Lazarus nodded and took her from Pierce’s arms. “I’ll start an IV.”
Although the big man was smiling, which was unusual to say the least, there was a haggard look about him. The ordeal he’d survived, and the pain he had suffered was hard to believe. But Pierce had seen it. Had seen the man survive the impossible. In a way, they all had. Pierce noticed Carter sitting on the ground behind Lazarus, evidently awake and alert, but the faraway look in her eyes made Pierce wonder if she was really there at all. Then she blinked, and turned her head toward them, once more looking like her old self.
Lazarus carried Fiona over to where Carter sat and gently set her down. Then, with a delicate precision that seem impossible for someone so large, he inserted an intravenous catheter into Fiona’s arm and started a saline drip. “This should tide her over,” he said.
“Bish?” Fiona’s eyes opened wide, looking up at him in awed disbelief. “Oh, God. I’m dead, aren’t I?”
“No,” Lazarus said with a grin. “You’re alive. And so am I. I’ll tell you all about it when we’re somewhere that isn’t here.”
Pierce gripped her shoulder. “Fi, I hate to do this to you, but the gate to the Underworld is still open. Can you close it?”
Her expression twisted in consternation. “I can try, but honestly I’m not sure how I got it open in the first place.”
“I can take care of that,” Lazarus said. “There are other ways to shut a door. Permanently.”
“Works for me,” Pierce said.
“I especially like the ‘permanently’ part,” Gallo added.
“I’ll plant the charges, but we should wait until we’re clear before detonating. Something tells me that one more explosion might crack open this whole valley.”
Pierce looked back at the steaming ground that had consumed their enemies. “As long as you don’t set off the super-volcano, it’s fine with me.”
As Lazarus stood to leave, a shout of protest echoed across the floor of the ravine. “No! You mustn’t do that!”
Pierce craned his head around and spotted Tyndareus, crawling toward them, dragging his wasted body along with one outstretched hand. The other was clutched against his chest, as if trying to protect an injury.
“You have to let me go in there.”
Pierce raised an eyebrow. “As tempting as that sounds, that would probably involve touching you again.”
Tyndareus’s strange blue eyes bulged, but then appeared to soften. He held out the hand he had been hugging to his chest, and Pierce saw that it contained a bunched up piece of velvet. “Please. It’s not for me.”
“What’s that? Lucky charm?”
“My brother. Castor. I must take him to the Source, so that he can be reborn.”
“Castor. So that would make you Pollux? Twins.” Pierce shook his head. “One of you is too many.”
Lazarus returned a moment later. “It’s done. Cintia can send the detonation command as soon as we’re clear.”
“Good. We’re out of here.”
“You really mean to do this?” Tyndareus said. “To destroy it forever?”
Pierce did not correct the slight misconception. “That’s what we do. Mostly so evil bastards like you won’t be able to screw up the world any worse than it already is.”
Lazarus lifted Fiona in his arms, while Pierce helped Gallo and Carter to their feet. As they started up the steep ravine wall, Tyndareus finally understood that they meant to leave him.
“Take me with you,” he pleaded. “I can pay you. As much as you want. Just name it.”
Pierce looked back. “I guess you haven’t heard. We raided your headquarters and seized all your assets. Everything. Cerberus belongs to the Herculean Society now. As a friend of mine said, we completely powned you.”
Fiona let out a snort. “Good one.”
“Thanks. Did I say it right?” He turned back to Tyndareus. “One of the first things I’m going to do is box up everything in your little shop of horrors and donate it to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. They may be able to find some use for it, but I hope they burn it all.”
Tyndareus didn’t reply to that, and Pierce was too focused on negotiating the loose earth to care. By the time he reached the top he had almost completely forgotten about the old man.
“You can’t just leave me here!” Tyndareus shrieked.
“Actually, I can,” Pierce shouted back. He turned to the others. “Anyone have a problem with that?”
No one did.
Cerberus Headquarters, Rome, Italy
Pierce kept his final promise to Tyndareus. The contents of the gallery enshrining the worst horrors of the Holocaust were boxed up and shipped anonymously to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., although Pierce held back the items in Mengele’s trophy case. Those, he burned.