The Hunt for Atlantis (40 page)

The plane dropped below four thousand feet. The coastline loomed ahead. They were running out of time.

He pushed the stick farther forward, steepening the descent. Another alert sounded. “I know, I know,” he snarled at the instrument panel. Three thousand feet. He checked the airspeed indicator. Just under a hundred knots.

Too fast, but there was nothing he could do about that now. If he slowed the plane too much, it might stall.

Two thousand feet. The coastline was coming up fast. The plane was still aimed right at the smoking ruins of the biolab. He reached over to the autopilot panel and hammered repeatedly at the “cancel” button, praying he was wiping all the commands Kari had entered. If the plane tried to follow its previous programming and make an emergency landing at Ravnsfjord, it was all over.

One thousand feet. A honking klaxon filled the cockpit, the synthetic female voice speaking beneath it. “Warning. Ground proximity alert. Warning. Ground proximity—”

“I know!” Six hundred feet, five hundred …

He leveled off. The artificial horizon tipped sluggishly back to the central position. Four hundred, 370…

Three-fifty. Level. The terrain on the southern side of the fjord was roughly three hundred feet above sea level. He looked ahead. If the A380 held its course and altitude, it would pass right over the fjord and fly just above the remains of the biolab to plow into the mountainside behind it.

If he’d guessed the correct altitude. If not…

He activated the autopilot, hand hovering over the control stick in case the computers tried to ascend or turn back towards the runway. They didn’t. All other instructions deleted, the autopilot held the Airbus on a steady course and speed.

He turned and clamped one hand around his leg, ignoring the pain. He could already feel the telltale sensation of blood loss swirling at the fringes of his consciousness, dizzying weakness circling him like a pack of jackals, waiting to strike. There wasn’t much time. Limping, he traversed the stairs from the cockpit into the crew area—

And stopped in horror.

Kari was gone!

A spattered trail of blood led to the door of the hold.

Painfully he snatched up his gun and staggered to the door. “Nina!”

The Suzuki was freed of its restraints, supported by its stand. The keys were in a plastic bag taped to the fuel tank; Nina ripped it open and took them out, the documents with them immediately scattered by the blasting wind.

Her experience with motorbikes was limited, but she managed to get the Suzuki running with little trouble. The fuel gauge was flat against “empty,” however, all but the last dregs having been drained for transport. She looked around to see if Chase had finished in the cockpit—

And saw Kari leaping at her!

She tackled Nina from the bike. Both women landed heavily. Nina tried to push Kari off her—only to have Kari’s elbow smash into the side of her head. Stunned, she looked up.

Kari’s hands clamped around her throat. The Norwegian’s face was twisted with pain and fury, framed by a windblown mane of blond hair. “Bitch!” she shrieked, teeth speckled with blood. “I gave you everything, and you betrayed me!”

Nina couldn’t breathe. She pulled at Kari’s hands, but they were like steel, unmovable. Her fingers tightened, thumbs pressing deep into Nina’s windpipe. Blackness swirled in, a hissing noise rising in Nina’s ears that overpowered even the thunder of the wind.

Farther up the hold, Chase saw Kari on top of Nina, strangling her, but the two women were too close together for him to risk a shot—

Unconsciousness loomed, death close behind it. All Nina could see now was Kari’s enraged face above her. She made a last feeble attempt to pull her hands from her neck …

Her fingers brushed against something cold and hard.

Something sharp.

Her pendant—

With the last of her strength, she gripped the piece of orichalcum and slashed it across the inside of Kari’s right wrist.

Kari shrieked. She jerked back, blood spurting from the cut as she released Nina, and looked down in disbelieving shock—

Nina punched her in the face. Kari fell backwards, rolling off Nina to slump dazed on the deck.

“Nice punch!” Chase shouted as he staggered to Nina.

“Thought I’d try things your way,” she gasped.

“Get on the bike!” Through the cargo door, he saw the coastline receding into the distance behind them. The plane was now less than two miles from the biolab, and the A380 would cover that distance in under a minute.

He straddled the Suzuki, gasping in pain from his wound. Nina clambered on behind him. The insanity of what they were about to do hit home. There was almost no chance of survival…

But even a tiny chance was better than none. She wrapped her arms around him. “Go!”

Kari sat up, saw what they were about to do.

Chase twisted the throttle. The rear wheel whirled, the noise of the high-performance engine becoming a buzzing screech as the bike shot from the pallet and raced down the hold towards the open door.

Kari grabbed at Nina, but it was too late.

By the time the Suzuki reached the cargo door, it was already doing seventy miles per hour, and still accelerating.

Chase turned the handlebars, and the bike flew out into open space.

Riding out from the back of the plane had canceled out some of their forward airspeed—but not enough. And they were over solid ground, falling fast!

He’d mistimed it, and now they were dead.

“Close your eyes!” he yelled, as the clifftop on the northern side of Ravnsfjord shot past just beneath them.

They were falling into the fjord!

Chase looked down. Water rushed towards them at terrifying speed—

“Jump!”

Kari staggered back to the cockpit, blood running from her wounds. If she could reactivate the autopilot, the computers could still bring the A380 back to an emergency landing.

But as she entered, she realized she was too late.

Her home flashed past to the right. Coming up below were the ruins of the biolab, and directly ahead were the mountainside and the expansive windows of her father’s office—

She screamed.

Frost was paralyzed with shock by the sight of the airliner as it flew over the fjord, charging right at him. Now movement returned, the primal urge to flee overpowering all other thought, but there was nowhere to go, and no time …

Chase kicked with his good leg, throwing himself clear of the tumbling bike. Nina did the same. Together they plunged towards the water—

The Airbus plowed into the mountainside at over a hundred miles per hour.

Five hundred tons of metal and composites and jet fuel was more force than even the reinforced containment area could withstand. The four massive engines ripped free on impact, tearing through the walls of concrete and steel like bombs. Behind them, fuel ignited as the wings disintegrated. A wave of liquid fire swept through the complex and incinerated everything it touched.

The inferno reached every corner of the containment area. The lab in which the virus had been developed and stored was blown open, searing flames consuming everything within and finally ending the tortured life of Jonathan Philby. Then the mountain itself collapsed, reclaiming the space carved out of it and sealing the virus beneath millions of tons of rock forever.

Chase knew that falling onto it from a height, water becomes as hard as concrete.

Unless something breaks the surface first.

The heavy motorbike hit the water, kicking up a huge plume of spray. A fraction of a second later, he and Nina plunged in after it.

Broken surface or not, it felt like he’d just thrown himself from a building. Agony speared through him as his wounded leg buckled. And the water was cold, almost freezing.

More pain as he hit something else. Not water, something solid.

The bike—

It had landed on its side, water resistance slowing its descent. And now he’d smashed down right on top of it!

More pain, so intense that he almost blacked out.

Almost. Through his agony he just about managed to keep focus on his goal—staying alive. He was under the water. He had to swim, break the surface, breathe.

More pain from his injured leg, now completely useless—and his other leg was caught on the bike.

His clothes were snagged on part of the machinery. He kicked, trying to tear himself free. No good. He couldn’t get enough leverage. The bike was sinking, an anchor dragging him to the bottom of the fjord.

Panic rose despite his training. He thrashed frantically, ignoring the pain, but still couldn’t break loose.

He was going to drown!

After everything he’d been through, everything he’d survived, this was it—

Someone grabbed him.

Nina!

Chase felt her hands on his leg, tugging at the material of his jeans. It ripped. The bike plunged into the cold darkness below as Nina swam with all her strength, hauling him upwards.

He breached the surface and drew in a long, anguished breath of cold air. “Oh God!” he gasped. “I thought I was dead there!”

“Just returning a favor,” said Nina. She supported him from beneath as she swam for the nearest bank of the fjord. “Jesus, I can’t believe we made it!”

“Are you okay?”

“I hurt like hell all over, but I don’t think I’ve broken anything. What happened to the plane?”

Chase tried to raise a hand to point, but was too weak. Instead, he tipped his head down the fjord to the east. A thick, oily column of black smoke roiled into the sky. “Hard landing.”

“The virus?”

“Fried. Along with everything else.”

Nina looked sadly at the dark cloud. “Kari…”

They reached the rocky shore, Nina dragging Chase from the water. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed when she saw his leg. She pressed her hand against the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. “We’ve got to get you to a doctor.”

“Right,” said Chase, through gritted teeth. “There’s a clinic at the top of this cliff, in the company headquarters. Too bad it belongs to the bloke we just blew up. I don’t think they’ll be happy to see us—”

Almost as if in reply, a rock beside Chase suddenly shattered. The crack of a rifle shot echoed around the fjord.

“No kidding!” Nina yelped. She looked for the shooter. On the opposite bank, she saw several men silhouetted against the sky, pointing down at them.

Another bullet smacked into the ground close by, chipped fragments of rock spitting into their faces. “Get into cover!” Chase ordered.

“I’m not leaving you!” Nina protested. She bent down to drag him with her.

“Nina, don’t!”

“I’m not leaving you!” she repeated, holding him under his arms and pulling him over the rocks.

Something shot past her, whipping up her hair. Another stone burst apart right behind her. “They’ve got us,” Chase groaned. They looked up at the figures on the cliff top, catching a glint of light reflected from a telescopic sight.

Nina crouched, squeezing Chase more tightly and pressing her cheek against his face. “Eddie …”

Gunfire—but not from the rifles across the fjord.

Machine-gun fire, somewhere above. Dust and dirt kicked up from the top of the far cliff. One of the men fell over the edge, screaming all the way down until he smacked sickeningly onto a rocky outcrop.

“What the fuck?” Chase said in wonder.

The answer came a second later as three helicopters in the colors of the Norwegian army swept over the top of the cliff, gunners visible in their cabins. Two of the choppers continued across the fjord, moving to circle the gunmen, while the third dropped towards the water, turning to face Nina and Chase.

“Where did they come from?” Nina gasped.

“Somebody must have called the fire brigade. The Norwegians probably wanted to know why so much of Kristian Frost’s property was getting blown to buggery.” A voice boomed from a loudspeaker aboard the helicopter. “You speak Norwegian?” Chase asked.

“Not a word.”

“Me neither.” Chase painfully raised his hands as high as he could. “You’d better put your hands up too. You don’t want to have gone through all this only to get shot by some trigger-happy Norseman.”

“Not really.” She lifted one hand, keeping the other in place to support him. Her cheek was still against his. “Oh, and Eddie?”

“What?”

She kissed him. “Thank you for saving my life. Again.”

He returned the kiss. “Thank you for saving mine. Even if …” he grinned his gap-toothed grin, “we’re not exactly level in the whole lifesaving stakes.”

Nina smiled. “Tchah. That’s bloody gratitude for you.”

They kissed again as the helicopter moved into a hover, men rappelling down.

EPILOGUE

New York City

Nina opened her apartment door and walked wearily inside. Everything was as she’d left it, weeks earlier.

She dropped a stack of mail onto the kitchen counter and filled the kettle. Her coffee would have to be black. She couldn’t even imagine what state the contents of her fridge would be in after so long. Maybe it would be safer just to throw the whole thing out without daring to open it and buy a new one.

The kettle on the stove, she slumped onto her couch and looked around. The apartment was at once intimately familiar and almost strange, a forgotten memory brought back to life.

She could barely come to terms with the sheer normality of being home again. After everything she had experienced, she was now back in New York, back home, as if nothing had happened.

Except that wasn’t true. She had discovered Atlantis—and then lost it again. She had rewritten human history, but had nothing to show for it.

She reached up and touched her pendant, correcting herself. She had nothing to show for it… except the knowledge and satisfaction that human history would continue. Frost’s insane plans had been stopped, all his research into the virus destroyed. She turned her head to look out of the window at the lights of Manhattan. She wondered if the millions, billions of people whom he had planned to condemn to death would ever know how close they had come to extermination.

Probably not. Once first the Norwegian government, then its NATO allies, became involved, it had been made very clear to her that the true purpose of the Frost Foundation should remain a closely guarded secret.