Hoyt smirked — then punched the Englishman hard in the stomach. Even with the padding of his cold-weather clothing, the blow still made him double over. ‘Funny fucker.’
Edie saw a glint of brass on the floor — the cartridge Hoyt had ejected from the Wildey. But he was pulled back upright before he could reach for it. Lock, meanwhile, had moved on to Kagan. ‘And you, working with him. The situation’s reversed from the last time we met, though. I’ve got you outnumbered. Mind you, from what I’ve heard, you’re pretty much the last man standing at Unit 201.’
Kagan gave him an icy glare. ‘You have heard wrong.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so. You think Slavin was our only source? Money talks, my friend. We may not have been able to get anyone into your inner circle, but we still know what’s going on. Shame about old Eisenhov, huh?’
Kagan tried to rush him, but was yanked back by two mercenaries, one of whom twisted the wooden shard stuck in his shoulder. He gasped in agony.
‘Thought you’d have been fired after the enormous fuck-up you made of Vietnam,’ said Eddie, trying to draw attention back to himself. If they were to have any chance of escaping alive, he would need the Russian’s help.
Lock’s mocking expression became harder as he turned back to Eddie. ‘I’ll admit, things were a little tough when I got back to Washington. But one failure doesn’t end a career; in fact, I’m doing better than ever. The BSA was spun off into the private sector at the end of the Bush presidency and became Xeniteq. I was appointed chief operations officer, and after a few years ended up as CEO. Turned out that once I was freed from the shackles of the public sector I had a talent for business. Who knew?’ A smug smirk. ‘Same work, same client — Uncle Sam — but a lot more money. And I never forgot about the potential of the eitr, so when the Valhalla Runestone was found,’ he glanced at Tova, ‘I realised we had a chance to pick up where we left off.’ He went to Berkeley. ‘Logan, you’re still in one piece.’
‘It was a close thing,’ said Berkeley, relieved. ‘I’m glad your men’s aim was good, though. When they threw that bomb into the room — well, if it had landed any closer, I could have been killed!’
‘You think they even knew where you were?’ said Nina. The thought had clearly not occurred to her former colleague.
‘Ignore her,’ said Lock. He shone his flashlight over the carved text on the wall. ‘Did you find anything out from the runes?’
‘I’d started a translation on my tablet. Unfortunately, this guy objected, rather strongly.’ Berkeley indicated the broken device on the floor, then glowered at Kagan.
‘You’re not kidding,’ said Hoyt, fingering the bullet impact in the stone.
Lock took a closer look. ‘Damn it, there are some lines missing,’ he muttered. ‘Logan, had you translated this section?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Berkeley replied. ‘Dr Skilfinger had read it, though.’
‘Had she now?’ With a wolf-like smile, Lock faced the Swede. ‘Dr Skilfinger, if you would be so kind as to fill in the blanks?’
Tova hesitated, looking to Nina for support before replying. ‘No. I know what you are looking for, and I will not help you find it.’
Hoyt adopted a sarcastic tone. ‘Well, hey, guess that’s it. We’d better pack up and go home.’
‘But it’d be such a shame to have come all this way for nothing,’ said Lock. ‘All right, Dr Skilfinger, let me rephrase that. Tell me what the damaged section of the runes said…’ He reached into his coat, drawing out a handgun — which he pointed at Nina. ‘Or I’ll kill Dr Wilde.’
Eddie lunged at him, only to be hauled roughly back by Hoyt and one of his men. The mercenary leader jammed his gun into the Englishman’s side. ‘Stay still, or you go before she does.’
Lock gave the scuffle only the briefest glance before returning his attention to Tova. ‘Well? I’ll give you ten seconds to tell me, or I’ll shoot your friend — and don’t think I won’t do it. Chase here will confirm that for you.’
‘If you hurt her, I’ll fucking kill you,’ Eddie snarled.
The American ignored him. ‘Ten seconds, Dr Skilfinger. Nine.’
Berkeley finally broke through his bewilderment. ‘Wait — Ivor, what are you doing? You’re not, ha, you’re not really going to kill her, are you?’
‘I thought you’d be happy about that, Logan,’ Lock replied. ‘Seven. Six. Dr Skilfinger, tell me now.’
‘Tova, don’t tell him anything,’ said Nina, trying to suppress her rising fear.
Lock thumbed back the pistol’s hammer. ‘I will kill her. Three, two, one—’
‘No, wait!’ Tova cried, close to panic. ‘It was part of the route to Helluland! I do not know exactly what those lines said, I did not read all the runes, but they lead to Helluland!’
The gun remained locked on to Nina for a long moment… then was lowered. ‘Helluland,’ Lock repeated. ‘Where is that?’
‘It’s — it’s Baffin Island, in Canada,’ Berkeley replied, shocked. ‘But… Jesus, you really were going to shoot her! Ivor, what the hell?’
Nina’s heart was still racing. ‘For God’s sake, Logan! Haven’t you figured it out yet? They’re the bad guys!’
Berkeley shook his head in desperate denial. ‘No, no, they can’t be — they’re working for the US government!’
‘No, they’re working for themselves. They didn’t come to Valhalla out of any interest in Norse history — they came because they want to use eitr to make a biological weapon. You think they’d have brought along a private army just to make sure you didn’t get scooped in the International Journal of Archaeology?’
He gaped like a fish before rounding on Lock. ‘Okay, okay,’ he said, trying to recover some scrap of authority. ‘Ivor, what’s all this about? Is she telling the truth?’
Lock regarded him with dismissive disdain. ‘As a matter of fact, yes. Is that going to be a problem for you, Logan?’
It was clearly not the response Berkeley had been expecting. He looked in confusion between his patron and Nina. ‘Wait, you mean… you’re telling me the lair of the Midgard Serpent is real? Eitr actually exists?’
‘It does,’ said Kagan. ‘The Soviet Union discovered one of the pits. And for the past fifty years, Unit 201 has been trying to ensure that nobody makes that mistake again.’
‘Yes, it’s real,’ Lock told the astounded Berkeley. ‘And now it’s almost in our hands.’ He examined the runes once more. ‘So this is some sort of route guide, then? I’m sure that with the benefit of modern technology, we can skip a few steps and just work out where it ends. All we need is someone to translate it.’
‘Logan, don’t do it,’ Nina said. ‘These people are killers — and they’re trying to get their hands on something they can turn into a WMD. I’ve seen photos of what it does, and I wish I hadn’t. You can’t help them. You mustn’t.’ Her voice became more earnest. ‘I know we’ve never exactly got on — to be honest, I’ve always thought you’re kind of an asshole.’
‘My wife, the diplomat,’ Eddie muttered.
‘But,’ she went on, ‘I’ve never believed that you’re actually a bad person underneath it all. And I don’t think they do, either.’ She shot Lock and Hoyt a disparaging look. ‘Otherwise they wouldn’t have kept all this secret from you.’
‘The runes, Logan,’ said Lock. ‘Can you translate them or not?’
‘Of course I can translate them,’ said Berkeley, his old pride briefly resurfacing. ‘Given time and resources, it won’t be a problem. But the question really is: should I translate them?’
‘No, the question is: why wouldn’t you?’ said Lock, with a clear undercurrent of threat.