Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘I’m sorry, honey, but we have to leave.’

‘It was very nice to meet you, Macy,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘I hope I will see you again sometime. I am afraid you have quite a wait for the next flight to New York, though,’ he added to her parents. ‘It does not leave until this evening. Are you sure you do not want to stay here until then?’

‘I think they’ve made their decision,’ Olivia said, standing. ‘We should respect it.’

Mikkelsson nodded. ‘Of course. Then may I suggest you visit Reykjavik before your flight? It may not be Manhattan, but it has its attractions. And some very good restaurants.’

Nina hesitated, wanting to leave with no further fuss, but Eddie spoke first. ‘What do you reckon? Got to be better than airport food.’

‘There is that, yeah,’ she admitted. ‘We’ll take your advice, then,’ she said to Mikkelsson. ‘Thank you.’

‘My pleasure,’ said the Icelander. ‘Rutger can drive you there.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ said Olivia. She caught Nina’s attempt to hide her suspicion. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t try to change your mind. I have to fly back to the States anyway, and since I’ve no more business here…’

‘Okay,’ said Nina, with reluctance.

‘Thank you. I’ll just wrap things up, then we can leave. Fenrir?’ Olivia ushered Mikkelsson away, beginning a quiet discussion. Lonmore looked put out at not being included.

‘Bit of a shame to come all the way out here only to go straight back home,’ Eddie said to his wife. ‘Still, at least we’re not paying for it.’ Olivia had covered the cost of the air fares.

‘Yeah,’ Nina agreed, though she couldn’t help wondering if some other price for her decision would follow down the line. Feeling oddly defensive, and unsure why, she collected the Crucible, holding it tightly as she waited to leave.

The atmosphere inside the super jeep was as frosty as outside.

‘Anyone fancy a game of I Spy?’ Eddie joked to break the tension as they rounded the frozen lake. ‘I spy, with my little—’

‘Snow?’ said Macy.

‘Tchah! How’d you guess? Your turn.’

Olivia, in the front seat, sighed. ‘We’re not going to have this all the way back to Reykjavik, are we?’

‘We can talk about anything you want,’ said Nina, ‘as long as it’s not what I said I absolutely wouldn’t discuss.’

‘You’ve clearly made up your mind, and I respect that. And I’m sure I don’t need to restate my own position.’

‘No. You don’t.’

The old woman turned to give Nina a look that was somewhere between disappointed and irked. ‘There’s no need to be so curt. All I wanted was what was best for my family.’

‘What was best for your family, as long as it involved finding the Midas Cave,’ Nina shot back. Eddie quickly diverted Macy’s attention with another round of I Spy. ‘You know, you could have come to me at any time in my entire life. Like, I don’t know, maybe twenty years ago , after Mom and Dad died?’ She was hit by a sudden surge of anger, which she struggled to contain so as not to upset Macy. ‘I was completely alone, Olivia. You could have seen me then, told me what happened between you and Mom for her to shut you out of her life. Out of my life. But you didn’t! You waited until I could do something for you. That might have been what was best for you, but it sure as hell wasn’t for me.’

‘I know, and I’m sorry. But it wasn’t out of some monstrous sense of self-interest, I assure you. You lost your mother… and I lost my daughter .’ She glanced at Macy. ‘My only child. I hope to God you never have to go through that experience. Not even losing Tom, the man I loved the most in all the world, compared to how I felt after Laura died.’

Nina’s anger was quickly replaced by guilt. She had attended Macy Sharif’s funeral, and witnessing the grief of the young woman’s parents had been one of the most emotionally painful experiences of her life. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s all right. Time may not heal all wounds, but it does at least dull the pain. As for why I didn’t come to you until now, Laura had made it very clear that she didn’t want me in her — or your — life. As painful as that was, I respected her wishes before she died. And afterwards, how could I simply turn up and tell you who I was? It would mean revealing that she’d lied to you, and to your father. I didn’t want to dishonour her memory. But you’re my family, Nina. You’re so much like Laura that… that’s it’s almost as if she’s still here.’ A deep sadness filled her eyes. ‘Whatever else may have happened, I’m still glad that I got to meet you. And I hope I can get to know you better in the future.’

Nina had no comeback to that. ‘Thank you. I hope so too,’ was all she could say. Olivia smiled, then looked back at the icy vista ahead.

They eventually returned to the paved road, De Klerx turning at the crossroads to take them back to civilisation. Once they reached Reykjavik, rather than retrace their route to the airport, he instead followed a road that took them towards the city’s centre along its northern waterfront. ‘I suggested we go this way,’ said Olivia. ‘It’s slightly longer, but it gives the best views. It’s actually a very pretty town.’

‘Yeah, I see,’ said Nina, gazing across a wide bay to the mountains beyond. Most of the snow had gone near sea level, but the distant peaks were still capped in white. Looking the other way, she saw that Reykjavik itself was very spread out, plenty of open green space between the relatively low-rise buildings. ‘How often have you been here?’

‘Enough to know the best restaurants. Fenrir and his father always preferred to hold meetings in their own country rather than in the States whenever they had the chair. But it’s not a hardship coming here, as long as there isn’t a blizzard blowing. It’s a beautiful country.’

Eddie regarded something at the water’s edge. ‘That’s pretty cool.’

‘The Sun Voyager ,’ explained Olivia as they passed the sculpture — a skeletal representation of a longboat in stainless steel. ‘The Icelanders are very much into art and culture. I suppose it comes from being stuck indoors due to darkness and bad weather for half the year. If you had more time before the flight, I’d be more than happy to show you around the galleries and museums.’

‘Thanks, but that’s fine,’ said Nina. ‘Dinner will be enough.’

Olivia nodded. ‘Rutger, take us to Vonarstraeti, then.’

De Klerx guided the super jeep past the impressive modernist block of the city’s concert hall before turning down a broad street into the heart of the capital. Even here, everything was spaced out with lots of greenery. Traffic was only light, a huge contrast to Nina’s native Manhattan. ‘So, where are we going?’ she asked.

‘There’s a very good restaurant overlooking the lake,’ said Olivia. ‘It does excellent fish. Although that can be said of most places in Iceland, really.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ said Eddie. ‘Macy, do you want to try some—’

He broke off at a noise from behind: a car suddenly accelerating with a screech of tyres. De Klerx also heard it, eyes snapping to the rear-view mirror.

‘Daddy?’ Macy asked, alarmed.

Both Eddie and Nina whirled in their seats as a dark blue SUV roared past. Brake lights flared, and the truck skidded to block the super jeep’s path. De Klerx swore and stamped on the brake, trying to swing up on to the pavement to get around it, but there was not enough room for the oversized vehicle. The Expedition bounded to a halt outside a glass-fronted bookstore-cum-coffee-house.