Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘The jeeps!’ Olivia said through chattering teeth. ‘We can drive back to Reykjavik!’

Eddie was less confident. ‘If we can get to ’em. Still plenty of arseholes with guns around.’ He started downhill, snow crunching under his feet.

Nina and Olivia followed. ‘You’re freezing!’ the redhead said in alarm, feeling her grandmother tremble.

‘I’ll be all right,’ Olivia insisted. ‘I just need to get somewhere warm.’

‘It’s nice and warm inside, but that’s not really an option,’ said Eddie. He reached the end of the power station’s wall and cautiously peered around the corner. Some super jeeps were parked near the stairs to the main entrance, but his attention snapped to the pair heading away from the hotel. ‘Shit! They’re already leaving!’

Nina recognised the lead pickup. ‘They’re taking the Crucible!’ She looked back at the parked trucks. ‘We’ve got to stop them.’

They hurried to the nearest super jeep. ‘Hope they left the keys inside,’ said Eddie. ‘Be just our luck if they’re in someone’s coat—’

A shout cut through the wind’s shrill. A man scurried down the main stairs, bringing up his gun—

Eddie flung the axe. The blade slammed into the man’s skull with a bone-splitting crack, neatly bisecting his face as he toppled backwards. The gun fired as he fell, bullets spraying the concrete above.

More shots from further away. Another armed man ran at them from the far end of the east wing, firing as he came. ‘Shit! Down!’ Eddie barked, throwing himself behind the super jeep.

Nina pulled Olivia into the cover of its oversized front wheel. Bullets struck the truck, the driver’s window shattering. Olivia screamed. ‘It’s okay, it’s okay!’ Nina said. ‘We’re behind the engine — he can’t shoot through it.’

‘No, but he can run around it!’ she countered.

Eddie searched for better cover, but found nothing they could reach. He looked up at the truck itself, one of those that had collected everyone from Reykjavik airport…

Before he could act on the thought that was forming, another burst of bullets hit the jeep. One of the huge tyres blew out. The unbalanced truck crunched down on to its front-left wheel hub, the rear corner opposite kicking up into the air. Muffled thumps came from inside as the cargo shifted. ‘Stay put!’ he shouted.

‘I wasn’t planning on going for a stroll,’ snapped Olivia as he scuttled to the rear passenger door.

‘What’re you doing?’ Nina demanded.

He opened it, staying low as more rounds punched through the bodywork. With the vehicle now tipped towards the oncoming man, he was hidden from sight, though not shielded from bullets. ‘The guns and stuff they brought back from Greece?’ he said as he clambered inside. ‘They’re in here!’

The back of the truck was filled with bags and boxes. He fumbled open a case, his hand falling on an angular object inside. First time lucky , he thought as he pulled out a Steyr AUG — only to discover there was no magazine loaded, the receiver empty. His groping fingers failed to find any ammunition.

He dropped the useless weapon and scrambled deeper into the rear bed — as a bullet tore through the roof above him and blew out one of the side windows. A cascade of fragmented safety glass scoured the back of his head. The gunman was still coming.

Another case contained magazines, but he knew from their shape that they were for UMPs, not the full-sized machine gun he had found first. No sign of the weapons they were intended to fit.

He threw open another container. The low light from outside picked out the grenade launcher he had used at the shipyard — and beside it a squat ammo box. He grabbed the MGL, tearing at the box’s latch. Dull metal hemispheres stared at him from inside like dead eyes: the warheads of half a dozen forty-millimetre grenades. He snatched one out and crawled to the rear door, pulling the launcher’s release hook. It swung open to expose the cylinder.

The running man kept firing. Another window burst apart. Eddie slammed a grenade into the topmost chamber and snapped the launcher shut, then pulled the rear door handle to throw open the tailgate. The movement immediately drew fire, more bullets clanging against the back of the truck as the Englishman dived out.

He hit the ground, rolling to face the gunman — and pulled the trigger.

The grenade sailed over its target — but the man’s surprise and relief was very short-lived as it hit the hotel’s underside behind him and exploded.

A storm of shrapnel lacerated his back. Blood spouting from countless wounds, he crumpled to the ground and lay twitching. Stray shards of metal struck the truck, but Eddie was beyond the grenade’s lethal radius.

The Yorkshireman scrambled upright, returning to the super jeep in the hope of finding a matching gun and magazine, but shouts from inside the hotel prompted him to abandon the search. Instead he grabbed the MGL’s ammo box and ran for another jeep, waving for Nina and Olivia to follow. ‘Get in, quick!’

This vehicle was a Toyota Land Cruiser — and the key was in the ignition. He tossed the launcher and ammunition on to the passenger seat and started the engine. The truck’s headlights and roof-mounted spots flared. Nina pushed her grandmother through the rear door before jumping up after her. ‘Okay, go!’

Eddie put the super jeep into gear and floored the accelerator. It sprang forward, the massive tyres getting full traction on the snow-free paving beneath the hotel before ploughing into the packed drifts beyond. It slewed almost sideways, the Englishman hurriedly feathering the power to regain control. ‘There, over there!’ said Nina, pointing. The rear lights of the Mikkelssons’ jeeps were tiny red sparks in the distance. ‘Catch up with them!’

‘We’ve got to get away from that lot first!’ Eddie shot back, seeing three more men rush out of the hotel and pile into another super jeep. ‘Grab the grenade launcher and load it.’

She picked up the weapon. ‘How?’

‘There’s a hook in front of the cylinder — pull it and it’ll swing open. Get rid of the dead one inside and load the others. Turn the cylinder after you put each one in; it’s got a kind of clockwork spring that brings round the next grenade when you fire.’ He turned the heater controls to full. ‘Are there any coats or blankets back there?’

‘I think so,’ the shivering Olivia replied. ‘These jeeps usually have survival equipment in the trunk.’

‘I’ll look,’ said Nina, breaking off from her task to rummage through the super jeep’s cargo. There was indeed a blanket, which she passed to Olivia. The elderly woman accepted it gratefully and drew it tightly around herself. The redhead resumed loading the launcher, pausing as she glanced ahead. ‘Eddie, you’re going the wrong way!’ The other jeeps were off to their right, and heading away.

‘We’ll never catch up with them if we just follow that track,’ he said, guiding the 4x4 across the rippling snowfield. ‘They’re going around the lake; if we cut straight across it, we can get in front of them.’

‘You do remember we’re not in a boat, right?’

‘The lake’s frozen — it should hold us.’ He looked back at Olivia. ‘Shouldn’t it?’

‘I’m hardly the expert,’ she objected.

‘Maybe not, but you’ve been here before. Is it usually still frozen this time of year?’

‘I think so, but I’m not entirely—’ Her eyes widened in fear. ‘Look out!’

Eddie snapped his gaze back ahead — to see the snowy ground dropping out from under the jeep’s lights.

He stamped on the brake pedal, but it was too late to stop. The Toyota shot over a rise, bursting through a snow-bank and going airborne for a couple of seconds before pounding back down in another explosion of snow. The heavy-duty shock absorbers bottomed out with a tooth-jarring bang, then the truck bounced back up and slewed across a wallowing dip.