The Secret of Excalibur

after being arrested.

‘I ended up burning a lot of midnight oil at MI6.’ The grey-haired Scotsman entered the cell, and Chase stood to shake his hand. Mac was dressed in a dark tailored suit, which gave away no clue that one of his legs was artificial below the knee, and carried several folded newspapers under one arm. ‘You seem to have stirred up something rather large - the Yanks are very interested in it.’

‘How come?’

‘No idea, but Peter Alderley’s giving me an update soon.’

‘Alderley?’ Chase groaned at the mention of the MI6 agent. ‘Oh, God, you got that twat involved? He must be laughing his arse off at the thought of me spending the night in a police cell.’

‘There was some amusement, yes. But he also wants to know when he’s going to get his wedding invitation.’

‘Why would he even want to come? He can’t stand us.’

A smirk crinkled Mac’s craggy face. ‘Oh, he likes Nina just fine. It’s you he can’t stand. He wants to give Nina his commiserations.’

‘The cheeky bastard! And after he got promoted because of us . . . Where is Nina, anyway? Is she okay?’

‘She’s fine.’ Mac gestured at the door. ‘She’s waiting in reception. Along with your grandmother.’

‘What, I call you and then I’m the last one you get out?’

‘Ladies first, Eddie. Where are your manners?’

A policeman led them to the police station’s reception area. ‘Eddie!’ said Nina as he entered, jumping up to embrace him. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Just got worked over with a rubber hose, but apart from that I’m fine,’ he joked. He looked past her to see his grandmother sitting on a bench nearby. ‘Nan! Are you all right?’

She nodded. ‘I’m fine, Edward, thank you. I’ve never been arrested before, it was all very strange! Everyone was very nice, though, and they even brought me tea in my cell. It’ll be quite a story to tell the other girls next time we play bridge.’

‘Thank God. If anyone’d been nasty to my nan, there really would have been trouble.’ He became aware of activity outside the glass front doors. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Press,’ Mac replied disdainfully. He handed Chase and Nina the newspapers. ‘You’ve become big news, unfortunately. Don’t worry about that lot outside, we can slap a category five DA notice on them to shut them up now the security services are involved, but it happened too late to stop this morning’s papers.’

‘Aah!’ Nina cried in dismay, seeing her official IHA publicity photo smiling witlessly back at her from the front page of the Guardian under the headline ‘Chaos in Bournemouth: discoverer of Atlantis arrested following murder’. ‘I wasn’t arrested for it, I witnessed it!’

‘You think that’s bad . . .’ said Chase. He held up the Sun, the tabloid bearing the banner headline ‘THE BOURNE-MOUTH IDENTITY’. Some tourist with a quick shutter finger - and a canny commercial sense - had caught the Focus as it smashed through the remains of the fruit stall, and the picture now dominated the page. Chase was just a shadow in the driving seat, and most of his grandmother’s face was obscured by the windscreen pillar, but Nina was clearly visible in the back. The paper had even helpfully included an inset of her shaking hands with President Dalton.

Chase read out the opening paragraph. ‘“One day, she was at the White House to accept the highest honour in America from the President. The next, she was in a high-speed car chase and gun battle through a quiet seaside town. Famed archaeologist Nina Wilde, discoverer of the lost city of Atlantis, was arrested yesterday after a trail of destruction through Bournemouth left three dead and dozens injured . . .” Yeah, this isn’t good.’

‘Oh, ya think?’ Nina wailed. ‘And Atlantis isn’t a city, it’s the whole damn island! Why does everyone get that wrong?’

Chase hugged her. ‘Priorities, love.’

‘I know, I know. But aaargh!’

A fusillade of camera flashes from outside caught everyone’s attention. Elizabeth Chase stormed up the steps and threw open the door, furious eyes locked on to her brother. ‘You!’ she yelled. Holly scurried in behind her, worried.

‘Hi, Lizzie,’ said Chase with false breeziness. ‘You saw today’s papers, then?’

She shoved past him and crouched before her grandmother. ‘Nan, are you okay?’

‘I’m all right, love,’ Nan assured her. ‘A bit shaken up, that’s all.’

‘Oh, thank God.’ She bowed her head in relief, then whirled to confront Chase. ‘What the hell were you thinking? You stupid bastard! You could have killed her!’

‘Yeah, I’m fine too, thanks,’ Chase replied with chilly sarcasm.

‘Actually, Elizabeth, I’m afraid this is all my fault,’ said Nina.

Elizabeth snatched the newspaper from Chase’s hand, jabbing a finger at the picture. ‘Oh, so you were driving the car from the back seat?’ She crumpled the paper into a roll and batted it angrily against Chase, prompting the policeman to politely but firmly pull her away. ‘I thought you couldn’t possibly do anything more selfish and irresponsible than you already have, but this, this . . .’ She stood silently for a moment. ‘God! I have never been more . . . disgusted with you in my entire life.’

‘Elizabeth!’ Nan snapped, standing up with an obvious effort. Holly hurried to help her. ‘I’m all right, and so are Edward and Nina. That’s all that matters.’

‘No, it’s not all that matters, Nan!’ Elizabeth said. ‘People were killed! And it’s all his fault! You think he’s going to explain why to their families?’

‘Actually,’ said Mac, raising his voice with authority, ‘the two men who died while trying to kill Eddie and Nina - and your grandmother, I might add - are the reason my colleagues are so interested in what happened.’

‘And who the hell are you?’ Elizabeth demanded.

‘Ma’am,’ said Mac, bowing slightly. The gesture somewhat disarmed Elizabeth. ‘Jim McCrimmon, at your service. I used to be in the SAS, but I’m now . . . well, let’s say associated with Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service. Or MI6, if you prefer.’

‘MI6?’ said Holly, eyes widening. ‘You’re a spy?’

‘Mac,’ said Chase, ‘this is Holly, my niece . . . and you just met my sister, Lizzie.’

‘Elizabeth!’

Mac turned to address Holly. ‘No, I’m not a spy - your uncle would probably think a lot less of me if I were. I’m more of a consultant.’

‘Who saves people’s lives occasionally,’ Nina added.

‘And my house still isn’t fully repaired because of it . . . But these two raised quite a stir at Vauxhall Cross once their identities were discovered. Not so much from us, but we share intelligence with the Americans, and they got very excited about it.’ He looked through the glass doors at the reporters outside. ‘But I think we should discuss this somewhere more private.’

‘We can just leave?’ Nina asked in surprise.

Mac smiled. ‘You’re free to go, for the moment. The Home Office has arranged for all charges to be dropped. It seems the American government is quite keen to talk to you about these men - and about your friend, Herr Rust.’ He lowered his gaze. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Thank you. But why do they want to know about Bernd?’

‘I have absolutely no idea - but I’ll hopefully find out soon. Is there somewhere we can go?’

‘We can go to my house,’ Holly suggested. Elizabeth seemed about to object, but a look from Nan silenced her.

Mac nodded. ‘That sounds ideal.’

Chase gazed out of the front window of Elizabeth’s house, taking in what Mac had just relayed to Nina and himself after a phone conversation. ‘So this guy Yosarin and his mate the Jeep driver, if they’re working as security goons for some Russian billionaire, why are they in Bournemouth shooting at my nan?’ He turned to face Mac. ‘Alderley doesn’t know a fucking thing, does he?’