Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘She killed Trakas,’ Nina told her.

Surprise became shock. ‘What — he’s dead ?’

‘He hit me,’ said Anastasia, sitting at a subtle gesture from her father. ‘I wasn’t going to let him do it again.’

‘He wasn’t going to!’ Lonmore protested. ‘He was going to hug me! You know what he’s like.’

Olivia shook her head. ‘So, the whole affair was—’

‘A disaster?’ Nina finished for her. ‘Pretty much. Lots of people dead, and for what?’

‘For the Crucible,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘While the loss of life is regrettable, and possibly avoidable—’

‘No “possibly” about it,’ scoffed Spencer, who had pulled up another armchair behind his father’s seat and sat with his legs splayed wide.

‘—it does mean that we at last have the Crucibles. Both of them.’

The unease that Nina had felt earlier returned with greater force. ‘What?’

Mikkelsson carefully lifted the lid of the box and placed the object inside on the table.

The small Crucible.

Even though the lowering sun was hidden by scudding clouds, the crystal still glinted in the light from the broad windows. She stared at it, then snapped her gaze to those around the table. Lonmore and Petra appeared genuinely surprised to see it. The same was not true of Sarah and Anastasia… or Olivia.

Nina faced her grandmother, appalled as she realised what that meant. ‘You… you knew it hadn’t been stolen. You faked it being stolen!’ The masked men hadn’t been working for Trakas, but De Klerx — and therefore Mikkelsson.

‘This wasn’t faked,’ said Olivia, putting a hand to the mark on her cheek. ‘I really did get hurt.’

‘That’s — that’s not the point! You lied to me, you set me up!’

‘I am afraid so,’ said Mikkelsson. ‘But it was necessary.’

‘The hell it was!’ Nina looked back at Olivia. ‘So you staged the attack — and terrified my little girl — to trick me into going to Greece? As what, a distraction , so Anastasia and her asshole boyfriend could raid Trakas’s yacht and force him to give up the Crucible?’

‘We didn’t know about any of this, believe me!’ said Lonmore, equally shocked by the revelations. ‘Not the raid, not that the other Crucible was still here, none of it. I went to see Augustine in good faith, in the hope of coming to a deal. And he would have agreed — if Ana hadn’t shot him!’

‘She wouldn’t have done that if she hadn’t felt threatened,’ said Sarah defensively.

‘It wasn’t self-defence,’ Spencer said, voice scathing. ‘It was straight-up murder! Bam, dead! Yes, he’d hit her, but—’

‘Then it was self-defence,’ Mikkelsson cut in. ‘There should be no argument about that.’

‘Not sure the Greek police’d agree with you,’ said Eddie.

‘And you’re being incredibly blasé about all this,’ Nina told the diplomat. ‘You’re a senior United Nations official, and you’re just brushing off the fact that you and your daughter are directly involved in murder, piracy and God knows what else! Diplomatic immunity only goes so far. This won’t just end your career if it gets out; you could go to jail.’ She gave Anastasia a pointed look, before turning her gaze upon her grandmother. ‘And you wouldn’t be the only one.’

‘Nobody is going to jail,’ said Mikkelsson, sounding fully confident in that belief. ‘And I am not concerned about my career at the UN.’

‘You seem to be forgetting that Trakas almost killed you when he stole a protected Atlantean artefact in the first place,’ Olivia told Nina haughtily. ‘I haven’t done anything illegal.’

‘That doesn’t mean you haven’t done anything immoral , though,’ Nina replied. ‘You manipulated me into finding the Midas Cave, you faked the attack in Reykjavik, you lied about that Crucible being stolen — and you kept quiet about your guilty little secret!’

The last accusation brought the strongest reaction, Olivia actually looking concerned. ‘What secret is that?’ she said cautiously.

‘About what Tobias Garde and the others were really doing in Nepal in the 1840s. They were gun-runners! They weren’t exploring, they were trying to profit from a civil war. And they did, more than they could ever have imagined!’

Olivia exchanged looks with Mikkelsson and Lonmore; the latter couldn’t quite meet her gaze, abashed, while the Icelander’s expression was unreadable. ‘You told her?’ she said to Lonmore, before rounding upon his son. ‘No — you told her!’

Spencer leaned forward in his chair. ‘Yeah. I did.’

‘You… you absolute cretin ! Why would you do something so stupid and irresponsible?’

‘Like kicking me out of the Legacy? You’re damn right I told her! She’s got every right to know what kind of people the founders were. And what kind of people are in it now. I mean, Jesus!’ He stood and swept a hand around the table at each member in turn, going clockwise from Anastasia. ‘Daddy’s little sociopath; sociopath Daddy; don’t know what the hell you do, you’re just there filling a seat,’ he said to the affronted Sarah, before continuing on to his own father. ‘Dad, you’re basically a nice guy, but I’m afraid you’re a wuss who always plays it safe and folds like a cheap lawn chair whenever anyone puts pressure on you. Then we’ve got the gold-digger,’ he continued to Petra, before coming around to Olivia, ‘and finally Mrs Machiavelli, who’d stab herself in the back for fun if she could reach around far enough.’

The old woman gave him a piercing glare. ‘You are hardly in a position to criticise anyone else here, Spencer. You’re nothing but a wastrel — no, worse than that, a parasite! As if leeching off your father to support your debauched lifestyle wasn’t bad enough, then you started stealing from the rest of us by dipping into the Legacy itself! And when you were caught, rather than taking responsibility like a grown man, you went crying to someone outside and betrayed us. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.’

‘Now hold on, Olivia,’ said Lonmore. ‘I think we should all calm down and take a—’

‘You want to know what’s really pathetic?’ snapped Spencer, stabbing a finger at Olivia. ‘Ordering your own daughter to date someone because you want to steal his research on Atlantis!’

Olivia didn’t reply, frozen with fury — and something else, a deeper emotion. Nina stared at her, recognising… fear? Shame? She looked back at Spencer. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m talking about her guilty secret,’ he replied. ‘It’s bad enough that the Midas Legacy was founded by arms dealers, but she’s hiding something a lot more personal. Aren’t you, Olivia?’

For the first time since meeting her, Nina realised her grandmother had been completely wrong-footed, with no idea what to do next. ‘Is what he just said true?’

‘It’s… no, it’s not true,’ Olivia replied, flustered. ‘That’s not what happened at all.’

‘But something did happen, right?’

‘Of course it did!’ said Spencer. ‘It’s what she does. She sets people up! She set you up to go to Greece and distract Augustine, she set you up to find the Midas Cave for her — and she set up your mom with your dad! All she cared about was whether his work could lead her to the cave, but when Laura fell in love with him for real, Olivia kicked her out of the Legacy and cut her off!’

‘It didn’t happen like that!’ insisted Olivia. ‘Laura cut herself off from me , not the other way around. I never wanted her to go!’

‘You’re not denying the rest of it, though,’ said Nina, horrified. ‘Oh my God!’ She drew back from her. ‘You really did tell Mom to go out with Dad, didn’t you? The only reason they met is because you wanted a short cut to the Midas Cave!’