and collapsed with an anguished screech.
He raised a shaking hand, signalling to the mercenaries standing impassively nearby. ‘What are you doing?’ he gasped. ‘Kill her – kill her! Help me!’
Stikes joined Sophia, his self-satisfied smile oozing wider. ‘I’m afraid they’re all loyal to me, not to you.’
‘But they are still loyal to the Group,’ Sophia added. ‘The new Group, that is.’ She took Stikes’s hand.
‘Thank you for giving me full access to all the Group’s resources, by the way,’ Stikes added. ‘Don’t worry – we’ll put them to good use.’
In his desperation, Warden looked to the prisoners for assistance. ‘Do something! Please!’
All Nina could do was shrug helplessly. ‘What can I say? I told you not to trust them.’
Eddie nodded. ‘Saw that coming a mile off.’
Sophia brought the gun back down at Warden. ‘No, please!’ he begged. ‘I—’
A single shot hit him in the forehead, blowing out the back of his skull in a gruesome bloom across the stone. Nauseated, Nina looked away. Larry retched, struggling to hold in a mouthful of vomit.
‘Well then,’ said Stikes amiably, ‘now that’s all dealt with, there’s only one thing left to do.’ He raised his gun and pointed it at Eddie.
‘Just a minute, darling,’ said Sophia. ‘We agreed in Switzerland that I get to kill Eddie, remember? And secondly, business before pleasure – we still need Nina to move the meteorite so we can get out of here.’
Stikes glowered at Eddie, but reluctantly lowered the Jericho. ‘All right.’ He turned to the mercenaries. ‘Watch Chase and his father. Dr Wilde, if you’d be so kind?’
Nina returned to the meteorite. The huge stone began to hum once more as she brought the glowing statues closer, the very air around it tingling. She looked round at her audience: the guards mystified, Sophia and Stikes as avaricious as the late members of the Group had been, Larry still shocked by what he had just witnessed . . .
And her husband giving her an unspoken signal.
Ready.
An almost imperceptible nod, then she turned back to the hulking stone. Slowly, carefully, she brought all three statues together once more.
The expansion of her consciousness was this time almost familiar, even comforting. She belonged here; the power was a part of her. It always had been, simply waiting for the moment when it would be unlocked. She could feel the flow of the earth’s energy around her, an unimaginable torrent constantly circulating beyond the limits of the five human senses.
But now she could experience it. And channel it.
Control was out of the question: it would take too much time and effort even to begin to direct the power according to her specific wishes. But right now, she didn’t need control. If anything, she was trying to achieve the opposite. She allowed more energy to flood through the meteorite, willing it to take in more power.
And more. And more.
The great stone rocked and groaned again as the shimmering light ran over its surface. It slowly rose, more small fragments breaking loose and lazily spinning through the air until the charge they held faded and they dropped. ‘Good,’ said Sophia, wide-eyed. ‘Good! Now move it to the temple.’
Nina obeyed, still directing ever more earth energy into the rock as she held the statues against it. Its glow brightened, shadows of ancient gods shifting across the wall as she brought it closer to the Atlantean structure. Sophia followed, Stikes gesturing for the mercenaries to bring their prisoners after her. The Englishwoman surveyed the damaged tiers. ‘To the left,’ she ordered, pointing at a particular section. ‘Put it down with the tip next to the edge of that ledge. We’ll be able to reach the stairs from—’
She broke off, flinching as a lightning bolt flashed from the meteorite to strike the temple several storeys above. A statue exploded, shattered fragments showering the people below. ‘What’s happening?’ Stikes demanded.
‘I don’t know!’ Nina replied, only partly lying. She was still channelling more energy into the stone, but had no control over how it would manifest itself.
Sparks crackled from the floating rock, another, stronger bolt lancing up the volcanic shaft and out into the empty sky above. Eddie felt a static-like charge rising around him, the hairs on the backs of his hands standing on end. Larry gave his son a worried glance. ‘Hang on,’ Eddie muttered to him.
‘What was that?’ snapped Stikes. He looked between the two Chases, realisation growing that some conspiracy was afoot. ‘Stop!’ he shouted at Nina. ‘Put the thing down!’
‘It’s almost in place,’