His initial disbelief became astonishment; he expected the tower to shake itself into rubble, but somehow the ancient building held together. It gradually picked up speed, tilting forward again as the gradient became steeper—
Another shock ran through the Greek, this one of fear as he realised it was coming straight at him.
And the helicopter.
‘Run!’ he shouted at his Nepali companion, before charging through the snow towards the AW169, waving furiously at Collins. ‘Take off, take off!’
Cracking plasterwork showered Nina with dust. The building was lurching like a truck traversing rough ground – which, she saw to her horror as the burning monastery slid past one of the narrow windows, it actually was. ‘Oh my God!’ She tried to haul Eddie to safety—
A huge jolt sent her reeling. Her head hit the wall with a painful smack – and she lost her hold on her husband.
Eddie grabbed at one of the banister’s supports as he went over the edge. He caught it with his left hand, but his prickling fingers lost their grip.
He fell to the quaking floor below. Even rolling to absorb the impact, the landing still hurt.
‘Eddie!’ Nina cried.
‘I’m okay!’ he shouted back, feeling anything but. The mercenary, whom he now realised must be the twin of the dead man, staggered to his feet. ‘Get up to the door to the ledge!’
‘But we’re moving, the whole tower’s—’
Nina’s words were lost beneath the twin’s enraged roar as he charged at the Englishman.
Eddie scrambled aside, darting beneath the golden statue’s outstretched arm – then abruptly reversed direction as the mercenary followed, grabbing the Buddha’s forearm and using it to pull himself up and deliver a two-footed kick into the Nepali’s chest. The man flew backwards, catching himself at the edge of the crack.
The Yorkshireman dropped back to the floor, looking up to see Nina ascending the shaking stairs. He was about to run after her when sudden disorientation struck him. It felt as if he was leaning backwards . . .
He was leaning backwards. Nina’s words finally registered. The entire structure was on its way down the mountainside, pitching forward as the slope steepened—
Floor and wall switched places as the tower toppled past the point of no return and smashed down on its front.
Debris showered the interior as chunks of the walls broke apart, debris showering the interior – but somehow the building as a whole remained intact, its fortified framework withstanding one final assault. Great sprays of snow came in through the holes in the stonework as it careered roof-first down the slope like a massive toboggan.
Eddie skidded down the new floor and hit the underside of the staircase. Momentarily dazed, he opened his eyes to see the great statue of the Buddha looming over him. It was still fixed to the tower’s stone base, clinging like a rotund spider to a surface that had now tipped past the vertical, but the spreading cracks in the surrounding slabs warned him that it would not hold on for much longer.
But the metal figure was not the most immediate danger. The mercenary had grabbed the Buddha as the tower went over, and now he let go, jumping down to land in front of Eddie. A kick caught the Englishman in the side as he tried to stand. The Nepali screamed at him, oblivious to the perils around him in his vengeance-fuelled rage.
Eddie scrambled out from under the staircase, only to take another blow to his stomach that sent him slithering downhill. The mercenary snatched a knife from his belt and bore down on his winded target—
Stone exploded, the statue finally breaking loose and dropping with a metallic boom.
It rolled like a boulder, rapidly picking up speed and smashing straight through the wooden staircase. The mercenary whirled – and was mown down by the laughing holy man.
Eddie dived aside as the golden figure tumbled at him, the protruding hand delivering an agonising karate chop to his shin as it passed. Then it was gone, demolishing another leg of the stairs as it continued towards the tower’s roof.
‘Nina!’ he roared. ‘Incoming Buddha!’
Nina had been thrown across the tower when it fell, hitting the wall hard. Debris bombarded her. The satphone flew from her pocket and skittered away.
Eddie’s shout gave warning that something else was coming towards her. Half blinded by swirling snow, she looked up – to see the Buddha burst through the staircase like the Kool-Aid Man, his smile now anything but reassuring.
She shrieked, flinging herself out of its path. The statue thundered by, obliterating another section of stairs before slamming to a halt against the thick beams supporting the topmost floor.
Nina gawped at the golden figure, then heard her husband call her name. She turned and saw him half climbing, half sliding down the wall. ‘You didn’t get Buddha’d, did you?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she replied, relieved. ‘But I dropped the phone! I’ve got to get it!’ She started through the whirling blizzard towards the roof before he had time to object.
Object he still did, though. ‘You remember what’s at the bottom of this hill, don’t you? A fucking great cliff!’
Axelos and his companion jumped aboard the helicopter, but despite Collins jamming the throttle to full power, the aircraft’s rotors still had not reached takeoff speed. The Greek stared in horror at the overturned building rumbling towards them like a torpedo. ‘Go!’ he screamed. ‘Go, go! Get us up!’
The pilot’s gaze flicked between his instruments and the rapidly approaching tower. ‘What do you think I’m trying to do?’ he yelled back, regarding one dial intently as its needle crept towards a particular mark. ‘Come on, baby, come on . . . Yeah!’
He brought up the collective control lever. The AW169 rocked, slithering backwards down the hill for a few feet before finally leaving the ground. The loss of weight from its much-reduced passenger complement was more than counteracted by the added bulk of the Crucible, the aircraft struggling to gain height.
The tower rushed towards it, trailing lines of flapping prayer flags. Axelos grabbed the door handle, about to dive out. ‘It’s going to hit—’
The pilot jammed the cyclic stick hard over to the left. The helicopter rolled sideways – and the tower hurtled past, one corner of its pagoda-like roof whipping between the aircraft’s wheels. Flags lashed the fuselage, ripping the plastic sheeting.
Breathless, Axelos spun in his seat to watch the building plough towards the precipice.
Nina squinted into the rush of snow as she reached the Buddha. The phone was wedged against the statue. ‘Got it!’ she cried.
Eddie pushed past to enter the topmost room. The doorway that had led to the path to the Midas Cave was now above them, and the door had broken loose. He stood under the opening. ‘Here! I’ll help you up.’ He braced himself and boosted Nina upwards. She grabbed the door frame and struggled through.
The whirlwind of snow lessened as she clambered on to the tower’s upper face. The helicopter was pulling away to one side, but she gave it barely an instant’s notice. The terrifying view ahead completely dominated her attention. The cliff sliced across the snowfield before them, the drop into oblivion beyond only seconds away.
Eddie dragged himself up behind her. ‘Buddharation and fuckery!’ he gasped. At the speed they were going, if they jumped from the tower’s side they would keep tumbling downhill and go over the edge before they could stop themselves.
They had to counter some of that speed. He grabbed Nina’s hand. ‘Run!’ he yelled, pulling her with him back up the tower’s length.
She tried to protest, but the only sound she could manage was a panicked scream as they leapt into the maelstrom of churning snow in the building’s wake—
The whiteout consumed them. Pain overpowered their remaining senses as they hit the ground and somersaulted through the snow, coming to a stop
on the very lip of the precipice.
Silence suddenly fell as the tower shot over the edge. The only noise they registered for a couple of seconds was their own panicked breathing . . . then came an almighty bang from below. The sound echoed off the surrounding mountains, reverberating for several seconds before fading.
The haze of snow drifted away in the wind. The couple looked at each other. ‘Are you okay?’ they both asked simultaneously. Eddie let out an exhausted laugh. ‘Yeah, I’m all right,’ he said. ‘You?’
‘I don’t think I’m any worse than before I jumped off the tower,’ Nina replied, panting. ‘Compared to how I felt this morning, though . . .’
He chuckled, then peered over the edge. The tower’s remains were strewn across the valley floor, a small mushroom cloud of pulverised stonework rising from the impact site. ‘That was too bloody close,’ he said, helping her to her feet—
The helicopter’s roar made them both turn in alarm.
The AW169 had levelled out, wheeling about to head up the valley. It passed a hundred feet away, close enough to make out Axelos in the co-pilot’s seat. The Greek stared down at them. Eddie glared back, adding a pair of middle fingers to his disapproval.
For a moment, Nina thought the mercenary leader might return to finish the job, but then Axelos looked away. The helicopter retreated into the distance, a yellow logo revealed through torn plastic sheeting flapping on its flank. ‘They got the Crucible,’ she said, dismayed.
‘Only one of ’em,’ Eddie reminded her. ‘But to be honest, I’d be fine if they’d got both. Or the other one’d gone over the cliff with that tower.’
‘So those monks would have died for nothing?’
He frowned at the implied criticism. ‘We almost died too. So did Jayesh. And for what?’
Nina looked past the burning monastery, picking out the pathway along the cliff. ‘Those guys knew what the Crucible is, and what it does. Which means they knew what the Midas Cave is – that it’s a natural nuclear reactor.’ She turned to watch the disappearing helicopter. ‘The fact that they took the Crucible and didn’t care about the cave means they’ve got some other way to make it do what it does. Something nuclear.’ She faced her husband again. ‘Eddie, this is a security issue. An ancient artefact – an Atlantean artefact – that uses nuclear power to turn other elements into gold? That whoever stole it is willing to kill for? We’ve got to tell the IHA.’
His expression remained stony. ‘We don’t work for them any more.’
‘But they’re already involved. I involved them; I called in favours to get here. And this kind of thing is their department. It’s what the IHA was set up to do.’ She held up the satellite phone. To her relief, it seemed undamaged.
‘Before you start making calls to the UN,’ said Eddie firmly, ‘we need to get back to the monastery and help them. People are hurt. And,’ he added, seeing her unwillingness to wait, ‘you promised Amaanat you’d keep all this a secret. If you’re going to go back on that, you should at least talk to him first. You got him involved too, and all the rest of the monks.’
It was her turn to prickle at the criticism, but she knew he was right. ‘Okay,’ she said with a sigh.
She started to trudge up the slope, Eddie ruefully regarding the smoking buildings before joining her.
Most of the fires had burned themselves out by the time they reached the monastery, the wood and flammable materials consumed to leave only cold, hard stone. Only shells of structures remained, walls still standing while the timber-framed roofs were gone.
There were survivors, though. Nina and Eddie arrived in the courtyard to find some two dozen robed figures bustling about. Some were tending to the injured, other men exploring the ruins to see what could be salvaged.
The Yorkshireman recognised one wounded figure. ‘Jayesh!’ he said, hurrying to his friend. The Gurkha lay under a blanket, his broken ankle being splinted by a young monk. ‘You okay?’
‘Chase?’ Jayesh replied, sounding surprised and relieved before adopting his usual stoic air. ‘You made it. And Nina too. Good.’
Eddie squatted to examine his injury. ‘How’s the ankle?’
‘Hurts,’ was the reply. ‘What did you expect? It’s broken.’
‘Just checking,’ said the Englishman. ‘You grumpy old bastard.’ Jayesh’s mouth twitched into an infinitesimal smile.
Nina retrieved the Crucible from beneath the straw, then spotted Amaanat and hastened to him. ‘Thank God you’re all right,’ she said. ‘What about the rest of your people?’
The abbot’s downcast expression added about a decade to his age. ‘Eight of us are dead. Many more are hurt.’ He cast his gaze over the smouldering ruins. ‘And we have lost almost everything. Food, clothing, medicines . . .’
‘I’ve still got the satellite phone, so you can call for help. But I have to ask you something.’ She held up the Crucible. ‘About this.’
His face fell further at the sight of the crystal. ‘They did not take it, then.’
‘No.’
‘It would perhaps have been best if it had been lost . . .’ A glum sigh. ‘What do you wish to ask?’
‘I want – with your permission – to take the Crucible back with me to America, to keep it safe. Your secret’s out,’ she added, indicating the fire-blackened buildings. ‘But the IHA can help arrange security for the Midas Cave.’
‘No, I do not know . . .’ But his response was more uncertainty than outright refusal.
Eddie joined them. ‘Some of the mercs got away,’ he said. ‘They saw the gold. Sooner or later, you’ll have visitors.’
‘We shall get them anyway,’ the monk replied. ‘Officials, politicians, soldiers – none can resist gold.’
‘The IHA will do everything it can to protect the site,’ Nina insisted. ‘And other agencies will probably get involved as well. It’s a natural nuclear reactor, after all – which means it’s a matter of global security. Your monastery’s protected it for long enough.’
‘It would have remained protected if I had not agreed to let you come here.’ For the first time, Amaanat’s words had anger behind them, but it was aimed at himself rather than the archaeologist. ‘All this has happened because of my weakness.’
‘That’s not true,’ said Nina. ‘Those guys may have followed me here, but they knew more about the Midas Cave and the Crucible than I did. A lot more. They would have found it themselves sooner or later.’
‘There is no way to know that,’ the old monk said quietly. A moment of thought, then he placed his hands together and bowed to her. ‘But I still believe you are a woman of your word, Dr Wilde. If you say the IHA will protect the cave, then I shall accept that. Take the Crucible. But . . . be very careful,’ he added, giving her an intense look. ‘Perhaps not even the IHA should be told of it just yet.’
Nina was about to tell him that she would have to brief her former organisation, but something in his urging gaze changed her mind. For all she knew, the leak that had allowed the mercenaries to find her had been at the IHA itself. It didn’t seem likely, but after the carnage that had just taken place, she couldn’t risk anything similar happening again. ‘You’re right,’ she told him, nodding. ‘I won’t tell them about it until I’m absolutely sure it’s safe.’
‘Thank you.’ The abbot bowed again.
‘Okay. Now I think you need to call for help.’ She handed him the phone.
Eddie was already sceptical. ‘So you’re going to bring that thing back to New York? I think someone might notice at customs if it’s just stuffed in your carry-on bag.’
‘Yeah, I was kinda wondering how to do that myself.’ She thought for a moment. ‘As soon as Amaanat’s finished, I’ll make another call.’
‘To the IHA?’
‘Yeah, but not Seretse or Blumberg.’ She gave him a sly smil
e. ‘I was thinking more of somebody who can actually get things done.’
‘You want me to do what?’ said Lola Adams in a strained whisper.
Nina’s call had been to her friend and former assistant. ‘Arrange a United Nations diplomatic courier for a package that I need bringing from Nepal to New York,’ she repeated. ‘I don’t want anybody, not even customs officials, seeing it.’
‘I heard what you said,’ Lola protested. ‘I just can’t believe you said it! I could lose my job, or worse.’
‘You’ve done it for me and Eddie before.’
‘Yeah, but you were my boss then! I can’t—’ She fell silent at the sound of conversation nearby, resuming even more quietly when whoever was talking had gone past. ‘If Dr Blumberg finds out—’
‘Why would he?’ Nina cut in. ‘I never demanded to sign off on every single diplomatic packet when I was director, and I can’t imagine Lester does either.’ A moment of doubt: Blumberg was, after all, as much by-the-book bureaucrat as archaeologist. ‘Does he?’
‘No,’ Lola admitted after a moment. ‘But it’s still too big a—’
‘Lola, please – it’s really important. I’ve found something out here, something major. I will tell the IHA about it, but not yet. I don’t want to risk any more lives.’
‘More lives?’ she echoed. ‘Wait, has someone been hurt? Are you and Eddie okay?’
‘We’re okay, yes, but there are people here who aren’t,’ Nina told her grimly. ‘Which is why I need to keep this thing a secret.’ When there was no immediate reply, she went on: ‘I know I’m asking a lot. But trust me, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t necessary. You’re the only person who can help me.’
‘I’ll . . . see what I can do,’ the blonde said reluctantly. ‘But if I lose my job, you can pay for Gino to go through school, okay?’