The Resurrection Key

by Andy McDermott

  Triumph filled Wintz’s face as his finger tightened on the trigger—

  A shot – but much louder than a handgun.

  A bloody fist-sized hole exploded in Wintz’s torso, white books nearby suddenly splattered with red. Mouth gaping, he fell against the racks. Nina stood behind him, smoke curling from the M16’s barrel.

  A moment of horror at what she had just done, then she dropped the empty rifle and hurried to her husband. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said as he got up. ‘He didn’t shoot me – I just fell on my arse. Fuck’s sake. Can’t believe I ballsed up the landing!’

  ‘You’re fifty, not twenty,’ she reminded him, before adding with a faint smile: ‘You’re lucky you didn’t break your hip!’

  ‘Ha fucking ha. Let’s find that bloody lift.’

  They hurried into the main corridor. The sound of alarms followed as they ran. ‘How much gas does she have?’ Eddie asked in disbelief.

  ‘Enough to preserve herself and anyone else with her for as long as it took,’ Nina replied. The corridor’s end came into view, a large red-painted door in its wall. ‘Think that’s the way out?’

  ‘Either that or the world’s most inconveniently placed toilet.’

  ‘You know, Eleanor was right. You really are a teenage boy at heart—’

  She broke off at an echoing shout from behind. It was Eleanor herself, but her cry was not one of anger or threat – it was a desperate plea for help. The matriarch rolled at full speed after them, wheelchair twitching and juddering as she fought to keep it under control.

  ‘What the hell’s she still doing here?’ said Eddie.

  ‘I think Donny’s speeding up his inheritance,’ Nina realised. ‘He must have taken the elevator up without her.’

  ‘Stop, stop!’ Eleanor wailed, frantically waving at them. ‘Please help me! I—’

  Her other hand twitched on the joystick as her weight shifted – and the wheelchair veered sharply. The turn threw her against the armrest. The chair tipped, rocking on two wheels . . . then overturned, pitching the old woman onto the concrete. She shrieked in pain—

  Then in terror. Gas roiled from a vent not far behind her. ‘Help! Help me! Please!’

  Eddie looked at Nina. ‘Should we?’ She didn’t need to speak for him to know her answer. ‘Oh, sometimes I fucking hate being the good guy! Get the door open!’ He ran back down the passage as Nina rushed to the exit.

  The cloud’s hazy edge rolled ever closer to Eleanor. She tried to drag herself away, but lacked the strength to do more than slither clear of the wheelchair.

  Eddie reached her, holding his breath – and hoping the poison was not absorbed through the skin. He scooped her up as yellow tendrils reached her feet. She was shockingly light, useless legs withered to sinew and bone. He raced back towards the corridor’s end.

  Nina reached the door. It had a handprint scanner like the elevator. ‘Eddie, it’s locked!’

  ‘Aren’t you glad you saved me now?’ Eleanor rasped. ‘Hurry up and get me to the door!’

  ‘I’m not your bloody butler,’ he replied. A glance back. The grimy yellow cloud swallowed the wheelchair. ‘You just get your bony hand ready!’

  ‘Come on, come on!’ Nina shouted. ‘Quick!’

  ‘Oh great, now I’ve got it in stereo!’ Eddie complained as he arrived. There was no time for gentleness or even courtesy; he flipped Eleanor’s legs downwards, one arm around her lower chest to support her as he brought her to the scanner. She gasped, but pressed her hand against it.

  An agonising pause – then a hefty bolt retracted. Nina hauled the thick barrier open. A bare concrete shaft lay beyond, stairs sloping upwards at a steep angle. The top was an alarming distance away. ‘We’ve got a hell of a climb!’ she said.

  Eddie threw Eleanor over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, ignoring her angry protestations as he started up the stairs. ‘And I thought living eight floors up was bad enough when the lifts are out.’

  ‘It’s good for your butt, though,’ said Nina behind him, regarding said body part.

  The old woman made a disgusted sound. ‘Please, spare me.’

  ‘We already did,’ Eddie reminded her. ‘You want me to leave you here?’

  ‘You’d regret it. You’ll need my handprint to open the top door as well.’

  ‘Does the rest of you need to be attached to it?’ Eleanor fell silent.

  The forced pace of the ascent was exhausting. Nina looked back. Amber warning lights flashed at the bottom of the shaft; the gas had reached the emergency exit. But the climb’s end was in sight. Leg muscles burning, they finally arrived at a landing. Another door awaited them, this time a large steel one set in reinforced concrete. Eleanor’s bunker had been built to withstand even the most determined intruders.

  ‘Okay,’ Eddie wheezed. ‘Get this . . . bloody thing open.’ He slid Eleanor down.

  Even though she had not been running, the jolting journey had left her breathless. ‘Just a moment,’ she said between inhalations. ‘I need some air.’

  ‘You can get it outside,’ Nina said impatiently. ‘It won’t be fresh in here for much longer!’

  Eleanor clenched her jaw in annoyance, but slapped her hand on the scanner. The great door began to slide aside.

  ‘Where does it come out?’ Eddie asked, regaining his breath.

  ‘At the foot of the mountain,’ she replied. ‘The estate was a sheep ranch. The old farmhouse is still there. It’s ruined – but there’s a hatch inside it.’

  ‘What’re we going to do when we get out?’ Nina asked Eddie.

  ‘I’m thinking it’d be best for everyone if we got the hell out of here and went home to New York with as little trouble as possible,’ he replied, giving the woman he was holding a look of meaningful menace.

  Eleanor scowled, but nodded reluctantly. ‘Agreed.’

  Nina glanced back. ‘The key’s still down there, though.’

  ‘Well, let it bloody stay there!’ her husband exclaimed. ‘Besides, you’d need a full hazmat suit to get it out now.’

  ‘And how long will it take for someone to rustle one up? They could get the key and the sarcophagus – then this whole thing would start all over again.’

  The door opened far enough for them to slip through. Eddie checked the room beyond, a small bare space with a ladder running up one wall, then carried Eleanor in. ‘Maybe we should get the IHA involved.’ He looked up the ladder. ‘There a lock on this hatch?’

  ‘Just a bolt on the inside,’ Eleanor told him.

  ‘Okay. Nina, you go up first and open it, then I’ll bring her out.’

  Nina ascended the ladder. The bolt was set into the hatch’s underside, and moved easily. The same could not be said of the hatch itself, a solid piece of cast metal. She climbed higher and pressed her shoulder against it, using both legs for maximum leverage to lift it.

  A cold wind blew in. Dusk had fallen, just enough light in the leaden sky for her to pick out the ruined building around her. She forced the hatch up and climbed out, shivering as chill gusts caught her.

  Eddie, bearing Eleanor over his shoulder, climbed up behind her. ‘There any more cars at the house? I don’t want to walk all the way back to Queenstown.’

  ‘Yes, two,’ the old lady told him. ‘And there’s also the helicopter.’

  ‘Donny’s probably taken it already,’ said Nina. ‘I can’t imagine he’ll want to stick around.’

  ‘Donny!’ Eleanor snapped. ‘That ungrateful little—’ She scowled. ‘He left me to die!’

  ‘You can give him a nice surprise by turning up while he’s delivering your eulogy,’ Eddie said, picking his way over rubble to a collapsed section of wall. The lake was a pale swathe of reflected sky against the dark mountains, the mansion’s lights lower down the hillside. ‘Through here. We can get back to
the house.’

  He clambered over the tumbledown wall, Nina behind him. ‘I don’t know how we’re going to—’

  ‘Don’t move.’

  The words were snarled, venom behind them. Eddie and Nina froze at the cold click of a gun’s hammer. Harhund rounded a pile of rubble, Miller lurking behind him. ‘I told you we needed to check the emergency exit,’ said the latter, voice tinged with both triumph and nervousness. ‘Where’s Broates?’

  ‘Dead, thanks to you,’ Eleanor shot back.

  ‘Oh? Well, good,’ her son said with unconvincing bravado. ‘I never liked him. Patronising bastard.’

  ‘Enough,’ said Harhund. ‘We found them, so now we kill them.’

  Nina faced Miller. ‘I don’t think you’ll get to claim your inheritance if your mother has a bullet in her head.’

  ‘That . . . that’s a good point,’ Miller replied. ‘Okay, new plan. Go back into the bunker. Harhund, once they’re inside, you pile rubble on the hatch so they can’t open it again. If the gas doesn’t get them, they’ll starve.’

  Eleanor glared at him. ‘You don’t even have the guts to lay a single stone on my grave yourself? Donny, you’re a disgrace. I’ve never been more disgusted with you in my entire life.’

  ‘Yeah, well,’ he stammered back, ‘it doesn’t matter now, does it? I’m finally free of you. The company’s mine, and—’ his voice rose an octave, ‘and I won’t have you telling me what to do any more!’

  She shook her head. ‘Pathetic. You’re still a child, Donny. A weak, cowardly child. Enjoy running the company while you can – with you in full charge, I doubt it’ll last a month before being torn apart by predators.’

  ‘We’ll see. We’ll see.’ Miller gestured angrily at the trio. ‘Go on, then! Get into the bunker.’

  ‘Like hell we will,’ said Nina.

  Harhund flicked his gun towards the hatch. ‘Go back inside or I will shoot you right here. I will count to three.’ He aimed the gun at Eddie’s heart. ‘One, two—’

  His head exploded.

  A spouting fountain of gore sprayed across the broken stones as a high-powered rifle round punched through the back of Harhund’s skull, a blizzard of lead and bone fragments erupting from his face and dragging pulped brain matter in their wake.

  Eddie was the first to recover, pulling Nina down with him. The shot’s angle told him it had come from lower on the hillside, and the sound of its firing belatedly reached him; not the sharp crack of gunfire, but muffled, like a sheet being torn. The weapon was suppressed, hiding the sniper’s position.

  Miller stayed standing, staring in horrified shock at the headless corpse. ‘What – . . . holy shit!’ he cried. ‘What the fuck? What, what—’

  ‘Get down, you idiot!’ said Eleanor. ‘Do I have to tell you how to do everything?’

  He scrambled behind a collapsed wall, panting in fear.

  Nina was almost as terrified. ‘Who the hell did that?’

  ‘Dunno, but they did us a favour.’ Eddie slid Eleanor to the ground and crawled to a small gap in his cover. He was all too aware he was risking his life – even in the low light, the sniper might spot the movement, and if they were using a night-vision or thermal scope he would stand out as brightly as a flare – but he had to know who they were facing.

  Not the local police, that was for sure. Several shadowy figures were making their way up the hill. All wore black clothing, faces masked. They also carried weapons, the sky’s grey sheen reflecting faintly from gunmetal.

  He drew back. ‘Whoever they are, they’ll be here in a minute,’ he said. ‘At least six armed men.’

  ‘Can we get away?’ Nina asked.

  ‘With that sniper down there, they’d pick us off before we got fifty yards.’ He went to Harhund’s body and took the gun from his still-twitching hand.

  ‘You’re gonna shoot it out with them?’ asked Miller in disbelief.

  ‘No, but I want to stop them from walking right up and killing us without a fight.’ He checked the remaining rounds, then moved to a new vantage point. ‘Get back behind the biggest wall, see if you can—’

  ‘Professor Wilde! Mr Chase!’ A woman’s voice, accent revealing she was not a native English speaker. ‘We are here to help you. Please show yourselves.’

  Nina blinked in surprise. ‘They knew we were here?’

  ‘Better that than they’re just randomly walking around New Zealand looking for heads to blow off,’ said Eddie. He raised his voice. ‘Who’re you?’

  ‘We are here to help,’ the woman repeated.

  Eddie took another peek through the wall, seeing the black-clad figures spreading out to flank the ruined cottage.

  ‘You and Professor Wilde will not be hurt.’

  ‘And what about the Millers?’ Nina asked.

  There was a conspicuous silence.

  ‘Oh shit,’ gasped Miller. He scrambled to Nina and put a beseeching hand on her shoulder. ‘You’ve got to help me!’

  Nina looked back at him, eyes hard. ‘Why?’

  The younger man had no answer to that.

  ‘I would have to agree with her,’ Eleanor said icily.

  The new arrivals reached the ruins. Eddie gave Nina a look of concern, then slowly stood. Harhund’s pistol was in his hand, but he kept it at his side. Sub-machine guns snapped up at him – but the closest figure, the woman, gestured and they were lowered again. ‘You do not need the gun,’ she said.

  ‘Need and want are two different things, as I’ve told my daughter about twenty million times,’ he replied. ‘I’ll keep it until I know what’s going on. Unless that’s going to be a problem?’ He put an edge of threat into his voice.

  The masked woman’s eyes narrowed, but she shook her head. ‘No. I understand that you do not trust us.’

  Nina joined her husband. ‘So who the hell are you guys?’

  Two more figures had caught up with the others during the conversation. One was the sniper, carrying a long-barrelled rifle with a telescopic sight. The other, trailing behind him, was unarmed, and noticeably fatter than his companions. The woman stood back to let the second man approach. ‘He will tell you.’

  The newcomer took a moment to recover his breath before pulling off his mask. Eddie and Nina both reacted in shock.

  It was Cheng.

  ‘Sorry it took so long,’ he said with a smile. ‘But I told you I could help.’

  22

  China

  Nina stared frostily at Cheng across a table in the business jet’s cabin. ‘So everything you’ve told me, everything you’ve done, was all part of a plan to get hold of this?’ She held up the resurrection key.

  Cheng met her gaze, albeit decidedly shamefaced. ‘I’m afraid so, yes.’

  The group that had saved Nina and Eddie was a Chinese special forces team, which after securing Eleanor and Miller sent members in full hazmat gear into the bunker to plug the gas leak and recover the key and the sarcophagus. Once brought back to the surface, the artefacts were taken to a waiting boat, then the entire group travelled back to Queenstown. The jet, a spacious Cessna Citation Longitude with a Chinese registration, awaited them at the airport; somehow, passengers and cargo all boarded without a single official check. Nina had no idea how that had been arranged, but she doubted the entire customs staff could have been bribed, so it seemed more likely that they had orders from above to let them pass. Diplomatic dealings, faked instructions or high-level corruption? She didn’t know, and her rescuers remained tight-lipped.

  The flight, Cheng told her, would take over twelve hours. She had plenty of questions, not least why they were being taken to China at all – while they were not technically being forced to make the journey, unlike Eleanor and Miller, their new travelling companions had made it clear they would not accept a refusal – but she was also exhausted from the frenzy of the previous
day. Reluctantly, she and Eddie used one of the cabin’s private berths to find restless sleep.

  Now it was morning, and they were cruising high over the endless rocky deserts of western China. Cheng shifted awkwardly before continuing. ‘I didn’t find the key on the dark web myself. Chinese intelligence spotted it, and bought it from Krämer – but without someone of the correct bloodline, it was useless.’

  ‘So you thought, “Hmm, who do we know who’s got Atlantean DNA? Oh, right, the woman who discovered Atlantis! Let’s trick her into helping us!”’ Eddie said sarcastically.

  The young Chinese’s discomfort increased. ‘Ah . . . yes. We paid Krämer to cooperate and gave the key back to him, then I did everything I could to convince you to meet him in Hamburg. We were sure that if you got the key, you’d be intrigued enough to talk to Stapper in Holland, and then, if he gave you any useful information, follow it to the iceberg.’

  ‘You knew about the iceberg?’ Nina asked. ‘Why didn’t you just find the fortress yourselves?’

  ‘Krämer didn’t know which iceberg it was. We sent someone to talk to Stapper,’ he glanced down the cabin at the rescue team’s female leader, now named as Major Wu Shun, ‘but all he did was babble about demons. We already knew what they really were, of course.’

  ‘The Nephilim.’

  ‘Good band,’ said Eddie. ‘Preferred the Sisters of Mercy, though.’

  Cheng gave him a puzzled look, then nodded to Nina. ‘The sleeping giants. We found one of their buried fortresses during our nuclear tests.’

  ‘Yeah, Eleanor told us.’ It was Nina’s turn to glance down the cabin. She and Eddie had stayed in luxury up front; the Millers were in considerably less comfortable compartments at the rear. While the jet was supposedly a commercial charter aircraft, it seemed its only client was the Chinese government – whose operatives might occasionally require an onboard cell.

  Wu Shun had apparently been eavesdropping; now she joined them. She had changed from her black special-ops gear into civilian clothing, but even that seemed stiff and formal on her. ‘We are very interested to learn how Eleanor Miller knew about it,’ she said. ‘The discovery of the Nephilim is one of China’s most closely guarded secrets.’