Temple of the Gods

all its myriad forms. If what Glas had said was true and all living things on earth originated from one single source, the sky stone, then she was now following the common thread joining them together through billions of years.

And she felt the stone itself.

A sixth — or seventh? — sense, a homing instinct; however she could think to describe it, all she knew was that the thread led her directly to it. There was no life around it now, but there had been, once. She had impressions of heat, light where there should have been darkness, being beneath the ground yet not buried. The feeling was so intense that she could almost see it, a visual echo from the people who had been there long ago.

It was far away, she could tell, but closer than it had been when she was in Takashi’s skyscraper. She knew in what direction—

That thought made her open her eyes. She knew, but now so too did the Group. The joined statues floated just above her cradling palms, shining brightly. Some of the Group were looking at the wall towards which the light was strongest, as if hoping to see through it all the way to the meteorite’s hiding place.

She felt an instinctive urge to follow the path back to its origin—

The statues suddenly moved, gliding silently away from her across the table. She was so startled that she didn’t think to try to grab them until they were out of reach. Meerkrieger jerked aside as the linked figures spun past him.

The glow began to fade… and the statues arced towards the polished wooden floor. ‘Catch them, catch them!’ Warden cried.

Stikes was already running round the table. He dived headlong, landing hard and skidding along the floorboards just in time for the figurines to drop into his hands. He breathed out heavily in relief. ‘Haven’t made a catch like that since I played cricket for Eton.’

Warden rounded on Nina. ‘What happened? How did you do that?’

‘I don’t know,’ she replied, truthfully. The statues had responded to her impulsive thought, as if she had been able to channel and direct the earth energy flowing through them by the power of her will alone. But even in her confusion, she still had enough forethought to keep this to herself. ‘It just sort of — happened. Like they were drawn toward something.’

‘The sky stone,’ said Warden. ‘They were being drawn to the meteorite.’

‘We can triangulate,’ said Frederick Bull excitedly. ‘We know the bearing from Tokyo, and now we know the bearing from here too!’

His brother was already tapping away on his smartphone. ‘The bearing from here was a hundred and forty degrees east, more or less,’ he said, bringing up a map app. ‘It was two hundred and sixty degrees west from Tokyo, so…’ He swiped his fingers across the screen to find where the two lines intersected. ‘Africa! Somewhere in Ethiopia, by the look of it.’

‘How could it end up so far from Atlantis?’ asked al-Faisal doubtfully.

‘I don’t think we’ve even started to comprehend the full power of earth energy,’ said Warden. ‘But now that Dr Wilde is helping us, even if,’ he smiled smugly at Nina, ‘less than willingly, we can explore its possibilities.’

‘Our first priority is finding the meteorite, though,’ said Brannigan firmly. ‘We’ve got to get the progenitor DNA.’

‘And we shall,’ Warden replied. ‘But first—’

Two doors on opposite sides of the room opened simultaneously, cylindrical metal objects flying through them to bounce noisily off the floor and skitter towards the table. Everyone looked round at the unexpected interruption.

Nina recognised the items. Stun grenades! The instructions Eddie had given her earlier sprang back into her mind, and she closed her eyes and clapped her hands to her ears.

Stikes also instantly knew what they were. He dropped, releasing the statues safely on to the floor before he too protected his senses—

Both grenades detonated, their flashes blinding anyone looking at them and the twin piercing bangs so powerful in the enclosed space that they had the same effect on the unprepared as a blow from a baseball bat. The assembled billionaires screamed, reeling in their seats as their senses were temporarily obliterated.

With one exception. Gorchakov had realised the danger just in time to raise an arm in front of his eyes. Even deafened and dizzied, he tried to stand, clutching the Glock and pointing it at one of the doors as men in white rushed into the room—

A burst of silenced bullets hit him in the back as more attackers crashed through the other door. Blood sprayed over the table as Gorchakov toppled to the floor, dead. The Glock clattered down beside him.

Eddie, leading the first team, had already spotted another threat — one of Stikes’s mercenaries holding his father at gunpoint. Both men were stunned, but even blinded all the guard had to do was pull the trigger to hit Larry in the back.

He didn’t get the chance. Two shots from the MP7, and the merc spun away with blood gouting from a pair of holes over his heart.

Across the room, Stikes had recovered from the initial shock and sprung back to his feet — only to find the other intruders’ guns pointing at him. He looked round as if contemplating a flying leap through the window, but then slowly raised his hands. ‘I was wondering when you were going to show up, Chase.’

Eddie pulled off his balaclava and strode across the room to him. He regarded his former senior officer silently for a moment — then punched him hard in the face. Stikes fell, holding a hand to his bloodied mouth. ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now, you piece of shit,’ Eddie growled, his MP7 fixed on the other Englishman.

Stikes somehow managed a pained smile. ‘Because you went to a lot of effort to prove you’re not a cold- blooded murderer, and it would be a shame to waste it?’

Eddie was forced to admit that he had a point. ‘No, I’m not a murderer,’ he said, lowering the gun. Stikes’s unpleasant smirk widened at the minor moral victory — then the Yorkshireman booted him in the head. ‘Doesn’t mean I’m not a complete bastard, though.’

‘You’re neither of those things,’ said Nina, crossing the room to him. En route, she noticed that the Glock had ended up almost within Warden’s reach, and kicked it away. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah. Sorry we were a bit late.’

‘Better than never.’ She kissed him. Stikes made a disgusted sound.

Eddie returned the kiss, then regarded the Group, recovering from the effects of the stun grenade. ‘So these are the rulers of the world? A bunch of old farts in suits? Pretty disappointing — I was hoping for at least one supervillain in a cape.’ He turned to Larry, who was also emerging from his befuddlement. ‘Dad? Dad! You all right?’

His father squinted at him in confusion. ‘Edward? What… what happened?’ He took in the two dead men. ‘Jesus Christ!’

‘It’s okay,’ Nina assured him. ‘We’re getting out of here. You’re safe.’

‘What about this lot?’ Eddie asked of the Group. ‘We’ve just pissed off the world’s most powerful people. That might cause one or two problems down the line.’

‘We’ll have to worry about that later. The main thing is that we’ve got Larry, and the statues.’

He gave the three figurines on the floor nearby a disapproving look. ‘In that case, we should smash the fucking things to bits right now.’ He raised his gun to shoot them — only to halt as one of the commandos took out a cell phone. ‘Hey! Who are you calling?’

‘Mr Glas,’ came the reply, as if it were self-evident. ‘Sir? Yes, it’s Vinther. We are successful. We have the statues, and we have the Group.’ He listened to the response. ‘Yes, sir. The hotel will be secured for your arrival.’ He disconnected.

‘What?’ Eddie demanded, the statues forgotten as he went to face Vinther. ‘Glas is here in Switzerland?’

‘Yes, he entered the country in secret. He is about to come up in the cable car.’

‘And why the fuck wasn’t I told about this?’

‘Mr Glas decided that you didn’t need to know.’

‘Oh, he did?’ said Eddie, bristling, but Vinther was already issuing instructions to the other men. Several left the room, spreading out into the hotel to mop up any of Stikes’s remaining mercenaries. ‘Well, that’s fucking nice.’