The mercury containers had remained in the cave, and Nina noticed that their dull metal had acquired a faintly lustrous sheen. ‘Is that gold?’ she asked, pointing it out to Amaanat.
‘Yes.’
‘How? They weren’t in the Crucible.’
‘The mercury vapour in the air touches everything. The neutrons inside the Crucible reach such an intensity that they escape in a burst – and some of the atoms of vapour are hit and transformed into gold. It is how the walls have become like this,’ he said, touching one of the subsumed wooden beams. ‘Layers of gold have built up over years, over centuries.’
The first container was now filled with mercury. Rudra carefully lifted the filter from the funnel. Another monk positioned a shallow bowl beneath it as he shook the little sieve, a few tiny flecks falling through the mesh, then tipped out the larger pieces that had been caught.
Amaanat brought his lantern closer. ‘You see? Gold.’
Nina leaned in. The misshapen lumps were all small, resembling loose dental fillings, but they had the undeniable yellow gleam of the precious metal. Combined, she estimated they might weigh about half an ounce, so the entire contents of the Crucible could yield perhaps four times that in total. At current prices that was still worth a few thousand dollars, but it was not the overwhelming quantities she had expected. ‘There isn’t much there.’
‘And it could’ve been in the mercury when you brought it up here, for all we know,’ said Eddie.
Rudra gave him an irate look, but Amaanat simply shrugged. ‘Why would we lie to you? We have asked you to tell no one about this, and you have agreed. We have nothing to gain.’
‘He’s got a good point,’ Nina was forced to admit.
‘There is more in the bottom,’ the abbot went on. ‘Steel will float on mercury, but gold will sink. From this Crucible, we will get perhaps ten troy ounces.’
‘Ten ounces is quite a lot . . .’ Belatedly she registered his phrasing. ‘Wait, you said this Crucible. There are more?’
‘There is one other,’ he replied. ‘Talonor had this one with him when he first found this place. The second was brought when he returned.’
‘Two Crucibles, double the gold,’ said Eddie. ‘Not bad.’
The old monk smiled at some highly amusing secret. ‘What is it?’ Nina asked.
‘Come, see for yourself,’ Amaanat told her.
As the other monks continued to pour out the mercury, he led Nina and Eddie to the side passage. The walls were still caked in gold, but once they had rounded a corner, the coating vanished, leaving nothing but bare, damp rock.
‘Here,’ said the monk, holding up his lamp. ‘Here is the second Crucible.’
The couple’s eyes widened simultaneously. ‘Okay,’ said Eddie, ‘double the gold was a bit of an understatement.’
‘You’re not kidding!’ Nina replied, amazed. ‘This thing could fill up Fort Knox!’
The second Crucible was much like the first in form, a rough spheroid of dark red crystal with an opening carved into its top. But it was very different in size. Where the first had been the size of a basketball, this one was almost as tall as Nina, a great bulbous cauldron inside a heavy metal cage. As for how much mercury it might hold, she guessed it would measure in the hundreds of gallons.
It would not produce ounces of gold. It would produce pounds.
‘It has not been used for many years,’ said Amaanat. ‘To fill it would need so much mercury that people might become suspicious. It would also need many trips up the mountain to bring the mercury here, and you have seen how dangerous that can be. But we know it has been used in the past.’
‘By Talonor and the people he left here,’ said Nina, nodding. She peered inside the artefact, the monk lifting his lantern to illuminate the interior. The light reflected back in a dazzling display from countless gem-like facets.
‘Where do you even get all the mercury?’ Eddie asked. ‘It’s not like you can just order it from Amazon.’
Nina answered the question for him. ‘Mercury’s extracted from cinnabar, which isn’t that hard to find. It’s been mined since the Neolithic era. There are major deposits in China and other parts of Asia – Spain, too,’ she added in realisation. ‘Spain would have been under Atlantis’s control when the empire was at its height. That’s where they got the raw mercury, and they took it back to Atlantis to turn into gold. At least, until their natural reactor decayed and ran out of power.’
‘You now see why we have kept this place a secret,’ said Amaanat. ‘To make gold in such great quantities – some men would start wars for that. We have saved lives, kept the peace.’
‘While using it for yourselves,’ she observed.
‘We are in a remote place, and everything we need to survive must be brought to us. It is expensive. We use the small Crucible to create enough gold to support the monastery, no more. It has allowed us to protect the Midas Cave for hundreds of years.’
‘But now we know about it,’ said Eddie. Nina knew why he had made the pointed statement: if the monks were going to do anything extreme to keep their secret, it would be now, after their visitors had learned the truth . . .
But Amaanat merely bowed his head. ‘You could tell the whole world, if you wished,’ he said. ‘But I do not believe you will. You have both seen the violence that can come from greed.’ He looked up again, regarding them with a gaze that went deeper than their eyes alone. ‘I trust you to keep our silence.’
‘We will,’ Nina assured him. Eddie nodded in agreement.
The abbot smiled, then led them back into the golden cavern. The other monks were still carefully draining the smaller Crucible, filtering out more nuggets of gold. ‘We should wait outside,’ he said, continuing towards the exit. ‘It is cold, but the air is clean.’
The couple followed him up the tunnel. Jayesh was still standing watch. ‘Finished, Chase?’ he asked, drawing on another cigarette.
‘Yeah,’ Eddie replied as he took off his mask. ‘We saw what we came to see.’
Jayesh shrugged. ‘Not my business. Only here to keep you out of trouble.’ He gave Nina the tiniest hint of a smile. ‘Hard work with him, eh?’
‘Tell me about it,’ she replied.
‘Me?’ hooted the Yorkshireman. ‘She’s the disaster magnet, mate. Anywhere you take her, something’s bound to blow up.’
‘Not for a long time now,’ she reminded him. ‘And hopefully never again.’
He made a sarcastic noise. ‘You remember how jinxing works, right?’
‘No problems here,’ said Jayesh. ‘Heard a chopper, but a long way off. Nothing else out there.’
‘We get few visitors,’ Amaanat said. ‘None go further than the monastery. Nobody comes to this place.’
‘If someone wanted to climb up here, they could,’ Eddie pointed out.
‘But they have not.’ The abbot gestured towards the more distant peaks. ‘There are far higher mountains for tourists to climb.’
‘The steam vents could attract attention, though,’ said Nina. ‘And the whole place is called Dragon Mountain, which is kind of a draw.’
‘The steam cannot be seen from the valley; it is hidden by the cliffs. If you are high enough on another mountain to see it, it looks only like a cloud or blowing snow, because you are so far away. Trust me, Dr Wilde,’ he said, ‘people do not come here by chance. Would you have come without good reason?’
‘I guess not,’ she admitted.
Eddie checked the sky. It was still daylight, but the mountains to the east were becoming shadowed by higher peaks as the sun lowered. ‘We’ll need to start back pretty soon.’
‘We will be at the monastery before it is dark,’ Amaanat assured him.
Eddie nodded, then looked back at Nina. ‘So. You’ve seen the Midas Cave – now what?’
‘Now?’ she replied, pondering the question before giving a reluctant reply. ‘Amaanat’s right: it should stay hidden. Which is frustrating, because it’s an incredible find! And seeing for myself that there’s truth behind the Midas myth was also amazing – maybe not just Midas,’ she added. ‘There are other legends along the same lines. There was an Indian called . . . Nagarjuna, I think, an ancient alchemist who supposedly found a way to produce gold from mercury. And actually, isn’t there a Buddhist myth about someone who turned other metals into gold?’
‘Yes, there is,’ replied Amaanat. ‘He was also called Nagarjuna. They are not the same man, though. They lived many centuries apart.’
‘So if you want your son to grow up to be an alchemist, that’s a good name for him,’ said Eddie.
Nina glanced back at the cave as the masked Rudra emerged, carrying the small Crucible. The other monks, bearing their own cargoes, filed out behind him. ‘You know, a lot of the stories about alchemy involve mercury. And the Philosopher’s Stone was used to create gold.’
‘The one Harry Potter was after?’
‘Not quite. But in mythology, it’s often described as being reddish in colour, like the Crucibles. I suppose in a way they are the Philosopher’s Stones – they literally do transform another element into gold. It’s just that it’s mercury, not lead. But you know something?’ she proclaimed. ‘It doesn’t matter that I can’t tell anyone what we found. Because that’s not why I came here. I came to complete my mom’s work, to see if she was right. And she was.’
‘Yeah, she was,’ said Eddie, putting his arms around her. ‘But so were you. You were the one who actually put all the pieces together.’ He kissed her, drawing disapproving looks from some of the monks, though their leader smiled. ‘So how do you feel?’
‘I feel . . . happy,’ she told him. ‘Sad in a way, because Mom couldn’t be here. But . . . I finished what she started. I saw something incredible – I found that another ancient legend is actually true! I didn’t just do what I came here to do, I did more than that. So, yeah. Happy.’
‘If you’re happy, I’m happy,’ he said, with a broad grin. ‘So we’re done here?’
‘We’re done.’
‘And we can go back home to our little girl?’
She grinned. ‘Yeah, we can. God, I hope she hasn’t missed us too much.’
‘She’ll probably have had such a good time with Holly that she’ll have forgotten who we are.’
‘That’s what I’m worried about!’ Nina addressed Amaanat. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much for letting me see this.’
‘It was my honour,’ replied the elderly monk. ‘And I know that our secret will be safe with you. We all do. Is that not true, Rudra?’ The younger man, who was re-wrapping the Crucible, still appeared dubious but agreed reluctantly. ‘Good. Then we shall . . .’
He trailed off, seeing the other monks looking around in confusion. A noise became audible, a thudding chop echoing from the surrounding mountains.
Growing louder.
Jayesh threw away his cigarette and snatched out his gun. ‘Helicopter!’ he warned—
Another sound, a flat clatter of boots on rock – and a man leapt down from above the cave mouth to slam the Gurkha to the cold ground.
An automatic weapon crackled, a three-round burst of bullets smacking into the snow at Eddie and Nina’s feet. They looked up – to see that the gun was now locked on to them.
12
Ropes uncoiled and dropped snake-like to the ledge. Eleven more men abseiled down them, unslinging Kalashnikovs. A startled monk raised a hand as if to ward them off – only to earn himself a harsh blow from the butt of an attacker’s rifle. He fell, clutching his bleeding temple. The mercury canister he had been holding rolled over the cliff to land heavily on the lower ledge.
The staccato pounding of the helicopter’s rotors became a roar as the aircraft rounded the mountain, an Mi-2 sweeping past before banking away. A second, larger aircraft lumbered over a ridge on the mountainside above, then dropped into the valley to follow it.
‘What the hell?’ Nina gasped, raising her hands. The attackers appeared to be Nepalese, ranging from their early twenties to late thirties. Several wore equipment webbing bearing grenades.
Eddie was paying more attention to their firearms. All were Kalashnikov variants, but of several different types – ageing AK-47s, the marginally more modern AKM, a single AK-74, a Chinese-made clone, even one that he couldn’t identify specifically but which was probably a knock-off from India or North Korea. That told him the intruders were mercenaries, but not an established group; they would otherwise have obtained their weapons from a single source, and made sure they could use the same ammunition. The AK-74’s user would be stuck if he ran out of bullets, as his rifle used a smaller-calibre ammo than the others.
If they weren’t used to working as a team, that could be to his advantage . . .
Not yet, though. They had their prisoners covered. ‘Jayesh! You okay?’ he called as he brought up his own hands in surrender.
The Gurkha groaned as two mercs dragged him to his feet. Another collected his pistol. ‘Yeah. But lost my gun.’
Amaanat called out in Nepalese: a plea for there to be no more violence. Rudra appeared about to defy him, but a much sharper instruction from the abbot forced him to abandon any retaliation. The attackers rounded everyone up to stand near the cave mouth.
The man who had fired at Nina and Eddie quickly and expertly roped down from his perch. He was wearing new, expensive cold-weather gear and carrying a compact FN P90 sub-machine gun that looked as fresh from the box as his clothing. The newcomer pulled a scarf from his face to reveal olive-skinned Caucasian features. ‘You are Nina Wilde,’ he said to the American. It was not a question; he had known that he would find her here.
‘Yeah,’ she replied, cautious. ‘And you are?’
He did not reply, instead giving Eddie an appraising look before issuing an order. ‘Search him. And him,’ he added, indicating Jayesh.
Both were rapidly patted down. ‘No gun,’ one man reported, stepping back. Eddie and his friend exchanged the briefest of knowing glances . . . but then the mercenary frowned, feeling a crease on the back of Jayesh’s coat. He shoved the Gurkha on to his front and yanked the kukri from its concealed scabbard. Another man gave it an admiring look, then took the blade and slid it into his own belt.
‘How did you know I was here?’ Nina demanded, trying to conceal her rising fear.
‘We watched you through a telescope,’ the man replied. His accent was Greek.
‘I meant here in Nepal.’ Again he did not answer.
‘What do you want of us?’ asked Amaanat, head bowed in supplication.
‘I want the Crucible,’ the Greek told him.
Nina was shocked – how could he possibly know about it? – but Rudra’s response was outrage, aimed not at the intruders but at her. ‘You told them!’ he yelled. ‘You betray us!’
A gunman clubbed the monk with his rifle and sent him sprawling into the snow. ‘You do not need to hurt anyone!’ protested the abbot. ‘We will not resist you.’
‘Very wise,’ said the Greek. He watched as Rudra rose painfully to his knees, then turned back to Nina. ‘The Crucible. Where is it?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.
‘No?’ He brought up the P90 – and aimed it at Eddie’s chest. ‘Does this help you remember?’
‘Please!’ cried Amaanat. ‘We do not want violence.’
‘Then where is the Crucible?’
The old man sagged in defeat. ‘There.’ He pointed at the cloth-wrapped object. Rudra objected, but another rifle blow knocked him back to the ground.
One of the mercenaries collected the Crucible and brought it to his leader, who carefull
y peeled away the protective layers, reacting with a confirmatory nod when he saw what was inside. ‘He knew what to expect,’ Nina whispered to Eddie.
‘Hmm?’
‘The Crucible. He already knew what it looked like before he saw it. He had more information about it than I did.’
‘Not enough to find it without you,’ he replied.
The Crucible was covered once more. The Greek turned to Amaanat. ‘And the second Crucible? The big one?’
It was the abbot’s turn to be taken aback. ‘How could you know about that?’
‘Just tell me where it is.’
Rudra’s only objection this time was a look of despair. Amaanat hesitated, then indicated the cave. ‘Inside. There is a passage at the back.’
The Greek nodded. ‘We will search it,’ he said to two of his men, before ordering the rest to watch the captives. The crystal vessel was carefully placed on the ground, then the little group entered the tunnel. To Nina’s shock, the Greek had a Geiger counter of his own. Not only did he know about the Crucible; he was also aware of the nature of the Midas Cave itself.
‘What’re we gonna do?’ she hissed.
Eddie eyed the remaining gunmen. They didn’t appear a particularly close-knit team, and he could tell from the way some held their fingers on their guns’ triggers even when there was no immediate threat that their training was basic at best. Jayesh had reached the same conclusion, his eyes flicking towards the man nearest to him. The Yorkshireman at once saw why; the merc was so inattentive or amateurish that he had unwittingly pointed his AK-74 at one of his comrades as he turned to watch the Greek depart. ‘We’ve got a chance, but we’ll need a distraction,’ he whispered.
‘Anything in mind?’
Both helicopters were now flying a broad, lazy orbit above the valley. Eddie watched the larger one, confirming a detail he had glimpsed earlier, then brought his attention back to the guards. ‘Yeah, but there’s nothing we can do right now. If they come to get the big Crucible, though . . .’ Nina had no idea what he meant, but a scowl and jab of the gun from a guard when he realised they were talking deterred her from asking any further questions.
The Midas Legacy (Wilde/Chase 12) Page 15