Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘Mm-hmm,’ Nina said stonily, nodding.

He turned back to them. ‘Again, you have my most profound and sincere apologies. Had I known that Fenrir was still in the country waiting for you… But,’ the diplomat went on, ‘it at least had a somewhat happy ending.’

Eddie rattled the end of his military-issue crutch against the floor. ‘Yeah, I’m smiling like the fucking Joker.’

‘I admit, more on an international level than a personal one. The illegal North Korean weapons facility was destroyed, the nuclear warheads it had already produced were captured, and an extremely dangerous escalation of tensions in the Middle East has been averted — to say nothing of the renewed diplomatic pressure that will be placed on North Korea from all sides. You may not appreciate that right now, but I assure you, you have done a tremendous favour for the world. Thank you.’

Nina nodded. ‘Has there been any word on Fenrir and the Crucible?’

‘Not yet. He seems to have travelled to China, but then we believed that before. The CIA and other agencies are still trying to track him down.’

‘Thirty million dollars and a crate of gold bars buys you a lot of anonymity, I guess.’

‘So it would seem.’ He shook his head. ‘I am still in a state of shock about Fenrir, as indeed are many others at the UN. The idea that someone we trusted could have betrayed his principles so completely…’

‘Some people’ll do anything for a shitload of gold,’ said Eddie.

Nina knew the comment was not referring entirely to Mikkelsson. ‘Yeah. But some of them might realise that other things are more valuable in the end. I hope.’

‘Maybe. Right now, though,’ he shifted, stretching his injured leg, ‘I just want to see our most valuable thing.’

‘Are you calling our little girl a thing?’ The couple grinned at each other.

‘I am returning to the United Nations,’ said Seretse, smiling again, ‘but my driver is at your disposal. He can take you home, or wherever you wish to go.’

‘Macy’s at her nursery,’ Nina told him, checking her watch. ‘I already spoke to our niece when we landed; she’ll be waiting for us there. They’ll be finishing soon.’

‘Then I shall delay you as little as possible.’ The limo reached the end of the bridge, turning on to 2nd Avenue to make its way southwards.

Seretse said his farewells and exited at the United Nations. Nina gave the driver the nursery’s address, and the limo headed back uptown. ‘We made it home,’ she said, watching familiar surroundings slide past outside. ‘I honestly thought we wouldn’t, that we’d never get to see Macy again, but… we did. We actually made it.’ She closed her eyes for a moment, but found the darkness filled with unwelcome visions of everything she had recently endured. ‘I’m never going to leave her again.’

‘I know how you feel,’ said Eddie, his voice filled with weariness. ‘But sooner or later, she’ll leave us . It’s what kids do. Holly’s out here doing her own thing. One day, Macy’ll be the same.’

‘One day. But not now. And definitely not today.’ She leaned against him, holding his hand. ‘Oh God, I’ve missed her so much.’

‘Me too, love. Me too.’

The journey to the nursery seemed to take as long as the flight from South Korea. At last they arrived. ‘Do you want me to wait for you?’ asked the driver.

‘Yes please,’ said Nina. ‘We shouldn’t be long.’

He surveyed the street. Parking spaces were, as ever in New York, at a premium, and a section of street alongside scaffolding erected outside the nursery’s building had been closed off by road cones. ‘I’ll circle the block until you come out, if that’s okay?’

‘No problem,’ Eddie told him as they pulled up. ‘Don’t pick up any hitchhikers, though.’

The driver pulled over and got out to open the door for them. A few passers-by looked on curiously, wondering if celebrities had arrived. ‘What, nobody recognises us?’ the Yorkshireman mock-complained. ‘Tchah! What’s the point of having a movie about us if we don’t get mobbed by fans every time we’re out in public?’

‘I’d rather not end up like John Lennon, thanks,’ said Nina, helping him out and passing him his crutch. The limo pulled away as they skirted the scaffolding and entered the building.

An unwelcome sight greeted them. ‘Oh, great,’ Eddie said, seeing a sign on the elevator warning that it was out of service due to the renovation work.

‘You want to wait here?’ asked Nina.

‘No, I’ll follow you. It’s only one floor up. Just hope the lift in our building’s working — I don’t want to have to limp up eight flights of stairs!’

‘See you up there, Hopalong.’ She kissed him, then went to the stairwell and jogged up.

There was nobody in the hallway outside the nursery. Half expecting another reprimand for tardiness, she entered. No one was in reception either. ‘Hello?’

Penny Lopez emerged from one of the rooms. ‘Oh, hi, Nina. You’re back— oh!’ She saw the bruises and cuts on the redhead’s face. ‘My God, are you okay? What happened?’

‘I’m fine,’ Nina assured her. ‘We had a fender-bender.’ She saw there were no coats on the hooks. ‘Did Macy go with Holly already?’

‘Yes, about ten minutes ago. Holly said you were coming, but I assumed she and Macy went to meet you on the street.’

‘They weren’t outside…’ Alarm bells started to ring in her mind, worry rising. She went back into the hallway. ‘Holly? Macy?’

No reply from either, but Eddie responded from the stairwell. ‘What is it?’

Nina looked down over the railing to see him awkwardly ascending. ‘Penny said Holly already left with Macy.’

His brow furrowed with concern. ‘She knew we were on the way, she wouldn’t have left without us.’

‘I know. Macy! Holly!’

Her shout echoed from the walls — then a faint cry came from somewhere above. ‘Mommy!’

The couple regarded each other with sudden fear. There was absolutely no reason why Holly would have taken their daughter higher into the building.

At least not of her own volition.

‘Macy, I’m coming!’ Nina shouted as she ran up the stairs.

Eddie struggled up behind her, his crutch thudding off each step. ‘Fucking shit !’ he gasped as he stumbled. ‘Find her, don’t worry about me!’

Nina pounded up the staircase. Macy’s wail had come from one of the higher floors, but she didn’t know which one. She reached the third-floor entrance and pulled it open. ‘Macy!’

No answer. A wall sign told her this floor was occupied by an accounting firm. The door to its reception area was glass, a woman visible at a desk beyond. She looked up in surprise. Macy and Holly hadn’t been here.

She hared up the next flight. The fourth floor was vacant, the lights off. Nina tried the door to the offices. Locked. The next level was undergoing renovation work, piles of drywall panels waiting to replace old plaster and lath. ‘ Macy! ’

A reply came, another cry of ‘Mommy!’ from above. Not the next floor, but higher. Nina scaled the stairs even more quickly and rushed into the seventh-floor hallway. This too was being renovated, new glazing units propped vertically on a trolley waiting to be installed. The nearest door was open. She rushed through it—

And froze.

Fenrir Mikkelsson sat on a crate in front of the windows, Sarah standing beside him. He held the frightened and crying Macy on his lap with one hand and a gun in the other. It was not raised, but still pointed in the general direction of Holly, who stood trembling in a corner of the empty, half-decorated room. ‘Nina,’ said the Icelander with unnerving calm. ‘I am so glad to see you again.’