Kroll regarded her in silence… then slowly smiled, a chilling sight. ‘I am impressed. You have almost convinced yourself that you are speaking the truth. But I know you are lying.’
‘She’s not,’ said Macy. ‘We’ve been working on it flat out all this time, and we still haven’t found it.’
The SS commander turned to her. ‘You are not so convincing, I’m afraid. And as for you…’ He moved on to Banna, who was so overcome by fear he couldn’t even speak. ‘No. You know where to find the spring.’ He returned to Nina, the stink of his breath once more hitting her nostrils. ‘I have looked into the eyes of many people as I questioned them, so many I have lost count. I know, I always know, when they are telling me a lie. And you are lying.’
Nina felt her heart pound. Kroll wasn’t the only one who could tell what a person was thinking from their eyes; she knew that he had decided to do something terrible to force her to cooperate. ‘I’m not. Honest to God, we didn’t get anything else from the relic. That’s why we need to start again with a new translation, find out if—’
She stopped abruptly as the obese man drew his Luger. ‘Dr Wilde, you have three friends in this room: a fellow archaeologist, your protégé, and a Mossad agent who saved your life. You will now make a choice — which one of them I kill.’
Banna let out a terrified gasp, Macy going pale. Zane tried to speak, only to be silenced by another kick from Gausmann. ‘If you do not choose one,’ Kroll continued, ‘I will kill two of them. You have thirty seconds to decide… or to tell me the location of the Spring of Immortality. Your time begins now.’ He nodded to Rasche, who raised his watch arm.
Macy fearfully gripped Nina’s hand. ‘Oh God! Nina, what do we do?’
Despite her own terror, Nina stood firm. ‘There isn’t anything we can do, because we don’t know where the spring is!’
The Nazi leader was unmoved. ‘Twenty,’ Rasche announced.
‘We can’t tell you what we don’t know,’ Macy begged the watching men. ‘Don’t hurt us, please.’ Nina felt a rush of pride at her friend’s bravery. With her backup, they might call Kroll’s bluff…
If it was a bluff. She knew from the Nazi’s reputation that he had no compunction about killing. But even as she squeezed Macy’s hand in reassurance, she saw that Banna looked about to vomit, his face pallid and sweating, hands trembling.
Ready to crack.
Kroll knew it too. Years of interrogation and torture had taught him how to spot a confessor as well as a liar. He went to the Egyptian, raising the gun to his chest. ‘Do you have something to say, Dr Banna?’
‘We don’t know where it is!’ cried Nina, willing Banna to hold his nerve as Rasche counted down to ten seconds. ‘We need more time to find it!’
Rasche spoke over her. ‘Three. Two. One—’
‘Wait, wait!’ Banna shrieked. ‘We know where it is, we know, we know! Don’t kill me, please!’
‘Ubayy, no…’ Nina gasped, defeated.
Kroll gave her a brief look of satisfaction before returning his attention to Banna. ‘Where is the spring?’
‘I don’t know exactly — but wait, wait!’ he shrilled as the gun pressed against his sternum. ‘The tomb, Alexander’s tomb; it was moved! Ptolemy moved it from Memphis to Alexandria!’
Kroll’s eyes grew wide in realisation. ‘Yes… yes, of course! They are over two hundred kilometres apart…’
‘Andreas did not know that the tomb had been moved when he made the statue,’ Banna gabbled. ‘The spring is six and a half degrees of latitude from the tomb — but the tomb in Alexandria is over one degree farther north than the old one. That is why the results were in the sea! The spring is a long way south of where we first thought.’
‘And you have located it?’
Banna slumped in capitulation. ‘Yes. Not precisely, the maps were not detailed enough, but to within about thirty kilometres.’
‘And if you have a more accurate map… can you find it?’
‘Yes. Yes, I can.’
Zane reached pleadingly towards him. ‘No, don’t give it to them…’
‘Silence,’ snapped Kroll. Gausmann stamped the Israeli’s hand back to the floor.
‘What have you done?’ Nina said to Banna.
‘I have saved our lives!’ he replied, tears streaming down his face. ‘He was going to kill us, Nina!’
‘They’re going to kill us anyway! These people are Nazis — they’re murderers, psychopaths! And you just gave them a way to live for ever!’
‘You made the right choice, Dr Banna,’ said Kroll. He stepped back, but did not lower the gun. ‘Now that you have agreed to help us, you will live. However…’ he glanced down at Zane, ‘I do not need all of you.’
‘What?’ Banna said, shocked. ‘No! You said you would not kill us if we told you how to find the spring!’
‘Yes, I did.’ Kroll looked back at Nina. ‘But I will not tolerate deception, Dr Wilde. I must make an example of one of you.’
Macy’s hand tightened around Nina’s as Kroll lowered the gun towards the Israeli. ‘Oh, Jesus,’ she gasped.
‘If you’re going to kill anyone,’ Nina said desperately, ‘kill me! I’m the one who lied to you!’
‘No, I am not going to kill you, Dr Wilde,’ said Kroll. ‘Not yet. But I am going to kill someone we do not need.’
Zane gasped out a final defiant Hebrew curse as Kroll took aim. The Luger moved up his body, pointing at his stomach, his heart, his face…
Then the Nazi whirled around — and fired.
The bullet hit Macy in the upper chest. The young woman convulsed, her hand clenching painfully tightly around Nina’s. She stumbled back a single step, staring at her friend with wide-eyed disbelief… then her fingers went limp and she crumpled to the floor.
Nina couldn’t move, cold shock locking every muscle solid. For a moment her mind flatly refused to accept what she had just seen; she could still feel the warmth of Macy’s touch, the pressure of her grip. She was still standing beside her, whatever lies her eyes were telling her…
The feeling faded, and was gone.
‘No!’ Nina screamed. ‘No, you motherfucker, no!’ Paralysis was replaced by panic. She dropped to her knees beside Macy, pressing both hands over the wound. Hot blood squelched between her fingers. ‘Macy, no! You bastards, help her!’
Walther hauled her up, Nina struggling uselessly against the huge man’s hold. Macy tried to reach after her, but her arm flopped to the floor as the bloodstain swelled. ‘Nina, I…’ she whispered, her breathing rapid and shallow. ‘I don’t — I don’t want to die!’
Time seemed to slow for Nina, the air turning as thick as molasses. ‘No, you fuckers!’ she wailed, thrashing and kicking at Walther. ‘Please, I’ll do anything you want, just help her! Don’t let her die! Please, God!’
The war criminals stared back at her without pity. ‘You brought this upon yourself,’ said Kroll.
Helpless, Nina looked back at the trembling Macy. ‘Oh God,’ she said, eyes brimming. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry…’
A solitary tear ran down Macy’s cheek. ‘Nina…’ she said, the name barely audible…
Her shivering stopped.
Nina tried to speak, but the only sound that emerged was a choked sob of grief, horror, fear… guilt. Her legs weakened, Walther’s relentless grip alone keeping her upright.
A gesture from Kroll, and the big man let go. Nina slumped to the floor beside Macy. Vision blurred by tears, she groped for the young woman’s hand. ‘No, no… oh God, no,’ she managed to say, her whole body shaking as she wept. ‘She — she was only a kid, she never hurt anyone! Why did you have to kill her?’