The Lost Labyrinth (31 page)

‘It was all Augustin’s idea,’ said Knox urgently. ‘I didn’t want anything to do with it.’

‘What was his idea?’

‘Petitier came to him asking for help. He thought someone was after his fleece. But Augustin wanted to turn it in. I mean it’s
history
, for Christ’s sake. Petitier went crazy. They got into a fight. And then…you know. But he was only defending himself.’

‘Is that what he told you?’

‘He’d never have done something like that deliberately.’

‘Sure!’ snorted Mikhail. It always amazed him how trusting these sheep were. ‘And what happened then?’

‘He called me in my room. He was in a panic. I promised to help. We were due to collect his girlfriend from the airport, so we decided to make it look as though we’d left Petitier unharmed, that he’d been attacked and robbed
after
we’d left. We took the fleece into the airport before she arrived, stashed it in one of those airport lockers.’

‘And the key?’

‘We knew we were likely to be searched when we got back, so we buried it out there. There are hedges all around short-term parking. We meant to go back for it when everything had settled down, but Jesus!’

Mikhail sat back on the settee. It sounded plausible enough, except that Knox seemed a little too eager to be believed. He turned to Boris. ‘What do you think?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe.’

‘Davit?’

‘Don’t ask me, sir. Above my pay grade.’

‘That’s helpful.’

‘Why don’t we get him to describe the fleece to Edouard,’ suggested Zaal. ‘He should be able to tell us whether or not it sounds authentic.’

‘Good thinking,’ said Mikhail. He looked around the atrium and frowned. ‘And just where exactly
is
our historian friend?’ he asked.

Edouard had been fighting anxiety all morning, desperate to find out what had happened to Nina and the children, yet unable to make the call. But the moment attention had focused on Knox, he’d headed up to his room, closed the door, taken the mobile into his bathroom, turned on the shower. Then he’d called Viktor for news.

Four times he’d tried his number. Four times someone else had answered, told him that Viktor was unavailable, offered to get him to call back in due course. But Edouard couldn’t wait for due course. And when he tried for the fifth time, he was finally put through.

‘Hang on,’ said Viktor. ‘I’ve got someone here for you.’

‘Edouard?’ asked Nina. ‘Is that you?’

‘Nina, my darling!’ he said, tears springing to his eyes. ‘Are you all right? Are the children all right?’

‘We’re fine. We’re all fine. Thanks to you.’

‘What happened?’

‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ she exulted. ‘The Nergadzes are finished. Ilya and Sandro were driven off in a police van. A police van! We’ll never have to fear them again.’

‘No,’ said Edouard.

‘And we got your cache back too, your Turkmeni gold.’ She gave a happy laugh. ‘Actually we got
two
sets, because they’d already made copies of all the pieces, so that they could have substitutes ready when they melted down the originals; but they hadn’t started yet.’

‘That’s wonderful news. And listen, if you ever tell me not to trust someone in future, I’ll take that as—’ Outside the bathroom door, a shoe scuffed on carpet. His heart seemed to stop.

‘Edouard,’ said Nina anxiously. ‘What is it? What’s going on?’

The door kicked open. Mikhail stood in its frame, his shotgun in both hands, the others standing behind him. Edouard clenched the mobile tight. ‘I love you, Nina,’ he told her.

‘Edouard!’ she screamed. ‘
Edouard
!’

‘Tell the children I love them,’ he told her. ‘Tell them I was thinking of them.’

‘Edouard!’

‘Finish the call,’ said Mikhail. Edouard nodded and complied. He couldn’t let Nina hear this.

‘Who was that?’ asked Mikhail. ‘Who were you talking to?’

‘Your grandfather was abusing my son,’ said Edouard. ‘I had no choice.’

‘Your son is dead,’ Mikhail told him flatly. ‘All your family are dead. You’ve just seen to that. I’m going to slit their throats one by one, and I’m going to reach inside and pull their fucking tongues out. Now tell me who you were talking to.’

To Edouard’s surprise, the imminence of his own death didn’t scare him as much as he’d always anticipated. ‘You’re finished,’ he said, looking from one to the next. ‘All of you, you’re all finished. And I did it.
Me
. Edouard Zdanevich.’ The muzzle of the shotgun erupted; he felt for the briefest moment the astonishing force of the impact upon his chest and throat, but then he was gone.

The dog kept nagging at Gaille’s conscience like an unwritten thank-you note. She didn’t know what to do about it. She took out a jug of water and some more slivers of ham. The sun was high and fierce upon her skin, making her wonder how it felt for
the dog, who had no shade at all. He just stood there with his tongue lolling out, panting hard. At least he didn’t fly into a fury with her this time, perhaps out of exhaustion, perhaps because he was as uncertain about their changing relationship as she was.

She couldn’t reach his bowls without putting herself within his range, so she set down the plate of ham and the jug of water just out of his reach, hoping he didn’t think she was teasing him with it. Then she went back inside for the gun, used the muzzle to hook the bowls and drag them towards her. The dog watched silently as she put a few slivers of ham in his bowl, not wanting to give him too much, for she didn’t know what kind of diet he’d been on and didn’t want to make him sick. She refilled his water bowl too, then pushed them both back.

The dog was hungry enough that he didn’t wait for her to leave this time, he gobbled up the ham while she watched, his eyes flickering her way every so often, as though he knew he was doing something shameful. But gradually he seemed to come to accept her presence, and she got the sense that she could take it a step further. She took a deep breath and walked with baby steps towards him. She could see his sinews tauten beneath his fur, but he didn’t move. She stepped into his range and then just stood there, daring him to do his worst.
He set himself as if about to spring; he growled and bared his fangs. But it was all rather halfhearted, and when she didn’t back away, his eyes clouded. He looked away, pretending he’d lost interest in her, waiting to see what trick she’d pull. She stayed absolutely still, she did nothing. He turned and looked at her again, and his snarl was gone, his eyes were mournful and wet. She knew how wrong it was to project human feelings onto animals, but she sensed in him at that moment a great sorrow in himself, left here to guard this place, and failing. She crouched slowly, held out her hand. And, just like that, everything changed. His head down, his tail a lowered scimitar, he sniffed her and snuffled his wet muzzle into her palm. Then he abruptly turned away and went back to his bowls, began thirstily to lap up more water.

She went slowly to him, murmuring as she did so, so that he wouldn’t consider her a threat. She stroked his head and back. His coat was mangy and covered with sores and scabs; his backside was enflamed and smeared with faeces. He ate the last of his ham, looked up from his empty bowl, not demanding or expecting more, but merely enquiring hopefully. She felt an unexpected stab of affection for him as she refilled his bowl, then she went to sit with her back against an orange tree and watched with satisfaction as he scoffed it up.

Mikhail watched Edouard’s body hurl back against the wall and then slump sideways into the shower, taking the opalescent curtain down with him, smearing it scarlet. He felt spatters of blow-back on his face and hands. He checked himself in the mirror above the sink then wiped the worst of it away.

On the floor, Edouard’s mobile phone started to vibrate and turn in slow circles. The ringer had been turned off, but a call was coming in. Mikhail stooped to pick it up and answer it. ‘Yes?’ he asked.

‘I want to speak to Edouard,’ said a man.

‘Too late.’

‘Who is this?’

‘I might ask you the same question.’

‘Edouard is under my protection,’ said the man. ‘If anything should happen to—’

‘Like I said: too late.’ He ended the call, scrolled through the list of recently-dialled numbers. All of them to Georgia, none of them local. That was something. They probably still had time before the Greek police got here. He turned to Boris. ‘Call my father at Nikortsminda. Let him know they may have trouble coming. Then call our pilot. Tell him to prepare for departure.’ He checked his watch. ‘In three hours from now. We need to collect the fleece first.’

‘The fleece?’ asked Boris. ‘Are you serious? We don’t have time for that now.’

‘That fleece is the key to the election,’ retorted Mikhail. ‘The election is the key to us getting away with this.’ He beckoned for them all to follow him out through the bedroom onto the landing. ‘This house is going up,’ he told Zaal. ‘Grab everything that will burn. Sheets, beds, chairs, curtains, carpets, everything. Heap it all up beneath the landing. Davit, we need accelerants. There’s a bag of barbecue charcoal outside. Bring it in. Check the cupboards for white spirit, gas, lighter fluid, anything that will flame. Siphon fuel from the cars if you have to.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘What about our guests?’ asked Boris, nodding at Nadya and Knox.

‘We’re taking Knox with us,’ said Mikhail, dancing down the steps into the atrium. ‘He knows where the fleece is.’

‘And the woman?’

‘Baggage,’ said Mikhail. He broke open his shotgun, spitting out the two spent cartridges, savouring those pungent wisps of grey smoke, their combat smell. Then he strode across the floor towards her, stuffing in fresh cartridges as he went. She opened her mouth and shrieked, her lips making a perfect circle, like the red ring of a rifle target.

‘Don’t do it!’ yelled Knox. ‘I won’t give you the fleece if you do, I swear I won’t.’

‘You’ll give it to me,’ said Mikhail.

‘Kill her now, it’s proof you’ll kill me too. Why would I give you anything?’

‘You want another go on the ducking stool, is that it?’

‘Sure,’ said Knox. ‘Let’s stay here until the police turn up. Or maybe you could bring your bench and bucket in the car.’

Mikhail hesitated. The man had a point.

‘I can’t get hold of your father,’ said Boris. ‘He’s not answering his mobile.’

‘Then try the castle.’

‘I did. The lines are dead.’

Above him, on the landing, Zaal threw a great heap of bedclothes over the balustrades, gravity winnowing out the pillows and blankets from the white sheets that fluttered to the floor like wounded ghosts. For a moment Mikhail had a blink of childhood, standing above a girl’s broken motionless body, knowing he’d gone too far this time. He walked over to Knox, pressed the shotgun’s muzzle against his forehead. ‘You’ll get the fleece for me if I let her live?’

‘Yes,’ said Knox.

‘I have your word?’

‘Yes.’

Davit came in through the front door, carrying
a bucket in each hand, each so full that the metal handles were bending with the weight, liquid slopping to the floor, the sharp smell of petrol. ‘I got it from the cars,’ he grunted.

‘Keep it coming,’ said Mikhail. ‘And splash some around the Ferrari and one of the Mercs. They’ll need to go up too. But leave the van and the second Merc. We’ll be needing those.’

‘Yes, sir.’

He looked around the house, taking his time about it, wanting his men to know that he was still in charge, not just of them, but of himself too. ‘Ten minutes,’ he told them, checking his watch. ‘Ten minutes to finish up and pack. Then we’re out of here.’

The air inside the atrium was thick with fumes, sharp enough to give Mikhail the first throb of a headache. But he didn’t let it rush him. Stillness amid chaos was a virtue he admired.

‘Come on, sir,’ said Davit, offering him the box of long-reach barbecue matches. ‘We need to get out of here.’

He looked up at Edouard’s bloodied body, lying like some fallen hero atop the makeshift pyre of furniture and linen, then took the matchbox. Its side was warped and damp from having been left outside too long, making the matches difficult to strike, but finally one fizzled and caught. He nursed it into flame, crouched and touched it to the corner of a petrol-soaked sheet. The flame climbed and spread, already radiating intense heat. When it
reached the pool of accelerants at its heart, it erupted in a balloon of searing flame, forcing the others back. He alone stayed where he was, gazing raptly up at it, its spreading canopy of black smoke.

He picked up the shotgun, considered it a moment. Too risky to take inside the airport with him, and if he had to ditch it anyway, best to destroy its evidentiary value. He tossed it into the flames, the remaining cartridges too. He picked up the steel briefcase with its millions of euros, then went into the kitchen for the sharpest and sturdiest carving knife he could find.

Outside, the Ferrari was glistening with fuel. Mikhail struck another match. He’d got the knack now. He threw it in and watched with satisfaction as the petrol flared and then the upholstery caught, choking black smoke pouring out and up into the sky. He enjoyed beautiful things, Mikhail; but he enjoyed destroying them too. Next he set the spare Mercedes blazing; there was less satisfaction in that. Shotgun cartridges began to detonate inside the house. Glass crashed and tinkled, the skylight sucked in by the vacuum. ‘Boris,’ he said, ‘you and Davit take Knox to the airport in the van.’

‘Yes, boss.’

‘When you get there, call in. I’ll be nearby with Zaal and Nadya. You don’t need to know exactly where. Get Knox to retrieve the key, then collect the fleece from the locker. If everything goes
smoothly, we’ll meet up again at the private jet terminal.’

‘And if it doesn’t?’

‘Then you take care of Knox. I’ll take care of Nadya.’ He turned to Knox, pressed the knife against his throat. ‘Her blood will be on your hands. Do you understand?’

‘Yes,’ said Knox.