‘This is it,’ said Nina. She went up to the stone, about to touch it, but then drew back her hand.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Considering what happened when Nantalas last touched the meteorite, it’s probably not a great idea for me to start messing with it.’
‘You’ve got a point.’ Eddie looked up at the statue of Poseidon, the god of the oceans holding a metal trident as if poised to hurl it at any intruder. ‘And he’s got three. This is the Temple of the Gods, then?’
Nina turned away from the meteorite — and froze in momentary shock as for the first time she took in the sheer wall that had been behind her. ‘No,’ she said. ‘That is.’
A vast structure had been carved out of the cliff, extending almost the full width of the ledge and rising in tiers to over a hundred feet above. The elaborate yet harsh architectural style was unmistakably Atlantean. The lava tube emerged from the wall at its base between a pair of large pillars; on either side were more statues. Each level of the grand temple above them was lined with more ancient figures.
‘God!’ exclaimed Eddie, awed. ‘Or gods, I mean. How many are there?’
‘All of them, I think,’ Nina replied. The Olympians were the big guns of the lost civilisation’s mythology, but there were hundreds of lesser deities below them… and it seemed that every single one was in attendance. The rulers of Atlantis had been unable to decide which of their gods they had angered by unleashing the power of the sky stone — so had tried to appease them all.
‘That’s pretty bloody impressive. How the hell did they build all that in here?’
‘Nantalas’s expedition must have been bigger than we thought. Atlantis was the greatest empire the world would see for another few thousand years, so if anyone had the resources, they did.’ She raised her camera again and started taking pictures of the temple. Through the telephoto lens, she saw stairs linking the tiers behind the rows of statues.
‘There isn’t time for that,’ said Eddie, setting down the rucksack and removing the explosives and detonators. ‘We’ve found the thing, so let’s blow it up.’
‘It’s the only time for it,’ she countered. ‘You saw what the first charge did to the outer chamber — there was nothing left. When we blow up the meteorite, it’ll wreck the temple. Even if I can’t save it, I can’t let this place go unrecorded.’
Eddie reluctantly conceded. ‘Get your snaps, then.’ He checked the remaining detonators, then circled the rock as Nina continued. When he returned, his expression was decidedly more downcast. ‘You know I didn’t think we’d brought enough explosives?’
‘Yes?’
‘We definitely didn’t. Remember what that geologist, Bellfriar, told us about the statues before we went to South America? He said the meteorite they came from had a lot of metal in the rock — and that’ll make it really, really tough. There’s no way these charges’ll be enough to destroy it. Best they’ll do is split it into smaller bits, but they’ll still be too big for us just to chuck ’em into the lava.’ He looked back at the entrance. ‘We need a Plan B.’
‘What kind of Plan B?’
‘My usual kind — blowing something up.’
‘But that’s Plan A as well!’
He smiled, then collected one of the explosive charges and a detonator and headed for the lava tube. ‘Get all your photos — soon as I come back, I’ll set the bombs on the rock and then we’ll get out of here.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘To make sure nobody gets through that tunnel after we leave.’ He jogged away, leaving Nina alone with the Atlantean gods.
She photographed the whole of the temple, then turned her attention to the statues around the meteorite. Whatever Eddie was doing, it was taking a while; he still had not returned by the time she had captured all of the Olympians. She considered taking a closer look at the temple, but curiosity about a more natural wonder won out and she made her way up the slope to the lip of the ledge.
The heat grew more intense the closer she got. Away from the fresh air coming through the lava tube, it also became harder to breathe. Coughing, she nevertheless climbed the last few yards to the edge and looked down.
It was like peering directly into Hell. The volcano’s conduit dropped dizzyingly down for hundreds of feet, a searing red eye at its end glaring back up at her. The level of the lava below had at some point sunk, leaving a seething molten lake churning in the subterranean magma chamber. The temperature was so great that she could only bear it for a few seconds before withdrawing, but she had seen more than enough. Even at its lowest level of activity, a volcano was still terrifying close up; she tried to imagine what it would have been like when Nantalas unwittingly released the full fury of the earth beneath Atlantis. It was almost too frightening to think about.
What made it more worrying was that she might be able to unleash a similar disaster — or be forced to do so. The sooner the meteorite was destroyed, and with it any chance of the Group’s using its destructive potential, the better.
The thought of the Group made her look back at the entrance, from which Eddie was finally re-emerging. Still coughing, she hurried back down to the much cooler centre of the bowl. ‘Are you done?’
He nodded. ‘I’ll show you on the way out. You got all your pictures?’
‘Yes, but I wouldn’t mind getting some close-ups of the temple. Do you need me to help with the explosives?’
‘I can manage. You go and get some more photos.’
‘It’s a shame they’ll probably be all that’s left of this place,’ she said glumly. ‘How long?’
‘I’ll need to find weak spots, so… fifteen minutes, maybe.’
‘Okay.’ Camera at the ready, Nina went to the temple as Eddie prepared the last three charges.
From the air, the volcano stood out from dozens of miles away, the column of steam from its peak standing tall in the sky like a marker flag.
An aircraft was heading straight for the beacon. Powering over the desert was an AgustaWestland AW101 helicopter, a civilian version of the military Merlin transport. The hold of this particular example had been fitted out with seats, all of which were occupied.
Alexander Stikes, seated directly behind the pilot, would have much preferred the twenty-four places to be filled with mercenaries under his command, but the surviving members of the Group had decided they wanted to witness the discovery of the meteorite first-hand. They had arrived in the Ethiopian capital the previous day and waited in Addis Ababa’s most luxurious hotel, such as it was, for the ongoing search to produce results. It was a harsh irony: one of the world’s poorest countries being visited incognito by a small group of people whose personal net worth outstripped that of the entire nation.
He turned to speak to Warden. ‘We’ll be there in a few minutes.’
‘Are you sure this is the place?’ the Group’s chairman demanded.
‘Not one hundred per cent, but considering the circumstances it seems highly likely. A volcano would fit nicely with the Atlantean priestess’s reference to the forge of Hephaestus. Benefits of a classical education,’ he added at Meerkrieger’s raised eyebrow. ‘And our aerial reconnaissance drone spotted a vehicle crossing the desert towards it some hours ago; it’s still there.’
‘Wilde and Chase?’ said Warden.