Valhalla Gold

CHAPTER TWO

The Gulfstream touched down at Florida Keys Marathon Airport less than two hours after Victoria Hamilton-Talbot’s telephone call to Sir Richard Eden. Hawke, Lea, Scarlet and Ryan made the team, with Eden keeping Alex on the island to man the computers and Maria for security.

The flight passed without any problems, but from the air they had seen Hurricane Jasmine far on the eastern horizon just as they landed. Now, from their new vantage point on the ground it was just as impressive, but too far away to be of any danger to them. This was life in the tropics.

They hired a self-drive SUV from the airport and Hawke took the wheel while Lea called Eden and informed him of their arrival. They headed southwest on Rick Turner before hanging a right onto US-1 S. The drive was flat and mostly featureless as they drove along the Overseas Highway.

Passing Bahia Honda Key and the State Park, they hit Big Pine Key and then crossed Pine Channel. Watching the sun-soaked landscape drift past the car window, Lea’s mind turned to her recent journey to Ireland, and how it all fitted together with why she was now in Florida. It couldn’t be a coincidence that her father’s research notes had been focussed on the Norse goddesses of healing and now a man connected with research into Thor had been killed.

Now, she was feeling guilty that she had kept the contents of her father’s research file to herself when she’d returned from Ireland. When she’d landed she had taken the file to her quarters, scanned the contents onto a disc and copied them to a flash-drive, and then put the notes in her filing cabinet — but she had told no one. She had no idea why her father was researching the Norse legends, and she wanted to keep it to herself until she’d looked into it more, but now that looked like a bad plan. Clearly all this had to be connected.

“We’re here,” Hawke said, casting an eye on the Sat Nav. “Little Torch Key.”

He indicated left and turned the SUV off the road. They drove across a small gravel car park and pulled up outside the exclusive resort. It was set over several acres of expensive beachfront real estate and while some here owned their properties most rented. Just inside the entrance was a long, low building which was clearly the main reception and a few people in broad sunhats were meandering along the winding paths inside the compound. The place offered the sort of peace and tranquillity that could only be bought for several thousand dollars per night.

Victoria’s place was at the south end of the resort and the walk took them several minutes through the center of the compound until they finally weaved their way to the luxury residence. It was hidden among a burst of tropical plants and shaded from the sun by several towering palm trees which swayed gently in the warm breeze now coming off the Straits of Florida.

The young woman waved to them from the veranda and they walked slowly up the steps to join her.

“You must be Lea Donovan?” she said. “Dickie’s told me a lot about you.”

Hawke gave Scarlet a questioning look and mouthed the word Dickie at her, but Scarlet shrugged her shoulders and said nothing.

Victoria caught the shared glance and turned to Scarlet. “And you’re the woman who tried to kill President Grant, right?”

Scarlet opened her mouth to reply but Hawke put his finger over her lips. “She’s kidding, Cairo.”

Victoria smiled wanly and addressed all of them together. “Please, all of you — come in. You’re most welcome.”

Inside turned out to be even more sumptuous than outside, and Ryan stared at the plush drinks cabinet and mosquito net-covered beds down the corridor with unconcealed jealousy. Through the open window, beyond a neat strip of sand, the strong, clear Florida sun pitched down on the turquoise water.

“Woah,” he said finally.

Scarlet sniffed. “I’ve never heard such a well-articulated exclamation of appreciation.”

They sat in the main room, which was part of an open-plan lower level with polished hardwood floorboards, wooden slat walls and Louvre windows. Victoria poured everyone iced tea, which elicited a look of disgust from Scarlet Sloane.

“Haven’t you got anything stronger, Victoria? When I’m saving the world I tend to run on heavier fuel than this.”

“Of course,” Victoria said. Her long brown hair blew gently in the cross-ventilation from the Louvre windows. She opened the double doors of the walnut veneer drinks cabinet and made a dramatic sweeping gesture with her hands. “The bar is open… and please, call me Vikki.”

“A vodka’ll do me, Vikki,” Scarlet said unceremoniously.

Even though she had heard Eden talk several times of Victoria Hamilton-Talbot, Lea had never met her before and she knew very little about her. She was an academic by training, specializing in maritime archaeology and her former supervisor, with whom there had been rumors of an affair, was Dr Nate Derby. She also knew from Richard that she happened to be the daughter of Lord Peter Hamilton-Talbot, the Viscount of Weston, and that entitled her to the title Lady Victoria Hamilton-Talbot, but she never used it.

Now Victoria brought the small-talk to an end as she deftly steered the conversation back around to business. “One of these days someone’s going to have to tell me where old Dickie’s little hideout is,” she said in an attempt to make everyone relax.

No one replied.

“Why are we here, Vikki?” Hawke said flatly.

Lea watched the woman carefully as she surveyed the group, and then lowered herself slowly into a wicker chair beside the open window. “As I’m sure Dickie will have briefed you, a few days ago my old boss Nate was found dead in a burned-out building up in Canada. I think he was murdered.”

“Yes, Rich briefed us on it,” Lea said taking the lead. “We’re very sorry for your loss — were you close?”

“Our academic partnership was extremely close, yes, but that was the extent of our relationship.”

“Why do you think he was murdered?” Hawke asked.

Victoria hesitated, and Lea thought she looked like she was calculating something before answering. “I can’t be sure, but I think it’s got something to do with what he was researching… on the side.”

“What was his specialist field of research?” Ryan asked.

“Pre-historic archaeology in the Maritimes, but he’d started researching Thor.”

“And you think something to do with this got him killed?” Hawke asked.

Victoria sighed. “Maybe, yes, but it all seems too strange.”

“What makes you say that?” Lea said.

“Nate had started acting rather peculiar lately — missing important lectures and other professional appointments, ignoring his cell whenever I tried to call him, and also he’d started drinking… that wasn’t like him.”

“He wasn’t all bad then,” Scarlet said under her breath.

“But this Thor business,” Victoria said, the hesitancy almost palpable in her voice.

“What about it?” Lea said.

“He started talking to me more and more about it. He became obsessed with Thor.”

That name again. Lea felt the anxiety rising as she considered if all this could be a coincidence. Could her attack in Ireland for a file containing research into Norse legends, and now the murder of a man obsessed with Thor, really be connected somehow?

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of Hawke’s voice. “We’re going to need more than this if we’re going to help, Vikki.”

Victoria offered a shallow nod and looked away for a moment. Lea thought she looked scared. “More specifically then, Nate kept talking to me about Thor’s Hammer — you’ve all heard of Thor’s Hammer, I presume?”

“Of course,” Ryan said. “Every man and his dog’s heard of Thor’s Hammer — but that might not extend to Joe, of course.”

“I know what Thor’s Hammer is, Rupert.”

“Hey! I thought I was safely out of Rupert territory? What happened to mate?”

“If you behave like a Rupert, you get called Rupert. Easy.”

“What’s this all about, Victoria?” Lea said, interrupting the banter. “What would a professor of Atlantic Canadian archaeology have to do with Thor’s Hammer?”

Ryan leaned back and folded his arms behind his head. “I would have thought that was obvious.”

Hawke sighed and shook his head. “What did I just say about acting like a Rupert, Rupert?”

Lea rolled her eyes. “Guys, please.”

“Obvious to some, maybe,” Victoria said curtly with a glance to Ryan. “As some of you may know, the Vikings had a long history with Atlantic Canada, specifically the L’Anse aux Meadows site on the northern coast of Newfoundland. Archaeologists discovered the site in 1960 and our research dates it to at least the year 1000 AD, making Viking settlement in North America well over a thousand years old.”

“It’s what they call Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact,” Ryan said chirpily.

“I’m impressed,” Victoria said.

“Thanks, babe,” Ryan said with a wink.

Victoria looked with horror at the man in the Batman t-shirt.

Hawke rolled his eyes. “Ignore it, Vikki… and please continue.”

“As I say, Nate started talking to me about Thor recently, so I began to research it as well, on the side. I got particularly interested in Valhalla, but then I realized that there were other agencies involved.”

Hawke frowned. “What do you mean, other agencies?”

“I don’t know, but Nate wasn’t working alone. I think he got mixed up with others.”

Victoria continued but Lea walked slowly to the French doors and stepped out on the deck. There was a ceiling fan out here on one of the roof beams, but it wasn’t switched on and without the gentle whir of the blades she instantly felt the heat of the day move up her neck and over her face.

As Victoria meandered meekly through her story, Lea took a second to scan the area for any trouble. All that bothered her was a single yacht a few hundred meters out to sea — it looked like a big one worth at least a couple of mill, but that wasn’t such a surprise around here, she guessed.

Further along the coast to the south she saw what looked like a Seabreacher X partially obscured by a scraggy line of mangroves. It was moored to a private jetty at the bottom of a property to the south of the resort — which also made sense. She and Hawke had seen a program on the TV about them recently and they were somewhere around the fifty K mark. If the TV program was right, they went through the sea like a torpedo and could even submerge for short durations, allowing you to see underwater through the acrylic canopy. Boys and their toys, she thought, and returned to the air-conditioned room behind her.

“All quiet on the Eastern Front?” Hawke asked.

“I think so… there’s a nice Seabreacher out there I know you’ll want to check out.”

“A Seabreacher?” Hawke asked with interest.

“One of the neighbors owns it,” Victoria said dismissively. “Makes a bloody noise half the time going up and down outside my house. Anyway, very recently,” she continued, “we’ve been able to study the latest satellite images of the Province and they’ve revealed a real treasure further south on Point Rosee.”

Scarlet downed her vodka and leaned forward in her seat. “Treasure, you say?”

Victoria nodded vehemently. “Oh yes, absolutely. Point Rosee is a peninsula on the southern coast of the Province and these new satellite images are strongly hinting at human social activity in the region. It’s incredibly exciting.”

Scarlet sighed and poured another vodka. “But no gold?”

Victoria looked confused. “Gold?”

“And ignore that, too,” Lea said, taking a seat. “What has all of this got to do with Nate’s death and Thor?”

Victoria sighed and tied her hair back with a small band. She looked lost. “I really don’t know… I guess I’m just wondering if Nate found something up in Newfoundland that relates in some way to Thor’s Hammer — he mentioned something to do with a Tesla coil — does that mean anything to anyone?”

Ryan stared at her, the blood running from his face. He had lost Sophie Durand fighting against people who wanted to destroy Tokyo with a Tesla device.

Lea saw the change in his expression. “Ry — are you okay?”

“I’m fine… Many people have surmised that Thor’s Hammer might have been an ancient doomsday weapon that operated somehow like a modern Tesla coil, but nothing’s ever been proved. I for one am sceptical about it.”

Victoria looked glum. “I can’t know or be sure what Nate was researching — but it’s certainly what he was starting to talk about more and more. I’m no scientist but as I say, he did mention to me something about a Tesla Coil.”

Ryan leaned forward. “Did he elaborate at all?”

“Just that Thor’s Hammer wasn’t actually a reference to a hammer at all, not as we see it anyway. He claimed it was more like what today we’d call a Tesla Coil. I’m not even sure what one of those is to be honest.”

“It’s a type of induction coil which generates alternating high-frequency currents.” Ryan frowned, aware that everyone in the room was now staring in his direction in hope of a better explanation. “It’s very dangerous.”

“Sounds like it,” Victoria said.

“But so was Thor’s Hammer,” Ryan said. “Mjölnir, using the Old Norse word to describe it, was one of the most terrifying weapons in Norse mythology. In fact I’d say it was probably up there with Poseidon’s trident.”

“This is all sounding very dangerous,” Scarlet said, sipping the vodka. “Which is just great.”

Victoria sighed again. She looked desolate. “But what has any of this got to do with why Nate was killed in Newfoundland?”

Ryan’s eyes widened. “Maybe it’s got something to do with Thor crossing the ocean thousands of years ago and winding up in Canada, like the Vikings did?”

“It can’t be…” Victoria said in almost a whisper. “Thor was a mythological figure! Obviously he couldn’t have existed…”

“Obviously,” Scarlet said quietly. The vodka glass raised to her lips obscured her eye-roll from Victoria.

“But then again,” Victoria continued, beginning to sob, “Nate was an extremely accomplished and highly respected archaeologist. If he was talking about Thor and this hammer all the time then maybe — just maybe there’s something to it after all.”

“That’s a good theory,” Lea said, steering Victoria away from the subject. “I’m no expert when it comes to archaeology, but if you say Nate was onto something then that’s good enough for me.”

Victoria looked up at Lea and the others and dried her eyes, smearing mascara on her cheeks. “Do you mean it?”

Lea nodded and rubbed her shoulder. “Of course.”

“So you don’t think I’m insane?”

“We’ve heard a lot worse,” Hawke said. “Believe me.”

Lea shot him a quick, covert shut up look and handed Victoria a handkerchief.

“Thank goodness for that,” she said, pulling herself together again. She swivelled in her chair and hit the play button on her answer-phone. “Because I got a call yesterday and I know I’m not imagining this.”

The room was suddenly filled with a man’s low, gravelly voice as the message on the machine played: “Lady Victoria… you talk to anyone about Dr Derby and you get the same treatment he got. Keep your mouth shut.”

Victoria jumped in her seat as the line disconnected violently. “Damn thing gets me every time!” she said, almost in a whimper. “I must have listened to it a hundred times since it came in yesterday just to make sure I’m not going mad and imagining it.”

Hawke frowned. “You’re definitely not imagining it, Vikki.” He turned to the others. “Any ideas?”

“French, obviously,” Scarlet said.

Ryan snorted. “Hardly — that’s a Belgian accent.”

Lea felt herself grow cold. Now she knew this could be no coincidence and that she had to tell the others the details of what she’d found in Ireland.

“Lea?” Hawke asked. “What’s the matter?”

“That voice… it sounds exactly like the voices of the men who tried to kidnap me in Ireland.”

Victoria sighed. “Well, whoever they are, I know they must have killed Nate and I know it had something to do with this Thor business.”

“Whatever’s going on,” Hawke said, “we need to get to Newfoundland and see if we can make sense of what happened to Nate. Hopefully we can find a lead up there and then we might be able to work out what happened to him and get to the bottom of this Thor stuff. If we’re talking about some kind of ancient doomsday weapon we can’t waste time.”

Victoria nodded her head “All right, in that case I think we need…”

She stopped talking and her face froze into a rictus of fear. She pointed at the open doors and screamed.

Within the space of a second the tranquillity of the beach hut was turned upside down as the boat Lea had spied earlier passed along the seashore at the end of the garden. Then a number of heavily armed gunmen on the deck fired submachine guns at the property.

“Get down!” Hawke yelled.

“Bastards are doing a drive-by shooting in a frigging motor yacht!” Ryan shouted.

All around them bullets drilled into the luxury room and tore the place to pieces.