Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [137]
Another, less obvious theme, she realised, was that everything was relatively small and easily transportable. Their owner was on the run; he had brought with him probably only a fraction of the rare items he possessed.
The man in question was waiting for them at the room’s centre. Their enemy. Harald Glas.
26
He was in his early fifties, with slightly unkempt greying hair, strong jaw blue with stubble. His tall, lean body had the build of a runner – but the Dane would not be racing again. He was confined to a wheelchair. Nina was startled; she’d had no idea that he was disabled.
‘I’m not armed, Mr Chase,’ he said as Eddie pointed the rifle at him. ‘And thanks to the Group’s assassins –’ his eyes flicked down at his immobile legs – ‘I am no longer a physical threat.’
The gun didn’t lower as the Englishman approached. ‘I’ll be the judge of that. Hands up. Nina, if Davros here tries anything, shoot him.’
Nina aimed the Glock as Eddie searched Glas, then the wheelchair. Satisfied that he had told the truth, Eddie finally lifted his finger from the ASM-DT’s trigger and rejoined Nina.
‘Thank you,’ said Glas. ‘Now, I imagine you have questions for me.’
‘Or we could just kill you,’ Eddie told him.
Glas was uncowed by the threat. ‘Then you will never find out what is truly going on – and the threat faced by the world.’ His gaze moved to Nina. ‘A threat that you are part of, even though you don’t realise it.’
‘Well, now’s your chance to enlighten me,’ said Nina, watching Sophia warily as she moved to stand beside Glas. ‘You’ve been trying to kill me. Why?’
‘Travis Warden has probably told you a tall tale about me, yes? That I am opposed to the Group’s plan to save the planet because it will wipe out my profits? And that by killing you I can prevent the Group from finding the Atlantean meteorite they need to channel earth energy.’
‘Something like that.’
Glas nodded. ‘What would you say if I told you that controlling such energy is only a minor part of the Group’s true goals?’
‘I actually wouldn’t be too surprised,’ Nina told him with a humourless smile. ‘I didn’t trust him any more than I trust you.’
‘Then you are perceptive, as well as a survivor. Warden is a leech and a liar – his only interests are power and money.’
‘But you were happy to be part of his little Super Best Friends club while it suited you.’
Glas leaned forward. ‘The Group is . . . an exceptionally powerful organisation. Its original members formed it from a collaboration of much older groups after the Second World War, with the aim of using global commerce to prevent such a conflict from ever happening again.’
‘It hasn’t exactly done a great job,’ said a disapproving Eddie. ‘There’ve been wars pretty much the whole time since 1945.’
‘But not massive wars,’ Glas countered. ‘Not the kind that can smash entire industrialised countries and destroy the global economy. The Group’s influence helped stop some of these flashpoints from starting larger fires. A word to the right person at the right time can cool even the hottest head. For example, the Cuban Missile Crisis was not stopped because both sides saw sense – it stopped because they were made to see sense.’
‘You’re trying to tell me the Group is a force for good?’ said Nina in disbelief.
He was unapologetic. ‘That was its original intent, yes. And for twenty or thirty years it was successful. But over time, power began to corrupt. An old and inevitable story. The Group stopped influencing the decisions of governments, and instead began controlling them.’
‘Buying power. People like Dalton.’
‘Yes, but on a