‘Can I come with you?’ Macy asked.
‘I’m sorry, but no,’ Nina told her. ‘We’ll have to go a long way, and it’ll be very cold when we get there. And it might even be dangerous.’
Her expression became one of alarm. ‘But what if you don’t come back?’
‘We’ll come back,’ Eddie assured her. ‘That’s why I’m going too, to keep Mummy safe.’
‘But if you go away with Mommy to keep her safe, you won’t be here to keep me safe!’
He gave her a loving smile. ‘Glad you think that way about me, love. But nothing’ll happen to you.’
Macy was not mollified. ‘Hey, it’s okay, honey,’ said Nina, picking her up. ‘We’re not going to go away for ever! We’d never do that, we love you too much. It’s just something Mommy needs to do.’
‘And Daddy needs to do to keep her out of trouble,’ added her husband.
‘Why do you need to go?’ asked Macy.
Nina carried her to the desk, showing her the notes and map. ‘Before I was born, my mommy looked for something special hidden in a country called Nepal. She never found it, but now I’ve got the chance to find it and finish off her work. Nepal’s a long way away, though, so if I go, it’ll be for a few days.’ She gave Eddie a look. ‘But if you don’t want us to go, then… then we won’t.’
Macy regarded the map for a moment. ‘Did you love your mommy as much as I love you?’
‘Yes, I did,’ Nina replied, her voice catching unexpectedly. ‘I still do, even though she’s not here any more.’
‘Will it make you happy if you find what your mommy was looking for?’
‘I hope it will, yes.’
The little girl’s face crinkled in deep thought. ‘I don’t want you to go, but… I want you to be happy. So you can go if you want to.’ She managed an uncertain smile.
Nina kissed her. ‘I love you,’ she said. ‘I love you so much.’
‘Are you absolutely sure about that, Macy?’ Eddie asked.
She hesitated before answering. ‘Yes…?’
‘If we go, we’ll ask Holly to look after you—’
The smile became wider. ‘Oh yay! I love Holly! She’s got nice hair, and she talks like you, Daddy! Only better.’
‘Ha!’ said Nina.
‘She’s a southerner, she can’t even pronounce simple words like “bath” right,’ he complained. ‘But you’d be happy if she looked after you?’ Macy nodded vigorously. ‘That’s that question answered, then. We still need to ask Holly if she’s actually up for babysitting for a few days,’ he reminded Nina. ‘If she isn’t, your whole plan’s down the toilet, because there’s no one else I’d trust to look after her.’
‘I know,’ Nina replied ruefully. ‘We’ll have to offer her more than fifty bucks this time, I guess! And as for you… are you sure you want to come with me?’
‘You’ve got to do what you do,’ he said. ‘And I’ve got to do what I do. Which is watch out for you!’
‘Hey, not for a while,’ she pointed out. ‘It’s been more than three years since anything bad happened to us.’
He snorted. ‘Great, you just jinxed it.’
‘Oh come on. What could happen? The monastery’s remote, but it’s not like we haven’t been to isolated places before — we went to frickin’ Antarctica once! As long as we’re prepped, we’ll be fine. It’s not as if there’ll be any bad guys.’
‘I’ll remind you of that when half a dozen helicopter gunships start shooting at us,’ he said, with a wry grin. ‘But I actually know someone in Nepal, an old Gurkha mate. I’ll see if I can get hold of him. He’ll be able to sort things out for us. Although the first person I need to call is Holly.’
Nina saw Olivia’s card still amongst the papers on the desk. ‘I’d better make some calls of my own.’
‘So you’ve found the Midas Cave?’ said Olivia over the phone half an hour later. ‘That’s wonderful! Where is it?’
‘I think I’ve found it,’ Nina corrected. ‘If I’m right, it’s more or less where Mom thought it was all along. She just didn’t consider that a key piece of data was flawed. If she’d known that, she might have found the cave forty years ago.’
‘I’m so happy to know that. Oh, poor Laura. If only…’ Olivia sighed, then her voice became more measured. ‘So where exactly is it?’
‘That’s what I’ll hopefully find out in Nepal. I’m going in a few days to see for myself.’
Her grandmother had clearly not expected that. ‘What? You’re going yourself?’
‘Yes.’
‘Surely that’s not necessary. It’s a lot of time and effort, and expense. And what about Macy?’
‘Her cousin’s agreed to look after her for a few days. And Macy actually seems quite excited at the prospect of our going away. I’m not sure if that’s a relief or a worry!’ She laughed a little, then went on: ‘You know, I thought you of all people would want me to find out if the cave really exists.’
‘I don’t want you to take any risks on my account,’ Olivia replied. ‘I’ve only just met my granddaughter; I’d rather not lose her to an avalanche!’
‘I know what I’m doing. I have done this before. And actually, the other reason I’m going — the reason I want to go — is something I should thank you for.’
‘Me? What would that be?’
‘Because you gave me a way to reconnect with Mom — a way to honour her memory. And it’s also giving me a chance to get back to doing what I do best — being an archaeologist. So thank you.’
‘My pleasure,’ the elderly woman replied, though she sounded troubled. ‘What are you going to do now?’
‘Set everything up. We’ve got to book flights, arrange transport, deal with the Nepalese government — although I can call in some favours at the IHA to take care of that, so I’m not expecting any problems. There are some advantages to being famous.’
‘Well, if you feel you must head off on a trek through the Himalayas, I doubt I’m going to talk you out of it. You certainly have your mother’s… resolve.’
‘I’m sure Eddie would use a different word.’
‘Your grandfather felt just the same about me. It runs in the family.’
‘Glad to find that out. Okay, I’ll talk to you when I get back.’
‘Good luck, Nina,’ Olivia replied. ‘And… take care.’
‘Thanks.’ Nina rang off. She briefly wondered why her grandmother had been so unsettled by the thought of her going to Nepal, but dismissed it; she imagined she herself would have much the same response if Macy declared she was heading off on a whim to some remote corner of the world. Something to look forward to once her daughter turned eighteen, she told herself, before directing her thoughts to her own impending journey.
8
‘Well, this is nice, innit?’ said Eddie as he stepped down from the small turboprop aircraft. The runway of Jumla airport, over two hundred miles west of the capital Kathmandu, was a bumpy line of snow-scabbed asphalt along a narrow valley floor, meagre little fields abutting the boundary fence. The surrounding mountains were blanketed by clouds, a chill morning dampness permeating everything.
‘Lovely,’ Nina replied, huddling in her thick jacket. ‘This friend of yours, will he be here yet?’
‘Jayesh? Yeah. If he says he’s going to do something, it gets done.’ They collected their backpacks and headed for the small terminal building.
A short Nepalese man with a drooping grey-speckled moustache awaited them. ‘Chase,’ he grunted, the tip of the cigarette dangling from his mouth glowing red. ‘Huh. You got fat.’