Gerard was about to back away when Nina spoke again. ‘And I have a question about mythology,’ she said in her normal voice, edged with irritation at being patronised. ‘How do you reconcile your interpretation of the Osiris story with the accepted Egyptian myths? You know, the part where Osiris wasn’t actually granted immortality until after he died and was briefly resurrected by Isis only for Set to cut him into fourteen pieces, and then had his severed penis eaten by a fish?’
Hostile murmurs ran through the crowd. On stage, Shaban’s eyes suddenly bugged as he realised who was speaking. ‘Time to go,’ Eddie muttered.
Osir was ready to deliver another canned reply, but looked round as Shaban said something. He raised his eyebrows. ‘We have a surprise guest: Dr Nina Wilde. I’m sure you all saw her unexpected television appearance a few nights ago.’
‘Hello, hi,’ said Nina with a sarcastic wave as she and Eddie pushed their way to the aisle. Behind Osir, Diamondback quickly made his way from the stage. ‘Okay, so if you don’t want to talk about the penis thing, how about the Osirian Temple’s connection with the theft of the zodiac from under the Sphinx, and why you’re looking for the Pyramid of Osiris?’
‘I have no idea what you mean, Dr Wilde,’ said Osir, though his acting skills couldn’t conceal his surprise at her use of the term.
Behind him, Shaban stood, signalling to the green-blazered men at the rear of the room before calling out to the congregation. ‘Our temple has been defiled by unbelievers! Are you all going to take this insult?’
Some of the cultists began to boo, several standing with enraged faces. Osir looked concerned. ‘Wait, there is no need for anger,’ he began, but the men ignored him, shoving towards the aisle in response to Shaban.
‘Definitely time to go,’ said Eddie. He turned to the exit, seeing the greenjackets closing ranks. ‘Bollocks! You would have to get mouthy, wouldn’t you?’
‘Okay, not my smartest idea ever,’ Nina admitted. She now had the answer to her question of how seriously Osir’s followers took their religion - very.
Eddie looked towards the stage. Diamondback, marching down the aisle, was almost certainly armed - but there were now several people between him and them. If they could get outside before he had a clear aim . . .
One of the green-blazered men reached out to grab him—
‘Go!’ Eddie shouted, smashing a fist into his jaw.
Nina jumped the falling man and ran for the door. Another man clawed at her - but caught only her hat, pulling it from her head. She lashed out, hitting him hard on one cheek, and kicked open the door. The room outside was set up with display tables, loaded with books and DVDs and pyramidal geegaws. The people at the stalls jumped back in surprise as she burst in. ‘Eddie, come on!’
The man Nina had hit started after her - only to take a savage kick to the groin from Eddie’s booted foot. He collapsed with an animalistic squeal.
Someone clutched at Eddie’s leather jacket, pulling him back. He punched the man’s face, red blood squirting on to his green blazer. The man tumbled, hitting the statue of Osiris beside the door - and falling through it with a splintering crack, what looked like stone turning out to be nothing more than fibreglass and plaster. The statue rocked.
Osir’s shouts for order went unheard as the cultists in the aisle reacted with fury to the desecration of the statue, running at Eddie. Diamondback charged after them.
Eddie jumped and grabbed the statue’s arm, kicking back off the door frame to pull it over. He threw himself through the open door as the nine-foot sculpture crashed down behind him and exploded into sharp-edged fragments.
The shocked cult members stopped. Diamondback barged through them, drawing his revolvers.
Nina was at the exit to the street. Eddie slammed the temple door and tipped over a table, stacks of DVDs clattering across the floor. The next stall was still being set up, a cardboard box of books half-unpacked upon it. The flat plastic tie that held it closed in transit had been cut; he grabbed it and sprinted after Nina.
The temple door crashed open. One of the men in green ploughed through it, Diamondback right behind him, guns raised—
The goon stepped on the scattered DVD cases - and fell, plastic gliding over plastic like ice beneath his foot. Diamondback couldn’t stop in time and tripped over him. One of his guns went off as he hit the ground. The stallworkers fled screaming.
Eddie ran through the wooden double doors after Nina and slammed them shut. The handles were heavy knobs of time-worn brass; he looped the plastic tie repeatedly round them and knotted it, pulling it as tight as he could.
Macy ran to them. ‘Dr Wilde! What happened?’
‘They didn’t like having their beliefs challenged,’ Nina said. She looked for the fastest escape route.
Eddie had already seen it. He whistled sharply to signal the women, hurrying to Osir’s parked limousine. The startled chauffeur took the impacts of Eddie’s fist and the road surface to his face in rapid succession as he was thrown out on to the street. ‘Come on!’
‘We’re stealing his limo?’ Macy cried.
Nina opened the rear door and shoved her inside. ‘It’s better than a cab!’ She dived in after her. ‘Eddie, go!’
Eddie floored the accelerator. The limo leapt away from the kerb, clipping the car parked in front of it as he swerved. Then they were clear.
Nina looked back, seeing the wooden doors shaking violently before the plastic tie finally broke. Diamondback ran on to the street, shouting after them - but with enough presence of mind not to open fire right outside his employer’s building on a busy thoroughfare.
Eddie powered through the Parisian streets for barely more than a minute before skidding to a stop near the entrance to an underground Métro station. ‘All out!’ he called. They abandoned the vehicle - though Macy was surprised that they ran past the station rather than into it. ‘They’ll think that’s where we went,’ he explained. ‘If les flics are all busy checking the subway stations, they won’t be looking for us in a Starbucks round the corner.’
‘You’re pretty good at this stuff, aren’t you?’ said Macy with a certain amount of admiration.
‘Not bad,’ he said, smiling as they rounded a corner to see an Internet café ahead. ‘There we go. Not a Starbucks, but near enough.’ They went inside.
A police car sped past the café a few minutes later, siren wailing, but that was the only sign of pursuit they saw. The authorities and the Osirian Temple appeared to have fallen for Eddie’s ruse. All the same, he remained tense, looking out through the front window until the noise faded. ‘I think they’ve gone,’ he finally said, turning back to Nina and Macy. They had booked time on a computer, initially so as not to attract any attention, before looking up the cult on the Internet again. ‘So, what now?’
Nina had been giving that exact question some thought. ‘Osir’s definitely got the zodiac, and he really is after the Pyramid of Osiris. You saw how he reacted when I mentioned them.’
‘Yeah, and we were bloody lucky to get out of there. I think we ought to tell the Egyptians what we’ve found out and let them handle it. It’s their zodiac, they can get it back themselves.’