“Ask the wolves,” she replied. Then she reached out and squeezed Eddie’s hand. “Good luck.”
“See you soon,” he said, smiling. “Okay, Kagan, let’s go. There’s trouble down’t pit!” He grinned, adding: “I always wanted an excuse to say that.” Everyone looked at him. “It’s a Yorkshire thing … oh, never bloody mind. Come on.”
He climbed onto the plateau, keeping low as he headed for the first rock. Kagan followed. The Russian soldiers spread out along the rocky edge to cover them.
“So,” said Kagan, eyeing the Wildey, “the big gun. Does it impress the women?” He smirked.
Eddie made an irritated noise. “Everyone’s a fucking comedian. I use a big gun because when I shoot someone with it, they fall down and don’t get back up, okay? Well, usually they don’t.” They reached the rock and hunched behind it. The lone guard was still watching the pit; now that Eddie was closer, he could tell from the man’s body language that he was both cold and bored. Presumably Lock and company were not rushing their descent into the depths of the earth. “Okay, his gun’s over his shoulder, so he’s definitely not expecting trouble. What’s that in his left hand?”
Kagan narrowed his eyes. “A radio, perhaps? I cannot see it properly.”
“Maybe he’s waiting for Lock to tell him they’ve got the eitr, so he can help pull ’em out.”
“Then we must get there before he does.”
They zigzagged between the rocks. About a hundred feet from the helicopter, Eddie signaled for Kagan to pause. “There’s someone else in the chopper,” he said as they crouched behind a snow-covered boulder. A shadowy figure was visible through the aircraft’s windows. “The pilot.”
“There is another person,” said Kagan. Somebody was in one of the passenger seats.
Somebody blond.
“It’s Tova!” Eddie said. “They must have brought her in case there were any more runes they needed translating.”
“They will not need her for much longer,” Kagan pointed out ominously.
“We’ve got to get her out of there. You sort out the guard; I’ll—”
He broke off, both men ducking as the mercenary moved. The object in his hand was indeed a radio, the squawk as it received a message carried by the wind to the observers. Eddie couldn’t quite make out the words, but he recognized the voice. “Hoyt! That bastard.” He leaned out, trying to listen to the message. “Can you hear what he’s saying?”
“No, he is too far— Wait, get back.”
Eddie pulled into cover as the mercenary turned and started back to the helicopter, still listening to his leader. Fragments of the transmission reached the lurking duo. “… at the bottom,” said Hoyt. “Make sure the ropes … gonna get the stuff. Once we’ve … boss wants us to head straight back up. Tell the pilot …”
“They are about to take the eitr,” said Kagan in alarm. He raised his AK. “We cannot wait—we must stop them.”
“Hold on, hold on,” Eddie told him. The radio message became clearer as the merc neared the helicopter.
Hoyt’s words sent a chill through him. “And the boss says we’re finished with Blondie. Take her out and shoot her.”
“Roger that,” said the mercenary, a sadistic smile crossing his face. He clipped his radio to his belt and unslung his rifle as he reached the helicopter. “Okay, out,” he barked as he opened the door, pulling Tova from the aircraft. Her hands were secured behind her back by flex-cuffs, and she almost fell.
“Fuckers,” Eddie hissed as he saw the Swede’s face. Without Nina as leverage, Hoyt and Lock had resorted to much more direct—and brutal—ways of forcing obedience from the archaeologist. Tova’s face bore several bruises, her lower lip swollen. Her eyes were puffy and red from exhaustion—and fear. “I’m going in.”
“Chase, wait—” Kagan began, but the Englishman was already moving.
He scuttled toward the helicopter, keeping out of the line of sight of both its pilot and the mercenary. He couldn’t risk a shot at the latter; even if the bullet was dead on target, it might rip right through the man’s body and hit Tova as well.
He would have to be more hands-on.
The mercenary dragged Tova to a spot ten feet from the helicopter. “Oh God,” she gasped, realizing what he was about to do. “No, please! I did what you wanted!”
“It’s nothing personal,” said the mercenary, though the relish in his voice gave away that the act of killing was more than pure business to him. “On your knees.”
“Please, don’t!” she wailed.
“Shut up.” He forced her down to the snowy ground, then raised his gun to the back of her head. “If it wasn’t so fuckin’ cold, I’d have you facing the other way first. Bit of fun in return for me makin’ it quick—”
“Make this quick,” Eddie growled as he rose up like a specter behind the mercenary, clamping one arm around the man’s head and the other across the front of his shoulders—and twisting them in different directions.
There was a revolting snap from deep inside the mercenary’s neck as bone splintered, muscle and tissue compressing with a wet squish. The man’s eyes bugged wide and he opened his mouth to scream in pain, but no air escaped; his windpipe was crushed shut, spinal cord severed below the fourth vertebra. Eddie let him drop. The man crumpled to the ground, completely limp, mouth gaping silently like a goldfish out of water. “Don’t fuck with my friends,” the Englishman told him, then moved to help Tova. “It’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here.”
“Eddie?” she said, looking around at him with shocked surprise. “Oj, herre Gud, Eddie! You found me!”
“Yeah, we followed the runes. Hate to admit it, but Berkeley knows what he’s doing.” He raised her back to her feet, then drew his Wildey and went to the helicopter’s door. The pilot had just realized what had happened outside and was fumbling for a radio handset, but the sight of the huge gun made him drop it and freeze without even needing to be told.
Kagan ran up behind Eddie. “Are you okay?” he asked Tova, taking out a knife and cutting her hands free.
“Yes, thank you! Thank you both,” she sobbed.
Eddie gestured for the pilot to get out. “How many of ’em are there?” he asked the Swede. “We know Hoyt’s here—what about Lock?”
“Yes, they are both here.” Tova rubbed her wrists where the plastic strap had bitten into her skin. “They have six men with them. They went down there.” She indicated the pit.
“They’re not coming back out,” he assured her, before signaling for Nina and the others to join him. “All right, you,” he said, rounding on the pilot. “Got a good reason why I shouldn’t blow your fucking head off?”
The man’s face twisted in terror. “I—I—I don’t know what is going on!” he gabbled, his accent French Canadian. “I was just hired to fly here!”
“By a bunch of guys with guns who were holding a beaten-up woman prisoner. That didn’t drop any hints that the job might be a bit dodgy?”
“I don’t ask questions, I just fly the chopper!” He stared at the mercenary in horror. A last gurgling sound emerged from the fallen man’s mouth, then he went still. “I’ll do whatever you want, just please don’t kill me!”
Kagan leaned into the cockpit, examining something taped to the instrument panel. “I think he is telling the truth. This says he works for an air charter company.”
Eddie nodded. “Okay, hero,” he said to the pilot. “What were you hired to do, and where were you going to take ’em from here?”
“They wanted me to fly them to these coordinates,” the Canadian replied. “They had pictures, satellite photos. When they saw the hole, we landed and they went down into it. They were going to collect some kind of sample, and then I would fly them back to Iqaluit to meet their jet. That’s all I know, I swear!”
The man’s fear was genuine. Eddie reluctantly accepted his story. “All right, I’m not going to kill you—unless you piss me about,” he added with a wave of the gun, the pilot?
??s moment of relief instantly vanishing. “Okay, Kagan, what do we need to do? Can you just dump that stuff down the hole?”
Kagan put down the case and opened it, revealing the steel cylinder. “No. It will have to be poured directly into the eitr.”
“Yeah, I thought so.” A weary sigh, then Eddie looked toward the pit. Steam was still condensing above it; the air below was both warm and humid. “How hot’s it going to be down there?”
“The Academician told me it could reach over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit inside the pit, even in winter.”
“So it’s not just a horrible fucking mutagenic poison, it’s a boiling horrible fucking mutagenic poison. Fantastic.” He turned as Nina, Berkeley, and the two soldiers arrived at a run. “Ay up. Glad you could join us.” Kagan issued an order to his men, and, AKs at the ready, they moved to guard the pit.
Berkeley grimaced at the sight of the dead mercenary. “You’ve, ah, been doing your thing, then.”
Nina was more concerned about Tova. “Jeez,” she said, seeing the bruises. “Are you okay?”
“I will be fine,” Tova replied. “I am sorry.”
“For what?”
“For telling them how to find this place. If I had been stronger, you could have reached here first.”
“It’s not your fault,” Nina insisted.
“Just … do not let them get away with the eitr. Please?”
“We won’t,” said Eddie.
“You’ve got a plan?” asked Berkeley.
“Go down there, kill every living thing we find, pour the Russian goop into the eitr, head home. Sound good?”
“You should come to more IHA meetings,” Nina told him. “Your bullet points are way more concise than mine.”
“Only if I get to bring Mr. Wildey.” Eddie held up the gun. “He’d encourage everyone to keep it brief.”
“I’m just picturing Seretse’s face if he held a meeting where you had that thing on the desk in front of you.” She turned to Kagan. The Russian had carefully removed the steel canister from its case, and was now taking a chunky military radio from the rest of his gear. “What are you doing?”
“My orders are to report the location of the eitr pit once we have found it and are ready to deliver Thor’s Hammer,” he replied as he switched the unit on, then spoke into it in Russian. A reply came quickly; he began a rapid-fire conversation.
Nina regarded the pit. An object stood out above the snow near its lip—another runestone, worn by the savage weather. “Tova, did you translate that?”
“Yes,” Tova replied. “It is a message to any Viking warriors who followed the trail from Valhalla, congratulating them on their strength for surviving the journey—and wishing them courage for the battle against the Midgard Serpent.”
“Doesn’t look like they’d find many snakes around here,” said Eddie, surveying the frozen desolation.
“No, but I did not go into the pit. I do not know what is down there.”
“We’re about to find out,” Nina said, far from thrilled at the prospect. “And we’ve got Lock, Hoyt, and six other guys down there as well.”
“We’ve got surprise, though,” Eddie reminded her. “If we catch ’em before they come out, we—”
“Ebat kopat!” cried Kagan, appalled. All eyes went to him as he spoke frantically into the radio. The reply was stern and unwavering, lengthening his expression of dismay.
“What’s wrong?” Nina demanded.
Kagan looked at her, eyes wide. “I gave them the coordinates of the eitr pit—and now they are going to activate the Tsar Protocol!” Eddie, Nina, and Tova exchanged horrified glances.
Berkeley pursed his lips. “I take it that is … not a good thing.”
“No shit,” said Nina. “They’re going to drop a nuke on us!”
Berkeley’s reaction was as confused as if she had spoken to him in Swahili. “When you say ‘a nuke,’ you mean …”
“Yeah, an actual nuclear bomb!” She turned back to Kagan. “Tell them not to!”
“I tried,” said the Russian. “They will not listen. They know Lock is already here, so my orders are now to stop them from leaving with the eitr.”
“That’s easy enough,” said Berkeley, almost quivering in nervous agitation. “We get in the helicopter and tell the pilot to fly us out of here.” The pilot nodded in vigorous agreement. “Lock and his buddies are stranded, and when the nuke arrives, they get fried. Simple!” He took in the hostile frowns of his companions. “Not so simple?”
“Russia is about to launch a nuclear attack on Canada,” Nina said, scathing. “How do you think NATO will respond to that?”
“When are they launching it?” Eddie asked.
The radio came to life again, the Russian at the other end of the line delivering a curt statement. Kagan went pale. “They just did.”
“What?” Nina gasped.
“They had a Tupolev-160 on combat patrol over the Arctic Ocean. It is—was carrying a Kh-102 cruise missile. It is a stealth weapon; NATO’s radars will not see it.”
“I fucking knew I should have shot up those Tu-160s!” Eddie growled. “How big’s the warhead?”
“Two hundred kilotons. Much smaller than the Tsar Bomba, but it does not need to be so big. It is very accurate.” He glanced toward the steaming pit. “They will be able to drop it straight down the hole.”
“How long have we got?”
Kagan spoke into the radio, soon getting a reply. “Thirty minutes. The missile is subsonic—but it is still as fast as a jet.”
“But they haven’t even given us a chance,” protested Nina. “We can still try to use Thor’s Hammer. If it works, they don’t need to nuke the pit!”
“Can they abort the missile in flight?” Eddie asked. Kagan nodded. “Then get back on the blower and tell ’em we’ll confirm that the eitr’s been neutralized in twenty-nine minutes!”
“Preferably less,” said Nina. “I hate it when we cut things that fine.”
“I don’t like to point this out,” said Berkeley as Kagan reopened the channel to the Kremlin, “but I doubt Lock and Hoyt will let us just do whatever we’re going to do.”
“We don’t have much choice, do we?”
“There is still the helicopter option …”
“If that nuke goes off, and NATO realizes where it came from and retaliates, there might not be anywhere left for us to go home to!” Kagan finished his brief discussion. “What did they say?” she asked him.
“If we neutralize the eitr, they will abort the missile,” he replied.
“Okay, then let’s wait five minutes and say we’ve done it,” Berkeley suggested.
Kagan was not impressed. “One way or another, Russia will destroy the eitr,” he said. “For the sake of the world, we must make it Unit 201’s way.”
Nina turned to Tova. “You don’t have to come with us. Wait in the helicopter—and keep an eye on him,” she said, giving the pilot a suspicious look. She collected the dead mercenary’s gun and offered it to her. “You know how to use one of these?”
“I think so,” Tova replied, hesitantly accepting the weapon.
Eddie glanced at it. “Safety’s off.”
“Then I know so.”
“Take this too,” said Kagan, giving her the radio. “It is a satellite system,” he explained. “It will not work in the pit. This way, it will be safe.”
Nina gave Tova a smile of reassurance. “Don’t take off until we get back.”
“You came for me, so I will wait for you,” said the Swede. “Do not worry, I will watch the pilot. Good luck.”
“Thanks, I think we’ll need as much as we can bloody get!” said Eddie. He opened the helicopter’s door and shoved the pilot inside, then moved back to let Tova enter.
Berkeley looked hopefully at the aircraft. “What about me?”
“Make yourself useful,” the Yorkshireman told him. He indicated the metal cylinder. “Carry that. And don’t fucking drop it, or you’ll be dead bef
ore I have a chance to shoot you!”
The scientist was about to object, but a hard glare from Kagan silenced him. “We must hurry. Come.” He jogged toward the pit, Nina, Eddie, and the reluctant Berkeley following.
Shapes were visible beneath the snow as they neared the opening. Eddie wrinkled his face in disgust at the sight of a dead wolf, the cold having preserved its monstrously deformed and diseased features. “They must have come up here ’cause it was warmer in the pit. Bad move.”
“Maybe they didn’t even go into the pit,” said Nina, alarmed. “The whole environment might be toxic. God knows what we’ll be breathing in.”
“If it is like the pit on Novaya Zemlya,” Kagan said, “the air is not deadly—but it will not be pleasant either.”
Eddie grunted sarcastically. “We go to all the nice places, don’t we?”
They reached the two soldiers, the Russian officer exchanging brief words with them. Nina glanced at the nearby runestone, the final marker along the Vikings’ long journey, then down into the pit itself.
There was not much to see, the rising steam making it hard to pick out details. But the exposed rock was dark—almost black, in fact, caked with oily deposits. She stepped closer for a better look, only to cough as hot vapor wafted past her. Kagan had been right: It was unpleasant, a stinging, almost acidic sensation rasping at her sinuses. “I hope you’re right about this crap not being toxic,” she told the Russian.
“If we do not succeed, it will not matter if it is or not,” he replied, checking that the ropes were secure before squinting into the depths of the pit. “Okay, I will climb down first.”
“You ready?” Eddie asked Nina.
“As ready as I can be.”
He smiled. “Then let’s save the world. Again.”
33
Kagan took the lead, one of his men, Maslov, behind him as the group descended into the pit. Eddie was next, leading Nina and Berkeley. The second soldier, Pravdin, took up the rear—whether to provide overwatch for the whole group or simply to keep an eye on Berkeley and the canister was something known only to the Russian speakers.
They were soon glad of the ropes set up by Lock’s team. The slope grew steeper as it descended, the steam condensing where rising hot air met the cold air at the surface; it did not take long for them to drop below the vaporous boundary. Eddie stared in disbelief at what came into view below. “What the hell is that?”