“And where can we get one!” Lachlan added.
“LaSon-V stun gun,” Zoe said. “It’s a nonlethal incapacitator. Laser flash accompanied by a sonic charge. Originally designed for use on planes by sky marshals to subdue hijackers without the risk of shooting out a window and disrupting cabin pressure. The sonic charge would usually be enough to knock out an aggressive attacker, but the laser flash blinds them too. No aftereffects except for a splitting headache. Some people think this is what was used to disorient Princess Diana’s driver just before her fatal car crash.”
“OK…” Julius said. “On that cheery note, let’s get to work.”
A gap was cut in the wire fence surrounding the henge and Zoe and the twins quickly rolled a handcart packed with equipment through it, followed by the kids.
They came to the stones and paused for a moment, awed.
The towering pillars of rock soared into the sky above them, looming large in the moonlight—powerful, ominous,ancient. The biggest of them, the lone pillar of the Grand Trilithon, rose to a massive twenty-six feet, a conical stone “tongue” at its peak indicative of the lintel that had once lain across its top.
“What time is the Titanic Rising?” Zoe asked.
“Jupiter should already be on the horizon,” Alby said, setting up a serious-looking telescope on the grass among the stones. “Titan will rise over it at 3:49A.M., Saturn two minutes later, then, as it rises, a gap will appear between Saturn and Jupiter.”
“And that’s when we see our Dark Star.”
“Correct.”
Zoe checked her watch. It was 3:25. “Let’s move. We’ve got twenty-five minutes.”
By the light of a penlight, Julius examined a more recent plan of Stonehenge, showing the layout of the stones that still stood:
“Three of the five central trilithons are still intact,” he said. “One upright from the Grand Trilithon still stands, and one upright down here, at the bottom right. Might be an issue.”
“What about the Altar Stone?” Lachlan said.
“It’s fallen.”
“Which one is it?” Zoe asked.
“This one.” Lachlan hustled among the towering stones, came to a fallen one, a great horizontal slab, half- buried in the grass within the central ring of stones. It was about eight feet long, slim and lean. A small rectangular hole in the earth lay next to it.
Lachlan examined one of its ends and called, “It’s got a depression in it! Square in shape. Maybe eight by eight inches.”
“That would match the Sa-Benben,” Zoe said.
She stared at the horizontal slab, amazed at what she was about to say: “OK, then. Let’s reerect it.”
They moved quickly but gently, not wanting to damage the 4,500-year-old stones.
Slings were wrapped around the Altar Stone and it was gently lifted by an A-frame pulley system fitted with a diesel-powered cable spooler.
While this was going on, Lily cleared out the hole in the ground near the base of the Altar Stone. Alby was training his telescope on the northeast horizon.
“I see Jupiter!” he called.
Through his telescope, he saw a small orange dot hovering on the horizon, perfectly aligned with Stonehenge’s outer ring of lintels and its famous Heel Stone.
“Hurry!” Zoe called to the twins.
“I am not going to hurry with a national treasure,” Julius said indignantly.
Slowly, very slowly, the spooler reeled the great stone slab upward, pulling it vertical until—whump—Julius jumped at the sound—it slid abruptly downward, slotting into the hole where over four thousand years ago it had originally stood.
Zoe checked her watch.
3:48A.M.
One minute to go.
It was then that she removed something from her backpack.
The top piece of the Golden Capstone.
the Sa-Benben.
The Firestone.
It was stunning to behold. It glimmered in the night, its golden sides shining, its crystalline peak sparkling.
Zoe climbed a stepladder and stood at the top of the now-erect Altar Stone.
She saw the depression in the flat top end of the stone, saw that, yes, it matched the size of the Firestone’s base perfectly.
“All right, then…” she said softly to herself. “The Great Pyramid and Stonehenge. Let’s see what you
