Nina skidded to a stop, then turned and raced back to him.
‘No!’ he yelled. ‘Get out of here, go!’
She ignored him, grabbing his wrists and pulling. Her boots scrabbled for grip on the slick surface. Eddie kicked as she hauled him higher, managing to get one knee over the edge. He scrambled out. Nina almost stumbled as she released him. ‘Are you okay?’
He jumped to his feet. ‘Yeah — now fucking leg it!’ he shouted, pulling her after him as he ran for the shore—
The deep crump of an explosion echoed around the lake.
Nina and Eddie both dived flat as churning water and chunks of shattered ice were blasted high into the air. They looked at each other in a mixture of shock and relief as they found they were unhurt — then shielded their heads as frozen debris hailed down around them.
‘What the hell was— Ow! Son of a bitch!’ Nina yelped as an icy lump bounced off her arm. She rubbed it, then fixed her husband with a look as cold as their surroundings as realisation sank in. ‘You knew that bomb was there.’
He didn’t reply, instead pulling her up. ‘We’ve got to get off the ice. It might not be safe.’ Mikkel and the driver were already hurrying towards land.
‘I’ll tell you what’s not safe,’ she snapped as they started back to the shore, giving the hole a wide berth. The runestone was still swaying on its chains, sending ripples across the slushy water. ‘Bombs!’
‘If you’d run when I told you, it wouldn’t have been a problem.’
She gave an incredulous laugh, pointing back to the site of the explosion. The blast had ripped a ragged opening in the ice almost six feet across. ‘You think that’s not a problem? If that had gone off on the runestone, it would have blown it apart—’ She broke off abruptly, fragments of memory suddenly clicking together to tell a story.
The toolbox on Eddie’s diving belt, empty as he discarded it; his blocking of the camera; then staying in the water to do something to the stone while everyone else left…
Nina stopped. Eddie continued for a couple of paces before realising she was no longer beside him. ‘What’re you doing?’
‘I could ask you the same thing,’ she said with barely contained anger. ‘You didn’t just know the bomb was there. You put it there.’
Hiding his feelings was hardly one of her husband’s strengths, and she could see the conflict in his eyes. But the side that won was not the one she had hoped for. ‘Dunno what you mean,’ he said.
‘Eddie, I know you did; it’s the only possible explanation! You had it in that toolbox — it’s the only way it could have gotten there. You put the bomb right over the sun compass so you could be sure it would be destroyed. And you deliberately blocked us from taking photos of the runes.’ Her voice rose as the truth hit home. ‘You’re trying to make sure we can’t use it to find Valhalla! Why?’
A strained shake of his head. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘Why not?’
‘I made a promise.’
‘To whom?’
Still conflicted, he opened his mouth as if about to confess… then turned away and resumed his walk back to the shore, head bowed. Nina followed, barely able to hold back her fury. ‘Eddie? Dammit, Eddie! Talk to me! What’s going on?’
‘I’ve said as much as I can.’
‘What is it? Some military secret? I know you won’t talk about that stuff, but how can a Viking runestone have any connection…’
Nina suddenly saw that the people on the shore were reacting to something, looking west along the lake. As she fell silent, she registered a sound breaking the quiet of the snow-muffled forest. A rumble, getting louder, closer…
Eddie heard it too. His head whipped around to hunt for the source. ‘Choppers,’ he said. ‘You didn’t call ’em in?’
‘No.’
‘And they wouldn’t have, so…’
‘Who’s “they”?’ she demanded.
Again he didn’t answer. ‘Come on, quick!’ he said instead. He grabbed her hand and ran.
‘Eddie, what’s going on?’ She looked down the length of the lake. The sun was a red sliver on the western horizon — and silhouetted against it were two dark shapes, the bright stars of spotlights beneath them. The helicopters were heading straight for the camp. ‘Who are they?’
‘Probably Berkeley’s lot! They got the first stone — and now they want the other one.’ A glare. ‘And you bloody found it for them!’
‘What? Don’t you try to—’
‘They killed that security guard, and they’ll kill us too to get what they’re after!’
They crossed the shoreline and ran to the waiting vehicles. The other members of the team were milling about, the combination of the explosion and the arrival of the helicopters throwing everyone into confusion. ‘What is going on?’ asked Tova, worried.
‘Trouble,’ Eddie told her, before raising his voice. ‘Everyone into the trucks, now! We need to get out of here—’
Too late.
One of the pickups jolted with a harsh metallic thunk as something hit it, scabs of paint scattering like sharp-edged snowflakes from a thumb-sized hole in its bonnet. The echoing boom of a large-calibre rifle caught up with the supersonic bullet a moment later. A second shot followed, another truck taking a hit that ripped through its engine block.
‘Cover! Get to cover!’ Eddie yelled. ‘Into the trees!’
The helicopters split up, one swinging out over the lake while the other swept along the shore. More shots came from the latter — the chatter of automatic fire. A couple of team members who had started to run for the forest hurriedly reversed direction as a fountaining line of bullet impacts stitched across their path. A third vehicle jerked on its suspension as a sniper round punched into its engine compartment.
‘Shit!’ shouted Eddie, looking in desperation for anything he could use as a weapon. Nothing presented itself. ‘Mikkel! Where’s your gun?’
The Norwegian had brought a .22-calibre hunting rifle to ward off bears and wolves. ‘In the truck!’ he replied, pointing — at the vehicle farthest from them. Anyone trying to reach it would have to run the gauntlet of gunfire.
Nina cringed as one of the choppers, a Jet Ranger, made a low pass overhead, kicking up a whirlwind of ice crystals. It slowed to a hover, turning to let the gunman leaning from one of its doors keep the expedition in his sights as it descended. The other aircraft, a larger Eurocopter EC175, swept over the hole in the ice as if checking that the runestone was safe, then it too moved in to land. The sniper kept his rifle raised, his targets now human, not machines. ‘What do we do?’
Eddie gave her a grim look, then turned as if about to run for the trees — but Mathias set off first, only to stumble as another burst of fire crackled out. Nina gasped, thinking he had been shot, but then he recovered and scrambled back the way he had come. The shots had been a warning. The attackers didn’t want them dead.
At least… not yet.
The two choppers touched down at opposite ends of the camp. The doors opened, men scrambling out to surround the expedition. All were armed.
Almost all, Nina corrected herself. The last man to emerge from the EC175 carried a briefcase rather than a weapon. He winced at the cold and tugged up the hood of his thick coat, then followed his companions to the little encampment.
Nina recognised him at once. ‘Hello, Logan,’ she said with undisguised disdain as he reached her.
Logan Berkeley sneered contemptuously back at her. ‘Nina. I can’t exactly say it’s a pleasure to see you again.’
Eddie, meanwhile, was focused on the sixteen gunmen closing in around the group. His gaze suddenly snapped on to one in particular. Tall and wiry, with deeply sunken cheeks and a weathered tan…