‘Well, we already fought his brother the wolf,’ said Eddie, gathering his gear from the back of the snowmobile. ‘How does that work, by the way? Their dad must have been into some fucked-up stuff.’
‘Loki was a trickster,’ said Berkeley as the rest of the team collected their own belongings and followed the Englishman up the hill. ‘He could take on any form. Actually,’ he continued, suddenly brightening as a thought struck him, ‘the mutation of those wolves? If that was caused by the eitr, it could explain some other Norse legends. Giants, monopodes, skraelings – they might all have been people or creatures who’d suffered the same sort of mutations.’
‘Maybe you can rehabilitate yourself in the archaeological world by writing a paper about it,’ Nina said in a cutting tone. Berkeley got the message and fell into a sullen silence.
They climbed the slope. It grew steeper as they approached the lip of the plateau, bare rock exposed where snow could no longer find purchase. The last few dozen yards became a climb.
Eddie was first to the top. He waved for the others to hold position, cautiously raising his head to peer over the edge. ‘I can see the chopper,’ he reported.
Kagan joined him, the case containing Thor’s Hammer on his back. ‘What about Lock and his people?’
‘There’s a guy hanging about, but I don’t see anyone else. Although . . .’ He brought up a hand to shield his eyes from the blowing snow. ‘There’s a big crater as well. It must be the eitr pit.’
There was a flurry of movement as Nina, Berkeley and the soldiers all scrambled up to look. ‘You are right,’ said Kagan grimly. ‘It is like the one that was found on Novaya Zemlya.’
The plateau was not quite flat; they had arrived near its upper end, the snowy plain dropping gently by about a hundred feet over its length before falling sharply away down the mountainside. The helicopter, a large Sikorsky S-76 painted in high-visibility red to stand out in Arctic conditions, sat motionless two hundred yards away, below their position. A man stood near it, apparently on guard, but he was looking away from them towards the only other feature nearby.
A gaping hole.
It was a ragged oval dropping into the heart of the mountain, over a hundred feet across at its widest. Steam rose from the opening, condensing as it hit the colder air above before being whisked away by the endless wind. ‘There’s something warm down there,’ said Nina, seeing no snow around its edge.
Kagan nodded. ‘The eitr comes from somewhere deep inside the earth. The other pit was hot also.’
‘Looks like Lock and Hoyt are already inside,’ said Eddie. At one side of the pit, a metal trestle had been set up to hold several ropes descending into the abyss.
‘How many of them are there?’ Nina asked.
‘Chopper that size could carry a dozen people, easy. Great, another fucking private army.’
‘So what are we going to do?’ said Berkeley.
‘No matter what, we cannot let them leave with the eitr,’ insisted Kagan. ‘We must take out that helicopter. Then we will go into the pit and use Thor’s Hammer to neutralise the eitr.’
‘If it works,’ said Eddie. He observed the scene below thoughtfully. The man was still watching the pit, apparently waiting for those inside to return to the surface. ‘They don’t know we’re here.’
‘You sure?’ said Nina.
‘If they did, Hoyt wouldn’t have only left one bloke up here. He’s nasty, but he’s not stupid. That guy’s just keeping an eye on the ropes.’
‘What are you thinking?’ Kagan asked.
‘That we can sneak right up to the chopper without being seen. We’ll use those rocks for cover.’ He gestured at several stones poking up from the snow between the group’s position and the helicopter. ‘If he stays focused on the hole, we can get within fifty feet of him before he even realises we’re there.’
‘And if he looks around before then?’ said Berkeley.
Eddie took out the Wildey. ‘Then I find out how accurate this is at long range! But I reckon we can do it.’
‘So do I,’ said Kagan, nodding. He spoke to his men in Russian, then turned back to Eddie. ‘They will keep us covered on the way to the helicopter.’
‘Make sure they don’t shoot that thing on your back, eh?’ The Englishman cautiously rose. ‘Nina, wait here until it’s safe. Keep an eye on him.’ He jerked a thumb at Berkeley.
‘I don’t need to be baby-sat,’ Berkeley complained. His sour expression became more concerned as Nina unslung her AK-12. ‘Nina, are you sure you know how to use that thing?’
‘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 on to 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 signalled 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 blonde.
‘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 recognised 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 secur
ed 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 towards 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, realising 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 spectre 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 realised 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 signalling 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 towards 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, being 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 towards 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.’