“And he’s kidnapped Sophia,” Chase reminded him.

“She is his wife. I don’t know if kidnapping is technically the correct term in the circumstances. But it’s the uranium mine that’s the most important issue here.” He frowned. “Though you do realize that I can’t act on what you’ve just told me?”

Chase was confused. “Why not? Just get the U.N. involved, they can send inspectors into the mine-”

“It’s not the mine, Eddie. It’s you! You’ve been accused of assassinating a government minister, for God’s sake! And I fully believe that you’re innocent,” he continued, waving a finger to forestall Chase’s objections, “but I can’t go to the head of SIS with a bizarre story about uranium mines and ancient parchments, and ask him to authorize an investigation when the source of the story is wanted for the murder of a minister of state! The man was even shot with that ridiculous hand cannon of yours!”

“We do have kind of a credibility problem,” Nina was forced to admit.

Chase was undeterred. “It won’t matter once somebody sees that mine. All it’ll take is one piece of uranium ore and Yuen’s up shit creek.” He leaned forward, hands open pleadingly. “Come on, Mac. I’m not asking you to go direct to the prime minister, but I know you can at least nudge things in the right direction. Get someone to check out the mine, and everything’ll snowball from there.”

“Hrmm.” Mac appeared to be agonizing over a decision. “Oh, what the hell,” he finally said. “I’m already in this up to my waist by getting you out of the country. Might as well go all the way to my neck, eh?”

Chase grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

“It could take a few days, though. I used up a lot of favors arranging your extraction, so I’ll need to take a softly, softly approach. But yes, one way or another, we’ll get somebody into that mine, and then we can take a closer look at this Yuen fellow.”

“Great.” Chase sat back. “And speaking of Yuen, I need to use your computer to do some Googling. Sophia told me that after he left Botswana he was going to Switzerland-I’m hoping he stuck to his plan. Once I find out where he is, I can catch him before he leaves with Sophia.”

“Wait, what?” Nina said in surprise. “You’re still going after her?”

His voice turned stony. “I promised I’d help her. I always see the job through.”

“This isn’t your job anymore, Eddie! Let other people handle it.”

“That’s not my style.” Chase stood. “Computer still in the study upstairs, is it?” he asked Mac, who nodded, the subtlest hint of warning in his eyes. Chase ignored it and headed for the door.

“Eddie!” Nina shouted, standing up. “Don’t do this, don’t be stupid!”

He rounded on her, angry. “Oh, is that what you really think of me, Doctor? That I’m stupid?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Nina backtracked, regretting her poor choice of words, but Chase pressed on.

“You think just because I don’t have a bunch of letters after my name that I’m an idiot? This is exactly the sort of crap I’ve been putting up with ever since you let your job title go to your head and started thinking you were better than me. No, I take that back-you always thought you were better than me, you just stopped hiding it!”

“That’s not true!”

“At least I knew where I stood with Sophia,” he growled. They regarded each other in silence for a moment before Chase dismissively turned away.

“Eddie,” Nina said, fighting to maintain a facade of reason and calm, “you work for the IHA now, you’re not a freelancer. What you want to do, it’s got nothing to do with the sinking of the rig or recovering the Hermocrates text. It’s a personal vendetta! You can’t do that, not as a member of the IHA.”

Chase kept his broad back to her for some seconds before he finally half turned, not quite looking at her. “Then I quit,” he said bluntly, and left the room.

Nina stared after him, paralyzed by the turmoil of her emotions. Somehow she knew that Chase hadn’t merely been talking about his job; that he had walked out on her in more than a literal sense. She tried to call after him, but her throat had clenched shut, lips trembling.

She heard Mac stand up behind her, suddenly filled with shame and embarrassment that he had witnessed the fight. “I-I’m sorry,” she managed to whisper.

“No need to apologize,” he said softly. After a moment, he put a reassuring hand on her arm. She looked around, and saw his sympathetic gaze. “I know that Eddie sometimes makes… rash decisions. But he usually comes to his senses.”

“It’s not just him, though,” Nina told him. “He’s not-he wasn’t wrong about me. I did let my job go to my head. I…” Even thinking of the confession was painful, never mind actually giving voice to it. “I stopped being an archaeologist, and started being a bureaucrat. No, worse than that-I started being a politician. It all became about playing power games to get what I wanted. And the worst thing was, I enjoyed it.” She looked away from Mac, drawing in a long breath as a deeper shame demanded admission. “No, the worst thing was…I really did think I was better than Eddie, just because of my job title. I hurt him without even realizing it.” Blinking away tears, she looked back into Mac’s eyes. “Oh my God, I’ve wrecked everything.”

“Perhaps you should tell him,” Mac suggested quietly.

“I can’t. Not when he’s… you know what he’s like. He won’t listen, he’ll just try to twist it so that he can claim victory.”

“Hrmm. Maybe he does need to cool off first,” Mac conceded. He took his hand off Nina, straightening purposefully. “I have a suggestion. You look as though you’ve had rather a rough few days.”

Nina managed a sad laugh. “You could say that.”

“In that case, why don’t you take a bath? A nice long hot soak, get yourself cleaned up, ease all your aches and pains. It always works for me!”

“I don’t know,” said Nina…but the idea did sound appealing.

“Trust me, it’ll help. And it’ll give you and Eddie some extra time to think things over as well.”

“Okay,” she said, defenses finally crumbling. “A hot bath it is.”

Chase looked up from the computer as Mac entered the study. “I’ve found where Yuen’s gone-he’s got a microchip factory in the Swiss Alps. I need to use your phone to get in touch with Mitzi. And I’ll need another favor from you-I’ve got to get there, as fast as possible.”

“I see.” Mac sat in a high-backed armchair, taking a book from a little round table next to it and opening it. He settled back as if about to start a long read.

Chase glared at him and waved impatiently. “Earth to Mac. Did you hear me?”

“Oh, I heard you,” said the Scotsman unhurriedly, not looking up from his book.

“So can you do it?”

“Well, of course I can do it. The question is, should I?” Mac’s eyes flicked up towards Chase, steel in his gaze. “You know as well as I do that when you embark on a mission, you need to have an absolutely crystal-clear objective. And to be honest, I don’t believe you do.”

“It couldn’t be any clearer,” Chase said, annoyed. “I’m going to rescue Sophia. That’s it.”

“But why are you going to rescue her? And more to the point, what are you going to do with her afterwards?”

“What do you mean?”

Mac lowered the book. “I had a talk with Nina.”

“Oh great.” Chase snorted. “Let me guess, she told you all about how I’ve turned into a pain in the arse because I feel stifled by my job, I show her up when she’s trying to network with all her new big shot friends, blah blah blah.”

“Quite the contrary. You know, she’s an extremely intelligent and perceptive young woman.” A pointed look. “You really should try talking to her once in a while.”

“Why, what did she say?”

“It’s not for me to comment. But you might want to consider doing so before you go rushing off across Europe after your ex-wife.”