Cameron spat an eloquent curse and slammed the Discovery into reverse. He hammered backwards, grabbed the handbrake and made a skillful bootlegger turn, especially impressive in such a narrow space. As the Discovery slewed around, the shattered back window exploded inwards in a ringing shower of glass as a bullet whined into the car and tore up the ceiling fabric above Crowley’s head. Crowley ducked reflexively and Cameron cursed once more. A knot of wide-eyed tourists and stationary cars blocked the way to their right, which led back to the causeway in the direction they had first tried to go. Crowley saw Landvik’s car powering up behind them as Cameron turned a sharp left, heading away from the village.
As they went, some of the cars began to move again and there were screeching tires on the wet road and shouts of abuse as Landvik’s car was momentarily blocked. As the people shrank with distance, Crowley saw Landvik’s man waving his gun around, tourists fleeing, and the cars once again trying to back up, but getting in each other’s way in the small available space.
“Why is he so desperate for you?” Cameron asked, eyes focused on the road ahead. “Crowley said he didn’t want you, just information.”
Crowley turned again in his seat to see Rose. “That’s right. Did you give him anything?”
“Apparently I did,” Rose said. “Honestly, I can’t remember much of the ritual. It’s all a weird blur. But I gave him enough info to bring him here. He’s keeping me around in case he needs to delve deeper into my memories.”
“For what?” Crowley asked. “Have you found out yet what the point of all this is?”
Rose let out a small, humorless laugh. “He thinks I can help him find Mjolnir. You know, Thor’s Hammer?”
Silence fell in the car but for the rush of tires on the rain-soaked tarmac.
Cameron eventually let out a chuckle and Crowley said, “Seriously? Thor’s Hammer? That’s some serious comic book bollocks, isn’t it?”
Rose shrugged. “Is it?”
“It has to be. It’s a ridiculous idea!”
“Well, normally I would agree,” Rose said. “But then again, a few days ago I thought the idea of extracting past life memories was ridiculous.”
Crowley stared at her for a moment, having to accept there was some truth to what she said. “That really happened?” he asked.
She nodded. “Something happened. I experienced things I simply have never known about before. I didn’t just remember them, I re-lived them. It was uncanny. Terrifying.” She winced and Crowley realized there was a memory of considerable pain in there somewhere too.
The road they followed cut across a wide open space, grassy fields to their left, water to the right. They were fast approaching a lonely crag, the silhouette of a castle standing atop it, striking against the slate sky.
“This road is a dead end,” Rose said.
Crowley’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously? No junctions?”
Rose shook her head. “I’ve been to the island a few times, I know it quite well. This road leads there, to Lindisfarne Castle, and nowhere else.” She narrowed her eyes. “But you know what? I’m feeling strangely drawn to it. The feeling I had during the ritual, a kind of visceral longing… I can’t explain it, but I’m feeling it again now.”
“Well,” Crowley said. “Looks like we have no choice but to make a stand there.”
Chapter 47
Landvik leaned from the passenger window and yelled at the halfwit in his employ. “Hurry up, Levi! This place will be crawling with police soon.”
Levi nodded and went back to yelling at drivers. One woman had leapt from her car in a panic and run away down the road, leaving Levi to move her car himself. Most other pedestrians had long since followed the frightened woman and only a couple of cars remained, blocking the way to follow Rose Black and her interfering friends.
Landvik returned his attention to the tiny dot that was their Land Rover Discovery, heading out to the castle atop its lonely crag. “The hammer must be hidden up there, eh, Jarn?”
Jarn’s grip on the steering wheel didn’t falter, but his shoulders shrugged. “You think so, sir?”
“They seem to be heading that way.”
Jarn shrugged again. “The castle was built long after the Viking invasion.”
Landvik grinned, wishing he’d thought of this simple fact before now, but no matter. He was reminded of it now. “Yes, but the castle was partly built from the ruins of the old priory. Besides, there must have been something up there before. A wooden fort, a lookout, some structure would surely stand on that single raised piece of rock in this otherwise flat and dull island. Look at that place, how it stands above everything else, proud over land and sea alike. What man wouldn’t build something atop a place like that, hmm? You don’t think it feels right? A gateway to Valhalla.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Jarn admitted reluctantly.
Landvik felt a warmth inside, despite his cold, soaked clothes. A sensation of completion had begun to settle over him. “I’ll wager Rose remembered something about the castle, and was doing her best to keep it from us until her boyfriend could arrive. Or perhaps it’s only just come back to her now. Either way, it’s worked out for them this far, but we will soon catch up again.”
“Or perhaps that’s simply the only way they could go, given that we cut them off,” Jarn said.
Landvik laughed. Always such a pragmatist, young Jarn. “Well, maybe so. Either way, she said Lindisfarne, and she’s led us this far. Now she leads us there. So it’s there that we go.”
The road ahead was clear and Levi slumped back into the rear seat. “Let’s go,” he said uselessly as Jarn gunned the engine and the powerful car leapt forward.
“We left Grigor’s body lying in the rain back there,” Landvik said. “And there are many people in a panic, all making calls. This island will be alive with police soon, so we have little time. Whatever happens, I think it will end one way or another up there.” He nodded toward the crag and castle, the car with Rose Black and her friends lost from sight for the time being. “Be ready for anything.”
Chapter 48
Cameron raced through an open wooden five-bar gate, the tires buzzing over a short section of cobbled road. To their left was a small grassy area with a few cars parked on it. A handful of people jumped and looked around at Cameron’s speedy entrance, many frowns forming. But Rose knew they wouldn’t say anything. That British polite disapproval was as far as they would go. It seemed strange that these people had no idea of the mayhem and carnage just a kilometer or two behind them.
Cameron parked and they jumped from the car and jogged up the path leading to the castle. From this angle, the rocky outcrop with the castle atop looked like a giant ship had plowed into the island, forcing up a bow wave of grass and stone before it. The path immediately forked, the left side staying low and skirting the craggy rise. The other path went shallowly up to the right side of the castle. Crowley and Rose ran side by side up the right hand path, Cameron on their heels.
To their right lay a narrow grassy verge, then a low three-bar wooden fence. Over the fence, rocky beach extended a little way before the water lapped against the stones. The sea looked cold and uninviting, but the darkness of the clouds had lifted a little, the rain easing back to a gusty, intermittent spray. After the confines of cars and planes, Rose exalted in the cold wash of it, the salt scent of the ocean, and the aroma of fresh grass. The wind had a biting edge of cold to it that reminded her she was alive, her heart racing. She had come so close to death, Grigor’s hands around her throat, and now she was running, breathing deeply of the wide open world. She felt exhilarated.