And failing.
His hand slipped over hers. One last desperate grab at her fingers, then he was gone, reduced to a dot in moments as he plunged towards the plaza. He screamed all the way down, people below scattering as they saw him fall—
On to Marine One.
The helicopter was on the ground while President Cole and his closest staff were bundled aboard, its main rotor spinning just below take-off speed. Cross plummeted into the whirling blades – and was reduced to a wet haze, what little remained of him spraying out over the aircraft and across the plaza.
Nina grimaced as she saw Marine One’s white livery turn crimson. ‘Jesus!’
Eddie drew her away from the door. ‘Red, white and goo,’ he said – in a high, duck-like voice. He had inhaled some of the escaping helium, affecting his vocal cords. ‘Buggeration and quackery! That’s not right.’
She embraced him. ‘Are you okay? Apart from the voice, I mean.’
‘I’ll live. What about you?’
‘Same. For both of us.’ She put a hand on her belly. ‘This has so not been good for my cortisol levels.’
Eddie squeezed her, then looked outside. The crippled airship was spiralling down towards the plaza at an increasing rate. ‘We need to get this thing under control. And stop grinning, this is serious.’
‘I can’t help it,’ Nina replied, finding his high-pitched voice incongruously amusing.
He huffed, then clambered to the front of the cabin. A tug at Paxton’s seat belt buckle released the dead man, who fell sideways from his chair. ‘Okay, how hard can this be?’ Eddie asked himself as he took the pilot’s place and examined the controls. Joystick, rudder pedals, throttle levers; the basics, at least, were much simpler than a helicopter’s. He looked through the blood-streaked windscreen, the Secretariat Building coming into view as the Airlander circled.
Nina joined him, keeping a tight hold of the angel. A monitor revealed that the port lobe had now lost most of its gas, and what remained was venting fast. ‘The helium’s almost gone on that whole side.’
‘We’ll hit the ground pretty hard at this rate,’ he warned. ‘I’ll try to get us to the UN’s roof before we lose it all.’
He took the joystick. The airship turned sluggishly towards the green glass tower. Nina judged their speed and the distance they still had to travel against the rate at which the Airlander was descending. ‘We won’t make it – we’re falling too fast!’
Eddie shoved the throttles to full power. ‘That’s the best we can do.’ He pulled the stick back in an attempt to gain height, but to no avail. ‘Fuck!’
Another smile, despite the situation. ‘That’s not what ducks say.’
‘They do in Yorkshire!’ The rooftop passed above the level of the cabin. ‘Shit, we’re going to hit it!’ He forced the stick and rudders hard over, trying to turn away from the building—
The gondola swung clear – but even largely deflated, the airship’s port lobe still overhung its side. It caught the roof’s edge, the torn composite fabric scraping along it and tearing away antennae and satellite dishes. Eddie and Nina clung to their seats as the Airlander lurched to a stop, debris cascading down the face of the Secretariat Building.
The cabin tipped back towards the horizontal . . . and continued past it, rolling in the other direction as the starboard lobe, unable to support the trapped craft’s weight on its own, continued to wallow towards the ground. ‘Now what do we do?’ Nina cried.
Eddie saw a glossy green wall rushing towards them. ‘Hang on!’
The gondola hit the tower’s side. Glass shattered, flying shards spraying in through the airship’s doorway and missing windows. The airship creaked and moaned as it settled, then everything fell silent as Eddie shut down the engines.
‘We need to get out before this thing falls,’ he said, voice starting to drop to its usual deep timbre. He helped Nina from her seat, and the couple made their unsteady way along the tilted cabin. It had come to rest practically inside one of the UN building’s offices, the glass broken and the window frames buckled by the gondola’s lower edge. ‘Hop up.’
Nina pulled herself out of the door as her husband pushed from behind – and was startled to recognise her surroundings. Eddie emerged behind her to react with similar shock. ‘Bloody hell. We just can’t get away from here, can we?’
They were in the office of the Director of the International Heritage Agency, which until six months earlier Nina herself had occupied. ‘Stepping right back into my old office? You think that’s an omen?’
‘It’d better not be,’ Eddie rumbled, clearing his throat as his voice returned to normal. Feet crunching over glass, he led her away from the windows. ‘We’ve got other stuff to do. More important stuff.’ He switched on a lamp and checked his wife for injuries. She had acquired new cuts and bruises, but internal damage was his greatest fear. He put a hand on her lower body, feeling the small swelling within. ‘God, I hope she’s okay . . .’
‘She is,’ Nina told him.
He looked up at her. ‘You sure?’
‘Yeah, I am.’ She smiled. ‘Mother’s intuition.’
He grinned. ‘It took all of this to finally make you realise you were cut out to be a mum?’
‘What can I say? We don’t lead a normal life.’ She kissed him. ‘But yeah, I can be a mom, I know it for sure now. I even picked a name for our little girl.’
Eddie nodded. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
Nina hesitated, then said the name that had dominated her mind for what seemed like an aeon. ‘Macy.’
Simply saying it out loud made her feel as if a tightness around her chest and heart had been released. She drew in a nervous breath, awaiting his response . . .
It was a gentle smile. ‘I thought it might be.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah. I know how you’ve been feeling – and I know you must have been worried sick that naming our baby after Macy would be . . . disrespectful. But it isn’t. I think it’s honouring her.’ He put his hands on her arms, the smile widening. ‘And Macy would have been chuffed as nuts to know we’d named our kid after her.’
Nina glanced heavenwards. ‘Maybe she still is. Who knows?’
‘Who knows,’ he echoed. ‘I know one thing, though.’
‘What’s that?’
‘We should start now if we want to reach the apartment before it gets dark.’ He looked back at the window, the view of Manhattan blocked by the hanging mass of the crashed airship. ‘Traffic’ll be a nightmare.’
Nina laughed. ‘And I get the feeling a lot of people will want to talk to us.’ She kissed him again. ‘Come on then. Let’s go home.’
Epilogue
New York City
Five Months Later
‘Welcome home,’ said Eddie, unlocking and opening the door. ‘Both of you.’
‘Thanks,’ said Nina with relief as she entered the apartment, her newborn baby in a sling against her chest. The little girl – impossibly little considering the size of her bump after nine months of pregnancy, she still couldn’t help thinking – had been asleep during the ride from the hospital, but was now starting to stir again. ‘Hey, honey,’ she cooed. ‘This is where we live! It’s Mommy and Daddy’s home – and now it’s yours too.’
‘Mummy,’ said Eddie with a grin as he followed her in.
‘Mommy.’
‘Mummy!’
‘Am I wrapped in bandages? Then it’s Mommy. Although you’ll be wrapped in bandages if you say it again,’ she warned him jokingly.
He leaned in closer to his daughter. ‘Mummy’s bad-tempered and violent because she’s got red hair,’ he said in a stage whisper. ‘You want to be more like Daddy.’
‘What, going bald?’ In fact, they weren’t sure what colour the baby’s hair would eventually become, as it somehow managed the feat of seeming blonde, dark or even red depending on the light. ‘Don’t listen to Daddy – he’s British, he talks in a weird way. And he’s from Yorkshire, so tha
t makes him even weirder.’
‘Tchah!’
‘See what I mean?’
Eddie took off his leather jacket. ‘Okay, then. Let’s show the little one her room.’
They went through the living room, pausing en route at the shelf of mementoes. Nina gently shifted the baby to see one photograph in particular: that of Macy Sharif. ‘Macy . . . meet Macy.’ She didn’t know which Macy she was addressing, but decided it didn’t matter. Macy Laura Wilde Chase blinked her wide green eyes in response, then made a soft mumbling sound that her mother decided meant hello.
Eddie smiled. ‘Macy would have loved that. Big Macy, I mean.’
‘I know.’ A moment of sadness as she regarded the picture of her friend, then she looked back at her namesake. ‘When you’re older, I’ll tell you all about her.’ Her gaze moved again, this time to the photograph of herself with her parents. ‘And I’ll tell you all about my mommy and daddy, too. They would have been so happy to meet you . . .’
‘You okay?’ Eddie said softly, after a moment.
‘Yeah.’ There was a hint of sadness to her voice, but it vanished as she regarded her daughter once more. ‘But that can wait for another day. Let’s get you into your bed.’
They continued to another room. What had previously been the study was now a nursery, the desk replaced by a crib containing a Moses basket. Nina went to it, taking a deep breath. ‘Okay, I practised this with a doll, so hopefully I’ll manage the real thing,’ she said, gingerly unfastening the sling with one hand while supporting the baby with the other.
‘You’ll do it,’ Eddie assured her. ‘Trust me, you’re not going to drop the baby. You could be juggling hand grenades and you still wouldn’t drop the baby!’
‘I hope you’re right . . .’ The sling came free, and she took Macy’s weight with both hands, carefully lifting her out and lowering her into the cot. ‘Yes! I did it! I actually did it – and she didn’t even cry!’ Macy squirmed in her new bed, but didn’t make a sound. ‘Oh my God, Eddie. Look at her. Isn’t she beautiful?’ She felt tears swelling in her eyes.
‘Yeah, she is,’ he agreed. ‘My baby girl. Wow.’ He made a sound that was half chuckle and half disbelieving gasp. ‘I’m a dad. I’m a bloody dad!’
‘That only just sank in, huh? I thought you looked a bit spaced out at the birth.’
A grin. ‘Having her here at home is what did it. We’re an actual family now.’ He reached down to stroke his daughter’s cheek; she wriggled in response. ‘So are you ready to be a mum?’ he asked Nina. ‘Or a mom, even.’
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘I’m ready – I really am.’ The admission was entirely truthful, and it felt good. ‘Though I know it’s going to be hard work. She’s quiet now, but . . . well, you heard her at the hospital before I fed her! I don’t know how she fits such big lungs into such a tiny body.’
‘At least we can concentrate on her. Your book’s finished, and you’ve optioned the movie rights to Grant, so we don’t need to worry about money. You don’t have to go chasing after any more archaeological bollocks for a while.’
Nina laughed. ‘Just because I’ve become a mother doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing what I do.’
‘Yeah, I was afraid you’d say that. Oh well . . .’ He let out an exaggerated sigh, then wrapped his arms around her, looking down at their sleeping baby. ‘It doesn’t matter right now, does it?’
‘No, it doesn’t.’ She smiled, then kissed him. ‘We’ve just started a whole new adventure.’
Andy McDermott, The Revelation Code
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