All he needed was an opportunity…
There was not going to be one. As if reading his mind, Hoyt stepped back, then ordered his men to widen the cordon around the prisoners. ‘Don’t do anything dumb, now,’ he said, the remark aimed directly at the Englishman.
‘Wouldn’t want to steal your thunder,’ Eddie replied. If he had been hoping to provoke Hoyt, the attempt failed; the mercenary merely smirked again, keeping his P90 fixed on his one-time comrade.
Nina turned her attention back to the lake. Berkeley opened his case and took out an expensive camera, snapping several pictures of the ice-crusted runes before signalling to Hoyt’s men. One stopped the winch, the other climbing into the crane truck’s cab and gently revving the engine. Ice crunching beneath its wheels, it began its ponderous return to the shore.
Berkeley walked ahead of the vehicle, leading it to the larger helicopter. Hoyt nodded to some of his men. ‘Help him get it loaded,’ he ordered. They hurried off. Nina saw a subtle shift in Eddie’s stance as he watched the remaining men spread out to keep their prisoners covered. The odds had shifted — only slightly, but she knew from past experience that he was a master at exploiting any advantage.
But there was still nothing he could do. The gunmen were standing too far away for him to tackle without being cut down.
The sun was finally gone, the sky’s twilight glow fading to leave the campfire as the brightest source of illumination. More lights came on inside the EC175 as Hoyt’s men extended a sturdy winch arm out from the cabin, ready to receive the runestone. The monolith itself had now made landfall, the crane truck lumbering to the waiting aircraft and backing up to it. More chains were attached, these connected to the chopper’s winch. With Berkeley issuing instructions and warnings to be careful, the heavy stone slab was slowly brought into the cabin.
Matt watched the transfer ruefully. ‘So we put in all that work bringing the thing up, and these guys just swoop in like seagulls and steal it?’ He eyed Hoyt, lowering his voice to say to Eddie: ‘There’s got to be something we can do, mate.’
‘There isn’t,’ came the curt reply.
Hoyt gave Eddie a sneering look. ‘Nobody to help you out this time, Chase. Although with the way you show your gratitude, that’s probably a good thing!’
The Englishman scowled. ‘Shut up.’
‘Why?’ Hoyt came closer, though he still kept his gun fixed on Eddie. ‘Oh, I get it. You didn’t tell anyone what really went on in Vietnam? Can’t say I’m surprised — if anyone knew what happened to the people you were supposed to be protecting, you might have had trouble getting work.’ He glanced at Nina. ‘She’s your wife, yeah? Amazed she’s still alive with you looking after her. You tell her about it?’
Eddie glared at him, avoiding Nina’s questioning gaze. ‘Nothing to tell.’
‘Oh, I dunno. She might wanna find out what you’re really like.’
‘I know what he’s like,’ Nina said.
‘You know what he did, though? Might change your—’ He broke off at a shout from the helicopter, backing away from Eddie before turning. The runestone was now secured in the Eurocopter’s cabin. The driver moved the crane truck well clear of the aircraft and got out. Berkeley signalled to Hoyt that everything was ready, then clambered into the helicopter. Its engines started up, the rotors beginning their slow rise to take-off speed. The Jet Ranger also whined to life.
‘You’ve got what you came for,’ said Nina. ‘Are you going to let us go?’
Hoyt turned back to face the prisoners. A nasty smile creased his fleshless face. ‘Nope.’
‘Didn’t think you would,’ Eddie growled.
‘That was just for Berkeley, to keep him on side. We need him to translate the stone and figure out how to find Valhalla, but I knew from the first minute I met him he wouldn’t have the stomach for anything more. Like getting rid of witnesses.’
Panic ran through the group. The men surrounding them stepped closer, bringing up their guns. Tova gasped in terror.
Despite the fear coursing through her, Nina managed to summon up some defiance. ‘You’re just going to mow us down?’ she asked, hoping that Eddie was planning some way to fight back. But he seemed oddly calm. Not accepting of the situation — more waiting for the right moment to act. She couldn’t see what he meant to do, though. ‘I think Logan’ll hear that even over the chopper.’
‘No he won’t,’ Hoyt replied. ‘Garrow?’
One of the gunmen reached into his coat, taking out a chunky black metal cylinder. He slid it over his P90’s muzzle, locking it into position with a sharp click. ‘Silence is golden,’ the mercenary leader said with a smirk.
One of the Norwegians cried out in horror as Garrow raised his weapon. Nina tensed, muscles tightening as her fight-or-flight reflex kicked in, but she could do neither. Beside her, Eddie’s gaze flicked over the men surrounding them, but he still didn’t seem about to take any action…
‘Do it,’ said Hoyt, nodding at Garrow. The P90 rounded on Nina—
A whipcrack sound, and a hole the size of a coin appeared in Garrow’s forehead — as the entire back of his coat’s hood blew outwards in an eruption of gore.
Now Eddie moved, lunging at the dead man as he collapsed and snatching the gun from his nerveless fingers. Hoyt’s other men were still frozen in shock by the unexpected attack — then one of them broke through his paralysis and swung to cut down the Englishman.
Eddie was faster. The stolen P90 bucked in his hand as he swept it around and pulled the trigger, the suppressor reducing the gunshots to dull clacks. The mercenary and the man next to him fell backwards as the spray of automatic fire stitched bloody lines across their chests.
‘Run!’ Eddie yelled. He tracked Hoyt, but the American dived behind a truck before he could shoot. ‘Get to cover!’
Nina had already responded, seizing Tova by the wrist and pulling her past the fire to drop down behind another crippled vehicle. Matt ran in a different direction, scrambling into the little shelter containing the submersible’s controls.
Mikkel was also quick to respond, pushing Peder behind a 4x4. But some of the team were as stunned as the mercenaries, left gawping as the bodies fell around them.
It cost them their own lives. One of Hoyt’s men finally snapped back into motion and opened fire on the group as it splintered, slicing down two of its members and turning to find more—
A burst of Eddie’s bullets ripped into his stomach. He fell, screaming.
The Englishman was now the mercenaries’ primary target. Another gunman rounded on him—
A second sniper round punched through the man’s chest and exploded out of his back.
Eddie had already realised from the supersonic crack of the first bullet that the unseen shooter was on the far side of the lake. One of the mercenaries was slower on the uptake, head darting from side to side as tried to find the source of the gunfire. Two shots from the silenced P90 brought an abrupt end to his search.
Eddie ducked behind a truck, giving his weapon’s translucent plastic magazine a momentary glance to check the remaining ammo — about half of the original fifty rounds — before rising to locate Hoyt.
The American was running for the larger helicopter. ‘Take off, take off!’ he yelled to the pilot. ‘Get the stone out of here! The rest of you, give us cover!’ More members of his team jumped out to join the battle.
Berkeley looked on, horrified. ‘What happened?’
Hoyt leapt into the cabin. ‘Chase grabbed a gun and started shooting,’ he lied, before turning his attention back to the pilot. ‘Go on, go! Take off! Get the—’