‘The remains are far more value than you could possibly realize,’ Ethan said to Yuri, speaking for the first time.
Yuri Polkov peered at him with a cold glare.
‘Ethan Warner,’ he said as though he were speaking of something repulsive. ‘Of all people, it is you I am looking forward to getting to know the most. Tell me, what happened to my son, Vladimir?’
Ethan grinned. ‘He got what he deserved. You shouldn’t have let a stroppy little child play out with the big boys, Yuri.’
‘You murdered him,’ Yuri replied. ‘Hurled him from a mountain top, so I understand?’
‘He jumped,’ Ethan corrected Yuri. ‘I followed. Turns out he had a problem with his parachute. You reap what you sow, I suppose.’
A flash of anger twisted Yuri’s features, his aged voice croaking with restraint. ‘I understand that you decided to disappear once already and that it took Lucy Morgan here quite a while to find you. Trust me, you’re about to disappear again and this time nobody is going to work out where you are, except maybe archaeologists in a few hundred years digging around in the dirt for old bones. I wonder what they would make of your remains?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Lopez replied for Ethan, ‘but I’m fairly certain they’d figure out he was twice the man you are whether he had a gun in his hand or not.’
Yuri grinned cruelly as he tapped the butt of his pistol against Lopez’s head. ‘More clever American words, but you and I shall know each other far more closely too before your time is done here.’
‘Over my dead body,’ Lopez snarled back.
‘As you wish,’ Yuri shrugged, the nasty grin still plastered across his face, ‘as long as you’re still warm.’
Yuri’s men chuckled among themselves and cast their eyes across Lopez and Lucy as the entire group descended towards the Russian base camp. As they crossed the old magma flows blocking their view so Ethan got his first sight of the helicopter’s landing site and a dense cluster of tents. Two all-terrain vehicles were parked nearby alongside the pair that Ethan and the team had brought with them, and perhaps a dozen more men milled about in the camp and turned to watch as Ethan, Lucy, Lopez and Jarvis were led at gunpoint into the camp, their huaqueros and Jarvis’s escort to likewise marched in behind them.
In the centre of the camp was the Eurocopter, which several men were now opening to reveal the tightly bundled mummy within.
‘Secure the perimeter of the camp,’ Yuri snapped angrily at his men. ‘Have the remains moved to the main tent and then stand guard! Keep those huaqueros out of our way!’
Yuri gestured for Ethan and the others to follow him as he turned and began hobbling towards the main tent, six of his men flanking Ethan’s team, their AK-47s pointed unwaveringly at them.
‘Come,’ he insisted. ‘There is much that we will discuss.’
Yuri crossed the compound and entered a large tent. The interior was warmed by heaters powered by a generator that rattled and hummed outside in the cold air. Ethan let out a soft breath of relief as he felt the warmth touch his skin, and he pulled back the hood of his jacket and slid his hands from his gloves as Yuri struggled his way across to a folding chair and lowered himself into it.
Lucy Morgan wasted no time as she yanked off her hood. ‘This is abduction, kidnapping!’
Yuri rested both of his gnarled old hands on top of his cane and looked up at her, his eyes cold and rheumy with age.
‘Yes it is, and it is also the theft of valuable artefacts belonging to the people of Argentina and Chile,’ he pointed out as he gestured to Lucy and her team. ‘I take it that you did not contact the relevant authorities before marching up this mountain and excavating?’
‘Like you did?’ Lucy challenged. ‘We’re not here to debate the semantics of ownership of these mummies. We’re on a mission of our own and it’s important that we get these remains back to Chicago as soon as possible.’
Yuri humphed as a bitter little smile crossed his face. ‘Then you’re stealing them, which makes you no better than myself. I too was once a fossil smuggler, dealing on the black market for dinosaur bones from Mongolia and China to sell in the United States. I made my fortune by trading on the bones of long dead species.’
‘People like you are the scourge of my profession,’ Lucy spat. ‘I’ve never sought to make money from the finds that I’ve made, even those that would have changed the world had my own government not confiscated them from me.’
‘Your work in Israel,’ Yuri acknowledged. ‘So you admit that you found something extraordinary out there, although you would not share your knowledge with my son Vladimir.’
‘Your son was as corrupt as you are,’ Lucy replied. ‘It cost him his life.’
Ethan saw a brief flicker of regret shadow the old man’s face and he took the opportunity to stand forward. ‘Why are we here?’
Yuri’s gaze switched to Ethan, the smile returning. ‘I want you to see what you have achieved, on my behalf, before I have your corpses returned to the mountaintop and buried there for all eternity.’
Yuri turned to Lucy. ‘You have chased this mystery halfway around the planet more than once. I take it that you wish to see what is inside the mummy’s swathes?’
Before Lucy could respond the tent flaps opened and four of Yuri’s men walked inside, each bearing one corner of a stretcher upon which was mounted the mummy.
Yuri leaned forward as he looked at Lucy.
‘I’ve waited a long time for this moment, but this is your discovery. Despite what you think of me, I do not wish to deny you this moment.’
Lucy turned and looked at the three mummies longingly, but she held her ground. ‘Let the others go.’
‘No,’ Yuri replied. ‘Open the mummy, or I will simply shoot every one of you and then open it myself.’
‘You could be a part of this,’ Lucy suggested. ‘Imagine the fame, the recognition, the fortune that would come from being a part of this worldwide revelation, the impact it would have on religious terrorism and the corruption of blind faith. It could make you a…’
‘My son’s death has ended any interest I might have had in furthering either my fortune or my reputation,’ Yuri growled back. He reached into his pocket and produced a small silver pistol that he lifted to aim at Lucy. ‘My part in this discovery will remain anonymous. You can thank your friend Ethan Warner for my change of priorities.’
Lucy shot an angry glance at Ethan, who remained silent as he tried to figure out a way of escaping Yuri’s men.
‘You’ll never get the remains out of Argentina,’ Lucy insisted.
‘I’ll have no problems in smuggling these remains out of the country to study them in private,’ Yuri countered. I’ve been doing it all my life. I will make public the find and have the remains sent to a secure location before approaching my associates and arranging a bid, held most likely on a privately owned island, with the winner taking all. I do not doubt that such a find will raise many tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.’
‘It won’t work,’ Ethan replied. ‘Your vision of a world scoured of religious faith ignores the fact that despite the success and advances made by Newton, Einstein and others, the eradication of god to a place in fantasy, people still believe. They’ll never stop believing Yuri, no matter what discoveries are uncovered or myths revealed.’
‘That,’ Yuri replied, ‘I will leave in the hands of the people themselves. I suggest we hesitate no longer. Please, if you will.’