De Klerx stepped in front of him, anger joined by victorious exultation. He drew back a foot to smash his steel toecap into Eddie’s defenceless face—
Nina’s voice cut through the hubbub. ‘Fix the fusebox!’
The senior technician suddenly realised that nobody was monitoring the particle accelerator. He whirled to check the readings — as the display reached five thousand, sooner than he had expected—
The control room was plunged into darkness.
De Klerx hesitated before delivering his kick — but Eddie had already moved in instant response to Nina’s coded warning, twisting to dodge the attack and grabbing the Dutchman’s foot with both hands.
The technician scrambled for the control to activate the second-stage power supply as the accelerator drew greedily upon every erg of electricity from the rest of the base. The circuit closed with a bang, the lights coming back on.
Eddie forced himself up, still gripping De Klerx’s foot and driving the flailing Dutchman backwards. He hit Kang, sending the short man spinning into Mikkelsson and Sarah. Husband and wife both fell as the Yorkshireman threw De Klerx to the floor.
The soldiers recovered from their momentary blindness, guns snapping up — but their commander and chief of security were too close to their target. The only man with a clear line of fire was Nina’s guard. He fumbled to bring his rifle to bear—
Nina threw herself against him. The man stumbled — and tripped over Mikkelsson. His gun skidded across the floor…
To be snatched up by Eddie.
The Englishman whipped around and pulled the trigger. The Type 58, an AK-47 copy, was set on full auto, its thudding bark almost deafening as bullets ripped through the soldiers and technicians. They fell screaming, blood spouting from their wounds. Bok dived behind the desk, the bullets meant for him instead sending the senior technician flying against the control panels with gushing rosettes of blood across his white coat.
The rifle’s bolt clacked. It had only taken three seconds to empty the magazine, but that was all Eddie needed. The last rank-and-file soldier still alive was Nina’s guard, who lifted his head — only for it to slam back against the floor with a crimson spurt as the Yorkshireman used the empty gun as a club. ‘Nina, go!’ he shouted, dropping the Type 58 and looking for a replacement. None of the dead soldiers’ weapons were in immediate reach — and now Kang was fumbling for his holstered pistol, Bok doing the same.
Eddie ran for the stairs, stamping on De Klerx on the way. Nina was already heading for the exit, pulling a particular lever as she passed. He held back for a second to let her by, then clattered down the steps after her — as a bullet from Kang’s pistol blew a chunk out of the wall just behind his head. ‘What did you do?’ he asked as they reached the floor below.
‘Opened those!’ She gestured towards the radiation shields, which were slowly parting, exposing the Crucible within.
‘But we’ll get fucking zapped!’
‘Not if we get clear! We saw it in the Midas Cave. Radiation travels in straight lines, but the tunnels curve!’ She ran for the nearest circular entrance. ‘We’ve got about a minute before the neutron burst!’
‘A minute? But you sped up the fucking countdown!’
‘Oh. Yeah, I did, didn’t I? Oops.’ They reached the tunnel. It followed a sweeping arc into the distance, the gleaming steel tube of the accelerator and its pipework-entangled electromagnets disappearing around the bend a hundred metres distant. ‘Better run if you don’t want a glowing butt!’
They raced down the tunnel as the accelerator’s shrill grew ever louder.
Bok ran to the window. ‘They’re in the tunnel!’
Kang took in the strewn corpses of his men with shock. The translator was among them. ‘Get another squad down here! Go after them!’ Bok barked urgent commands into his radio.
Mikkelsson stood, helping Sarah up. ‘I think we should leave,’ he said in English as the few surviving technicians hastened to their workstations. ‘And I suggest you do too, Colonel. This area is not safe with Wilde and Chase on the loose.’
‘We will catch them,’ said the security chief.
‘I’ll catch them,’ snarled De Klerx. He grabbed a gun from the floor, looking back at Sarah. ‘I’ll make them pay for Anastasia.’ He hurried down the stairs.
Mikkelsson took his wife’s hand and started for the elevators, collecting the case holding the small Crucible. ‘Colonel,’ he said in Korean. ‘Are you coming?’
Kang stared at the container, caught between his desire for revenge and the prospect of riches. ‘Yes,’ he decided. ‘Bok, come with us. Until more men are down here, you’re our bodyguard.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Bok replied, also eyeing the case. Kang ordered the technicians to regain control of the huge machine below and complete the transmutation process, then the group quickly departed.
Fixated on their own readouts, conditioned by the secrecy and paranoia of North Korea to focus only on their own task and not question what was happening beyond it, none of the operators thought to look out of the window at the open radiation shields below…
‘How much further?’ asked Eddie as he followed Nina painfully along the curving tunnel.
‘Not far,’ she replied. ‘I think.’ She looked back to see if the shields were still visible beyond the tunnel’s mouth.
They were — but now so was De Klerx. He stopped to take aim—
‘Gun!’ she cried. Eddie ducked as the Dutchman opened fire. Bullets clanged off the accelerator’s casing. Its curvature meant that from De Klerx’s position they were partially protected by it, but he was already running again, unleashing single shots to force his targets to stay in cover.
Eddie tried to squeeze underneath the accelerator, but pipework and cabling beneath it blocked him. He swore, then scrambled to join Nina behind a support brace — the ring of powerful electromagnets immediately making their presence felt. ‘Bloody hell!’ he gasped, jerking his left arm away. ‘Feels like it’s trying to pull the pins out!’ The titanium rods that had been used to splint the bones of his forearm after a break several years earlier were weakly magnetic, and the effect was like invisible hands pawing at him.
‘Too bad they don’t work on bullets,’ Nina said grimly. ‘What do we do?’
‘If we stand up and run, he’ll have a clear shot at us.’ The accelerator was only chest-high at its tallest. ‘You stay low and keep going. I’ll try and jump him.’
‘Eddie, he’ll kill you!’ The brace and its pipework extended merely a foot outwards from the metal tube. ‘You can’t hide behind that!’
‘It’s all we’ve got! Go!’
De Klerx had already closed the gap as Nina reluctantly hurried away. He glimpsed the movement and fired. She shrieked as bullets cracked off the concrete beside her — and the impacts got closer as he came around the tunnel, bringing her into clear view—
He spotted Eddie’s shadow behind the brace.
The Dutchman switched targets to the greater threat — and his lover’s killer. He ran to the support, about to rush around it and spray Eddie with bullets—
The rifle was snatched from his hands.
It smacked against the electromagnets. Startled, De Klerx lunged to retrieve it — only to be tackled by Eddie, who drove a brutal punch into the mercenary’s stomach and threw him back against the tunnel wall. ‘Fuckin’ magnets, how do they work?’ Eddie growled, hitting him again.
But De Klerx was far from finished. He hurled himself at the Englishman, sending them both crashing against the shrilling accelerator. Eddie caught him under his chin with a flailing uppercut. The Dutchman spat out blood, only to retaliate by slamming a knee into his opponent’s side. Eddie fell. De Klerx whirled for his gun—