The Covenant of Genesis

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