Warden was already making plans. ‘Once we get out, we’ll bring in more people, set up lines down into the volcano. We’ll cut the rock open and extract the DNA samples. As soon as we’ve got those, we can complete the sequencing process and release the virus. This is it,’ he said to his two remaining colleagues, his patrician scowl for once overcome by genuine euphoria. ‘This is our moment. We can remake the world — remake humanity! Everything that happens from now on will be according to our design.’
‘Not your design,’ said Sophia unexpectedly from behind them. ‘Ours.’
The Group members whirled — and were cut down as she opened fire with Eddie’s gun. Meerkrieger took two bullets in the chest, convulsing in agony before slumping lifelessly to the floor. Brannigan fell as another pair of shots tore into her. Warden was hit in the shoulder and collapsed with an anguished screech.
He raised a shaking hand, signalling to the mercenaries standing impassively nearby. ‘What are you doing?’ he gasped. ‘Kill her — kill her! Help me!’
Stikes joined Sophia, his self-satisfied smile oozing wider. ‘I’m afraid they’re all loyal to me, not to you.’
‘But they are still loyal to the Group,’ Sophia added. ‘The new Group, that is.’ She took Stikes’s hand.
‘Thank you for giving me full access to all the Group’s resources, by the way,’ Stikes added. ‘Don’t worry — we’ll put them to good use.’
In his desperation, Warden looked to the prisoners for assistance. ‘Do something! Please!’
All Nina could do was shrug helplessly. ‘What can I say? I told you not to trust them.’
Eddie nodded. ‘Saw that coming a mile off.’
Sophia brought the gun back down at Warden. ‘No, please!’ he begged. ‘I—’
A single shot hit him in the forehead, blowing out the back of his skull in a gruesome bloom across the stone. Nauseated, Nina looked away. Larry retched, struggling to hold in a mouthful of vomit.
‘Well then,’ said Stikes amiably, ‘now that’s all dealt with, there’s only one thing left to do.’ He raised his gun and pointed it at Eddie.
‘Just a minute, darling,’ said Sophia. ‘We agreed in Switzerland that I get to kill Eddie, remember? And secondly, business before pleasure — we still need Nina to move the meteorite so we can get out of here.’
Stikes glowered at Eddie, but reluctantly lowered the Jericho. ‘All right.’ He turned to the mercenaries. ‘Watch Chase and his father. Dr Wilde, if you’d be so kind?’
Nina returned to the meteorite. The huge stone began to hum once more as she brought the glowing statues closer, the very air around it tingling. She looked round at her audience: the guards mystified, Sophia and Stikes as avaricious as the late members of the Group had been, Larry still shocked by what he had just witnessed…
And her husband giving her an unspoken signal.
Ready.
An almost imperceptible nod, then she turned back to the hulking stone. Slowly, carefully, she brought all three statues together once more.
The expansion of her consciousness was this time almost familiar, even comforting. She belonged here; the power was a part of her. It always had been, simply waiting for the moment when it would be unlocked. She could feel the flow of the earth’s energy around her, an unimaginable torrent constantly circulating beyond the limits of the five human senses.
But now she could experience it. And channel it.
Control was out of the question: it would take too much time and effort even to begin to direct the power according to her specific wishes. But right now, she didn’t need control. If anything, she was trying to achieve the opposite. She allowed more energy to flood through the meteorite, willing it to take in more power.
And more. And more.
The great stone rocked and groaned again as the shimmering light ran over its surface. It slowly rose, more small fragments breaking loose and lazily spinning through the air until the charge they held faded and they dropped. ‘Good,’ said Sophia, wide-eyed. ‘Good! Now move it to the temple.’
Nina obeyed, still directing ever more earth energy into the rock as she held the statues against it. Its glow brightened, shadows of ancient gods shifting across the wall as she brought it closer to the Atlantean structure. Sophia followed, Stikes gesturing for the mercenaries to bring their prisoners after her. The Englishwoman surveyed the damaged tiers. ‘To the left,’ she ordered, pointing at a particular section. ‘Put it down with the tip next to the edge of that ledge. We’ll be able to reach the stairs from—’
She broke off, flinching as a lightning bolt flashed from the meteorite to strike the temple several storeys above. A statue exploded, shattered fragments showering the people below. ‘What’s happening?’ Stikes demanded.
‘I don’t know!’ Nina replied, only partly lying. She was still channelling more energy into the stone, but had no control over how it would manifest itself.
Sparks crackled from the floating rock, another, stronger bolt lancing up the volcanic shaft and out into the empty sky above. Eddie felt a static-like charge rising around him, the hairs on the backs of his hands standing on end. Larry gave his son a worried glance. ‘Hang on,’ Eddie muttered to him.
‘What was that?’ snapped Stikes. He looked between the two Chases, realisation growing that some conspiracy was afoot. ‘Stop!’ he shouted at Nina. ‘Put the thing down!’
‘It’s almost in place,’ Sophia objected. The meteorite was nearly close enough to the ledge to allow a person to jump across. More flashes bridged the gap, stonework splintering where they landed.
‘No, leave it!’ He pointed his gun straight at Eddie’s heart. ‘Dr Wilde, put it down and step away now, or I’ll kill them both!’
Nina closed her eyes…
And willed the entire power of the earth to flow into the meteorite.
Another flash, brighter than any before—
She was abruptly thrown backwards as if shoved by a giant hand, grit and dust peppering her skin as a shockwave of energy erupted from the glowing rock. The statuettes flew from her hands, tumbling weightlessly through the air.
An unimaginably deep rumble shook the ledge — shook the entire volcano. More statues toppled from the temple to smash on the rocky floor. Igneous shards rained down from the wall of the shaft as the tremor pummelled them loose.
The quake had knocked everyone down. Pre-warned, Eddie was first to recover. He spotted Nina near Sophia and was about to shout for her to get the other woman’s gun when the sight of the meteorite froze him in momentary shock.
The massive rock was no longer simply hanging in the air. Glowing so brightly it almost hurt to watch, it was rising with increasing speed up the shaft. It was what had happened in Atlantis thousands of years before, he realised: the sky stone had been overloaded with earth energy, and when it blew it would be thrown skywards…
To land somewhere else. Where the next set of arseholes with ideas for world domination could find it.
Unless—
He jumped up and ran — not towards Nina, but for the remote.
Stikes sat up — and found one of his prisoners had gone. He whirled, seeing Eddie running across the ledge, and grabbed the Jericho from the ground beside him. Teeth bared in an expectant snarl, he brought the gun round.