Kingdom of Darkness

by Andy McDermott

  Nina tried unsuccessfully to contain her frustration. ‘It’s not “bollocks” – this is important to me, Eddie! This is what I do, this is what I’ve spent my whole life doing. And it’s not that big a deal. It’ll only be for a day or two.’

  ‘Only a day or two,’ he echoed. ‘And what if it takes longer? Macy said they haven’t worked out what that Antique-tick-tock Mechanism does after a century, so what if you and Banna can’t just do a Robert Langdon and figure everything out in five minutes? Are you going to stay working on it for a week? A month?’

  ‘I don’t know! Maybe, maybe not.’

  ‘And how long have you got left? You’re going to use up a chunk of that time sitting in a bloody lab translating ancient Greek!’

  ‘For God’s sake, Eddie! It’s just a few days.’

  ‘A few days, yeah – out of how many? If you’re going to live to be ninety, that’s not a big deal, but if you only live to thirty-fou—’ He stopped abruptly, fear refuelling his anger. ‘For fuck’s sake, Nina! You’re dying, but you’d still rather spend time with people who are already dead than with me!’

  ‘That’s not true!’ she cried.

  Her hurt expression warned him that he had overstepped the mark, but he was in no mood to back down. ‘That’s what it feels like, though. You could have told Seretse to piss off and let the Egyptians handle it, but you had to come here to see for yourself. And even though a bunch of Nazis, actual out-of-World-War-fucking-Two Nazis, just tried to kill us both, you still want to go chasing after another bloody legend!’

  ‘It might not be a legend, though.’

  ‘That doesn’t make it your problem.’

  ‘No, but it’s my choice. I want to follow up on this, Eddie.’ She folded her arms across her chest.

  ‘Decision’s made, is it?’ he said. There was no reply; Nina was not even looking at him. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he muttered.

  Deyab broke the chilly silence. ‘Here is the hotel!’ he said, even more relieved than before. He stopped the Mercedes and got out to open Nina’s door. ‘If you need me for anything else, just call.’

  ‘Thanks, Deyab,’ she replied as she exited.

  Eddie emerged from the other side. ‘If you hear shooting, it’ll probably just be the two of us.’

  They entered the hotel in single file rather than side by side. Eddie was about to follow Nina to the elevators when someone caught his eye. ‘Ay up,’ he said as Zane beckoned to him from across the reception area. ‘Somebody wants a word.’

  Nina hesitated, not in the mood for company, but there was a sadness around the Israeli’s eyes that his stoical mask could not fully conceal. Zane went to a corner seat; they joined him. The cuts to his head and neck were now covered by Band-Aids. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ he said brusquely, before adding in a slightly softer tone: ‘Thank you.’

  ‘What’s up?’ Eddie asked.

  Zane glanced around to make sure that none of the other patrons were listening. ‘We got some information from the phone Ben took from the dead man.’

  ‘By “we”, you mean Mossad, right?’

  The younger man’s eyes twitched in aggravation. ‘Yes, and don’t shout it out across the room. We checked the phone’s memory, and got our friends in America to track down the contact numbers.’

  ‘Your friends at the NSA, I’m guessing.’

  A small nod. ‘It was a pre-paid phone, and most of the calls were to other burners – probably belonging to the other members of the cell. None of them are active any more, so the raiders must have disposed of them when they realised they’d been compromised. But one number was different. A landline.’

  ‘Someone phoned home?’ said Nina.

  Zane shook his head. ‘If we’d located their base, the Criminal Sanctions Unit would already have been fully reactivated. All I have is a potential lead. The call was to a man named Leitz, Frederic Leitz – he’s from Luxembourg, but lives mostly in Italy. He’s been on the Mossad’s watch list for a long time.’

  ‘The guy in LA had been in contact with someone in Italy,’ Nina recalled.

  ‘What’s this Leitz done?’ Eddie asked, becoming intrigued in spite of himself.

  ‘He’s a middleman, arranging money transfers for anti-Israeli and extreme right-wing organisations. And individuals, too; he has some very powerful and very wealthy clients, all of them known anti-Semites.’

  ‘So you think this guy might know where these Nazis came from?’

  ‘I do, yes. The dead man having contacted Leitz can’t be a coincidence. I want to find out what he knows.’

  He regarded the couple with an expectant expression. ‘Sooo . . .’ Nina said, after a few seconds of silence, ‘you want us to . . . what?’

  ‘I want you to help me do that,’ he replied. ‘Or rather,’ he went on, facing Eddie, ‘I want you to help me. No offence, Dr Wilde, but you don’t have the skills I need. But having read your husband’s file, I know he does.’

  The Englishman let out a dismissive laugh. ‘Wait, you want me to go with you? And, what? Beat the truth out of this bloke?’

  ‘If that’s what it takes, yes.’

  ‘Why do you need Eddie?’ Nina demanded. ‘You’re in . . .’ she dropped her voice, ‘the Mossad. You must have other agents.’

  ‘We do, but they’re all in other divisions. Ben and I were the CSU’s only currently active field agents. It could take days to recall someone else.’ Zane’s youthful face suddenly became harder, older. ‘I don’t want to wait that long. I want answers now. But . . . I can’t do it by myself,’ he said, the admission difficult. ‘Leitz takes his security very seriously. That’s why I need you, Chase. On my own, it would be very hard to get to him. But with two of us . . .’

  Eddie shook his head. ‘And why the fuck would I want to do that?’

  ‘Because you owe me. Both of you.’

  ‘How do you figure that?’ asked Nina.

  ‘We saved you from Walther and – and Rasche.’ Anger rose in the Israeli’s voice as he named his partner’s killer, but he quickly covered it. ‘Without us, the Nazis would have the statue.’

  ‘I don’t care about the statue,’ said Eddie. Nina shot him an irritated look.

  ‘But you care about your wife, don’t you?’ Zane snapped. ‘Without us, she’d be dead.’

  ‘She was doing okay when I turned up.’

  ‘No, that’s . . . probably true,’ the redhead was forced to admit to her husband. ‘The Nazis had me cornered. He and his friend took out two of them and held the others off . . .’ She hesitated, seeing the Mossad agent’s expression flicker. This time, the emotion he was trying to conceal was not anger. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked in a gentle tone.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Zane replied. The muscles around his mouth were drawn tight.

  ‘No you’re not. Mr Falk – Ben; he was more than just your boss, wasn’t he?’

  The young man was obviously reluctant to open up on the matter, especially before Eddie, but after a moment of conflict he admitted, ‘Yes. Ben was . . . my mentor, I guess. He taught me everything.’ A lengthy pause. ‘More than that. He saw something in me that nobody else had, not even me. If it wasn’t for him . . .’

  ‘You wouldn’t be who you are now?’ Eddie finished for him with a new understanding, even sympathy, in his voice. ‘I’m sorry. I know what you’re going through.’

  Zane shook his head. ‘I doubt it.’

  ‘You’re not the only one who’s lost someone like that.’

  The Israeli regarded him with surprise, but then shook his head again as if to dismiss the subject. ‘I need to get that information from Leitz.’

  ‘And you want Eddie to help you get it?’ Nina said.

  To her concern, Eddie did not dismiss the ide
a out of hand. ‘Whereabouts in Italy is this guy?’ he asked Zane.

  ‘He has a villa south of Naples. Just outside Amalfi.’

  ‘Amalfi? I know the place.’

  ‘You do?’

  ‘We just visited it,’ said Nina, her alarm growing. ‘Eddie, you’re not seriously—’

  ‘I am seriously,’ he cut in.

  The Mossad agent was surprised again; apparently he had not expected it to be so easy to convince the Englishman. ‘You are?’

  ‘You are?’ Nina echoed, appalled.

  ‘You’ll make the arrangements, right?’ Eddie said to Zane. ‘Flights, cars, all of that?’ The Israeli nodded. ‘Good. Then I’ll go with you. Get us on the first flight to Naples – and make sure everything we’ll need is waiting for us at the other end.’

  ‘I know what I’m doing,’ said Zane with an edge of annoyance. ‘But – you’re really willing to help me?’

  ‘Those bastards tried to kill us, twice now. That deserves some payback. Plus,’ he added with a cold grin, ‘I’ve always wanted to beat the shit out of some actual Nazis.’

  ‘That’s because you’ve watched Where Eagles Dare too many times,’ Nina told him. ‘And no, you’re not jetting off to Italy!’

  ‘Yes I am,’ Eddie said. He turned back to Zane before she could respond. ‘Call me here at the hotel when it’s time to go. I’ll be ready.’

  ‘Okay.’ Zane stood. ‘Dr Wilde,’ he said with a polite nod before leaving.

  Eddie also got up, heading for the elevators. ‘I’d better start packing.’

  Nina hurried after him. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, Eddie?’

  ‘I think I’m going to Italy to track down those twats who’ve been trying to kill us. Thought that was pretty much decided.’

  ‘I didn’t decide it!’

  ‘Yeah, and I didn’t decide that you were going to sit around in Egypt puzzling out some fucking two-thousand-year-old treasure hunt.’ The doors opened and he stepped inside, jabbing the button for their floor.

  Nina followed. ‘Oh, so that’s what this is about? You’re mad that I want to see this through, so you’re dealing with it by going Nazi-hunting?’

  ‘No, I’m mad because you’ve apparently got better things to do with the rest of your life than spend it with me!’ He looked past her to see a tourist regarding them from the lobby. ‘Going up? Don’t mind us.’

  ‘It’s okay, I’ll . . . you know, the next one,’ the embarrassed man replied, flapping a hand at the neighbouring elevator before hurriedly sidestepping out of sight.

  ‘That’s not what I’m doing, Eddie,’ Nina insisted.

  ‘It’s what it feels like.’ The doors closed, and the lift ascended.

  She tried to control her anger. ‘I don’t want you to go to Italy.’

  ‘And I don’t want you to stay in Egypt to decode that bloody fish.’ A long silence followed, broken by the ping of the bell announcing that they had reached their floor. ‘I don’t hear you saying you won’t.’

  ‘No, you don’t,’ said Nina as the doors opened. ‘And I don’t hear you saying you’ll stay here.’

  ‘Nope.’ Eddie stepped on to the landing.

  ‘So that’s it? You’re going and I’m staying? We’re not going to talk about this?’

  ‘You made it pretty clear we already had. You coming?’

  She didn’t move. ‘I guess not.’

  They regarded each other with sullen displeasure. The doors rumbled shut. Neither did anything to stop them. They banged closed, and the elevator started its descent.

  14

  Deyab led Nina from the hotel’s side entrance to the waiting cars. Macy stood outside the middle vehicle, a Toyota minivan; she regarded the pair with confusion. ‘Where’s Eddie?’

  ‘He’s not coming,’ was Nina’s curt reply. She clambered into the van, finding Banna and Habib already occupying the back row of seats, and took a place on the middle row.

  ‘What? Why not?’

  ‘He’s doing something he thinks is more important. And no, I don’t want to talk about it,’ she added to forestall the inevitable follow-up questions.

  ‘Uh . . . okay,’ Macy said, clearly aching to know more. But she managed to keep quiet as she got in beside Nina. Deyab took the wheel and waited for the Mercedes he had been driving the day before, now leading the convoy, to pull away before following. Behind, a Toyota Fortuner SUV took up the rear position. The accompanying vehicles were occupied by the ASPS, acting as guards for both the archaeologists and the contents of the case in the minivan’s rear.

  Banna was also intrigued by Eddie’s absence. ‘Good morning, Dr Wilde,’ he said. ‘Is your husband not joining us?’

  ‘No, he’s not,’ said Nina.

  ‘After what happened yesterday, I am surprised that he would leave you alone—’

  ‘Something came up that he felt he had to deal with,’ she cut in with irritation. ‘Okay?’

  Habib gave her a concerned look. ‘Is it anything to do with the relic?’

  ‘Yes, I guess, but . . . not directly.’

  ‘Then I will not need to change the security arrangements?’ The Egyptian raised a hand as if about to take out his phone.

  She shook her head. ‘No, it’s fine. He got a potential lead about the people who attacked us, so he’s gone to check it out.’

  Habib’s expression of mild relief was replaced by one almost of shock. ‘He has found them?’

  ‘No, like I said, it’s only a potential lead – we don’t know if anything’ll come of it.’

  Deyab looked back sharply. ‘Dr Wilde, if you have information about the men who attacked the dig, you should have told us.’

  ‘I will, as soon as I know anything definite. But for now, I don’t even know if I can trust the source of the information. We’ll have to wait until Eddie tells me what he finds out.’

  ‘And when’ll that be?’ asked Macy.

  Nina shrugged. ‘Hell if I know.’ The driver was unhappy at having been left out of the loop, but didn’t push the issue further, returning his attention to following the Mercedes.

  A rustle of paper from the rear seats prompted her to turn. Banna was reading what she could tell even upside down was Greek. ‘Is that the text from the fish?’

  ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘I am translating it into English for you. It will be finished soon.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, slightly surprised.

  ‘You saved the tomb – and my life. It is the least I could do. And now we are working together, you need as much information as possible.’

  ‘When did you do all that?’ Macy asked.

  ‘I came to the government office very early this morning to start work. Actually, it was still night,’ he admitted to Nina. ‘You said I should take time after what happened yesterday, but . . .’

  ‘That’s okay,’ Nina told him. ‘I totally understand.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Macy with a small laugh. ‘A workaholic archaeologist – that sounds familiar!’

  The convoy continued through the city. They soon entered one of its main arteries, heading southwards through the urban sprawl before finally reaching the long highway that would take them to Cairo. Once clear of the Alexandrian traffic, they picked up speed. Settlements and irrigated farmland rolled by, the desert encroaching more with each passing mile.

  ‘Well then?’ said Macy after a while, nudging Nina.

  ‘Well what?’ she replied.

  ‘You and Eddie. Come on, spill! You were about to start a big argument yesterday, and it obviously didn’t stop there. So what’s going on? Are you both okay?’

  ‘Oh, we’re super fine,’ Nina snapped sarcastically, before softening at her friend’s wounded look. She glanced at Banna and Habib t
o make sure they weren’t eavesdropping before lowering her voice. ‘We just had a . . . difference of opinion.’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘You know, you ask a lot of questions, Macy.’

  The younger woman grinned. ‘Hey, you were the one who told me to sit up front with the teachers instead of having fun at the back with the jocks.’

  ‘Huh, I must be getting old if I’ve managed to become someone’s mentor . . . No, we’re both okay. We had a fight; wasn’t the first, won’t be the last. At least, I hope it won’t. Not because I enjoy fighting with Eddie, I mean, but because of what I told you about in Los Angeles.’

  ‘Your . . . illness?’

  ‘Yeah. I want to find out more about the Andreas relic, but that means spending a few days working on it here in Egypt. Eddie wasn’t happy about that.’

  ‘Yeah, I guessed. But I can kind of see why,’ Macy added. ‘If you don’t know how long you’ve got, then the way he sees it, it’s like work’s taking away some of the time you’ve got left together. I’d be pissed too.’

  ‘Straight to the point, as always. Have you been taking subtlety lessons from him?’

  Another grin. ‘No, I’ve always been like this. Drove my parents crazy! But I always felt, why waste time dancing around what you want to say – or what you need to say? Hashtag YOLO, you know?’

  ‘I’ll . . . take your word for that,’ said Nina, feeling even older as she realised she had no idea what Macy meant. ‘But, yeah, my deciding to stay in Egypt definitely wasn’t what he wanted.’ She leaned back, running through the argument in her mind. ‘Did I do the right thing?’

  ‘You’re asking me for relationship advice?’ Macy sounded as if she couldn’t decide whether to be honoured or shocked.

  ‘Who else am I going to ask: those two?’ She looked around again to make sure the men behind her were still not listening . . .

  Some wary part of her brain issued a warning: a silver SUV trailing their rear escort had also been there the last time she looked back. She decided to dismiss it. They were on the main highway between Egypt’s two largest cities, and another car might travel with them for a long time.