The Midas Legacy (Wilde/Chase 12) (18 page)

Another round kicked up a little fountain of powder beside them. ‘Nina, run!’ Eddie yelled. ‘
Run!
’

Nina rushed for the gate. Splinters spat at her face as one of the wooden doors took a bullet impact. She gasped, but then was inside, the monk following. ‘Eddie, come on!’

A Kalashnikov opened up on full auto as her husband struggled towards the entrance. Only the first couple of rounds landed anywhere close to the two men, the others going high and hitting stonework as the rifle’s recoil pushed the muzzle upwards.

But a single shot from Axelos’s P90 passed much closer, searing an inch above Eddie’s head to hit the door. And the mercenary leader would be refining his aim—

Jayesh realised the same thing, both men diving flat as one. The Gurkha let out a screech as his broken ankle hit the ground. A split second later, another round cracked over them. Had Eddie still been standing, it would have struck him squarely in the back of the head.

There was no time to celebrate. The Englishman scrabbled through the snow, staying flat. ‘Come on, crawl!’ he hissed, grabbing Jayesh’s arm. His friend cried out again, but managed to push forward with his uninjured leg.

More bullets struck the ground and walls, the mercs realising they were about to lose their prey – but the two ex-soldiers were now at the gate, hands helping them through. Other robed men pushed the doors shut. They met with a heavy boom, a thick wooden beam being dropped into place to bar them against a fusillade of thudding impacts on the other side.

Nina rushed to Eddie and hugged him as the gunfire stopped. ‘You made it! You’re okay!’

‘Yeah, except for my underpants!’ He spotted Amaanat. ‘Jayesh’s broken his ankle. Get him indoors, somewhere secure – everyone else too. Those tunnels where we ate, can you seal them off?’

‘Yes,’ the abbot replied. ‘The door can be locked. But we will not be able to use the satellite phone underground.’

‘We’ll do it,’ Nina told him. Both men regarded her questioningly. ‘I’ll call Seretse at the UN – he’ll be able to talk to the Nepalese government directly and get them to act a lot faster than by going through regular channels.’

‘But you will be trapped outside!’

She held up the Crucible. ‘This is what they want. If they come after us, they’ll leave you alone.’ There was a large pile of straw near the gate; she shoved the crystal into it.

Eddie gave her a dubious look. ‘Yeah, that’ll keep it safe.’

‘They’ll never think to look for it there, and I’ll be able to move a lot faster if I don’t have to carry the damn thing!’ A monk ran up and presented Amaanat with a chunky and outdated telephone handset with a long, fat antenna. Nina turned back to the abbot. ‘Look, if I call the United Nations, they might get help here before those guys can even break through the gate. Please, let me try.’

Amaanat handed her the phone. ‘Very well. Do you know how to use this?’

‘Yeah, no prob—’

A monk on the tower by the gate shouted in alarm. Ripples of panic spread through his brothers. ‘What was that?’ Eddie asked.

‘They are outside the doors,’ the abbot said. ‘He says they have . . . bombs?’

Nina blinked in surprise. ‘Bombs?’

‘Not bombs,’ Eddie said sharply. ‘
Grenades!
Everyone take cover,
now
!’

Amaanat shouted in Nepalese. The monks scattered, some heading for small outbuildings around the courtyard while the majority hurried for the debate house. Nina and Eddie followed the latter group. The Englishman looked back, expecting to see grenades arcing over the gate – but instead he heard several metallic clunks as objects hit its outer side. ‘They’re gonna blast their way in—’

The gate blew apart.

16

Eddie dived on top of Nina to shield her from the explosion. He looked up as the echoes faded to see that a car-sized chunk of the wooden barrier had disintegrated. A monk was screaming, a deep bloody gash in his side where flying debris had speared into him. ‘Get up,
go
!’ the Yorkshireman yelled, shoving him into the arms of one of his fellows. ‘They’re coming!’

Nina helped another dazed man to his feet. ‘I’ve got to call Seretse!’

‘Do it on the move,’ Eddie told her as they ran to the debate house. Most of the monks had now made it inside, Amaanat and those bearing Jayesh among them. ‘Hope you remember his number.’

Gunfire crackled behind them as they reached the door. Eddie whirled to see a man crouching at the hole in the gate, firing up at the watchtower. Its occupant toppled from the wall. Another mercenary appeared alongside the first, aiming at the stragglers fleeing into the debate house—

The couple flung themselves through the doorway, landing hard on the wooden floor as the injured monk and his helper were cut down on the steps. A shriek came from outside as bullets ripped into a third monk.

More rounds tore through the entrance and smacked off the statue of the Buddha. ‘Get behind it!’ yelled Eddie. He and Nina rolled and jumped up, skirting around the sitting figure as the last monks piled into the tunnels. One waved urgently for them to follow, but Nina signalled for him to retreat. The man slammed the thick door shut as she and Eddie ran across the room.

The Yorkshireman kicked open the other exit. The hall of prayer wheels stretched out before them, countless candles glowing along each wall. Nina ran down the red carpet as Eddie closed the doors, looking for anything he could use to wedge them. Nothing presented itself. He cursed, then followed his wife towards the exit—

The doors behind them burst open.

Nina leapt for cover between the ornate cylinders. Eddie did the same a few paces behind her, thudding against the wall beside one of the racks of miniature prayer wheels. Metal clanged off metal in a discordant cacophony as the attacker hosed a wild spray of gunfire down the hall, sending the damaged wheels spinning furiously.

The onslaught stopped. Another man shouted in Nepalese – and hurled a grenade.

The olive-green sphere thumped to a stop on the carpet just past Eddie. ‘Oh,
fuck
!’ he gasped. It was out of his reach, and scrambling from cover to throw it would leave him exposed—

Instead he snatched one of the small prayer wheels from the rack – and swung it by its handle like a golf club, hitting the grenade and sending it flying towards the hall’s far end.

It exploded at the doors. Candles flew in all directions, shrapnel striking the prayer wheels like hailstones on a tin roof. The largest of them was torn from its mounts, toppling sideways and slamming down on the carpet with a deep ringing boom.

Eddie looked back. Their attacker reappeared at the doorway with his gun raised, only to glare at it in frustration as he pulled the trigger to no effect. The Englishman burst from cover and ran, Nina doing the same. ‘Count your shots, dickhead!’ Eddie yelled as the man hurriedly ejected the empty magazine and fumbled for a replacement.

Flames from the scattered candles were already consuming the wall hangings. Nina squeezed past the giant prayer wheel. She was almost at the shrapnel-scarred doors when a burning ceiling beam crashed down in front of her. Smoke and sparks sprayed her face as she jumped back. ‘They’re blocked!’

Eddie braved the rising flames to tug at the handles. The doors opened, but not nearly enough to fit through. He kicked at the obstruction. It barely moved.

He hurriedly retreated – and saw that not only had the mercenary at the other end of the hallway reloaded his AK, but the other man had joined him. ‘
Down!
’

They dropped behind the prayer wheel as more gunfire spat down the hall. The great drum juddered and rang as bullets from two rifles pounded it. They were powerful enough to pierce the metal, but not to go all the way through to the other side. Even so, Eddie flinched as a smashed round impacted by his head with a clang. ‘Jesus!’

Another length of flaming wood hit the floor. ‘We’ve got to get out of here!’ Nina cried.

The gunfire paused as one of the mercenaries ran down the hallway towards them. ‘How?’ Eddie demanded. ‘If we come out from behind this thing, they’ll shoot—’ An idea came to him. ‘Okay, we
don’t
come out from behind this thing!’

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, but he had already risen to a crouch. He put both hands against the prayer wheel and pushed.

Metal creaked, and the cylinder started to roll. ‘Help me!’

Nina shoved the phone into a coat pocket, then slapped her palms against the metal beside Eddie’s and dug her soles into the carpet. The prayer wheel picked up speed. They pushed harder—

The advancing mercenary opened fire again. More bullets pounded the cylinder, stitching lines around its circumference as it rolled towards him. ‘Come on,
come on
!’ Eddie yelled as his pace increased to a hunched jog. ‘Faster!’

‘I’m fastering!’ she snapped. The gunfire ceased. Eddie risked raising his head. The mercenary had burned through another magazine, clumsily changing it before looking back at his targets – and realising they were closing on him. He pulled back into a gap between two prayer wheels.

‘Stop!’ Eddie told Nina. She immediately halted and ducked. He kept going, sidestepping to one end of the rolling drum and pushing harder on that side. It changed course, angling towards the wall.

The mercenary poked his head out to see the great cylinder growling towards him. He fired again. Eddie dived flat to the carpet, letting the juggernaut’s momentum carry it onwards—

It struck the mount of one of the standing prayer wheels, knocking it over to pound down on the mercenary’s head like a sledgehammer. He fell to the floor – and the bullet-riddled cylinder rolled over him. The man’s scream was abruptly cut off by a horrible
crack
as his ribcage collapsed under the weight.

The big wheel kept on turning. It deflected off another stand to continue down the hall. The second man hastily retreated through the doorway as it thundered towards him—

Another crack, much louder – and the floor gave way, carpet tearing and planks splintering apart as the prayer wheel plunged through to the stone corridor below with an almighty clang. More candles went flying, tapestries now alight at both ends of the hallway.

‘Bloody hell, it’s Flat Stanley,’ Eddie said, glancing at the corpse as he stood. ‘Nina, come on! Down the hole!’ They ran to the ragged gap in the floor.

The second mercenary reappeared at the doorway—

Nina and Eddie leapt into the hole as bullets cracked above them.

They landed on crushed boxes eight feet below. The now-buckled prayer wheel had flattened more supplies before blocking a door at the passageway’s end.

Nina helped her husband up. ‘We can get out down there,’ she said, pointing back at the stairs they had descended earlier in the day.

‘If we can reach them!’ he replied, hearing footsteps above. He pushed Nina ahead of him into the narrow aisle between the stacked provisions as the merc fired down into the hole. Flour exploded from ruptured sacks behind them.

A thump told Eddie that the man had jumped down into the stone hallway. He toppled the stacks in his wake to block their attacker’s line of fire. ‘Down!’ he yelled as the Kalashnikov’s flat hammering started again.

Wood splintered, bullets tearing into boxes of canned food and sacks of dried rice. But none of the rounds made it through the makeshift blockade. The shooting stopped, the mercenary snarling in frustration as he clambered after them.

Loud cracks echoed from the blazing hall above as more wooden supports surrendered to the flames. Nina weaved down the claustrophobic aisle, finally reaching the stairwell – only to stop in alarm as she looked up it. ‘Oh, great!’ The fire had already spread beyond the prayer wheel hall, the stairs ablaze.

Eddie tried the door to the room containing the gold furnace. Locked – but there was no keyhole, so it had to be bolted from inside. He pounded on it. ‘Hey! Let us in!’

No reply, and the door remained firmly closed. Crashes came from the corridor as the mercenary kicked aside obstructions. ‘In here!’ said Nina, opening the neighbouring storeroom door. ‘There might be something we can—’

She gasped as she was driven back by a wave of heat. A fallen beam from the floor above had punched through the ceiling, setting the room ablaze. The mere act of opening the door had fanned the flames, streams of fire swirling through the air like miniature dragons. ‘Or maybe not!’

Eddie shielded his face as he looked into the smoky storeroom. Its contents were all related to the furnace: crucibles of various sizes, moulds, bags of sand . . . and numerous cylinders of propane. As he watched, the valve on one of them started to squeal in protest at the rising temperature, jetting out a thin stream of gas.

But he saw something else: a large waist-high metal chest, faded olive-drab paint covered with stencilled symbols. Chinese, a container for some sort of military supplies that had passed through various hands to end up here. He hurried to it and opened the lid. Cardboard cartons of what he guessed were metalworking consumables were inside, taking up about a quarter of the space . . .

‘Nina, get in!’ he shouted. ‘Quick!’

‘Are you crazy?’ she cried. ‘We’ll get cooked!’

‘It’s the only way!’ He strained to tip the chest on its side, spilling its contents across the floor. He was surprised to see that some rusted old rifle parts had been at the bottom, but had no time to wonder what they were doing in a monastery, instead shoving the case into a corner near the door.

Nina was about to voice another objection when the crash of falling boxes warned her that the mercenary had forced his way through the obstacle course. She darted into the storeroom. Eddie slammed the door as a bullet splintered the frame behind her. ‘Get in!’

She clambered into the overturned chest and curled up as tightly as she could. Eddie squeezed in with her and swung down the lid. ‘If the fire doesn’t kill us, he will!’ she gasped, the heat already rising. ‘It’s not as if there are many places we could have hidden!’

He gripped the lid’s inner lip, holding it shut. ‘He won’t even get in here.’

‘Why not?’

‘You ever seen
Backdraft
?’

‘What, the movie?’ She suddenly realised his plan. ‘Oh my God! We’ve been together for ten years – how did I not notice that you were
completely fricking insane
?’

The mercenary kicked open the door—

Fresh air rushed in – and the fire became an inferno.

The man’s skin was seared from his face as a wave of flame gushed over him, but he didn’t even have time to scream before the leaking propane tank exploded, taking its neighbours with it. The blast tore through the doorway and blew a hole in the monastery’s outer wall, hurling the mercenary’s charred remains into the open as debris rained down on the snowy slope outside.

The chest was slammed against the corner, its lid buckling – but it held, the pressure actually forcing it even more tightly closed. Eddie nevertheless maintained his hold until the noise from outside died down, then cautiously opened it a fraction of an inch. He took their not being instantly incinerated by an inrush of flame as a good sign and pushed it wider.

The little in the storeroom not already ablaze had joined the rest of its contents. But the smoke was swirling upwards through the now-larger hole in the ceiling as clean air was drawn through the ragged gap in the outer wall. The explosion had also blasted open the furnace room’s entrance, the thick wooden door hanging off its hinges. Eddie stood up, then helped Nina out of the chest. ‘We can get outside. You’ve still got the phone?’

‘Oh yeah,’ Nina said, pained. The bulky device had jammed hard into her side inside the crate.

They hurried into the passageway. Eddie peered through the hole. The first thing he saw was the dead mercenary transfixed upon the horns of an aggrieved yak, which was doing its best to shake off the corpse. ‘Guess he was feeling horny.’

‘Oh God,’ Nina groaned. ‘I haven’t missed
those
for the past three years.’

‘What?’

‘
Quips
.’

‘Black humour’s a perfectly valid coping mechanism for dealing with death and horror,’ said Eddie, straight-faced. Nina gave him a suspicious look. ‘What? I did some reading. Come on.’

The ground was about ten feet below. He started to climb out, but stopped when he saw the helicopter down the slope. The large Crucible was being manoeuvred into its cabin by two men. One he guessed was the pilot; the other was one of the mercenaries, a Kalashnikov slung across his back. ‘Arse! Can’t go that way – there’s no cover. And I don’t think we’d outrun them on a yak.’

Noises from the corridor made Nina look around. ‘Someone’s coming!’

Eddie forced open the damaged door. ‘In here.’

‘But it’s a dead end!’

His expression told her that he was well aware of the fact. The furnace was still alight, propane burners roaring and the glow of molten metal coming from the Crucible atop it, but there was no sign of the monk who had been in the room earlier. ‘Where is he?’ Eddie said.

Nina glanced towards the anteroom containing the golden treasures. ‘He must be in there.’

Her husband went to it. ‘It’s padlocked.’ He frowned. ‘But the main door was bolted from
inside 
. . .’

Neither had time to consider that any further as said door burst open and one of the mercenaries rushed in, AK at the ready.

Eddie threw himself behind a bench bearing the recently cast gold bar. Nina was still in the open, the furnace the only nearby cover. She ran for it—

The man fired as she dived, a bullet striking the ceramic Crucible. Blobs of luminous metal sprayed from its open neck. Nina screamed as one burned through her coat sleeve, managing to shake off the searing droplet before it ate into her flesh.