Day of the Vikings. A Thriller. (ARKANE) by J.F. Penn Read Free Book Online Page B

made him stand out, and he was definitely overqualified for this type of first aid care. He came straight to her, ignoring all the others, leaving them to the official emergency services.
    “Morgan, are you OK?” Peter asked. “Where are you hurt?”  
    “Just get these cuffs off,” she said, holding her wrists out as he reached into his bag for a scalpel. “This is Blake.” Morgan nodded to the side, where Blake sat staring up at the hole in the magnificent glass roof. “He has a head wound that needs to be dealt with before you look at me properly.”  
    “Director Marietti wants you back at base ASAP, if you’re OK,” Peter said. “I’ll take you back now and leave this lot to the crime scene techs. ARKANE will help the police coordinate the search with expert help on where the Neo-Vikings might have gone.”  
    “Let me guess,” Morgan’s mouth twisted in a wry smile as he finished cutting her cuffs. “I’m the expert help.”
    Once Morgan’s wrists were free, Peter cut away the restraints on her feet and then did the same for Blake.  
    “I’m going to find them,” Morgan said, her hand resting on Blake’s upper arm, feeling the tension under his skin. “I’ll get the staff back and they’ll pay for what they did to the curator.”
    Blake looked over to where the body of the mutilated man was being lifted onto a stretcher.  
    “He was a cantankerous old bastard sometimes, but he was a respected colleague and pretty fun at Christmas parties.”
    He smiled painfully at the memory and turned to Morgan, his blue eyes meeting hers, and she saw that his resolve matched hers.  
    “I want to help. You know what I can do, and if we want to find them quickly, I think we need to check out The Lindisfarne Gospels. They might have a clue as to what happened to the original Valkyrie.” He turned his head so Peter could clean his wound, wincing with the sting of the antiseptic on his bruised skin and open cut.
    Morgan knew that Director Marietti wouldn’t like involving a civilian, but the London ARKANE office didn’t have anyone with psychometric ability – not that she knew of, anyway.  
    Her only hesitation was that she had a bad habit of involving other people who ended up getting hurt. Morgan thought of Dr. Khal el-Souid, badly beaten in the caves of Mount Nebo as they searched for the Ark of the Covenant. He’d been lucky to escape with only minor concussion. She blushed a little as she remembered the night that followed. Khal’s dark eyes meeting hers in the light of the early morning as the muezzin called the dawn prayers … How his arms had felt around her. She and Khal had shared something in the desert, but Morgan knew a relationship was never going to work, so she had left him behind and they hadn’t spoken since. Blake reminded her a little of Khal, a smart man with gorgeous skin, his blue eyes the ocean to Khal’s deep brown. She pushed aside her concerns. Blake was involved now, whether she liked it or not, and she needed his help for just a little longer.  
    “I’m sorry, Peter. I’ll call Marietti en route, but we need to go to the British Library before I head back.”

Chapter 8

    MORGAN AND BLAKE JUMPED in a black cab and headed for the British Library, only a few blocks northeast toward St Pancras station. Morgan finally had reception to make a call and dialed Director Marietti’s personal phone.  
    “Morgan, are you all right?” The gruff voice of the Director was tempered by concern. “I’m viewing some of the security camera footage now, and it’s brutal stuff.”
    “Yes, I’m fine sir, and I’ll report in full soon, but right now we have a lead that may help us locate where the Neo-Viking group are heading. Were the police able to track the helicopter?”
    “The Neo-Vikings used the same type of Black Hawk helicopter as the Americans allegedly used for the raid on Bin Laden. It doesn’t show up on radar, but we’re tracking physical sightings right now.