‘To whom?’
He shifted uncomfortably, still conflicted after eight years, before answering. ‘Natalia. The girl I was hired to rescue in Vietnam.’
Nina moved closer, intrigued. ‘What was the promise?’
‘Unit 201 had kidnapped her to run secret tests. That stuff in the jar, Thor’s Hammer — that’s what they were trying to create, using her DNA. My job was to bring her and her friends back safely, but Hoyt and his boss had set the whole thing up as a way to lure Unit 201 out of the bunker. They had it all worked out — Slavin told ’em where the camp was, and then their plan was to nick all the research, burn everything else and try to kill as many of the scientists as they could… and also take Natalia.’
‘They wanted to use her like the Russians?’ she asked. ‘Use her DNA to work out the composition of the eitr?’
Eddie nodded. ‘Yeah. Only they wanted to be able to create the stuff, not destroy it.’
‘But they didn’t get her, obviously. Neither side did. So what happened?’
‘I got to her before Hoyt. The Russians chased us through the jungle, but I managed to get her clear. There was a village not too far away where she had friends, so we went there. On the way, she told me all about the eitr, and her grandad and his experiments. And that’s when I made her a promise.’
‘Which was?’ she prompted.
He was silent for a long moment before answering. ‘She made me promise that no matter what, I wouldn’t let anyone use her to restart her grandfather’s experiments. So I burned the research that Hoyt stole from the Russians. But… there was still something else they could have used. So I did what she asked me to, and made sure they couldn’t get it.’
‘What did you do?’
Another, longer pause. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because of what I promised Natalia.’
‘You made a promise to me too,’ said Nina, not liking his uncharacteristic evasiveness. ‘When we got married. You know you can trust me, with anything.’
‘I know, I know,’ he said. ‘But this is… different. I don’t want— I can’t say. Not to anyone.’
Nina picked up on his hurried correction. To her, it suggested that the reasons for his silence were as much personal as professional. He was keeping more than the secrets of the Soviet research to himself.
But he would not tell her what else he was hiding, not today. After six years together, she knew when his defences were up. Instead, she changed tack. ‘What about Natalia, then? Did you get her back home?’
To her surprise, that made him even more defensive. ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he said, brusque.
‘Why not?’ she demanded. No answer. ‘Eddie, what happened to her?’ Another silence. ‘Did… did she die?’
Eddie stood, walking to the window and staring out across Moscow. ‘We saved the other hostages, but Natalia…’ He faced her, expression grim. ‘I didn’t get her out.’
‘Oh…’ She got up and joined him. ‘Eddie, I’m sorry.’ He nodded, but said nothing.
The moment was broken by a knock at the connecting door. Kagan opened it and stepped through. ‘Good job we weren’t in the middle of trying for a baby right now,’ said Eddie, some of his usual irreverence returning.
‘They didn’t teach you what “come in” meant in your English classes?’ Nina asked the Russian.
‘There are times to wait with politeness,’ he said. ‘This is not one of them.’
‘What’ve you got?’ said Eddie.
‘First, Thor’s Hammer is safe. All of Unit 201’s research from Engels has been transferred to a new secure location.’
‘I hope the staff’s been vetted better than it was at the bunker,’ Nina said in a barbed tone.
Kagan glared at her, but continued: ‘Our intelligence services have been trying to locate Hoyt and Dr Berkeley. So far, there has been no indication that they have left Scandinavia.’
‘Berkeley might still be translating the runestone,’ said Eddie.
‘That seems likely. But since he led Hoyt’s people to the lake in Norway, we have to assume that he will succeed. Once he does, he will have the route to Valhalla. We must get there before them, but…’ He glanced back towards the adjoining suite. ‘Dr Skilfinger does not think she has enough information to find it.’
‘What has she got so far?’ Nina asked.
‘It is best that you ask her that,’ Kagan replied, though his doleful look implied that the answer was not what he’d hoped for. He went back into the other suite, Eddie and Nina following.
Tova looked up from her laptop as they entered. ‘Hello,’ she said, with a weary smile.
‘Hi,’ said Nina. She regarded the pages of notes, printed and handwritten, spread out across the desk beside the computer: every scrap of information they had concerning the runestones. ‘Have you found out anything useful?’
‘I am afraid not much,’ Tova admitted with a sigh. ‘If I had been able to read just a little more of the text on the second runestone, it might have been enough to tell me the name of the river on the stone taken from the museum, but…’ She gave them a helpless little shrug. ‘It is not enough.’
‘Well, tell us what you’ve managed to find out anyway,’ said Nina.
‘Anything you have learned may help us,’ Kagan added.
Tova shrugged again. ‘I will try.’ She gathered together some of her notes, running a fingertip over them. ‘Okay. The text that I saw on the runestone in Norway was mostly the same as on the other, but one section was different. This is the part that I believe would have told the Vikings which river to follow, but I did not have time to read it properly before Eddie made us move away.’ She gave the Englishman a brief sidelong glower.
It was Eddie’s turn to shrug. ‘If somebody,’ he said, eyeing his wife, ‘hadn’t gone back for a closer look and made me chuck away the bomb, Hoyt and Berkeley wouldn’t have got away with the stone.’
‘Can we play the blame game some other time, thanks?’ Nina complained impatiently. ‘Tova, what did you manage to get?’
‘I remember that it named Fjarriheim,’ said the Swede. She opened a map of Sweden and indicated a point roughly halfway up the country’s length. ‘That is an old archaeological site, here. From there it said to go north — no, to “strike” north, which to me suggests travelling a long distance — until they reached some mountains.’
‘That doesn’t narrow it down much,’ said Eddie. Coloured contours on the map marked the rugged spine of Scandinavia, Sweden’s mountain ranges running along the border with Norway.
‘No, but there was something that may help. I am not completely certain, but I think one of the words I saw in the runes would translate as “saddle”. It may be an Old Norse name for a particular mountain.’
‘Is there anywhere in Sweden that fits the bill?’ Nina asked.
Tova shook her head. ‘Not that I have found.’ She gestured towards a laptop. ‘I have researched as much as I could, and checked the IHA database, but there is nothing that matches.’
‘Perhaps the name is a description,’ said Kagan. ‘It is a mountain that looks like a saddle.’
Eddie laughed sarcastically. ‘Should be easy to find. It’ll be right above the mountain that looks like a horse.’
‘I do not think it will be that simple,’ said Tova, with a slight smile. ‘But the Vikings often did use descriptive names for features like mountains and lakes. If only we had just a few more words from the runes!’ She turned to Kagan. ‘You said there was a runestone at the place on Novaya Zemlya. Was it translated?’