‘By turning your back on another part of your family?’ said Anastasia, indicating Olivia.
‘It’s not the decision I was hoping she would make,’ said the old lady, downcast. ‘But it is her decision. We can’t force her to do something she doesn’t want to do.’
‘Thank you,’ Nina said.
‘Are we going home?’ Macy asked. ‘But we only just got here!’
Mikkelsson spoke in Icelandic to the clearly angry Anastasia, who drew in a frustrated breath, then he turned to Nina. ‘It would be a shame if you were to leave so soon. You are welcome to enjoy the hospitality of the hotel.’
‘Thanks for the offer, but it’d be better if we left,’ Nina replied. She knew that if they stayed, she would be subjected to non-stop pressure to change her mind.
Macy tugged at her sleeve. ‘Mommy, I don’t want to go yet. I want to play in the snow.’
‘I’m sorry, honey, but we have to leave.’
‘It was very nice to meet you, Macy,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘I hope I will see you again sometime. I am afraid you have quite a wait for the next flight to New York, though,’ he added to her parents. ‘It does not leave until this evening. Are you sure you do not want to stay here until then?’
‘I think they’ve made their decision,’ Olivia said, standing. ‘We should respect it.’
Mikkelsson nodded. ‘Of course. Then may I suggest you visit Reykjavik before your flight? It may not be Manhattan, but it has its attractions. And some very good restaurants.’
Nina hesitated, wanting to leave with no further fuss, but Eddie spoke first. ‘What do you reckon? Got to be better than airport food.’
‘There is that, yeah,’ she admitted. ‘We’ll take your advice, then,’ she said to Mikkelsson. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure,’ said the Icelander. ‘Rutger can drive you there.’
‘I’ll come with you,’ said Olivia. She caught Nina’s attempt to hide her suspicion. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t try to change your mind. I have to fly back to the States anyway, and since I’ve no more business here . . .’
‘Okay,’ said Nina, with reluctance.
‘Thank you. I’ll just wrap things up, then we can leave. Fenrir?’ Olivia ushered Mikkelsson away, beginning a quiet discussion. Lonmore looked put out at not being included.
‘Bit of a shame to come all the way out here only to go straight back home,’ Eddie said to his wife. ‘Still, at least we’re not paying for it.’ Olivia had covered the cost of the air fares.
‘Yeah,’ Nina agreed, though she couldn’t help wondering if some other price for her decision would follow down the line. Feeling oddly defensive, and unsure why, she collected the Crucible, holding it tightly as she waited to leave.
21
The atmosphere inside the super jeep was as frosty as outside.
‘Anyone fancy a game of I Spy?’ Eddie joked to break the tension as they rounded the frozen lake. ‘I spy, with my little—’
‘Snow?’ said Macy.
‘Tchah! How’d you guess? Your turn.’
Olivia, in the front seat, sighed. ‘We’re not going to have this all the way back to Reykjavik, are we?’
‘We can talk about anything you want,’ said Nina, ‘as long as it’s not what I said I absolutely wouldn’t discuss.’
‘You’ve clearly made up your mind, and I respect that. And I’m sure I don’t need to restate my own position.’
‘No. You don’t.’
The old woman turned to give Nina a look that was somewhere between disappointed and irked. ‘There’s no need to be so curt. All I wanted was what was best for my family.’
‘What was best for your family, as long as it involved finding the Midas Cave,’ Nina shot back. Eddie quickly diverted Macy’s attention with another round of I Spy. ‘You know, you could have come to me at any time in my entire life. Like, I don’t know, maybe twenty years ago, after Mom and Dad died?’ She was hit by a sudden surge of anger, which she struggled to contain so as not to upset Macy. ‘I was completely alone, Olivia. You could have seen me then, told me what happened between you and Mom for her to shut you out of her life. Out of my life. But you didn’t! You waited until I could do something for you. That might have been what was best for you, but it sure as hell wasn’t for me.’
‘I know, and I’m sorry. But it wasn’t out of some monstrous sense of self-interest, I assure you. You lost your mother . . . and I lost my daughter.’ She glanced at Macy. ‘My only child. I hope to God you never have to go through that experience. Not even losing Tom, the man I loved the most in all the world, compared to how I felt after Laura died.’
Nina’s anger was quickly replaced by guilt. She had attended Macy Sharif’s funeral, and witnessing the grief of the young woman’s parents had been one of the most emotionally painful experiences of her life. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s all right. Time may not heal all wounds, but it does at least dull the pain. As for why I didn’t come to you until now, Laura had made it very clear that she didn’t want me in her – or your – life. As painful as that was, I respected her wishes before she died. And afterwards, how could I simply turn up and tell you who I was? It would mean revealing that she’d lied to you, and to your father. I didn’t want to dishonour her memory. But you’re my family, Nina. You’re so much like Laura that . . . that’s it’s almost as if she’s still here.’ A deep sadness filled her eyes. ‘Whatever else may have happened, I’m still glad that I got to meet you. And I hope I can get to know you better in the future.’
Nina had no comeback to that. ‘Thank you. I hope so too,’ was all she could say. Olivia smiled, then looked back at the icy vista ahead.
They eventually returned to the paved road, De Klerx turning at the crossroads to take them back to civilisation. Once they reached Reykjavik, rather than retrace their route to the airport, he instead followed a road that took them towards the city’s centre along its northern waterfront. ‘I suggested we go this way,’ said Olivia. ‘It’s slightly longer, but it gives the best views. It’s actually a very pretty town.’
‘Yeah, I see,’ said Nina, gazing across a wide bay to the mountains beyond. Most of the snow had gone near sea level, but the distant peaks were still capped in white. Looking the other way, she saw that Reykjavik itself was very spread out, plenty of open green space between the relatively low-rise buildings. ‘How often have you been here?’
‘Enough to know the best restaurants. Fenrir and his father always preferred to hold meetings in their own country rather than in the States whenever they had the chair. But it’s not a hardship coming here, as long as there isn’t a blizzard blowing. It’s a beautiful country.’
Eddie regarded something at the water’s edge. ‘That’s pretty cool.’
‘The Sun Voyager,’ explained Olivia as they passed the sculpture – a skeletal representation of a longboat in stainless steel. ‘The Icelanders are very much into art and culture. I suppose it comes from being stuck indoors due to darkness and bad weather for half the year. If you had more time before the flight, I’d be more than happy to show you around the galleries and museums.’
‘Thanks, but that’s fine,’ said Nina. ‘Dinner will be enough.’
Olivia nodded. ‘Rutger, take us to Vonarstraeti, then.’
De Klerx guided the super jeep past the impressive modernist block of the city’s concert hall before turning down a broad street into the heart of the capital. Even here, everything was spaced out with lots of greenery. Traffic was only light, a huge contrast to Nina’s native Manhattan. ‘So, where are we going?’ she asked.
‘There’s a very good restaurant overlooking the lake,’ said Olivia. ‘It does excellent fish. Although that can be said of most places in Iceland, really.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ said Eddie. ‘Macy, do you want to try som
e—’
He broke off at a noise from behind: a car suddenly accelerating with a screech of tyres. De Klerx also heard it, eyes snapping to the rear-view mirror.
‘Daddy?’ Macy asked, alarmed.
Both Eddie and Nina whirled in their seats as a dark blue SUV roared past. Brake lights flared, and the truck skidded to block the super jeep’s path. De Klerx swore and stamped on the brake, trying to swing up on to the pavement to get around it, but there was not enough room for the oversized vehicle. The Expedition bounded to a halt outside a glass-fronted bookstore-cum-coffee-house.
Three men jumped from the SUV, faces covered by dark balaclava masks – and guns in their hands. Pedestrians fled at the sight. Macy screamed, Nina lunging to shield her as Eddie stabbed at his seat-belt release.
One man ran to the driver’s door and yanked it open, slamming his pistol against De Klerx’s head. The other two went to the other side of the super jeep, the man at the rear aiming at Eddie while his companion flung the front door wide. ‘Don’t move!’ he bellowed, locking his own weapon on to Olivia. He had a thick accent, English not his first language. ‘The Crucible! Where?’
‘In the back!’ Nina shouted, holding Macy tightly. ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! We’ve got a child!’
De Klerx’s attacker rushed to open the Expedition’s tailgate. Rather than carry the Crucible around with him for the rest of the day, Eddie had put it in the trunk with the survival gear. The man snatched up the box, then called out to his companions – in Greek, Nina realised.
The man threatening Olivia gestured for her to unfasten her seat belt. ‘Out!’
‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she replied in fearful defiance. His response was to sweep a balled fist at her stomach. She folded, gasping.
‘Olivia!’ cried Nina, shocked.
The attacker released the old woman’s seat belt, then dragged her from the super jeep. The man carrying the Crucible hurried past and scrambled into the SUV. The third man jabbed his gun in warning at Eddie, then followed.
The Englishman immediately reached over the back seat to snatch up the first heavy object he saw, a kettle-sized propane cylinder. ‘Eddie, no!’ Nina shouted as he opened his door. ‘They’ll kill you!’
He ignored her, jumping out. The gunman hauling Olivia was almost at the SUV, the other rounding the vehicle to get in. ‘Hey!’ he roared. Her captor looked back—
Eddie hurled the cylinder. It crossed the few metres between him and his target in an eye blink and struck the gunman squarely on the forehead, sending him crashing to the ground. Olivia fell beside him, her head hitting the pavement.
The Yorkshireman rushed at them. If he could grab the masked man’s gun before he recovered or his companions escaped . . .
Too late. The SUV’s engine snarled, the truck jolting over the kerb before turning hard to swing back on to the road. It powered away, one of its doors still open.
The downed man was already recovering. Eddie changed direction and threw himself into the shop doorway, expecting a gunshot—
None came. The man was fleeing.
Eddie raced after him. A fence ran along the street’s central divider. The gunman vaulted over it, heading for a small park. The former soldier angled to follow, about to make the jump himself when his daughter’s terrified wail stopped him. He aborted his leap and slammed into the barrier, glaring furiously after the retreating gunman. A shrill of tormented rubber came from along the street as the SUV screamed around a corner to make its own escape.
‘Shit!’ he yelled, banging a fist on the fence before looking back at the super jeep. Nina ran to help Olivia, De Klerx staggering from the vehicle with a hand pressed against his head. Macy peered from the rear door, crying in fear and confusion. A last glare at the running man before he disappeared behind a building, then Eddie hurried back.
Nina was helping Olivia to sit up, revealing a cut on her temple and a vivid graze down one cheek. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked her grandmother.
Olivia gingerly felt the bruise. ‘I . . . I think so,’ she said in a shocked, tremulous voice. ‘Oh my God! Are you all right? Is Macy—’
‘I’ll get her,’ said Eddie, satisfied that Olivia’s injuries were not life-threatening. ‘Hey, hey, it’s okay,’ he told the little girl as he picked her up. ‘It’s all right. We’re all safe.’
‘Daddy . . .’ she whimpered, nuzzling against his cheek. He held her more tightly, giving Nina an anguished look as she and De Klerx raised Olivia to her feet. His wife made sure she could stand, then went to her family.
‘What the hell was that?’ Eddie demanded, jaw tight with a seething, barely contained rage.
Nina wrapped her arms around her husband and daughter. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. The super jeep’s rear door was still open, giving her a view of the interior – and the empty space where the Crucible had been. ‘But they got what they were after.’
Police and an ambulance quickly arrived, summoned by emergency calls from onlookers. Paramedics assessed Olivia’s injuries before putting her on a stretcher. De Klerx shrugged off all attempts to do the same for him, instead phoning Mikkelsson to inform him what had happened.
The police were equally keen to find out, to Nina’s frustration. ‘That’s my grandmother!’ she told them as Olivia was loaded into the ambulance. ‘I should go with her.’
‘Look, let her take our little girl and go to the hospital,’ Eddie said to the senior cop, who to his relief spoke excellent English, as seemed to be the case with most Icelanders. ‘I’ll tell you everything I can. Not that it’ll be much, ’cause I don’t have a bloody clue what just happened.’
The policeman held a brief discussion with the other officers, then turned to Nina. ‘Okay, you can go with her. But we will need to talk to you all at the hospital.’
‘Thank you,’ Nina replied. She took Macy from Eddie and kissed her husband. ‘See you soon. I love you.’
‘Love you too,’ he replied. ‘Okay, so what do you want to know?’ he said to the cops as Nina and Macy climbed into the ambulance.
The journey to Reykjavik’s Landspitali hospital, less than a mile away, did not take long. Nina waited nervously as Olivia was taken into a private room to be examined. ‘Will she be okay?’ Macy asked. She had stopped crying, though her cheeks were still stained with tears.
‘Yeah, I’m pretty sure,’ said Nina, trying not to let her concern show. ‘We’ll find out soon.’
It was about thirty minutes before Olivia reappeared, in a wheelchair. ‘It’s just precautionary,’ she said when she saw Nina and Macy waiting. ‘I’d be back on my feet right now if they’d let me.’ The blonde nurse pushing the chair smiled, then left them to talk.
‘So you’re okay?’ asked Nina.
Olivia touched the Band-Aid covering the cut on her temple. ‘I’ve survived much worse. Are you two all right?’
‘Yeah, we’re fine. Macy was scared, though. She’s still shaken up.’
‘I feel better now,’ Macy assured her, though her voice was muted.
‘I’m just glad you’re okay. What about Eddie?’
‘That’s good timing – you can ask him yourself,’ Nina said, seeing a familiar figure jogging towards them. ‘Hey!’
‘Hey,’ Eddie replied as he arrived, kissing Macy before regarding Olivia’s wheelchair with alarm. ‘That doesn’t look good.’
‘Just a precaution,’ Nina assured him. ‘What happened with the police?’
‘I told ’em what happened in the street,’ he said, not reiterating any details for Macy’s sake. ‘As for why it happened, I was a bit cagey. They knew who you were, so I said they took an archaeological relic, without saying exactly what it was. I figured that the fewer people who know about a nuclear gold-making crystal, the better.’
‘Did you tell them who atta
cked us?’ asked Olivia.
‘No, ’cause I didn’t know myself.’
‘I’ve got a good idea, though,’ said Nina. ‘I heard one of them shouting in Greek.’
The elderly woman raised her eyebrows. ‘They were sent by Augustine Trakas?’
‘It seems likely. He didn’t get everything he wanted in Nepal, so he sent people after us here too.’
‘They were taking a huge risk. An armed assault in the middle of Reykjavik? They must be desperate.’
‘Or greedy.’
‘Trakas always was,’ said Olivia, shaking her head. ‘He was determined to make a fortune in business, but he also made a couple of attempts to run for the Greek parliament. Not that he ever won.’
Eddie gave a mocking snort. ‘What’s worse than a politician? A wannabe politician.’
‘A failed one, at that,’ said Nina. ‘But he succeeded at something: he got both the Crucibles.’ Her expression hardened. ‘And he threatened my family to do it. He hurt my family. I’m not going to let him get away with that.’
22
Greece
The mountains of Greece rolled past beneath the chartered business jet as it cut across the country on its way to Athens International Airport. Nina was not admiring the view, however, instead reading a digest of a scientific paper about nuclear transmutation on an iPad.
Eddie was not looking through the window either, but nor was he engrossed by a screen. He was watching his wife with a pensive expression that became deeper – and more aggrieved – as the minutes passed.
Finally he could contain his feelings no longer. ‘We shouldn’t have done this.’
Nina looked up from her tablet. ‘What?’
‘Come to Greece. Or left Macy with Holly again.’
‘We could hardly bring her,’ she said. ‘I’m not prepared to put her at risk, not after what happened in Iceland. Especially when we’re going to see someone who’s attacked us twice already.’