Empire of Gold

‘We’ve got to go!’ he shouted, looking towards the spreading fires. ‘Run!’ He pushed her ahead as he raced along the walkway. The security camera looked on with its glazed eye.

Nina reached the ladder and hurried down it, jumping off halfway. Eddie followed. They ran for the gate, the roar of the fires now accompanied by the squeals and groans of warping metal. The gas tanks were giving way . . .

Through the gate. Macy sprinted for the highway ahead of them. The squeals turned to shrieks—

One of the gas tanks blew apart in a seething white ball of fire, the others following it in a chain reaction. A shockwave erupted outwards, whipping up a wall of dust and blowing Nina and Eddie off their feet. A roiling mushroom cloud rose into the night sky, a marker visible for miles around for the crater that had once been station fourteen.

It took minutes before Nina felt composed enough to speak, or even think. She had a vague, confused memory of Eddie carrying her along the dirt road, Macy running back to help them, then sitting beside the highway trying to recover from the shock.

Not merely the shock of the explosion. Her memory of what had happened on the catwalk was crystal clear. It kept replaying, unbidden, in her mind: Kit dangling from the walkway by one hand, struggling to get a grip on a pipe with the other, Eddie’s foot lashing out, Kit’s face filling with horror as he dropped into the fire . . .

Vigilante justice. Revenge-driven murder. Just like Jerry Rosenthal in New York. Only this time it wasn’t a mere moral talking point, a topic of argument. It was something her husband had done right in front of her.

Someone sat beside her. Eddie. The light from the still burning pipeline revealed his scorched clothes and reddened skin. ‘Hey,’ he said, putting his arm round her shoulders.

She pulled away.

He looked startled, then hurt. ‘What’s wrong? Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine,’ Nina said curtly, standing. In the distance, she saw flashing lights – emergency vehicles coming along the highway.

Eddie stood as well. ‘Then what’s the matter?’

‘What’s the matter?’ she cried. ‘You murdered Kit, that’s what’s the matter!’

Macy, sitting nearby, reacted in disbelief. Eddie’s response was only slightly less surprised. ‘What?’

‘Eddie, I was right there! He was hanging off that walkway, and you – you kicked him into the fire!’ Saying the words out loud brought back her shock at what she had seen, full force.

‘He was trying to kill me!’ Eddie protested. ‘He had a fucking gun in his hand!’

Nina shook her head. ‘He didn’t have a gun.’

‘He did – how could you not have seen it? You were right there, you must have seen it!’

‘He didn’t have a gun,’ she repeated forcefully. ‘And why would he have been trying to kill you?’

‘ ’Cause he was working with Stikes,’ said Eddie, anger rising. ‘He was all along. All they wanted the whole time was those statues. Kit killed Mac to protect them, and tried to kill me because I figured it out.’

It was now Nina’s ears, not her eyes, that she doubted. Kit had killed Mac? The idea was impossible to believe. More than that, it was . . .

Insane? The word sent another chill through her. Could Mac’s murder – compounded by the news of his grandmother’s death – have possibly affected Eddie so badly? ‘Why?’ she asked.

‘How the fuck would I know? I wasn’t in on whatever they were doing. But I’ll tell you who else was,’ he added. ‘Sophia.’

Nina stared at him. ‘Sophia?’ she said after a pause. ‘Sophia, as in your ex-wife Sophia?’

‘Yeah. She was the one who wanted the statues.’

‘You mean Sophia Blackwood?’ said Macy, bewildered. ‘The terrorist? I thought she was dead.’

‘She is dead,’ Nina told her. ‘And Eddie should know – he threw her off a cliff!’

Eddie looked in frustration between the two women as the wail of approaching sirens reached them. ‘She was here – she took off with Stikes in that chopper. Don’t tell me you didn’t see her either!’

‘I saw Stikes – I think.’ Nina glanced at the now empty helipad. ‘But the only other people I saw were you . . . and Kit.’

‘There! Kit and Stikes were working together, like I told you! That’s why he kept the whole meeting a secret!’

‘He told me about it.’ Eddie’s face revealed his shock. ‘Stikes offered Interpol a deal – immunity in return for the statues. Kit didn’t tell you because he knew how upset you were about Mac, and thought you’d react badly if you knew he was talking to Stikes.’ Nina let out a short, bitter laugh. ‘And he was right!’

‘No, that isn’t – that’s not what happened,’ Eddie insisted, desperation entering his voice. ‘Kit wasn’t negotiating some immunity deal. He was working with Stikes and Sophia!’

‘Stikes and Sophia,’ Nina echoed. ‘Two of the people you hate most in the world – and they’re both involved in a conspiracy to cover up Mac’s murder? By Kit? Eddie, this whole thing, everything you’re saying, is just, just . . .’ She didn’t want to say the word.

He knew exactly what she meant, though. ‘I’m not fucking mad, and I didn’t fucking hallucinate this.’ He grabbed her by her upper arm. ‘Kit killed Mac! And he would have killed me too, if I hadn’t killed him first!’

Nina recoiled with a gasp of pain as his fingers dug into her. ‘Eddie, let go,’ she said. It was the first time she