He straightened, giving her a salute. ‘I am Colonel Grigory Alekseyevich Kagan, commander of operations for Sekcija dvesti odin — or as it is called in English, Unit 201.’
‘And just what is Unit 201?’
‘On a normal day, if I told you I would have to kill you. It is a state secret. Today, though… I believe that you need to know. So I will tell you, and not kill you.’ Another sly grin. ‘For now.’
Nina was not amused. ‘So? Get on with it.’
Kagan turned to Eddie. ‘She is impatient, yes? Red hair, it is like fire in a woman. I like it.’
‘Just tell her, Yuri,’ the Englishman grumbled.
‘Grigory. As you wish.’ He looked back at Nina. ‘Unit 201 was created during the Cold War. It is a biological counter-warfare agency.’
‘Counter-warfare?’ said Nina.
‘Yes. Over fifty years ago, the Soviet Union discovered something deep within the earth, a poisonous substance — something first found more than a thousand years earlier by the Vikings.’ Nina and Tova, now fully awake, exchanged surprised glances. ‘At the time, the Soviet leaders thought to turn it into a weapon. That was a mistake. As they found out, it was too terrible to use, ever. So Unit 201 was created to make sure that no one ever did. It worked on ways to deal with the substance, but it was also authorised to take… direct action.’
Nina’s eyes narrowed. ‘Direct action like killing anybody who might find more of it?’ Behind her, Tova stiffened in resurgent fear.
Kagan shook his head firmly. ‘We are not murderers. We would not have killed you, Dr Skilfinger. But our enemies had already stolen the runestone, and your research. They would use them to find the second runestone, and from there, Valhalla. We could not allow that to happen, so our intention was to use what you had learned to find and destroy the second stone before they reached it. My apologies.’
Nina was already making connections. ‘According to the text on the runestone, the Vikings would only travel to Valhalla to prepare for Ragnarök — the final battle. The end of the world.’
‘It will be the end of the world if our enemies find it,’ said Kagan, nodding.
‘But who are your enemies?’ asked Tova.
‘I am afraid, Dr Wilde, that they are from your country,’ the Russian told Nina, who reacted with shock. ‘In 1961, a Russian scientist tried to defect to America, taking this terrible weapon with him.’
‘Natalia’s grandfather,’ Eddie said quietly. Kagan nodded again.
Nina regarded her husband quizzically. ‘Who’s Natalia?’
Kagan answered for him when it became clear he was unwilling to reply. ‘A young woman, an innocent. Eight years ago, we learned that the Americans had taken an interest in her. Her DNA, her very blood, could give them what they needed to recreate this scientist’s work. We found her in Vietnam—’
‘You kidnapped her,’ Eddie cut in. ‘And all the people with her.’
‘We had to do it. We could not let the Americans get her. Our plan was to use her DNA to create a neutralising agent. She and the others would then have been released — the story would be that the Vietnamese police had rescued them. But then,’ he gave Eddie a sharp look, ‘you and your mercenary friends interfered.’
‘We were hired to find them,’ Eddie told Nina. ‘Me and Hugo, and some others.’
‘But you did not know who had hired you, did you?’ Kagan clucked his tongue. ‘Or that one of your team was a spy working for our enemies. And because of that, two of Unit 201’s best scientists were killed, their research destroyed. And an innocent woman—’
Eddie interrupted again, much more forcefully. ‘I know what happened.’
The pilot’s voice came from a loudspeaker. Kagan listened, then told the other passengers: ‘We will be landing soon. The Academician will explain everything.’
‘Good,’ said Nina, peering back out of the window. The snowy landscape was indeed getting closer. ‘It’s about damn time somebody gave me a proper answer.’ She directed this last at Eddie, who looked apologetic, but still said nothing.
Before long, the plane crossed over a wide river with towns on both sides, descending towards a long runway beyond the settlement on the east bank. Their destination was not inviting. The surrounding land was a flat expanse of frozen marshes, criss-crossed by concrete taxiways. As the business jet landed and slowed, Nina saw lines of parked aircraft: large, lumbering old beasts whose brutally functional designs, very different from the sleek modernism she associated with American military aircraft, gave them an almost alien feel.
Eddie looked past her. ‘It’s Engels airbase.’
Kagan reacted with suspicion. ‘How do you know that?’
‘’Cause Russia’s only got two active nuclear bomber bases, and the other one’s way, waaaay over in the far east.’ He indicated some of the planes, these ones long and menacing jets resembling winged hypodermic syringes rather than the hulking turboprops they had just passed. ‘And the Tu-160 is a nuclear bomber.’
‘You know a lot about the Russian military, Mr Chase.’
Eddie grinned. ‘Part of my old job. We never knew when we might be sent to blow up all your planes, so we had to be prepared.’
‘You will not be blowing any of them up today,’ said Kagan sourly.
Nina sighed. ‘Oh God. Someone always has to tempt fate, don’t they?’ Her husband’s grin widened, while the Russian’s expression became even more disapproving.
The jet trundled along the taxiways, finally powering down outside a squat concrete blockhouse with a rack of large metal tanks along one of its side walls. The travellers disembarked. Nina couldn’t read the Cyrillic text painted on the side of the grim and ugly building, but numbers were the same in Russian and English: 201. ‘Follow me,’ said Kagan, leading the group towards a broad and very solid-looking set of sliding metal doors.
Three uniformed men came out to meet them, the leader — a stocky officer with dark hair and a rather feeble moustache — engaging Kagan in a brief and somewhat agitated conversation in Russian. The commander made a dismissive gesture before turning to his guests. ‘This is Captain Slavin,’ he announced. ‘He is in charge of security here at the bunker.’
Eddie frowned at the new arrival. ‘I remember him. He was in Vietnam.’ It was the man who had encountered him and Hoyt in the cabin. The look of surprise on Slavin’s face told the Yorkshireman that the recognition was mutual.
‘He was,’ Kagan confirmed. ‘But he has found that his place is standing guard rather than intelligence work. Is that not right, Kolzak Iakovich?’
There was a condescending tone to his words, which Slavin did not appreciate. However, he did not rise to the bait. ‘Sir, Academician Eisenhov waits for you and your guests,’ he said instead, his English rendered almost comical by his placing of emphasis on the wrong syllables.
Nina held in her amusement, but Eddie couldn’t resist. ‘Thank you ve-ry much, we’re look-ing! forward to meet-ing! him.’
Slavin scowled and gestured towards the doors. ‘This way.’ He re-entered the building, his two subordinates marching behind him.
Tova hesitated; Kagan gave her a reassuring smile. ‘It is all right. Please?’ She reluctantly followed the three men into the bunker, Nina and Eddie behind her. They found themselves in a large steel-walled elevator. Nina shivered at the sight of a biohazard warning symbol, a claw-like trefoil of black on yellow, with a long and stern warning sign beneath it. Kagan came in after them and pushed a button. The doors closed, shutting out the cold daylight with a deep clang. There was a distant rumble of machinery building up to speed, then the elevator jolted and began its descent.