‘How long’s the line?’ Nina asked.
‘Long enough, don’t you worry!’ He crouched to check the connection on the box, then stood, satisfied. ‘Okay! I just need to run the diagnostics, then we’re good to go.’ An apologetic smile. ‘Afraid that’s where the boring part starts. No telling how long it’ll take before the search turns anything up.’
‘We are not far from where the old records said the Viking site was found,’ said Tova. ‘That is the most likely place for the runestone to be.’
‘Well, if we find it in the first five minutes that’s all well and good. All the same, you might want to have a Sudoku app on your phones.’ He started back to the shore.
The others followed, the crane truck crawling along behind them. ‘If there’s a chance he might find it pretty quick,’ said Eddie, ‘we’d better get the diving gear ready just in case. No point wasting time standing around when it’s this bloody nippy.’
‘I was planning on sitting in the truck where it’s warm rather than standing out in the cold,’ Nina replied with a smile. ‘But are you sure you want to go down there? Peder and Mathias can handle it – that’s why I brought them.’
‘I’ve dived in worse than this,’ he said, shrugging. ‘And the more hands we have down there, the quicker we’ll get the thing to the surface. It gets dark pretty early this time of year – it’ll be a pain in the arse if we have to leave and come back tomorrow to start all over again.’
‘You have not been on many archaeological digs, have you, Eddie?’ Tova asked, amused. ‘They usually take days, or even weeks. I think working for the IHA has made you think things always happen very quickly!’
Nina grinned. ‘I’d love to have a nice long, slow, good old-fashioned dig in the dirt sometime,’ she said, prompting an earnest shake of the head from her husband, ‘but yeah, things do often tend to race away when the IHA’s involved. Hopefully not this time, though.’
They reached the shore. While Matt went to the tent, Nina joined Eddie and the two divers as they checked their gear. They would not be wearing standard wetsuits, but insulated double-layer drysuits better suited to the frigid conditions. ‘Sure you don’t want to come down and see the thing first-hand?’ Eddie joked to the two women, waggling the neoprene arms of his suit at them.
‘Oh no, no,’ was Tova’s emphatic reply. ‘I am not a good swimmer. And I do not like the cold.’
‘But you live in Sweden,’ Nina pointed out.
‘Yes, and it is beautiful – in the summer!’
‘There needs to be more archaeology on tropical islands,’ said Eddie. ‘You’re in charge of the IHA, Nina – sort it out.’ He checked the pressure on his gas cylinder: nitrox, a mix with much higher oxygen content than normal air. ‘Okay, this is all set.’ Peder and Mathias confirmed that their own diving gear was ready for use. ‘Now we just need to find the thing.’
‘That’s up to Matt,’ Nina said. They went to the tent. ‘Is everything ready?’ she asked, entering the little shelter.
‘Keep that closed, will ya?’ the Australian complained. ‘It’s bloody freezing in here!’ He had a halogen heat lamp hooked up to the same portable generator powering his equipment, but was still huddled up tightly in his cold-weather gear. ‘But yeah, Nelson’s ready to go.’
‘Great. Do your thing.’
Matt regarded a map on a laptop, then checked another window on the screen before working the controls. A monitor showed the view from one of the ROV’s cameras; the glare of the sky quickly disappeared as the machine submerged. ‘Okay, I’ve switched on the MAD. I’ll take him to the middle of the lake and start a radial search to cover the area you said was the most likely place to find this old village. If nothing turns up, I’ll switch to a grid and move out from there.’
‘Sounds good.’ Nina watched a symbol slowly move across the map, then regarded the view from the on-board camera. The diffuse light coming through the ice was already fading to darkness as the submersible descended. ‘Let’s see what’s down there.’
‘If there is anything,’ Eddie added from behind her.
She couldn’t help thinking from his tone that he was almost hoping there was not.
The first hour of the search passed slowly, and fruitlessly.
The readings from the MAD turned out to be a source of frustration for the uninitiated. Within minutes, there was excitement as something distorted the background magnetic field enough to trigger an alert – but Matt dismissed it almost immediately as nothing more than a piece of inert metal rather than an actual magnetic source, and was proven correct when he took Nelson in to investigate. The sub’s floodlights fell upon nothing more than a rusting boat anchor. Further signals turned out to be equally disappointing: a corroded car door, a piece of unidentifiable scrap. ‘Told you to bring an app,’ Matt told Nina after the fourth false alarm.
She was half wishing she did have something to pass the time, but all the same there was something oddly fascinating about the slowly changing view from beneath the surface. The valley had been as full of trees as the surrounding hills before it was flooded, and their remains were still there, standing in their hundreds like decaying grave markers. It was an eerie sight.
Eddie was less impressed. ‘Bollocks to this,’ he said, retreating from the tent. ‘I’m going for a walk. Give me a shout if anything interesting turns up.’
Nothing did for the next hour. The Yorkshireman eventually returned to find the view on the monitor little changed. ‘Found any more buckets?’ he asked.
‘Enough to open a bait shop,’ Nina replied, stifling a yawn. ‘And some bits of boats, something that looked like an engine . . .’
‘No runestone, though,’ Tova said glumly. ‘And I am sure we started searching near the old archaeological site. Perhaps I was wrong, and it is not here at all.’
‘Give it time,’ Nina insisted. ‘It’s not as if they could get an exact GPS fix in the 1930s. If they were down in the forest and couldn’t see any landmarks, they could easily have gotten their position wrong.’
‘Yes, but by how much? The submarine is almost half a kilometre from where the search started. They would not—’
A chime from the computer signalled another find for the MAD. ‘Hold on, this looks interesting,’ Matt announced after checking the results. A graph displayed the readings as a series of fluctuating lines – one of which had just spiked considerably. ‘Definitely not a bucket. This is something actually magnetic, not just metal.’
Eddie peered over his shoulder. ‘You’ve found it?’
‘Let’s take a look . . .’ The Australian worked the controls, guiding the ROV between the drowned trunks. The lake bed came into view in the spotlights. Silt deposits had built up over the decades since the dam was constructed, but several large rocks were still visible.
One stood out. Where the others were craggy, this had a more regular shape.
Nina felt a surge of exhilaration. ‘Tova, look at this,’ she said, moving aside so the Swede could get closer to the monitor. ‘Is that the second runestone?’
Tova let out an audible gasp. ‘It – it could be,’ she stammered. ‘I think it could be!’
Matt brought the submersible closer. The lights picked out features on the rock’s flat face: lines scribed into the stone.
Runes.
‘What about the other part of the compass?’ Eddie asked. ‘Is that there?’
The camera panned down. More runes were revealed, and an image below them – a stylised carving of a wolf. The beast was curled around something set into the surface beneath it . . .
‘That’s it!’ Nina cried as darker stone came into view. Curving lines ran across the disc, notches cut into its edge. ‘It’s the other sun compass! We’ve found the second runestone.’ She turned to Tova, who was gazing at the image with astonishment. ‘And once we get it out of the water, it’ll tell us how to find Valhalla.’
12
Vietnam
Chase drifted through a nightmare. He was trappe
d in darkness by endless trees, slimy trunks blocking every line of escape as his pursuers drew nearer. He tried to run, but his feet sank deeper into the cloying mud with every step. The trees closed in, branches wrapping ever tighter around him, covering his face—
He jerked awake, confused – then realised something was on his face. Barely holding in a startled yelp, he swatted away a centipede that had been exploring his cheek.
The sounds of the jungle surrounded him, an incessant chatter of insects and birds. He straightened, muscles and bones aching from the night spent curled up beneath the hollow log. The storm had passed. Shafts of bright sunlight cut through the canopy above to send up ghostly wafts of steam from the sodden ground. He was far from warm, though. His clothes were as damp as the soil, sticking unpleasantly to his skin. ‘Welcome to the fucking jungle,’ he muttered as he started to stand . . .
Memory forced its way through his mental fug. Chase instantly dropped back down and grabbed the Kalashnikov, the weapon awkward and unbalanced without its magazine. His gaze darted over his surroundings, hunting for movement, danger . . .
Nobody was there. He was safe.
For now.
More cautiously, he rose again and peered into the open end of the log. ‘Natalia? Are you okay?’
Matted blond hair slowly emerged from the folds of the camouflaged rain cape. ‘Wo bin . . . Where am I?’ Natalia croaked as she squinted at the light.
Chase saw fear rising over her bewilderment. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, keeping the gun out of sight as he raised his free hand to show that he was not a threat. ‘It’s me – Eddie, remember? Eddie Chase? I brought you here last night.’
Natalia stared up at him – then suddenly started to writhe against the claustrophobic confines of her shelter. She whimpered, crying out in German as her fists beat ineffectually against the mouldering wood. ‘Hey, hey!’ said Chase, trying to calm her. ‘It’s okay – I’ll get you out of there.’
He reached into the log. She resisted his touch for a moment, before her own addled memory returned. ‘You . . . were carrying me, we were in the rain.’
‘Yeah, that’s right.’ Taking care not to catch her skin on any protruding splinters, he eased her out of the hiding place.
She looked around in alarm. ‘Someone was chasing us! You – you had a fight with him.’
‘I know. But we escaped. We’re safe for now, but we need to get moving. I’ve got friends waiting for us, but I’ll need to figure out where we are before we can reach them.’
He set her on the ground. She winced as one bare foot touched down. ‘It hurts.’
‘Lift it up.’ Chase shouldered the rifle, then crouched to examine her foot. A small fragment of wood was stuck in her sole, the skin around it red and swollen. ‘Hold still.’ He carefully teased it out, blood beading in the little puncture wound. Natalia’s face tightened, but she endured the dis-comfort. He retrieved his backpack from under the log and took out a first aid kit. A minute’s work, and a bandage was in place, antiseptic ointment applied under it. ‘That should be okay for now, but you’ll need to have it checked by a doctor when we get out of here. Drawing blood in the jungle’s never a good idea.’
‘I know, I have been working here for four months. We—’ She stopped, dawning terror on her face. ‘We were attacked! They took us prisoner, they—’
‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ Chase said, holding her as she began to shake. ‘We were sent to rescue you. My mates got all the rest of your people out of there. We got cut off, but we’ll catch up with them. I promise.’
Her trembling slowly subsided. ‘What happened to us? We were driving to another village when the bandits blocked the road. They had guns, there was nothing we could do. They put a blindfold on me, and then . . .’ Her brow furrowed as she struggled to recall events. ‘I don’t remember anything. I woke up, and . . . and I was with you.’
‘You don’t remember anything at all?’ She shook her head. ‘You were in a camp in the jungle. Your friends were being kept in a tent, but you were in a cabin, on your own. Do you remember that?’
‘I don’t know. I . . .’ Another, deeper frown. ‘There was a very bright light, in my face. And my arms hurt . . .’ Natalia looked down at them – and gasped as she saw the bruises. She tried to pull away from Chase. ‘What did they do to me?’
He eased his grip, but didn’t fully let go, concerned that she would panic and try to flee. ‘I don’t know what they did. It looked like they were doing some sort of tests.’ That reminded him of Hoyt, shooting the Russian scientist in cold blood and stealing his work, but this wasn’t the time to worry about the traitor’s true motives.
She froze. ‘Tests?’ she said, voice childlike, barely a whisper. ‘Like . . . experiments?’
‘I suppose, yeah.’ She was still afraid, but something about her fear had changed. ‘Do you know why they were doing it?’ Her only reply was another shake of the head. ‘Some of the people at the camp were Russians,’ he reminded her.
‘Russians, yes.’ The knowledge was clearly distressing, but the reason was something she either did not want to talk about . . .
Or did not want to face.
Whatever it was, there were bigger concerns. He released her and checked his watch. It was slightly after eight in the morning. He used the angle of the sunbeams cutting through the trees to work out which way was north. ‘We need to get moving. Can you walk?’
Natalia hesitantly put weight on her bandaged foot. ‘I think so.’
‘Good. If it starts hurting, let me know and I’ll carry you. Ready?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay.’ He was about to set off, then paused, spotting something hanging from a nearby small tree. ‘Who’d have thought, Hugo actually said something useful . . .’
‘What are you doing?’ Natalia asked.
‘Getting you something to eat. I think they’re called longans.’ He plucked a bunch of orange-brown fruit from one of the branches. ‘No idea what they’re like, but a mate of mine from Belgium likes them, so hopefully German tastes aren’t too different.’
He gave them to her. She looked uncertain, but hunger won out and she split open one of the small round fruits to test the pale flesh inside. ‘Oh! This is good.’ She devoured it and spat out the black stone, before giving Chase a sheepish look. ‘Sorry. I am usually more polite . . .’
He grinned. ‘Don’t worry about being polite around me, love. But those are okay?’
‘Yes, I have had them before, in one of the villages. I just had not seen them growing on a tree.’
‘If you like ’em, then tuck in. I might even try one myself. Once you’re full, I mean – you need to eat more than I do.’
Natalia opened another longan, nibbling at it with more decorum. ‘Thank you.’
‘No problem. All right, let’s find a way out of here.’
He set off, heading north. Natalia followed, still eating.
Although Chase knew they were going in the right direction to reach the rendezvous, he was not sure of their actual position. He took out the map, but it was little help; no landmarks were visible through the dense jungle. ‘We need to get to higher ground,’ he said. The ground to the north-east rose up a slope. ‘If I can see the landscape, I can figure out where we are.’
Natalia peered with interest at the map. ‘The camp where you rescued me – where was it?’
He pointed it out. ‘About here.’
‘Let me see.’ She took the map and examined it more closely. ‘I know this place!’ she said excitedly, tapping on a small black square marked with Vietnamese text. ‘This is Ly Quang – the village where we were working before we were . . . before we were taken.’ Her tone became more sombre. ‘We were driving from it when they stopped our bus.’
Chase saw that the village was about two kilometres north-east of the camp, another few kilometres south of the highway. ‘You got friends there?’
‘Yes, yes! We were there for four days. We helped them ?
?? we gave them medical treatment, vaccinations.’
‘Anyone there have a phone?’
‘There is one telephone, yes.’
He silently debated the options. Sullivan had given him an emergency number; it would, hopefully, allow him to contact their Vietnamese driver, who had a satellite phone. If he reached Thuc, he could find out the status of the rest of the team and the hostages, arrange to be picked up – and warn Sullivan about Hoyt.
The danger was that the kidnappers would also know about the village. It would be an obvious place to search for the fugitives . . . or lie in wait for them.
‘We’ll try to get there,’ he decided. The benefits outweighed the risks; reaching a phone would save them a longer trek to the rendezvous point, and he was confident he could spot an ambush. ‘We just need to work out how.’
‘Do you know where we are now?’
He waved a finger over the area east of the camp. ‘Here, somewhere.’
Natalia regarded the map again, then indicated a spot south of the village. ‘There is a tower on the top of a hill,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘It is from the war, the Americans built it. The people in Ly Quang told me about it. You can see it from the village – it is quite high. If we can see it too . . .’
‘We’ll know where we are,’ Chase finished. He put away the map, then turned to her. ‘How’s your foot?’
‘I am good, thank you.’ She lifted her bandaged foot to examine it, pale skin almost hidden by dirt. ‘It is . . .’ She searched for the English word. ‘Sore. But I will be okay.’
‘Good. If you have any trouble, tell me.’
‘Thank you,’ she said again. Chase smiled, and they started up the hill. ‘Mr Chase . . .’
‘Eddie. Call me Eddie.’
‘Okay. Eddie.’ A coy grin, which quickly faded. ‘Last night, you said my father sent you?’
‘Yeah. Me and some other guys were hired to rescue you and your friends.’
‘You are soldiers?’
‘Used to be. We’re mercenaries, technically. But the good kind.’ The thought of Hoyt darkened his expression. ‘Mostly.’