Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

Two helicopters stood before him, having landed on a higher plateau over four miles from the target zone. One was an elderly Polish-built Mil Mi-2 eight-seater in bright red civilian paintwork, the other a slightly larger but much newer AgustaWestland AW169 outfitted with an external winch. Swathes of black plastic had been taped over parts of their hulls to cover tail numbers and identifying logos. He went to the second aircraft, ignoring the bored Nepalese men inside, and collected a satellite phone before returning to the telescope. Resuming his observation, he made a call.

It was soon answered. ‘Yes?’

‘It’s Axelos.’

‘Ah, Petros!’ said the deep-voiced man at the other end of the line. He spoke briefly to someone in English, then returned to his native language. ‘Where are you, and what have you found?’

‘I paid a customs officer at Kathmandu airport to hide a tracker in Wilde and her husband’s baggage. We followed them into the mountains. They’ve gone into a cave with the monks.’ He frowned, still watching the ledge. ‘I don’t know what’s going on inside, but it’s weird. A lot of smoke or steam blew out of it.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that. Just secure the Crucible. How long will it take you to get into position?’

‘Thirty, forty minutes — we’ll need to fly behind the other mountains so they don’t hear us coming, and rope down higher up so we can attack from above.’

‘And will the men be up to the job?’

Axelos glanced at his companions: a collection of local mercenaries, hurriedly hired through his boss’s global network of contacts. All claimed to have military experience, but the black-haired Greek had many years of his own, and could tell that none were top-tier. But they were all he had. ‘It would have been better if I’d been able to use people I already knew — people I can rely on.’

‘I know. But when you need to act fast, you use what you have, not what you want, yes? Okay, do it.’

‘Moving out now,’ Axelos said.

He was about to end the call when the other man spoke again, sounding almost saddened. ‘And Petros?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’d prefer there to be no violence. The Crucible is what matters. But…’ His voice became harder, filled with meaning. ‘I must have it. Understood?’

‘Understood,’ Axelos replied. ‘I’ll call you again when it’s done.’

He disconnected and returned to the helicopters, calling out their passengers and getting one of the Nepalis to translate as he addressed them in perfect English. ‘All right! We’re moving out. You all know what to do, so follow my lead.’ He waited for the non-English-speakers to respond to the translation, then continued: ‘There’s a guard outside the cave, so we deal with him first. He looks Nepalese, but he’s not a monk, so you shouldn’t have any trouble picking him out. Then we round up everyone else.’

A mercenary, one of twin brothers whom Axelos could only tell apart by their scarves, spoke in clumsy English. ‘What we do if they do trouble?’

‘Use the minimum force necessary,’ he replied, ‘but if anyone poses a threat… take them out.’

Nods of agreement, with some leering smiles. The Greek concealed his disdain, instead signalling to the helicopter pilots. The Mil’s was a local Nepali, the AW169’s an American named Collins, another employee of Axelos’s paymaster. ‘Let’s do this.’

The eerie cyan glow had disappeared, only lamplight reflecting off the cavern’s golden walls. Wisps of steam coiled from the chasm. Nina looked down into it as the monks prepared to raise the Crucible back to floor level. The strange sphere was now suspended some distance above the surface, where the meltwater had boiled away in a furious burst.

What she could see of the mercury within the Crucible looked no different, though. Was the whole thing just some bizarre lie?

The monks strained to lift the red crystal up the shaft, gingerly pulling it on to solid ground. Rudra brought one of the empty canisters and placed the funnel into it, inserting a fine wire mesh to act as a filter. A pair of men gently tipped the Crucible, pouring out its contents.

The mercury containers had remained in the cave, and Nina noticed that their dull metal had acquired a faintly lustrous sheen. ‘Is that gold?’ she asked, pointing it out to Amaanat.

‘Yes.’

‘How? They weren’t in the Crucible.’

‘The mercury vapour in the air touches everything. The neutrons inside the Crucible reach such an intensity that they escape in a burst — and some of the atoms of vapour are hit and transformed into gold. It is how the walls have become like this,’ he said, touching one of the subsumed wooden beams. ‘Layers of gold have built up over years, over centuries.’

The first container was now filled with mercury. Rudra carefully lifted the filter from the funnel. Another monk positioned a shallow bowl beneath it as he shook the little sieve, a few tiny flecks falling through the mesh, then tipped out the larger pieces that had been caught.

Amaanat brought his lantern closer. ‘You see? Gold.’

Nina leaned in. The misshapen lumps were all small, resembling loose dental fillings, but they had the undeniable yellow gleam of the precious metal. Combined, she estimated they might weigh about half an ounce, so the entire contents of the Crucible could yield perhaps four times that in total. At current prices that was still worth a few thousand dollars, but it was not the overwhelming quantities she had expected. ‘There isn’t much there.’

‘And it could’ve been in the mercury when you brought it up here, for all we know,’ said Eddie.

Rudra gave him an irate look, but Amaanat simply shrugged. ‘Why would we lie to you? We have asked you to tell no one about this, and you have agreed. We have nothing to gain.’

‘He’s got a good point,’ Nina was forced to admit.

‘There is more in the bottom,’ the abbot went on. ‘Steel will float on mercury, but gold will sink. From this Crucible, we will get perhaps ten troy ounces.’

‘Ten ounces is quite a lot…’ Belatedly she registered his phrasing. ‘Wait, you said this Crucible. There are more?’

‘There is one other,’ he replied. ‘Talonor had this one with him when he first found this place. The second was brought when he returned.’

‘Two Crucibles, double the gold,’ said Eddie. ‘Not bad.’

The old monk smiled at some highly amusing secret. ‘What is it?’ Nina asked.

‘Come, see for yourself,’ Amaanat told her.

As the other monks continued to pour out the mercury, he led Nina and Eddie to the side passage. The walls were still caked in gold, but once they had rounded a corner, the coating vanished, leaving nothing but bare, damp rock.

‘Here,’ said the monk, holding up his lamp. ‘Here is the second Crucible.’

The couple’s eyes widened simultaneously. ‘Okay,’ said Eddie, ‘double the gold was a bit of an understatement.’

‘You’re not kidding!’ Nina replied, amazed. ‘This thing could fill up Fort Knox!’

The second Crucible was much like the first in form, a rough spheroid of dark red crystal with an opening carved into its top. But it was very different in size. Where the first had been the size of a basketball, this one was almost as tall as Nina, a great bulbous cauldron inside a heavy metal cage. As for how much mercury it might hold, she guessed it would measure in the hundreds of gallons.

It would not produce ounces of gold. It would produce pounds .

‘It has not been used for many years,’ said Amaanat. ‘To fill it would need so much mercury that people might become suspicious. It would also need many trips up the mountain to bring the mercury here, and you have seen how dangerous that can be. But we know it has been used in the past.’