The Midas Legacy

33

The Dutchman glanced at Anastasia, who smiled, then back at his targets—

Nina stamped on a metal pedal.

The fountain gushed into life, boiling water erupting from the model volcano — and instantly producing a blinding, choking cloud of steam as it hit the freezing air from outside. The gusting wind swept it across the lounge, swallowing De Klerx.

‘Run!’ Nina yelled. She raced for the exit, hauling her grandmother behind her.

Eddie had nearly been caught by the scalding steam. ‘Jesus!’ he gasped as he darted clear and followed the two women. ‘You almost lobstered me!’

‘Better red than dead!’ she replied. Eddie overtook and barged open the doors. Behind them, the cloud was already dispersing. ‘We’ve gotta get to the jeeps!’ Nina headed for the nearby stairs to the west entrance, but the exterior doors below crashed open. ‘Whoa, not that way!’

Eddie snatched a fire extinguisher from its wall clips and hurled it down the stairwell. Honnick, charging up the steps, tried to dodge, but not quickly enough. The heavy metal cylinder struck his skull, bowling the hapless mercenary back to ground level with another deep cut to his head to add to those he had received in Reykjavik and aboard the Pactolus.

The Englishman was about to vault down to grab his gun when he saw the shadows of more guards running towards the glass doors below. ‘Keep going!’ he yelled instead, reversing course.

He quickly caught up with Nina and Olivia. ‘Come on, come on!’ the redhead cried, tugging at the old woman’s wrist.

‘I can’t!’ Olivia protested. ‘I’m eighty-nine years old!’

‘You want to reach ninety? Then move your bony ass!’

Olivia looked offended, but before she could say anything, Eddie scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. She shrieked. ‘Sorry,’ he said as he ran down the corridor alongside Nina. ‘But she’s right, it is on the bony side.’

‘You—’ the elderly lady began, only to gasp in fear as two men reached the top of the stairs behind them. ‘Look out!’

Nina darted around a corner as they entered the main lobby. Eddie swerved after her. Plasterboard exploded behind him as bullets hit the wall, but the rounds didn’t penetrate, impacting against concrete beneath the surface.

They were still far from safe. The gunmen were already haring after them, and a gust of cold air warned that more guards were coming up the stairs from the main entrance below. ‘In there,’ said Eddie, running for the geothermal power plant’s entrance.

‘You think there’s another way out?’ asked Nina.

‘I bloody well hope so!’

‘There is,’ Olivia told them. ‘At the back. I’ve got a keycard.’

‘Great.’ He put her down. She produced the card and swiped it across the lock.

They entered the cavernous white chamber. There was nobody else inside. Nina slammed the door, seeing a bolt and shoving it closed, even though she knew it wouldn’t stop their pursuers for long. ‘Which way?’ she asked Olivia.

‘There.’ Her grandmother pointed. The hydrogen sulphide pipes ran into the rear wall, a doorway nearby. ‘There’s a door to the outside past the storage tanks.’

Eddie spotted something mounted on the wall beside a fire hose and veered away as they ran across the room. ‘Keep going! I’ll catch up!’

Nina looked back. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Slowing ’em down!’ He grabbed a fire axe and rushed back to the pipes leading into the twin turbines. The door banged as someone tried to open it. Another thump, louder: a kick. The bolt buckled.

Eddie reached a set of valves. Red-painted wheels allowed the flow of superheated water to be controlled manually. A deep breath, then he raised the axe.

A crack as the bolt snapped and the door flew open. A man burst in. He saw the Englishman directly ahead and took aim—

Eddie swung. The axe sheared off one of the valve wheels — and the jutting stub of pipe to which it was attached.

He dived clear as a high-pressure water jet blasted at the doorway. It hit the gunman and hurled him back into the lobby, his skin instantly blistering and liquefying. He skidded across the floor, other guards scrambling clear as boiling droplets sprayed off him.

The stench of rotten eggs filled the room as suspended hydrogen sulphide escaped into the air. Eddie coughed, rolling back to his feet. Some of the super-hot spray had caught him, the exposed skin of his hands red and stinging. He looked at the doorway. It was shrouded in steam, the fist-thick jet still rushing through it. Nobody else would be coming in that way.

There was another entrance higher up the wall, though, an elevated walkway leading around the turbine hall to a ladder. It wouldn’t take De Klerx’s men long to reach it.

He caught up with the women at the rear door. Olivia was panting, her gait unsteady. ‘I’ll carry you!’ he shouted.

‘Please, no!’ she insisted. ‘At least leave me some dignity!’

‘You want to die with dignity,’ Nina said, ‘go to Switzerland—’

The whine of the machines suddenly fluctuated and dropped in pitch. Alarms shrilled as the bright overhead fluorescents flickered, then went out. A moment of darkness — then illumination returned, but at a much lower level as emergency lights came on. Both turbines spun down to silence.

‘What happened?’ asked Nina, blinking into the gloom.

‘I think the emergency generators just kicked in,’ replied Olivia. ‘But that would mean something had happened to the geothermal pumps.’ She saw the dripping axe in Eddie’s hand. ‘Ah. Mystery solved.’

He smirked. ‘Just be glad this isn’t a nuclear plant.’

They opened the door. The room beyond was as tall as the turbine hall, but less deep, complex pipework connecting a row of large stainless-steel tanks. Eddie hefted the axe, but the chamber was empty. At the room’s far end was another door. ‘There are some offices through there,’ said Olivia. ‘There’s an emergency exit past them.’

A bang from behind as one of De Klerx’s men barged through the upper door. ‘Time to go!’ Eddie said, bundling the women into the room. The guard fired. A bullet whipped past the Yorkshireman’s back and clanked off a piece of machinery.

Nina grimaced as she saw a warning sign; she couldn’t read the Icelandic text, but the international explosive hazard symbol was clear even in the half-light. ‘Jesus! It’s lucky he didn’t blow the whole place up.’

Eddie glanced at the sign, then — to her alarm — grinned. ‘Yeah, ’cause it means I can give him another chance.’

‘What does he mean?’ Olivia asked her granddaughter with growing concern.

Nina took her hand again. ‘When he gets that face? You want to be moving away from him, fast.’ She hurried down the line of gleaming gas tanks, drawing Olivia with her. Eddie didn’t follow. ‘What’re you doing?’

‘Just get outside.’ He flipped the axe around to favour the sharp point at the other end of its head. ‘I need to pass some gas.’

‘No, don’t!’ the horrified Olivia cried as he swung. ‘It’ll expl—’

The point stabbed into the first tank’s steel skin with a clang — then was blown clear as hydrogen sulphide jetted out.

Eddie reeled as the escaping gas tore at his clothing. If the smell in the turbine room had been bad, this was more like a chemical attack. He closed his eyes and held his breath, burying his face into the crook of his arm for protection — he was now literally standing in a cloud of poison. Another alarm wailed as detectors registered the deadly substance.

He waved the axe in what he thought was the direction of the exit, trying to find a pipe to use as a guide, then abruptly drew it back. Stainless steel, at least the kind used to contain explosive chemicals, wouldn’t spark, but that might not be true of the blade. He turned it over to grip it by the head, using the wooden handle like a blind man’s stick to feel his way forward. He had to get clear before the guard reached the entrance.

The handle barked against something in front of him. The route to the exit had been clear of obstructions. He was off-course, and realised with growing fear that he had lost his bearings. The roar of gas echoed off the walls, seeming to come from all around him. The howling alarms increased the confusion. A couple more sweeps of the axe revealed an open path… but was he facing the exit, or back towards the turbine room?

Even closed, his eyes were stinging. If he opened them, however briefly, they could be permanently damaged. He had to get clear of the ruptured tank, but if he went the wrong way, the gunman would kill him before the gas could.

He knew what he had to do. It was a huge risk, but there was no choice. He moved his arm just enough to expose his mouth, using the last of the air in his lungs to shout, ‘Nina!’

Even exhaling, that was enough to burn his lips and sear his tongue. He clamped his mouth shut again. If Nina was replying, he couldn’t hear her over the noise. But he couldn’t call out again without taking a fatal breath.

He had to move. A fifty-fifty chance: either he was going towards her, or he would die. Sweeping the axe again, he started forward. Another roar, but this was inside his own head — blood rushing in his ears as his body ran out of oxygen—

‘Eddie!’

Faint, seeming miles distant — but ahead. He found some reserve of strength and increased his pace. The wooden shaft thunked against pipework, again and again — then nothing. He remembered that the pipes turned inwards at the base of each tank. The way the steel vessels were spaced, that put him about twenty-five feet from the leak. Far enough to risk a breath? Not yet.

Nina shouted again, but now his reserves were gone. He shuffled on, feet turning to lead. Thunk, thunk, thunk of wood against steel—

Another gap. Fifty feet. The hole was only small, and the room big. Was he far enough away? The alarms kept wailing, but with a gas this toxic they would warn of even a small release. Wouldn’t they?

It didn’t matter. If he didn’t breathe right now, he would pass out—

He drew in a desperate gasp of air.

The disgusting taste filled his mouth… but he stayed conscious, and upright. He might suffer some after-effects, but he was clear of the most deadly concentration of the gas. Tears stung his eyes as he opened them, but he saw Nina at the doorway, frantically urging him on. ‘Eddie, over here!’

He headed towards her, pace quickening as he took another breath. ‘Get out,’ he rasped. ‘Get outside! Quick!’

She was about to protest, but then realised from long experience that something catastrophic could happen at any moment. She darted through the door. Eddie ran after her, glancing back at the punctured tank as he reached the exit. A plume of gas was still gushing from the hole, swirling around the pipework before dispersing invisibly into the air.

The turbine room door crashed open.

The gunman charged through, staggering to a halt and clapping a hand over his nose and mouth as the stench hit him. He was about to retreat when he saw Eddie. The Englishman deliberately held his ground as the guard’s weapon came up—

Now Eddie moved, slamming the door — as the man fired.

The gunshot was drowned out by a massively larger detonation as the muzzle flash ignited the flammable gas. The hydrogen sulphide instantly became a fireball, incinerating the man a fraction of a second before his charred corpse was disintegrated by the exploding gas tank.

The blast tore apart the pipework, releasing still more fuel into the conflagration — and the other tanks went up like a chain of truck-sized firecrackers.

The switchover to the emergency diesel generators had warned Mikkelsson that something was badly wrong in the generator room, prompting him to speed up his departure plans. ‘Ana, take this,’ he told his daughter, handing her the small Crucible. ‘We’re going to the airport.’

‘Already?’ she asked, surprised. ‘There’s no way Olivia and the others can be a threat to us now. They’ll never get out of here.’

‘It’s not Olivia I’m worried about. De Klerx!’ The Dutchman, who had stayed to protect the family rather than join the hunt for the fugitives, snapped to attention. ‘Sarah and I will take the jeep with the large Crucible. You drive. Follow us,’ he added to Anastasia, who had been about to object to being separated from her lover. ‘Take one of the men as a bodyguard.’

‘You’re that worried about Nina and her husband?’ asked Sarah as De Klerx used his radio.

‘I’ve read their IHA file,’ Mikkelsson replied, leading the way past the bodies of the Lonmores towards the exit. ‘Chase is especially dangerous — he’s a trained killer — but even Nina has a talent for survival. I would never underest—’

A percussive thump shook the floor — then the entire hotel seemed to jump a foot off the ground as a series of pounding explosions ripped through the building. Mikkelsson staggered, De Klerx rushing to shield Anastasia as more windows shattered. ‘Oh my God!’ Sarah cried. ‘What the hell was that?’

Mikkelsson opened the doors to the hallway. The main reception area was shrouded in steaming mist, but now swirling black smoke broke through it and spread malignantly along the ceiling towards them. ‘The hydrogen sulphide tanks,’ he growled. ‘They must have blown them up!’

‘Then they’re dead,’ snapped De Klerx. ‘Nobody could have survived that.’

‘I’m not going to bet our lives on it.’ He jabbed a finger at the Dutchman’s walkie-talkie. ‘Call in your men, find out how many are still alive. We’re leaving, now. Make sure Olivia and the others don’t follow.’

Nina had just reached the exterior door and pushed Olivia through when the gas tanks exploded. She was thrown against the wall, a hot shock wave of reeking air rushing past. New alarms clamoured in meaningless warning. ‘Oh God,’ she gasped. ‘Eddie!’

‘Nina, wait!’ called Olivia from outside, but she ignored her, hurrying back down a flight of stairs into a thickening haze. The stench of both smoke and residual hydrogen sulphide grew worse. She covered her face as she turned a corner to find the corridor strewn with wreckage. The suspended ceiling had been torn down, wire skeins and battered sections of aluminium ducts littering the floor. The door was ahead, all but wrenched from its hinges. Fires burned beyond it.

Big fires. If Eddie was still in there…

Coughing, she picked her way through the rubble. No sign of her husband. ‘Eddie!’ she cried. ‘Can you hear me? Where are you?’

No answer. The heat was rising, the flames in the processing facility raging harder. There was no way anyone in the chamber could still be alive.

A rattle of shifting debris — and a section of collapsed ceiling shifted aside to reveal a singed, bruised, but still very much alive bald Yorkshireman beneath. ‘Ay up,’ Eddie managed to gasp, before erupting into a coughing fit.

Nina pulled him from the wreckage. ‘You maniac! What happened?’

‘Muzzle flash plus flammable gas equals, well, that,’ he said between coughs, jerking a thumb at the ruins of the adjoining room. ‘I’m okay, just a bit scorched.’ He recovered the axe, then they made their way down the corridor. ‘Where’s Olivia?’

‘Outside.’ She glanced nervously back. ‘I don’t think Fenrir’s hotel will be taking many guests this season.’

‘The elves’ll be pissed off too.’

Olivia was waiting just outside the building, shivering in the icy wind. ‘Eddie, my God! After that explosion, I was sure you’d been killed.’

‘We’ve still got to get out of here,’ said Nina. They were on the hillside behind the hotel, the section housing the geothermal plant partly dug into the ground. The east wing was ahead down the slope, many windows broken and smoke rising from within. Only emergency lights remained lit, but they were enough to pick out hulking metal shapes sheltering beneath the elevated structure.

‘The jeeps!’ Olivia said through chattering teeth. ‘We can drive back to Reykjavik!’

Eddie was less confident. ‘If we can get to ’em. Still plenty of arseholes with guns around.’ He started downhill, snow crunching under his feet.

Nina and Olivia followed. ‘You’re freezing!’ the redhead said in alarm, feeling her grandmother tremble.

‘I’ll be all right,’ Olivia insisted. ‘I just need to get somewhere warm.’

‘It’s nice and warm inside, but that’s not really an option,’ said Eddie. He reached the end of the power station’s wall and cautiously peered around the corner. Some super jeeps were parked near the stairs to the main entrance, but his attention snapped to the pair heading away from the hotel. ‘Shit! They’re already leaving!’

Nina recognised the lead pickup. ‘They’re taking the Crucible!’ She looked back at the parked trucks. ‘We’ve got to stop them.’

They hurried to the nearest super jeep. ‘Hope they left the keys inside,’ said Eddie. ‘Be just our luck if they’re in someone’s coat—’

A shout cut through the wind’s shrill. A man scurried down the main stairs, bringing up his gun—

Eddie flung the axe. The blade slammed into the man’s skull with a bone-splitting crack, neatly bisecting his face as he toppled backwards. The gun fired as he fell, bullets spraying the concrete above.

More shots from further away. Another armed man ran at them from the far end of the east wing, firing as he came. ‘Shit! Down!’ Eddie barked, throwing himself behind the super jeep.

Nina pulled Olivia into the cover of its oversized front wheel. Bullets struck the truck, the driver’s window shattering. Olivia screamed. ‘It’s okay, it’s okay!’ Nina said. ‘We’re behind the engine — he can’t shoot through it.’

‘No, but he can run around it!’ she countered.

Eddie searched for better cover, but found nothing they could reach. He looked up at the truck itself, one of those that had collected everyone from Reykjavik airport…

Before he could act on the thought that was forming, another burst of bullets hit the jeep. One of the huge tyres blew out. The unbalanced truck crunched down on to its front-left wheel hub, the rear corner opposite kicking up into the air. Muffled thumps came from inside as the cargo shifted. ‘Stay put!’ he shouted.

‘I wasn’t planning on going for a stroll,’ snapped Olivia as he scuttled to the rear passenger door.

‘What’re you doing?’ Nina demanded.

He opened it, staying low as more rounds punched through the bodywork. With the vehicle now tipped towards the oncoming man, he was hidden from sight, though not shielded from bullets. ‘The guns and stuff they brought back from Greece?’ he said as he clambered inside. ‘They’re in here!’

The back of the truck was filled with bags and boxes. He fumbled open a case, his hand falling on an angular object inside. First time lucky, he thought as he pulled out a Steyr AUG — only to discover there was no magazine loaded, the receiver empty. His groping fingers failed to find any ammunition.

He dropped the useless weapon and scrambled deeper into the rear bed — as a bullet tore through the roof above him and blew out one of the side windows. A cascade of fragmented safety glass scoured the back of his head. The gunman was still coming.

Another case contained magazines, but he knew from their shape that they were for UMPs, not the full-sized machine gun he had found first. No sign of the weapons they were intended to fit.

He threw open another container. The low light from outside picked out the grenade launcher he had used at the shipyard — and beside it a squat ammo box. He grabbed the MGL, tearing at the box’s latch. Dull metal hemispheres stared at him from inside like dead eyes: the warheads of half a dozen forty-millimetre grenades. He snatched one out and crawled to the rear door, pulling the launcher’s release hook. It swung open to expose the cylinder.

The running man kept firing. Another window burst apart. Eddie slammed a grenade into the topmost chamber and snapped the launcher shut, then pulled the rear door handle to throw open the tailgate. The movement immediately drew fire, more bullets clanging against the back of the truck as the Englishman dived out.

He hit the ground, rolling to face the gunman — and pulled the trigger.

The grenade sailed over its target — but the man’s surprise and relief was very short-lived as it hit the hotel’s underside behind him and exploded.

A storm of shrapnel lacerated his back. Blood spouting from countless wounds, he crumpled to the ground and lay twitching. Stray shards of metal struck the truck, but Eddie was beyond the grenade’s lethal radius.

The Yorkshireman scrambled upright, returning to the super jeep in the hope of finding a matching gun and magazine, but shouts from inside the hotel prompted him to abandon the search. Instead he grabbed the MGL’s ammo box and ran for another jeep, waving for Nina and Olivia to follow. ‘Get in, quick!’

This vehicle was a Toyota Land Cruiser — and the key was in the ignition. He tossed the launcher and ammunition on to the passenger seat and started the engine. The truck’s headlights and roof-mounted spots flared. Nina pushed her grandmother through the rear door before jumping up after her. ‘Okay, go!’

Eddie put the super jeep into gear and floored the accelerator. It sprang forward, the massive tyres getting full traction on the snow-free paving beneath the hotel before ploughing into the packed drifts beyond. It slewed almost sideways, the Englishman hurriedly feathering the power to regain control. ‘There, over there!’ said Nina, pointing. The rear lights of the Mikkelssons’ jeeps were tiny red sparks in the distance. ‘Catch up with them!’

‘We’ve got to get away from that lot first!’ Eddie shot back, seeing three more men rush out of the hotel and pile into another super jeep. ‘Grab the grenade launcher and load it.’

She picked up the weapon. ‘How?’

‘There’s a hook in front of the cylinder — pull it and it’ll swing open. Get rid of the dead one inside and load the others. Turn the cylinder after you put each one in; it’s got a kind of clockwork spring that brings round the next grenade when you fire.’ He turned the heater controls to full. ‘Are there any coats or blankets back there?’

‘I think so,’ the shivering Olivia replied. ‘These jeeps usually have survival equipment in the trunk.’

‘I’ll look,’ said Nina, breaking off from her task to rummage through the super jeep’s cargo. There was indeed a blanket, which she passed to Olivia. The elderly woman accepted it gratefully and drew it tightly around herself. The redhead resumed loading the launcher, pausing as she glanced ahead. ‘Eddie, you’re going the wrong way!’ The other jeeps were off to their right, and heading away.

‘We’ll never catch up with them if we just follow that track,’ he said, guiding the 4x4 across the rippling snowfield. ‘They’re going around the lake; if we cut straight across it, we can get in front of them.’

‘You do remember we’re not in a boat, right?’

‘The lake’s frozen — it should hold us.’ He looked back at Olivia. ‘Shouldn’t it?’

‘I’m hardly the expert,’ she objected.

‘Maybe not, but you’ve been here before. Is it usually still frozen this time of year?’

‘I think so, but I’m not entirely—’ Her eyes widened in fear. ‘Look out!’

Eddie snapped his gaze back ahead — to see the snowy ground dropping out from under the jeep’s lights.

He stamped on the brake pedal, but it was too late to stop. The Toyota shot over a rise, bursting through a snow-bank and going airborne for a couple of seconds before pounding back down in another explosion of snow. The heavy-duty shock absorbers bottomed out with a tooth-jarring bang, then the truck bounced back up and slewed across a wallowing dip.

None of its occupants were wearing seat belts. Eddie managed to keep hold of the steering wheel, but Nina ended up sprawled over her grandmother. ‘What are you doing?’ Olivia shrilled. ‘Didn’t the army teach you to keep your eyes on the road?’

‘What road?’ Eddie replied. The super jeep was now angling up another steep rise, almost rolling over before he managed to point its nose straight up the incline. He glimpsed headlights in the rear-view mirror, closing fast. ‘Shit! Get down!’

Nina dropped flat, pulling the startled Olivia with her. Cracks of gunfire reached them over the engine’s roar. A round punched through the rear door with a flat thunk and hit the gear in the cargo area. Olivia gasped.

Another bullet glanced off the truck’s flank as Eddie made an evasive swerve. ‘The launcher!’ he yelled. ‘Is it loaded?’

The MGL had fallen into the rear footwell. Nina groped for it. ‘Yeah, but it’s not closed.’

‘Just swing it shut — it should lock.’

She did so. The cylinder snicked into place. ‘Okay, what do you want me to do with it?’

‘What do you think? Shoot those wankers!’

The super jeep crested another rise, scattering snow. The Mikkelssons’ jeeps briefly came back into view in the distance before the Land Cruiser dropped sharply down the other side. Nina yelped, then squirmed around and lowered her window. A freezing gale blasted in, clods of snow kicked off the front wheel’s chunky treads spattering her as she leaned out and tried to bring the bulky grenade launcher to bear.

The glare of the pursuing super jeep’s spotlights preceded its appearance over the crest, giving her a target. She took aim, waiting for it to appear…

It burst through the snow. She pulled the trigger — just as her own vehicle reached the foot of the slope and levelled out. The abrupt change of gradient threw off her aim. The grenade hit the ground twenty feet ahead of the jeep and blasted a crater out of the snow and frozen soil.

Anastasia looked around in surprise at the sound of an explosion — not from the burning hotel, but somewhere off to her left. For a moment she saw nothing, then a flare of lights marked the appearance of a super jeep over one of the moraine crests. Another surged into view behind it, clearly in pursuit. A flash of orange light was followed by the delayed boom of a second grenade blast.

She grabbed her jeep’s radio handset. ‘It’s them! They’re coming after us!’

Her father’s normally controlled voice was edged with anger. ‘I said we should not underestimate them!’

‘We can’t let them catch us.’ Her driver had put his UMP on the dash; she took it. ‘I’ll stop them.’

De Klerx came on the line. ‘Ana, no! It’s too dangerous. I can handle it.’

‘You’ve got to get my parents and the Crucible out of here, Rutger,’ she countered. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’

Sarah took the mic. ‘No, we should stay together. It’s safer.’

‘I can do it,’ she insisted. ‘Go after them!’ The driver obeyed, skidding the truck off the track into the deeper drifts beyond.

‘Anastasia!’ barked Mikkelsson. ‘Come back! You’ve got the other Crucible — we need both of them!’

The basketball-sized crystal was nestled in her lap. She glanced at it, then spoke into the radio again. ‘I won’t let you down, Pabbi,’ she said, before replacing the handset and taking the gun in both hands.

‘Be careful, Ana,’ said Sarah, but her daughter barely heard her, focused only on the lights ahead.