the blood loss from the wound. Larry’s face was ashen with fear, but he still summoned up some reserve of defiance. ‘Nina, you shouldn’t . . .’
‘It’s your choice, Nina,’ said Stikes. ‘Don’t keep everyone waiting.’
‘You son of a bitch,’ she hissed. Until Eddie arrived, she had no choice but to obey. Slowly, her disgust and reluctance almost tangible, she opened the case and took out the first statue.
The effect of her touch upon the stone figurine was immediate, the strange glow bright even beneath the glaring spotlights on the roof beams. ‘And the others,’ prompted Warden, fascinated by the display. ‘Put them together.’
Nina linked the second figure with the first. The glow intensified. Supporting the paired statues in one hand, she picked up the last member of the triptych, the bifurcated figurine now held crudely together with adhesive tape. It made no difference to the effect, the purple stone coming alive with the shimmering blue glow. Just as in Japan, she felt a weird electrical tingling through her hands.
Everyone watching held their breath, even Larry and his captor. The statues shone, the tingle intensifying as she brought the figures closer together. There was another feeling, too – as much as she wanted to prevent the Group from finding the meteorite, her innate curiosity was becoming ravenous, urging her to take the next step and discover the secret of the stone to sate it. She had felt the effect before, in Tokyo; there, she had been caught unawares and snapped back to reality by shock. But now she knew what to expect. She could recreate the experience, and this time be in control . . .
‘Put them together!’ Warden ordered – but before he could finish speaking she had already done so.
Even prepared for what would happen, Nina was almost overcome by the rush of sensation. Again, there was the feeling of acquiring a new sense that extended far beyond the limits of her body, inescapably linking her to life in 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