‘No kiss?’ said Alderley.
‘Go on, fuck off,’ said Eddie, but with a smile. The MI6 officer grinned, then exited the café. ‘Thought he’d never leave.’
‘Oh, stop that. And we’d better leave ourselves.’ Through his contacts, Alderley had arranged supplies and transport in the form of a battered old Land Rover.
Eddie picked up the rucksack containing the explosives. ‘Where exactly are we going?’
Nina made an uncertain face. ‘That’s a very good question.’
The Afar Depression is appropriately named. Not only does the huge area contain the lowest point in Africa, over five hundred feet below sea level, but it is also likely to bring misery to anyone entering it. One of the hottest places on earth, it is also one of the most desolate, a great expanse of desert where only the hardiest scrubby vegetation survives. Within its boundaries there are no roads and, beyond a few isolated villages and nomadic tribes, no people. Adding to its inhospitability is the very nature of the region, a widening geological rift producing a chain of active volcanoes and even one of the world’s few lava lakes.
The Land Rover was three hours out of Dubti, heading north by northwest, and even that small town now seemed like a metropolis in hindsight. The baking desert stretched endlessly away to the rippling horizon in all directions. The 4×4 had a GPS receiver on its dashboard, but it couldn’t provide Nina and Eddie with a countdown of the distance to their destination. The reason was simple: they didn’t actually know where they were going.
Not on a map, at least. Nina was providing directions, but that didn’t stop Eddie, driving, from giving her a dubious look as the Land Rover jolted across the stony plain. ‘You sure we’re going the right way?’
It was not the first time he had asked the question. ‘No, I’m not sure, Eddie,’ she said tiredly, taking a mouthful of unpleasantly warm water from a plastic bottle. ‘I have a feeling, that’s all.’
‘Trusting your feelings is fine for Jedi, but I’d be a lot happier with something a bit more definite.’
‘So would I, but it’s all there is. So we’ll have to make do.’
‘Can’t you even explain it better?’
‘No, Eddie, I can’t!’ She composed herself, taking another drink before replacing the cap. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean…’
‘Yeah, I know.’ He was silent for a moment, then with uncharacteristic hesitation said, ‘And… there’s something I want to say sorry for.’
‘What?’
‘When we were in Peru, and I found out about Nan… I blamed you for me not being able to see her again before she died. I shouldn’t have done. It wasn’t your fault, and I’m sorry.’
She put her hand on his shoulder. ‘That’s okay. I know what you were feeling. I was the same when I learned that my parents had died.’
‘Even so, I shouldn’t—’
‘Eddie.’ She stroked his cheek. ‘It’s okay. Really.’
A small smile of gratitude. ‘Thanks.’
They drove on, Eddie surveying the parched desert. It was as inhospitable and empty a place as they had ever visited. ‘So, this feeling of yours,’ he said. ‘Wish I could figure out how it works.’
‘Yeah, me too!’ Nina regarded the desolation ahead. ‘I can’t really describe it. I just know somehow that it’s in this direction. If all life on the planet really did originate from the meteorite, then technically everybody is connected to it at a genetic level. The earth energy effect apparently lets me feel that more directly.’
‘I thought it only worked when you were holding the statues — and that you had to be somewhere where the energy lines connect.’
‘So did I. But this is more like an after-effect, an echo. It’s like…’ She struggled to find the words. ‘The best I can manage is that I can… feel it tickling my subconscious, I guess. It’s this way. Somewhere.’
‘An idea how far would be good.’
‘Afraid it’s not as precise as GPS. Sorry.’
They drove on. Another hour passed. Eddie squinted into the distance — then looked sharply round at something in his peripheral vision. ‘What?’ Nina asked.
‘There’s a plane over there.’ Sunlight glinted off a tiny dot in the sky to the northeast.
Nina’s fatigue was instantly replaced by concern. ‘The Group?’
He snorted. ‘How would I know? I don’t have bionic eyes. It’s a long way off, though.’
‘Where’s it going?’
Eddie stopped the 4×4 and stared intently into the blue void. ‘Might be on its way to Djibouti.’
‘Or it might be searching for the meteorite.’
‘Or us.’
Nina looked into the back of the Land Rover. The rucksack had been secured in the cargo bed, padded as best they could manage against the vehicle’s jolts by other bags. ‘So long as we have time to blow up the stone before they find us, that’s the most important thing.’
‘That, and us getting out alive — I think that’s pretty important too.’ He set off again. ‘Something I’ve been thinking about, though.’
‘What?’
‘Just how big is this meteorite? If it’s, I dunno, the size of a couch, or a car, we’ve got enough explosives to blow it to bits. But if it’s bigger, we might end up making the Group’s job easier. If all we can do is split it apart, then they can get right at the DNA or whatever’s inside it.’
It was a possibility Nina had also considered. ‘The best we can do is… the best we can do,’ she was forced to concede. ‘We just try to make it as hard for them as we possibly can. If they realise they’ve lost any chance to carry out their plan, well, like Glas said, they’re business people. Hopefully we can persuade them to free Larry without being vindictive.’
‘The Group might do that,’ said Eddie, grim-faced. ‘Stikes and Sophia won’t.’
‘Yeah, I was kinda hoping you wouldn’t point out the flaw in my one optimistic thought.’
The Land Rover continued across the empty expanse. Eddie lost sight of the aircraft, not knowing if it had changed course or was simply too far away. The terrain became harder, forcing him to slow down to navigate the rocky surface. Something appeared on the horizon ahead, a mirage rippling through the distorting heat-haze.
Nina peered at it. ‘Is that a hill?’
‘Hills, I think,’ said Eddie, as more shimmering peaks slowly rose into view. He noticed a faint column of what looked like steam drifting up from the tallest of them. ‘Or volcanoes.’ Nina’s lack of a reply made him suddenly very uneasy. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake. You’re not telling me…’
‘I think that’s where it is,’ she told him. The light but insistent tugging on her soul felt somehow more intense.
‘In a fucking volcano?’
‘It ties in with Nantalas’s vision. And it fits with what I felt when I put the statues together in Switzerland. If Nantalas experienced the same thing, she’d interpret it based on her beliefs. Remember what the text said in the Temple of Poseidon, about Hephaestus? He was the Greek — and Atlantean — god of volcanoes.’
‘So it is inside a volcano. Great. How are we supposed to get to it?’
‘I have absolutely no idea. I don’t suppose there’s a fireproof suit in our gear?’
‘It’s funny, but I don’t think Alderley thought of that.’
The mirage took on a solidity as they got closer. The volcano was not particularly high, but it dominated the surroundings, a near-perfect cone looming over its foothills. After the better part of an hour they were on its flanks, the steepness of the rocky slope finally outmatching even the Land Rover’s hill-climbing abilities. Eddie stopped the 4×4 on a small sloping plateau and got out, looking up at the steaming summit. ‘So what do we do?’ he asked. ‘Go to the top and look down into the crater to see if we can see the meteor? Or a secret base with a monorail. That’d be cooler.’