The radio came to life again, the Russian at the other end of the line delivering a curt statement. Kagan went pale. ‘They just did.’
‘What?’ Nina gasped.
‘They had a Tupolev-160 on combat patrol over the Arctic Ocean. It is — was carrying a Kh-102 cruise missile. It is a stealth weapon; NATO’s radars will not see it.’
‘I fucking knew I should have shot up those Tu-160s!’ Eddie growled. ‘How big’s the warhead?’
‘Two hundred kilotons. Much smaller than the Tsar Bomba, but it does not need to be so big. It is very accurate.’ He glanced towards the steaming pit. ‘They will be able to drop it straight down the hole.’
‘How long have we got?’
Kagan spoke into the radio, soon getting a reply. ‘Thirty minutes. The missile is subsonic — but it is still as fast as a jet.’
‘But they haven’t even given us a chance,’ protested Nina. ‘We can still try to use Thor’s Hammer. If it works, they don’t need to nuke the pit!’
‘Can they abort the missile in flight?’ Eddie asked. Kagan nodded. ‘Then get back on the blower and tell ’em we’ll confirm that the eitr’s been neutralised in twenty-nine minutes!’
‘Preferably less,’ said Nina. ‘I hate it when we cut things that fine.’
‘I don’t like to point this out,’ said Berkeley as Kagan reopened the channel to the Kremlin, ‘but I doubt Lock and Hoyt will let us just do whatever we’re going to do.’
‘We don’t have much choice, do we?’
‘There is still the helicopter option…’
‘If that nuke goes off, and NATO realises where it came from and retaliates, there might not be anywhere left for us to go home to!’ Kagan finished his brief discussion. ‘What did they say?’ she asked him.
‘If we neutralise the eitr, they will abort the missile,’ he replied.
‘Okay, then let’s wait five minutes and say we’ve done it,’ Berkeley suggested.
Kagan was not impressed. ‘One way or another, Russia will destroy the eitr,’ he said. ‘For the sake of the world, we must make it Unit 201’s way.’
Nina turned to Tova. ‘You don’t have to come with us. Wait in the helicopter — and keep an eye on him,’ she said, giving the pilot a suspicious look. She collected the dead mercenary’s gun and offered it to her. ‘You know how to use one of these?’
‘I think so,’ Tova replied, hesitantly accepting the weapon.
Eddie glanced at it. ‘Safety’s off.’
‘Then I know so.’
‘Take this too,’ said Kagan, giving her the radio. ‘It is a satellite system,’ he explained. ‘It will not work in the pit. This way, it will be safe.’
Nina gave Tova a smile of reassurance. ‘Don’t take off until we get back.’
‘You came for me, so I will wait for you,’ said the Swede. ‘Do not worry, I will watch the pilot. Good luck.’
‘Thanks, I think we’ll need as much as we can bloody get!’ said Eddie. He opened the helicopter’s door and shoved the pilot inside, then moved back to let Tova enter.
Berkeley looked hopefully at the aircraft. ‘What about me?’
‘Make yourself useful,’ the Yorkshireman told him. He indicated the metal cylinder. ‘Carry that. And don’t fucking drop it, or you’ll be dead before I have a chance to shoot you!’
The scientist was about to object, but a hard glare from Kagan silenced him. ‘We must hurry. Come.’ He jogged towards the pit, Nina, Eddie and the reluctant Berkeley following.
Shapes were visible beneath the snow as they neared the opening. Eddie wrinkled his face in disgust at the sight of a dead wolf, the cold having preserved its monstrously deformed and diseased features. ‘They must have come up here ’cause it was warmer in the pit. Bad move.’
‘Maybe they didn’t even go into the pit,’ said Nina, alarmed. ‘The whole environment might be toxic. God knows what we’ll be breathing in.’
‘If it is like the pit on Novaya Zemlya,’ Kagan said, ‘the air is not deadly — but it will not be pleasant either.’
Eddie grunted sarcastically. ‘We go to all the nice places, don’t we?’
They reached the two soldiers, the Russian officer exchanging brief words with them. Nina glanced at the nearby runestone, the final marker along the Vikings’ long journey, then down into the pit itself.
There was not much to see, the rising steam making it hard to pick out details. But the exposed rock was dark — almost black, in fact, caked with oily deposits. She stepped closer for a better look, only to cough as hot vapour wafted past her. Kagan had been right; it was unpleasant, a stinging, almost acidic sensation rasping at her sinuses. ‘I hope you’re right about this crap not being toxic,’ she told the Russian.
‘If we do not succeed, it will not matter if it is or not,’ he replied, checking that the ropes were secure before squinting into the depths of the pit. ‘Okay, I will climb down first.’
‘You ready?’ Eddie asked Nina.
‘As ready as I can be.’
He smiled. ‘Then let’s save the world. Again.’
33
Kagan took the lead, one of his men, Maslov, behind him as the group descended into the pit. Eddie was next, leading Nina and Berkeley. The second soldier, Pravdin, took up the rear — whether to provide overwatch for the whole group or simply to keep an eye on Berkeley and the canister was something known only to the Russian-speakers.
They were soon glad of the ropes set up by Lock’s team. The slope grew steeper as it descended, the steam condensing where rising hot air met the cold air at the surface; it did not take long for them to drop below the vaporous boundary. Eddie stared in disbelief at what came into view below. ‘What the hell is that?’
Berkeley was astounded by the sight. ‘I can see why the Vikings thought they’d found a giant snake!’
‘Not just one,’ said Nina, equally amazed.
Jabbing up at them from below were numerous thick columns, twisting around the edges of the shaft and criss-crossing it like bridges, all intertwined like a knot of serpents. It took a moment for her to realise what they were: crystals. She had seen pictures of crystal caves from all over the world; one of the largest was in Mexico, a great underground cavern filled with massive natural spans weighing dozens of tons. But this was on another scale entirely. The crystals were not the milky white of selenite, but instead a menacing, oily black covered by a scabrous pattern resembling snake scales. ‘That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen the bookmarks on Eddie’s laptop.’
Even with some idea of what to expect, Kagan was still as awed as the others. ‘They are formed from the eitr,’ he explained as they continued the descent. ‘The Academician told me what the Soviet scientists learned about them. They are constantly growing — they rise by several centimetres each week. At Novaya Zemlya, most were cleared to make room for ladders, but new ones soon grew to replace them.’
Nina regarded one of the crystals as they approached. Its upper end had broken off, leaving jagged obsidian shards. ‘They look pretty fragile. I’m surprised they’ve managed to get this high without collapsing under their own weight.’
‘They are weakened by the cold air at the top. But inside the pit, they are strong enough to take a man’s weight.’
Eddie looked down. ‘Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that.’
They reached the foot of the slope, the shaft dropping away vertically. The ropes led to the top of a particularly large crystal, which stretched across the full width of the shaft at a steep angle. It was about five feet in diameter — but its octagonal cross-section made the flat part of its upper surface considerably narrower.