The Covenant of Genesis

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