Again, she did not reply.
31
It took most of the night before the ship finally made port, the vessel forced to travel below its top speed out of caution at navigating the island-strewn Aegean in darkness. The eastern sky was starting to brighten by the time it heaved to at a pier. An ambulance awaited, taking away the two injured men as well as the dead driver. Nina was certain they were not going to a public hospital, or anywhere else that might ask questions about how they had received their gunshot wounds.
Another two of De Klerx’s men went to get the panel van and minibus in which the team had travelled to reach the dock, backing the former up to their vessel. The sun had breached the horizon by the time the Crucible was loaded, and was well clear of it when the vehicles finally brought the exhausted group to Athens airport.
A business jet awaited them. The fact that the Crucible and the group’s weapons were put aboard without being checked by customs officials told Nina that she was not the only person willing to abuse United Nations diplomatic procedures to move items from country to country. Fenrir Mikkelsson had undoubtedly had a hand in it.
By now, though, she was too tired to care. ‘Next stop, New York,’ she said as she slumped into one of the cabin’s comfortable chairs.
‘Well, Boston,’ said Lonmore from across the aisle. ‘Although I’m sure we could make a diversion,’ he went on at her stony glare. He ducked into the cockpit, returning after a discussion with the pilots. ‘Okay, New York it is.’
‘What’s the flight time?’ Eddie asked.
‘Just over eleven hours, they think. Apparently there’s a strong headwind over the Atlantic that’ll slow us down.’
Nina yawned; her sleep on the ship had only been fitful. ‘Great. Wake me when we get there.’
The aircraft was larger than the one that had brought her to Greece, with enough seats to accommodate all of De Klerx’s men as well as the Dutchman and Anastasia. After the Crucible had been put into the hold, they trooped past Nina, Eddie and the Lonmores to fill the rest of the places. Anastasia gave Spencer a cold look as she went by, which he returned. The pre-flight checks were completed, then the aircraft departed, leaving Greece – and the chaos that had erupted – behind.
Despite her fatigue, Nina slept little better than she had on the ship. The main culprits for her frequent returns to bleary consciousness were the Lonmores, father and son, who were engaged in a long discussion. But Anastasia also woke her with a phone call to her own father, brushing past to visit the cockpit. Eventually, though, sheer weariness wore the redhead down, and she slumped against Eddie’s shoulder.
She had no idea how long she had been asleep when her husband nudged her back to wakefulness. They were over the ocean, thickening clouds casting shadows over a slate-grey sea far below. ‘What time is it?’ she mumbled.
‘Too early,’ Eddie replied. His wary tone instantly put her on guard, residual sleepiness evaporating. Something was wrong.
‘What do you mean?’
‘We just started descending, but we’ve only been in the air for six and a half hours. There’s no way we’re close enough to the States to be coming in for a landing.’
Nina sat up. He was right: the jet’s engines had throttled back, and its nose had tipped slightly downwards. She looked around. Petra and Lonmore were both asleep, an empty glass on his lap, while Spencer stared blankly out of a porthole. He caught her movement and peered at her. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Do you know why we’re descending ahead of schedule?’ she asked.
‘We are?’
‘We are,’ said Anastasia from behind them.
Lonmore jerked awake, stirring Petra, and blinked at her. ‘Huh? What was that?’
Nina turned in her seat, Eddie standing and facing the Icelander. De Klerx rose too, staring back at him almost challengingly. ‘What’s going on?’ rumbled the Yorkshireman.
‘We’re making our descent,’ Anastasia announced. ‘We’ll be landing at Reykjavik airport in thirty minutes.’
Commotion erupted in the cabin. ‘What the hell?’ Nina cried. ‘We’re supposed to be going to New York!’
‘I told the pilots to change course.’
‘Then tell ’em to change back,’ said Eddie angrily, advancing on her.
De Klerx immediately blocked his path. ‘Sit down.’
‘Shove a tulip up your arse. We need to get back home to our daughter, not go to fucking Iceland!’
Lonmore stood as well, putting a hesitant hand on Eddie’s arm. ‘It’s okay, I’m sure this is just a . . . miscommunication.’
‘I doubt that,’ Nina growled.
‘We need to secure the Crucible as quickly as possible,’ said Anastasia. ‘The safest place is the hotel, so that is where we are taking it.’
‘The safest place is the IHA!’
Eddie turned and marched to the cockpit door. He tried the handle, but it didn’t turn. ‘It’s locked,’ he said, giving Anastasia an accusing glare before banging on it with his fist. ‘Oi! Open up!’
‘They won’t open it,’ said the blonde.
The Englishman started back towards her, but De Klerx gestured with a raised hand. His men stood in unison behind him. ‘I told you to sit down.’
‘Going to be like that, is it?’ Eddie growled, but he knew there was little he could do about the situation. Instead, he pointedly leaned against a seat rather than sitting.
‘The plane will take you back to New York when we’re done,’ Anastasia said. ‘But first, we are going to Iceland.’
Nina gave her a scathing look. ‘You know, I’m more glad than ever that I’ve got nothing to do with your precious Midas Legacy.’
Neither Nina’s nor Eddie’s mood had improved by the time the plane landed.
It touched down at Reykjavik airport on the outskirts of the Icelandic capital, rather than at Keflavik. Again, there was a marked absence of customs officials. Confirmation that this was Fenrir Mikkelsson’s doing came when Nina and Eddie disembarked to see the tall Icelander and his wife standing beside a line of super jeeps waiting to collect the aircraft’s passengers and cargo, the largest 4x4 a jacked-up Ford F150 king cab pickup ready to accept the Crucible.
‘Pabbi!’ cried Anastasia as she ran to her father and hugged him.
Mikkelsson patted her shoulder, looking over her to watch the jet as its cargo door opened. Sarah greeted her daughter with relief. A forklift rolled up to extract the Crucible, which had been lashed to a pallet prior to its loading in Greece. ‘Dr Wilde,’ he called to Nina. ‘Mr Chase, welcome back.’
‘We’re not here by choice,’ Nina snapped. She was not dressed for cold weather, and the wind blowing across the concrete was biting.
‘I apologise. But I am sure you understand why I wished the Crucible to be brought here without delay.’ Flanked by De Klerx’s men, the forklift made its careful way to the pickup truck and deposited its crystalline cargo upon it.
‘I understand. But it doesn’t mean I approve. Or forgive.’
‘You’ve got the bloody thing now,’ said Eddie. ‘So if you get ’em to stick some more fuel in the plane, we’ll be on our way.’
‘It will be at your service soon. But first, I would like you to come with us.’
‘No thanks,’ Nina told him firmly. ‘We just want to leave.’
‘Olivia is at the hotel. She wants to see you.’
‘Well, I don’t particularly want to see her. Not after I found out that she’d been lying to me this whole time.’
Anastasia whispered something to him. ‘Spencer told you what the founders were really doing in Nepal?’ he said, shooting the younger Lonmore a disapproving look as he descended the steps after his father.
‘Yeah. The Midas Legacy came from arms dealing. That’s something to be proud
of, huh? No wonder Olivia didn’t mention it to me.’
‘It is the future of the Legacy that we must discuss, not the past,’ said Mikkelsson, unconcerned.
‘You should come with us,’ Lonmore said to Nina. ‘I wasn’t expecting to be here either, and believe me, I’m no happier about it than you are. But it means you’ll be able to say your piece to Olivia – and to the rest of us, as I think you’ve probably got a lot to get off your chest. Plus it’ll be a lot warmer.’ He chuckled, the laughter quickly fading to silence at Nina’s unsmiling expression.
‘You will be back in New York by tonight,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘Please?’ He opened the lead jeep’s rear door.
De Klerx had by now supervised the Crucible’s loading, directing his men to transfer the various cases of weapons from the hold before joining Anastasia. Eddie eyed him suspiciously, then turned to Nina. ‘I’m not sure about this, but you do have some things to sort out with Olivia. If nothing else, you might feel better after giving her a good kick up the arse. Verbally, I mean.’
‘I might not limit myself to that,’ his wife replied. ‘But . . . yeah. Okay. On two conditions.’
‘Which are?’ Mikkelsson asked.
‘That as soon as we’re done, this plane takes us back to New York. And that I can call home to check Macy’s okay.’
‘Of course. This jeep has a satellite phone, I believe.’ He glanced at De Klerx, who gave him a confirmatory nod. ‘Shall we go?’
Nina exchanged a look with Eddie, then reluctantly nodded. ‘Okay. Let’s get this over with.’
Even though Reykjavik’s small airport was closer to their destination than Keflavik, it actually took longer to reach than on their first visit. Iceland’s notoriously changeable weather was showing off for the visitors, flurries of snow swooping in to blind the convoy of super jeeps and reduce their pace to a crawl before vanishing as quickly as they had come. Eventually, though, the vehicles reached the buried road and followed the marker poles around the frozen lake on to the rippling plateau before the hotel.
The 4x4s stopped in the shelter of the overhanging wings to be met by black-clad security personnel. The passengers quickly headed inside, De Klerx’s team receiving orders from their leader before continuing to the upper floor, where presumably luxuries like showers and fresh clothing awaited them. ‘Lucky bastards,’ muttered Eddie, whose own clothes still stank of seawater.
‘After everything that’s happened, you’re just leaving the Crucible outside?’ Nina asked Mikkelsson. The now snow-caked artefact was still on the back of the pickup truck.
‘It will be safe,’ he replied as he led everyone towards the lounge at the western end of the floor. ‘Once we have reached a decision about what to do with it, we will bring it inside.’
‘Or take it away again,’ she said. He did not respond.
They entered the lounge. Olivia was the only occupant, the elderly lady gazing out across the wilderness from a chair near the panoramic windows. ‘Thank God you’re all safe,’ she said, standing as the new arrivals trooped past the fountain to the circular table. The graze on her cheek had faded, but was still visible. She was about to speak to Nina when she saw Spencer. ‘Well. I didn’t expect you to show your face here again.’
Spencer smiled mockingly. ‘I know how much you love surprises, Olivia.’
She glowered at him, then turned back to her granddaughter. ‘Nina, I’m so glad you’re all right. I understand things didn’t go smoothly.’
‘You could say that,’ Nina answered, with a nasty look at Anastasia and De Klerx. ‘Seeing as someone decided to mount a unilateral commando raid on Trakas’s yacht!’
‘Unilateral?’ scoffed Spencer. ‘I told you in Greece, she never does anything without Daddy Dearest’s approval.’
The redhead regarded Mikkelsson coldly. ‘Is that right?’
‘We have much to discuss,’ said the Icelander. ‘Please, sit.’ He gestured at the table. A box about a foot on each side sat before his place, its dimensions triggering a sense of unease in Nina.
Mikkelsson and his family members took their seats, Lonmore and Petra doing the same. Olivia went to her chair and gestured for Nina to take the empty one beside her. ‘Huh. Only seven,’ said Spencer sarcastically. ‘Guess I’m meant to stand here like a naughty boy.’
‘So you should,’ Olivia told him. ‘You’ve caused a lot of trouble – and you aren’t a member of the Legacy any more.’
‘Yeah, well, nor’s she,’ he replied, indicating Nina.
‘And glad of it,’ Nina said pointedly as she took her place, making her reluctance clear.
Eddie dropped into an armchair near the fountain. ‘I’ll just wait here then,’ he announced, as sarcastically as Spencer. ‘Don’t suppose the bar’s open, is it? Get me a pint, Tulip.’
De Klerx shot him a contemptuous look before Mikkelsson spoke quietly to him. The Dutchman nodded, then left the room. ‘You need to fire your HR department,’ said Eddie. ‘Speaking as someone who’s worked in private security? The kid’s shit. Too big a temper and his trigger finger’s got fucking Tourette’s – plus the only person he’s bothered about rescuing is his girlfriend! I wouldn’t hire him to secure a bloody ice cream van.’
Anastasia half stood, anger on her face. ‘Don’t you dare say that about him. Rutger saved us!’
‘Rutger kicked off the whole fucking mess in the first place when he let Trakas’s crew take back his boat. And let’s not forget how you made things worse when you shot the bugger!’
Olivia reacted in surprise. ‘Who got shot?’
‘She killed Trakas,’ Nina told her.
Surprise became shock. ‘What – he’s dead?’
‘He hit me,’ said Anastasia, sitting at a subtle gesture from her father. ‘I wasn’t going to let him do it again.’
‘He wasn’t going to!’ Lonmore protested. ‘He was going to hug me! You know what he’s like.’
Olivia shook her head. ‘So, the whole affair was—’
‘A disaster?’ Nina finished for her. ‘Pretty much. Lots of people dead, and for what?’
‘For the Crucible,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘While the loss of life is regrettable, and possibly avoidable—’
‘No “possibly” about it,’ scoffed Spencer, who had pulled up another armchair behind his father’s seat and sat with his legs splayed wide.
‘—it does mean that we at last have the Crucibles. Both of them.’
The unease that Nina had felt earlier returned with greater force. ‘What?’
Mikkelsson carefully lifted the lid of the box and placed the object inside on the table.
The small Crucible.
Even though the lowering sun was hidden by scudding clouds, the crystal still glinted in the light from the broad windows. She stared at it, then snapped her gaze to those around the table. Lonmore and Petra appeared genuinely surprised to see it. The same was not true of Sarah and Anastasia . . . or Olivia.
Nina faced her grandmother, appalled as she realised what that meant. ‘You . . . you knew it hadn’t been stolen. You faked it being stolen!’ The masked men hadn’t been working for Trakas, but De Klerx – and therefore Mikkelsson.
‘This wasn’t faked,’ said Olivia, putting a hand to the mark on her cheek. ‘I really did get hurt.’
‘That’s – that’s not the point! You lied to me, you set me up!’
‘I am afraid so,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘But it was necessary.’
‘The hell it was!’ Nina looked back at Olivia. ‘So you staged the attack – and terrified my little girl – to trick me into going to Greece? As what, a distraction, so Anastasia and her asshole boyfriend could raid Trakas’s yacht and force him to give up the Crucible?’
‘We didn’t know about any of this, believe me!’ said Lonmore, equally shocked by the revel
ations. ‘Not the raid, not that the other Crucible was still here, none of it. I went to see Augustine in good faith, in the hope of coming to a deal. And he would have agreed – if Ana hadn’t shot him!’
‘She wouldn’t have done that if she hadn’t felt threatened,’ said Sarah defensively.
‘It wasn’t self-defence,’ Spencer said, voice scathing. ‘It was straight-up murder! Bam, dead! Yes, he’d hit her, but—’
‘Then it was self-defence,’ Mikkelsson cut in. ‘There should be no argument about that.’
‘Not sure the Greek police’d agree with you,’ said Eddie.
‘And you’re being incredibly blasé about all this,’ Nina told the diplomat. ‘You’re a senior United Nations official, and you’re just brushing off the fact that you and your daughter are directly involved in murder, piracy and God knows what else! Diplomatic immunity only goes so far. This won’t just end your career if it gets out; you could go to jail.’ She gave Anastasia a pointed look, before turning her gaze upon her grandmother. ‘And you wouldn’t be the only one.’
‘Nobody is going to jail,’ said Mikkelsson, sounding fully confident in that belief. ‘And I am not concerned about my career at the UN.’
‘You seem to be forgetting that Trakas almost killed you when he stole a protected Atlantean artefact in the first place,’ Olivia told Nina haughtily. ‘I haven’t done anything illegal.’
‘That doesn’t mean you haven’t done anything immoral, though,’ Nina replied. ‘You manipulated me into finding the Midas Cave, you faked the attack in Reykjavik, you lied about that Crucible being stolen – and you kept quiet about your guilty little secret!’
The last accusation brought the strongest reaction, Olivia actually looking concerned. ‘What secret is that?’ she said cautiously.
‘About what Tobias Garde and the others were really doing in Nepal in the 1840s. They were gun-runners! They weren’t exploring, they were trying to profit from a civil war. And they did, more than they could ever have imagined!’