Andy Mcdermott - Temple of the Gods

Something about that was niggling Eddie. Stikes seemed too impassive. His earlier anger at being punched and kicked had faded, replaced not by the scathing defiance the Yorkshireman would have expected, but by an air of blank calm. A poker face? It was as if he expected the tables to be turned. But the hotel had now been secured, thermal scans of the surrounding grounds confirming that there were no more mercenaries outside. So why did he seem so… confident ?

He briefly considered beating an answer out of Stikes, but was distracted by his father’s pacing back and forth in bewilderment. ‘So this guy Glas,’ Larry said to Nina, ‘he was trying to have you killed? But now you’re working with him?’

‘Yeah, I know,’ said Nina. ‘It’s complicated.’ She sighed. ‘Just once, it would be nice to know exactly who the good guys and bad guys are right from the start…’

‘Complicated! That’s an understatement. Strange powers, levitating statues, a cabal of billionaires trying to take over the world… it all sounds like Indiana Jones meets James Bond.’

‘It’s been said.’ She looked round as the door opened.

Glas entered, strong arms propelling his wheelchair. He was followed by Sophia, who was dressed entirely in black, including a matching fur coat and hat. ‘You brought her ?’ said Eddie in tired dismay.

‘I wouldn’t miss this for the world,’ Sophia replied. ‘Hello, everyone. So lovely to see you all again.’ She gave them a red-lipsticked smile.

‘The feeling’s not mutual,’ said Warden in disgust.

‘Oh, come now. There’s no need for unpleasantness.’ She noticed the abandoned Glock and picked it up. ‘Ah! I was wondering where this went.’ She pocketed the gun and continued after Glas.

The Dane stopped behind Warden. ‘So, Travis, did you really think I would give up and die for you? You don’t know me at all. You never did.’

The American turned to face him. ‘You know what we’re doing is the only way humanity can survive the coming shortages, Harald. You know it! Someone has to take charge, and who better than us? We already have de facto control; the plan would just enshrine it. We can end conflict in the world, permanently.’

‘Conflict is what made us!’ Glas replied. ‘Without conflict you have no competition, no growth. What you want to achieve is stagnation and slavery.’

‘Conflict is wasteful, it squanders lives, potential and money — but we’ve had this argument before.’ Ignoring the guns tracking him, Warden stood, looking down at Glas. ‘So, what’s your plan, Harald? Are you going to shoot us?’

‘Yes,’ said Glas bluntly. A ripple of fear ran around the table. ‘What you want to do is an obscenity against God and nature, and now that you know the approximate location of the meteorite, you will just keep searching until you find it. I cannot allow that to happen.’

‘You’re going to kill them?’ said Nina uneasily.

‘It has to be done, Dr Wilde. You know what they are trying to do. Is their vision of the world one you want to help create?’

‘No, but there’s got to be a better way than flat-out murder.’

‘There is not.’ He looked at Warden. ‘You tried to kill me to protect your plan. I am trying to protect the freedom of the entire human race. I have no choice. Dr Wilde, Mr Chase — both Mr Chases — you may wish to leave now.’

‘There’s no may about it,’ said Nina, appalled. ‘This isn’t why I agreed to help you.’

‘What about the statues?’ Eddie asked. They were still on the floor where Stikes had left them.

‘I will make sure they are destroyed,’ said Glas.

‘You know, I think we should do that. Not saying I don’t trust you, but, well, I don’t trust you.’

‘In that case, yes, you should destroy them. As a sign that you can trust me.’

Eddie gave him a dubious look as he crossed the room to pick up the figurines, half expecting the guns to be turned on him. But Glas’s men remained focused on their prisoners. The tape holding the third statue together had come off and the two pieces separated; he shouldered his own MP7 so he could gather up all the segments.

‘I think we should destroy them away from here,’ said Nina, retrieving the case, ‘so nobody can find the remains. Hopefully no one else outside this room knows what the statues can be used for, but better safe than sorry.’

‘Let’s hope,’ said Eddie. He dropped the figures into the case. ‘Okay, Dad, let’s go.’

‘With pleasure,’ said Larry.

The trio started for the exit, but Sophia’s ‘Oh, before you go…’ stopped them. She leaned over the back of Glas’s wheelchair and whispered into his ear.

Glas listened to her with growing puzzlement. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘No,’ she said, her black-gloved right hand reaching into her furs. ‘You never did.’ A steely edge entered her voice. ‘Which was the problem.’

She fired the Glock into his back.

An exit wound burst open in Glas’s stomach, blood and fluids splattering the shocked Warden.

In the kitchen, Amsel looked round sharply at the sound of a gunshot. The hotel was supposed to be secure, and everyone on the team was using silenced weapons — something had gone wrong.

He glanced back at the storeroom to check the prisoners—

The waiter was aiming a gun at him.

The window shattered as he fired. The bullet struck Amsel’s temple, blasting away a chunk of skin and bone and brain.

Glas’s men broke through their stunned horror and whirled to shoot Sophia—

Gunfire filled the room — but not from the commandos’ MP7s. Instead it came from beneath the thin cloths covering the catering trolleys by the dumbwaiter, and high in the shadows of the rafters. The men were cut down by a storm of bullets from all angles, mottled red starbursts exploding over the whites of their camouflage gear.

Eddie’s training had kicked in automatically when Sophia fired. He shoved Nina and Larry down between two members of the Group, diving on top to shield them. The assault ceased. He lifted his head, feeling the weight of the MP7 against his side… but knew raising it would be suicide.

He now understood Stikes’s confidence. The entire meeting had been a trap, intended to draw Glas out of hiding — with Sophia’s collaboration both encouraging the Dane to take the bait and keeping the mercenary leader informed of his actions. The men guarding the hotel’s exterior had been mere decoys, sacrificial bait; those concealed in the Alpine Lounge were the real defenders, keeping out of sight until they received a signal to act.

Stikes stood. ‘Excellent work, everyone,’ he told his forces as they emerged from hiding, climbing out from under the trolleys and descending on lines from the overhead beams. All dressed entirely in black, they also wore helmets with mirrored visors to protect them from the effects of the stun grenades. ‘Well done.’

Face quivering with fright and fury, Warden rounded on him. ‘What did you do? What the fuck just happened?’ A glob of spittle flew from his lips with the profanity, landing on Stikes’s chest.

The Englishman looked down at it with mild distaste before wiping it away. ‘I just removed all the obstacles to the Group’s plan.’

‘But, but…’ He jabbed a finger at Gorchakov’s corpse. ‘We could all have been killed! Why didn’t you tell us? You risked all our lives!’

‘If I had told you,’ said Stikes, as if explaining to a child, ‘you would all have been too confident, which would have given away the trap. Your fear had to be genuine to bring Glas here. You must admit, it worked.’

‘But Anisim is dead!’ protested Brannigan.