Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘I can’t see her truck.’

‘I can’t see Olivia’s either. Perhaps Ana has dealt with them and gone back to follow us around the lake.’ The words were spoken with his usual matter-of-fact conviction, but couldn’t disguise an edge of concern.

De Klerx gave his boss a worried glance. ‘Something might have happened to her.’

Mikkelsson took the radio handset. ‘Anastasia, come in. Where are you?’ He waited for several seconds, but there was no answer.

‘Maybe the aurora’s blocking the transmission?’ Sarah suggested hopefully, eyes flicking towards the dim green fog in the sky.

He shook his head. ‘It would have to be much stronger than that.’

‘Something’s wrong,’ said De Klerx. He released the accelerator. The super jeep quickly slowed in the dense snow.

‘What are you doing?’ demanded Mikkelsson.

‘We’ve got to go back and look for her!’

‘Yes, we do,’ Sarah said, nodding. ‘She might be hurt.’

The tall diplomat’s face hardened. ‘No.’

‘What do you mean, “no”?’ his wife asked, confused. ‘You don’t think she’s hurt, or—’

‘We have to keep going. De Klerx, go.’

The security chief stared at him. ‘She’s your daughter!’

‘Yes, and she is as committed to our plan as I am.’ He gestured at the large Crucible in the pickup bed. ‘It is more vital than ever that we get the Crucible out of the country quickly. If Nina warns the authorities before we leave, we will be arrested at the airport.’ Seeing his companions’ disbelief, he went on: ‘If Anastasia is still alive, then Olivia, Nina and her husband are dead and we have nothing to worry about. Even if her jeep has been damaged, she knows how to survive out here.’

‘And if she…’ Sarah couldn’t bring herself to voice the alternative. ‘And if Olivia and the others aren’t dead?’ she managed instead.

‘Then it is imperative that we leave right now.’ He stared at De Klerx. The younger man hesitated, then wilted under Mikkelsson’s unblinking gaze and pushed down the pedal.

‘Fenrir!’ cried Sarah, appalled. ‘You… you’re just going to leave her?’

He faced her. ‘She is okay, I am sure of it. She will catch up with us. But if our positions were reversed, she would do the same thing. You know she would,’ he insisted, reaching out to put a hand against her cheek. ‘Don’t you?’

She almost flinched at the touch, uncertainty clear on her face. ‘I… yes, I do.’ Another look back, but there was still nothing behind her but darkness. ‘She’s okay. She’ll be okay, right?’

‘She will,’ Mikkelsson said, stonily regarding the way ahead.

Eddie watched the super jeep’s lights drop behind a distant rise. ‘Least they didn’t come back to finish us off,’ he said through chattering teeth as he duck into the cramped bivouac. Olivia lay on a groundsheet inside, covered by a blanket with the heater beside her. With no way to swap her wet clothing for dry, all they could do was try to keep her warm.

Nina sat with her, legs curled under a corner of the blanket in an attempt to mitigate her own exposure. ‘Yeah, but that means they’re getting away with the big Crucible — and taking it to North Korea.’

‘North Korea.’ Olivia managed to project disbelieving disdain even through a strained whisper. ‘It’s like something from that terrible movie they made of your book, Nina! Fenrir must be out of his mind.’

‘I don’t know, I can see a kind of demented logic to it,’ she replied. ‘He has the diplomatic connections, he has access to classified intel about their nuclear programme, and he knows how to use the Crucible to make plutonium for them. I mean, the man’s a nuclear physicist!’

‘The man’s insane . I can’t…’ Olivia coughed hard, struggling to recover her voice. ‘I can’t believe I never realised before.’

‘He’s a sociopath. He’s very good at hiding his true intentions, and getting people to do what he wants.’

‘Like Anastasia,’ said Eddie. ‘His own bloody daughter. That’s what I can’t believe. No way would I ever push Macy into doing something that could get her hurt.’

‘I doubt that he pushed her,’ Olivia said. ‘Children naturally want to please their parents…’ She trailed off, shuddering.

‘Are you okay?’ Nina asked, worried.

Olivia gave her a pained look. ‘I just fell in a frozen lake and have never been s-so cold in my entire life. So on balance, I would have to say no.’

‘I see being a smart-arse runs in the family,’ said Eddie. He held his hands over the heater. ‘I’ll try to get the truck’s radio working and send out a Mayday. The battery should still be dry, so hopefully I’ll be able to get power to it.’

‘If Fenrir hears it, they might come back,’ said Nina.

‘We don’t have much choice. That heater won’t last for ever. And we can’t stay out here all night.’

Olivia tipped her head towards him. ‘You mean… I can’t.’

‘No,’ he said, with a heavy sigh. ‘Not wanting to sound like a cock, but… not at your age. If you were forty or fifty, you could probably make it even after a soaking like that. But at ninety…’

‘Eighty-nine, thank you.’ She managed a small laugh, which turned into another cough. ‘There’s a certain irony. I smoked, drank, ate red meat and sugar, all the things that are supposed to kill you, but I never imagined a mountainside in Iceland would finish me off.’

‘You’re not finished yet,’ Nina said firmly. She took her grandmother’s hand — and tried to hide her reaction.

Olivia still caught her flickering change of expression. ‘Th-that cold, am I?’

‘You’re not finished,’ repeated Nina, squeezing her frozen fingers between her palms. ‘I’m not finished with you.’

Taking a flashlight with him, Eddie backed out of the shelter. ‘I’ll get started on the radio,’ he announced, carefully opening the upended truck’s front door.

Olivia let her head loll back to its original position. ‘So you’ve got something to say to me?’

‘You’re goddamn right I have,’ said Nina, her earlier anger resurging. ‘How could you have been so stupid ? You went after the Crucible rather than get to safety — and you almost died !’

‘The night’s not over yet,’ Olivia replied. ‘But I had to get the Crucible. I had to. It’s… it’s our family’s legacy. It’s your legacy.’

‘I don’t give a damn about our family’s legacy!’

‘Then why did you save it too?’ Her gaze went to the corner, where the red sphere sat glinting in the low glow of the gas heater. ‘If you don’t care about it, then why make the effort?’

‘Because… because it’s a priceless Atlantean artefact,’ Nina said after a moment. ‘After everything I’ve been through to get it, I wasn’t going to let it end up at the bottom of some lake.’

‘I see. And the real reason?’

‘That is the real reason.’

A small smile. ‘You really are so much like your mother. In so many ways. Including facial expressions. I always knew when Laura wasn’t telling me the whole truth.’

‘I’m not Laura.’

‘Oh, I know. You’re very much your own person.’ Olivia closed her eyes. ‘She would have been so proud of you. Not just for what you’ve accomplished as an archaeologist. For who you are. I’m… I’m proud of you, too. I just wish that…’ She coughed again, her whole body straining before she brought it under control. ‘That I’d told you that many, many years ago.’

Nina felt tears. ‘Hey, hey, stay with me,’ she said, finding her grandmother’s other hand. ‘I’m not done with you yet.’