Kingdom of Darkness

13

‘We are almost at the hotel,’ said Deyab, with considerable relief.

‘Good, great,’ growled Eddie. Privacy, even the relative kind, had not brought his and Nina’s increasingly bitter argument any closer to a conclusion. He turned back to his wife. ‘So that’s it? What I think — and what we both agreed on before — doesn’t matter now you’ve got a chance to chase after another piece of archaeological bollocks?’

Nina tried unsuccessfully to contain her frustration. ‘It’s not “bollocks” — this is important to me, Eddie! This is what I do, this is what I’ve spent my whole life doing. And it’s not that big a deal. It’ll only be for a day or two.’

‘Only a day or two,’ he echoed. ‘And what if it takes longer? Macy said they haven’t worked out what that Antique-tick-tock Mechanism does after a century, so what if you and Banna can’t just do a Robert Langdon and figure everything out in five minutes? Are you going to stay working on it for a week? A month?’

‘I don’t know! Maybe, maybe not.’

‘And how long have you got left? You’re going to use up a chunk of that time sitting in a bloody lab translating ancient Greek!’

‘For God’s sake, Eddie! It’s just a few days.’

‘A few days, yeah — out of how many? If you’re going to live to be ninety, that’s not a big deal, but if you only live to thirty-fou—’ He stopped abruptly, fear refuelling his anger. ‘For fuck’s sake, Nina! You’re dying, but you’d still rather spend time with people who are already dead than with me!’

‘That’s not true!’ she cried.

Her hurt expression warned him that he had overstepped the mark, but he was in no mood to back down. ‘That’s what it feels like, though. You could have told Seretse to piss off and let the Egyptians handle it, but you had to come here to see for yourself. And even though a bunch of Nazis, actual out-of-World-War-fucking-Two Nazis, just tried to kill us both, you still want to go chasing after another bloody legend!’

‘It might not be a legend, though.’

‘That doesn’t make it your problem.’

‘No, but it’s my choice. I want to follow up on this, Eddie.’ She folded her arms across her chest.

‘Decision’s made, is it?’ he said. There was no reply; Nina was not even looking at him. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he muttered.

Deyab broke the chilly silence. ‘Here is the hotel!’ he said, even more relieved than before. He stopped the Mercedes and got out to open Nina’s door. ‘If you need me for anything else, just call.’

‘Thanks, Deyab,’ she replied as she exited.

Eddie emerged from the other side. ‘If you hear shooting, it’ll probably just be the two of us.’

They entered the hotel in single file rather than side by side. Eddie was about to follow Nina to the elevators when someone caught his eye. ‘Ay up,’ he said as Zane beckoned to him from across the reception area. ‘Somebody wants a word.’

Nina hesitated, not in the mood for company, but there was a sadness around the Israeli’s eyes that his stoical mask could not fully conceal. Zane went to a corner seat; they joined him. The cuts to his head and neck were now covered by Band-Aids. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

‘Yes, I’m fine,’ he said brusquely, before adding in a slightly softer tone: ‘Thank you.’

‘What’s up?’ Eddie asked.

Zane glanced around to make sure that none of the other patrons were listening. ‘We got some information from the phone Ben took from the dead man.’

‘By “we”, you mean Mossad, right?’

The younger man’s eyes twitched in aggravation. ‘Yes, and don’t shout it out across the room. We checked the phone’s memory, and got our friends in America to track down the contact numbers.’

‘Your friends at the NSA, I’m guessing.’

A small nod. ‘It was a pre-paid phone, and most of the calls were to other burners — probably belonging to the other members of the cell. None of them are active any more, so the raiders must have disposed of them when they realised they’d been compromised. But one number was different. A landline.’

‘Someone phoned home?’ said Nina.

Zane shook his head. ‘If we’d located their base, the Criminal Sanctions Unit would already have been fully reactivated. All I have is a potential lead. The call was to a man named Leitz, Frederic Leitz — he’s from Luxembourg, but lives mostly in Italy. He’s been on the Mossad’s watch list for a long time.’

‘The guy in LA had been in contact with someone in Italy,’ Nina recalled.

‘What’s this Leitz done?’ Eddie asked, becoming intrigued in spite of himself.

‘He’s a middleman, arranging money transfers for anti-Israeli and extreme right-wing organisations. And individuals, too; he has some very powerful and very wealthy clients, all of them known anti-Semites.’

‘So you think this guy might know where these Nazis came from?’

‘I do, yes. The dead man having contacted Leitz can’t be a coincidence. I want to find out what he knows.’

He regarded the couple with an expectant expression. ‘Sooo…’ Nina said, after a few seconds of silence, ‘you want us to… what?’

‘I want you to help me do that,’ he replied. ‘Or rather,’ he went on, facing Eddie, ‘I want you to help me. No offence, Dr Wilde, but you don’t have the skills I need. But having read your husband’s file, I know he does.’

The Englishman let out a dismissive laugh. ‘Wait, you want me to go with you? And, what? Beat the truth out of this bloke?’

‘If that’s what it takes, yes.’

‘Why do you need Eddie?’ Nina demanded. ‘You’re in…’ she dropped her voice, ‘the Mossad. You must have other agents.’

‘We do, but they’re all in other divisions. Ben and I were the CSU’s only currently active field agents. It could take days to recall someone else.’ Zane’s youthful face suddenly became harder, older. ‘I don’t want to wait that long. I want answers now. But… I can’t do it by myself,’ he said, the admission difficult. ‘Leitz takes his security very seriously. That’s why I need you, Chase. On my own, it would be very hard to get to him. But with two of us…’

Eddie shook his head. ‘And why the fuck would I want to do that?’

‘Because you owe me. Both of you.’

‘How do you figure that?’ asked Nina.

‘We saved you from Walther and — and Rasche.’ Anger rose in the Israeli’s voice as he named his partner’s killer, but he quickly covered it. ‘Without us, the Nazis would have the statue.’

‘I don’t care about the statue,’ said Eddie. Nina shot him an irritated look.

‘But you care about your wife, don’t you?’ Zane snapped. ‘Without us, she’d be dead.’

‘She was doing okay when I turned up.’

‘No, that’s… probably true,’ the redhead was forced to admit to her husband. ‘The Nazis had me cornered. He and his friend took out two of them and held the others off…’ She hesitated, seeing the Mossad agent’s expression flicker. This time, the emotion he was trying to conceal was not anger. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked in a gentle tone.

‘Yes, of course,’ Zane replied. The muscles around his mouth were drawn tight.

‘No you’re not. Mr Falk — Ben; he was more than just your boss, wasn’t he?’

The young man was obviously reluctant to open up on the matter, especially before Eddie, but after a moment of conflict he admitted, ‘Yes. Ben was… my mentor, I guess. He taught me everything.’ A lengthy pause. ‘More than that. He saw something in me that nobody else had, not even me. If it wasn’t for him…’

‘You wouldn’t be who you are now?’ Eddie finished for him with a new understanding, even sympathy, in his voice. ‘I’m sorry. I know what you’re going through.’

Zane shook his head. ‘I doubt it.’

‘You’re not the only one who’s lost someone like that.’

The Israeli regarded him with surprise, but then shook his head again as if to dismiss the subject. ‘I need to get that information from Leitz.’

‘And you want Eddie to help you get it?’ Nina said.

To her concern, Eddie did not dismiss the idea out of hand. ‘Whereabouts in Italy is this guy?’ he asked Zane.

‘He has a villa south of Naples. Just outside Amalfi.’

‘Amalfi? I know the place.’

‘You do?’

‘We just visited it,’ said Nina, her alarm growing. ‘Eddie, you’re not seriously—’

‘I am seriously,’ he cut in.

The Mossad agent was surprised again; apparently he had not expected it to be so easy to convince the Englishman. ‘You are?’

‘You are?’ Nina echoed, appalled.

‘You’ll make the arrangements, right?’ Eddie said to Zane. ‘Flights, cars, all of that?’ The Israeli nodded. ‘Good. Then I’ll go with you. Get us on the first flight to Naples — and make sure everything we’ll need is waiting for us at the other end.’

‘I know what I’m doing,’ said Zane with an edge of annoyance. ‘But — you’re really willing to help me?’

‘Those bastards tried to kill us, twice now. That deserves some payback. Plus,’ he added with a cold grin, ‘I’ve always wanted to beat the shit out of some actual Nazis.’

‘That’s because you’ve watched Where Eagles Dare too many times,’ Nina told him. ‘And no, you’re not jetting off to Italy!’

‘Yes I am,’ Eddie said. He turned back to Zane before she could respond. ‘Call me here at the hotel when it’s time to go. I’ll be ready.’

‘Okay.’ Zane stood. ‘Dr Wilde,’ he said with a polite nod before leaving.

Eddie also got up, heading for the elevators. ‘I’d better start packing.’

Nina hurried after him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, Eddie?’

‘I think I’m going to Italy to track down those twats who’ve been trying to kill us. Thought that was pretty much decided.’

‘I didn’t decide it!’

‘Yeah, and I didn’t decide that you were going to sit around in Egypt puzzling out some fucking two-thousand-year-old treasure hunt.’ The doors opened and he stepped inside, jabbing the button for their floor.

Nina followed. ‘Oh, so that’s what this is about? You’re mad that I want to see this through, so you’re dealing with it by going Nazi-hunting?’

‘No, I’m mad because you’ve apparently got better things to do with the rest of your life than spend it with me!’ He looked past her to see a tourist regarding them from the lobby. ‘Going up? Don’t mind us.’

‘It’s okay, I’ll… you know, the next one,’ the embarrassed man replied, flapping a hand at the neighbouring elevator before hurriedly sidestepping out of sight.

‘That’s not what I’m doing, Eddie,’ Nina insisted.

‘It’s what it feels like.’ The doors closed, and the lift ascended.

She tried to control her anger. ‘I don’t want you to go to Italy.’

‘And I don’t want you to stay in Egypt to decode that bloody fish.’ A long silence followed, broken by the ping of the bell announcing that they had reached their floor. ‘I don’t hear you saying you won’t.’

‘No, you don’t,’ said Nina as the doors opened. ‘And I don’t hear you saying you’ll stay here.’

‘Nope.’ Eddie stepped on to the landing.

‘So that’s it? You’re going and I’m staying? We’re not going to talk about this?’

‘You made it pretty clear we already had. You coming?’

She didn’t move. ‘I guess not.’

They regarded each other with sullen displeasure. The doors rumbled shut. Neither did anything to stop them. They banged closed, and the elevator started its descent.