“Indeed.” Drake nodded at Dahl and Wells. “And, over there, that’s just history repeating.” He looked tiredly through the closest window. “Can you believe, Kennedy, after the last week or so, that we’re still in the game here?”
“Can you believe,” Kennedy said, “that everyone’s buying in to this end of the world ‘fire will consume us’ theory?”
Drake was about to answer with weary aplomb when the bottom fell out of his world. The blood froze in his veins as something gigantic loomed outside the window.
Something so huge….
“I do now,” he hissed in the dread-filled voice of a man suddenly realising that everything he loved might die today. “Damnit… Kennedy… I do now.”
When he pointed out his revelation and Kennedy leaned across to take a look, he felt her entire frame stiffen.
“Oh my God!” she said. “That’s the…’
“I know,” Drake interrupted. “Dahl! Look at that. Look!”
The Swede caught his uncharacteristic show of fear, and quickly ended his call. A brief glance through the window made him frown in confusion. “It’s just Eyjafjallajokul. And yes, yes, Drake, I know, it’s easy for me to say, and yes, yes, it’s the one that made all the news in 2010… ” he paused, riveted, expectant.
Parnevik’s eyes were bugging. Swedish swear-words shot from him like poisoned darts.
Now Ben scooted close to the window. “Wow. It’s Iceland’s most famous volcano and it’s still erupting it seems, albeit gently.”
“Yes!” Drake cried. “Fire will consume us. The Goddamned Supervolcano.”
“But more importantly,” Kennedy now managed to continue, “look at the Shield’s image in elevation, Matt. Look at it!”
Parnevik now managed to find his flow: “Three mountains — not three triangles as has always been thought. The ancient scholars erred. Odin’s most famous symbol was decoded wrongly. Oh dear!”
Drake looked beyond the erupting volcano, and saw two even taller mountains flanking it that, when looked at in elevation, closely resembled Odin’s symbol.
“Oh dear,” Parnevik said. “Our eyes do play a trick here, because although those mountains appear next to Eyjafjallajokul, they are in fact hundreds of miles away. But they are part of the chain of Icelandic volcanoes. All connected.”
“So if one goes up with enough force, and is directly linked to those other two…” Kennedy continued.
“You’ve got the beginnings of a Supervolcano,” Drake finished.
“The Tomb of the Gods,” Dahl breathed, “is inside the erupting volcano.”
“And the removal of Odin’s bones makes it go boom!” Kennedy shook her head, unfettered hair flying. “Would you expect anything less?”
“Wait!” Dahl was watching the satellite image now that told them when they would reach the ‘Jellyfish’s’ eye. “We still need a bit of help with the directions, and this has always been my Plan B. That’s one enormous mountain there, and Abel Frey’s going to show us right through the front door.”
“How?” At least two voices asked.
Dahl winked and spoke to the pilot. “Take us higher.”
They were now so high that Drake couldn’t see even the mountains through the clouds. His new-found respect for the SGG Commander was in dire need of a lift.
“Alright, Torville, put the peasants outta their misery, eh?”
“Torsten,” Dahl corrected, before realising he was being goaded. “Oh, I see. Okay then, try to keep up if you can. This is my army speciality, or was, before I joined SGG. Aerial reconnaissance photography, in particular, Orthophotos.”
“That’s brilliant,” Drake said. “I’m erect as we speak. What the hell are those?”
“They are photographs taken from an ‘infinite’ distance, looking straight down, which are then geometrically altered into the accepted standard of a map. Once the photo is uploaded, all we have to do is align it with ‘real-world’ coordinates, then…” he shrugged.
“Boom!” Kennedy laughed. “You mean like Google Earth, right? Only without the 3D?”
“Indeed.” Drake made a face. “Hope this works, Dahl. It’s our only chance to get ahead of the endgame.”
“It will. And not only that, when the computer calculates the coordinates we will know exactly where the entrance to the Tomb of the Gods is. Even the Germans, in full possession of all nine Pieces, will have to estimate.”
“Assuming that the Germans align all the Pieces correctly,” Ben said with a humourless smile.
“Well, that’s true. We can only hope that Abel Frey knows what he’s doing. He’s certainly had enough time to practice.”
Drake slid out of his seat and looked for Wells. Saw him tapping his mobile against the window in frustration.
“Any news on Frey’s Chateau, mate?”
The SAS commander snorted. “Surrounded. But covertly — the Chateau is unaware of its new-found attention. German cops’re there. Interpol. Representatives from most of the world’s Governments. But not Mai, for some reason. I’ll not lie to you, Matt, it’s going to be one hard rock to crack without a shitload of losses.”
Drake nodded, thinking of Karin. He knew the odds, having played them many times. “So we’ll do the Tomb first… then see where we’re at.”
Just then there was some excitement near the front of the cramped chopper. Dahl turned around with a gleeful smile on his face. “Frey’s down there now! Arranging the Pieces. If we set this baby on full res and a snap-happy one-frame-per-second we’ll be inside that Tomb within the hour!”
“Have some respect,” Parnevik breathed reverently. “That’s Ragnarok down there. One of the greatest battlefields in known history, and the site of at least one Armageddon. Gods died screaming in that ice. Gods.”
“And so will Abel Frey,” Ben Blake said quietly. “If he’s harmed my sister.”
PART 2
get your armour on…
THIRTY-SIX
The game was up.
When Drake and his companions overflew Ragnarok and Abel Frey’s crew, heading towards the smoking mountain, they knew the Germans would be high-tailing it after them. The chopper descended rapidly towards a soft snow basin, jarred violently by random gusts of wind and a rebounding down-draught. The pilot finessed the collective until the chopper hovered as close as it was going to get, six feet off the ground, then shouted at everyone to get the hell off.
“Clock’s ticking!” Dahl shouted, as soon as his boots hit snow. “Let’s move!”
Drake reached out to steady Ben, before surveying their surroundings. The tiny basin had seemed the best drop-off point, being only a mile from the small entrance they had surveyed and the only land within reasonable distance that wasn’t too rocky or a potential magma tube. An extra bonus was it might help confuse Frey as to the Tomb’s exact location.
It was a bleak landscape, not unlike what the end of the world might look like, Drake thought. Layers of grey ash, drab-coloured mountain-sides, and blackened deposits of lava did nothing to boost his confidence as he waited for Dahl to pinpoint the entrance on his GPRS device. He half expected a bedraggled Hobbit to come crawling out of the dim mists claiming he’d reached Mordor. The wind wasn’t strong, but its sporadic gusts bit at his face like a pit-bull.