The Hunt For Atlantis

EIGHT

Kari paced across the tiny room. Hajjar’s home, she’d seen from the helicopter, was no mere house in the country. Perched on a crag in the Zagros mountains, it was a mixture of palace and fortress, accessible only by air or along a single winding road.

And like any self-respecting fortress, it had its own dungeons.

No dank medieval cells here, though. The building’s overwrought architecture told Kari that it had been constructed some three decades earlier, bankrolled by somebody with lots of money, no taste and a domineering ego. That suggested the former shah of Iran. Some kind of retreat, a fortified Camp David with high walls and ridiculously ostentatious design.

Whatever its original purpose, it was now Hajjar’s domain, and Kari got the feeling she and Yuri Volgan were far from the first occupants of the dungeons.

Volgan, in the next cell, was being little help. Hajjar’s betrayal had sent him into a state of shock, and the mere mention of Qobras caused him to panic.

She turned her mind to Hajjar. He was playing an extremely dangerous game by trying to ransom her, almost certainly unaware of just how dangerous. Her father would move heaven and earth to get her back safely… but there was no way he would let the matter end there once she had been returned.

And nor would she.

She wondered how long it would be before Hajjar summoned them. Presumably he was trying to contact Qobras and her father, to make his financial demands of them both.

She had to use that time to attempt an escape.

“Excuse me,” she said, walking to the cell door and addressing the guard sitting outside. “I need some help.”

The guard frowned. “What?”

“I need to… you know.” She wriggled her hips, hands still cuffed behind her back. “Go.”

“And?”

“And, I was hoping you could take me.” The guard walked to the door, running his gaze over her figure. Kari gave him a look of innocent pleading. “Please?”

The heavyset, bearded man smirked. “Let me guess. You’ll ask me to open your coat for you, and then help you with those tight leather trousers, and I’ll get all hot and excited because I’m a repressed Iranian man faced with a beautiful blond woman, and then you’ll ask me to take off your handcuffs, and I’ll do it because I’m thinking with my dick, and then you’ll do some fancy martial arts to knock me out and escape. Is that about right?”

Kari shot him a sour glare. “You could have just said no.”

The guard laughed and returned to his seat. “I don’t get paid all this money to be an idiot. Nice try, though.”

Annoyed, Kari turned her back on him. Now all she could think about was what to do when she needed to use the toilet for real.

With Chase and Castille carrying the wounded Hafez, his leg hurriedly bandaged, they made their escape from the train.

Nina had no idea where they were going, or what Chase planned to do when they got there. His phone conversation had been entirely in Arabic, and in his rush to get away from the train before Iranian forces arrived he hadn’t been forthcoming with additional information.

The terrain was less severe than the area where they had met Hajjar, but it was still slow going, especially with an injured man. Fortunately, there was also more vegetation, and by the time Nina heard the first buzz of an approaching helicopter, they were in the cover of a wood half a mile from the railway line.

“So where are we going?” she asked. “Who’s this friend that you called? And how’s he going to find us? We’re in the middle of nowhere!”

Despite his pain, Hafez managed a smile. “Eddie has many friends,” he said. “All over the world.”

Nina looked across at Chase. “Even in Iran, where you’ve supposedly never been before?”

“Hey, I’m a popular guy,” he said with a shrug.

“His reputation precedes him,” added Castille.

“I’m sure it does. But if I can butt into your mutual admiration society, how about letting me in on your plan?”

“Well,” said Chase, “first thing is to get a lift out of here. There’s a road about a mile to the south. Some one’s going to pick us up.”

Nina surveyed the unfamiliar landscape. “How’s your friend going to find us? You don’t even know where we are!”

“I just described the landmarks. Easy enough to find ’em on a map.”

“Really?”

“It’s not hard; basic stuff. Then… we go and get Ms. Frost.”

“You know where she is?” Castille asked.

“Hajjar’s got a little country cottage about thirty miles from here. We’ll drop in and say hello.”

“I’ve heard about it,” warned Hafez. “Not an easy place to get into.”

“We’ve gotten into worse,” Castille remarked cheerily. “Like that time in the Congo -”

“Hugo,” Chase said, waving a finger. Castille made an “oh, right” noise and stopped talking.

“Let me guess,” said Nina. “Another country where you’ve never officially been?”

Chase cocked a conspiratorial eyebrow. “Something like that.”

They continued through the woods. The trees eventually thinned out, revealing a dirt road ahead. “Is this it?” asked Nina.

Chase scanned the area. “Should be. We need to look out for a stream running down from…” He pointed up at a nearby hill. “Down from there. That’s where she said she’d meet us.”

“She, huh?” Nina asked.

“What’s the matter, Doc?” Chase replied. “Jealous?”

“Oh, totally,” she replied, clapping a theatrical hand to her heart. Castille and Hafez chuckled. Chase snorted and led them down the road.

After another few minutes, they saw a vehicle ahead, a battered old van. Chase directed everyone back into the cover of the trees. “Wait here,” he said.

Nina watched as he slipped through the woods, moving with a lightness and agility that was almost comically at odds with his stocky build. The closer he got to the van, the lower he crouched, to the point where she practically lost sight of him. He paused ten yards from his target, then rushed over, disappearing behind it.

She realized Castille had drawn his gun, and even Hafez had armed himself with one of the rifles they’d taken from the train. “Just in case,” the Belgian assured her.

No sign of movement. They waited anxiously as the seconds ticked by… then Chase reappeared and waved.

“It’s safe,” Castille said, putting away his gun.

“What if somebody’s got him at gunpoint?” asked Nina.

“He would have held his thumb against his hand.”

“You guys love your little tricks and codes, don’t you?” she said, amused.

“It keeps us alive.” He lifted Hafez, Nina helping to support him as they started towards the van.

When they reached it, Chase was talking to someone inside the cab. “Everyone,” he announced, “I’d like you to meet a very good friend of mine who’s going to help us get our arses out of here. This is Shala Yazid.”

A young woman of about twenty-five stepped down from the van. She was extremely attractive-and also extremely pregnant.

“Oh my,” said Castille, unable to hold in a smirk. “This, I was not expecting. Something you forgot to tell us about your last visit, Edward?”

“You probably remember Hugo Castille,” Chase said, annoyed. “He was that very stupid Belgian with no manners.”

Shala smiled. “Of course I remember him. Although you had a…” She tapped her upper lip. “A mustache?”

“Yeah, and we’re all glad that’s gone.”

“Bonjour,” said Castille, with a half-bow. “And congratulations! I take it you married since I saw you last?”

“To a wonderful man,” she answered, beaming.

To Nina, Chase seemed momentarily put out, before recovering and introducing the others. “This is Hafez,” he said, “who’s been in better nick-”

“It is only a scratch!” Hafez insisted.

“-and the most important woman in my life right now, Dr. Nina Wilde.”

Shala gave Chase a look of delight. “You are married?”

“No!” Nina gasped.

“Bloody hell, could you say that any quicker?” Chase said with mock offense before turning back to Shala. “No, I’m her bodyguard. And God, her body needs a lot of guarding.”

“And you want to take her to Failak Hajjar?” asked Shala. “It will need even more.”

“I don’t want to take her to him, we only just escaped from the bugger’s mates. But he’s kidnapped my boss. We need to rescue her.”

“It will take an hour to get there,” Shala said. “Perhaps longer. I have a radio scanner in the van; there is a lot of police and military activity. Your doing?”

“Uh, yeah.” Chase rubbed his neck. “I sort of… crashed a train. Or two.”

“Oh, Eddie!” She batted a fist against his arm. “You are a wonderful man, and I appreciate everything you have done for my family-but do you have to destroy huge parts of my country every time you come here?”

“Hey, no civvies got hurt!” he protested. “Probably. I’m pretty sure the other driver bailed out okay…”

Shala shook her head in irritation, then looked at Nina. “Everything he touches is destroyed! He is ten years older than me, and he behaves like my little brother with his toys!”

“Mm-hmm,” Nina replied, nodding in agreement. Her tone became mischievous. “So how do you know Eddie? He keeps claiming that he’s never been to Iran. Officially, that is.”

“My family is, shall we say, no friend of the current regime,” Shala answered. “So we have provided help to undercover operations carried out by…” she smiled at Chase and Castille, “certain gentlemen.”

“Such as sabotaging the heavy water plant at Arak,” said Castille, smiling back.

Chase let out a series of loud fake coughs. “Classified!” he hacked. Castille’s smile became a sheepish grin. “Anyway,” Chase said impatiently, “we need to get moving. Hugo, you and the doc put Hafez in the back of the van. Did you bring the medical kit?” Shala nodded. “Great. We’ll patch him up on the move. Don’t suppose you’re the medical kind of doc, Doc?”

“No, and please stop calling me that.”

“Whatever you say, Dr. Wilde.”

“Better.”

“If you two are not married… you should be,” Shala said with a smile, stunning them both into silence as Castille and Hafez burst out laughing.

Kari looked up as another guard, armed with an MP-5 submachine gun, arrived. “Hajjar wants them.”

The bearded guard grinned at Kari through the bars. “If you’re lucky, maybe Hajjar will let you go to the toilet. I’m sure he’d love to help you with your clothes!”

She didn’t deign to respond, waiting impassively as they unlocked the door.

Shala pulled the van over at the side of a mountain road. “There,” she said, pointing.

Chase craned his neck to look. “Wow. That’s not what I expected.”

Nina followed his gaze. Up on the top of a steep rocky slope was a very incongruous building. “God, who designed that? Walt Disney?”

“The shah had it built,” said Shala. “It was one of his summer palaces, but he only visited it a few times before the revolution. After that, the mullahs used it as a retreat, until Hajjar bought it from the government.”

“It looks like a cartoon,” Nina observed. The building was practically a parody of a Persian palace, its upper levels crammed with minarets and domes. “I guess the shah didn’t have much taste.”

“I was going to say I thought it looked cool,” Chase remarked, “but I won’t bother now.” He surveyed the fortress through binoculars. “How do you get up to it?”

“From the outside, you can only get there up the access road or by helicopter,” said Shala. Castille let out a muted groan at the last word.

“No cable car?” asked Chase.

“No.”

“Shame. I always wanted to re-create Where Eagles Dare.”

“The access road is guarded, I assume,” Castille said.

Shala nodded. “Yes. There is a gate at the bottom, and there are television cameras along the road with another gate at the top. We have been watching Hajjar for some time; he usually has at least four men on guard. There is also an electric fence.”

Chase turned the binoculars to the surrounding hills. “Don’t suppose we could just blow up a power line and cut off the electricity, could we?”

“There you go again! And no, the fortress has its own generators.”

“Thought it might.” He lowered the binoculars, thinking. “You said from outside there’s only those two ways in. There’s something inside?”

“There is another way, yes.” Shala looked over her shoulder. “Dr. Wilde, please can you pass me the blue rucksack?” Nina complied, pulling it from among the other bundles in the van’s rear bed. Shala rifled through its contents, taking out a set of architectural blueprints. “My father obtained these before the revolution. He hoped to use them to get into the fortress and assassinate the shah, but unfortunately the revolution happened first.”

Nina frowned, confused. “Wasn’t the revolution supposed to get rid of the shah?”

“Different revolutionaries,” said Chase enigmatically.

“He decided to keep them in case the ayatollah stayed here, but he never did. Maybe they can help you, though.” Shala tapped a fingernail on the blueprint’s bottom corner. “There is a shaft up to the service basement level of the fortress. It was built for access to the sewage outflow that leads to the river.”

Nina wrinkled her nose. “Ew. They just pump it right into the river?”

“Literally crapping on the people,” said Chase. “But this shaft, we can get to it from the outflow pipe?”

“Yes. But there is one problem…”

Castille clapped a hand to his forehead. “Ah, of course there is.”

“The pipe,” said Shala, “it is… quite small. Too small for you to fit into, Eddie. And you too, Hugo, I am afraid.”

“No need to apologize,” Castille replied. “Crawling through a pipe full of merde? I have, as the saying goes, been there, done that… ruined the T-shirt.”

“So, too small for me and Hugo, eh?” said Chase. “Hafez isn’t in any state for it either, and we can’t exactly send you and the sprog…” A sly grin slowly appeared on his face. “Dr. Wilde…”

“Yes?” It struck Nina a moment too late exactly why he was smiling. Everyone looked expectantly back at her. “No!”

The upper levels of Hajjar’s home were as ostentatious and overblown as its exterior, Kari saw as she and Volgan were brought from the cells. The illicit trade in ancient Persian treasures had clearly been a highly profitable one, and it appeared Hajjar spent a good proportion of his profits on decorations and fittings made of gold. Unlike her own family, in this case wealth did not denote taste.

Hajjar’s office was a circular room in the highest domed tower. The click of her heels on the polished marble floor echoed through the open space. Hajjar himself was seated behind a huge semicircular desk, itself marble-topped and trimmed in gold. On the wall behind him was a massive plasma screen, and Kari noticed the black shark eye of a video camera in its lower bezel.

“Ms. Frost! Yuri!” Hajjar boomed with utterly insincere heartiness. “So glad you could make it!”

“Don’t waste my time, Hajjar,” said Kari coldly. “Just tell me what you want.”

Hajjar looked mildly offended. “Very well. I am about to have a videoconference call with your father, and I wanted you to be here so I can assure him of my… intent. He is a very hard man to get hold of, by the way. I was becoming impatient.”

“He has a lot going on.”

“Mm, I’m sure. He was almost as hard to contact as your rival, Mr. Qobras.”

“You spoke to Qobras?” gulped Volgan.

“Not yet in person, but soon. After all, for something as important as this…” he reached out and picked up the Atlantean artifact from its bed of velvet on his desk, the gleaming reflections from its surface illuminating his face like fire, “I knew he would want to talk to me.”

“Whatever Qobras is willing to pay you for the artifact, my father will pay more,” said Kari.

“I’m sure he will, but I’m afraid it and Yuri come as a pair. And Qobras is apparently very keen to see him again.”

“Please, Miss Frost,” Volgan begged, “you’ve got to help me. Qobras will kill me!” His frenzied eyes fixed on the artifact in Hajjar’s hands. “I can tell you more about the piece-I can tell you more about Qobras! I worked for him for twelve years, I know his secrets-”

Hajjar clicked his fingers, and one of the guards clubbed Volgan with his gun. His hands still cuffed behind his back, the Russian fell heavily onto the slick marble.

“Enough,” said Hajjar. A soft chime from the computer on his desk drew his attention, and he smiled. “Ms. Frost, your father is calling. If you would stand in the view of the camera?” Her guard shoved her forward. “Thank you. And get him out of the way.” The other guard dragged Volgan across the floor like a sack of flour.

Hajjar tapped at the computer, then swiveled his red leather chair to face the giant screen. It lit up with the image of Kristian Frost in his office at Ravnsfjord. Frost’s eyes flicked to one side, looking at a screen of his own. “Kari!”

“Mr. Frost,” said Hajjar before she could answer, “I’m so pleased that you finally contacted me. I thought the life of your daughter would be more important than your business schedule.” He let out a self-satisfied chuckle.

Frost regarded him with utter contempt. “Kari, are you all right? Has this… person mistreated you?”

“I’m fine-for the moment,” she told him.

“What about the artifact? And Dr. Wilde?”

“Dr. Wilde was arrested by the Iranian army and will be tried for illegal trading in antiquities,” Hajjar cut in, “and probably for her complicity in the murder of several soldiers as well. As for the artifact… that is no longer any concern of yours.”

“How much do you want, Hajjar?”

The Iranian leaned back in his chair. “Straight to business, I see. Very well. For the safe return of your daughter, I want ten million dollars, U.S. ”

“In addition to the ten million I already paid you for the artifact?” Frost growled.

“In the interests of efficiency, you can even transfer it to the same account,” said Hajjar smugly.

“And the artifact?”

“As I said, that is no longer for sale.”

“Not even for another ten million?”

There was a long pause before Hajjar answered, the dealer’s greed clearly threatening to overturn his plans. “No, not even for that,” he said at last, with obvious reluctance.

“Fifteen million.”

Hajjar flinched. He half turned, looking back at Kari. “You value this… this piece of metal more than your own daughter?”

“I would have offered twenty,” she told him.

On the big screen, Frost’s face gave away a brief flicker of pride before turning to stone once more. “Twenty million, then.”

Hajjar was lost for words, eyes darting back and forth between the Frosts before he hurriedly swung around to face the screen. “No! No, the artifact is not for sale to you, at any price! Ten million dollars for your daughter, that is the only deal I am making. You will call me back in one hour to confirm the transfer. One hour!” He whirled around again and stabbed at the computer, terminating the call before Frost could speak.

“Hajjar,” said Kari, fake admiration in her voice, “I’m impressed! Not many men could stand up to my father like that. Especially to turn down twenty million dollars.”

Hajjar scuttled around the desk to her. “Twenty million!” he screeched, before clearing his throat. “Twenty million dollars!” he repeated. “For this, this thing?” He waved his hook hand at the artifact. “What is it? What is so important about this piece?”

For a moment Kari’s eyes lit up with something approaching awe. “It’s the key to the past… and the future.” Then she tipped her head slightly, giving Hajjar a seductive look. “You could be a part of it, Failak. Sell us the artifact and I promise you that my father will take no action against you over this. And I…”

“You will what?” asked Hajjar, caught between suspicion and intrigue.

“I will forgive you, completely. And maybe even more than that. As I said, few men have the courage to stand up to my father.” She shifted position slightly, rolling her hips and shoulders under her coat. “I was very impressed.”

Intrigue won out. “Really?” He licked his lips, watching her movements intently. “Then maybe we could-”

“Sir,” interrupted Kari’s guard, the one who had spurned her in the cells. “Qobras will be calling soon. You need to be ready for him.”

Irritation flashed across Hajjar’s face. “You’re right. I do. Yes.” He took a deep breath, then turned his back on Kari. “Wait with her over there until her father calls back. You,” he added, clicking his fingers at the other guard, “bring Yuri over here.”

“Nice try, bitch,” Kari’s guard whispered in her ear. She sighed. It had been worth a shot.

But for Hajjar to turn down twenty million dollars… how much was Qobras offering?

“I look ridiculous,” Nina protested.

Leaving Hafez, who was both relieved at not having to move and frustrated at being unable to help, in the van, Shala led the rest of the group down to a small river winding along the foot of the crag. The far bank rose steeply before leveling out thirty feet above-with the electric fence surrounding the entire fortress running along the top.

Although fast flowing, the river was shallow enough for them to wade across. Shala took off her shoes and pulled up her coat as Chase and Castille helped her across, simply splashing through the cold water without even bothering to remove their boots. Nina, on the other hand, felt incredibly silly as she hurried across-in a wet suit.

“I dunno,” Chase told her, helping Shala sit down, “you look pretty good to me. But then I’ve always had a thing for women in rubber.”

“Shut up.” The one-piece wet suit Shala had brought was more suited to surfing than to stealthy infiltration work: black with a hot-pink insert running from her neck down to her crotch and then up again over her back, with equally lurid strips down the legs and arms. The wet suit itself seemed fairly new, but the too-tight and grubby sneakers on her feet were another matter. “Are you absolutely sure neither of you can fit into this pipe?”

“See for yourself,” said Shala, pointing. A stub of rusting metal protruded from the steep bank a foot above the surface of the river, water trickling from it. Nina’s hopes that she could persuade the lanky Castille to take her place were dashed when she realized how thick the metal was. The actual interior of the pipe was barely eighteen inches in diameter-too small for Castille, and she doubted Chase would even be able to get his head and one shoulder inside.

For that matter, she wasn’t sure if she would fit.

“You’ll fit,” Chase said, as if reading her mind. “Might be a squeeze around your bum, but…”

“Hey!”

“Just kidding.” He smirked, then opened the rucksack they had brought from the van. “Here’s your gear. Torch, two-way radio and a headset-it’s not exactly Bluetooth, but you’ll be able to tell us when you’ve shut off the power to the fence. Gun-”

“I’ve never used a gun,” Nina said as Chase took out a small automatic in a canvas holster with a belt wrapped around it.

“Yeah? Thought you Yanks were shooting stuff before you could walk. Turn around.”

“I’m really not sure about this…” she said as Chase fastened the belt high around her waist, turning it so that the holster rested in the curve of her lower back.

“Just a precaution; hopefully you won’t meet anyone.” He clipped the walkie-talkie to the belt, then turned her around and fitted the headset, giving her a wink. “But if you do, just think Lara Croft. Bang-bang.” His gaze moved to her neck, and her pendant. “Do you want me to look after that for you?”

She considered it. “No thank you. It’s sort of my good-luck charm.”

Chase raised an eyebrow. “Considering the day you’ve had, you’ve got a bloody funny idea about what’s lucky.”

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?”

“Good point.” Nina tucked the pendant inside the wet suit, then pulled the zipper all the way up her neck as Chase’s gap-toothed grin returned. “Let’s get you shafted.”

Nina’s trepidation turned to outright disgust as she kneeled to examine the pipe. “Oh my God! It stinks!”

“What did you expect? It’s a sewer!”

Her stomach churned. “I feel sick. God, I don’t think I can do this…”

“Hey, listen,” said Chase, resting a hand on her arm, “I know you can. You’re an archaeologist, right? You must have dug about in muck and all kinds of horrible stuff before this, right?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“The pipe’s not all that long. Fifty yards, tops, then it opens out into the access shaft. That’s got a ladder, you can just climb right up. You can do it.”

“But what if there’s somebody at the top? What if-”

“Nina.” He squeezed her arm. “My job’s to look after you. If I thought you were going to be in danger, you wouldn’t be going.”

“But you still gave me a gun.”

“Yeah, well… nothing’s totally safe, is it?” She wasn’t reassured. “Look, once you’ve shut down the fence, Hugo and I’ll be inside in less than five minutes. Simple plan-we come in, punch Hajjar in the face, rescue Kari, done.”

“Punching people in the face is pretty much your solution to everything, isn’t it?” said Nina.

“Hey, if it works… Anyway, I’ll be with you all the way on the radio. And we’ve got the plans of the place-I’ll tell you exactly where to go. Once you’ve done it, just stay out of sight and you’ll be safe. Trust me.”

Nina tied back her hair, then, with extreme reluctance and a look of undisguised revulsion, climbed headfirst into the filthy pipe. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“That’s… better than nothing,” Chase said, switching on his own radio. “Here, I’ll help you in. Give me a radio test.” He lifted her feet and pushed her inside.

His radio crackled. “Don’t you even think about grabbing my ass.”

“Never crossed my mind,” said Chase, raising an appreciative eyebrow at her wet-suit-clad buttocks as they wriggled into the pipe. He pushed her feet again, and Nina disappeared into the darkness.

The flashlight in one hand ahead of her, she crawled up the sloping pipe. It was a tight squeeze, but she was-just-able to fit. She paused for a moment to shine the light straight along the pipe. Nothing but darkness at the far end.

“I bet Lara Croft never had to crawl up somebody’s toilet,” she muttered, before beginning her laborious ascent.

Kari watched Hajjar’s frustration grow as he waited for Qobras to call, his fingers drumming on his desk. It seemed he wasn’t a man accustomed to waiting for anything.

“Failak,” she said, “I need to use the bathroom. Please?”

“Not again,” her guard complained quietly, but Hajjar waved his hand dismissively at the door. Kari stood and made a little noise of triumph at the guard. “I’m not taking off your handcuffs,” he muttered as he led her from the room.

“How’re you doing?” asked Chase, through a crackle of static.

“Oh, superfine,” Nina grumbled. “Can’t wait to write this one up for the International Journal of Archaeology.”

A noise came through the headset that could have been muffled laughter. “You’re doing great. Can you see the end?”

She directed the beam ahead. “I think… yes! I can see it! And I can hear something as well.” She tried to pick out the noise. A kind of hissing rumble… like water coming down a pipe! “Oh, shit!”

She cringed and stifled a shriek as several gallons of cold water gushed down the pipe and splashed around her. “Oh God, oh! Disgusting!”

Chase’s jovial response didn’t improve her mood. “At least they remembered to flush.”

“Feeling better?” Hajjar asked mockingly as Kari was brought back into the circular room.

“The attendant’s manners leave something to be desired,” she sniffed. “I hope I didn’t miss Qobras.”

“No, but he will call any minute. So you’re just in time.” He gestured, and the guard shoved her onto a lounger. Volgan looked pleadingly at her, but said nothing.

“Remember my father’s offer,” she said. “Whatever Qobras offers, he can-”

The computer chimed. Hajjar snapped his fingers at Kari’s guard, who clapped a heavy hand on her shoulder. She stopped talking, watching as Hajjar turned to face the screen.

It was the first time she’d ever observed Qobras “live,” having previously only seen him in photographs. And those had been several years out of date. His black hair was now streaked with gray running back from his temples, his face more lined-but his eyes were as sharp as ever.

And as deadly.

“Mr. Hajjar,” said Qobras. His tone made it clear that he was displeased at having to deal with the Iranian.

“Mr. Qobras,” Hajjar replied, with ersatz good humor. “I am delighted to speak to you at last.”

“You have something for me,” Qobras stated impatiently.

“Two things, in fact! The first is this little trinket.” Hajjar displayed the Atlantean artifact to the camera. “I understand this was taken from your-”

“Destroy it,” Qobras interrupted. “Melt it down. I will pay you fifteen million U.S. dollars on receipt of a complete video recording of its destruction.”

“Destroy it?” Hajjar was stunned. “Yes, I can do that, I have all the necessary facilities to handle precious metals, but…” He shook his head in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

“Melt it down. Completely. You can keep the gold and any other metals you extract, but I want it destroyed. It has caused enough trouble.”

Shaken, Hajjar replaced the artifact on his desk. “Destroy it. Okay. For… fifteen million dollars, you said?” The oversized image of Qobras nodded.

Kari looked on, appalled. If the artifact was destroyed, then the only link to finding Atlantis would be lost forever…

With enormous relief, Nina pulled herself out of the pipe.

The chamber she found herself in was rectangular, some six feet by eight, with numerous pipes running into it from above. The floor was awash in rancid water. “I’m in,” she said into the headset, turning her light onto the walls. A dirty ladder led upwards.

“Good,” said Chase, voice distorted by interference. “Now go up the ladder. And whatever you do…”

“Yes?”

“Don’t slip.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Water and sludge dripping off her wet suit, Nina ascended the ladder. She cautiously pushed at the metal cover at the top, and to her immense relief, it moved. She slid it aside, then climbed up. “I’m at the top.”

“Okay, you should be in a room with one door.”

She swept the beam around. “Yes.”

“Check at the door to make sure there’s nobody outside, then go left. There’s another door at the end of the corridor. Go through it.”

Heart suddenly pounding, Nina opened the door a crack and peered through. The stone-walled corridor outside was dimly lit and, except for a faint humming noise, silent. She looked in the other direction. A narrow flight of stairs led upwards. “It’s clear,” she whispered.

“Okay, go.”

She kicked off the sodden sneakers so as not to leave wet footprints, then padded lightly down the corridor. “Oh. Problem.”

Even through the hiss of static, she could hear the concern in Chase’s voice. “What?”

“There are two doors. Which one do I go through?”

“There’s only one on the plan, they must have added something. But one of them has to be the generator room. Try them both.”

Both doors bore a high-voltage warning symbol, so that didn’t help. Bracing herself, Nina tried the nearest one first.

It wasn’t a room full of technicians or a security station, thankfully. In fact, it looked more like the IT department at the university. She recognized one rack of equipment as a computer server-maybe Hajjar ran his own secure Internet link. Various black boxes were connected to it, as was a PC, a screensaver swirling on its monitor.

Out of curiosity-the room was small, the computer within arm’s reach of the door-she moved the mouse. The screen lit up with various windows. Most of them were incomprehensible status displays, but her eyes instantly went to one in particular. It was split in two, each part showing what was apparently a videoconference call.

She didn’t recognize the stern-faced man in one of them, but the other…

Hajjar.

“Nina?” Chase hissed. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a computer room-”

“Then forget it! Go into the other room, quick.”

It turned out to be her intended destination. A pair of large generators occupied most of the space, thrumming away. On the wall next to them was a complicated array of fuse boxes and circuit breakers.

“Another problem,” she said quietly. “All the labels are in Farsi!”

“I see you have Yuri there as well,” said Qobras.

“Giovanni!” Volgan said desperately, staggering to his feet. His guard raised the gun as if to club him again, but Hajjar shook his head. “Please, I’m sorry! I made a mistake, I know, but I’m sorry!”

Qobras shook his head. “Yuri… I trusted you. I trusted you, and then you betrayed me-and the entire Brotherhood! And for what? For money?” He shook his head again. “The Brotherhood provides for the needs of its own, you know that. But you wanted more? That is the thinking of those we are fighting to stop!”

“Please, Giovanni!” begged Volgan. “I will never-”

“Yuri.” The single word silenced Volgan instantly. “Hajjar, I have no use for him, and I am sure you do not either. I will pay you five million dollars to kill him, right now.”

“Five million dollars?” gasped Hajjar. Qobras nodded.

“Giovanni!” shrieked Volgan. “No, please!”

Hajjar sat motionless for a few seconds, apparently lost in thought… then he opened a slim drawer set into his desk, took out a silver revolver and fired.

Chase came back online. “Okay, I’ve got the wiring diagram. There should be three tall panels with a row of big switches running down them.”

Nina saw them. “Yes!”

“The middle panel. Turn off the third, fourth and sixth switches.”

Each heavy switch made a loud chung! noise as Nina moved it. “Okay, now what?”

“That’s it. You’re done. Find somewhere to hide and we’ll see you in five minutes.” The radio sent a crunch of static into her ear, then fell silent.

“Wait, Eddie-Eddie!”

Kari stared in disbelief at Volgan’s body. Even the guards seemed shocked by the suddenness of the killing. “My God!”

On the screen, Qobras reacted to her voice with wary surprise. “Hajjar! Who else is with you?”

Hajjar turned away from the bleeding body to face the screen. “I have a… rival of yours, you could say. Kari Frost.”

Qobras was stunned. “Kari Frost? Let me see!”

Chase and Castille quickly scaled the slope leading up from the river. Chase tested the fence by tossing a pair of wirecutters against it. No sparks, no shorting. It was dead.

“Go!” he ordered. Castille quickly used the wirecutters to snip the bottom of the fence. Chase pulled up the loose section like a flap, creating a gap just large enough for them to fit beneath.

On the other side, they jumped to their feet and looked up at the fortress. The rocky slope led up to the twisting access road, and the main entrance of the building itself. There were no guards in sight, but from what Shala had said, they would be there somewhere.

As well as his own gun, Castille still had one of the G3 rifles taken from Mahjad’s soldiers. Chase had his Wildey, and a weatherbeaten Uzi provided by Shala. He checked both guns. Ready for action.

“Okay,” he said, “time to be heroes.”

They set off at a run.

Nina decided that the server room was as good a hiding place as any. It also let her have another look at the computer.

It only took a moment to expand the window of the videoconference call the PC was relaying, and a little longer to increase the volume. Hajjar and the other man were talking about…

Kari!

Not only that, but now she appeared behind Hajjar, pushed into the frame by one of his men.

“What is she doing there?” Qobras demanded.

“I have some business with her father,” said Hajjar. “It is not your concern.”

“It is very much my concern!” Qobras almost shouted. “Kill her.”

Hajjar gaped at the screen. “What?”

“Kill her! Now!”

Cold fear clenched Kari’s stomach. The gun was still in Hajjar’s hand. If he obeyed Qobras’s order, she could be dead in moments.

“Are you mad?” Hajjar exclaimed. “She is worth ten million dollars to me! Her father has already agreed to pay the ransom!”

“Listen to me,” said Qobras, leaning forward until his face filled the screen, “you have no idea how dangerous she is. She and her father are attempting to find what the Brotherhood has been fighting to keep hidden for centuries! If they do-”

Hajjar waved his hands. “I don’t care! All I care about is the ten million dollars for returning her to her father!”

Something approaching desperation crept into Qobras’s voice. “Hajjar, I will pay you twelve million dollars if you kill her.”

“You are out of your-”

“Fifteen million! Hajjar, I will pay any price you want! But only if you kill Kari Frost, right now!”