‘It will not,’ said Natalia gloomily. ‘It is getting better, but… it is still not a free country. So what do we do?’
‘We’ll have to take the bloody thing with us. Once we get to the rendezvous, I’ll blow it up just before we leave.’ He went to the window and pushed open the shutter. The villagers were clustered outside, several still staring anxiously up the road after the departed vehicle. ‘You say bye to your friends while I get the mine and my gun. Tell ’em thanks from me too.’
‘I will,’ Natalia replied. She began to say goodbye to the children.
Chase left her, giving hurried gestures of gratitude to the people outside before retrieving his rucksack and jogging back to the river. The Bouncing Betty and the AKS were still there, untouched. He shouldered the rifle, then carefully picked up the mine and detonator before starting back to the village. A flustered Natalia met him on the outskirts. ‘I told them that if I get caught, I will not tell them I went to the village,’ she said. ‘But I—’
‘We won’t get caught,’ Chase cut in firmly. ‘I’ll take you to the rendezvous, and then we’ll be out of here. We just need to get across the river.’
She pointed downstream. ‘There is a shallow place where we can cross. It goes to a track on the other side.’
‘Great.’ He had already memorised the relative positions of the village and the rendezvous on the map; the journey through the jungle would take only a few hours. Cradling the landmine in the crook of one arm, he led the way along the riverbank, Natalia right behind him.
15
Nina stared coldly at her former colleague. Though only in his late thirties, a spell in jail had aged Logan Berkeley considerably, a streak of grey in his brown hair and deep creases around his eyes that were definitely not the product of laughter. There was also a lump in his nose — though that had come from Nina’s fist rather than incarceration. ‘So, Logan, you mind telling me what all this is about?’ she demanded, struggling to hold back her anger. ‘Robbing museums, armed raids on archaeological digs — I guess this makes you a recidivist, since doing jail time apparently didn’t change your ways.’
‘My ways?’ Berkeley snapped. ‘You forced me into this, Nina!’
‘Nobody forced you into anything.’
‘No? Everything bad that’s happened to me in the past two years is entirely your fault. You ruined the opening of the Hall of Records and turned me into an international joke, and then you got me locked up in an Egyptian prison!’ His nasal New England accent was still filled with an arrogant superiority despite his misadventures. ‘You destroyed my career — I’m doing what I have to do to get by.’
‘You got locked up in an Egyptian prison because you were paid by a cult leader to raid a lost pyramid!’ Nina hooted. ‘As far as I’m concerned, you got off lightly. And if you wanted to “get by”, you could always have tried finding, y’know, a job. Not hooking up with a gang of thieves and murderers.’
That last shook the other archaeologist. The lines on his face deepened as he frowned. ‘What are you talking about? Nobody’s been murdered.’
‘Enough of this,’ Hoyt interrupted, lighting a roll-up. ‘Let’s just get the stone, huh? Since they brought it up for us.’ He looked out across the frozen lake. ‘Axby, Silver, go check that the ice is safe, then winch it up.’ Two of his men jogged away.
‘What the fuck are you doing here, Hoyt?’ Eddie said, regarding the American with undisguised loathing.
‘I’m still in the game, Chase. I get hired to do jobs, and get paid big bucks for doing them. Just like you used to — well, except for the big bucks part. You never did get paid for Vietnam, did you?’
‘Put down that gun and I’ll kick what I’m owed out of your arse,’ the Englishman growled. Hoyt’s only reply was a mocking smirk, his compact FN P90 sub-machine gun still covering its target.
‘Eddie, who is this guy?’ Nina asked.
‘His name’s Carl Hoyt,’ her husband replied. ‘He’s a backstabbing, murdering shithead I had the bad luck to work with about eight years ago.’
‘A mercenary?’ He nodded. Nina faced Hoyt. ‘Who are you working for? And what do you want?’
Hoyt’s oily smirk widened slightly. ‘Client confidentiality, darlin’ — I can’t tell you that. But we’re here for the stone, that’s all. We got the first one already, and we want to complete the set.’
‘You’re trying to find Valhalla, aren’t you? Why?’
‘What part of “confidentiality” didn’t they teach you at archaeology school?’ The mercenary looked around at a shout from the crane. ‘Raise it up!’ he called back. The runestone resumed its rise out of the frigid water.
‘So what’re you going to do with us?’ Eddie demanded.
‘We’re not going to do anything,’ Berkeley said, before Hoyt could answer. ‘All we want is the runestone.’ He stepped closer to the fire, leaning forward to warm his face.
Nina considered kicking him into the flames, but the sight of the guns forced her to settle for shooting her rival a scathing look. ‘So you waited for us to find it, then came in to steal it?’
Berkeley straightened, responding to Nina’s jab with considerable indignation. ‘Believe it or not, Nina, I was perfectly capable of translating the runes and deciphering the location of the second stone on my own.’ He huffed, plumes of breathy arrogance blowing from his nostrils into the cold air, then addressed Tova. ‘Sorry about this, Dr Skilfinger, but I’m only doing what I have to do.’
‘What you have to do,’ Tova echoed bitterly. ‘So you think you had to kill Arvid to take the first stone?’
Again Berkeley was thrown by the accusation. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Oh, didn’t your friends tell you, Logan?’ said Nina, her voice acidic. ‘They killed a security guard at the museum when you stole the runestone. You’re an accessory to murder. Forgot to mention that, did they?’
The archaeologist rounded on Hoyt. ‘Is this true? Did your people — did they kill someone?’
‘Afraid so,’ he replied, though without a trace of remorse on his hard face. ‘He came at us out of nowhere. We didn’t have any choice.’
‘That is not true!’ Tova protested. ‘The police said he was shot in the back!’
‘While he was going for an alarm,’ the mercenary told Berkeley, still with no more concern than if he had been discussing the weather. ‘But it happened, and wishing won’t make it un-happen. We’re here to do a job, so let’s get on with it, huh?’ He raised his gun slightly for emphasis. ‘Dr Berkeley, you might want to go check on the stone before we bring it ashore. Make sure these guys actually know their shit and found the right one.’
Berkeley blinked in momentary confusion, still shaken by the revelation. ‘What? Oh, yeah, right. Is the chopper ready to load it?’ He gestured at the EC175.
‘Soon as you get it to ’em,’ Hoyt replied. Berkeley nodded, then started for the lake.
‘And what about us?’ Nina asked loudly, making sure the retreating man heard her. ‘Are you going to kill us too?’ Berkeley paused, looking back at Hoyt for an answer.
The mercenary’s face tightened. ‘You don’t give us any trouble, we won’t give you any trouble. We just want the stone.’
That satisfied Berkeley, and he continued out on to the ice. The crane had by now lifted the runestone fully out of the water. Nina watched its ascent, fury and frustration churning inside her. She gave Eddie a sidelong glance. His expression was one she had seen many times before: guarded, giving little away about his thoughts — but she knew that behind the mask, he was taking stock of their captors, searching for weaknesses. Getting ready to attack.