It clicked into place.
“OK.” He nodded to Vulture. “Place your Pillar inside the Philosopher’s Stone.”
Vulture stepped forward and held his oblong diamond block above the rectangular slot in the Philosopher’s Stone. The dimensions of the slot matched those of the Pillar exactly.
With both hands, Vulture lowered the Pillar horizontally into the slot until it rested on its side, its long flat upper surface lying flush with the rim of the slot.
Then he stepped away and, with Wizard, gently picked up the lid and—with the Firestone now incorporated into it—slowly lowered the lid back into position, covering the Pillar.
Jack watched intently.
Beside him, so did Paul Robertson and Iolanthe.
The lid slotted into place, concealing the Pillar.
Now the two pieces of the Philosopher’s Stone were one—with the charged Firestone crowning it and with the Saudi Pillar within it.
All the watchers waited in silence.
No one knew what this so-called cleansing would entail—
A blinding flash of light startled them all.
It flared out from the slit between the lid of the Philosopher’s Stone and its trapezoidal base, and yet it easily illuminated the entire lab.
The watchers stepped back, shielding their eyes.
The dazzling white light continued to blaze out from within the Philosopher’s Stone. Some incredible kind of transformation was taking place inside it.
The crystal at the peak of the Firestone flared like a purple beacon.
From beside West, Tank spoke quietly: “Throughout the ages, the Philosopher’s Stone has always been associated with transformation. Some say that it can perform the act of alchemy, or as scientists would say today, elemental transmutation—Isaac Newton was notoriously obsessed with this property. Others have claimed that it can change water into an elixir that can grant long life. Always the key word has been ‘change.’ Incredible, astonishing change.”
Then as suddenly as it had appeared, the blazing light from the Philosopher’s Stone went out, as did the purple light atop the Firestone.
Silence again. Normal light.
Everyone blinked.
In the lab, the Philosopher’s Stone sat still, lifeless, yet somehow it radiated energy, power.
Wizard and Vulture then used some tongs to gently lift away its lid.
The lid came clear……to reveal the Pillar still nestled within the Stone.
Wizard lifted the Pillar from its slot and gasped.
Whereas before the diamond Pillar was cloudy and translucent, now it was perfectly clear, like polished glass or crystal. And the liquid trapped inside it, which had previously been colorless, was now a vivid shiny silver.
The First Pillar had been transformed.
It had been cleansed.
“WE’VE GOT NO time to waste,” Jack said, striding through the corridors of the base. “We have to get this cleansed Pillar to the temple-shrine at Abu Simbel by dawn.”
Hustling to keep up, Iolanthe said, “Captain! Captain, please! There are other issues about the Pillars that I must discuss with you.”
“You can discuss them on the way to Egypt,” Jack said, heading for the door.
“I’m going with you?”
“She’s going with us?” Zoe asked.
“She is now.”
Things started moving very quickly.
In a hangar near the base’s runway, The Halicarnassus stood in all its glory, black and huge, bathed in arc lights.
The doors to the hangar parted, and a chill Atlantic storm rushed in, rain and wind lashing the nose of the plane.
Jack’s team hotfooted it across the hangar floor to the airstairs leading up to the 747.
The trusted regulars: Wizard, Zoe, Pooh Bear, Stretch.
And the new players: Vulture, Scimitar, Astro, and now Iolanthe.
And the kids: Lily and Alby. This time, Jack decided, they’d come with him. In Egypt, the home of the Word of Thoth, he had a feeling he might need Lily’s linguistic skills.
The only ones not going were Tank and the twins, Lachlan and Julius Adamson. They would stay here on Mortimer Island and continue their studies, searching for the locations of the other temple-shrines.
