huffing like the breath of some giant animal. “It’s the train!” Past the bridge, glowing embers from the steam locomotive’s funnel swirled in the air as it headed back down the valley. “Eddie, the track goes right along the bottom of the grounds—if we can make it stop, we can get aboard.”
He was already judging distances and speeds: of the train, himself and Nina … and the two groups of mercenaries closing on them. “There won’t be time for it to stop.”
“Then how are we going to get on it?”
“Jump!”
“Jump?”
“What, you’ve never train-surfed before?”
“No, because it’s insane!”
“You never want to try anything new. Come on, hoof it!” They reached the fence and climbed over it.
The men coming from the gate had obviously been in radio contact with their comrades higher up; the dots of torchlight were all now heading along the bottom of the grounds. The group following Nina and Eddie’s trail were less than a hundred yards behind—and closing the gap.
The train was rapidly approaching, the clanking of the locomotive’s running gear growing louder. Another jab of pain stabbed through Eddie’s ankle, but he forced himself to run faster as the train came into view, traveling through a shallow cutting below. The carriage roofs were a couple of feet higher than the upper side. “There!” he shouted, pointing at a slight rise on the cutting’s edge. “Get ready to jump!” He grabbed Nina’s hand.
The locomotive surged past, belching steam and hot, sooty smoke. “Oh God!” Nina cried as they ran the last few yards. “We’re gonna diiiie—”
They leapt, clearing the gap—and landing hard on a metal roof. Nina staggered, but kept her footing—just. It was Eddie who stumbled, one foot slipping out from under him. He skidded across the roof, legs flailing over the side …
Nina still had hold of his hand. She gripped it with all her strength and wedged a heel against a domed ventilator cover. The jolt as she caught his weight felt as though her arm was tearing from its socket, but she fought through the pain and held on. Eddie dangled before managing to catch the carriage’s rain gutter with his boot’s ice-shredded toe. He forced himself back onto the roof.
Nina dropped on her butt with a bang. “Jesus!” she gasped, releasing his hand. “I thought you were going over!”
“So did I,” Eddie admitted, gasping for breath—and then coughing as a dirty cloud rolled over them. “Bloody hell! Let’s get off here before we end up smoked like fucking hams.”
He crawled along the roof, Nina behind him, and looked down. Like the locomotive, the carriages were vintage, with open platforms at each end. Eddie lowered Nina down, then thumped onto the platform himself.
A door led inside. They went through—to find the tourists taking the last train of the day staring at them in astonishment. Their touchdown on the roof had been far from quiet.
“What?” said Nina, deciding that nonchalance was as good a response as any. “I’ve got a ticket.” She fished inside her clothing to produce it; it was indeed a return fare.
“I don’t,” Eddie complained.
She flopped down in a seat and smiled. “Well, if the conductor comes along, you’ll just have to hide in the john.”
“They did what?” Stikes barked into his phone.
“Let me guess,” said Sophia with a resigned sigh. “They got away from your men.”
He shot her an irritated look. “They jumped on the train.” Leaning forward, he addressed the driver of the Range Rover in which he, Sophia, Warden, and Larry were traveling. “Can we get to the next station before them?”
“Not on this road, sir,” came the apologetic reply. “The train goes through a tunnel, but the road goes the long way around.”
Stikes sat back, fuming. “Oh, that’s too bad,” said Larry mockingly.
“We still have Chase’s father,” Warden said from the front seat, regarding the man in question with disapproval. “Chase and Dr. Wilde came here to rescue him—they’ll do the same again.”
“Only if we can contact them to issue an ultimatum, and I doubt they’ll be going back to the IHA to wait for one,” Sophia told him. “They’ll try to find the meteorite.”
“So they can destroy it,” Stikes added.
“But we have the statues,” said Warden. “She can’t locate it without them.”
“And we can’t locate it without her,” Stikes pointed out. “We only know it’s somewhere in Ethiopia. And Wilde probably got a much better idea where from this … vision.”
Warden nodded. “So what do we do?”
Stikes straightened in his seat. “The first thing I need,” he