The Secret of Excalibur

traps? Nice shooting, though. He would’ve killed me if you hadn’t tapped him in the shoulder.’

‘I was aiming for his head.’

Chase raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

‘Well . . . no,’ she admitted. ‘I just thought that would sound cool. I kind of fired in his general direction.’ He smiled and squeezed her shoulders.

Mitchell leaned against the wall, panting. ‘Damn, that was close.’ He straightened, then picked up Excalibur.

‘Thanks for your help, by the way,’ said Chase with unconcealed sarcasm.

‘This isn’t the time, Eddie,’ Nina said, moving to stand between the two men. ‘How the hell did they find us, anyway?’ That thought instantly led to another. ‘Oh, my God. Chloe. What if there’re more of them outside?’

‘We’d better get moving,’ said Chase, shaking as much water from his sodden clothes as he could and giving Mitchell another glare before they hurried back through the tunnels. Most of the water had drained from the trial of Nivienne, but the revolting stench of flammable gas from the chamber housing the carving of Merlin now permeated the entire system, spreading outwards once the tomb was open to the outside air.

They retrieved their belongings from the edge of the pool. Nina removed Mitchell’s shirt and put on her clothes, then picked up the walkie-talkie. ‘Chloe, are you there?’ Silence. ‘Chloe, can you hear me?’ Still no response. ‘Shit!’

They continued towards the entrance, Mitchell taking the lead with the sword. The smell of gas finally started to fade as they reached the foot of the slope. Daylight glared down from above. Nina peered round Mitchell in the hope of seeing Chloe, but all that was visible was sky. She was about to call out Chloe’s name, but Chase put a hand on her arm in silent warning.

‘I’ll go check it out,’ whispered Mitchell as he clambered up the incline. ‘Wait here.’

Nina and Chase watched as he dropped to a crouch, cautiously looking over the lip of the entrance. He paused, apparently seeing nothing, then advanced another step, leaning forward to check each side—

Suddenly, he was seized by a pair of huge hands and yanked out of the tunnel to be thrown to the ground. Maximov loomed over him, a white Band-Aid across the centre of his forehead. Another man stepped up beside him.

Nina knew the face from the photos Mitchell had shown them. It was Vaskovich’s right-hand man, Kruglov. ‘Jack Mitchell,’ he said with distaste, adding something in Russian. Mitchell began to reply, but Kruglov kicked him in the side, silencing him. The Russian looked down the hole. ‘Dr Wilde! I know you are down there, so show yourself.’

Nina had moved back into the darkness, pressing against Chase. ‘Shit!’ she whispered. ‘What do we do?’

‘Dr Wilde!’ Kruglov repeated impatiently. ‘Show yourself now, or I will kill your friends.’

‘Oh, God,’ said Nina, fear rising. ‘He’s got Chloe as well.’

‘Gimme your camera. Quick!’ Chase ordered. Confused, Nina pulled it from her pocket and passed it back to him. ‘Go on.’

‘What?’

He fiddled with the camera’s controls. ‘I’ll be right behind you, just buy me a few seconds. Go!’

Reluctantly, Nina stepped into the light. Kruglov’s wide mouth spread into a smug smirk. ‘Good. Thank you for finding Excalibur for us.’ He gestured for her to climb the slope.

‘Where’s Chloe?’ Nina demanded as she slowly ascended. Like Zakhar, Kruglov clearly had no idea that Chase was in the tomb.

‘She is here. Yorgi, bring her.’ Kruglov signalled to someone; a moment later, Chloe appeared, shoved into view by the man with the topknot whom Mitchell had knocked out at the castle. He stood behind her, gripping her arm.

‘Chloe,’ Nina said, stopping a few feet short of the entrance. ‘Are you okay?’ Chloe didn’t reply, only managing a terrified nod. ‘Let her go. You don’t need her any more.’

‘No, we don’t,’ Kruglov agreed. ‘Yorgi.’

Yorgi grinned - and Chloe convulsed, throwing her head back and gasping. He released her arm . . . and she dropped face first to the ground, an ugly knife protruding from her back.

‘No!’ Nina screamed. ‘No, you bastards! You didn’t have to kill her, she didn’t do anything!’

Maximov seemed to share her feelings, obviously objecting in Russian. His boss cut him off with a dismissive wave of one hand. ‘Come out of the hole,’ Kruglov ordered, taking out a gun. ‘Now!’

Nausea rose in Nina’s throat as she advanced, to see Chloe on the ground, red running down the yellow of her jacket. ‘Oh, God,’ she whispered as she emerged into daylight, seeing the Russians surrounding the entrance. Maximov, Dominika, Chloe’s killer, three others she didn’t recognise. Mitchell was sprawled on the ground at Kruglov’s feet, Excalibur beside him.

No way to escape.

Unless Chase could do something.

Forcing back his shock at what had just happened outside, Chase found what he’d been looking for - a sharp stone protruding from the sloping tunnel wall. He stepped out of cover and smacked the camera against it, breaking the glass covering the flash. Kruglov heard the sound, snapping round to find its source.

Chase pushed the shutter, and tossed the camera back down the tunnel behind him. He began a mental countdown. Ten, nine . . .

‘You! Out!’ Kruglov yelled, raising his gun.

‘All right, I’m coming,’ said Chase, raising his hands and quickly climbing to the entrance. He saw Mitchell on the ground, Nina kneeling beside the unmoving Chloe - and Kruglov’s people clustered round their leader. He gave Nina a look, his eyes momentarily flicking downwards. Understanding crossed her face. ‘But do you know what goes “quack”?’

Kruglov stared at him, puzzled. ‘What?’

‘A duck!’ He dived to the ground, Nina also dropping flat.

At the bottom of the tunnel, the camera’s timer reached zero.

It clicked, the cracked flash firing . . .

And the electric spark ignited the methane in the air.

20

The concentration of gas was barely high enough for it to catch fire - but it did, within an instant the thin flame leaping through the tunnels to the much denser pockets of methane deeper inside the Tor. They erupted, a chain reaction blasting the shockwave of expanding fires back towards the entrance—

A hot wind burst from the tunnel, showering Kruglov and his thugs with dirt and sending them reeling - followed a moment later by a fireball that exploded into the open air like the breath of an enraged dragon. Kruglov managed to dive away, shielding his face, but one man fell screaming as his clothes and hair were set aflame.

Chase jumped up into the hot air of the dissipating fire, slamming a punch into Yorgi’s face and knocking him backwards down the steep hillside. Mitchell snatched up Excalibur and rolled to swing it at Dominika, smacking her gun hand with the flat of the blade and knocking the pistol into the grass. He grabbed it and sprang to his feet.

Nina was also up, seizing a shovel and swinging it like an axe into the groin of another goon. He let out a choked scream and stumbled over the edge of the terrace. She was about to brain Kruglov with the spade when Mitchell ran past and pulled her away. ‘Come on! We gotta go! Now!’ She flung the spade at another Russian, knocking him down.

Chase realised that Kruglov had dropped his gun and was about to dive for it when he saw Mitchell practically dragging Nina away along the terrace. ‘Eddie, move it!’ the American yelled.

Chase hesitated, then ran after them. ‘You have a gun!’ he shouted at Mitchell as he caught up. ‘Shoot them!’

‘There’s too many of them! We’ve got to get out of here!’

Chase didn’t agree - they had the advantage of numbers, but Kruglov’s people had been thrown into confusion, and were only now starting to recover. But since Mitchell had the gun, Chase had no choice now but to go along with his decision.