The Valhalla Prophecy (67 page)

The young German was appalled. “What are you
doing
?” she shrilled as he carried the dead woman toward her.

“Saving your life. Take your clothes off.”

“What?”

“You need to swap clothes with her.” He laid the body on the ground and, with a degree of disgust at himself even though he knew it had to be done, started to undress it. “I’m going to do what you asked me to: put a bullet in your head and burn your body. Except
she’s
going to be you—that’s hopefully what Lock and his people’ll think, anyway.”

Realization dawned. “You are going to trick them into thinking you have killed me?”

“Yeah. I’ll make damn sure that they find me and see what’s left of the body. If it’s so badly burned that they think they won’t be able to get anything useful from it, then they’ll leave—and they’ll stop looking for you.”

“But if they find you with the body, they will kill you!”

“They can
try
,” Chase said, with a confidence he didn’t feel. “The main thing is that you’ll be safe.” He looked away as Natalia started to remove her clothing, concentrating on the unpleasant task of stripping the dead Russian. “Once you’ve gotten dressed, I want you to go back to the village and stay with your friends. I know roughly where we are, so if you head east”—he gestured over his shoulder with a thumb—“you’ll get to the river, and then you can follow it back to that crossing we used. If you even
think
there’s anyone nearby, hide until you’re sure they’ve gone—and for Christ’s sake don’t step on any more land mines!”

Even without looking at her, he could tell she was dismayed. “You … you are going to leave me?”

“No,” he replied. “
You’re
going to leave
me
. And here’s another promise. I’ll never tell anyone—
anyone
—that you’re still alive until I’m absolutely sure that nobody’ll be able to use you to restart your grandfather’s experiments. You won’t ever see me again unless I’m one hundred percent sure of that. Otherwise there’s a risk I might lead somebody to you.” He removed the last piece of the Russian’s clothing. “Here. Put these on,” he said,
still not looking around at Natalia as he held up the bundle.

She took the damp and dirty garments from him, then passed him her own. “Let me help.”

Chase shook his head. “No. Soon as you’re dressed, get to the village. I’ll take it from here.”

“But—”

“Don’t argue. It’s the only way to keep you safe, and you wouldn’t want me to break a promise by not protecting you, would you?” He began to dress the body in Natalia’s clothes. The Russian was slightly bigger than the young woman, but the clothes she had borrowed from her friends in the village were loose fitting enough that it did not matter.

He was halfway done when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Eddie? I … I am ready to go.”

Chase turned to see that Natalia was now dressed—and that despite her words, she did not want to leave. He stood and faced her. “Are you all right?”

“No,” she admitted. “I am frightened. And not just for me. These people, when they find you, they will—”

“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” He put his hands on the young woman’s shoulders and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be fine. It’s the only way to keep you safe. Although,” he added as an idea came to him, “sorry about this.”

“Sorry about what—Ah!” She gasped as he twiddled a skein of her blond hair around his forefinger and tugged hard, strands snapping. “That hurt! Why did you do that?”

He tucked the hairs into a pocket. “Her hair’s darker than yours. If I make sure they find these, it’ll be more convincing. Now go on, get moving.”

Chase straightened, gently but firmly pushing her away. Natalia got the message and, with an expression of deep regret, set off into the jungle to the east. Then she paused, looking back. “Eddie. Thank you.”

He nodded. “Can you make
me
a promise?”

“Of course. What is it?”

“That you’ll make the most of the life you’ve got.”

Tears shone in her eyes. “I will. If you do the same.”

“Always do.” He gestured for her to go. Reluctantly she turned away and headed into the trees. Before long she was lost to sight amid the undergrowth.

Chase watched until he was sure she had gone, then looked back at the dead woman. “Okay,” he said with a sigh, “sorry about this, but I’m going to have to kill you again.” He finished dressing the corpse, then raised it over one shoulder in a fireman’s lift. “Now, where’s the best place to start a fire?” He got his bearings, and headed back into the jungle …

“So that’s what happened,” finished Eddie. He and Nina were seated with Natalia on the same makeshift bench on which the young woman had told the Yorkshireman her story eight years earlier. “Lock and Hoyt bought it, and so did Kagan and the Russians. They actually believed I’d executed Natalia. As if!”

“Yeah, and I believed you too,” said Nina, still reeling from the revelation. “You jerk! You lied to me!” She punched him, only semi-playfully, on the arm. Natalia looked on with a mixture of amusement and concern, unsure exactly how angry she was.

“No I didn’t!” he protested. “And by the way: ow.”

“You did, you said you killed her!”

“No, I said
I did what she asked me to do
. Which was to make sure nobody used her DNA to re-create the eitr. Lock and the Russians both thought she was dead, so they stopped looking for her. Problem solved!”

“I did not agree with him at the time,” said Natalia. “But now I am very glad that he did what he did. It has not been easy, but the friends I have made here, the help I have been able to give to the children—I would not give that up for anything.”

Eddie’s expression became more serious. “So how are you?” he asked her. “Have there been any more … symptoms?”

She gave him a sad look, then discreetly rolled up the hem of her thin cotton shirt. Several lumps, ranging in size from the width of her little finger’s tip to slightly
smaller than a golf ball, ran in a ragged line up from her waist. “The first one appeared last year,” she said, indicating the largest. “The others came soon after. They are only growing slowly … but they are growing all the same.”

The sight of the tumors filled Nina with a sickening chill. Was this a glimpse of her own future? She had to clear her throat before speaking, mouth suddenly dry. “Have you seen a doctor?”

Natalia shook her head. “I did not want to risk anyone learning that I was still alive. I was afraid that the Russians or Americans would come after me again.” She lowered her shirt.

“They won’t,” said Eddie. “I promised you eight years ago, the only way you’d ever see me again was if I was one hundred percent sure that wasn’t going to happen.” He spread his hands wide. “And here I am!”

“You are completely sure?” she asked, hesitant.

“The second eitr pit has been destroyed,” Nina told her. “The Russians developed a substance to neutralize the eitr, and as far as we know, it worked. And I heard Lock say there’s nothing anyone could learn about the eitr from your DNA. So if you want to see a doctor …”

“I do not think they will be able to help me,” the German said with a sigh. “You did not say that the Americans or Russians had developed a cure.”

“Afraid nobody’s found anything. Yet,” Eddie added for Nina’s benefit. “But if you want or need anything, we can arrange it.” He nudged his wife. “See if Seretse canceled your IHA credit card yet, eh?”

Natalia shook her head again, but this time in gratitude. “There is nothing I need.”

“Really?” Nina said.

“I have everything I want here already. I have lived my life the way I promised Eddie.” Seeing that he was unsure what she meant, she continued: “That I would make the most of everything I had.” She smiled. “It was very good advice.”

“Maybe I should write a book about it. I might get a six-figure advance too,” he said, grinning at Nina.

“But if you could get medicines and toys for the children, that would be wonderful,” Natalia went on. “Anything you can give them will help.”

“I’ll see to it,” Nina assured her.

The three of them continued to talk for some time, curious villagers occasionally joining them with questions for the visitors. Even the boy with the missing leg, now in his teens and keen to show off his agility on his prosthetic limb, made an appearance. Eventually, however, the conversation came around to what Eddie had been doing since his last visit, which in turn led to the events in the eitr pit. “You … were infected?” Natalia asked Nina in a quiet voice.

Nina touched the little mark on her cheek. “Yes,” she said, sighing. “Just a drop, but that was all it took. I don’t know how long I’ve got left.”

“I am so sorry.” She looked down at the ground. “This is all my grandfather’s fault. He was an evil man. I wish he had never been—”

“It’s not
your
fault, though,” Eddie cut in firmly. “And Nina, I didn’t just bring us here to tell Natalia that she was safe. I wanted to see if she was still okay—and to show you that it’s not all over. You can’t just give up and accept it. You might have years, bloody
decades
even, before any symptoms show. That’s plenty of time for someone to find a cure. You just don’t know. Christ, look at everything we’ve survived up till now. We should be dead fifty times over, but we’re still here! So I’m not going to give up on you, ever, and I won’t let you give up either. Like Mac always told me: Fight to the end.”

Nina tried to take solace from his words, but struggled to overcome the gloom in her heart. “I wish I had your confidence.”

“No, Eddie is right,” Natalia insisted. “Because of him, I have had eight more years of life. Sometimes they have been hard, but they have always been worth it.” She smiled at the American. “And you are very lucky. You have a wonderful man to share your life with. He will look after you and protect you—I know this, because he did the same for me.”

Eddie put his arm around Nina. “She’s right. I’ll always be here for you, love. You know that.”

Nina’s gloom evaporated as she turned to look at her husband’s smiling face. He was not handsome in any conventional sense, yet she couldn’t imagine anyone else she would rather see each morning for the rest of her life. “Yeah, I know. I love you.”

“I love you too.” They kissed, making Natalia smile and blush.

They stayed in the village for a few more hours, talking. “Afraid we have to go,” Eddie eventually told Natalia after checking his watch. “We’ve got a plane to catch from Da Nang tomorrow, and I don’t want to drive back there at night.”

“That is a shame, but I understand,” she replied, with a small grin. “I love the people here, but they are very bad drivers!”

“I’ll make sure that the medicines and other things are couriered to you,” said Nina.

The German nodded in thanks. “Oh, and I’ve got something else for you,” Eddie told her. He produced a slip of paper and offered it to her.

“What is it?” Natalia asked.

“Your dad’s phone number. He’s still in Hamburg.”

She regarded the paper almost fearfully before taking it. “I … do not know what I should say to him. It has been eight years—he will have thought I am dead …”

“Yeah, I know,” said Eddie with sympathy. “But whatever you say to him, I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy to hear it.”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “Thank you, Eddie. For everything.”

They went to the four-by-four and made their farewells. “I will say to you what Eddie said to me,” Natalia told Nina. She paused for a moment to remember his words. “Make the most of the life you have got.”

“I will,” said Nina, smiling. “Thank you.”

Natalia kissed her cheek, then did the same to Eddie. “And you too.”

“I never do anything else!” he said, kissing her in return.

The couple got into the Patrol. Eddie started the engine, giving Natalia a final wave before turning the vehicle back toward the jungle track. The sun had wheeled around the sky during their stay, illuminating the jungle with a gorgeous honey-like glow as it began to descend toward the tree-shrouded horizon. Nina took in the view. “Look at that,” she said. “It really is an amazing world, isn’t it? And I want to make the most of it with you while I can.”

Eddie hugged her, then they kissed again. “I’ll be with you all the way,” he told her.

“Fight to the end,” she replied, smiling.

Another kiss, then they set out into the waiting world.