Andy Mcdermott - Temple of the Gods

‘Thanks,’ he managed to say, almost overcome. He put his arm round her. ‘Thank you.’

‘I’m still completely furious with you, obviously,’ she said after a pause.

He half laughed. ‘So what else is new? You’re always furious about something. Bloody redheads.’

‘Yeah, we’re the best.’ They sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying being together again.

‘So what changed?’ Eddie eventually asked. ‘When I left you in Peru, you… well, you flat-out accused me of murder. Why do you believe me now?’

Nina straightened. ‘A few things. First, Kit lied to me about Interpol authorising him to negotiate with Stikes to get the statues back. So that made me start wondering if he’d lied about anything else. And the second thing is… well, you.’

‘Me?’

‘I know you, Eddie. I think pretty well by now. And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed… wrong . I know how angry you were that night — but kicking a helpless man to his death? I know the things you can do when you feel you have to, but that’s not one of them.’

‘I was actually trying to get Kit out of there,’ he said, thinking back to the chaos of the impending conflagration. ‘He was the only way I could prove what was going on. But he would have shot me if I hadn’t… well, you were there. Even if you didn’t see the gun.’

‘It wasn’t on the video either,’ she told him glumly. ‘The angle was wrong, and it was too dark. I watched it over and over, but I couldn’t see anything. Interpol didn’t either.’

‘There’s a video?’

‘Yeah, from a surveillance camera. Renée Beauchamp sent me a copy to see if I could tell her anything new.’

Eddie became thoughtful. ‘How long is it?’

‘Ten or twelve minutes, maybe. Nothing happens for a lot of it, though; you climb up on to the catwalk, then you’re out of shot until you and Kit are fighting.’

‘I’ll need a look at it. But there wasn’t anything showing Stikes or Sophia?’

‘Afraid not. Oh, oh!’ she added excitedly. The shock of the attack at the airport had pushed events in Italy to one side. ‘Sophia was in Rome!’

‘ What? ’

‘I don’t know what she was doing — I don’t even know how she’s still alive. But she was there, and she…’ Nina tailed off, still not quite able to accept what had happened.

‘What did she do?’ he demanded.

‘She, ah… You’re not going to believe this, but she saved my life.’

He stared at her. ‘You’re right, I don’t believe it. How?’

She explained what had happened outside the Vatican. ‘So,’ said Eddie when she was done, ‘she shot her own man in the back to save you, then got all cutesy and “don’t tell anyone” about it? Why would she do that? She hates you even more than she hates me!’

‘Thanks for that, Eddie. I always like being reminded that a murdering psychopath has a grudge against me. But no, I don’t know why she did it. I’d guess she was there to make sure Agnelli didn’t blab to me about whoever paid him to raid the Brotherhood’s archives. And so was the other guy — only she double-crossed him.’

‘Sophia stabbing someone in the back? No!’ said Eddie sarcastically.

‘But whose side is she really on? Apart from her own, obviously. She didn’t save me because she wants a bridge partner — she needs me alive for something.’

‘Something to do with those bloody statues, probably. Even Dalton mentioned them.’

‘Dalton?’ said Nina in surprise. ‘As in, out-on-his-ass president?’

‘Yeah. Turns out he set me up to be killed in Japan. Sophia’s not the only person who holds grudges. I popped round to his house to have words.’

She put her head in her hands again. ‘I need the Cliffs Notes to follow all this. What the hell is going on?’

He patted her shoulder. ‘Well, you tell me what you know, I’ll tell you what I know, and maybe between the two of us we’ll get a clue.’

‘I’d be happy with even half a clue,’ she said.

It took some time to exchange stories, long enough for the barman to cast annoyed looks in their direction, compelling Eddie to buy some drinks to justify their stay. But eventually they had all the pieces.

Not that they made much sense.

‘Okay,’ said Nina, still turning over what she had learned in her mind, ‘so this… this Group has some plan in mind that requires the statues — and me — in order to work. Harald Glas was a member of the Group, turned against them, and is now trying to sabotage their plan.’

‘By killing you,’ said Eddie.

She smiled thinly. ‘Again, thanks for that. But Takashi was a member of the Group, Stikes gave them the statues, and Sophia… I honestly have no idea how she fits in. You said that in Peru she seemed to be working for the Group — so why was she with a guy who tried to kill me? And then she killed him. So is she with them, against them, or just taking a murder vacation in Italy?’

‘Buggered if I know,’ he said. ‘I suppose if we knew what this plan was, it’d help.’

‘Takashi said it was about bringing peace and stability to the world, whatever that means. But I don’t know how the statues would accomplish that.’

‘You said something weird happened to you when you put them together,’ Eddie reminded her. ‘Like what?’

‘It’s hard to describe. Just that I felt… connected to the world somehow. And that I knew where to find something important. But it’s gone now — it’s hard to remember.’

‘The Group probably want this important thing, then.’

‘And Glas and Dalton want to stop them.’

‘Which makes them the bad guys, I guess.’

‘Stikes is working for the Group,’ she reminded him. ‘And based on past experience, when billionaires start making plans for the entire world I get a bit nervous.’ She gazed into her drink. ‘They knew what would happen when I brought the statues together. Part of that they got from the Brotherhood… but what about the other part? Where did that come from? Popadopoulos said that some governments have their own secret archives, and you said Dalton told you that the Group has influence over governments…’ She looked up at her husband. ‘Maybe that’s how they got the rest of their information.’

‘Dalton might know,’ Eddie suggested. ‘I could have another little chat.’

Nina shook her head. ‘It’s too risky. Hell, you’re taking a huge risk just coming back to New York — back to the States, even. All it takes is one cop to recognise you from a watch list…’ She sat up, determination entering her voice. ‘We’ve got to clear your name — prove that you were acting in self-defence when you killed Kit. Otherwise you’ll be spending the rest of your life running. And I’m not going to let that happen.’

‘I like the thought, love,’ Eddie said gloomily, ‘but fuck knows how we’ll do it. We’ve got a video that doesn’t show the important bit, those numbers I found in Kit’s flat in Delhi that don’t mean anything without solving some puzzle…’

‘What did it say again?’

‘Something like “and the best of the greatest”. Alderley thinks that if you add the answer to the original number, you’ll get whatever Kit was trying to hide.’

‘So all we have to do is figure out what Kit thought was the greatest. Or who.’

‘He was a Hindu,’ suggested Eddie. ‘Who’s the greatest Hindu god?’

‘Shiva, I think. Although actually he’s considered to be one of a triumvirate — Brahma and Vishnu are equally powerful. But…’ Another shake of her head. ‘It’ll probably be something more personal, something only Kit would know. The clue isn’t a riddle — it’s more like an aide-memoire. The answer must be something he would immediately know, a significant number. A date, a time, an address…’