’m in here! Can you hear me? Get me out of here!”

More voices-then with a loud clank, a grapnel hooked over the top of the wall, shaking as somebody climbed up the cable.

A light shone over the top of the wall, a familiar face behind it. Balding, gap-toothed-and right now the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen in her life.

“Ay up, Doc,” said Chase, grinning down at her with unconcealed delight. “Did you miss me?”

TWENTY-FIVE

Are you okay?” Chase asked as he lowered Nina from the golden wall.

“I’m fine. Thanks. And I’m glad you are too-I thought you were dead!”

“Takes more than a sinking ship to kill me.” His look of triumph quickly faded.

“What is it?” Nina asked, fearing the worst.

His jaw muscles clenched before he answered. “Hugo didn’t make it.”

“Oh…” She touched his hand. “Oh God, I’m sorry…”

“Yeah.” He was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “Kari’s okay, though. She’s on her way down.”

“Kari’s here?” Nina asked, excited.

“Yeah, I told her to keep back until the shooting stopped.”

She surveyed the scene, lit by flashlights and glow sticks. The eight survivors of Qobras’s team-including Qobras himself, Starkman and Philby-were kneeling with their hands behind their heads, surrounded by a dozen men in black combat gear and body armor. At least another ten men were patrolling the surrounding area. She didn’t recognize any of them. “Who are these guys with you?”

“Frost’s security; they work for Schenk at Ravnsfjord. Military backgrounds, most of ’em-not SAS level, but good enough. Everyone I could round up in a hurry. I didn’t know how much time we’d have, so I figured the sooner the better.”

“You’re not kidding.” She gestured at the bomb, a malevolent dull green cylinder the size and shape of a water heater. “They’d set that thing to blow up.”

“I know. We stopped the timer with about five minutes to go.”

“Five minutes?” Nina shuddered at the thought of how close to death she’d been. “I hope you’ve switched it off.”

“It’s just on pause. Don’t worry,” Chase added, seeing Nina’s worried look, “nobody’s going to muck around with it and accidentally set the bloody thing off.”

“How did you find me?”

Chase grinned. “I got your postcard, so to speak. Good job I remembered the name of that village. If I hadn’t, we’d have been screwed. Tibet’s a big place.”

“You found me just from that so quickly?” Nina had thought her clue to Matthews was a longshot, but anything more specific would probably have earned the captain-and maybe herself-an instant death sentence. “I never had a chance to tell anyone the information in the last inscription from Atlantis-how they traveled up the Ganges to the Himalayas, how to find the Golden Peak, any of that.”

“You didn’t need to. Kari’s old man used his pull with the Chinese government to get us into the country, and we came straight to Xulaodang in choppers. Turns out the people there remembered the last time some Westerners came looking for one of their local legends. Kari got them to give us the directions and we flew right here. Knew we’d found the right place when we saw Qobras’s helicopters. Which are now in about a million smoking bits, by the way.” Chase glanced over at the prisoners, frowning. “Pity that bastard wasn’t inside one of them. Would have been good payback for Hugo.”

“What are you going to do with them?”