The Spear of Atlantis (Wilde/Chase 14)

by Andy McDermott

  Maximov shouted again. ‘Eddie! We have problem!’

  ‘No shit!’ Eddie replied, but the urgency in the Russian’s voice gave him concern. ‘I’ll see what’s wrong,’ he said, heading for the tunnel.

  Nina looked back at the inscriptions. ‘If I’m reading this right, the emissary is supposed to stabilise the spearhead by willing it to stabilise. As in, they hold the altar, then really, really want it not to explode.’

  ‘Like saying a prayer?’ said Ana.

  ‘Prayers do not work,’ Lobato scoffed. ‘They are another example of religious mumbo-jumbo.’ The Brazilian scowled at him.

  Nina was also sceptical, but she could not afford to be so dismissive. ‘Well, the Atlanteans certainly seemed to think they worked – to the point of relying on them to keep their asses from being blown into the stratosphere. And this might sound weird, but I’ve definitely had . . . I won’t say “visions”, because that sounds ridiculous, but flashes where I’ve felt a connection to things channelling earth energy, even at a distance. It happened before I found the Sky Stone in Ethiopia, and it happened again here when I opened the door. I felt that the spearhead was in here before I saw it.’

  ‘Now you are saying that you have psychic powers?’ Lobato’s usually flat voice took on a tone of mocking disbelief.

  ‘No, I’m not,’ she snapped. ‘But I am saying that some people can sense – and even affect – the earth’s natural energy fields when they use the right kind of conductor. This,’ she indicated the altar, ‘is one of those conductors. If the inscriptions are right, then an effort of willpower while touching it is enough to return the spearhead to its normal state.’ Sensing ever-greater incredulity, she went on: ‘Think of it as using electrodes to read people’s brainwaves in order to control machinery – that’s something we can already do. This is the same kind of thing. And the Atlanteans were using it – had weaponised it – eleven thousand years ago.’

  ‘I remain to be convinced,’ said Lobato.

  ‘If she is wrong,’ Ana pointed out, ‘the spearhead will explode in less than twenty-four hours.’

  ‘I hope she is not wrong,’ said Berk anxiously, before addressing Nina. ‘You are not wrong, are you?’

  ‘Not usually,’ she replied, but something else in the inscriptions had snatched her attention. ‘Okay, this is weird . . .’

  ‘What is it?’ Lobato asked.

  ‘The text explaining how the emissary is supposed to stop the spearhead from exploding . . .’ She read it again, thinking she must have translated it wrongly but at the same time certain she hadn’t. ‘It says the ritual was given to them by “those who came before”. But who came before Atlantis?’

  Before she could puzzle over the question any further, Eddie rushed back into the chamber. ‘Everybody out – we’ve got a big fucking problem!’

  ‘What is wrong?’ asked Elmas.

  ‘There’s a helicopter coming in, and I doubt it’s your friends dropping by for cocktails. Nina, you’ve got to get that thing out of there!’

  ‘I can’t!’ Nina protested. ‘It’ll explode unless I can stabilise it.’

  ‘Can you do that in less than – Max! How far away are they?’

  Maximov shouted from the tunnel entrance. ‘They are jumping out at house!’

  ‘Less than twenty seconds?’ Eddie continued.

  ‘No, of course I can’t!’ she said.

  ‘Then grab it, ’cause we’ve got to go! If we get to the cars, we can make a run for it—’

  Maximov’s sudden cry of alarm was followed by the rattle of automatic weapons fire, accompanied by the plunk-plunk-plunk of bullets penetrating sheet metal. ‘What was that?’ yelped Berk.

  ‘That was the cars,’ said Eddie grimly. ‘Okay, we’ll literally have to make a run for it. Nina, grab that thing! Everyone else, go!’

  The Onans hurried for the exit, Ana following. Lobato started after her, but halted when he realised Nina was not moving. ‘If it leaves the vault, there’s no way to stop it exploding,’ she insisted as Eddie reached the golden door.

  ‘All right, so let them take it!’ Seeing her surprise, he explained: ‘They take it to Dhajan, it blows up in their faces. Problem solved!’

  ‘And what if they take it to a city full of innocent people?’

  His face fell. ‘Problem not solved.’

  ‘They will probably take it to the solar facility,’ said Lobato. ‘It is isolated, in the mountains.’

  ‘Problem re-solved. Nina, come on!’

  ‘But they may be able to use my containment facility to extract the antimatter.’

  ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake! Okay, we grab it, get away, take off in your jet and chuck the fucking thing out over the sea. But we’ve got to go! Now!’

  Nina reached reluctantly for the spearhead, but before she could take it, another burst of gunfire came from outside, followed by a woman’s scream. ‘Elmas!’ she cried, fearing the worst—

  The scream continued, getting closer. Elmas and her husband were running back down the tunnel. ‘We’re cut off!’ Ana shouted as she returned with them. More weapons fire followed, closer – then Maximov, squeezing through the opening, let out a loud gasp. ‘Oleg!’ the Brazilian exclaimed.

  ‘I am okay,’ he grunted. ‘Hit in arm, not too bad.’

  ‘You are . . . smiling,’ said Elmas, shocked.

  ‘Yeah, he’s weird like that,’ Eddie said as the hunched Russian reached the chamber. Maximov was holding his lower biceps, blood dripping from his fingers, but he did indeed have a look of pleasure. ‘How many of them are there?’

  ‘Seven, maybe eight,’ Maximov replied as Ana examined the wound. ‘All have guns.’

  ‘What do we do?’ Berk asked fearfully.

  ‘Not much without guns of our own,’ Eddie said. ‘Can we call the cops?’

  ‘We left our phones in the house,’ said Elmas unhappily.

  The Yorkshireman pulled out his own phone. ‘Shit! No network. Anyone else?’

  The others reported the same lack of reception. ‘The phone signal is bad up here,’ Berk admitted.

  ‘Plus, y’know, we’re underground,’ Nina added.

  ‘Get back, away from the tunnel.’ Eddie peered towards the ragged slash of light. Voices were audible outside, but he couldn’t tell what they were saying. They were getting closer, though. ‘They’re coming,’ he warned.

  Maximov clenched his fists. ‘We make them regret it, no?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘No?’ The Russian regarded him in surprise.

  Ana was also taken aback. ‘You are going to surrender?’

  ‘I don’t like it, but we don’t have much choice,’ Eddie replied. ‘If they shoot their way in, we’ll all get killed.’

  ‘They might kill us all anyway,’ said Nina as she exited the vault.

  ‘We’ve got the only person who can translate Atlantean and the guy who designed the antimatter thing they’ll need to use,’ he said. ‘We might be able to make a bargain.’

  ‘But they’ll have the spearhead.’

  ‘They’ll have it no matter what – there’s nowt we can do to stop them.’

  She looked back at the hefty door. ‘I could try to seal the vault.’

  ‘And then they’ll either use the rest of us as hostages to force you to open it again, or just blow it open – and set off the fucking bomb.’

  ‘Dr Wilde!’ a man shouted from the swimming pool. ‘We know you are in there. Surrender!’

  ‘Any chance of an “and you will not be harmed” at the end of that?’ Eddie called back. A mocking laugh came from outside. ‘Arse. So much for being positive!’

  Nina joined her husband. ‘If you guarantee our safety, I’ll tell you how to make the spearhead safe. Gideon Lobato is here as well – he can help you use the facility in Dhajan to stabilise it.’

  ‘Lobato is no longer needed,’ came the reply. The billionaire twitched in dismay.

  A man slipped through the opening, gun at the ready a
s he advanced. Another of the Emir’s agents followed him in. ‘Everyone get back by the vault door,’ Eddie said grimly. ‘They might not shoot if they think it could damage the spearhead.’

  Everyone retreated to the opening in the orichalcum sphere. Nina climbed inside, regarding the spearhead’s shimmering light. ‘I should at least try to stabilise it while I’ve got the chance.’

  ‘You won’t have time,’ Eddie warned. The first man was almost at the chamber, the beam of a small but powerful flashlight stabbing through the entrance.

  ‘I have to try.’ She examined the inscriptions. ‘I don’t think I have to touch the altar in any particular way. It’s what I’m thinking – what I’m willing – that matters . . .’

  ‘Then will faster!’

  The intruder’s torch beam locked on to the golden sphere – before a shouted command from al-Asim overcame his greedy amazement and he swept his gun to each side. ‘We’re not armed!’ Eddie told him, raising his hands and edging into the man’s line of sight. The Dhajani stared coldly at him but did not fire.

  The second man arrived, more advancing behind him. ‘Nina,’ the Yorkshireman muttered, ‘if you’re going to do something, do it now.’

  Inside the vault, Nina gave the inscriptions one last desperate look before facing the altar. She had not translated enough of the text to learn exactly what she needed to do; too much was masked by metaphor, referring to events she had yet to discover. Another way to ensure that only an Atlantean could control the spearhead, perhaps, but it meant that she could either do nothing . . .

  Or try – and hope.

  She crouched, closed her eyes . . . and gripped the altar.

  The coldness of the stone was overpowered by an almost electric sensation, the mysterious energy field of the earth itself suddenly flowing through her. She had felt it before, but not with this intensity; she had to force herself not to pull away. It was not painful, more . . . unnerving, a sense that she was in contact with something both forbidden and dangerous.

  But there was something else there. The spearhead.

  Even without seeing or touching it, she could feel it – know it. How, she had no idea, but somehow she perceived the ceaseless whirlpool of power running through it, forces she didn’t yet understand containing antimatter particles inside the crystalline shape. She also instinctively knew that it had indeed started to become unstable, a small but rising dissonance faintly scraping the fringes of her new sense.

  But she could repair it, she was sure. It was almost as if she could touch the vortex in her mind, shape it . . .

  Willpower. That was what the Atlanteans meant. The rare few who could make contact with the planet’s unseen energies were able not only to sense them. They could affect them, maybe even control—

  ‘Dr Wilde! Move away from the spearhead! Now!’

  The harsh command snapped her back to reality. She opened her eyes, momentarily dazzled by the spearhead’s light before turning to see a man at the doorway of the vault.

  Hashim al-Asim.

  The Dhajani agent was pointing a gun at her. Behind him was Eddie, hands raised – and staring at her with an expression of more than simple concern. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘Apart from, y’know, the obvious.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Eddie echoed. ‘You were in a bloody trance!’

  She blinked. ‘For how long?’

  ‘Thirty seconds, more? I was talking to you and you didn’t even hear me.’

  ‘But I only just . . .’ She looked back at the altar and the strange artefact suspended above it. ‘It . . . it didn’t seem that long.’

  ‘Well it was, trust me. Did . . . anything happen when you touched it?’

  ‘I wasn’t able to change anything,’ she replied, recognising that his vagueness was deliberate; he didn’t want to give away anything about the spearhead to their captors. She stood, withdrawing from the stone column.

  As she moved, al-Asim turned his attention to the spearhead itself. His eyes widened. ‘It is floating in the air! What is this? Magic?’

  ‘Science,’ Nina retorted. ‘Weird science, but still science. It’s a kind of magnetic levitation produced by the earth’s natural energy fields. Don’t ask me to explain it, because I honestly don’t think I can.’

  ‘Lobato’s your man for that,’ said Eddie. ‘Be a really good idea to keep him alive. And Nina too, because she can read the inscriptions in there. In fact, keep us all alive. Consider it your good deed for the day. Just take the spearhead, and go. You’re best off getting as far away from here as possible.’

  Al-Asim ushered Nina from the vault, then gave her husband a suspicious look. ‘You are very keen for us to take it, Mr Chase.’

  ‘I don’t want anyone to get killed.’

  The Dhajani’s expression did not change as he stepped inside. He slowly circled the altar, waving a hand beneath the hovering crystal as if to assure himself it was not a trick, then addressed the man guarding Eddie. ‘I am going to take the spearhead,’ he announced. ‘If anything happens . . . kill them. Kill them all.’

  He shouldered his weapon, then held both hands around the spearhead. He flexed his fingers, giving Nina a challenging look – and took hold of the crystal.

  She twitched, half expecting something drastic to happen, but after a moment, al-Asim spoke. ‘It is . . . warm,’ he said, sounding almost disappointed. He stepped back. Whatever suspended the spearhead above the altar’s top also held it there, the Dhajani having to apply definite force, but then it came free.

  The motes of sparkling light inside it subtly changed, their swirling motion becoming more of a random fuzz, but their intensity remained the same. Al-Asim regarded the glow, then cradled the spearhead in one arm and returned to the vault’s door. ‘I have it,’ he announced triumphantly, issuing another command in Arabic before gesturing with his gun for Nina and Eddie to move. ‘Outside.’

  His men started to march the others at gunpoint towards the tunnel. ‘So you’ve got the spearhead,’ Nina said angrily. ‘Now what? I’m guessing you don’t want it for peaceful purposes.’

  ‘That is no longer your concern,’ al-Asim replied dismissively.

  ‘But you must take it to our facility in Dhajan,’ Lobato implored as everyone filed into the passage. ‘It is the only way to contain the antimatter safely. The spearhead is a weapon, a bomb; if it is not kept stable—’

  ‘I know it is a bomb – that is why we want it! We are taking it to the facility, yes, but you are not coming with it.’

  Elmas clutched her husband’s hand. ‘They are going to kill us!’ she cried. Maximov tensed, glowering at the nearest raider, but the man had stayed just beyond the huge Russian’s reach.

  ‘You and your fucking game plan,’ Eddie growled at Lobato. ‘Didn’t see this fucking outcome, did you?’

  ‘I . . . did not, no,’ the billionaire replied stiffly, trying to contain his fear.

  ‘Keep moving,’ ordered al-Asim. His men guided the prisoners towards the opening. ‘Into the pool. I will make it quick and painless, I promise.’ Elmas moaned in fear, almost stumbling, but one of the raiders shoved her onwards. ‘I have—’

  The spearhead’s light suddenly flared. Al-Asim stopped. ‘I felt something!’ he cried, as his men brought their prisoners to a halt. ‘It – it shook! What is happening?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nina replied, seeing that Eddie was ready to react to whatever might happen. ‘Maybe that was the flash mentioned in the inscriptions.’

  ‘The flash, with a bang,’ Eddie added, glancing at Maximov and Ana. The Brazilian immediately knew what he meant, but it took the huge man a couple of seconds longer to pick up on the message, his mouth opening in a silent ‘Ah!’ of understanding.

  ‘Is it going to explode?’ al-Asim asked Nina, alarmed.

  ‘I think taking it out of the vault was a very bad idea,’ she said. The seething glow rose in intensity then held, as if straining against the walls of its crystalline prison. ‘Look at it
!’ She pointed.

  As the Dhajanis’ gazes instinctively followed her finger, Eddie and Nina closed their eyes—

  A dazzling flash of unearthly light filled the tunnel.

  33

  Even with her eyes shut, Nina felt as if she was staring straight into a paparazzo’s flash gun. But for those looking directly at it, the effects were literally stunning, their senses overwhelmed by a silent explosion of light.

  ‘Jesus!’ said Eddie. ‘No bang, but one hell of a flash!’ Ana and Maximov had shielded their eyes, but Lobato and the Onans had not understood his veiled warning, and were now staggering as helplessly as their captors.

  The nearest Dhajani to Eddie blindly waved his Glock 18 machine pistol at comrades and captives alike. That danger quickly ended as the Yorkshireman snatched away the gun, then delivered a punch that left him even more insensate. ‘Everyone get out!’ he shouted. ‘Ana, Max, bring ’em!’

  Maximov and Ana grabbed Elmas and Berk, Eddie seizing Lobato’s arm and hauling him towards the tunnel’s mouth. Nina, though, had gone the other way – plucking the spearhead from al-Asim’s hands. It was heavier than she expected, weighing at least ten pounds.

  ‘No, get his gun – oh, for fuck’s sake!’ Eddie cried as she ran after him. ‘You can’t shoot anyone with a fucking crystal!’

  ‘They can’t blow anything up with it either!’ she fired back as they reached the tunnel’s end. Ana went through with Elmas, Maximov shoving Berk after them before causing a jam as he squeezed his hulking frame into the narrow gap. ‘We’ve got to get this thing as far away from anyone as we can. Dropping it into the sea from ten thousand feet sounds like a good plan!’

  The Russian finally popped free, Eddie propelling Lobato after him. The sun had set while they were inside the chamber, the sky a dusky purple. The helicopter in which the raiders had arrived was orbiting the hilltop, several hundred metres distant.

  ‘Oh, great!’ said Nina, noticing their bullet-riddled 4x4s. Smoke wafted from one BMW’s hood, the other’s front tyre shredded. She ran towards the house after Maximov, who was carrying the Onans under his arms. ‘These guys must have a car, right?’