A short while after the first aid was administered and the painkillers had set in, Captain Edgars led his team forward under the gargantuan drapes of shed exuviae through a widening tunnel. When they emerged, they stood before the Temple of the Serpent.

"Told you, Mr. Jonassen. These traps aren't shit."

He led the way between the columns, into the foyer of the wonderous structure.

Inside, a towering statue of a golden serpent snaked throughout the room, coils wrapping around a vaulted dome as it climbed thirty feet overhead. The suggestion of an enormous rattle hidden between two layers of scales loomed over the group even at ground level.

At the center of the room, atop a throne of bones mixed from man and beast, an hourglass-shaped vat reached up to the ceiling at the giant snake head high above.

If the serpent was indeed solid gold, Captain Edgars calculated, the treasure would weigh at least one hundred tons and be worth approximately six billion dollars.

But the golden statue was but a fraction of the total treasure.

Gold nuggets and rubies and diamonds gathered at the walls and formed mounds in the corners of the temple, equal to or more than the share of the serpent statue. And that didn't include the truckloads of gold on the lakeshore outside, or the value of the statue if they used a laser to cut it up and reassemble it in some affluent estate of a collector who might pay double the intrinsic worth.

"The ultimate treasure," Edgars murmured. "And there's so much."

The road had been hard, but the endgame was more than worth the risk. Edgars only wished Digger and Rex could be here to see it. He'd make sure their next of kin would receive their cut when they finished hauling out the trove.

Lacey grabbed two large diamonds and modeled them on her lobes. When she moved them to the tips of her tits, Napalm and Brain couldn't help taking notice.

Brain held a ruby the size of an ostrich egg up to the light and squinted through the flawless red faces. Simon crossed to Brain and confiscated the gem.

"Everything else is yours, but this—the Eye of the Serpent—is mine."

Brain shrugged. He easily found two rubies the size of golf balls, just as flawless, and stuffed them in his pocket. Napalm fell back into a mountain of gold and jewels and started throwing fistfuls into the air.

"We're rich!" He laughed and threw more treasure to make it rain. "Forget about an island. There's enough here to buy our own country."

Captain Edgars chuckled at Napalm while watching Simon with great interest.

Why give up all this? What's so important to this guy?

Simon looked around the room. He cradled the giant ruby as if caring for a fragile egg.

That ruby is like a dollar bill among millions of hundred-dollar bills.

Edgars couldn't puzzle it out, so he joined in by picking up a diamond and tossing it up like a baseball. When he threw it up the second time, the gem glinted in the light—and when it landed in his hand, it reflected the opened mouth of a giant snake slithering out between the folds of the golden serpent statue.

"Hard contact!" Edgars shouted. "Lookout!"

He chambered a round and lowered to a knee.

While Brain and the others scrambled to their feet, Captain Edgars opened fire.

The snake shot across the floor and tucked itself behind the glass vat. A spray of bullets struck the container but only chipped the thick crystal.

Napalm and Lacey stood shoulder to shoulder.

Fire erupted from Napalm's flamethrower, and Lacey loosed a spray of bullets at the serpent. His torch licked the feeding vat and curled around while Lacey's bullets scored on a section of the serpent not tucked behind the vat.

The snake coiled around the glass, corkscrewing its way to the top. It's scales flared.

"Spread out and surround it!" Edgars shouted. "Jonassen. Get behind me and stay behind me!" He suppressed a controlled burst of gunfire at the creature.

Widening the gap between Napalm and herself, Lacey aimed for the head. Bullets plinked off the surface along with sparks, but the weaving serpent remained a step ahead of her gunfire. Napalm followed the snake up with his flamethrower, grazing the body, but it moved too fast to inflict significant damage.

When the serpent wrapped itself around the crown of the vat, its body draped into the open top, onto the broken bodies and twisted flesh piled inside.

Hissssss.

Captain Edgars circled the feeding container and surrounded the creature with gunfire. He and Lacey pounded it with lead while Napalm's torch lit the rim of the vat.

The serpent screamed as part of it caught fire, but it coiled itself tighter, pressing its scales against the inside of the glass. When Lacey's barrage ceased, she ejected the spent clip.

Before it hit the ground, Edgars' weapon ran dry.

For that short moment, only Napalm's attack continued, and during those fleeting seconds, the serpent struck.

Fangs bared, it shot out of the vat.

The serpent landed in front of Napalm and batted him away before slithering toward Lacey. Napalm was thrown through the air and smacked against the wall. He slid to the floor and shook his head, eyes staring blankly.

Lacey crammed the clip into her gun and—

The snake whipped at her hands. The weapon knocked loose from her grasp and skittered across the floor. Layers of coils circled around Lacey like a tomb, ushering her into a shrinking center as it reared up to strike.

Captain Edgars loaded his clip and chambered a round, but the serpent had formed a wall between him and Lacey and puffed out its scales.

Edgars opened fire.

His shots landed with ruthless efficiency, but the bullets deflected off the reptilian skin like tank armor. Edgars edged forward warily, firing as he did.

Dripping venom from its fangs, the serpent hissed above Lacey.

She unshouldered her speargun and fired at the head of the creature. When the steel shaft deflected off the toughened scales, she drew her knife. She thrust her blade at the closest part of the body, but the titanium blade snapped off and clanged to the floor.

The snake's yellow eyes narrowed, but Lacey didn't close hers. She broadened her shoulders and raised her fists.

"Come on, motherfucker."

The edge of the serpent's mount curled into a sneer.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

***

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Captain Edgars recognized the battle cry, but it was not Lacey's.

The familiar shout filled the chamber with hope.

Rex leaped from behind a section of the golden serpent statue in the corner and charged into action. Bang stick at the ready, taped to his Sig, he hopped up onto the serpent's coils and raced up its body. He lowered one shoulder in front of him like a knight jousting a dragon.

Ready to fight for the fair maiden.

The serpent turned its head at Rex and blinked twice, clearly not afraid of this one man.

Rex climbed the scaly staircase. When he neared the head, he leaped. Rex jabbed his bang stick in the creature's eye and detonated the shell.

Blood and globs of eye tissue blew out like a firework.

The serpent raised its head to the domed ceiling and shrieked. Blood trickled down its scales. Hissing, the creature searched for Rex with its good eye but failed to locate him.

When the spent shell clinked on the floor of the temple and rolled next to Lacey's foot, she looked up to see Rex.

He screwed another round onto his weapon and slid across its back. When he crested the bony vertebrae, he pounded his bang stick into the serpent's other eye.

Another burst of gore splattered to the ground, and the snake thrashed.

As Rex fell, he opened fire.

Every one of the shots from his Sig scored hits in the mouth of the snake. Fangs shattered and chipped and fell away to the floor They rained over Lacey who was climbing out of her scaly prison, scales that were flattening from the steely defense.

Rex landed in a heap of treasure and slid backward over the mass of gems and gold.

"Fire everything you've got at that thing!" Lacey jumped out from the coils and dove for her weapon. She grabbed her machinegun and hammered the halfway-inserted clip home.

Lacey chambered a bullet and fired.

Edgars joined the chorus, his weapon spitting death, while Napalm's flamethrower lit the length of the beast. When a buzzing filled the temple, Lacey ducked as the drone zipped overhead.

Brain worked the controls of his one remaining drone, determined payback splayed across his face. When he rammed the device into the side of the serpent's head, it exploded into a condensed ball of golden flame that blew the lower jaw completely off the creature.

The snake rolled and twisted, tail whipping wildly.

Captain Edgars slid the lever on the side of his trusty weapon, and the hidden knife popped out. He stole a quick glance back at Simon who was clutching the enormous ruby in one hand and taking cover behind a mound of treasure.

"Let's see if you're as ugly inside as you are outside."

Edgars sprinted past the tail and ducked under as it swung at him head high. He plunged the blade deep into the fleshy underbelly of the beast and jerked his blade while moving up the body. He stopped before the flaming head, what was left of it, and ripped out his blade with a grunt.

The slit he had sliced split open. Entrails and organs poured onto the floor and spread out in a stinky, sloppy mess. Tail convulsing, the snake gurgled in its own blood and then stopped moving.

After a short moment, Edgars motioned to Lacey.

She checked the serpent for vital signs and reported back. "No pulse, sir. This bitch is dead."

"A female? How do you know?"

"Women's intuition." Lacey shrugged and winked "Good to see you again, Rex."

[1,688 words / 16,327 total]