The Midas Legacy (Wilde/Chase 12) (13 page)

‘I bet when you became a monk you didn’t think you’d end up studying nuclear physics, did you?’ said the Englishman wryly.

Amaanat smiled. ‘No. I became a monk to atone for a violent life.’ He turned his head, the lamplight picking out the ragged scar down his face. ‘I have learned much since then – but not everything. I am still a mere monk, not a scientist. My studies of the intangible are on a spiritual plane, not the subatomic.’

The strange geode was now over half full, the last canister of mercury being brought to it. ‘How does it work?’ said Nina. ‘It looks like you’re going to lower the thing into the water, then pull it out filled with gold. It can’t be that simple.’

Rudra laughed. ‘But it is!’

‘We do lower it into the water,’ said Amaanat. ‘But that would not transform mercury into gold without the Crucible. It somehow traps and reflects the neutrons created by the chain reaction, and increases the chance that they will transform an atom of mercury.’

She shook her head. ‘I still have trouble believing it.’

The last can was emptied. ‘You soon will not have to believe,’ Amaanat told her as he gazed into the chasm once more. ‘You will
know
. Look.’

Something had changed below. The light in the cave was different, gradually brightening. It was not the stark white of the lanterns’ LEDs, but a deep cyan. Nina peered over the edge – and was startled to see a glow coming from beneath the water’s surface. The walls themselves seemed to be alight.

Eddie joined her, only to hurriedly retreat, shielding his crotch again. ‘That’s bloody radiation!’

‘It cannot hurt you,’ Amaanat said calmly, watching as the strange luminescence slowly intensified. ‘Not yet. It is Cherenkov radiation, coming from the uranium as it reaches critical mass, but it is not strong enough to get through the water.’

‘So when
will
it hurt us?’ the Yorkshireman demanded.

‘We still have time to leave the cave, do not worry.’ The monks slung the rope through the pulley on the tripod, then tied one end to the Crucible’s handle. With one man steadying the vessel, the others hauled on the line. The stand creaked as it took the weight of the mercury-filled sphere, but held. The Crucible was lowered slowly to just beneath the cut-off line of the gold on the walls, and the rope secured to hold it in place.

The water level was now not far below it, the eerie light strong enough to illuminate the whole cave. Nina saw for the first time that there was another passage to one side. ‘Now we must leave,’ said Amaanat.

‘See you at the top,’ Eddie told him, taking his wife’s hand and leading her briskly towards the exit.

‘Why the rush?’ she asked. ‘The monks aren’t worried about it.’

‘Maybe, but they’re monks.’

‘And?’

‘They’re not generally known for wanting kids!’

‘You want another kid?’ she asked, surprised.

‘Not right now, but it’d be nice to have the option. If we don’t get out of here, our bits’ll end up glowing green!’

‘I’m fairly sure our second kid won’t be the Hulk,’ she said, teasing, as they rounded the twist in the passage and saw daylight ahead.

A figure stood at the entrance: Jayesh. ‘Where are the others?’ he asked.

‘On their way,’ Nina told him. ‘You might want to move back, though. That big steam blast? There’ll be another one in a few minutes.’ The taciturn Nepali’s eyebrows twitched, and he followed them clear.

The monks emerged soon afterwards. ‘Four minutes,’ warned Amaanat as he joined the visitors. ‘When it is safe to go back inside, you will see that I have spoken the truth.’

Time passed with infuriating slowness. Eventually the low rumbling began again. The hissing of subterranean steam grew steadily louder – until another vaporous eruption burst from the cave mouth, a second, smaller jet again gushing from the opening on the lower ledge. The rising plumes were quickly swept away by the wind.

Rudra retrieved the hazmat suit and Geiger counter from the hut. His safety check was soon completed, and he waved the onlookers back to the cave. ‘Now you shall see what Talonor saw,’ said Amaanat. The group put their masks on again as he led the way inside.

Far down the valley, a man watched through a powerful telescope as they disappeared into the darkness. He panned it on its tripod mount to find Jayesh, still standing watch. ‘So, one bodyguard,’ he whispered in Greek. Another look back at the now empty opening, then he withdrew and turned around.

Two helicopters stood before him, having landed on a higher plateau over four miles from the target zone. One was an elderly Polish-built Mil Mi-2 eight-seater in bright red civilian paintwork, the other a slightly larger but much newer AgustaWestland AW169 outfitted with an external winch. Swathes of black plastic had been taped over parts of their hulls to cover tail numbers and identifying logos. He went to the second aircraft, ignoring the bored Nepalese men inside, and collected a satellite phone before returning to the telescope. Resuming his observation, he made a call.

It was soon answered. ‘Yes?’

‘It’s Axelos.’

‘Ah, Petros!’ said the deep-voiced man at the other end of the line. He spoke briefly to someone in English, then returned to his native language. ‘Where are you, and what have you found?’

‘I paid a customs officer at Kathmandu airport to hide a tracker in Wilde and her husband’s baggage. We followed them into the mountains. They’ve gone into a cave with the monks.’ He frowned, still watching the ledge. ‘I don’t know what’s going on inside, but it’s weird. A lot of smoke or steam blew out of it.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that. Just secure the Crucible. How long will it take you to get into position?’

‘Thirty, forty minutes – we’ll need to fly behind the other mountains so they don’t hear us coming, and rope down higher up so we can attack from above.’

‘And will the men be up to the job?’

Axelos glanced at his companions: a collection of local mercenaries, hurriedly hired through his boss’s global network of contacts. All claimed to have military experience, but the black-haired Greek had many years of his own, and could tell that none were top-tier. But they were all he had. ‘It would have been better if I’d been able to use people I already knew – people I can rely on.’

‘I know. But when you need to act fast, you use what you have, not what you want, yes? Okay, do it.’

‘Moving out now,’ Axelos said.

He was about to end the call when the other man spoke again, sounding almost saddened. ‘And Petros?’

‘Yes?’

‘I’d prefer there to be no violence. The Crucible is what matters. But . . .’ His voice became harder, filled with meaning. ‘I
must
have it. Understood?’

‘Understood,’ Axelos replied. ‘I’ll call you again when it’s done.’

He disconnected and returned to the helicopters, calling out their passengers and getting one of the Nepalis to translate as he addressed them in perfect English. ‘All right! We’re moving out. You all know what to do, so follow my lead.’ He waited for the non-English-speakers to respond to the translation, then continued: ‘There’s a guard outside the cave, so we deal with him first. He looks Nepalese, but he’s not a monk, so you shouldn’t have any trouble picking him out. Then we round up everyone else.’

A mercenary, one of twin brothers whom Axelos could only tell apart by their scarves, spoke in clumsy English. ‘What we do if they do trouble?’

‘Use the minimum force necessary,’ he replied, ‘but if anyone poses a threat . . . take them out.’

Nods of agreement, with some leering smiles. The Greek concealed his disdain, instead signalling to the helicopter pilots. The Mil’s was a local Nepali, the AW169’s an American named Collins, another employee of Axelos’s paymaster. ‘Let’s do this.’

The eerie cyan glow had disappeared, only lamplight reflecting off the cavern’s golden walls. Wisps of steam coiled from the chasm. Nina looked down into it as the monks prepared to raise the Crucible back to floor level. The strange sphere was now suspended some distance above the surface, where the meltwater had boiled away in a furious burst.

What she could see of the mercury within the Crucible looked no different, though. Was the whole thing just some bizarre lie?

The monks strained to lift the red crystal up the shaft, gingerly pulling it on to solid ground. Rudra brought one of the empty canisters and placed the funnel into it, inserting a fine wire mesh to act as a filter. A pair of men gently tipped the Crucible, pouring out its contents.

The mercury containers had remained in the cave, and Nina noticed that their dull metal had acquired a faintly lustrous sheen. ‘Is that gold?’ she asked, pointing it out to Amaanat.

‘Yes.’

‘How? They weren’t in the Crucible.’

‘The mercury vapour in the air touches everything. The neutrons inside the Crucible reach such an intensity that they escape in a burst – and some of the atoms of vapour are hit and transformed into gold. It is how the walls have become like this,’ he said, touching one of the subsumed wooden beams. ‘Layers of gold have built up over years, over centuries.’

The first container was now filled with mercury. Rudra carefully lifted the filter from the funnel. Another monk positioned a shallow bowl beneath it as he shook the little sieve, a few tiny flecks falling through the mesh, then tipped out the larger pieces that had been caught.

Amaanat brought his lantern closer. ‘You see? Gold.’

Nina leaned in. The misshapen lumps were all small, resembling loose dental fillings, but they had the undeniable yellow gleam of the precious metal. Combined, she estimated they might weigh about half an ounce, so the entire contents of the Crucible could yield perhaps four times that in total. At current prices that was still worth a few thousand dollars, but it was not the overwhelming quantities she had expected. ‘There isn’t much there.’

‘And it could’ve been in the mercury when you brought it up here, for all we know,’ said Eddie.

Rudra gave him an irate look, but Amaanat simply shrugged. ‘Why would we lie to you? We have asked you to tell no one about this, and you have agreed. We have nothing to gain.’

‘He’s got a good point,’ Nina was forced to admit.

‘There is more in the bottom,’ the abbot went on. ‘Steel will float on mercury, but gold will sink. From this Crucible, we will get perhaps ten troy ounces.’

‘Ten ounces is quite a lot . . .’ Belatedly she registered his phrasing. ‘Wait, you said
this
Crucible. There are more?’

‘There is one other,’ he replied. ‘Talonor had this one with him when he first found this place. The second was brought when he returned.’

‘Two Crucibles, double the gold,’ said Eddie. ‘Not bad.’

The old monk smiled at some highly amusing secret. ‘What is it?’ Nina asked.

‘Come, see for yourself,’ Amaanat told her.

As the other monks continued to pour out the mercury, he led Nina and Eddie to the side passage. The walls were still caked in gold, but once they had rounded a corner, the coating vanished, leaving nothing but bare, damp rock.

‘Here,’ said the monk, holding up his lamp. ‘Here is the second Crucible.’

The couple’s eyes widened simultaneously. ‘Okay,’ said Eddie, ‘double the gold was a bit of an understatement.’

‘You’re not kidding!’ Nina replied, amazed. ‘This thing could fill up Fort Knox!’

The second Crucible was much like the first in form, a rough spheroid of dark red crystal with an opening carved into its top. But it was very different in size. Where the first had been the size of a basketball, this one was almost as tall as Nina, a great bulbous cauldron inside a heavy metal cage. As for how much mercury it might hold, she guessed it would measure in the hundreds of gallons.

It would not produce ounces of gold. It would produce
pounds
.

‘It has not been used for many years,’ said Amaanat. ‘To fill it would need so much mercury that people might become suspicious. It would also need many trips up the mountain to bring the mercury here, and you have seen how dangerous that can be. But we know it has been used in the past.’

‘By Talonor and the people he left here,’ said Nina, nodding. She peered inside the artefact, the monk lifting his lantern to illuminate the interior. The light reflected back in a dazzling display from countless gem-like facets.

‘Where do you even get all the mercury?’ Eddie asked. ‘It’s not like you can just order it from Amazon.’

Nina answered the question for him. ‘Mercury’s extracted from cinnabar, which isn’t that hard to find. It’s been mined since the Neolithic era. There are major deposits in China and other parts of Asia – Spain, too,’ she added in realisation. ‘Spain would have been under Atlantis’s control when the empire was at its height. That’s where they got the raw mercury, and they took it back to Atlantis to turn into gold. At least, until their natural reactor decayed and ran out of power.’

‘You now see why we have kept this place a secret,’ said Amaanat. ‘To make gold in such great quantities – some men would start wars for that. We have saved lives, kept the peace.’

‘While using it for yourselves,’ she observed.

‘We are in a remote place, and everything we need to survive must be brought to us. It is expensive. We use the small Crucible to create enough gold to support the monastery, no more. It has allowed us to protect the Midas Cave for hundreds of years.’

‘But now we know about it,’ said Eddie. Nina knew why he had made the pointed statement: if the monks were going to do anything extreme to keep their secret, it would be now, after their visitors had learned the truth . . .

But Amaanat merely bowed his head. ‘You could tell the whole world, if you wished,’ he said. ‘But I do not believe you will. You have both seen the violence that can come from greed.’ He looked up again, regarding them with a gaze that went deeper than their eyes alone. ‘I trust you to keep our silence.’

‘We will,’ Nina assured him. Eddie nodded in agreement.

The abbot smiled, then led them back into the golden cavern. The other monks were still carefully draining the smaller Crucible, filtering out more nuggets of gold. ‘We should wait outside,’ he said, continuing towards the exit. ‘It is cold, but the air is clean.’