With her other hand, Sophia took Nina’s notebook. “Nice try,” Sophia told her coldly. “But just because I said ancient Greek wasn’t my speciality doesn’t mean that I didn’t pass it. I can translate the word ‘trap.’”

Corvus flinched back as if he’d received an electric shock. “What?”

Sophia stepped away from Nina, keeping the gun trained on her. “She’s absolutely right that those are the most valuable items in the entire tomb-which makes them the perfect final trap. No thief would be able to resist them… but taking them triggers the last booby trap and brings down the entire tomb! Look at the top of the ramps.” Flashlights snapped up to light the alcoves. “If those stones roll down, they’ll smash the support pillars and the roof will collapse.”

Corvus wiped his brow. “My God! She would have killed us all!”

“Oh, I think she was more hoping that we’d be distracted long enough for them to run for the exit. Look at how Eddie was trying to sidle close enough to Joe to take a swing at him.” Komosa looked at Chase, then whipped up his gun and jumped back with an almost outraged expression.

Chase shrugged nonchalantly. “Ah well. Gave it our best shot.”

“I think ‘shot’ is the right word,” said Corvus angrily. “Kill them!”

His men raised their guns-

“Oh really, René,” Sophia said with a mischievous smile, waving at the gunmen to stand down. They paused midmotion, weapons raised but not aimed. “Aren’t you at least going to tell them why you’ve gone to all this trouble to find the Tomb of Hercules? It would be terribly disappointing if they died thinking it was merely about money.”

Corvus frowned. “I am not Dr. No or Blofeld, Sophia,” he said. “I am not going to waste time telling them my plans before I have them killed.”

Sophia climbed onto the plinth and slunk seductively over to him, running her hands around his waist and placing her chin teasingly on his shoulder. “Oh come on. I know you’re dying to tell somebody. Go on, impress them with your vision of the new world order.” Her voice dropped to a breathy near-whisper. “I know it impressed me.”

Chase made a gagging sound, but Corvus smiled. “Very well. But first, we should get things moving.” He looked down at one of his men at the foot of the plinth. “Have you got our precise location?”

The man checked the screen of a tablet computer. “According to the inertial mapper, we’ve traveled one hundred and seventy-six meters west from the entrance.”

Corvus looked surprised. “That would take us right under the other side of the hill!”

“It’s not a hill,” Nina explained. “The tomb, the labyrinth, all the trials-the builders constructed them first, and then they buried them. The whole hill is man-made-that’s why it doesn’t fit the topography of the region.”

Corvus looked up at the ceiling. “You mean everything above us is artificial?”

“Yeah. As ancient feats of engineering go, it’s not that impressive-all they needed to do was pile up enough rubble. It wasn’t like building the Pyramids. But it’s what was beneath it that was important.”

Corvus addressed the man with the computer again. “Contact the team outside, have them fly to directly above this location. How deep underground are we?”

The man tapped a stylus on the screen, making calculations. “There should be no more than a meter between the ceiling of the tomb and the ground above. Perhaps even less.”

“Easy to blast through, then. We can open a hole in the roof and use the winch platform to lift the gold to the surface.” The billionaire tipped back his head to examine the ceiling again. “Make the arrangements. We will transport as much as the helicopters can carry, then return with more heavy-lift aircraft for the rest.”

“So, Auric, what do you want with the gold?” Chase taunted.

Corvus apparently didn’t understand the Goldfinger reference, but still took up position at the edge of the plinth, staring down at Chase and Nina. Sophia stood behind his left shoulder. “Sophia was correct-I want to establish a new world order. One where men like myself, the elite of humanity, are able to create wealth and exercise our power without hindrance from small-minded bureaucrats and petty populist vote-grubbers. I am going to establish…” He paused, raising his voice grandly. “A new Atlantis.”

Nina and Chase shared a look. “Been, seen, done,” said Nina, unimpressed.

Corvus smirked. “This is not some insane plan to ethnically cleanse the world, Dr. Wilde. What use is a business empire when three-quarters of your potential customers and labor force are dead? No, my Atlantis will be something else. The new capital of the world.”

“Sorry,” said Nina, shaking her head, “but New York’s not gonna give up the title without a fight.”

“London,” Chase corrected her.

“New York!”

“Atlantis,” said Corvus, looking slightly irritated by their distraction, “will rule the world. An entirely new city, a home to the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people-subject to my personal invitation. A city from where their global empires can be run free from interference from governments, free of taxes, free to do business as business should be done.”

“There’s nowhere on earth that’ll let you set up your own little free state on their territory,” Nina pointed out. “Or were you just planning to buy an entire country with all this?” She waved a hand at the treasures around them.

“My Atlantis will be built where the name suggests,” said Corvus. “In the Atlantic. Or, more precisely, beneath it. The technology has already been proved with my home in the Bahamas, and with my underwater hotel in Dubai. It is merely a matter of scaling it up to create a city capable of supporting thousands of people. It will be the coming together of the most powerful group of men in human history.”

“Oh, so you’re not Goldfinger,” said Chase. “You’re Stromberg.”

“It won’t work,” Nina scoffed. “You seriously think the world’s governments are going to let their richest citizens swan off to some self-proclaimed new city-state so they can play Masters of the Universe without paying any taxes? The first visitor you’ll get will be the U.S. Navy, and your housewarming gift will be a ton of depth charges!”

“The independence of Atlantis will be quickly granted by the United Nations,” Corvus said smugly. “I have an incentive. Yuen’s atomic bombs, which now belong to me. Nothing ensures international concessions, particularly from the United States, more quickly than a nuclear deterrent.”

Chase grinned. “Except you’ve only got one bomb. I fucked up the factory in Switzerland.”

“You destroyed the lasers, Chase. Not the factory. The lasers are just components, nothing more. They have already been replaced.”

Chase’s face fell. “Oh. Buggeration and fuckery.”

“So why would the world’s richest men need the treasure from the Tomb of Hercules?” Nina asked.

“As a guarantee of financial independence,” explained Corvus. “The world’s major currencies are now backed by little more than government promises-the days when every paper dollar issued by the U.S. government was matched by a dollar’s worth of gold are long gone. So not only is the entire global economy nothing more than a bubble supported by faith in those currencies, but governments can-and do-use their power over currency and the stock markets to attack corporations. If the Securities and Exchange Commission suspends a company’s stocks, then that company and its shareholders are wiped out in a moment by nothing more than loss of faith, billions of dollars reduced to zero.” He swept out his arms, taking in the unimaginable riches surrounding him. “But all of this… this will be the base for Atlantis’s currency. It will be backed up by physical wealth, by gold, which retains its value even if the world economy collapses.”