Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

Pandemonium erupted. The monks scattered, some running for cover amongst the boulders, others throwing themselves flat. A mercenary barged Amaanat aside, aiming at Eddie—

The abbot whirled — and drove the heel of his palm hard into the man’s face, breaking his nose with a wet crack.

Another merc flinched in sympathetic shock and raised his AKM, only for a lightning-fast sweep of the old man’s other arm to knock it out of his hands. But a third mercenary charged Amaanat like a bull, tackling him brutally into the snow.

Nina had followed Eddie’s instruction and taken off at a run. But she did not head for the cover of the rocks — rather, towards the cloth-wrapped Crucible.

Rudra sprang up to follow her, the anger in his eyes directed as much at the redhead as the intruders.

Eddie jumped upright, searching for new targets amidst the chaos. He found them — but some of the fleeing monks were in his line of fire, freezing the Yorkshireman’s finger on the trigger. ‘Jayesh!’ he yelled instead, racing for the rocks near the ladder.

The Gurkha started after him, bullets searing past—

One clipped his thigh. The wound was only shallow, but it was enough to make him fall. The shooter prepared to finish the job…

Eddie switched the selector to burst-fire mode as he scrambled behind a rock, sending a rapid three rounds at the gunman. None hit, but they served their purpose, drawing the mercenaries’ attention away from his friend.

And towards him.

Ragged splinters of stone exploded from his cover as the gunmen opened fire. He pulled back behind it and glanced around the other side, trying to locate his wife.

Nina had been ignored in the mayhem, scurrying past the mercenaries as they regrouped. She grabbed the Crucible. The geode was heavier than it looked.

Now she searched for cover. The hut, or the cave? The latter would offer more protection, but the next burst of steam from the natural reactor couldn’t be far off. If she went inside, she would be broiled — or irradiated.

The hut. She started for it—

Someone grabbed her from behind. She gasped and spun — to find Rudra trying to claw the Crucible from her grip. ‘You cannot take it!’ he roared.

‘I’m trying to save it!’ she cried. ‘We can’t let them steal it!’

He wrested the shrouded sphere free. ‘You did this!’ he screamed as he shoved her away. ‘You brought them here!’

‘I didn’t—’

She stopped abruptly. Axelos had heard the altercation and realised they had the Crucible. ‘There!’ he yelled, pointing. ‘Get them, stop them!’ A mercenary took aim. ‘No!’ the Greek cried. ‘You’ll hit the—’

The man fired. Rudra took a burst of bullets to his upper chest and head. Nina screamed, feeling hot liquid splash her cheek as he fell. The Crucible thudded into the red-speckled snow.

The gunman watched with a satisfied leer as the monk crumpled, then switched targets to the American—

His own skull blew apart as three tightly spaced bullets from Eddie’s rifle struck home.

Axelos ducked and scuttled behind a boulder. He shot a look at the Crucible, but dealing with the Englishman now took priority. ‘Flank him!’ he shouted. ‘Spread out and go after him from both sides!’

‘Eddie, they’re coming for you!’ Nina cried as she checked on Rudra. The young man was dead, a hamburger-sized hole in the side of his shaven head oozing disgustingly into the snow. Horrified, she retrieved the Crucible and hurried for the hut.

Eddie heard Nina’s warning. He peeked around the rock to locate his enemies, but was forced to jerk back as a fusillade of bullets pockmarked the stone. The brief glimpse had revealed two of the mercenaries, but the flat chatter of Kalashnikovs warned him there were more closing on his position.

He switched the selector to single-shot — every bullet had to count now — and hurriedly checked his surroundings. More boulders poked from the snow behind him. He could dart between them for cover, but he would rapidly run out of manoeuvring room. The ledge thinned to nothingness against the cliff face about sixty feet away. The mercenaries would quickly pin him down.

He had to move, though. Flinders burst inches from his head as one of the attackers came around to his left. A few more seconds and he would be exposed.

Only one way out. He fired a shot to force the man back — then sprinted for the ladder.

His rush caught the mercenaries by surprise. More bullets cracked past, but he was already weaving between the last few rocks. A glance back: Nina was almost at the hut. He didn’t know how he was going to help her, but even a few seconds out of the line of fire would give him time to think up a plan.

The valley opened out before him as he reached the edge. He jumped, twisting in mid-air to grab the ladder’s top rung as he dropped past it—

His right hand snagged the corroded metal — but the other slid off the icy surface. He swung around… and lost his grip.

The rungs whipped past him. He clawed desperately at them, fleetingly catching one, but the coating of ice splintered into nothingness in his grasp—

Impact.

Pain exploded through his legs as he hit the lower ledge. But the momentary pause in his descent had slowed him just enough to save him from a broken bone.

He was not safe, though. A shout came from above. One of the Nepali mercenaries peered over the top of the ladder, and saw him.

Eddie rolled to flatten himself against the cliff face as several bullets smacked against the ground behind him. His own gun had landed in the snow at the ladder’s foot, but trying to recover it would get him shot. Instead he scrambled into the snowless crevice containing the steam vent. More rounds impacted on the bare stone, but there was just enough of an overhang to shield him from gunfire from above.

A low noise warned him of another danger, however. A deep grumbling sound came from the vent, slowly rising in intensity.

The cave was about to blow.

Eddie knew that if stayed where he was, he would either be scalded by radioactive steam or blasted off the ledge. He had to move.

The shelter—

It wasn’t much, but it was his only option. He hopped over the fallen mercury canister and ran through the thick snow to the little wooden lean-to.

He pulled the door, but it didn’t move. Frozen. He kicked at it, trying to crack the encrusted ice — then some sixth sense made him glance up. Another merc was leaning over the higher ledge, fixing him in his sights.

Eddie threw himself back against the cliff as a ragged bullet hole burst in the door. He looked up again, but a bulge in the cliff face now blocked the gunman from view. Safe, for the moment, but he couldn’t go any further without becoming a target.

He edged sideways, back to the crevice, only to see steam drifting out from the vent. No way forward, no way back: he was trapped.

And a change in the engine note of one of the helicopters warned him of a new danger.

‘He’s on the ledge below us,’ Axelos told the Mil’s pilot over the radio. ‘Move to a position where you can see him, then take him out.’ He listened with growing annoyance to the reluctant reply, the chopper’s pilot — and owner — not wanting to put himself or his aircraft in harm’s way. ‘Why do you think the man with you has a sniper rifle? Do it!’

The Mi-2 descended towards the mountain. Axelos switched his gaze to the AW169. The Crucible was still suspended beneath the larger helicopter, its pendulous swing finally slowing.