Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

Three men jumped from the SUV, faces covered by dark balaclava masks — and guns in their hands. Pedestrians fled at the sight. Macy screamed, Nina lunging to shield her as Eddie stabbed at his seat-belt release.

One man ran to the driver’s door and yanked it open, slamming his pistol against De Klerx’s head. The other two went to the other side of the super jeep, the man at the rear aiming at Eddie while his companion flung the front door wide. ‘Don’t move!’ he bellowed, locking his own weapon on to Olivia. He had a thick accent, English not his first language. ‘The Crucible! Where?’

‘In the back!’ Nina shouted, holding Macy tightly. ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot ! We’ve got a child!’

De Klerx’s attacker rushed to open the Expedition’s tailgate. Rather than carry the Crucible around with him for the rest of the day, Eddie had put it in the trunk with the survival gear. The man snatched up the box, then called out to his companions — in Greek, Nina realised.

The man threatening Olivia gestured for her to unfasten her seat belt. ‘Out!’

‘I’m not going anywhere with you,’ she replied in fearful defiance. His response was to sweep a balled fist at her stomach. She folded, gasping.

‘Olivia!’ cried Nina, shocked.

The attacker released the old woman’s seat belt, then dragged her from the super jeep. The man carrying the Crucible hurried past and scrambled into the SUV. The third man jabbed his gun in warning at Eddie, then followed.

The Englishman immediately reached over the back seat to snatch up the first heavy object he saw, a kettle-sized propane cylinder. ‘Eddie, no!’ Nina shouted as he opened his door. ‘They’ll kill you!’

He ignored her, jumping out. The gunman hauling Olivia was almost at the SUV, the other rounding the vehicle to get in. ‘Hey!’ he roared. Her captor looked back—

Eddie hurled the cylinder. It crossed the few metres between him and his target in an eye blink and struck the gunman squarely on the forehead, sending him crashing to the ground. Olivia fell beside him, her head hitting the pavement.

The Yorkshireman rushed at them. If he could grab the masked man’s gun before he recovered or his companions escaped…

Too late. The SUV’s engine snarled, the truck jolting over the kerb before turning hard to swing back on to the road. It powered away, one of its doors still open.

The downed man was already recovering. Eddie changed direction and threw himself into the shop doorway, expecting a gunshot—

None came. The man was fleeing.

Eddie raced after him. A fence ran along the street’s central divider. The gunman vaulted over it, heading for a small park. The former soldier angled to follow, about to make the jump himself when his daughter’s terrified wail stopped him. He aborted his leap and slammed into the barrier, glaring furiously after the retreating gunman. A shrill of tormented rubber came from along the street as the SUV screamed around a corner to make its own escape.

‘Shit!’ he yelled, banging a fist on the fence before looking back at the super jeep. Nina ran to help Olivia, De Klerx staggering from the vehicle with a hand pressed against his head. Macy peered from the rear door, crying in fear and confusion. A last glare at the running man before he disappeared behind a building, then Eddie hurried back.

Nina was helping Olivia to sit up, revealing a cut on her temple and a vivid graze down one cheek. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked her grandmother.

Olivia gingerly felt the bruise. ‘I… I think so,’ she said in a shocked, tremulous voice. ‘Oh my God! Are you all right? Is Macy—’

‘I’ll get her,’ said Eddie, satisfied that Olivia’s injuries were not life-threatening. ‘Hey, hey, it’s okay,’ he told the little girl as he picked her up. ‘It’s all right. We’re all safe.’

‘Daddy…’ she whimpered, nuzzling against his cheek. He held her more tightly, giving Nina an anguished look as she and De Klerx raised Olivia to her feet. His wife made sure she could stand, then went to her family.

‘What the hell was that?’ Eddie demanded, jaw tight with a seething, barely contained rage.

Nina wrapped her arms around her husband and daughter. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. The super jeep’s rear door was still open, giving her a view of the interior — and the empty space where the Crucible had been. ‘But they got what they were after.’

Police and an ambulance quickly arrived, summoned by emergency calls from onlookers. Paramedics assessed Olivia’s injuries before putting her on a stretcher. De Klerx shrugged off all attempts to do the same for him, instead phoning Mikkelsson to inform him what had happened.

The police were equally keen to find out, to Nina’s frustration. ‘That’s my grandmother!’ she told them as Olivia was loaded into the ambulance. ‘I should go with her.’

‘Look, let her take our little girl and go to the hospital,’ Eddie said to the senior cop, who to his relief spoke excellent English, as seemed to be the case with most Icelanders. ‘I’ll tell you everything I can. Not that it’ll be much, ’cause I don’t have a bloody clue what just happened.’

The policeman held a brief discussion with the other officers, then turned to Nina. ‘Okay, you can go with her. But we will need to talk to you all at the hospital.’

‘Thank you,’ Nina replied. She took Macy from Eddie and kissed her husband. ‘See you soon. I love you.’

‘Love you too,’ he replied. ‘Okay, so what do you want to know?’ he said to the cops as Nina and Macy climbed into the ambulance.

The journey to Reykjavik’s Landspitali hospital, less than a mile away, did not take long. Nina waited nervously as Olivia was taken into a private room to be examined. ‘Will she be okay?’ Macy asked. She had stopped crying, though her cheeks were still stained with tears.

‘Yeah, I’m pretty sure,’ said Nina, trying not to let her concern show. ‘We’ll find out soon.’

It was about thirty minutes before Olivia reappeared, in a wheelchair. ‘It’s just precautionary,’ she said when she saw Nina and Macy waiting. ‘I’d be back on my feet right now if they’d let me.’ The blonde nurse pushing the chair smiled, then left them to talk.

‘So you’re okay?’ asked Nina.

Olivia touched the Band-Aid covering the cut on her temple. ‘I’ve survived much worse. Are you two all right?’

‘Yeah, we’re fine. Macy was scared, though. She’s still shaken up.’

‘I feel better now,’ Macy assured her, though her voice was muted.

‘I’m just glad you’re okay. What about Eddie?’

‘That’s good timing — you can ask him yourself,’ Nina said, seeing a familiar figure jogging towards them. ‘Hey!’

‘Hey,’ Eddie replied as he arrived, kissing Macy before regarding Olivia’s wheelchair with alarm. ‘That doesn’t look good.’

‘Just a precaution,’ Nina assured him. ‘What happened with the police?’

‘I told ’em what happened in the street,’ he said, not reiterating any details for Macy’s sake. ‘As for why it happened, I was a bit cagey. They knew who you were, so I said they took an archaeological relic, without saying exactly what it was. I figured that the fewer people who know about a nuclear gold-making crystal, the better.’

‘Did you tell them who attacked us?’ asked Olivia.

‘No, ’cause I didn’t know myself.’

‘I’ve got a good idea, though,’ said Nina. ‘I heard one of them shouting in Greek.’

The elderly woman raised her eyebrows. ‘They were sent by Augustine Trakas?’

‘It seems likely. He didn’t get everything he wanted in Nepal, so he sent people after us here too.’