The Covenant of Genesis

‘Glad to hear it. But yeah, I should be able to help you find this lake, no problem. Then what?’

‘Right now, just finding the thing’s my first concern. Then Eddie and I can start worrying about what to do next.’

‘Where is Eddie, by the way?’ Trulli asked.

‘He’s gone to visit an old friend . . .’

Chase stared at the twin sawn-off shotgun barrels pointing at his chest. ‘Is that any way to say hello to an old friend?’ he asked, hands raised.

A figure emerged from the darkness behind the gun, regarding him suspiciously. ‘Eddie?’ said the shaven-headed, thick-necked man. ‘Eddie Chase?’

‘Yeah, it’s me.’

The shotgun was lowered, the man’s frown replaced by a sunny smile. ‘Why didn’t you say so, you stupid pommie bastard? Come in, mate! Eddie Chase, fuck me!’

‘No thanks, you’re not my type,’ said Chase, returning the grin and lowering his hands. ‘I’ve got someone with me - okay if she comes in?’

‘Sure, mate, sure!’ The man stepped forward, revealing multiple tattoos. He squinted at the bright daylight, then raised a bushy eyebrow as the Englishman unlocked the handcuff bracelet that he’d used to secure the annoyed Sophia to the run-down bungalow’s porch. ‘Public bondage, mate? Save that for the mardi gras.’

‘I didn’t want her doing a runner,’ Chase explained.

Sophia pulled her arm away from him, the empty bracelet dangling from her wrist. ‘Yes, because this charming neighbourhood is exactly the kind of place where I want to start a new life.’

The man looked her up and down, impressed. ‘Christ, Eddie. Is she a crimo or a supermodel?’

‘Definitely the first one,’ Chase told him, leading her inside. ‘Sophia, this is an old mate of mine from the Australian SAS, Bob “Bluey” Jackson. Bluey, this is . . . my ex-wife. Sophia.’

‘Ex-wife?’ Bluey said. ‘You must have had termites in that fucking wooden blockhead of yours to let a cracker like her slip out of your hands!’

‘Oh, Bluey Jackson,’ said Sophia icily. ‘You know, I think Eddie might have mentioned you.’

‘Oh, really?’ Bluey puffed out his chest. ‘What’d he say?’

‘Nothing terribly memorable.’ His face fell. ‘Though I do seem to recall something about, what was it, Eddie? Oh, yes. Appalling flatulence.’

Bluey gave Chase a hurt look. ‘You told her about my Afghan squirts? Christ, mate, that was supposed to be something to keep between blokes!’

Chase smirked. ‘Just be glad I didn’t tell her about the—’

‘All right, all right! Christ.’ Bluey ushered them inside, surveyed the untidy garden and the street beyond with a wary eye, then shut the door, plunging the interior into near-darkness.

‘Why’s it so dark?’ Chase asked.

‘We need to keep the windows covered. So we don’t get any stickybeaks seeing what we’re up to.’

‘And what are you up to these days?’

‘Still in the same line of work,’ Bluey said as he led them through a door. ‘Just being a lot more high-tech about it.’

‘You’re not kidding,’ said Chase as he took in the room’s contents. Several computers were lined up on a row of tables along one wall, connected to numerous scanners and colour laser printers. A large laminating machine was whirring away in one corner, and there were several other pieces of equipment he couldn’t even identify.

Perched on a stool by the laminator was a petite Asian woman. From her features, Chase guessed she was Vietnamese, in her early thirties. Although she was pretty, her pinched, sour expression detracted from her looks. She glared at the new arrivals. ‘Bluey! Who are they?’

Bluey put the shotgun down on a table and went to her. Sophia eyed the weapon, edging almost imperceptibly closer; Chase firmly interposed himself. ‘It’s all right, he’s an old mate,’ Bluey said, tone conciliatory. ‘Eddie Chase.’

‘Eddie Chase?’ The woman perked up. ‘Oh, Eddie Chase! The one who helped you?’

‘That’s the one. If it hadn’t been for him, we’d never have met. Eddie, this is my wife, Hien.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ said Chase. Hien hopped off the stool and shook his hand vigorously.

‘Nice to meet you too!’ she said. ‘Bluey talks about you. Says you’re . . .’ She screwed up her face again, trying to remember. ‘Ah! “Not a bad bloke for a smelly pom.”’

Chase gave Bluey a look. ‘Cheers, mate.’

‘Don’t you just love her?’ Bluey said through a sheepish grin.

‘Although I have to say, Eddie,’ Sophia piped up, ‘there certainly were occasions when you could have spent more time in the shower.’

‘I should’ve got a gag to go with those handcuffs,’ Chase muttered.

Bluey chuckled. ‘Now I see why she’s your ex, mate. So . . . what can I do you for? I’m guessing this isn’t just a social visit.’

‘’Fraid not. Someone’s after us, and we need help.’

Bluey’s eyes narrowed, and he moved back towards the shotgun. ‘What kind of someone? Police?’

‘No, more like mercs. But mercs with some very high-up connections.’

He put a hand on the gun, eyeing the door. ‘You weren’t followed, were you?’

Chase shook his head. ‘No, I checked. But they’re not going to give up.’

‘So you need new IDs, right?’ He looked back at Hien, who now had an odd expression as she regarded Sophia. ‘What’s up?’

Hien didn’t answer. Instead, she raised one hand to block out Sophia’s blonde hair . . . and her eyes widened in shock. She yelled in Vietnamese, prompting the confused Bluey to pick up the shotgun, then ran to a computer. A few seconds of typing, and Google brought up a page full of pictures of Sophia with long dark hair, taken at the time of her arrest in New York. ‘Terrorist! She’s that terrorist! With a nuclear bomb!’

‘Jesus!’ said Bluey, recognition crossing his face. He pointed the shotgun at Sophia, who sighed and raised her hands. ‘She bloody is, too! Eddie, what the fuck are you doing bringing her here? We’d be up shit creek far enough if we got caught making new IDs for refugees - but fucking terrorists?’

‘Hey, I’m not exactly happy about it either,’ Chase told him. ‘If it’d been up to me, I would’ve left her with the bad guys.’

‘Oh, thank you, Eddie,’ Sophia said coldly. ‘Good to know where we all stand.’

‘But we need her, which means we need to get her an ID so she can travel. And we’ll probably need new passports and stuff ourselves to be on the safe side.’

‘Who’s “we”?’ Hien demanded.

‘Me and Nina, my fiancée. Nina Wilde.’ Chase saw them both react to the name. ‘Yeah, that Nina Wilde. Discoverer of Atlantis? Found the tomb of King Arthur? You know the one.’

‘Jesus,’ Bluey said with a half-disbelieving, half-admiring whistle. ‘And she’s your fiancée? Y’know, mate, for an ugly bugger you don’t half pick up some cracking sheilas.’ Hien scowled. ‘But they’re nothing compared to you, darlin’!’ he hurriedly added with a big smile.

‘Why do you need help from a terrorist?’ demanded Hien, not mollified.

‘The bad guys needed her - we’re trying to stop them,’ said Chase, deciding to simplify the explanation. ‘They’re looking for something, and we need to find it before they do. If we don’t . . . well, we’re dead, pretty much. And that’s why we need your help.’

‘And what happens after? To her?’ Hien jabbed an angry finger at Sophia.

‘I hadn’t really thought that far ahead,’ Chase admitted.

‘Then you should!’ She indicated the handcuffs. ‘You think she’s going to try to escape - what happens if she does? We’ll have helped! I’m not going to be part of that. Helping people start a new life is one thing, but this? No!’

‘I wouldn’t have come if there was any other choice. But you’re the only people who can help us.’ Chase gave Bluey a pointed look. ‘As a favour.’

‘Aw, Christ, mate, that’s not fair,’ said Bluey plaintively. ‘If it was just you, then no problem. But . . .’

‘You owe me, Bluey,’ Chase insisted. ‘Like you said, you wouldn’t have met Hien if it hadn’t been for me.’

Bluey chewed his bottom lip, then turned to his wife. ‘Hien . . .’

‘No!’ She turned on her heel and stalked out.

‘Back in a minute,’ he told Chase and Sophia, before following Hien and closing the door behind him. Shrill shouting came through the wood.

‘Well, this takes me back,’ said Sophia, listening. ‘You know, I rather miss married life.’

‘Yeah, but your arguments ended with a gunshot,’ Chase reminded her.

‘Oh, only twice. I must say, she’s got an awfully big voice for such a little woman. No wonder he carries a shotgun in his own house. What exactly did you do to help him, by the way?’

‘Got him out of some legal trouble,’ he said evasively.

‘What kind?’

‘The putting a bullet into someone he shouldn’t have kind.’

‘Really?’ Sophia seemed almost impressed. ‘And I thought I knew all your dark secrets. So you helped cover up a murder, did you?’

‘It wasn’t like that,’ said Chase, uncomfortable at the memory. ‘The guy was a total scumbag - he deserved it. He was an Afghan warlord who was robbing every refugee who came through his territory, and raping and killing anyone who didn’t pay up. Problem was, he could get away with it because he was one of our Afghan warlords, who was supposed to be helping us fight the Taliban.’

‘But your friend Bluey took matters into his own hands, I take it.’

‘Yeah. We were coming back from an op when we ran into this arsehole and his men beating up some refugees. Bluey told him to stop, he told us to fuck off and let him get on with it . . . so Bluey shot him. Then his men tried to kill us, so we shot them as well.’

‘And then you lied about what happened on the official report, I take it.’

‘I said that the guy pulled a gun on Bluey, so it was self-defence. The politicos weren’t happy about their “trusted ally”,’ the words dripped with sarcasm, ‘getting killed by one of our guys, but the refugees backed us up, seeing as we’d just saved their lives, so that was the end of that. If I hadn’t, Bluey’d still be in some shithole Afghan prison right now.’

‘How very noble of you,’ said Sophia, equally sarcastic.

‘What the fuck would you know about being noble?’ Chase snapped. ‘Kill a bad guy to protect an innocent, I’d do it again in a second. Remember that.’ The last was delivered with a clear undertone of threat. Sophia took the hint and remained silent.

The shouting stopped and the door opened again. Bluey entered, red-faced. Behind him, Hien’s expression was black with anger, her arms folded tightly across her chest. ‘All right, mate,’ said Bluey with exaggerated heartiness, ‘we’ve, ah, reached an agreement. We’ll help you out.’ Hien muttered something through clenched lips. ‘So long as this means we’re all square. Sorry, Eddie, but, well . . .’

‘That’s okay. I understand.’ Chase extended his hand, and Bluey shook it. Hien’s scowl deepened, but she said nothing more.

‘So, what do you need?’ asked Bluey. He indicated the machines around him. ‘You name it, we can do it.’

‘Passports?’

‘Just tell us the country! Got Australian, American, British, Canadian, Russian . . . even rustle you up a North Korean one if you fancy.’

‘British’ll do us,’ Chase said. ‘What about the biometrics?’

Hien snorted derisively, pride in her work momentarily overcoming her displeasure. ‘Biometrics? Hah! Cracked them before they even came into use.’

‘Wonders of the Internet, mate,’ said Bluey. ‘We’ve got friends all over the world who share this stuff around. Takes governments ages to change anything, but every time they do, somebody’ll bust it open in less than twenty-four hours.’

‘And how long’ll it take to make new passports?’

‘Less than twenty-four hours,’ Bluey told him with a half-hearted grin. ‘Just need to take some pictures, pick a name, get your biometrics, all that. Anything else?’

‘Credit cards’d be useful.’

‘No worries.’ He reached into a drawer and took out a stack of different ones, fanning them out like a pack of colourful playing cards.

‘That’ll do nicely.’ This time, it was Chase’s turn to grin. ‘They’re not stolen, are they? Don’t want to be racking up a fortune on some little old lady’s card.’

‘Nah. Got a load of dummy accounts set up, so you just pick a name you like. Don’t use it too often, though. First unpaid bill, and alarms go off.’

‘Won’t need to, hopefully. Either we find what we’re looking for, or . . .’ He let the unsaid alternative hang in the air.

‘Got you, mate,’ said Bluey, briefly downcast. ‘Hey, what about your fiancée? Will she need a passport as well?’

‘Probably, but she’s got something else to sort out first.’

‘No probs. Just bring her in. All right, then - time to take some snaps!’

19

‘Okay,’ said Trulli, ‘where do you want to start?’ ‘Good question,’ Nina replied. Now at the engineer’s apartment, she was using his computer to run the GLUG program, cycling between it and UNARA’s survey of Antarctica, the rocky landmass hidden beneath the desolate ice cap laid bare by the probing radar beams. ‘It must be somewhere in eastern Antarctica - it’s the nearest place to make landfall from their settlement in Australia.’

Trulli zoomed in on the appropriate section of the radar map, the edge of the Ross Sea on the left side of the screen, the Shackleton Ice Shelf on the right. ‘Still a bloody big area to cover. The coastline’s two thousand kilometres long!’

‘Let’s see if we can narrow it down, huh? You got the sea level data from a hundred and thirty thousand years ago?’

‘Give me a sec,’ said Trulli, calling it up. A few clicks, and a yellow line was overlaid on the map, inland of the current icy coastline. ‘There.’

‘Okay, so we need to find any underground lakes within . . . the inscription translated as just “near” the sea, so let’s say five miles. Eight kilometres.’

Trulli zoomed in further, adjusting the program’s settings so that underground lakes showed up in a vivid false-colour magenta, impossible to miss against the dull grey shades of the buried rock. ‘You do realise that the lake might not even be there any more?’ he asked as he scrolled along the coast. ‘If a glacier moved over it, it’d erase anything that was underneath.’

‘If it has, then I’m wasting my time and the Covenant’s already won,’ said Nina. ‘But if it’s still there, we’ve got to find it.’

‘And if you do, then what? It’ll be buried under God knows how many metres of ice.’

‘We’ll have to drill down to it somehow. Maybe we could borrow your equipment once you’re finished.’

Trulli chuckled. ‘Yeah, I’m sure Bandra’d be happy to do that.’

‘Bandra?’

‘Dr Bandra. The expedition leader.’

‘I thought you were the expedition leader?’

‘I’m the technical leader,’ he explained. ‘Bandra’s the scientific leader. As long as the project’s still officially in a test phase, I’m in charge. Soon as Cambot’s good to go, he takes over.’

‘Cambot?’

He smiled. ‘My latest gizmo. Combination ice borer, mini-sub and semi-autonomous robot. Just what you need for poking about under kilometres of ice - and he’s environmentally friendly, too. No need to fill the drill shaft with thousands of litres of freon and avgas to stop it from freezing up. Really cool, if you’ll pardon the pun.’ His attention snapped back to the screen. ‘Oh, hey. Got a lake here, about four clicks from the old coastline.’ He switched from an overhead view to a three-dimensional topographic map, the magenta blob of the lake now seeming to hang some distance above the bedrock.

‘That’s not it,’ said Nina as he rotated the map to view it from other angles. ‘The city was in a valley, which they flooded - so the lake has to be on rock rather than ice. We’re looking for something that’s surrounded on at least three sides by the terrain.’

‘That’s not the fella, then.’ Trulli returned the image to an overhead view and continued searching. ‘But yeah, Cambot still needs a final test before we can let him loose on a proper scientific survey, so we’re going to drill into a lake that’s not of any scientific interest. So if anything goes wrong we don’t accidentally screw up a million-year-old ecosystem. If everything works, then we move on to Lake Vostok. Four kilometres of ice to drill through - should give Cambot a real workout!’

‘The only downside is that you have to live in Antarctica for weeks to do it.’

‘Well, it’ll be an experience, won’t it? And at least there I won’t be snacking all the time.’ He patted his stomach. ‘I could stand to lose a few kilos, don’t you think?’

She smiled. ‘Not my place to say. Oh, is that another lake?’

Trulli switched back to the 3-D view. ‘Yep. Less than half a kilometre from the old coastline, and on the rock to boot. Fits your bill so far.’ He rotated the image. ‘Definitely in a valley . . . and the seaward end looks a bit crook, if you ask me.’

‘Could it be a dam?’

‘Maybe, but I can’t say for sure, not at this resolution.’

‘How deep is the lake?’

Trulli checked. ‘Not very. Maybe twenty metres at the deep end.’ He adjusted another setting, revealing the shape of the ice above it in translucent, glass-like form. ‘Some weird shapes, though. The ice on top of the lake’s mostly flat, but there’re these indentations in the ceiling. Wonder what . . . ah, I know!’ He clicked his fingers. ‘Volcanic vents, that’s it. They warm the water and it rises up and melts the ice above them. Not enough to reach the surface, though - the lake’s about forty metres down.’

‘Volcanic vents?’ Nina echoed, remembering something. She quickly went back to her notes on the inscription. ‘“Tiny mountains of fire”, of course! Can you get in any closer?’

‘Yeah, but the resolution’s not high enough to show any details.’ He moved the virtual camera closer to the lake, then changed the colour of the water so it too was translucent, revealing the shape of the terrain in more detail.

‘There’s something in the lake,’ Nina realised, almost elbowing Trulli aside to get a better look. ‘See, there - something on the ground. It could be a building.’

‘Or it could be a rock,’ Trulli pointed out. ‘The resolution’s only about five metres per polygon; anything smaller just gets averaged out. And there’s still a hell of a lot of coastline to go; there could be plenty of other lakes. You ought to check everything else out before you get too excited about this one.’

Nina had to concede his point. ‘Okay, okay. But mark this site so we can come back. I’ve got a feeling about it.’

He gave her a sidelong look. ‘The kind of feeling you get when you’re about to find something amazing?’

She smiled. ‘That kind, yeah.’

‘The kind of feeling that usually means somebody’s going to try to kill you?’

Now she pouted. ‘All right, smart guy. Just mark it, will you?’

There were indeed other underground lakes along the Antarctic coastline. But none of them matched Nina’s deductions so closely.

She zoomed in on the image. If it really was the location of the lost city, then it was well positioned. The coastline of that era had a large bay that would give boats shelter from the fierce conditions in the open ocean, and the valley in which the lake had formed would have provided further protection from the harsh winds sweeping the continent. Given its latitude, outside the Antarctic Circle at sixty-six degrees south, it was even possible that the considerably warmer climate of a hundred and thirty millennia earlier would have allowed vegetation to grow. The inscription had certainly made reference to trees.

It was the right location. Somehow, she was sure of it. And without knowledge of the recordings contained on the cylinders, there was no way the Covenant could find it. It was her discovery, hers alone.

The problem was, how could she possibly get to it? She was still suspended from the IHA, so its resources were unavailable - and besides, telling the IHA about her findings would, she was sure, result in their being passed on to the Covenant in short order. And Antarctica was hardly a place that could be visited on a whim. Expeditions took time and planning - and money - to organise.

So the only way to get there would be—

Her cell phone rang. ‘Hello?’

‘Hi, love.’ Chase.

‘Where are you? Did you meet your friend?’

‘Yeah, we just finished. Got everything sorted, for the moment. Are you still at Matt’s?’

‘Yeah. Eddie, listen, I know where the city is. I’ve found the site in the Antarctic, I’m certain of it. We need to get there and check it out.’

A sarcastic snort came from the other end of the line. ‘Right. I’ll just pop into the travel agent and get some tickets to the South Pole.’

‘I’ll take care of it. Just get over here. You’ve got the address?’

‘Yeah. What do you mean, you’ll take care of it?’

‘I think I’ve got a way. Or I will have, in about five minutes.’ She glanced over her shoulder at the sound of Trulli re-entering the apartment. ‘See you soon. Bye!’

‘Nina, wait—’

She disconnected and went into the next room as Trulli took a couple of bags of groceries into the kitchen. From the brightly coloured packaging inside them, she guessed he hadn’t been stocking up on fruits and vegetables. ‘I thought you were giving up on snacks while you were in the Antarctic?’

‘Well, I’m not there yet,’ he said with a grin. ‘Might as well get a few home comforts for the trip.’

‘Speaking of the trip,’ she began, wondering how he would respond, ‘can you show me your test site on the map?’

‘Sure, no worries.’ He followed Nina back to the computer. The screen still showed the lake she had been examining; he switched to the overhead view and zoomed out, scrolling further inland. ‘There we go.’

She glanced at the scale. The test site was about seventy kilometres from ‘her’ lake; just over forty miles. In the vastness of the frozen continent, that was practically nothing. ‘What were the criteria you used to pick that particular lake? You said it was of no scientific interest.’

‘That’s right,’ said Trulli, nodding. ‘Lake Vostok’s huge, and it’s over half a million years old, so if there’s any life down there it might have evolved completely differently, which is what the expedition’s going to try to find out. But the test site needed to be a lot newer and smaller, somewhere that couldn’t support its own ecosystem, so if anything went screwy we wouldn’t damage it.’

‘How much younger?’

‘Dr Bandra reckoned a hundred and fifty thousand years old was the cut-off point. So we found a bunch of lakes that fit the bill, and I picked one that looked like a good test for Cambot.’

‘You picked the lake?’

‘Yep.’

Nina put an arm round his shoulders. ‘Matt . . . what would you say to trying a different test site?’

‘What, at this short notice? It’d—’ He suddenly realised where Nina was heading. ‘Aw, what? You must be joking!’

‘I wish I were. But really, is one underground lake that much different from another?’ She scrolled the map back to the other lake. ‘I mean, this one’s less than a hundred and fifty thousand years old, it’s small, it’s not even that far from where you were going to go . . . and there might just be something absolutely incredible at the bottom of it. You can kill two penguins with one stone.’

‘I don’t want to kill any penguins!’ Trulli protested. ‘For Christ’s sake, Nina, I’m flying out there with a five-million-dollar robot tomorrow - I can’t just say, “Oh, by the way, fellas, I’ve decided to change the test site”!’

‘Why not? You’re in charge. And the expedition isn’t actually on site yet, is it?’

‘No, they’re still at sea. But—’

‘So it doesn’t make much difference, does it? Just say that you reviewed the map data and found a better site.’

‘Dr Bandra’d go absolutely mental,’ he said unhappily. ‘And what if something goes wrong? If Cambot carks it because the conditions aren’t what he was designed for, then that’s five million dollars down the Swannee, and probably my balls on the block for it!’

Nina pressed on. ‘But if I’m right, then not only do you get to test out your robot, but you also find the most amazing archaeological discovery since Atlantis. And how would you rather test your cameras - looking at bits of rock and ice, or the ruins of an unknown civilisation?’

‘Yeah,’ he snorted, ‘one that’ll get me killed if I tell anyone about it.’

‘Which is why we’d need to keep it quiet until it can be revealed to the world in one go - we make it too big for the Covenant to silence. Once it’s exposed, then the genie’s out of the bottle, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Matt,’ she said, moving round so they were face to face, ‘this could be the most incredible find ever. Bigger than Atlantis, even. But if we don’t find it before the Covenant, it’ll be lost for ever, because they want to destroy it. We have to find it.’

‘But what if you’re wrong and there’s nothing there?’

‘Then you’ve annoyed this Dr Bandra by changing the test site. But your robot’ll still get its workout, so you’re no worse off. And,’ she went on, conviction lighting her eyes, ‘I don’t think I am wrong. And, y’know, I’ve got a pretty good track record with this sort of thing.’

Trulli tipped back his head to stare up at the ceiling in resignation. ‘Oh, Christ. All right. I’ll think about it.’

‘Think fast, Malkovich. You’re flying out tomorrow. Oh, and we’ll be coming as well. Me, Eddie and . . . someone else.’

‘What?’ Trulli demanded, sitting up sharply. ‘Oh, come on! I can’t do that!’

She fixed him with an intense, determined gaze. ‘If you’re worried about supplies, we’ll bring everything we need. Hell, I’ll pay for any extra fuel myself if I have to. But I’ve got to be there. I have to see it for myself. You know I do.’

He pressed a hand to his forehead. ‘Okay. I’ll see what I can do. The ship does have some free space - there’re fewer people involved in the test stage than there will be at Vostok. But you can deal with Bandra when he starts complaining. And he will start complaining.’

‘I can handle him,’ she assured him, before kissing his cheek. ‘Thanks, Matt. I knew I could rely on you.’

‘I’m just a sucker for redheads, aren’t I?’ he said, sighing.

Chase and Sophia arrived at Trulli’s apartment half an hour later. Trulli greeted Chase warmly, before regarding his companion with interest . . . and a hint of puzzled recognition. ‘I’m Matt,’ he said. ‘Matt Trulli.’

‘Yes,’ Sophia replied, somewhat dismissively. ‘I know who you are.’

‘You do?’

‘Of course. You used to work for my husband. My late husband, I mean.’

Nina shot her an exasperated glare as the gears turned in Trulli’s head, making him step back in shock. ‘You remember that part where we said about keeping your mouth shut?’

Trulli turned to her, jabbing a finger nervously over his shoulder at Sophia. ‘That’s - that’s Sophia Blackwood!’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Nina answered.

‘She tried to kill you!’

‘I know!’

‘The news said she was dead!’

‘The reports were premature,’ Sophia told him, with a wolfish smile. Trulli backed away still further.

‘Sadly premature,’ said Nina. ‘Still, it doesn’t matter. We’ll be moving on tomorrow.’

‘Where to?’ Chase asked.

‘Antarctica.’

He was surprised. ‘And how’d you arrange that?’

‘Matt agreed to help us. He’s flying out tomorrow, and we’re going with him.’

‘Just like that?’

She grinned. ‘You’re not the only one who can be charming and persuasive.’

‘Right,’ he said, sounding distinctly dubious.

Nina wasn’t keen on his tone. ‘What?’

Chase turned to Trulli. ‘Matt, can you keep an eye on Sophia while I have a word with Nina in private? Just don’t let her get hold of anything sharp and pointy.’

‘Uh . . . sure,’ Trulli said uncertainly, leading Sophia into the next room.

‘So Matt’s taking us to Antarctica, is he?’ asked Chase when they had left.

‘Yeah. Look.’ Nina pointed out the lake on Trulli’s computer. ‘I think that’s where the lost city is - it matches everything I’ve worked out from the inscription.’

‘And he’s okay with changing his plans so you can take a look?’

‘Apparently so, seeing as he said yes.’ Nina folded her arms. ‘What’s up with you?’

‘I’m just a bit worried.’

‘About what?’

‘About you.’

‘Me?’ Nina said, surprised. ‘Why?’

‘Don’t you think you’re pushing things too hard?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, twisting Matt’s arm to get him to take us to Antarctica at five minutes’ notice. What about everybody else there? They’re not going to be quite as happy to help when three new people turn up and start pissing around with their expedition - especially when one of them’s a bloody terrorist!’

‘Matt’s in charge, and he says it won’t be a problem,’ Nina insisted. ‘And I didn’t twist his arm. I just asked, and he agreed to help. Like he always does.’

‘And what happens when the other people on the expedition complain? He’ll get fired.’

‘Matt’s a smart guy. He’ll be able to find other work with no trouble.’

Chase made a disbelieving noise. ‘That’s not the bloody point! Have you heard yourself ? You’re so determined to find this place, you’re not even thinking what might happen to anyone else. Yeah, Matt could get fired - or a fuck of a lot worse. Did that even occur to you?’

‘Of course it did,’ said Nina, offended - and, for a moment, uncertain whether or not it had. It must have done, she quickly rationalised. If it hadn’t, that would make her as bad as Sophia . . .

‘And what about you working with Sophia?’ Chase continued, as if picking up her thoughts. ‘For fuck’s sake, you want each other dead.’

‘I don’t like it either. But we need her, and I gave her my word.’

‘You think she cares about that?’

‘Probably not. But I do. We’ve got more chance of figuring out what the Covenant are doing with her help - and if we do that, it gives us the advantage. We can expose them to the world and get our lives back.’

‘From what Sophia said, these people are basically religious fundamentalists,’ Chase said grimly. ‘I’ve been in a war against one lot of ’em, and they’re not exactly good losers. So three of them, working together? Even if we do beat them to this lost city, I don’t think they’ll leave it at that.’

‘And what would you rather do?’ Nina countered, growing angry. ‘Nothing? We can’t hide from them for the rest of our lives. And I wouldn’t want to even if we could.’

‘I’m not saying we should. I’m just saying that maybe you’re running into this so fast, you’re not thinking about the consequences. For other people, as well as us.’

Her expression softened slightly. ‘You’re thinking about Mitzi, aren’t you?’

‘Yeah,’ said Chase, jaw clenching at the memory of a dead friend. ‘She got killed because I rushed her into a situation without thinking it through. I don’t want that to happen again. And I don’t want you having to learn the same way I did.’

She took his hand. ‘Eddie, you know I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Not Matt, not anybody. Hell, I don’t even actively want anything bad to happen to Sophia.’ The small joke prompted the very slightest upward twitch of Chase’s mouth. ‘But if we don’t do something about the Covenant, then there’re only three things we’ll ever be able to do - we run, we hide . . . or we die. And I don’t like any of those options. Especially the third one. That really sucks.’

Again, his mouth curled into a near-smile. ‘You’ve got a point.’ He gently squeezed her fingers. ‘But I want to make sure you know what kind of risk you’re taking. We don’t have any backup this time; no IHA, no rich guys. If anything goes wrong, we’re on our own.’ He looked at the Antarctic map on the computer. ‘And in about the worst possible place to get in trouble on the entire bloody planet.’

‘Then we’ll just have to make sure that nothing does happen.’

‘Right, like that’s ever worked for us.’

‘There’s a first time for everything,’ said Nina. She smiled, then took his other hand. ‘We can do this, Eddie. The city’s there, I’m certain of it.’

‘Hope you’re right.’

‘I am. I promise.’

‘Can I get that in writing?’ The threatened smile finally broke through. ‘All right. If you think freezing our arses off with Pingu is the only way we can beat these wankers, then we’ll have to do it. But you just be really careful.’

‘I will. Good job you’ll be there to pull me out of any crevasses.’

‘I meant of Sophia.’ Chase’s expression became serious again. ‘If she gets the chance, she’ll try to escape. Or kill us.’

‘So let’s not give her any chances.’

Chase nodded, then looked down at his black leather jacket. ‘Think I’ll need something a bit thicker than this, then.’

20

Antarctica

The sea rushing below the Bell BA609 tilt-rotor was a serene, perfect blue under the stark sunlight. But the day’s brightness was deceptive; even at the height of the Antarctic summer, the temperature was barely above freezing.

Huddled inside a thick parka, Nina peered over the pilot’s shoulder to watch the approaching coastline with awe. The land ahead was dazzling, a wall of ice rising practically vertically out of the sparkling ocean. Ice floes whipped past, tiny dots huddled on one. ‘Oh, wow, Eddie!’ she said. ‘I just saw my first penguins!’

Chase grinned. ‘Maybe we can p-p-p-pick one up on the way back.’

‘This is not a sightseeing tour,’ growled the man beside the pilot. Dr Rohit Bandra, Nina had quickly discovered after landing on the RV Southern Sun following the long flight in the tilt-rotor from Tasmania the previous day, was not someone who responded well to the unexpected. He had immediately launched into a huge argument with Trulli about the unscheduled arrival of his ‘assistants’, and it had taken all Nina’s persuasive powers - and fame - to mollify him even slightly. Apparently, news of her suspension hadn’t reached the South Pole.

He was still fuming, however, and had made it clear that the moment Trulli’s tests were successfully completed - and the expedition switched from a technical to a scientific exercise - the unwelcome guests would be sent packing, accompanied by a sternly worded complaint to the IHA. Although Trulli had downplayed it with his usual casualness, Nina could tell he was actually very worried about what it would mean to his career, and now felt horribly guilty for having involved him.

But her concerns faded as they approached the coastline. The sea was full of drifting ice; the Southern Sun was anchored over eighty miles offshore to keep clear of the floes calving off the ice cap that stretched away to the horizon, a slice of blinding white sandwiched between the deep blues of the ocean and the sky. More ice floes below, densely packed like crazy paving, then the cliff rolled past to reveal nothing but solid whiteness ahead.

They had arrived in Antarctica.

‘Feet dry at oh-eight seventeen,’ said the pilot, a Norwegian called Larsson. ‘Rough air ahead. We’re in for some chop.’

‘You’re not joking,’ Chase said as the Bell lurched, hit by the winds sweeping across the endless plains. He tightened his seatbelt. The other occupants of the cabin - Nina, Sophia, Trulli, Bandra and a pair of Trulli’s engineering assistants, David Baker and Rachel Tamm - quickly did the same.

Larsson checked the GPS, adjusting course. The newly selected test site was seven miles from the coast, the ice sheet having expanded hugely over the millennia. The terrain became more rugged, the flat plain rising up into mountains of pure ice, jagged chasms splitting the surface between them. The walls of the ravines changed colour as they got deeper, turning from white to startling, almost unreal shades of cyan and turquoise. ‘That’s beautiful,’ said Nina, amazed. ‘Why’s it that colour?’

‘Compression, Dr Wilde,’ said Bandra, voice filled with don’t-you-know-anything condescension. ‘The weight of the snow and ice above it squeezes out all the trapped air and turns it solid, so it absorbs red wavelengths of light. Hence, blue ice.’

‘Yeah?’ said Chase. ‘And I thought blue ice was the stuff that falls out of the bogs on planes. Cheers, doc, you learn something every day.’ Bandra looked more annoyed than ever, though Nina and Trulli both smiled at his deflation.

Something else below caught Nina’s attention: a column of what looked like smoke rising in the wind. She found its source, a strangely elongated and angular cone of ice protruding from the surface like a stalagmite. ‘Volcanic vents - we must be in the right place,’ she said, seeing more of the formations in the distance.

‘How far to the site?’ Trulli asked.

Larsson checked the GPS again. ‘About two kilometres.’ He pointed ahead. ‘Past that crevasse.’

Nina craned forward for a better look. It was a blank expanse of snow, not even broken by a volcanic vent, a deep ravine angling away towards the coast before it. The lack of landmarks made it difficult to judge scale, but the plain seemed at least a couple of miles across. The lake hidden beneath it, according to the radar survey, was considerably smaller.

‘I still want to make it perfectly clear that I object in the strongest possible terms to changing the test site,’ said Bandra as the tilt-rotor began to descend. ‘I will be complaining to the UN about the IHA’s appropriation of UNARA’s resources.’

‘Yeah, we got that, Dr Bandra,’ said Nina wearily.

‘But surely, Dr Bandra,’ said Sophia with mischievous innocence, ‘it doesn’t matter where the test takes place? After all, ice is ice.’

‘Ice is most certainly not ice!’ Bandra huffed. ‘Do you have any kind of scientific background at all, Miss Fox, or are you just another freeloading tourist like Mr Chase?’

She smiled. ‘Actually, I have some experience in the nuclear field.’ Trulli coughed at that, and Nina and Chase both gave ‘Miss Fox’ - the name on her fake passport - warning looks. Fortunately, none of the others picked up on her black joke.

The tilt-rotor dropped towards the centre of the ice plain, Larsson zeroing in on the precise GPS co-ordinates Trulli had provided and transitioning the aircraft from flight to hover mode, the engine nacelles on the wingtips pivoting to turn the oversized propellers into rotors. The Bell hung hesitantly above the centre of the vortex of blowing snow and ice crystals before landing with a bump.

Larsson peered out, leaving the engines running at just under takeoff speed. ‘Okay, the ice seems stable. But take a thickness reading before you unload any of the gear. I’d want at least ten metres under us to be safe.’

‘On it,’ said Trulli. He and Baker climbed out with a radar measuring device and circled the aircraft, hunched in their parkas as they took readings. Finally, Trulli gave Larsson a thumbs-up. He returned it and powered down the engines.

‘We’re over the lake,’ Trulli told Nina as he re-entered the cabin. ‘The ice is about forty metres thick, like we thought.’

‘How long will it take to drill through?’

‘Don’t jump the gun! We’ve got to get Cambot set up first; that’ll take a couple of hours. But forty metres . . .’ He stroked his chin, thinking. ‘I don’t want to push too hard, not on a first test run, so maybe half an hour. Unless you want to find one of the thinner patches of ice above the volcanic vents and drill through there.’

‘How thick were they?’

‘Twenty, twenty-five metres.’

‘So it halves the amount of time we have to stand around in the Antarctic. Sounds good to me.’

Bandra frowned at them. ‘And do you really think that is a proper test of the drill? It has to get through four kilometres of ice, not twenty metres!’

‘Cambot’s got to crawl before he can walk, eh?’ said Trulli, picking up more equipment. ‘All right, everybody, let’s kick some ice!’ Even Chase groaned at the pun.

Nina climbed out, immediately glad of her layers of clothing as she stepped on to the plain, the spiked crampons on her boots biting into the frozen surface. She put on a pair of mirrored sunglasses to shield her eyes from the glare of the sunlit snow. Apart from the tilt-rotor, there was no shelter from the constant, cutting wind. The landscape seemed completely flat, not so much as a rock breaking up the hard-packed surface snow. Despite having visited several barren deserts, she had never seen anywhere so utterly empty and lifeless.

Trulli and Baker took about twenty minutes with their radar device to find an area of thinner ice, only twenty-one metres thick. After marking the position with a red flag on a pole, the preparations for the test began.

Cambot, Trulli’s robot submarine, was a segmented metal cylinder some nine feet long and three feet in diameter, one end capped with a menacing array of interlocking drill heads and the other with pump-jet nozzles and folded fins surrounding a complex spool mechanism. Assisted by Rachel, Trulli and Baker carefully lowered it on to a sled. Chase, Nina and Larsson joined in to help them slide the heavy machine to the flag. Sophia elected to watch from the cabin, while Bandra made a show of ‘supervising’ without actually applying any physical effort.

Leaving Cambot at the flag, the engineers returned to the helicopter to bring over a generator, then set about erecting a winch system to lift Cambot by its tail, suspending the drill heads just above the ice. This took a while, the others returning to the BA609 for hot coffee. Disconcertingly for Nina, the sun barely moved in the sky for the whole time: at this point of summer, so close to the Antarctic Circle, daylight lasted almost twenty-three hours.

Once the submarine was hanging like some huge cybernetic fish on display as a catch, everyone examined it, even Sophia’s interest piqued. ‘So how does it work?’ Chase asked.

Trulli was on a ladder, connecting one end of what looked like a long length of rubber hose to the robot’s stern. ‘Most of it’s pretty straightforward. We lower it, it drills down into the ice - but it’s heated as well so it’ll go through faster. The drills get up to sixty or seventy Celsius once they’re at full speed, and the body’s at about thirty degrees, so the meltwater keeps it lubricated while it’s going down.’

‘So where does the truly Trulli stuff come in?’ Nina asked.

He grinned. ‘ “Truly Trulli,” ’ never heard that before. Nah, the clever business is all here at the back.’ He patted the spool. ‘See, usually when people do deep ice drilling, they fill the drill shaft with antifreeze, otherwise it ices over in no time. But that’s not really an option here, ’cause as soon as we broke through into the lake, it’d pollute the ecosystem and kill what Dr Bandra’s trying to find.’ He held up the hose. ‘This is the clever bit. It’s basically a length of flexible pipe, but folded back on itself - like when you turn a pair of trousers inside out by reaching down the leg. Only here, the trousers can be however long we want - kilometres, even.’

‘Bloody big trousers,’ said Chase.

‘We run all the control and power cables down inside both layers of the hose - they’ve got a non-stick coating so they slide over the inside of the umbilicus. This way, it doesn’t matter if the top of the drill shaft ices up. But as Cambot goes down, he unrolls more and more of the hose out behind him from this drum here.’ Trulli nodded at it. ‘Once he breaks through into the lake, we disconnect him from the umbilicus so he can swim free. But because we’re still feeding the power cable through to him, he can explore for as long as we want, then recover him by drilling back up through the ice. In theory.’

‘Let’s hope it works,’ said Bandra, as cold as the surrounding landscape. ‘It would be a horrible waste of everyone’s time and money if something went wrong.’

‘Only one way to find out,’ Nina said. ‘How much longer to get ready, Matt?’

‘Not long. Just got to finish the hook-ups, run all the system checks, then we’re set.’

It took him another twenty minutes, using a laptop inside a battery-heated bag to carry out the final checks. ‘All right!’ the Australian finally announced, sitting on a folding canvas chair. ‘Let’s give it a whirl.’

As well as the laptop, the bag contained a control unit bearing twin joysticks and several dials. ‘Stand back,’ he warned as he turned one of the latter. The drill heads rotated reluctantly at first before warming up and spinning more smoothly. He increased the revolutions, checking figures on the laptop’s screen before looking up in satisfaction. ‘Everything looks good. Nina? You want to give the word?’

‘I think it’d be better if Dr Bandra had that honour,’ she said. ‘Dr Bandra?’

He accepted with poor grace. ‘Go on then, Trulli, get on with it.’

Trulli shrugged and operated the controls. The winch lowered the submarine until the whirling drill heads touched the ice. There was a loud rasp, the sub’s nose instantly obscured by spray as it dug into the hardened surface. Nina looked up at the winch frame. The outer layer of the umbilicus was indeed staying still, the slick, shiny inner layer slowly slithering into its open end. The sight was vaguely unsettling, reminding her for some reason of guts.

Cambot was in no particular rush to descend; it took over two minutes before the robot’s cylindrical body completely disappeared from view. Churning water spewed up behind it. But the shaft was already freezing, the exposed surface taking on a glutinous quality with surprising speed.

‘All right,’ said Trulli, checking the readings. ‘Cambot’s cutting through the ice at a hundred and twenty centimetres per minute. So he’ll take, uh . . .’

‘Fifteen minutes to reach the lake,’ Nina told him. ‘Since he’s already covered the depth of his own length.’

‘Thanks. Wish I could do sums in my head like that - it’d save me a fortune in calculator batteries!’

Another round of coffees in the tilt-rotor followed, Trulli waving everyone back to the shaft almost fifteen minutes later. ‘Okay, he’s getting close,’ he announced. ‘The ice is a bit thinner than I thought - must be irregular. Oh, and I wouldn’t stand there, mate,’ he told Chase, who was investigating the now-frozen opening. ‘All the weight of the ice on top of it means the lake water’ll be under pressure. Soon as Cambot breaks through, it’ll come fizzing up like a can of Four-X on a bumpy ride!’

Chase retreated, Trulli also moving back. Everyone stood in a line, anticipation rising. Even Bandra seemed excited. ‘Less than a metre,’ Trulli said, watching the screen intently. ‘But the ice could break any time, so watch out. Half a metre - whoa, there it goes!’

The expedition members tensed, but nothing happened for a few seconds - then the cap of ice over the shaft suddenly exploded upwards as a geyser burst through the surface. It reached over thirty feet in the air, dropping back down in a cloud of spray. The fountain continued to gush for several seconds before finally dying down.

‘And . . . he’s through!’ Trulli said triumphantly. He checked some more readings. ‘Okay, time for stage two. Capping off the umbilicus, deploying fins and releasing Cambot for free operation . . . now.’

He operated more controls, seemed satisfied. ‘Okay, let’s see what’s down there.’

Nina watched the screen as the Australian worked the controls. Trulli had configured one window to show a live video feed, which at the moment showed little but a cyan fog, but the display next to it was more revealing. It was a LIDAR display, similar to the scanning system used on some of his previous submarines, sweeping back and forth a blue-green laser beam of a wavelength that could easily penetrate water. The resulting image was only monochrome, but she could clearly make out the ‘roof’ of ice covering the ancient lake.

Trulli turned the submarine to view the bottom of the drill shaft. The end of the umbilicus dangled from it, swaying languidly as the robot’s movements pulled the other cables through it. The ice surrounding the hole seemed almost to be glowing in shades of blue and turquoise, daylight from the surface penetrating the translucent mass. ‘Okay,’ he said, turning to Nina. ‘Where d’you want to start?’

‘Where did the sub come out?’

Trulli checked the co-ordinates. ‘Near the seaward end of the valley.’

‘By the dam?’

‘If that’s what it is.’

‘Check it out first,’ Nina said. Trulli nodded and guided the sub downwards. As he had thought, there was a large indentation in the ice ceiling, a rough dome formed by rising heated water from a volcanic vent below. It took a couple of minutes for Cambot to emerge into a larger open space.

The blue glow was still present even through the greater thickness of ice, but Nina was focused on the LIDAR image as Trulli steered the sub to the end of the valley. Off to the side, the terrain was steep and rocky . . . but ahead, the slope leading up to the roof of ice was much more shallow and smooth.

‘Is it a dam?’ Sophia asked.

Bandra made a sarcastic noise. ‘How could it be a dam? Antarctic beavers, perhaps?’

Nina switched her attention to the video feed as the sub moved closer. Under the spotlights, the slope’s surface could be seen as loosely packed earth. ‘How wide is it?’

‘Let me get a sonar reading . . . It’s a smidge over three hundred metres across,’ said Trulli. ‘Maybe twenty-one metres at the highest point. Goes right across the valley.’

‘Completely blocking it,’ Nina realised. ‘It is a dam. They built it to flood the valley and hide everything under the ice, just like the inscription said.’

Bandra was getting increasingly irate. ‘What inscription? Who are “they”? Dr Wilde, what is going on?’ He stood face to face with Nina. ‘I demand an answer, right now!’

Chase put a hand on his shoulder. Bandra tried to shrug it off, concern crossing his face as the Englishman’s grip tightened. ‘All right, doc, keep calm,’ Chase told him. ‘You don’t want to get overexcited in a dangerous place like this, do you? That’s how accidents happen.’

‘This - this is outrageous!’ Bandra screeched. ‘Let go of me!’

‘Eddie,’ said Nina. Chase shrugged, then lifted his hand. Rapid puffs of angry breath steamed from the Indian’s nostrils. ‘Dr Bandra, I promise I’ll give you a full explanation soon. But for now, it would be enormously helpful if you could just please be patient. And quiet.’

‘This is my expedition!’ Bandra hissed in impotent frustration. He stalked off towards the tilt-rotor.

Trulli grimaced. ‘Well, dinner conversation’s going to be awkward tonight.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Matt,’ said Nina. She looked back at the screen. ‘Turn the sub around, let’s see the valley floor.’

Trulli obeyed, Cambot swinging round and descending. Objects appeared at the limit of the scanning laser’s range. Large blocks, possibly boulders . . . but suspiciously regular in shape. She looked back at the video display as the sub drew closer. It was hard to judge scale, but the blocks seemed large, at least as tall as a person.

But whatever their size, one thing was immediately clear.

They were rectangular. Flat sided. Hard-edged.

Man-made.

‘Keep going,’ Nina gasped. The others reacted with equal astonishment as Cambot continued past the blocks and headed for a new contact on the LIDAR. A wall, curving round, rising upwards to form a dome-shaped building of carefully carved stone . . .

‘It’s the city,’ whispered Nina. ‘The lost city of the Veteres. We’ve found it.’

21

‘You knew it was there all along,’ Bandra said angrily, stabbing an accusing finger at the images on Trulli’s laptop as Cambot continued its exploration. ‘You knew, but you hijacked my expedition to find it! Why?’

‘I didn’t have a choice,’ said Nina. ‘There’d been . . . a security breach at the IHA. Lives were lost.’

‘What?’ Bandra’s expression changed to one of horror. ‘So you decided to put the lives of a UNARA mission at risk instead?’

‘No, because as far as we know, UNARA’s security hasn’t been compromised. Nobody knows we’re here,’ she explained, exasperated. ‘And I didn’t know for sure that the city was here, only that there was a strong possibility.’

‘But now that you do, now what? You can’t get to it! We don’t have the equipment to carry out an exploratory dive.’ Bandra scowled. ‘You may have made an archaeological find, Dr Wilde, but you’ve done so at the expense of another scientific mission - my mission. As soon as we return to the Southern Sun, I’ll be making a formal complaint to the UN about your actions.’

‘You’re entitled to do that, of course,’ Nina said, forcing back her own rising anger. ‘But I’ll ask you to wait until after we’ve explored the city. However we do that.’

‘I most certainly will not wait,’ he told her, seething. ‘You think that a few interesting finds and some TV appearances give you the right to dictate to the rest of us?’

‘No, I don’t,’ she said, voice cold. ‘But I do think that my position as Director of the IHA gives me that right.’

‘What!’

‘The IHA is as much about global security as archaeological preservation. This is now a security issue.’ She put her hands on her hips, regarding him stonily. ‘I’m sorry, Dr Bandra, but you leave me no choice but to invoke my authority and place this site, and this entire expedition, under IHA jurisdiction.’

Bandra’s rage rose to such a level that he seemed about to melt his own hole through the ice. ‘You - you can’t do that!’

‘I just did. And you know damn well that I have the authority, so I’m giving you an order - you are not to contact the IHA, or anyone else, until I authorise it. Am I perfectly clear?’

For a moment, she thought he was going to hit her. Chase took a small but pointed step closer. Lips twisted, Bandra whirled, almost slipping on the ice as he stomped back to the tilt-rotor.

‘Christ, Nina,’ said Trulli quietly, ‘I know he’s a bit of a dick, but that was harsh.’

Sophia, on the other hand, smirked. ‘Nina, I have to admit, I’m almost impressed. I never thought you had it in you. Of course, it would have been much better if you actually had the auth—’

‘Don’t,’ Nina said, stepping almost nose to nose with her. After a long moment under her hard, unblinking gaze, Sophia turned and walked away, though not without a dismissive sniff.

Chase moved up behind his fiancée. ‘Hey,’ he said softly. ‘You okay?’

She faced him, trembling with a mixture of anger and adrenalin from the confrontations. ‘N-no, not really.’

‘C’mere.’ Chase hugged her. ‘You know what? Fuck Sophia, I was impressed. You should have been in the army, you’d have made a decent drill sergeant with an attitude like that. It’d scare the shit out of the new recruits.’

She let a half-hearted laugh escape into the cold air. ‘He was right, though. What are we going to do about the city? We can’t get down there, and the only way we can get the gear and resources we’d need is by contacting UNARA or the IHA - and as soon as we do that, the game’s up.’

‘Worried about the Covenant?’

‘Them, and Bandra. I think that when he finds out I’ve pulled a snow job on him, he’ll try to kill me.’

‘I’ll watch out for you. Against Bandra or the Covenant.’

‘Thanks.’ She managed a small smile. ‘But it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t actually get to the city. All we can do is look at it on a screen - and that’s not going to be enough. We need to get inside it.’

Trulli looked up from the laptop. ‘I, er . . . I’ve got an idea.’ He glanced towards the plane, which Bandra was circling, kicking up snow. ‘Only I don’t think he’s going to like it. But, well, in for a penny, right?’

‘What are you thinking, Matt?’ Nina asked.

‘Well, that dam blocking the valley - it’s just made of soil and maybe some stones, you think?’

‘Probably. If they put it together in a hurry, they’d do it in the simplest way possible - just pile up as much earth as they could.’

‘So it’s probably not going to be all that dense, right? Even if it’s tightly packed, soil isn’t as hard as solid ice . . .’

Nina realised where he was going. ‘Matt! Oh my God, you’re a genius!’

‘Yeah, I know.’

‘Wait, why’s he a genius?’ Chase asked.

‘Because he can use the sub to drill through the dam and drain the lake!’ she proclaimed. ‘Will it work, though?’

Trulli gestured in the direction of the coast. ‘We saw a crevasse back there, so if I can get Cambot to it the water’ll drain out, but I want to make sure that it’s big enough for us to get the plane into so we can pick him up afterwards. It is a five-million-dollar sub we’re talking about, after all!’

‘If it works, how long will it take to drain the lake?’

‘No idea. I mean, we don’t even know the exact dimensions. But based on the size of the lake from the radar map, it’ll be . . .’ He called up a calculator on the laptop and took off a glove to tap in figures. ‘I’d say at least twenty-four hours. But it could easily be more.’

‘What about the ice?’ asked Chase. He banged a heel on the frozen surface. ‘If you drain the lake out from under it, the whole roof might cave in.’

Trulli looked pensive. ‘There’s a chance . . . but it’s a minimum of twenty metres thick, so it should be okay. A metre of ice’ll support a big truck. There might be some local falls, though. Especially if those volcanic vents are still active. If there’s steam rising, it might melt parts of the ice.’

‘But you definitely think you can get your robot through the dam?’ Nina asked.

‘In theory, yeah. The cable’s easily long enough, and we’ve got plenty of power.’ He looked worried. ‘It’s just that if the dam isn’t just earth, if it’s filled with rocks, then Cambot won’t be able to drill through - and we won’t be able to get him back out.’

Nina put a hand on his arm. ‘You’ve already done a hell of a lot for us, Matt. If you don’t want to risk it . . .’

He pointed at the structures on the screen, entombed below them. ‘Nah, I think it’ll be worth it. Hell, this is easily as big as Atlantis, maybe even bigger. And maybe I’ll get on the cover of Time with you this time - or at least Popular Mechanics!’

‘So you’ll do it?’

Trulli grinned. ‘Get me a coffee, and I’ll see what I can do!’

As Trulli had thought, the piled soil of the earth dam was indeed easier to drill through than the hardened ice above the lake, Cambot progressing at over a metre and a half per minute. Even so, it still took the better part of two hours before the robot cut all the way through the base of the dam and reached the ice beyond. By this time, Bandra had found out what was going on and become even more livid, but also resigned to the fact that it was an all-or-nothing operation: the only way to retrieve the expensive submarine now was for it to reach the crevasse.

Trulli, Baker and Rachel took turns to monitor Cambot’s progress, the others going back and forth to the tilt-rotor to find respite from the chill wind in its cabin. Nina was idly wondering how much longer the expedition’s supply of coffee would hold out when Rachel, at the controls, waved frantically. Everyone hurried over, Trulli taking back the laptop to check the readings.

‘We’re almost through!’ he said excitedly. Nina watched the screen. With nothing to see while the robot was drilling, Trulli had switched off the cameras, but now he reactivated them. Although the image was obscured as icy slush swept along Cambot’s cylindrical body, the glow of daylight through the ice was clear.

And it was not the blue of deep, thick ice. This was a pure white, coming through only a few metres, if that . . .

A sound like a muffled gunshot rolled across the plain from the direction of the crevasse. The image suddenly flared as Cambot was flung out into the light of day. A blue-white cliff face blurred across the screen before being obscured by churning water. Another crack of ice came from the edge of the plain, almost drowned out by a hissing roar.

The winch shuddered, cables zipping rapidly into the umbilicus as Baker hurriedly pulled a lever to let it run freely. Rachel watched the spinning reel nervously, hand poised over a control on the generator to detach the power line if needed, but then it stopped with surprising abruptness. The view from the video camera jolted violently.

Chase winced. ‘Bloody hell. Even though it’s a robot, I still felt that.’

Warning signals flashed red on the laptop’s screen. ‘I think he hit something,’ Trulli said, dismayed. ‘How wide was that crevasse?’

‘Eighty, ninety feet.’

Now it was Trulli’s turn to wince. ‘There you go, then. He just got blown into the wall on the other side. Christ, that waterspout must be bloody powerful.’ He turned to look. A cloud of spray rose above the edge of the plain, sunlight glinting off billions of ice crystals as the water began to freeze in mid-air.

‘How badly is it damaged?’ Bandra demanded.

‘The hull’s still intact, and the internals survived well enough to give us telemetry,’ Trulli told him, flicking through different screens for more information. ‘Looks like we lost the LIDAR turret and some of the fins, though.’

Bandra glowered at Nina. ‘I hold you personally responsible for the damage, Dr Wilde.’

‘Bill the IHA,’ she told him curtly. The noise of escaping water was a constant thunder, thousands of gallons being blasted out of the shaft every second. But how long would it take to drain the entire lake?

There was no way to know. All they could do was wait for nature to take its course. ‘I think,’ she announced, ‘that pretty much wraps it up for the day.’

Chase entered the small cabin aboard the Southern Sun, finding Nina and Sophia examining photo printouts of the inscription within the buried chamber in Australia. ‘Ay up.’

‘Where’ve you been?’ Nina asked.

‘Listening to Bandra shout at Matt. Surprised you didn’t hear him down here, he was pretty pissed off.’ He picked up a page of Nina’s notes. ‘What’re you up to?’

‘Trying to translate the inscription,’ Sophia told him.

‘Any luck?’

‘Some,’ said Nina. ‘We’ve been concentrating on the parts about the city, to see if we can get an idea of what’s down there. For a start, the “tree of the gift” that Ribbsley mentioned? Whatever it was, it’s not unique. The city has one too.’

‘And it’s not the only tree they made a big song and dance about. Here.’ Sophia indicated one particular section of the ancient text.

Nina looked more closely. ‘Something about . . . “lowering” themselves to their god to reach the tree of the gift? Kneeling in supplication, maybe?’ Sophia nodded. ‘Then some stuff about prophets, and a gate to the tree of . . .’ She pointed at the word. ‘I don’t know what that means.’

‘It’s “life”,’ Sophia told her. ‘The tree of life.’

‘The tree of life?’ Nina repeated, startled. ‘As mentioned in the Book of Genesis? No wonder the Covenant want to find it.’

‘It was certainly very important to the Veteres - some kind of link to their god.’ Sophia pursed her lips. ‘Interesting that they were monotheistic. Primitive cultures were usually polytheist.’

‘Not necessarily. Zoroastrianism dates back to at least the ninth century BC.’

‘They worshipped Zorro?’ Chase said, miming the swipes of a sword in a Z-shape. ‘That’s my kind of religion!’

Nina and Sophia gave each other tired looks. ‘And you want to marry him,’ Sophia said.

‘You did marry him.’

‘Life is a series of right and wrong paths.’

‘Oi!’ Chase protested. ‘Anyway, this lot aren’t exactly primitive. I mean, look what they built.’ He indicated a LIDAR printout of several dome-shaped buildings, then added with a cough, ‘Helpedbyaliens.’

‘Will you shut up about goddamn aliens?’ snapped Nina. She turned back to Sophia. ‘Does it say anything more about what this tree of life actually is?’

‘Not that I can see - or at least that I can translate.’

‘You’re doing okay at the translation,’ Chase said to Nina.

‘I’m a quick study,’ she replied.

‘Yeah, I know. Keep this up and you won’t even need Sophia.’

Nina arched an eyebrow. ‘Wouldn’t that be a shame?’ Her expression became more suspicious as she regarded the Englishwoman. ‘You wouldn’t be holding back on anything to keep yourself useful, would you?’

Sophia sighed, somewhat sarcastically. ‘What would that gain me? My interests are best served by helping you and Eddie.’

‘And our interests would have been better served if you’d given me Ribbsley’s notes when I asked,’ said Nina. ‘At least he doesn’t have them either. Unless that Winnebago had a fireproof safe.’

‘That Ribbsley bloke,’ Chase asked Sophia, ‘what do you see in him, anyway? He’s not rich, he’s not a sexy hunk like me.’

Sophia appeared irritated. ‘He’s an intellectual equal. Which of course you could never appreciate.’

‘He’s more on your moral level as well,’ said Nina. She looked back at the photos. ‘If there’s nothing more about the tree of life, what about the tree of the gift? Or the gift itself ? Ribbsley said their god punished them for giving it to the beasts, but what was it?’

Sophia’s irritation faded as she concentrated on the text. ‘I’m not sure. It had something to do with making use of “tiny mountains of fire”—’

‘The volcanic vents. We got that.’

‘Literal, if not very poetic. There’s also what looks like “earth sky fire”, whatever that means.’

‘Sky fire - lightning?’ Chase suggested. ‘Or an aurora. You get them at the South Pole, right?’

‘Yeah,’ said Nina. ‘But “earth” seems like a modifier. How would you get an aurora in the earth?’

‘I have no idea.’ Sophia tapped the picture. ‘But there’s more here about these mysterious “beasts”. Apparently, the Veteres brought them with them to Antarctica.’

Chase snorted. ‘Well, that scores a ten on the stupidometer.’

Nina’s response was more thoughtful. ‘These beasts were a threat they were trying to escape . . . but they brought them along anyway? And then gave them God’s gift?’

‘Thought that was me,’ Chase said, grinning. Both women ignored him.

‘It doesn’t make a huge amount of sense,’ admitted Sophia. ‘What sort of gift could you give an animal that would arouse God’s wrath?’

Nina shook her head. ‘Unless it was a Jesus chew-toy, I can’t think of anything either.’ She picked up the LIDAR image. ‘I just hope that whatever it is, we’ll find out down there tomorrow.’

‘Feet dry at oh-seven seventeen,’ Larsson announced.

The BA609 was retracing its journey from the previous day - and, somewhat to Nina’s annoyance, with the same passengers. Baker and Rachel were going with Trulli to locate and recover Cambot, but why Bandra had insisted on coming along, other than to add to his ever-growing list of grievances, she had no idea.

Still, so long as he didn’t do anything to interfere, she could tolerate his presence. And the fact that he had let her take the front seat was a small sign of his acceptance of her authority, however grudging.

She donned her sunglasses and looked ahead. The location of the ice field and the crevasse was immediately obvious; a cloud of spray was still rising up from the latter, drifting westwards in a long plume.

‘Okay, first thing,’ said Trulli from behind her, ‘we need to see if Cambot’s still in the same place. Pehr, swing over the ravine and take a look.’

Larsson transitioned to hover mode, descending into the ravine. The hole through which the water was still gushing was somewhat larger than it had been the previous day, a section of the ice cliff above having sheared off as the escaping jet ate away at it. Through the spray, Nina could see fallen chunks of ice strewn everywhere, water flowing past them towards another, lower plain in the distance.

‘All right!’ Trulli exclaimed. ‘Cambot’s still where he was yesterday.’ He pointed; Nina spotted the robot wedged against the other side of the canyon, encrusted in ice and frost.

‘Looks like it’s frozen in,’ said Chase. ‘Bring any pickaxes?’

‘Better than that, mate. Got some gas!’ He patted a red metal cylinder in one of the cargo racks. ‘We can just melt the ice right off him, no worries.’

Larsson ascended and circled the previous day’s landing site to look for signs of the ice’s having been weakened by the draining lake. There were no new cracks evident, but he still landed cautiously, leaving the rotors running until he was sure the plain wasn’t going to drop out from under them.

The team made their way back to the drill site. Trulli and his assistants had detached the cables from the submarine by remote control and reeled them back in the previous day, so the manhole-sized opening had completely frozen over. However, it was plain that the water level had lowered beneath it; the ice covering the shaft was semi-translucent, revealing a circle of darkness below. ‘Shouldn’t take long to break through,’ Chase decided.

‘How are we going to see how low the water is?’ Nina asked. ‘I don’t suppose you brought another robot with you, Matt?’

Trulli put down a heavy insulated pack on the ice and unzipped it. ‘Afraid not, but I’ve got something that’ll do the job. Bit crude, but it’ll work.’ He took out a small digital camcorder in a plastic housing designed to protect it from the cold and wet. ‘We’ll just lower this on a string! If I set the gain for low-light conditions, it’ll give us an idea of how big the cavern is as well.’

‘Quite the bricoleur, aren’t you?’ said Sophia.

Trulli gave Nina an uncertain look. ‘Is that good?’

‘Surprisingly, yes,’ she told him, raising an eyebrow. ‘She actually complimented someone. I don’t know if you should feel honoured or worried.’

‘I wouldn’t let her pat you on the back, put it that way,’ Chase added.

Baker used one of the gas cylinders to melt through the ice capping the shaft. Frozen lumps dropped into the darkness below. Splashes followed, but only after a few seconds, and quite faintly.

Trulli rigged up his improvised probe, setting it to record before lowering it down the shaft on a length of line marked with a red stripe at one-metre intervals. Nina counted them off; the camera passed twenty metres with no trouble, clearing the bottom of the shaft. Thirty metres, forty, now below the roof of the chamber proper. Trulli paid the line out more slowly. The camera housing would float; as soon as it reached the surface, the line would go slack. Forty-five metres. Forty-six, forty-seven . . .

‘How deep was the lake?’ Chase asked. ‘Must be near the bottom by now.’

‘About twenty metres,’ said Nina. ‘So sixty metres below us, more or less.’ She checked the line again. Fifty-one metres, fifty-two—

‘Whoa,’ Trulli said. He hesitantly lowered his hands, then raised them again until the line became taut. ‘That’s it, we’ve reached water. Just under fifty-three metres.’

‘So only about seven metres still to drain?’ Nina asked. ‘It’ll be empty sooner than we thought.’

‘The drainage tunnel must have got wider.’ He raised his hands further. ‘Okay, hopefully if I swing it a little bit, the camera’ll turn enough to get a three-sixty of the cavern. Then I’ll pull it back up and we’ll have a look.’ He slowly twisted the line in his hands, then began the laborious process of returning the camera to the surface.

Once it was recovered, he removed it from the housing and opened its LCD screen, then rewound the recording to the point when the camera cleared the bottom of the ice dome. With the water gone, the amount of light coming through the ice was quite surprising. At the bottom of the screen, Nina could see the lake’s surface, the current clearly visible as the water surged towards the hole drilled in the base of the dam. Knowing the depth of the remaining water gave her a sense of scale that the sub’s cameras had failed to provide. The dam was indeed a quite impressive structure, making up in sheer size for what it lacked in complexity.

So what about the city?

The camera continued to descend, still swinging, but to her growing irritation the image only panned over the dam and the valley sides. She wanted to look up the valley to see what lay at the other end. ‘Okay, fast forward, fast forward,’ she said impatiently. The lake’s surface rushed closer, then the camera suddenly tipped over at an angle. ‘Okay, hold it! The camera’s reached the water. Play it.’

The image bobbed for several seconds before levelling out as Trulli pulled the line taut. Nina held her breath as it swung round. Even though it was barely above the water level, it should still reveal something . . .

The movement slowed. She almost groaned. The camera was going to swing away again before she saw anything—

‘Stop!’ she gasped. Trulli froze the picture.

The camera had caught something. Just barely, at the side of the picture as it reached the end of its lazy sideways swing, a grainy shape lit by the ice-blue glow from above.

It was a building, so tall that its top disappeared into the overhanging ice, towering over everything around it.

A temple.

She stood, eyes wide with amazement as she faced the others. ‘We have to get down there. As soon as we can.’

22

To Nina’s immense frustration, soon wasn’t soon enough. It took the remaining water several more hours to drain away, hours in which she was reduced to pacing impotently across the ice under the disapproving eyes of Dr Bandra. Trulli and his team could at least accomplish something in the meantime; Cambot had finally been left high and dry, allowing Larsson to fly them into the crevasse to free the dented robot from the ice. The most she could do was get Chase to lower the camera down the shaft again in the hope of getting a better look at the buried city. But even though subsequent recordings revealed more detail, they were still too grainy and unsteady to do more than hint at what lay below.

She needed to see it with her own eyes.

As Trulli and Baker worked on the winch, Chase assembled equipment of his own, strapping gear to the sled used to transport the submarine. ‘No idea what’s down there, so we need to be prepared for anything,’ he told Nina and Sophia as he secured some smaller items with duct tape.

‘A tent?’ Sophia asked. ‘Planning a long stay, are you?’

‘Hope not, but if something goes wrong we might need it. Got sleeping bags, food, a camping stove, climbing gear, first aid kit - useful stuff. Just in case.’

‘At least we won’t run out of gas for the stove,’ said Nina, tapping a foot against one of the gas cylinders.

‘Nah, that’s just in case we find something valuable stuck in the ice and need to get it out without whacking it with a pickaxe. See? I’m getting the hang of this archaeology business.’ He smiled. ‘And if you’re wondering why I’m putting it all on a sledge, it’s because I’m not carting this bloody lot about on my back!’

Bandra came over. ‘All this equipment belongs to UNARA, you know,’ he said, pointing at a laser rangefinder Nina intended to use to measure the cavern. ‘If there’s any loss or damage, you’ll be responsible for it.’

Nina let out an irritated breath. ‘Let me get this straight, Dr Bandra. You’ve seen the video, you know there’s something incredible down there . . . and the biggest thing on your mind is nickel-and-diming me over a couple of boxes of Band-Aids?’

‘You’ve hijacked my expedition and treated me with nothing but contempt, Dr Wilde,’ he said. ‘I consider it a professional and personal insult. So you’ll forgive me if I refuse to go along with your cavalier attitude to the work.’

‘Fair enough.’ She cocked her head to one side. ‘So I’m sure you’ll forgive me if when I reveal this amazing discovery to the world I omit all mention of you? After all, you clearly don’t want to be associated with me.’

Bandra looked concerned. ‘Actually, that wasn’t quite what I meant . . .’

‘No, no, I completely understand,’ Nina went on, ‘and I respect your position. Nobody will know you had anything to do with it.’

‘It shows admirable integrity,’ Sophia added.

‘Your name won’t even be mentioned.’

Bandra glanced at the hole in the ice. ‘We’ll . . . discuss this further once we actually know what’s down there,’ he said, turning back to the tilt-rotor.

‘You enjoyed that,’ Chase said to Nina once he was out of earshot.

‘Yup,’ she replied smugly, before walking to the hole. The shaft dropped away to a circle of darkness sixty feet below.

Where something incredible was waiting for her. A feeling of anticipation was already rising in her stomach. She was so close to finding out the truth . . .

By the time Trulli and Baker had readied the winch, Chase had pulled the sled over to them. ‘All set,’ he announced, giving Trulli a walkie-talkie.

‘So who’s going down first?’ asked Trulli.

Chase looked at Nina. ‘I ought to, to make sure it’s safe, but . . .’

‘I’m going first,’ Nina insisted.

‘Yeah, I thought so.’

‘I have to, Eddie.’ She pointed at the safety harness that Baker was securing to the winch line. ‘Fix me up.’

Chase gave her the other walkie-talkie. The harness was fastened round her, and she moved to the edge of the shaft as Trulli prepared to operate the winch controls. ‘See you down there,’ she said to Chase.

‘Be careful,’ he replied.

‘Don’t plunge to your horrible screaming death!’ Sophia said cheerily. Nina huffed, then eased herself down until the harness took her weight. ‘Let’s go,’ she told Trulli.

The winch whined, and she dropped down the shaft.

At three feet wide, the tunnel was claustrophobic, all the more so with her bulky cold-weather clothing. The ice changed in consistency and colour as she descended, the milky whiteness near the surface turning to a glassy translucent blue. Below, she saw the opening getting closer, still nothing but darkness beyond. The temperature was already noticeably lower, prickling at her cheeks.

The walkie-talkie crackled. ‘You okay?’ asked Chase.

‘Fine, thanks. How deep am I?’

‘Fifteen metres. You should be coming out into the open soon. If you start swinging, let us know and we’ll slow down.’

‘Will do.’ But eagerness had already overcome any discomfort. The bottom of the shaft drew closer, closer . . .

She was through.

The cavern opened up around her, her eyes adjusting to the strange lighting conditions. The dome-like ice ceiling was glossy, lumps and bumps smoothed out where rising warm water from the volcanic vents below had gnawed away at it. Looking down, she spotted drifting steam. For one worrying moment she thought she was dropping right into the vent, before she saw it was off to one side.

Her excitement rose as she made out structures below in the half-light. The lake had mostly drained. There were still some areas of water that had pooled below the level of the shaft cut through the dam, already freezing over, but most of the cavern was clear.

Which meant, she realised as her descent brought her below the icy ceiling, that she would be able to see what lay at the other end of the chamber.

She twisted on the line, turning round . . .

The sight took her breath away.

Illuminated by the soft, impossibly pure cyan light coming through the ice above, the city looked unreal. Almost below her was some kind of multi-level construction, small buildings and bridges spanning a maze of catacombs dug out of the ground. A paved road led past it, heading uphill from the dam into the heart of the settlement. Smaller roads split off from it on either side, themselves dividing to form an almost tree-like pattern. The ‘branches’ were surrounded by clusters of igloo-shaped stone buildings - just like the ones she’d seen in Indonesia and Australia.

Except these were intact.

They weren’t the only structures that had survived their long entombment. Following the line of the main road, which seemed to be lined with statues, her gaze fell on the temple she had glimpsed on video. In real life it was even more spectacular. Like the other buildings it was circular, but much taller, requiring elegantly curved buttresses to support the walls. Its roof was so high that it actually disappeared into the cavern’s icy ceiling, making it at least sixty feet tall, possibly more - all she could make out through the ice was a vague shadow.

High, thin windows were spaced out on two levels around its circumference, and the main door was equally elongated, close to twenty feet tall. Darkness waited beyond it, ominous - and tantalising. The heart of the city, the secret of the Veteres, was somewhere within.

There was something else about the temple, which she dismissed as mere decoration before realising how complex and extensive it was. What appeared to be long lines of copper plate ran up the temple walls from the upper windows, like the road expanding into a tree-like pattern - not only flat along the wall, but also outwards from it. The strange arrangement also disappeared into the overhanging ice. What its purpose might be, she had no idea.

But something she could determine was that there was something else behind the temple. Parts of the building appeared to have been cut out of a cliff face, its summit just below the ice. She looked over her shoulder at the dam. Had it been built to a particular height specifically to cover whatever lay behind the temple?

She put the thought on hold; she was almost at the ground. ‘Okay, nearly there,’ she said into the walkie-talkie. ‘Slow it . . . okay, I’m down.’ Her boots bumped on the ground, which crackled under her crampons. Everything was covered with a layer of glinting ice and frost, surface water having rapidly frozen as the lake drained away. She unfastened the harness. Breath steamed from her nostrils; it was much colder than on the surface. ‘All right, I’m down and safe.’

‘What’s it like down there?’ Chase asked.

‘It’s . . . it’s kinda wow.’

He laughed sarcastically. ‘Right, that helps. If you have to get a new job after all this, don’t bother trying to be a tour guide.’

Sophia was lowered down, almost as awed by the sight of the lost city as Nina. The sled came next, followed by Chase. ‘So, you absolutely sure this wasn’t built by aliens?’ he asked Nina, indicating the glittering, blue-lit buildings. ‘’Cause that’s usually what stuff buried in the Antarctic ice turns out to be. Just ask Kurt Russell.’

‘I don’t know,’ Sophia said. ‘It has a certain Lovecraftian air, if you ask me. Perhaps we’ll meet a Shoggoth.’ A beat. ‘Lead the way, Nina.’

Chase chuckled, though Nina was unamused. ‘No aliens, no Elder Things, no . . . no flying spaghetti monsters,’ she said impatiently, going to the sled. ‘This was built by people just like us. They just happen to have been around a lot earlier than anyone thought. And if we can get on with it, please, that’s what we’re going to prove.’ She unfastened the straps and began taking equipment from the sledge.

Chase picked up the heavy-duty, spike-tipped tripod she had just unloaded. ‘We’re not going to cart this around with us, are we? That’s why I brought the sledge in the first place - so we wouldn’t have to!’

‘Oh, yeah. Duh,’ Nina said, replacing the rangefinder that the tripod had been designed to support. ‘We can do a proper laser survey when we come back. I don’t think we need to know the cavern’s exact dimensions right now. “Damn huge” is near enough.’

‘You’re right!’ Chase shouted as he returned the tripod to the sled. Faint echoes came back to them from the depths of the space. ‘So, where are we kicking off ?’

‘Over there.’ Nina pointed towards the plume of steam rising from the nearby labyrinthine area. ‘We’ll start with what’s closest and work our way up to the temple.’ She switched on a powerful flashlight to test it. The brilliant beam sliced through the sapphire-blue glow of the cavern like a laser. Satisfied, she clicked it off again; now that her eyes had adjusted to it, the light permeating the ice above was more than bright enough to see by.

‘Okay, Matt,’ Chase said into the radio, ‘we’re setting off.’

‘Got you,’ came the reply. ‘So what’s it like down there?’

Chase took in the sight of the frost-crusted temple dominating the city. ‘Nina got it right. It’s kind of . . . wow.’

Trulli snorted. ‘Fat lot of use you are. You better bring me some awesome photos, okay?’

‘Will do. Talk to you soon.’

They crossed the short distance to the walled edge of the maze, Chase towing the sledge. Nina looked towards the dam, picking out the dark spot of the drainage shaft drilled through it. Even though it had been less than an hour since the water level had finally dropped below its bottom edge, the surface was already frozen, shimmering glassily. Given another hour in the frigid cavern, it would be thick enough to walk on.

The steam rising from behind the wall told her there were warmer conditions ahead, however. Finding an opening, they went through. ‘What the hell’s this?’ Chase asked. The outer wall enclosed an excavated area, inside which had been built a grid-like series of walls, a marked contrast to the curves found elsewhere. The pit had remained full of water as the lake drained, now frozen over . . . but it was obvious from the metal bars covering each chamber that whatever had once been inside them was meant to stay there. ‘A prison?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sophia said thoughtfully. ‘It looks more like the hypogeum at the Colosseum in Rome. Remember? The area under the arena where the gladiators and animals were kept before contests.’ Chase nodded.

‘You’ve been to Rome?’ Nina asked him. ‘With her? You never mentioned that before.’

‘I’ve been to loads of places I haven’t told you about, and can we not get into this again? But yeah, it does look like it.’ The underground area at the centre of the Colosseum was made up of small, high-walled chambers connected by narrow corridors, and the structure before them followed a similarly functional pattern. ‘So what did they keep in here? Gladiators?’

‘Or animals,’ Sophia said. ‘Beasts.’

Nina shone the light into the nearest chamber, but could make nothing out through the milky ice. Instead, she directed the beam across the pit. Walkways and stone bridges criss-crossed it, intersecting at what she took to be guardhouses. Steam rose beyond them. ‘That must be where the volcanic vent is. Let’s take a look, then head into the city.’

They crossed a bridge into one of the squat guardhouses, the first fully intact construct of the Veteres Nina had entered. Disappointingly, it was empty except for what appeared to be a coiled whip hanging frozen on one wall, though its design still told her something; the slit-like windows round the room would have given the guards a view of the chambers below while keeping them hidden from the occupants, a primitive panopticon.

But who, or what, had they been watching?

Chase went to the little building’s other entrance, ice crunching with each step. ‘If they used the volcanic vent to get hot water, they’ve still got plenty.’

Nina and Sophia joined him, looking out across the pit. The layout of the walls changed, the cell-like chambers becoming larger. Some were even roofed rather than being open to the elements. But what Chase had called their attention to was natural rather than man-made. Somewhere beneath the pit, the heat of the vent was still warming the water . . . and it had kept flowing from its source even as the rest of the trapped lake froze around it, carving weaving gullies through the new ice.

‘It’s like a maze,’ Chase remarked. One section of the pit was more open than the others, and the hot streams had gradually melted their way to it, eating twisting, steaming gouges out of the ice.

Nina was more interested in the walls surrounding it. ‘If this was a hypogeum, that space might have been an arena.’ She crossed a bridge over a passage, peering into the cramped cells below in the hope of spotting some revelatory detail, but seeing only ice and stone. ‘Maybe there’s a way down where the hot water’s melted the ice.’

‘Is that really necessary?’ sighed Sophia. ‘Hypogeum, prison, slave pens, zoo - whatever it is, it’s not going to hold anything more important than the temple. And time’s become an issue.’ She pointed at the cavern’s ceiling. ‘Haven’t you noticed?’

‘Noticed what?’ Nina began, before it struck her. Literally. A fat drop of falling water burst on her shoulder. Others plopped down around them, the frequency slowly increasing.

‘Shit!’ Chase said, realising what was happening. He raised the walkie-talkie. ‘Matt, we might have a problem. The steam from the volcanic vent’s starting to melt the ice. I don’t know how long it’ll take before there’s any danger, but it might be worth moving the plane away from the hole. And I wouldn’t sit around it, either.’

‘That could screw up the radio,’ replied Trulli, his voice already distorted.

‘Have to chance it.’

‘Could it really collapse?’ Nina asked nervously.

‘I dunno. The ice is pretty thick. But some bits might fall off, and ten pounds of falling ice’ll fuck you up as much as ten tons from that height. Sophia’s right - we ought to get moving.’

Nina reluctantly accepted his advice, crossing another bridge to bring them through the outer wall near the rest of the city. Away from the rising steam, the dripping stopped. They tromped across a patch of open ground, where she noticed the remains of vegetation under the ice. ‘God punished them by sending the cold to kill the trees . . .’ she said, remembering the inscription in Australia.

‘Know what it reminds me of, Eddie?’ asked Sophia, smiling. ‘The Yorkshire Moors.’

‘Tchah,’ said Chase, jokily dismissive. ‘At least Yorkshiremen don’t run off to a different continent when it gets a bit nippy. This lot were wimps!’

They reached the first structure. Nina estimated the ‘igloo’ to be roughly eleven feet tall, and around twenty feet in diameter. The neighbouring buildings, abutting it at the base, appeared identical. ‘No windows . . . no doors, either. How do you get in?’

They moved round the group of structures, finding that they were arranged in a circle. Other domes nearby were clustered in the same way, between seven and ten to each group. Eventually they came to a paved road, one of the small branches Nina had seen coming off the main route running through the centre of the city; a gap between two of the buildings led into a kind of courtyard. Smaller domes, presumably for storage, filled the gaps between the clustered groups, the entrances of which were finally revealed: tall, thin archways facing the centre of the courtyard.

It was Chase who realised the logic behind the design. ‘It’s for shelter,’ he said. ‘Valley like this, near the coast, you’d get a lot of wind blowing through it. Put ’em all together in a circle and you get some protection.’

‘They’re houses,’ said Nina. ‘Maybe each cluster was for one particular family group.’ She went to one of the archways and switched on her flashlight, moving cautiously inside. The entrance was over seven feet high, but somehow it still felt cramped.

‘Anything inside?’ Chase called to her.

‘Nothing.’ The interior, like the guardhouse, was empty, puddles frozen on the stone floor. The Veteres had apparently taken everything with them when they made the long voyage back to Australia. ‘Doesn’t look like we’re going to find anything here,’ she had to admit, turning back. ‘Let’s try that main road.’

They moved along the side road, passing more groups of domes before emerging on the central route bisecting the city. The first things that caught their attention were the statues along its sides. The larger than life figures were oddly stylised, tall and thin with high foreheads, long necks and small mouths. ‘They look like African tribal art,’ said Nina.

Chase nodded. ‘Like that ugly bugger you used to have.’

‘It was a lot nicer than your stupid Fidel Castro thing,’ she said defensively, aiming her torch at another statue across the road. The first had been male; this was female, a woman holding what looked like one of the clay cylinders they had found in Australia. It stood on a small plinth - with writing on it. ‘Now, what does this say?’ she wondered, crossing the road for a closer look.

Sophia came with her. ‘That’s the word for “prophets”,’ she said, pointing it out. ‘The other word is “keeper”, or “holder”.’

‘Keeper of the prophets? A priest?’ Nina turned. Uphill, the temple rose imposingly, the cold light glinting off the copper strips at its summit.

They continued, passing more statues. Men and women, some holding objects that apparently denoted their role in the ancient society while others simply stood in poses of authority, but all clearly figures of great importance. The line came to an end at a high, free-standing archway; some sort of ceremonial gate, Nina guessed. Beyond it, they followed the road to the temple. More statues lined it, apparently representing the same people as the ones further downhill - but this time, they were not in poses of authority. Quite the opposite.

‘What’s wrong with this lot?’ Chase asked, leaving the sledge to regard the bowed, kneeling figures with curiosity. ‘Lost their contact lenses?’

‘They’re praying,’ Nina said. She looked to each side of the road, seeing only open land. ‘No more houses. This whole section of the city’s devoted to their religion. The statues are people the Veteres considered important in their society . . . but even they bow to their god.’

She tipped her head back to take in the full height of the temple. Even with the torch beam, she still couldn’t tell how much of the building was buried within the overhanging ice. She brought the circle of light down to the massive open doors. It disappeared, swallowed by the darkness within.

‘Maybe he’s still inside,’ said Chase. ‘You know, their god. Frozen.’

‘I hardly think these people would take every last chair, plate and spoon with them but leave their god behind,’ Sophia said.

Nina walked to the entrance. ‘Only one way to find out.’

Chase and Sophia switched on their own torches as they followed her. The sound of ice crunching beneath their boots changed as they moved inside, echoing from the inner walls of a large, high space.

Nina suddenly stopped, flashlight aiming upwards. ‘Eddie?’

‘Yeah?’

‘You know you said their god might still be in here?’

‘Yeah?’

‘You were right.’

23

The other two torch beams moved upwards to join Nina’s. ‘Christ on a bike,’ said Chase, amazed. ‘That’s a big fucking statue.’

The stone figure before them was at least sixty feet tall, a giant standing against the back of the high circular chamber, reaching almost to the domed ceiling. It was male, carved in the same elongated, blocky style as the statues outside, but on a much greater scale. Its right arm hung down by its side, holding what looked like a sickle; the left was extended across the chamber, palm upturned as if scattering seeds. It wore a necklace of copper, or possibly gold, the style reminding Nina of an ancient Egyptian menat necklace of the kind worn by the pharaohs, though with several long metal counterpoises extending down over its chest. A similarly ornate belt ran round the statue’s waist, a long copper loincloth descending from it.

And between its feet, at floor level between the statue’s heels, was a low opening, less than three feet high, leading to another chamber behind it. The rest of the room before the mighty figure was empty, an open space in which the faithful could worship.

Nina directed her light at the statue’s head. It had the same high forehead and narrow jaw as the smaller statues outside. She was about to look at the necklace when something else caught her attention - not on the statue, but just behind it. ‘That remind you of anything?’ she asked.

‘It’s a stained-glass window,’ said Sophia unenthusiastically, more interested in the gold adorning the statue’s accessories.

‘No, I don’t mean the window itself - I mean its shape.’

Chase saw what she meant. ‘Lofty’s got a halo.’ The window was circular, lines of coloured glass radiating outwards. It was unmistakably a representation of a light or fire surrounding the figure’s head.

‘Yeah. Now that is interesting.’

‘What, so the sixty-foot-tall bloke inside a temple buried in Antarctica isn’t?’

‘You know what I mean. Haloes are an almost universal piece of religious iconography - they appear in ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek art, as well as Buddhist. But they’re most closely associated with the Abrahamic faiths, even Islam. Modern Muslims don’t portray Muhammad in artwork, but ancient Muslims did, and he was almost always shown with a halo or heavenly fire around his head.’

‘But this predates any of them,’ Sophia pointed out. ‘By a long time.’

‘I know. That’s why it’s so interesting.’ She crossed to the hole between the statue’s feet. ‘The way to the tree of the gift . . . Let’s take a look.’ Small icicles hung from the top of the low opening. She swatted them with one hand, sending them tinkling to the ground, then crawled through the gap. ‘It is a form of supplication,’ she said. ‘If you want to follow the path, you’ve got to grovel at your god’s feet.’

The passage was short, emerging in a circular room about fifteen feet across. She stood, finding that the room was actually a shaft, extending upwards. Unlike the enclosed temple, the open shaft was blocked by a roof of ice. She could make out the other side of the stained glass window, but of more immediate interest was a set of steps, blocks of stone protruding from the wall at roughly two foot intervals, spiralling upwards. Icicles hung from them, thicker and heavier than the little ones she had dislodged.

‘Come on through,’ she called. Chase and Sophia soon appeared. ‘I think I know what this is for - apart from being a stairwell, obviously. It was open at the top, so if you were inside the temple, daylight would come in and light up the halo behind the statue’s head.’

‘Fascinating,’ said Sophia in a bored tone. She examined one of the stone blocks. ‘Are we supposed to climb up these? They look rather slippery. Maybe we should go back to the sledge and get the climbing gear.’

‘I thought you were the one in a hurry,’ Nina countered.

‘That was when we were on solid ground. I’m more than happy to slow things down if it means not plummeting to my death.’

‘Eddie? What do you think?’

‘We could get the ropes,’ Chase said, ‘but it’d mean a lot of buggering around, and it’d definitely slow us down.’ He climbed the first few steps, the crampons’ spikes making a grating rasp. ‘If you’re worried, then yeah, I’ll rig something up, but if you think you can keep your footing . . .’

‘I’ll be fine,’ Nina proclaimed. ‘Don’t think you can manage, Sophia? English rose wilting?’ Sophia looked annoyed, but took the first step.

Chase leading the way, Nina at the rear, they picked their way upwards, backs pressed against the wall. Ten feet, twenty. Nina paused to cast a light towards the top of the shaft, seeing a darkened passageway opposite the giant window. ‘Well, at least we’ll be able to get out.’

‘Would’ve been a good idea if you’d found that out before we started climbing,’ Chase said. He put his foot on the next step and climbed up. Ice crackled - then with a sharp snap a piece on the outer face of the block broke loose, an icicle on the underside dropping with it. Both shattered into millions of fragments on the stone floor below. Chase grunted, double-checking his footing.

‘Good thing it didn’t fall from above us,’ said Nina. The ice sheathing the blocks overhead was thicker, the icicles longer - and sharper.

They kept ascending, passing thirty feet - the halfway mark to the icy ceiling. At around forty feet up, Chase stopped. A large chunk of ice had become frozen against the wall, sticking out enough to make getting past it a tricky proposition. He looked up. The coating of ice got thicker higher up. He guessed that lumps had broken loose from the ceiling as the water level dropped, bobbing on the surface, only to stick to the wall as it froze.

‘Hold still,’ he said, taking a small pickaxe from his belt. ‘I’ll have to chip this thing off the wall.’ The clink of metal on ice echoed round the shaft as he hacked away at it.

Nina used the wait to take a better look at the window above. The metal used to hold the pieces of coloured glass together was not lead, but gold. ‘Wow, look at that,’ she said, amazed. ‘I think we just found one of the world’s most expensive windows.’

‘They certainly weren’t short of gold,’ Sophia remarked. ‘Did they bring it with them, or did they find another source here?’

‘Antarctica’s got plenty of mineral deposits - it’s just getting to them that’s the problem. For us, anyway. Not having to dig through hundreds of feet of ice would have made it a lot easier.’ She looked past the other woman to Chase. ‘How’s it going, Eddie?’

‘Not bad,’ he said, still chipping away. The ice creaked, its weight pulling it loose. A final strike of the pick, and the misshapen block of ice broke away with a gunshot crack, plunging downwards to explode against one of the steps below. Smashed shards rained over the bottom of the shaft.

‘Anyone need ice?’ Chase said with a grin. ‘Okay, we’ll—’

Another crackle, this one deeper, more menacing. The layer of ice coating the wall above them fractured, a jagged line leaping over their heads towards a much larger hunk of precariously hanging debris.

A smaller crack shot straight up to the icicles hanging from a higher step—

With a sound like breaking bones, the frozen spikes fell.

Chase tried to dodge, but had nowhere to go. One spear of ice hit his arm, slashing through his coat. Another hit the step, shaking it.

He toppled forward—

Sophia slammed an arm against his chest. He wavered, back arched, arms whirling . . .

She pushed harder, one spiked boot slipping with a shrill of metal on stone. Chase hung at the point of no return . . . then tipped backwards against the wall with a relieved gasp.

But the danger wasn’t over.

More ice showered over the trio as the crack above them widened. The large lump higher up ripped free, scattering shards in all directions. Nina yelled as it whooshed past, barely missing her - but hitting the previous step.

This time, it wasn’t the ice that broke, but the stone, the weight of the plummeting mass wrenching it out of the wall. The preceding step almost followed, left hanging by one corner as the rest of the debris smashed on to more steps below before hitting the floor with a hideous echoing crash.

‘Shit,’ Chase gasped, looking past Nina at the damaged wall. ‘Think we’re going to have to find another way down.’ With one step missing and another on the brink of giving way, the next secure footing was six feet away and nearly three lower - a dangerous leap given the treacherous ice.

Sophia’s arm was still across his chest. ‘Thanks,’ he said to her.

She nodded. ‘You’re welcome.’

‘Although . . . I’m a bit surprised.’

‘What, that I didn’t let you fall?’

‘Yeah. Realised that you couldn’t live without me after all?’

She smiled. ‘Not quite. It’s just that, for the moment, my chances of survival are far higher with you around. Saving you was simple self-interest.’

‘And if it’d been me who was about to fall?’ Nina asked, regarding her coldly. The smile vanished; the loathing in Sophia’s dark eyes gave her a crystal-clear answer.

‘So now what do we do?’ Chase asked, recovering his composure.

‘We go on,’ Nina told him. ‘I mean, we don’t really have much choice. Are you okay?’

He pulled at his torn sleeve to check the wound beneath, wincing at a jab of pain. ‘Arm’s cut. Doesn’t look too deep, but I’ll need to bandage it. It can wait till we get to the top, though.’ Pushing himself against the wall, he stepped across the gap to the next step.

More carefully than before, they continued upwards, ascending the spiral until they reached the level of the window. A narrow ledge led round the shaft to it. The glazing was almost fifteen feet in diameter, the shape of the statue’s head vaguely discernible beyond.

But it was the passageway opposite the window that dominated their attention. The entrance was arched, a vaulted ceiling retreating into the dark. The floor was thick with pooled ice. Pillars with ancient writing scribed upon them lined each side . . .

Glinting with gold.

Sophia stepped eagerly forward, but Nina put out an arm to stop her. ‘At least let Eddie get fixed up first, huh?’

‘There’s no need to wait,’ Sophia said impatiently. ‘Whatever it is the Covenant want, we’ve beaten them to it. And it’s just down there.’

‘And it’ll still be there in five minutes. Eddie, do you need any help?’

Chase had shrugged off his coat and retrieved a first aid kit from his pack. ‘Nah, I’ll just sit here and stitch myself up while you two keep arguing.’

‘Oh, don’t you start. It’s bad enough having her sniping away in one ear without you doing the same in the other.’

He snorted. ‘You’re the one who brought her along. I would’ve left her in Ribbsley’s camper van if it’d been up to me.’

‘That hasn’t stopped you getting all pally with her again, has it?’ she snapped.

Chase gave her a disbelieving look. ‘Where the fuck did that come from? We swap a couple of jokes and suddenly you think we’re nipping off behind the icebergs for a quick shag?’

Nina’s look of disgust was matched by Sophia’s. ‘I can assure you, Nina, that absolutely did not and will not happen.’

‘It better not,’ Nina muttered.

Chase glared at her. ‘You going to help me, or what?’

She huffed. ‘What can I do?’

‘Just pull my sleeve back a bit so I can get at it,’ he told her, peeling the torn material from the cut.

Nina held the fabric open as he ran an antiseptic swab over the cut. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘Take a guess,’ Chase said, grunting as he pinched the edges of the cut together and applied a Steri-Strip dressing across it, then wrapped a bandage over it. ‘That should hold it - unless we have to do any climbing or anything else that’ll rip it.’

‘Let’s hope there’s an easier way back down.’ Nina looked round as he put his coat back on, and saw Sophia crouching by one of the pillars. ‘Hey! I said to wait.’

‘Yes, you did,’ was the dismissive reply. ‘I can read some of this text - it’s talking about the tree of life.’ She stood, anticipation clear on her face. ‘Whatever it is, it’s here.’ Sophia’s flashlight illuminated the passage, revealing a chamber at the far end. ‘Come on.’

She hurried down the corridor. Exasperated, Nina caught up, Chase following.

The three torch beams swept across the chamber’s entrance to reveal what lay inside. Beneath the omnipresent ice, Nina made out stone shelves, much like those she had seen inside the ruined chamber in Australia . . . but these were intact.

And still held their contents.

‘Oh . . .’ she said in wonder as she entered the room, moving the light along the length of one of the shelves. It was filled with clay tablets, a long rack containing dozen upon dozen of the flat rectangles, standing on edge like books. She continued to pan the beam, revealing more tablets . . . and more . . . and more.

And beyond them, more shelves. And more. The chamber stretched away as far as her light could reach, a vast warren of ancient knowledge. Chase and Sophia also probed the room, finding yet more stacks of tablets receding into the distance.

‘We - we need more light,’ she gasped, pulling off her backpack and fumbling in it for a packet of glowsticks. Almost dropping them in her haste, she bent them to crack the inner glass tubes, chemicals mixing and fluorescing to give out an orange light, the first warm colour she had seen since entering the frozen cavern. ‘Look at this! Look!’ she cried, almost skipping into the nearest aisle in her excitement as she placed glowsticks on the shelves. ‘It’s a library! It’s the entire knowledge of the Veteres!’

Chase rummaged in his own pack for a lamp and switched it on, noticing a large gap on a shelf. ‘It’s not that entire. Somebody’s taken a bunch of stuff off this shelf. Hate to think what the overdue fines are after this long.’

‘There are more missing over here,’ Sophia added, peering down another aisle. ‘And here, too.’ Whole sections were empty, entire shelves gaping.

Nina took off her gloves, lifting a tablet at random. The ice crackled before finally giving up its prize. She recognised a handful of the words upon it; there was mention of wind, cold and storms. A record of the weather?

Another snap of ice from a few aisles away. ‘This one seems to be about some sort of dispute between families,’ said Sophia after a few moments.

Nina retrieved a couple of glowsticks and moved deeper into the maze, stopping at an empty shelf. Examining it, she made out words carved into the stone slab itself. ‘Sophia, look at this,’ she called. Sophia and Chase joined her. ‘I think it’s an index - it’ll tell us what’s missing, rather than what’s been left behind.’

Sophia brushed away the frost. ‘I think it says “grain”. Some sort of crop, anyway. And that’s “water” - not the sea, but fresh.’

‘Something about farming?’ Chase suggested. ‘Like how to grow grain?’

‘How to irrigate grain,’ Nina realised. The reason why some sections of the library were empty while others had been left completely intact was becoming clear. ‘That’s something that’d be useful if you had to pack up and start from scratch. But historical records, accounts of legal disputes . . . not so much.’

‘You think they took the missing tablets with them?’ asked Sophia.

‘They cleaned out the rest of the place when they left, so there’s no reason why they wouldn’t take valuable knowledge with them - the kind of knowledge that would help them survive. But this . . .’ She pulled another tablet free. ‘This is still an incredible find - it’ll give us an amazing amount of information about how the Veteres lived. But when they went back to Australia to escape the changing climate, they left it all behind, because it would just be dead weight. And when you’re sailing thousands of miles in primitive boats, the last thing you want aboard is dead weight.’

Sophia sounded almost offended. ‘So all this is worthless? They took all the most important tablets with them and left the junk behind?’

‘It’s not worthless,’ Nina said irritably, professional pride insulted. ‘I just said—’

‘It’s of absolutely no use to us right now. And it doesn’t help us deal with the Covenant. We already knew the Veteres left here and went back to Australia - we’re no better off than we were before. Just a lot colder.’

‘There’s still plenty more to look at,’ Chase said, standing beside Nina. ‘This tree they kept going on about might be just round the next corner.’

Sophia swung her torch back and forth, finding only more shelves. ‘Somehow I doubt that, Eddie,’ she said with a sneer.

‘I don’t mean literally the next corner, for fuck’s sake. Christ, this is just like when we—’

‘It’s not literal,’ Nina interrupted. Chase and Sophia looked at her. ‘The tree, I mean,’ she continued, mind racing as a new idea took form. ‘It’s not literal - the translation doesn’t literally mean tree! Ribbsley got it wrong, just like he did about wind and sand - it’s symbolic, something with multiple meanings depending on the context.’ She paced rapidly back and forth along the aisle. ‘What else can a tree represent? What’s the symbolism behind it?’

Sophia quickly overcame her anger to focus on the problem. ‘Growth and change,’ she said. ‘Or cycles, cycles of nature.’

Chase’s thoughts were more practical. ‘You get wood from trees. Or fruit.’

‘The tree of the gift,’ said Nina, ‘the tree of life. If it’s not a literal tree, then what is it? The something of life, the something of the gift.’

‘It’d help if we knew what the gift was,’ Chase said.

Nina tried to remember the Australian inscription. ‘The Veteres thought their god was punishing them. And their term for “god” included “tree” - “the one great tree”, wasn’t it?’ Sophia nodded. ‘So to them god and tree were interlinked. What were they thinking? How did their minds work?’ Words clicked through her own mind, alternative meanings flashing past like possible solutions to a crossword clue. ‘So what is God? God’s the creator, the provider, the giver of life . . . the source,’ she concluded. ‘The source of life, the source of the gift, the one great source. And a tree is a source, of lots of things - it gives you shelter, food, wood . . .’

‘It fits,’ Sophia realised. ‘They used the word tree as a symbolic representation for source - of anything.’

‘Which means,’ Nina said, looking at the shelves, ‘that we’re in “the source of the gift”. The library is the source of the gift.’

‘So what is this gift?’ Chase demanded.

‘It’s knowledge!’ Nina said, laughing. ‘The gift from their god was knowledge! The ability to record and pass on everything they’d ever learned to their descendants, who passed it on to their descendants, and so on. And all of this at a time when we thought humans hadn’t even developed cave paintings. My God, this is amazing!’

‘Their god wasn’t quite so impressed,’ said Sophia. ‘He tried to destroy them, remember? For “giving the gift of God to the beasts”.’

Chase looked dubious. ‘How do you give knowledge to animals?’

The answer came to Nina. ‘You train them. That’s what the hypogeum must have been - a training area. Start them out in harsh, cramped conditions under constant supervision to break them, then move them to easier surroundings once you’ve got control. First the stick, then the carrot. I doubt PETA would approve, but it’d work.’

‘So their god decided to freeze them to death for teaching their dogs to fetch? Bit steep.’

‘That’s primitive religion for you. If things go bad, the only conceivable explanation is that you’ve somehow angered your god.’

‘So if “the tree of the gift” is actually the source of knowledge,’ said Sophia, ‘what about “the tree of life”? The source of life?’

‘I don’t know,’ Nina replied, ‘but that sounds like something the Covenant would be interested in, don’cha think?’ She gathered up the glowsticks. ‘Let’s find it.’

The library extended for some distance. Nina judged that roughly a fifth of the storage space was empty - which meant that in their flight to warmer climes, the Veteres had been forced to abandon four-fifths of their entire recorded knowledge: an incredible loss to any society. Had they simply sacrificed too much of the knowledge they needed to survive?

They made their way through the maze, eventually reaching the far wall - and discovering the entrance to another room. ‘It’s not a library,’ said Chase, stepping inside. ‘Don’t know what it is, actually.’

Ally-ally-ally . . . his voice echoed back. Exchanging puzzled looks with the others, he raised his torch, and saw that the new chamber’s roof was domed. Nina moved her light across the room. It was circular, with what looked like pieces of machinery spaced around its edge. There was another, larger machine at the centre, a conical copper tube extending upwards from it almost to the ceiling.

‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ said Sophia, moving to the nearest machine. ‘It looks like a potter’s wheel.’

‘They must have made some bloody weird pots,’ Chase opined as he approached an identical device on the opposite side of the entrance. There was indeed a large wooden wheel at about waist height, a metal rod rising from its centre, but mounted behind it on a hinge was a large copper cone, a thick needle protruding from the narrow end . . . ‘They’re gramophones!’ he exclaimed. ‘Like the one you made in Australia, Nina.’

‘This must be where they played the recordings on the cylinders,’ Sophia said.

Nina went to the chamber’s centre, holding out a glowstick to illuminate the machine there. ‘No,’ she realised, looking up at the copper tube. ‘It’s not where they played them. It’s where they made them. This room . . . it’s a recording studio. Look.’ She followed the tube up to the ceiling, where the interior surface of the dome was marked with odd indentations radiating out towards each gramophone. Even through the ice, it was easy to tell they had been carefully carved into a very specific pattern. ‘The sound of the original goes up the tube to the roof - and then goes outwards to each of the cones around the room. It’s a whispering gallery!’

‘Like the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral?’ asked Sophia.

‘Yes, only this one’s designed to send the sound out in multiple directions rather than just to the point diametrically opposite. Pretty sophisticated, even today. The Veteres just keep getting more advanced, don’t they?’ She took a closer look at the machine. Like the others, it had a wheel and a speaker cone, this one angled to point at the mouth of the tube above. Beneath the wheel, she noticed that the vertical axle was wound with fine copper bands. ‘I think this was designed to make copies of existing cylinders as well as recording voices. That’d explain why there was an echo on the cylinders we played in Australia - the recording cones were picking up sounds from other parts of the room.’

‘So this is like a prehistoric iTunes?’ Chase said. ‘Pick your favourite track and they’ll run off copies for you?’

Nina smiled at the comparison. ‘In a way, yeah. Although it might have been more for religious purposes. Just think what it would be like to have an actual recording of, say, the Sermon on the Mount. You wouldn’t need to interpret someone else’s written account - you’d have Jesus’s own words, exactly as he spoke them.’ She bent down, removing a glove to rub the frost off what appeared to be text on one of the copper bands. ‘Although it’d put a lot of religious scholars out of business if everybody could—Ow!’

She jerked back, clutching her finger. At the same moment, a mechanical clunk echoed through the chamber. The wheel of the central machine shuddered, straining against the ice before falling still.

‘What happened?’ Chase asked, hurrying to her. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I just got zapped!’ Nina shrilled, more surprised than hurt. ‘Like a static shock.’ She rubbed her finger. ‘Son of a bitch!’

Chase gingerly tapped the machinery. ‘It’s gone now.’

‘Great,’ Nina muttered. ‘A static charge sticks around for thousands of years, and guess who gets hit by it?’

‘Eddie, turn the wheel,’ Sophia called to them from the machine she had been examining. Chase took hold of the wooden wheel and pulled at it. It only moved fractionally, still jammed by ice - but the wheel of Sophia’s machine creaked in unison. The others did the same. ‘They’re all linked.’

Nina surveyed the room. ‘Makes sense. If you’re making copies, you want them to be identical. If each wheel was manually operated, they’d all be running at slightly different speeds.’ She looked back at the axle. ‘So what’s making it work?’

‘It can’t be electric, can it?’ asked Chase. ‘No way this lot were that advanced.’

Nina looked back in the general direction of the statue, a puzzled frown crossing her face. ‘I don’t see how, unless . . . could they have used earth energy somehow? Those copper things outside the temple - they could be antenna.’

‘Earth energy?’ Sophia asked.

‘That black project you said Callum was pissed off at us for wrecking?’ said Chase. ‘That used it.’

‘It was a way to channel the earth’s own magnetic fields into a weapon, using Excalibur as a superconductor,’ Nina explained.

Sophia raised an eyebrow. ‘Excalibur? Don’t tell me you found that as well.’

‘Yeah, kinda. Long story.’

‘It can wait,’ said Sophia, pointing her torch at an opening across the chamber. ‘Whatever powered all this, it seems to have stopped working - and finding the tree of life’s more important right now.’

Nina reluctantly had to admit they did need to move on from the fascinating chamber. The tilt-rotor had to return to the ship before nightfall, and they still needed to find another way back down to ground level. ‘Let’s see what’s through there.’

On the surface, Trulli double-checked that the walkie-talkie was still working. It had been some time since he’d heard anything from the party below. But the green LED was lit; the radio was fine despite the cold. He was tempted to call for a status report, but resisted. Knowing Nina, she was probably so engrossed in exploration that she’d forgotten the outside world even existed.

He was stuck in it, though, and so were the others. Shrugging to circulate the warmth inside his thick coat, he slowly turned to take in the scene. The BA609 was now parked further away; Larsson had heeded the warning about the dripping ice above the fumarole. Bandra was plodding across the ice from the aircraft, no doubt to come and complain about something new. Rachel and Baker both sat on folding chairs by the winch, huddled together in their bulky clothing like nesting penguins. He noticed they were sharing the headphones of Rachel’s iPod, and grinned. That was one way to start a relationship.

A faint noise, something other than the constant flutter of the wind across the plain. A low murmur. Powerful, mechanical . . .

And growing louder.

He turned again, scanning the sky. White haze on the horizon, the sun still crawling infinitesimally across the empty blue dome—

And something else, moving more quickly. Aircraft. Some way off, but heading towards him. He recognised the type immediately. C-130 Hercules transports, large, four-engined propeller craft. One painted in high-visibility red and white, the other a pale military grey.

The expedition wasn’t expecting visitors. And in the Antarctic wastes, the odds of encountering anyone by chance were effectively zero. Whoever was aboard knew they were here.

Trulli could only think of one group of people who might be looking for them.

‘Nina! Eddie!’ he shouted into the radio, the urgency in his voice immediately catching the attention of Baker and Rachel, who looked at him in concern. No reply. ‘Eddie, can you hear me? The Covenant are here!’

The radio remained silent, the warning unheard.

24

‘I can see daylight again,’ said Chase, leading the way. ‘Yeah, but will we be able to get out?’ Nina wondered. The crust of ice covering everything in the frozen city seemed to be thickening, icicles hanging longer and lower.

‘Somehow I don’t think so,’ Sophia said, aiming her torch ahead.

They had reached the end of the passage, the cold azure light illuminating the exit . . . and also revealing that it was blocked. Glassy ice covered the arched opening, angling claustrophobically down to the stone floor.

And even if the ice had not been there, getting out might still have been difficult. Nina could make out the silhouette of what appeared to be a barred metal gate inside the archway.

‘Bollocks,’ Chase murmured. ‘End of the line.’

‘We should have brought those gas cylinders with us,’ said Sophia. ‘We could have melted through.’

‘Wouldn’t make any difference. Look how thick it is. Take days to get through all that - even if we could open the gates.’

Nina was more interested in what lay to one side of the gate. ‘There’s something here, in the ice.’ She directed her flashlight at it, trying to make out the objects. ‘They look like bowls, metal bowls.’ A word in the Veteres language appeared to have been painted on the side of the largest.

‘Something here an’ all,’ Chase said from the other side of the archway. ‘It’s another record player.’

‘Weird. Why have one here?’

‘Maybe it’s the gate guard’s iPod.’ He turned his attention to the buried gate. ‘Reckon this is the way to the tree of life?’

‘Well, we had the tree of knowledge, so . . .’ Nina tailed off. ‘Huh. I just realised how biblical that is. In the Book of Genesis, the Garden of Eden contained the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.’

‘The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, actually,’ Sophia corrected, moving back down the passage.

‘Well, you’d know about the second one,’ sniped Nina, before turning back to Chase. ‘That’s kind of a coincidence, though. If it is a coincidence.’

‘So these people might have had something to do with the Bible?’ Chase asked.

‘I don’t see how; the time gap is way too big. Even the oldest parts of the Torah only date back to around the tenth century BC. But . . .’ She frowned, thinking. ‘Some sort of race memory, maybe? An idea that passed down over a hundred thousand years . . .’

Sophia’s urgent voice dismissed her musings. ‘Over here! There’s another room!’

Nina and Chase jogged to her. Behind one of the pillars was a narrow gap in the wall, a low passageway. ‘Can you see what’s inside?’ Nina asked.

‘Only that it’s not very big. I can see the back wall.’

‘Let’s have a look,’ said Chase. He began to break away the icicles obstructing it.

‘Eddie, come on!’ Trulli yelled into the radio. Still no response.

He looked up. The two Hercs had flown overhead, and were now circling back round.

‘It’s probably just a supply flight on its way to Vostok or Dome Charlie,’ Bandra said patronisingly. ‘They didn’t expect to see anyone here, so they’re overflying us to make sure we’re all right.’

‘If they didn’t know we were here, how come they were heading right for us?’ Trulli shot back.

‘Does it matter? Why, are you expecting trouble?’ The Indian scientist’s smirk fell when he registered Trulli’s serious expression. ‘Are you?’

‘Why do you think I’m trying so hard to get hold of Nina and Eddie?’

‘Well - but why would there be trouble over an archaeological find?’

The Australian gave him a look of disbelief. ‘Haven’t you ever read anything about Nina? People are always trying to kill her!’ He gave the walkie-talkie one last try, then glared at it in disgust. ‘The radio in the plane’s got more power - I’ll try to hook this up to it and get through to them.’ Another glance skyward. The C-130s had angled away, turning into the wind. They would pass a couple of hundred metres from the site. ‘I don’t know how they found us in the first place, though.’ Bandra’s expression became shifty. ‘What?’

‘That, ah . . . that may be my fault,’ Bandra admitted. ‘Last night, when we returned to the ship, I . . . I contacted UNARA.’

‘You what ?’ Trulli shouted.

‘I’m the leader of this expedition, not Dr Wilde! I sent a detailed email to New York to complain about the way I’d been treated!’

‘And did you tell them about the find?’ Bandra’s guilty countenance was all the answer he needed. ‘Well, that’s bloody marvellous! You’ve just led the bad guys right to us!’

‘Bad guys?’ Bandra snorted. ‘This isn’t some Hollywood movie!’

‘Maybe not,’ said Trulli, pointing at the approaching planes, ‘but what do you call that?’

The rear cargo ramps of both aircraft had lowered. Men and machines poured from them, white parachutes snapping open to send them drifting towards the frozen plain like a line of dandelion seeds.

‘Get to the plane,’ Trulli warned everyone. He ran for the parked tilt-rotor, clutching the radio.

The last icicles smashed on the cold floor. Chase crunched over them and emerged in the room beyond. He switched on the lantern as Nina came through the low opening, followed by Sophia. ‘Another one?’ Nina asked, seeing one of the primitive gramophones in a corner.

‘Yeah. They really like their decks. But I don’t think that’s what the room’s for.’ He lifted the lantern higher, illuminating one wall.

Nina’s eyes widened. ‘My God!’

It was another inscription, blocks of text scribed into a layer of plaster. But this one featured something the one in Australia lacked.

A map.

It was not an accurate cartographical representation; instead, it was more like a linear account of the various places visited along a journey, what appeared to be coastlines strung out along its length between points labelled with more ancient writing. Nina recognised numbers and compass bearings: the direction and number of days’ sail from each point?

‘The land of cold sand,’ said Sophia, pointing to the symbols at one end of the map. ‘This is where we are now. Antarctica.’

Nina traced the route back. It was apparently a long voyage across open sea to another land - Australia? Then up the coast to . . . ‘That might be the site north of Perth. If it is, then . . .’ Her excitement rose as she continued. ‘This could show the spread of the Veteres culture across the world - if these at the end are Antarctica and Australia, then these other coastlines would be Indonesia, Southeast Asia, India . . .’

‘Which means,’ Sophia said, looking at the other end of the map, ‘this is their origin. The point they expanded from. Where it all began.’

‘God, yes,’ gasped Nina. Heart pounding, she ran her finger along the frosted wall. Westwards from India along the coast of what was now Pakistan, Iran, the mouth of the Persian Gulf . . . which at the time of the Veteres would have been closed off by the lower sea level, the Gulf itself nothing but an inland lake. Along the coast of the Arabian peninsula, another settlement there—

‘Oman!’ Sophia cried, stabbing a finger at the mark. ‘That’s the site I visited with Gabriel eight years ago, it must be. The Covenant had destroyed it.’

‘Looks like they missed quite a few, though,’ said Chase. There were at least a dozen places given as much prominence as the Oman site, and numerous smaller ones.

‘They’re still there to be found,’ said Nina.

‘Unless the Covenant has already found them,’ Sophia pointed out.

Nina’s finger moved faster across the map. ‘They can’t have got them all. Arabia, across the entrance to the Red Sea, up its coast . . . and then they go inland.’ She looked at the others. ‘Into Africa. That’s where they came from. Africa!’ The trail of the Veteres to the coast crossed a river, leading some distance inland back to its origin: three trapezoidal symbols, the topmost having four winding lines - more rivers? - running outwards from it.

‘So that’s why their statues look like that one you used to have,’ Chase realised. ‘Same people.’

‘Different times,’ Nina replied. ‘These people had already moved out of Africa at a time when we thought early humans were only just starting to form the most primitive societies, in places like Ethiopia and Sudan.’

‘That would fit with the map.’ Sophia stood, regarding the text above it. ‘The first words here are something like “The journey of the people of God, from . . .” I assume that’s a name. The name of their homeland, maybe. But the first line ends with “to the land of cold sand”.’

Nina looked over the words with her. ‘They left it in case their people ever returned - a reminder of who they were and where they came from. It’s their whole history.’

Sophia read on. ‘More mention of beasts, as well - the word appears quite a lot. They certainly seem to have had trouble with their animals.’

‘Soph,’ said Chase from behind them. ‘That word you didn’t recognise, you think it’s a name, yeah?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, it’s here as well.’

Nina and Sophia turned to see him holding his torch over the icy gramophone. Next to it were two of the clay cylinders. ‘So it is,’ said Sophia, looking more closely at the one Chase had indicated. ‘The other characters say . . . I think it’s “the path from”.’

‘So that’s the title of the recording?’ Nina said. ‘The path from . . . from whatever they called their homeland. If we could translate that as well as the whole inscription . . .’ She peered at the second cylinder. ‘What does that one say? Is that “prophet”?’

Sophia confirmed it. ‘I can’t read the other characters.’ She pulled it free of the ice.

‘What does it say?’ Chase asked as she turned the cylinder in her hands.

She looked puzzled. ‘I think it’s “the song of the prophet”.’

Nina examined it. ‘That’s the word for “song”? Because it’s also what was painted on those bowls in the ice.’ She turned to the gramophone, putting her hands on the wheel. Ice ground and crunched - then cracked, the wheel rotating more or less freely. ‘These things were left here for a reason. I think we need to play them.’

By the time Trulli reached the tilt-rotor, the new arrivals were landing and collapsing their parachutes with well-practised skill. The Hercules in military livery had borne United States Air Force markings - but the men who emerged from it were not in American uniforms. The vehicles landing on pallets with them were not exactly standard US issue either: they looked like small hovercraft, glossy beetle-black bodywork bearing what appeared to be stubby, squared-off wings.

Five hovercraft in all, and about twenty men. Armed men.

He looked for the other expedition members. Rachel had initially hesitated before following him to the BA609, and was still clomping across the ice. Baker dutifully remained at the winch. Bandra, though, was moving to meet the paratroopers. ‘Oh, you stupid bastard,’ he moaned, before giving the walkie-talkie to Larsson. ‘I need you to hook that up to the radio - and get this thing started!’

Chase delved into his pack to produce a flare, igniting it and holding the two cylinders beside the sizzling red flame to melt the ice off them. In the small room the light was dazzling and the sulphurous burning smell almost overpowering, but it quickly did the job. Once the cylinders were clear, he used the same trick to remove the ice crusted over the needle and speaker cone before tossing the flare into the passage outside.

Nina turned the wheel again. ‘We’ll have to work it by hand. Hope we can get it to the right speed.’

‘The one you improvised wasn’t turning that fast,’ said Sophia, drying the cylinders and handing them to her.

Nina mounted the first cylinder, the one labelled ‘song of the prophet’, on the spindle, positioning the needle against the cylinder’s groove. ‘Okay. Here goes.’

She turned the wheel, spinning it at what she thought was roughly the right speed. An unpleasant scraping noise came from the copper cone. Chase winced. ‘Sounds like the greatest hits of Fingernails and Blackboard.’

‘Hold on.’ She adjusted the needle and spun the wheel again. This time, she got a result. A slurred, uneven voice came from the cone.

‘That must be the title,’ Sophia told her. ‘But you need to go faster.’

‘Okay, okay.’ Nina spun the wheel more quickly, waiting for the next words to emerge.

They didn’t. What came from the speaker was a chant.

‘“Song of the prophet”? You weren’t kidding,’ said Chase.

Nina kept the wheel turning. The music was a long, sustained note, distorted by the inevitable variations in speed of the turntable, but she imagined that, played as it had been intended, the singer would have maintained perfect pitch. The note rose an octave, then dropped two before rising again. Then it stopped. The whole was beautiful, yet somehow unsettling. ‘What was that?’ she said. Chase hummed the five-note theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. ‘Not that.’

‘A ritual chant, maybe,’ Sophia suggested.

‘Of their prophet. Maybe even by their prophet,’ realised Nina. ‘Give me the other cylinder.’

Back straight, head held high to show a confidence that was rapidly draining, Dr Bandra strode towards the parachutists. Both aircraft, having disgorged their cargo, were heading away towards the coast. Most of the newly arrived soldiers were engaged in removing the hovercraft from their pallets, but there was a group of five men who appeared to be in charge, standing apart from the others.

He slowed as he approached the apparent officers. All but one had rifles slung over their shoulders as well as holstered pistols. Increasingly nervous, he stopped before the group. ‘Good afternoon,’ he began, the words catching in his throat. He cleared it and continued more authoritatively, ‘I’m Dr Rohit Bandra of the United Nations Antarctic Research Agency, in charge of this expedition. I’ve been given no advance notice of any other activities - can you tell me what you’re doing here?’

To his anger, they didn’t even acknowledge him, most of them looking away as another soldier ran over to give a report. Only a white-haired man seemed to have any interest in his presence - and Bandra was already wishing that he didn’t, finding his unblinking gaze increasingly unnerving.

‘Look,’ he said, trying to catch the attention of the others, ‘I have authority here, as granted to me by the United Nations. So I insist that you tell me what’s going on. After all, ha, I’m sure you remember that the Antarctic Treaty prohibits military operations.’

The white-haired man’s stare didn’t waver. ‘We’re not military,’ he told Bandra . . . as he drew his pistol and shot him in the head.

The shot cracked across the plain, audible even over the rising noise of the tilt-rotor’s engines. ‘Shit!’ Trulli yelled, throwing the cabin door open. ‘Davo! Come on! Run!’

Baker stared as Bandra fell backwards, a slash of red spouting across the pristine white. It took a few seconds before his fight-or-flight instinct cut through his shock - by which time other soldiers were reacting to the unexpected gunfire, unslinging their rifles.

He started to run, weighed down by his heavy clothing. The soldiers were some two hundred metres from him - but the plane was almost as distant in the other direction. Rifle fire crackled across the gap.

‘David!’ cried Rachel. Trulli watched, appalled, as little geysers of ice spat up around the running man, a ragged pattern of bullet impacts.

The pattern rapidly tightened.

Baker stumbled. For a moment Trulli thought he had just lost his footing - then a puff of crimson spray burst through his padded coat. And another, blood gushing out as he crashed on to the ice, flailing to a stop at the head of a smeared trail of gore.

Rachel screamed. ‘Take off !’ yelled Trulli. ‘Go, go, go!’ The soldiers were already switching targets, directing their weapons at the tilt-rotor. Larsson pushed the throttle to full power.

A shot hit the tilt-rotor’s side. Rachel shrieked again. ‘Get down!’ Trulli told her, ducking in his seat. Another bullet struck somewhere behind him. His view of the soldiers was obscured by a whirlwind of ice crystals as the Bell finally fought free of the ground. Larsson immediately tilted the stick sideways to slide the aircraft away from the soldiers, turning as he gained height.

More gunfire, this time a rattling burst on automatic. Trulli looked back. One of the hovercraft was slithering across the ice on a roostertail of snow and ice. Two Covenant soldiers were aboard, one driving, the other in the front seat with a rifle, flame spitting from its muzzle as he fired again—

More bullets hit home, ripping into the aluminium fuselage and penetrating the cabin. Larsson yelped as one struck the back of his seat - but didn’t pierce the metal, the flattened round clanging to the floor. Other shots thunked round them, then the firing stopped as the aircraft transitioned to flight mode and sped out of range.

‘Are we damaged?’ Trulli asked. ‘Can we still fly?’

Larsson hurriedly checked the instruments. ‘I think so. But who were they? What the hell is going on?’

‘Tell you in a minute.’ Trulli turned his attention back to the walkie-talkie. ‘First, I’ve got to get this radio working!’

Zamal watched the tilt-rotor retreat into the distance. ‘They’re getting away!’ he yelled.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Callum told him, unconcerned. He looked at the hole in the ice. ‘We’ve still got Wilde and Chase trapped. And Blackwood.’

‘I want Sophia alive,’ Ribbsley said firmly. ‘If you want my help, that’s the deal.’

Vogler smiled sardonically. ‘Professor Ribbsley, do you know how far we are from the nearest ice station?’

He looked puzzled. ‘No?’

‘About two hundred kilometres,’ said Hammerstein, lighting a cigar.

‘Quite a walk,’ Vogler continued. ‘And since we only have enough seats in the paracraft to take us all back there,’ he gestured at one of the four-seater vehicles, ‘if we decided to bring Ms Blackwood with us, one person would have to give up his place and make that walk. And I assure you, that person will not be any of my men.’

‘Nor mine,’ said Hammerstein.

Zamal grinned. ‘Or mine.’

‘And I doubt Mr Callum will volunteer either. So, Professor, you may want to reconsider your position.’ Vogler gazed into the distance. ‘It really is quite a walk.’

Ribbsley turned away with an irritable, defeated growl. Vogler regarded him with brief amusement before calling to one of the soldiers. ‘Situation report!’

‘The paracraft are all ready, sir,’ the man replied.

‘And the ice-burners?’

The soldier indicated a pair of heavy objects the size and shape of oil drums, which were being lifted upright alongside two of the paracraft. ‘Ready to be moved into position.’

‘Then let us begin.’ Vogler faced the other Covenant leaders.

‘Hammerstein, take your squad down the shaft there,’ he said, nodding at the winch. ‘Zamal, get your men to set up the first ice-burner over the centre of the lake and proceed from there. My team will take the second to the southern end. Mr Callum, Professor Ribbsley, come with me.’ He took his rifle from his shoulder, pulling back the charging handle to load the first round. ‘Dr Wilde’s search is over.’

The second cylinder was on the spindle. ‘All right,’ said Nina, ‘let’s see what this one has to say.’

‘What was it called again?’ asked Chase.

‘“The path from . . .” whatever that name is,’ Sophia said, pointing at the unknown word on the inscription, then moving her finger to the starting point of the map. ‘Presumably this place in Africa.’

Nina turned the wheel. An ancient voice echoed from the speaker cone, reciting the cylinder’s title. ‘We’ll take a look after we’ve played—’ She stopped as she heard what it said.

Chase and Sophia were equally dumbfounded. Though the language was strange, one word stood out clearly from the others. A name.

A name they all knew.

Nina stopped the wheel. Chase jabbed a finger at the cone. ‘Did that just say what I think it said?’

‘Play it again!’ Sophia ordered, but Nina didn’t need any prompting, already moving the needle back to its starting position. She spun the wheel again.

Again, the unfamiliar words emerged from the speaker . . . followed by one they couldn’t mistake.

Eden.

‘“The path from Eden”?’ Chase almost shouted. ‘Are you telling me these buggers came from the Garden of fucking Eden?’

‘It can’t be,’ Sophia protested, even as Nina reset the needle once more. ‘The Garden of Eden is pure myth!’

‘So was Atlantis,’ Nina reminded her as the ancient recording played again.

Eden. The same word. Unmistakable. Undeniable.

‘That’s the Covenant’s secret,’ said Nina, stunned. ‘The Covenant of Genesis . . . they took their name from the agreement, the covenant, between the three religions to protect Genesis, to protect Eden, and make sure nobody ever finds it.’

‘Why?’ Chase asked, mystified. ‘If they say, “Hey, look, we found the actual factual Garden of Eden!” wouldn’t that prove they were right all along?’

‘Not if scientific analysis confirmed that what was written in Genesis is wrong. The story told in Genesis is the foundation stone of all three religions - kick it out, and they’re all weakened. They can’t allow that to happen.’

Sophia surveyed the map. ‘So do they know where Eden is?’

‘They can’t, otherwise they would have dealt with it already.’ She raised her hands to take in the room and its contents. ‘But they don’t have any of this. We do, and the Covenant don’t know where we are - so we can find Eden first!’

Chase was about to say something when his walkie-talkie squawked. ‘Matt? That you?’ The only response was a stuttering electronic screech. ‘Walls must be too thick for the signal to get through,’ he said, ducking back through the passageway. ‘I’ll try it out here.’

He emerged in the ice-blocked hallway, where the red flare was still fizzing away. Trulli’s voice became clearer, though still heavily distorted. ‘Nina! Eddie! If you can hear me, for Christ’s sake answer!’

‘I’m here, Matt,’ said Chase. ‘What’s up?’

‘Eddie! Oh, thank God! Listen, they’re here, the Covenant! They killed Davo and Dr Bandra!’

Chase was silent for a moment. ‘Oh, arse,’ he finally said.

‘Eddie! Did you hear me?’

‘Yeah, I heard you. Where are you?’

‘We’re in the plane. Listen, you’ve got to get out of there!’

‘No shit, Sherlock,’ muttered Chase as the women scrabbled through the passage, Nina clutching the cylinder containing the song. ‘Nina, you know you just said that the Covenant don’t know where we are?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Guess what?’

Nina’s face fell. ‘You gotta be kidding me!’

‘Matt,’ he said into the radio, ‘we need to find another way back to the winch.’ He paused. ‘They’re at the winch, aren’t they?’

‘Yeah,’ came the crackling reply.

‘Buggeration and fuckery!’ Another moment of thought. ‘Okay, then the only other way out’s through the drainage shaft - if it hasn’t frozen up. If we get out, I’ll radio you so you can pick us up. But if you don’t hear anything from us in . . .’ he looked at his watch, ‘in the next hour, then get the fuck out of here, because I don’t think we’ll be coming.’

‘We’ll land and wait for you,’ Trulli assured him. ‘Good luck.’

‘Thanks.’ Chase lowered the radio. ‘Okay, we need another way back down to the ground - but first things first,’ he said as an idea struck him, crouching and hurrying back through the passage.

‘What are you doing?’ Nina asked, pocketing the cylinder and following him.

‘Give me your camera. Quick.’ She extracted it from its pouch and handed it to him. He took several pictures of the African section of the map.

Sophia entered. ‘What is it?’

‘We’re the only people who’ve seen this, right?’ he said, closing the camera’s cover and stuffing it into one of his inside pockets.

‘Yeah?’ said Nina.

‘So nobody else ever will.’ He raised the pickaxe - and smashed it repeatedly against the wall, obliterating the markings.

‘Eddie!’ Nina cried, horrified. ‘What are you doing?’ She tried to pull the axe from his hand.

‘No,’ Sophia said, ‘he’s right. We can’t let the Covenant find this.’

Chase kept bashing at the wall until the African end of the map was nothing more than shattered fragments on the floor, then ground them to powder beneath his boot. ‘Don’t think they’ll get much from that.’ He went back to the passageway. ‘Okay, now we need to find another way to the shaft - and we’ve got fifty-eight minutes to do it!’

25

Even through his sunglasses, Vogler had to squint to counter the glare of sunlight on snow as he looked across the ice field. In the distance he picked out Hammerstein and his team descending the winch line, and two hundred metres closer Zamal’s men moved one of the black drums into position.

His own soldiers had done the same with the second. ‘The ice-burner is ready, sir,’ a man informed him.

‘Then start it. Everyone, move back.’

The rest of the team, plus Ribbsley and Callum, retreated as the soldier inserted a long glass tube containing an amber liquid into an opening on the drum’s top. Once it was in place, he pushed a button and quickly moved away. A faint crack came from within the heavy drum as a small explosive charge shattered the glass.

‘Is that it?’ Ribbsley asked, unimpressed. ‘With something called an ice-burner, I was expecting jets of flame.’

‘Just wait,’ Vogler told him. Seconds passed . . . then the drum shifted, settling deeper into the surface layer of snow. Water pooled round its base.

Then bubbled, and boiled.

Steam swirled from the ground as the drum sank into the ice. Hot water gushed from the hole, displaced by the ice-burner’s weight, and the hiss of escaping steam became a roar as the metal began to glow red-hot. Across the plain, a spewing plume of vapour shot up as Zamal’s ice-burner disappeared into the frozen surface.

‘Exothermic reaction,’ said Vogler to the now somewhat more impressed Ribbsley. ‘Two chemicals that produce an enormous amount of heat when mixed. Some sort of thermate derivative - I don’t know what, chemistry is not my field, but I’ve been told the reaction will last long enough to melt through up to fifty metres of ice.’ The drum dropped below the surface, steam and spray spitting out of the hole.

‘How long will it take?’ Ribbsley asked.

‘Five minutes, perhaps less. As soon as it breaks through, we will secure ropes and climb down. Will you be able to manage?’

The professor gave him a scathing look. ‘If I can manage a parachute drop, I can handle a rope climb.’

‘Good. Then get ready.’

Nina, Chase and Sophia split up, hurriedly searching the unexplored areas of the library for other exits. Nina moved through the western side of the huge room, before long making a promising discovery. ‘Eddie!’ she called. ‘I found another way out!’

Sophia was first to arrive. ‘There’s a doorway,’ Nina told her. ‘It’s frozen up, but I can see light on the other side.’ The azure glow of ice-filtered daylight was visible round the edges of the wood and metal door.

Chase reached them. ‘What’ve we got?’

‘A door,’ Sophia said. ‘Of the closed variety, inevitably.’

‘I don’t think it’s frozen solid like that gate,’ said Nina, ‘but I can’t get it open.’ She tugged at the ice-caked handle. The door rattled, but didn’t move.

‘Let’s have a go,’ Chase said. He gripped the handle with both hands, pulling backwards as hard as he could. Ice cracked on the other side of the door. He grunted, then stepped back before charging and shoulder-barging it. There was a crunch, and as Chase reeled back the door swung open after him. ‘Piece of piss.’

Nina hugged him. ‘Nice job.’

‘Yes, whenever you need nothing more than brute force, you can always rely on Eddie,’ said Sophia.

Chase leered at her. ‘Hey, you used to like some brute force. Ow,’ he added as Nina hit him on his bruised shoulder. ‘What was that for?’ Her glare gave him the answer. ‘Oh, right.’

‘Enjoyable as it is to reminisce about our sex life,’ Sophia sighed as she went to the opening, ‘I really think we should move on.’

‘Yes, we should,’ Nina growled, giving Chase another reprimanding look as she followed.

They emerged on a slope leading down to the cliffs. Below, they saw the frozen city spread out before them - and uncomfortably close above, the icy ceiling. As the lake drained, millions of tiny icicles had formed where water dripped from the underside, giving the unpleasant feeling of a vast field of spikes hanging just over their heads. Not far up the slope, the ice arced downwards to meet the ground, entombing the end of the library - and the mysterious ‘source of life’ within.

Chase went to the cliff edge and looked down. ‘Shit. It’s too steep.’ Part of the rockface had been dug away to accommodate the towering temple, the drop almost vertical.

‘What about further along?’ Sophia asked. ‘If we can get to the side of the valley . . .’

He peered along the clifftop. ‘Still a tough climb, but there might be a way down. Nina, you up for it?’ She didn’t answer. ‘Nina?’

Her attention had been caught by a sound, but she couldn’t work out its origin. It seemed to be all around them, a low rumble. ‘You hear that?’ she asked. ‘Where’s it coming from?’

‘More to the point,’ said Sophia, ‘what is it?’

‘Nothing good,’ Chase guessed. He turned to hunt for the cause - before something made him look up. ‘Oh, fuck.’

Nina followed his gaze. There was something in the ice almost directly above them, silhouetted against the blue glow from the surface. As she watched, she realised it was moving.

Descending through the ice. Fast.

The rumbling grew louder, a hiss rising behind it. Icicles fell round them like a rain of glass daggers. ‘Get back inside!’ Chase yelled. They ran for the door.

‘What the hell is it?’ Nina gasped. The cavern ceiling fractured explosively, the rumble becoming a roar—

A hole blew open, a huge cloud of steam shrieking out into the frigid air as thousands of gallons of boiling water cascaded down. The dark mass of the ice-burner hit the ground with a massive thud. The drum rolled down the slope, flying over the edge of the cliff amid a scalding waterfall to hit the ground outside the temple with a bang that echoed through the entire cavern.

No sooner had that noise faded than another reached them, a second black drum falling from the roof above the domed houses in another vast column of steam and melted ice.

Chase pushed Nina and Sophia through the door as the steam cloud whooshed past them, the sudden clammy heat a shock after the constant cold. ‘Last thing I expected down here was a sauna,’ he wheezed as he slammed the door. He waited for the steam to disperse, then opened the door slightly to look out. A mist hung over the slope outside, but it was clear enough for him to see a rope drop through the new shaft overhead. He hurriedly closed the door again. ‘Guess who else wants a steam?’

‘The Covenant?’ Nina asked, already knowing the answer. ‘Oh, man! That means somebody’s now tried to kill me on every single continent on earth!’

‘Shall I call the Guinness Book of Records?’ Sophia snarked.

‘We’ll have to try climbing down that statue,’ said Chase. ‘Come on - it’ll take ’em a minute to get down here and get their bearings.’

‘But there are more of them in the city,’ Sophia pointed out.

‘Let’s get out of the fucking Fortress of Solitude here first, then worry about them,’ he said. Less than fifty minutes left, and they were no nearer finding a way down than before. They ran from the library, emerging at the top of the shaft behind the temple. ‘Sorry, love,’ he told Nina, ‘but we’re going to have to put that window through.’

She looked very unhappy. ‘Oh God, it’s absolutely priceless . . . but do it. I just won’t watch.’

Taking out the pickaxe, Chase made his way as quickly as he dared round the ledge to the window. He glanced back. Nina winced and looked away. Taking that as a cue, he whacked the axe against the ancient window. The stained glass was already brittle from age and cold and shattered easily; the gold leading was tougher, needing several blows before he was able to bend the soft metal aside.

He clambered through the gap, finding himself on the statue’s broad, squared-off shoulders. Ice covered the stone and the golden ornamentation. ‘Is it okay?’ Nina shouted across to him.

‘Yeah, come on over. Just don’t slip.’ Now that he was up here, he realised the statue’s left arm, raised as if giving a gift, wasn’t at as steep an angle as he’d thought. It might be possible to climb down it . . . though that still left the problem of where to go next. The statue’s hand was at least thirty feet in the air.

Nina rounded the ledge. He moved back to the window to help her through, then waited as Sophia negotiated the narrow path. ‘All right,’ he said as she reached him, ‘we’re still sixty feet up without any rope. Suggestions would be good. Even daft ones.’

Nina knelt to look over the edge of the statue’s shoulders at the golden necklace reaching partway down its chest. ‘Would this be strong enough to hold us? If we could climb down one of the counterpoises, we might be able to drop down - it looks like there’s a ledge around its waist, where the belt is.’

Chase leaned out to see. ‘You’d have to drop at least ten feet - and the ledge doesn’t look all that wide. And you’d still be a long way up.’

Sophia directed her light down the back of the statue. ‘Eddie, the statue’s quite close to the wall here. We might be able to do a chimney climb down it.’

He went to her and checked. It did indeed look as though it would be possible to descend by pressing their backs firmly against the statue and using their outstretched feet to lower themselves down the wall - but there was one problem. ‘We might,’ he said, ‘but Nina couldn’t.’

‘What?’ Nina protested. ‘Now she’s some super-mountaineer, but I’m not, is that it?’

‘No, it’s that you got shot in the leg four months ago!’ Chase replied. ‘You might think it’s okay now because it’s stopped hurting, but if you try to do a chimney climb, you’ll put a load of strain on it - and if the muscle tears, that’s it, you’ll fall. We need another way.’ He returned his attention to the outstretched left arm. The hand’s upturned palm was almost flat - and not all that far from the temple wall, where there was one of the tall, narrow windows . . . and a ledge just below it.

Nina had seen it too. ‘How far’s the jump?’

‘Five feet, maybe six.’ He tried to picture the temple’s exterior. There had been similar ledges running round the outside beneath each row of windows . . . at the same level as the tops of the buttresses. ‘If we can jump across to the window, we’ll be able to slide down those supports on the outside!’

‘If we can get to the hand,’ said Sophia, regarding the route uncertainly. The shoulder was thick with ice, and apart from a pair of metal bands around the upper arm and wrist the statue offered almost nothing in the way of handholds.

‘I’ll go first,’ Chase said. He cautiously stepped across the statue’s shoulder. Ice squeaked and crunched under his weight. He dropped to all fours, turning to descend the arm feet first.

The first golden band was only a few feet below. Using it to brace his feet, Chase lowered himself until he was able to grip the edge of the metal and continue down. There was a depression in the statue’s elbow, which had filled with ice; he rasped at it with his crampon spikes until he found grip.

Though terrified that he might fall, Nina couldn’t look away - until she heard a noise behind her. ‘Eddie,’ she called, worried, ‘they’re in the library!’

Chase acknowledged her with a nod, then continued. There was less purchase on the forearm - not only was it narrower than the upper arm, but it was also longer, the stylised proportions not the same as a human body. The band round the wrist was nearly eight feet below the elbow, and there were no protrusions he could hold.

He put his hands on the cold stone, fingers splayed to maximise his grip, and edged downwards. Probing with his toes, he felt for the golden band. No luck. Looking down, he saw there was still over a foot to go.

No choice but to let go. He inched one hand down, then the other, moving them slightly further each time—

His left hand slipped.

He slithered down the statue’s arm on his stomach, clawing for grip and finding only ice. Instead, he opened his arms and tried to wrap them round the stone, toes scrabbling for any purchase as he felt himself rolling over the edge—

His feet slammed against the top of the giant bracelet. Chase squeezed his arms round the statue, heart thudding as he arrested his fall. He wriggled sideways until he was back atop the arm, then lowered himself on to the stone hand.

‘Eddie!’ Nina shouted. ‘Jesus, are you okay? Eddie!’

‘I’m okay, I’m okay,’ Chase panted, slowly getting to his feet. ‘You just need to watch that last little bit there.’ He looked at the nearest window, a vertical slash of backlit blue. It was further away than he’d initially thought, but still reachable.

He hefted the pickaxe. ‘All right, here I go. If I make it, I’ll break the window so I can get through and grab you from the other side. If I don’t make it . . .’ a glance at the shadowed floor below, ‘then I hope I land on my head, ’cause that’s a break-both-legs kind of fall.’

‘Thanks for that reassuring image, Eddie,’ said Sophia.

Nina unconsciously reached for her pendant as Chase prepared to make the jump, only realising what she was doing when she couldn’t touch it - it was hidden under several layers of clothing. Hoping it was the thought that counted, she held her breath, watching as he psyched himself up, readying the axe, drawing back . . .

And hurling himself across the gap.

Chase swung the pickaxe just before he landed on the narrow ledge, smashing the glass. He hacked with the axe, trying to hook it on to something secure. Lead bent and glass broke, one of his feet slipping off the ledge as he overbalanced, toppling backwards—

A harsh clink of metal on stone. The pickaxe found the window’s frame. Arm straining, Chase pulled himself upright, regaining his footing and reaching through the broken window to grip its sill. He used the pickaxe to knock out more of the glass, wrenching away the leading until the gap was large enough to fit through.

He poked his head through to check there actually was a ledge outside. To his relief, there was. One of the buttresses curved away to the ground a few feet to his right.

To his dismay, he also saw figures making rapid descents from the shaft cut by the second ice-burner. The Covenant were coming from two directions, maybe even three if they were also using the shaft Trulli had drilled - and he, Nina and Sophia were caught between them.

Spurred on by the sight, he climbed through, then leaned back into the temple over the sill. ‘Okay, come on!’ he called, seeing that Sophia was already descending. ‘Jump and I’ll grab you!’

She reached the hand with little trouble. Eyes locked on his, she made the jump, sailing across to land almost perfectly on the ledge. Chase seized her arms, holding on until she had fully recovered her balance, then shuffled sideways so she could climb through.

‘Wait for me at the top of that,’ he said, indicating the buttress. He returned to the window as Sophia edged along the ledge. ‘Okay, Nina. Do what I did - no, wait, do whatever Sophia did and come down the arm. My way was a bit pants-filling.’

Nina gave him a small smile and stepped across the statue’s shoulders.

She didn’t even reach the arm.

The ice shrouding the stone, weakened by Chase and Sophia’s footsteps, sheared apart. She stumbled, trying to regain her footing - and a spear of pain from overstressed muscle pierced the wound on her right thigh. Her knee buckled. She landed hard on her side, grasping in panic for anything that could stop her from going over the edge—

There was nothing.

She slithered down the statue’s chest towards the sheer drop below.

26

‘Nina!’ Chase screamed. She hit one of the necklace’s long rectangular counterpoises.

And caught it.

But it didn’t stop her. The metal was too thin to support her, buckling and swinging her across the statue’s front. She slammed to a stop against a carved protrusion.

The counterpoise broke off. Nina plunged straight down—

Her feet hit the statue’s gilded belt. Even as more pain exploded in her legs, she had just enough presence of mind to throw herself backwards against the great figure’s stone stomach, collapsing on the small ledge at its waist. The long spear of the counterpoise plunged past, hitting the temple floor with an echoing clang.

Chase stared in horror, seeing Nina’s face twisted in pain. ‘Wait there!’ he yelled. ‘I’m coming!’

He started to climb through the window, but Sophia pulled him back. ‘What are you doing?’

‘What do you think?’

‘Even if you manage to climb back up the arm, how are you going to get down to her?’

‘I’ll think of something!’ He tried again to pull himself through the window.

Sophia jammed her arm across the frame, blocking him. His mouth curled with cold anger. ‘If you don’t move, I’ll chuck you off this ledge.’

She knew he meant it, but held her place. ‘Eddie, the Covenant will be here any minute. They must have heard that noise. If they catch us, they’ll kill us all.’

‘I can’t leave her!’

‘You can’t reach her, either. Eddie, we’ve got to go!’

Furious, frustrated, he looked back at Nina. She had managed to sit upright, and was clutching her leg. ‘Nina!’ he called. ‘If you can—’

A noise from above: breaking glass. A man in snow camouflage was using his rifle butt to widen the hole in the window behind the statue.

He ducked through, looked round, saw Chase below—

Chase shoved Sophia away and darted sideways as the Covenant soldier fired, bullets pitting the ancient stonework and shattering the remains of the window. The gunfire stopped; Chase risked a look, seeing another man climbing on to the statue before being forced to jerk away from a second burst.

‘Eddie, come on!’ Sophia commanded, moving to the buttress. ‘If we don’t get out of here now, they’ll cut us off !’

‘Fuck!’ Chase roared, thumping a clenched fist against the wall. He knew she was right - but that was absolutely no comfort. And if he tried to shout to Nina, even to assure her that he would come back for her, the Covenant members would know she was there.

And kill her.

Anguished, he followed Sophia to the buttress as she lowered herself over the edge . . . and let herself drop.

The buttress was wide enough for her not to slip off the side, but she still couldn’t hold in a shriek as she hurtled downwards, boots grating on the frozen stone. The slope became shallower as it descended, but Sophia was still moving fast when she reached the bottom, shooting off the end and tumbling across the iron-hard ground. She came to a stop, unmoving for a moment - then gave Chase a dizzy wave.

With a last look back at the window, Chase plunged after her.

Jagged lumps of ice tore at his clothes as he hurtled down the buttress like a luge rider - sans luge. He tried to squeeze his feet against the edges to slow himself, but couldn’t find enough grip, still picking up speed as he neared the bottom . . .

Chase was airborne for a moment as he flew off the end - then hit the ground arse first, taking a painful kick to his spine. He bounced over the frozen earth in a spray of ice crystals, skidding along on his back before coming to a halt.

‘Are you all right?’ Sophia asked, hobbling stiffly to him.

‘Fine,’ he grunted as he stood. Muscles ached and knives jabbed at various parts of his anatomy, but nothing seemed permanently damaged. He saw the sled nearby. ‘Come on.’

‘What are you doing?’ Sophia demanded as he headed for it. ‘If you go back in there, they’ll shoot you before you get five feet across the room!’

‘I know. That’s why I’m not going back in - until I get a gun. If Nina keeps quiet, maybe they won’t see her and they’ll go.’ He reached the sled, taking hold of the tow rope. ‘Then I can climb up and get her.’

‘We won’t have time,’ she insisted. ‘And where are you going to get a gun, anyway?’

A shout reached them from the city, where another man in white had emerged from behind a building and seen them. ‘He’ll do.’

‘He still seems to be using it!’ Sophia warned as the man took aim. More men appeared behind him. Chase recognised Zamal’s bearded face amongst the group.

‘Okay, slight rethink!’ There was no decent cover nearby, and going back into the temple would bring them into the sights of the men already inside. Instead, Chase grabbed Sophia and dived with her on to the sled. ‘Hang on!’

He kicked at the ground - and sent the sledge racing downhill along the frozen road bisecting the ancient city.

Zamal’s men opened fire, bullets spitting chunks of ice into the air around Chase and Sophia. But flattened on the sledge they were a tricky target - made the more so as they rapidly picked up speed. ‘Get them! Get them!’ shrieked Zamal, opening up with his SCAR on full automatic as he tracked the fleeing pair downhill.

Sharp-edged ice fragments bit at Chase’s face as a line of bullet impacts snaked along the ground beside him, getting closer as the Arab refined his aim - one shot even exploded beneath him as it whipped between the body of the sled and its runner—

They hurtled through the arch and past the first buildings, cutting off Zamal’s line of fire. Chase looked ahead. The road led all the way down to the edge of the city - and the drainage shaft cut through the dam. Their escape route.

But that would mean abandoning Nina, and he wasn’t prepared to do that.

‘Eddie!’ Sophia yelled. Another group of Covenant troopers ahead. They must have come in through the original shaft, making their way up through the city to meet their comrades.

Either they had seen the approaching sled, or Zamal had radioed them. Whichever, they were lining up across the road, preparing to shoot . . .

Chase stuck one leg over the sledge’s side, jamming his boot against the road surface. The sled slewed round, almost tipping over. He lifted his foot and it straightened out - now aiming for one of the side roads.

More gunfire, more cracking impacts around them as the soldiers realised they were about to lose sight of their prey—

Something blew apart with a crunch of shattered plastic. Chase took a blow to his side as one of the pieces of equipment strapped to the sledge was hit. The laser rangefinder had stopped a bullet for him.

But he had no time to reflect on his luck. They reached the side road, a domed wall looming ahead. He jammed both feet down, trying to slow the sledge, then lifted one to steer them round the obstruction.

Too fast—

The speeding sled scraped against the base of the curved wall in a spray of ice shards as it turned, teetering perilously on one runner before crashing down again. The gas cylinder rattled against its restraints, hitting Chase’s leg.

Feet down, toes skittering over the ice. The sled slowed. Beyond the buildings ahead, he could see a roiling haze rising towards the ceiling - steam from the volcanic vent in the hypogeum.

He saw a route leading between the groups of houses and swung them into it. The path was tight, but it opened out ahead—

Over a drop.

‘Shit!’ gasped Chase, slamming both feet as hard as he could against the ice. Sophia did the same. The sledge juddered, slowing - but not enough. ‘Roll!’

He threw himself to the left, Sophia to the right as the sled fishtailed over the edge, crashing down on the frozen ground ten feet below. Chase hit a pile of broken wood, twisting round and bending his legs to absorb the impact. The wood shattered along with its prison of ice, pieces flying everywhere as he came to a stop at the very edge of the drop.

Sophia wasn’t so lucky.

With nothing to stop her, she screamed as she careered over the edge—

One hand caught a knobbly chunk of ice. She jolted to a stop . . . and the ice cracked. Clawing for a hold that wasn’t there, she fell, tumbling down a rocky slope.

Chase booted away the wood and looked down. Sophia lay below him, clutching her side. He hurriedly descended the little cliff, jumping the last few feet to land beside her.

‘Sophia! You okay?’ he asked. They had ended up fairly close to the hypogeum; he looked towards the road for any sign of the Covenant. Nothing yet, but it wouldn’t take them long to track them down . . .

‘Don’t know.’ She tried to sit up. ‘Oh, God, that hurts!’

Short of opening her coat and feeling for broken bones, Chase had no way to know whether she was actually injured or just badly bruised - and no time, either. ‘You’ve got to get up. They’ll be coming.’

‘I don’t think I can.’ Chase stood; through the pain, her expression became genuinely frightened. ‘Eddie, don’t leave me, please!’

‘I wasn’t going to.’ He held out both hands. ‘I’m just going to pull you up. It’ll hurt, but . . . well, a bullet’ll hurt more. Ready?’

She winced as she took his hands in hers. ‘Okay.’

‘On three - one, two, three!’

He pulled her upright. She let out a stifled gasp, holding her right side. Chase moved round to her left and supported her. ‘Got you. Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘Good question.’ A shaft of light from the hole above cut through the air, the winch line still hanging from it, but even if Sophia could climb they would never reach the icy ceiling before being shot at. It would have to be the drainage shaft, then, but that presented another problem - it was straight, a perfect channel for bullets. Was there a faster way through it?

His gaze fell on the overturned sledge - but the idea that was forming was blown away by a shout. They had been seen. A man on the road waved to his comrades, then ran across the hard ground towards them.

He couldn’t climb back up the slope while supporting Sophia. Instead, they headed as quickly as they could towards the hypogeum.

Nina curled up tighter, trying to squeeze as deep into the shadows as she could. The gunfire from outside had stopped, and she had overheard fragments of messages over the walkie-talkie of one of the men above; the frustration in Zamal’s voice suggested that Chase and Sophia had got away, at least temporarily.

But that didn’t help her. She couldn’t even think about looking for a way down until the Covenant team left - and, if anything, more of them seemed to be arriving. She heard a faint crunch of glass overhead: someone else coming through the window. He spoke in German, and she recognised the voice - Vogler. She knew enough of the language to tell that their efforts to find something had been unsuccessful - then felt a cold shock at the sound of her own name.

They were looking for her.

Ribbsley’s voice echoed across the shaft. ‘What are you doing over there? We need to search the library - let Zamal and Hammerstein go after them!’

‘Only Chase and Blackwood got out of the temple,’ said Vogler, switching to English to address the professor. ‘But I am looking at three sets of footprints. Either Dr Wilde doubled back into the library . . . or she is still in here.’

Fear rose in Nina as a flashlight beam lanced down, barely missing her hiding place. ‘She did not fall to the ground,’ Vogler continued, the beam playing over the broken counterpoise. ‘But part of the statue did. I wonder . . .’

Nina heard ice cracking as he stepped right to the edge of the statue’s shoulders, pieces falling past her. The torch beam slowly scanned across the giant figure’s chest, down to its waist, creeping closer to her as Vogler leaned out further . . .

It touched her leg.

She tried to shrink away, but there was no more room.

‘There you are.’

She let out a terrified breath as more pieces of ice fell past: Vogler moving across to the statue’s outstretched arm. For a moment she held on to the hope that he might slip and fall just as she had, but he kept his footing, sliding down to brace himself in the crook of the elbow. He looked across at her. ‘You do not look comfortable there, Dr Wilde.’

‘How about we swap places?’ she said, trying to mask her terror.

Footsteps echoed through the temple below: Zamal and his men entering. He looked up at the statue, impressed despite himself, before noticing Vogler. ‘What are you doing up there?’

‘I thought you were going after Chase and Blackwood,’ Vogler said.

‘The Jew and his men are closer. They—’ Zamal stopped as he realised Vogler was not the only person on the statue. ‘You found her!’

‘Yes, I did. And maybe we would have found Chase and Blackwood as well if you had gone to help Hammerstein.’

Zamal ignored the rebuke. ‘What are you waiting for? Kill her!’

‘Yes,’ said Ribbsley, coming through the window. ‘If you’ve found her, then what’s the delay?’ A bitter tone: ‘You certainly didn’t hesitate to say you’d kill Sophia.’

Vogler gave him a stern look. ‘Perhaps I am not in a hurry to kill an unarmed and helpless woman.’

‘Then perhaps,’ Zamal sneered, ‘you are in the wrong profession.’ He raised his rifle. ‘If you do not, I will.’

‘Very well,’ said Vogler, shaking his head. He unslung his rifle. ‘I am sorry, Dr Wilde. Unlike certain members of the Covenant, I do not take any joy in this. But it has to be done.’

‘You murder people just to protect your secret,’ Nina said accusingly. ‘I don’t think God would approve.’

‘We are a necessary evil,’ Vogler replied, almost sorrowful. ‘We accept the burden of our sins - and will be held accountable for them in time.’ He raised the weapon.

‘It’s a hell of a secret, though, isn’t it?’ The words came out more rapidly as Nina’s fear rose, but she refused to surrender to it. ‘The secret of Eden!’

Vogler froze. Below, Zamal stared up at her in surprise.

‘Oh, yeah!’ she shouted, sensing that something had changed. ‘Yeah, I know what your secret is! Whaddya think of that, huh? I know you’re looking for the Garden of Eden!’

There was silence in the temple for a moment. Then Ribbsley spoke, voice tinged with mocking sarcasm. ‘Oh dear, Dr Wilde. Oh dear, oh dear. That was about the worst possible thing you could have said. Now they have to kill you.’

‘Oh.’ Nina’s faint sense of hope melted away to nothing as she saw Vogler’s expression, which confirmed Ribbsley’s words. ‘Well, that . . . sucks.’

He took aim—

‘But I know how to find the Garden of Eden!’ she cried as she shut her eyes tightly, expecting the only response to be a gunshot, searing pain, then nothing . . .

Silence.

She cautiously opened one eye to see Vogler, still aiming the gun at her, but now looking thoughtful.

‘Just shoot her!’ Zamal shouted.

‘Wait,’ Vogler ordered. He fixed Nina with an intense gaze - watching for any hint of deceit. ‘Explain.’

Her mouth had gone dry. ‘There’s - there’s a map,’ she said. ‘Up there, past the library. It shows the history of the Veteres, how they expanded across the world. But it won’t help you find Eden. We destroyed that part of it.’

‘Well then, you’re wasting our time,’ said Ribbsley. ‘Vogler, get on with it.’

‘I memorised it. I know where it is.’ Nina stared back at Vogler, hoping her defiance would camouflage her bluff. ‘So do Eddie and Sophia. If they get away - when they get away - they’ll find it. They’ll reveal it to the world.’

‘They’ve got no chance of getting away,’ said another voice. Callum. The white-haired man had also climbed on to the statue.

‘Y’know, people have said that before about Eddie. And you know what? They’ve always been wrong.’

‘Not this time.’

But Vogler, at least, appeared unsure. ‘Can we take that risk? We should find out what she knows.’

‘No,’ Zamal said, ‘we should just kill her!’ He raised his rifle.

Vogler held up one hand. ‘This is a decision for the Triumvirate.’

Zamal’s face flushed with rage. ‘What?’

‘Chase and Blackwood can’t get away,’ Callum added. ‘So kill her.’

‘I’ve called for a decision by the Triumvirate,’ Vogler said firmly. ‘Procedure demands that a vote must be taken. I will abide by the decision - but until it has been made, we will keep her alive.’

Zamal made an angry spitting sound. ‘You’re wasting time,’ said Callum.

‘It is my time to waste, not yours.’ Vogler took out his radio. ‘Hammerstein, this is Vogler. I have called a vote of the Triumvirate - I need you to meet us.’

‘I’m busy right now,’ came the sarcastic response, the Israeli sounding as though he was running. ‘Blackwood and Chase just went into a building. We’re going after them.’

‘Then call me as soon as they are dead. Out.’ Vogler turned to the men above. ‘Lower a rope.’

Nina could do nothing but wait for them to capture her.

27

Chase and Sophia hurried across a bridge over the ice-filled hypogeum. Sophia was still in pain, but sheer adrenalin had forced her pace as the Covenant soldier gained on them. She glanced back. ‘I can’t see him.’

‘He’ll see us in a sec,’ Chase said grimly. The elevated walkways and guard posts would give them some cover, but their tracks would give them away, crushed and cracked ice marking their footsteps.

Unless they could find somewhere there was no ice. The deeper they went into the hypogeum, the more water spattered down where the rising steam was melting the cavern’s ceiling. It had worsened since they came through earlier, the drizzle now in places a full shower. And occasional bangs told Chase it wasn’t just water coming down - chunks of ice were also falling. Small now, but they would only get bigger as more of the ice sheet was eaten away.

They reached an intersection - and Chase saw footprints. Three sets: his, Sophia’s and Nina’s. ‘We’ve been this way before.’

‘Is that good?’

‘Hopefully.’ He got his bearings and went left, looking back.

A flash of white amongst the grey and blue - the soldier entering the hypogeum—

‘Down!’ said Chase, pulling Sophia with him as he dropped. A shot smacked against the wall beside him; another sizzled just above his head. But the walls were high enough to provide protection. A third shot hit stone, then Chase heard the distant crunch of ice as the soldier ran towards them.

They reached the guard post, the gloomy interior just as Chase remembered - including the object hanging on the wall. ‘Okay, you crawl along there and keep your head down,’ he said, indicating another exit as he released Sophia.

She muffled a grunt, still clutching her side. ‘What are you going to do?’

He pulled down the coiled whip, the ice coating it crackling as it broke loose. ‘Live out my Indiana Jones fantasies.’

‘What, you want to be a grumpy pensioner?’

‘Just get going,’ Chase said, gripping the whip’s handle with one hand as he used the other to strip off the remaining ice. With luck, the cold of the lake would have stopped the leather from rotting too badly.

He backed towards the exit as Sophia crawled through it. The running footsteps came closer . . . then slowed to a cautious walk as the Covenant trooper approached the guardhouse. A light flicked on, the small but powerful spotlight mounted under the sights of his sleek, ultra-modern TAR-21 ‘Tavor’ assault rifle probing the shadows.

Chase tensed as the man approached. The circle of light dropped to the floor, fixing on the boot prints in the ice. It moved one way, revealed that there were no more tracks in that direction, returned. Chase slowly drew back his arm, the whip creaking. The soldier was moving to the far side of the door to get the best viewing - and firing - angle into the building.

Chase would only have a moment to react when he came into view . . .

Another footstep, ice squeaking as it took the man’s weight. He was just outside. The spotlight beam sliced across the interior, getting closer to Chase. Another step. Closer . . .

The gun came into sight, the intense light flashing into Chase’s eyes—

The whip lashed out, its tip looping round the rifle’s barrel. Chase was almost as surprised as the soldier that it had worked - but he was quicker to react, yanking back as hard as he could and tearing the gun from his hands. It flew across the room, slipping free of the whip and sliding over the icy floor away from both men.

Chase snapped back his arm for another strike, but the soldier was already reaching for his sidearm. Chase dropped the whip and charged at him.

The man pulled out the gun - just as Chase made a diving tackle and slammed him viciously against the wall. The pistol spun away. Chase punched him hard in the stomach, but the layers of cold-weather padding absorbed the blow.

He struck at the man’s exposed head - only to take a blow himself, the soldier karate-chopping his shoulder. He reeled back—