The Valhalla Prophecy

  “She told you a great deal.” He shook his head. “But not everything. The Tsar Bomba destroyed the eitr pit—but we knew from the Viking runestone that somewhere there was another. Unit 201 was created to discover ways to neutralize the eitr if it was found. But we did not know if they would work, because we had no samples—until we learned about Natalia. The mutations in her body should tell us the nature of eitr, and with that knowledge we would be able to destroy it.”

  “So you kidnapped her? Why didn’t you just ask her?”

  “We did not think she would believe our motives.” Kagan jabbed a finger at Lock and Hoyt. “She thought we were like the BSA, trying to turn the eitr into a weapon. But we were not. We have seen what it does—and we will not let it be used again. So when we learned that Natalia was in Vietnam, we arranged for her to be brought to us, in a way that gave us total deniability. She and her friends would have been released unharmed, once we finished our tests.” A glance at the fire, his expression now almost despairing. “We were not going to hurt her. But you—you have killed her! For nothing!”

  “Oh, fuck …,” whispered Chase.

  Now it was Hoyt’s turn to laugh. “Goddamn, Chase! You were supposed to rescue her, and you fuckin’ murdered her! You really fucked up, didn’t you?”

  The Englishman rounded on him angrily. “Killing you’ll be worth something, though.”

  “Enough!” barked Kagan. He rubbed his temple, then stepped back to regard his prisoners. “Natalia is dead, and all our research is destroyed—but that means neither side has it. No one has gained an advantage. But …” He faced Lock once more. “If I were to kill you, here and now, you would cease to be a threat.”

  The American was no longer smiling. “If you kill me, someone else will take my place. This won’t end.”

  “It will for you. And I know that your agency is, what is the phrase? On the bubble for its funding, that is it. With you dead and the BSA humiliated, the US government may shut it down completely. And that can only be a good thing for the world.”

  Kagan’s sweating comrade spoke to him urgently in Russian, regarding Hoyt and Lock nervously. Kagan’s reply was impatient. “He thinks killing you will cause an international incident, and that it is a bad idea,” he added, addressing the Americans. “But you tried to kill us with no such concerns, so …” He thought for a moment, then gave an order in Vietnamese. The men accompanying the Russians raised their weapons to firing position.

  For the second time in a matter of minutes, Chase found a rifle aimed at him. “You’re going to kill me too?”

  “I am sorry,” Kagan replied, with seemingly genuine regret. “You thought you were doing the right thing—for Natalia, and for the world. And what you decided to do …” He locked eyes with the Englishman for a moment. “I think you did not want to do it, no?”

  “You’re fucking right I didn’t want to.”

  Kagan nodded. “But this must end. With Lock gone, the Americans will likely shut down their work on the eitr.”

  “But they’ll shut it down anyway, surely?” Chase indicated Lock. “He failed! He had a plan to get Natalia and steal your research, but he blew it. He comes away with nothing, but you’re no worse off.”

  “Two of our best scientists are dead!” snapped Kagan. “He did not destroy Unit 201, but he still damaged it.”

  “But you’re still in business. Lock won’t be! You were right, he’ll be out of a job once his bosses realize that he fucked everything up, and caused an international incident by doing it. He might have hired mercs for deniability, but just by being here, right now, he’s blown that excuse.” He regarded Lock, who now appeared as fearful of the prospect of being at the heart of a diplomatic storm as of the guns pointed at him. “Nobody’s won here. Everyone’s lost. And killing us won’t get you any extra points.”

  Kagan did not reply at once, again staring thoughtfully at Chase before turning his gaze to the funeral pyre. “You have done a very good job,” he said. “It will be almost impossible to extract DNA from a body so burned.”

  “You just said this needs to end. Well, this ends it. Natalia wanted to make sure nobody could get anything else from her—you or them.” He lowered his head. “Just leave her alone. Let her rest in peace.”

  The other Russian spoke again, asking a question. Kagan considered it for a long moment, Chase hyperaware of the Vietnamese covering the group, all with fingers poised on their Kalashnikovs’ triggers …

  “Nyet,” Kagan finally said, shaking his head once more. “No, you are right, and so is the Englishman. Lock has failed—and that will embarrass Washington if we make good use of it.”

  “You son of a bitch,” snarled Lock.

  Chase made a sarcastic sound. “You’d rather he killed you?”

  Kagan had a brief exchange with one of the Vietnamese, then turned back to Lock. “My associates from the Vietnamese secret police will take you and your men to Da Nang for … questioning.” His tone made it clear that the interrogation would be more than verbal. “They are still angry that several of their friends were killed when the camp was attacked. I think they are keen to find out who was responsible.” Hoyt’s facial muscles tensed. “As for you, Mr. Lock, I am sure they will let you go in a few days. After making an official complaint to the US ambassador and the United Nations.” Lock’s expression was much like his countryman’s.

  “And what about me?” Chase asked.

  “You? What was your name—Chase?” The Englishman nodded. “Your job here is over, Mr. Chase. You should go home. There is nothing in this country for you now.”

  Chase looked past him at the remains of the pyre. “There’s one thing that I need to do.”

  “What is that?”

  “Bury her. I’m not going to leave her body in the jungle to rot. She deserves more than that.”

  Kagan nodded. “Very well. But once you have done that, you should leave. The jungle can be dangerous, especially at night, no?”

  “Yeah, I’d noticed.”

  Kagan issued more orders, the Vietnamese herding the mercenaries into a group and marching them away at gunpoint. Kagan and his subordinate did the same with Lock and Hoyt, both still complaining angrily. The Russian reached the edge of the clearing, then paused, looking back at Chase. “Sometimes … sometimes we have to do bad things for good reasons,” he said. “But knowing that you have done the right thing does not make you feel any better.”

  “No,” Chase replied. “It doesn’t.”

  “She has found peace,” Kagan went on, with a tip of his head toward the fire. “I hope that someday, so do you.”

  The Englishman did not reply. Kagan turned and followed the others into the jungle.

  Chase remained still for a minute, waiting until the sounds of movement had faded. Then he picked up a large piece of broken branch and began to gouge a hole out of the damp earth.

  The sun had almost set by the time Chase finished his task. Hands dark with mud and ash, he looked down at his work, face solemn. The shallow grave was marked by a crude cross, two pieces of branch bound together by a length of vine. The logical part of his mind knew that the marker would not last long—jungle decay and the ceaseless gnawing of insects would see to that—but he felt better for having built it. At the very least, the dead woman deserved some form of remembrance.

  He lifted his head at a distant, but familiar, shout. “Edward! Edward, can you hear me?”

  “Hugo!” Chase called back. “I’m here!”

  Castille appeared a few minutes later. “Edward!” he said, with a huge beaming grin at the sight of his friend. “I saw the smoke. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” Chase replied, managing a smile. The two men embraced. “What about you? You managed to get away from ’em, then.”

  Castille pursed his lips. “It was a close thing! Hoyt would have killed me if the police had not arrived.”

  “So much for there never being a copper around when you need one.”

/>   “I know. I was quite surprised!” Castille released the Englishman. “Where is Natalia? Is she safe?”

  There was a lengthy pause before Chase finally answered. “No,” he said quietly. “She … didn’t make it.”

  He stepped aside to reveal the grave. Castille did not seem—or want—to believe his own eyes. “Mon dieu! What happened?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “But—but I thought that surely you were clear …” He took in the churned ground, seeing the footprints. “They were here? They caught you?”

  “Hoyt and Lock—and then the Russians. They had a bit of a standoff.”

  Castille surveyed the whole clearing. “There is no blood, no spent casings. They did not fight?”

  “No.”

  “Then where are they? Why did they leave?”

  “They didn’t get what they were after.”

  “But what happened to Natalia? Did they kill her? Hoyt and Lock—or the Russians?”

  Chase shook his head. “Like I said, I don’t want to talk about it. What I do want to do is get out of this fucking jungle. How far away’s your jeep?”

  “About a kilometer, not far from the rendezvous point.”

  “Great. Let’s go.”

  He started to walk away, but Castille remained still, staring at the grave. “Edward,” he said. “What really happened here? I am your friend, you can tell me—you know that.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Chase gave him a small, sad smile. “I made Natalia a promise. And … I kept it.” He sighed. “That’s all I want to say for now. Maybe sometime later, when things are different, I’ll tell you everything. Right now, though? I need a shower.”

  Castille decided not to press the issue any further. “Yes, you do,” he said instead, with overstated lightness. He started walking toward the edge of the clearing, Chase alongside him. “But then, you are English. You always need a shower.”

  “Oh, fuck off, Hugo.” The Yorkshireman gave him another small smile, then hesitated as they reached the trees, glancing back at the grave. “Good-bye, Natalia,” he whispered. Castille gave him a look of deep sympathy, but remained silent out of respect for his friend’s wishes. Then Chase turned away, and the pair set off into the jungle.

  “You do realize that we will not get paid for the mission,” said Castille.

  “Yeah, I know. Think we could get any money for the jeep?”

  “Hmm. I am sure Bluey knows someone who would buy it, no questions asked. So what are you going to do when you get home?”

  “Who says I’m going home? There’s fuck-all there for me now, just a big pile of solicitors’ letters from Sophia. You know what? Fuck her. She wants her divorce, she can have it. There’s more important things in life.”

  “Then what are you going to do?” Castille asked.

  “What I’m best at. Troubleshooting, like Mac said. The fist in the glove. I reckon I could do that.”

  “Well, you can always rely on me to help, Edward. We will fight to the end.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Chase clapped his friend on the back. “Fight to the end.”

  23

  Moscow

  “Well, that was … fun,” said Nina with a grimace as she put down her phone.

  “Seretse not happy, was he?” said Eddie, lying on the hotel suite’s bed.

  “He was not. I think being shouted at by a member of the UN Security Council kinda ruined his day.”

  He sat up. “So what’s going to happen? About us, I mean?”

  Nina ran a hand through her hair, tired. “As much as he’d probably love to fire both our asses, there’s not much he can do. It seems Kagan’s bosses pull a lot of weight at the Kremlin—they still want Unit 201 to find and destroy the other source of eitr before Hoyt or anyone else can find it, but they need us and Tova to do that. So I’m guessing Seretse’s conversation with the Russian representative went something like: ‘Two people from the IHA just shot up our nuclear bomber base and caused billions of rubles in damage! But don’t fire them, because we’re still working with them. And we won’t tell you why, only that it’s important. I just needed to vent by yelling at you.’ ”

  “Yeah, I can see that’d be like someone pissing in his orange juice. I suppose now we’ve got to find the bloody thing.”

  Nina glanced toward the door connecting the room to the adjacent suite. “All we can do for now is wait and see if Tova manages to come up with a location for Ragnarök.” She sat beside her husband. “Which gives us a chance to talk about something else.”

  He waggled his eyebrows. “You want to try for a kid right here?”

  “As fun as that would be, no.” Her face became more serious. “What happened in Vietnam, Eddie? What really happened? Hoyt, and Kagan, and that guy Slavin from the bunker—you met them all there. And you knew about the eitr, and about the pit the Russians found.” Her eyes narrowed. “And you lied to me about it.”

  “I know, I know. I’m sorry.” He sat up. “But I couldn’t tell you about any of it because … because I made a promise.”

  “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 granddad 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 defenses 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 he
r, 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 toward 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 mentioned on the stone taken from the museum, but …” She gave them a helpless little shrug. “It is not enough.”