He regarded the couple with an expectant expression. ‘Sooo…’ Nina said, after a few seconds of silence, ‘you want us to… what?’
‘I want you to help me do that,’ he replied. ‘Or rather,’ he went on, facing Eddie, ‘I want you to help me. No offence, Dr Wilde, but you don’t have the skills I need. But having read your husband’s file, I know he does.’
The Englishman let out a dismissive laugh. ‘Wait, you want me to go with you? And, what? Beat the truth out of this bloke?’
‘If that’s what it takes, yes.’
‘Why do you need Eddie?’ Nina demanded. ‘You’re in…’ she dropped her voice, ‘the Mossad. You must have other agents.’
‘We do, but they’re all in other divisions. Ben and I were the CSU’s only currently active field agents. It could take days to recall someone else.’ Zane’s youthful face suddenly became harder, older. ‘I don’t want to wait that long. I want answers now. But… I can’t do it by myself,’ he said, the admission difficult. ‘Leitz takes his security very seriously. That’s why I need you, Chase. On my own, it would be very hard to get to him. But with two of us…’
Eddie shook his head. ‘And why the fuck would I want to do that?’
‘Because you owe me. Both of you.’
‘How do you figure that?’ asked Nina.
‘We saved you from Walther and — and Rasche.’ Anger rose in the Israeli’s voice as he named his partner’s killer, but he quickly covered it. ‘Without us, the Nazis would have the statue.’
‘I don’t care about the statue,’ said Eddie. Nina shot him an irritated look.
‘But you care about your wife, don’t you?’ Zane snapped. ‘Without us, she’d be dead.’
‘She was doing okay when I turned up.’
‘No, that’s… probably true,’ the redhead was forced to admit to her husband. ‘The Nazis had me cornered. He and his friend took out two of them and held the others off…’ She hesitated, seeing the Mossad agent’s expression flicker. This time, the emotion he was trying to conceal was not anger. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked in a gentle tone.
‘Yes, of course,’ Zane replied. The muscles around his mouth were drawn tight.
‘No you’re not. Mr Falk — Ben; he was more than just your boss, wasn’t he?’
The young man was obviously reluctant to open up on the matter, especially before Eddie, but after a moment of conflict he admitted, ‘Yes. Ben was… my mentor, I guess. He taught me everything.’ A lengthy pause. ‘More than that. He saw something in me that nobody else had, not even me. If it wasn’t for him…’
‘You wouldn’t be who you are now?’ Eddie finished for him with a new understanding, even sympathy, in his voice. ‘I’m sorry. I know what you’re going through.’
Zane shook his head. ‘I doubt it.’
‘You’re not the only one who’s lost someone like that.’
The Israeli regarded him with surprise, but then shook his head again as if to dismiss the subject. ‘I need to get that information from Leitz.’
‘And you want Eddie to help you get it?’ Nina said.
To her concern, Eddie did not dismiss the idea out of hand. ‘Whereabouts in Italy is this guy?’ he asked Zane.
‘He has a villa south of Naples. Just outside Amalfi.’
‘Amalfi? I know the place.’
‘You do?’
‘We just visited it,’ said Nina, her alarm growing. ‘Eddie, you’re not seriously—’
‘I am seriously,’ he cut in.
The Mossad agent was surprised again; apparently he had not expected it to be so easy to convince the Englishman. ‘You are?’
‘You are?’ Nina echoed, appalled.
‘You’ll make the arrangements, right?’ Eddie said to Zane. ‘Flights, cars, all of that?’ The Israeli nodded. ‘Good. Then I’ll go with you. Get us on the first flight to Naples — and make sure everything we’ll need is waiting for us at the other end.’
‘I know what I’m doing,’ said Zane with an edge of annoyance. ‘But — you’re really willing to help me?’
‘Those bastards tried to kill us, twice now. That deserves some payback. Plus,’ he added with a cold grin, ‘I’ve always wanted to beat the shit out of some actual Nazis.’
‘That’s because you’ve watched Where Eagles Dare too many times,’ Nina told him. ‘And no, you’re not jetting off to Italy!’
‘Yes I am,’ Eddie said. He turned back to Zane before she could respond. ‘Call me here at the hotel when it’s time to go. I’ll be ready.’
‘Okay.’ Zane stood. ‘Dr Wilde,’ he said with a polite nod before leaving.
Eddie also got up, heading for the elevators. ‘I’d better start packing.’
Nina hurried after him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, Eddie?’
‘I think I’m going to Italy to track down those twats who’ve been trying to kill us. Thought that was pretty much decided.’
‘I didn’t decide it!’
‘Yeah, and I didn’t decide that you were going to sit around in Egypt puzzling out some fucking two-thousand-year-old treasure hunt.’ The doors opened and he stepped inside, jabbing the button for their floor.
Nina followed. ‘Oh, so that’s what this is about? You’re mad that I want to see this through, so you’re dealing with it by going Nazi-hunting?’
‘No, I’m mad because you’ve apparently got better things to do with the rest of your life than spend it with me!’ He looked past her to see a tourist regarding them from the lobby. ‘Going up? Don’t mind us.’
‘It’s okay, I’ll… you know, the next one,’ the embarrassed man replied, flapping a hand at the neighbouring elevator before hurriedly sidestepping out of sight.
‘That’s not what I’m doing, Eddie,’ Nina insisted.
‘It’s what it feels like.’ The doors closed, and the lift ascended.
She tried to control her anger. ‘I don’t want you to go to Italy.’
‘And I don’t want you to stay in Egypt to decode that bloody fish.’ A long silence followed, broken by the ping of the bell announcing that they had reached their floor. ‘I don’t hear you saying you won’t.’
‘No, you don’t,’ said Nina as the doors opened. ‘And I don’t hear you saying you’ll stay here.’
‘Nope.’ Eddie stepped on to the landing.
‘So that’s it? You’re going and I’m staying? We’re not going to talk about this?’
‘You made it pretty clear we already had. You coming?’
She didn’t move. ‘I guess not.’
They regarded each other with sullen displeasure. The doors rumbled shut. Neither did anything to stop them. They banged closed, and the elevator started its descent.
14
Deyab led Nina from the hotel’s side entrance to the waiting cars. Macy stood outside the middle vehicle, a Toyota minivan; she regarded the pair with confusion. ‘Where’s Eddie?’
‘He’s not coming,’ was Nina’s curt reply. She clambered into the van, finding Banna and Habib already occupying the back row of seats, and took a place on the middle row.
‘What? Why not?’
‘He’s doing something he thinks is more important. And no, I don’t want to talk about it,’ she added to forestall the inevitable follow-up questions.
‘Uh… okay,’ Macy said, clearly aching to know more. But she managed to keep quiet as she got in beside Nina. Deyab took the wheel and waited for the Mercedes he had been driving the day before, now leading the convoy, to pull away before following. Behind, a Toyota Fortuner SUV took up the rear position. The accompanying vehicles were occupied by the ASPS, acting as guards for both the archaeologists and the contents of the case in the minivan’s rear.