Gate Of Hades

by Robert Lopresti

About the Author: Robert Lopresti's 100+ stories have won the Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards and been reprinted in Best American Mystery Stories.

Excerpt

“You’ve all heard of the twelve labors of Hercules,” Gavin said. Our guide stood poised and posed on the hillside. I’m sure he was aware of what a picture he made with the blue Grecian sky and sea behind him. English, thirty-something, he had a movie star’s looks and a ham’s personality.

“Can anyone identify his last labor for us?”

Nine of the tourists didn’t bother to respond. We knew Suzume would beat us and she would be right, as usual.

“Cerberus.” She was tall for a person of Japanese ancestry, and her usual expression and delivery were so deadpan it made me wonder if she was on the spectrum. Neurodiverse, as they call it these days.

“Got it in one!” Gavin said. “Our lad Hercules dragged the three-headed pooch all the way up from Hades.”

He began to pace back and forth. “Brought him to Tiryns where King Eurystheus was so terrified he hid in a big oil jar.”

Some of us laughed.

“And since the king was the one who assigned the job to Hercules, the moral of the story is be careful what you wish for.”

I wondered if that was Gavin’s way of telling the group that some of us had been making too many special demands. It seemed like each hotel we stayed at had at least one room with a terrible view, and every restaurant served someone the wrong kind of wine.

Surely he must be used to American tourists by now.

“I suppose you’re wondering why I bring up Hades’s pooch in this lonely place.”

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