The Black Sun (46 page)

“Why did you excavate the main entrance when you could have come in the back like us in half the time?” asked Archie.

“Apart from the fact I need to get trucks down here if I am to move everything out?

Simple. Three days ago, when we first got here, I didn’t know about the smaller entrance. My uncle had passed on only the location of the larger entrance, through which he’d helped bring the carriages. It was the painting that divulged the existence of the smaller entrance. Perhaps the Order felt that route would be easier to ac-cess—who knows?

When Johann told me how you’d got here and what you’d found, I decided to leave you to it. It was a way of keeping you busy and out of our way.”

“The council will never let you get away with this,” said Tom. “When they find out what you’re up to, they’ll do everything in their power to stop you.”

“Which council? This one?” Völz reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of identical gold rings with a single diamond set into an engraved twelve-box grid, which he threw disdainfully to the floor. “It’s a shame, really. I would have liked to see their faces when they realized that, indirectly, they had provided us with the means to shatter everything they

have

fought

against

all

these

years.”

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

7:02 p.m.

Hecht marched them up the smaller tunnel at gunpoint, roughly cuffed them with plastic tags, and then pushed them to the ground. Renwick resisted and got a rifle butt jabbed in his stomach for his trouble.

“I will not forget your betrayal, Hecht,” Renwick said through gritted teeth. “I will make you pay.”

“I doubt it, Cassius.” Hecht sneered. “The next time I press this button, the explosives
will
work.” He held up the remote detonator and waved it tauntingly in front of Renwick’s face, before aiming a punch at the side of his head, his ring leaving a deep gouge mark just above Renwick’s ear.

“How does it feel, Renwick?” Archie grinned as Hecht tramped off down the tunnel, leaving two men to stand guard over them. “Outwitted. Betrayed. Imprisoned.”

“Rather than gloat, Connolly, try to think of a way to get us out of here,” Renwick snapped, blood running down his face and dripping onto his shoulder.

“Getting
us
out of here.” Archie gave a laugh. “Believe me, if I can find a way out, you won’t be taking it.” They fell silent and the two guards lit up. The sounds of men working echoed up the tunnel from the chamber.

400 james twining

Hammering, drilling, sawing. Tom guessed that Völz’s men were even now dismantling the carriage and preparing to transport its lethal cargo to . . . where? Wherever they wanted—that was the terrifying thing. Once unleashed, Völz would be unstoppable. Archie seemed to be reading his thoughts.

“Can he really make an atomic bomb out of that lot?”

“I doubt it,” said Tom. “At least not without buying a lot of extra equipment and expertise. But he doesn’t have to. He could make enough money auctioning the uranium off to finance a small army. Besides, there’s always the prospect of the dirty bomb he described. Can you imagine the chaos if one of those went off in Berlin or London or New York?”

“So much for the Amber Room,” Archie noted gloomily.

“I can’t believe that, for all these years, everyone’s been looking for something that didn’t even exist,” Tom remarked.

“Your father thought it existed,” Renwick said. “Do you think he was wrong too?”

“Don’t even mention his name,” Tom snapped.

“You are forgetting that it was to me he turned, not you, when he heard rumors linking the Amber Room to a Nazi Gold Train and an Enigma-encoded message.” Renwick gave a faint smile. “I thought nothing more of it until a few years ago when I came across an original Bellak in an auction in Vienna. I knew then that, if one had survived Him-mler’s cull, perhaps others had too, including the portrait—and with them the chance of finding this place.”

“Except you couldn’t find any other Bellaks, could you?”

“Unfortunately, your father was in the mistaken belief that the painting had ended up in a private collection, which is where I focused my efforts. Fruitlessly, as it transpired. I enlisted your help because I thought a fresh pair of eyes might be of use. I was right.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t do you much good, did it?” Archie pointed out tartly. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re about to get buried under a mountain, same as us.”

“There’s one thing I want to know.” Tom locked eyes with Renwick. “Back in St. Petersburg,

you

said

my

father

had

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known all along who you were. That he had worked with you. Was that another one of your lies?”

Renwick returned Tom’s stare, but just as he seemed about to speak, Hecht returned from the end of the tunnel. At the sight of him, the two guards threw their cigarettes aside and stood up straight, one of them giving Archie a kick in the ribs for good measure, as if to show Hecht what a good job they were doing. He gave them an approving grunt.

“One of you go and fetch me a drink. Oh, and if you see Dmitri, tell him the charges are armed.”

The guard nodded and trotted obediently off toward the chamber, passing a man in hard hat and reflective jacket who was heading toward them.

“What are you doing up here?” Hecht growled as the man approached. “You’re meant to be in the chamber with the others helping unload that train.”

The man shrugged and then, noticing that one of his laces was undone, stooped to tie it. As he did so, he raised his eyes toward Tom’s and winked.

It

was

Viktor.

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

7:08 p.m.

Tom glanced at Archie, who gave a slight nod. He had seen who it was too. “I asked you a question,” Hecht challenged the still crouching Viktor. “Get back to your work.” “You bastard,” Tom shouted, rolling onto Archie and kneeing him in the stomach. “This is your fault. Your greed’s going to get us both killed.”

Archie kicked out as he tried to roll out from under him, flexing his back like a wrestler trying to break a hold. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s yours,” he shouted back. “I told you to drop it.”

Hecht stepped forward and placed a firm hand on Tom’s shoulder to yank him free. Tom, however, reached around and sank his teeth into the flesh between forefinger and thumb. Hecht cried out in pain.

Viktor, meanwhile, stood up behind the other guard, whose attention had been drawn to the fight. Taking careful aim, she landed a heavy blow on the back of his head, dashing his skull. He fell to the floor, unconscious.

Hecht spun around, his bleeding hand clasped to his chest, the other reaching for his gun. Lying beneath him, Archie kicked out and caught his arm, sending his gun clattering to

the black sun 403

the ground. With a furious roar, Hecht launched himself at Viktor, his huge frame covering the distance between them in no time and sending her sprawling with a punch to the side of the head.

Viktor lashed out from where she had fallen, catching Hecht in the groin with her knee and bringing him down to the ground crying in pain. He immediately spotted his gun lying on the mine floor, and scrambled toward it on his hands and knees. Seeing this, Tom struggled to his feet, using the mine wall to help push himself upright. He threw himself at Hecht, stars exploding in front of his eyes as he landed heavily on his injured shoulder. Hecht shrugged him off, but the delay was just long enough for Viktor to struggle to her feet and scoop the gun up as Hecht’s massive hands were about to close on it.

She stepped toward him, his eyes still flashing with defiance, the muzzle hovering only inches from his nose. Then, in one swift movement, she brought the butt of the gun down hard on Hecht’s temple. His face slammed into the dirt floor.

“God, am I glad to see you!” Tom wheezed between pained breaths.

“We told you not to go inside.” She smiled as she pulled a knife from her boot and sliced Tom’s hands free.

“Where did you get the outfit?” Archie asked as she crouched down next to him and cut his cuffs off too.

“One of Völz’s men decided to take a leak a little too close for comfort.” She grinned.

“Luckily, he fitted.”

“How did you know we were in here?” asked Tom.

“I didn’t, but Dominique guessed you would be. Said you wouldn’t be able to help yourselves. Good thing for you she knows you both so well.”

“Where is she?” Tom looked around in concern, as if half expecting her to leap out from the shadows. “She’s okay, isn’t she?”

“She’s gone back down to phone that FBI number you gave her. She seemed to remember seeing a phone line running into that old man’s house. Come on, let’s get out of

here.”

404 james twining

“Hold on,” said Tom. “We can’t just leave them to it. Once Völz makes it out of here with that uranium, no one will ever hear from him again until it’s too late.”

“You’re right,” said Archie. “But there’s only three of us and over twenty of them. What do you have in mind?”

“Four if you untie me,” Renwick observed.

Tom ignored him, considering his options. In the end, it was the sight of Hecht’s sprawled bulk that gave him an idea.

“The detonator,” Tom exclaimed. “We can use Hecht’s charges to collapse the mine and trap them until the police arrive. Search him. He must still have it on him.”

Archie turned Hecht over and patted him down, recovering the detonator in one pocket and a folded piece of paper in the other. He smoothed the piece of paper out on the floor and held his flashlight over it.

“It’s a schematic of where the charges are. They’re numbered one to four. There seem to be two sets in each tunnel, one at the entrance and one near the chamber.”

“So if we let off charges two and three, we’ll seal off the chamber at both ends.”

“I’m not an explosives expert,” Archie said with a frown, “but that’s what it seems to be saying.”

“Well, that’s good enough for me,” said Tom. “Let’s get clear and then we’ll set them off. We can’t let Völz unload that train.”

“You know, there may well be some people in the tunnel when you let those charges off,” Archie pointed out. “They probably won’t make it.”

“I know.” Tom compressed his lips. “But a lot more people may not make it if we don’t stop Völz now.”

They turned to leave, but Renwick, called out and stopped them in their tracks.

“Thomas, dear boy. Surely you are not just going to leave me here?”

“Aren’t I?” said Tom drily. “Just watch me.”

“They will shoot me, you know that.”

“Good. Then it will save me the trouble,” Archie said.

Renwick ignored him, his eyes boring instead into Tom’s. “You cannot do this, Thomas.

Think

about

the

times

we

had

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together. Think about the way things used to be between us. Unless you help me now, it will be as if you pulled the trigger.”

“Don’t listen to him, Tom,” Archie warned.

“Answer my question.” Tom walked over to where Renwick was still propped up against the mine wall. “Did my father know who you were? Did he work with you?”

“Let me go, then I will tell you.”

Tom shook his head. “No. I’m fed up with negotiating with your lies.” He reached into Renwick’s jacket pocket and pulled out the gold Patek Philippe pocket watch that had once belonged to his father. “I’ll take this,” he said, taking a quick look at it and then slipping

it

into

his

coat.

“You

won’t

be

needing

it

anymore.”

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

7:15 p.m.

They sprinted down the tunnel until the rectangle of blackness and the luminescent glow of the snow in the pale moonlight told them they were near the exit. Seconds later they spilled out into the fresh air, the relief of emerging from under the mountain’s oppressive weight making them momentarily dizzy.

“Are you ready?” Tom asked when he had located a suitably broad tree to shelter behind, grasping the remote detonator in his right hand. They nodded, the mood suddenly somber. He flicked the unit on and extended the aerial. Four small lights glowed red, one next to each button.

“Two and three,” Archie reminded him. “That’ll seal either side of the chamber. Just two and three.”

“Okay.” Tom pressed the button marked 2. Far below them they heard a deep boom and then felt the ground shake. The snow that had accumulated on the upper branches of the fir trees above them fell to the ground with a thump. A stiff breeze blew up the mine shaft toward them, strong enough to ruffle Viktor’s dark hair.

“Now three,” she prompted him gently. Tom pressed button number 3. This time the sound was much closer, a throaty roar that seemed to grow louder and the black sun 407

louder until it was chased out of the mine entrance in a cloud of smoke and dust that cloaked everything it came into contact with in a white shroud. Eventually, the smoke settled and they stepped toward the mine entrance, the air thick with dust.

“You still got your radio, Viktor?” Tom asked. “Let’s call Dom and see whether she’s managed to get down to that chalet yet.”

Viktor located her radio and swapped it for the detonator. He turned it on and entered the encryption code that would allow him to tune it to the agreed frequency. But before he could speak into it, Viktor’s voice rang out.

“Tom, look out.”

She threw herself across him, shoving him to the ground as the crack of a gunshot split the night. He landed heavily on his back, Viktor on top of him, her body suddenly limp and heavy. She’d been hit.