Empire of Gold

‘The strength of the dictator?’

‘Isn’t that what we have now?’ the general countered.

Suarez drew in a long breath, his expression cold. ‘Salbatore Delgado Callas,’ he said. ‘You are under arrest. Your crime is treason.’ He nodded to the soldiers. ‘Take him away.’

They turned, pulling Callas with them. He resisted – causing one of the soldiers to stumble.

It was enough for Callas to break one arm free.

He snatched the pistol from the captain’s holster and whipped it round at Suarez—

A single gunshot cracked across the plaza. In Suarez’s hand was the pistol he had taken from Rojas. The soldiers holding the general jumped back in shock. Callas stared at the bullet wound in his chest, mouth wide in silent pain.

He looked back at Suarez, trying with his last breath to bring up his own gun and pull the trigger . . .

Then he collapsed at his enemy’s feet, blood pooling around him.

The coup was over.

25

‘So, Mac,’ said Eddie, with a twinge of stiff and bruised muscles as he raised a glass of beer, ‘how does it feel to be back in action?’

The Scot regarded him through narrowed eyes. ‘What, you mean apart from the injuries, the fear, the gunshots and car crashes and explosions, and losing my leg – again?’ He thumped the heel of his reattached prosthetic limb on the floor.

‘Yeah, apart from all that.’

Mac smiled and raised his own drink. ‘Rather good, actually. Cheers!’

‘Cheers.’ The two men clinked glasses.

Over twenty-four hours had passed since the end of Callas’s attempted revolution, and the pair were sitting in the hotel bar. It had been a busy day for all of the group. In addition to receiving medical treatment for their numerous battle scars, the various members had then had to deal with officialdom, both Venezuelan and from their own countries. Eddie and Mac had been summoned to the British embassy, Kit went to make his report at the local Interpol headquarters, and Nina and Macy were whisked away by a cavalcade of black SUVs to deal with the US ambassador. The meeting for the two Brits had been relatively short; as Mac had told Eddie, the United Kingdom’s interest in Venezuela was minor, and beyond expressing a regret that Suarez hadn’t suffered an injury that would force him to leave office, the MI6 officer debriefing them stuck to obtaining a purely factual account of events.

The debriefing for the two Americans would, Eddie suspected, be more politically charged. ‘How long do you reckon they’ll keep Nina and Macy, then? Or will they just ship’em straight off to Guantanamo? They could put them in Sophia’s old cell.’

Mac smiled. ‘Maybe they’ll become the next communist icons. You might see Nina’s face on a T-shirt, like Guevara.’

‘Oh, she’d love that,’ said Eddie with a laugh. ‘Now Macy, she’d probably go for it.’

‘She might at that.’ Mac sat back, his expression turning wistful.

‘What is it?’

‘At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I wanted to say that, once again, you’ve done damn good work, Eddie. Whatever we may think of Suarez politically, he’s not a murderer like Callas. Stopping Callas from taking power will have saved God knows how many lives. Well done.’

‘I learned from the best,’ said Eddie. ‘And you helped.’

‘Well, just a tad.’ Mac waved a hand in false modesty. ‘But yes, it was reassuring to know that I’ve still got it. Getting old doesn’t mean we become useless.’

‘We? You saying I’m getting old?’ Eddie asked, grinning.

‘It happens to us all, in the end. If we’re lucky.’

‘Speak for yourself. Soon as Nina finds the Fountain of Youth, I’m going to drink out of it from a bucket!’

Kit entered the bar, accompanied, to Eddie’s surprise, by Osterhagen. ‘Kit, mate! How did it go with Interpol?’

‘As well as could be expected,’ the Indian replied. ‘I had a teleconference with my superiors – they were confused about how an investigation into artefact smuggling turned into the prevention of a coup d’etat, but I think I explained everything. As far as I can comprehend how I ended up in this situation myself.’

‘You’ll get used to it. You’ve known Nina for eight months and had this kind of mad shit happen to you twice. I’ve known her for five years, so think how much I’ve been through.’ He turned his attention to Osterhagen. ‘Doc! How are you?’

‘Good, thank you,’ said the German.

‘What about Ralf? Is he okay?’

‘Yes. He is being flown back to Germany and his family.’ He sat down beside Eddie. ‘I heard you had an eventful night.’

Eddie chuckled. ‘You could say that.’

‘But you rescued Nina and Mr Jindal safely.’ He looked round. ‘Where is Nina? I heard she recovered the statues and the khipu. I have a theory about the khipu, and want to discuss it with her.’