Sophia objected. The meteorite was nearly close enough to the ledge to allow a person to jump across. More flashes bridged the gap, stonework splintering where they landed.
‘No, leave it!’ He pointed his gun straight at Eddie’s heart. ‘Dr Wilde, put it down and step away now, or I’ll kill them both!’
Nina closed her eyes . . .
And willed the entire power of the earth to flow into the meteorite.
Another flash, brighter than any before—
She was abruptly thrown backwards as if shoved by a giant hand, grit and dust peppering her skin as a shockwave of energy erupted from the glowing rock. The statuettes flew from her hands, tumbling weightlessly through the air.
An unimaginably deep rumble shook the ledge – shook the entire volcano. More statues toppled from the temple to smash on the rocky floor. Igneous shards rained down from the wall of the shaft as the tremor pummelled them loose.
The quake had knocked everyone down. Pre-warned, Eddie was first to recover. He spotted Nina near Sophia and was about to shout for her to get the other woman’s gun when the sight of the meteorite froze him in momentary shock.
The massive rock was no longer simply hanging in the air. Glowing so brightly it almost hurt to watch, it was rising with increasing speed up the shaft. It was what had happened in Atlantis thousands of years before, he realised: the sky stone had been overloaded with earth energy, and when it blew it would be thrown skywards . . .
To land somewhere else. Where the next set of arseholes with ideas for world domination could find it.
Unless—
He jumped up and ran – not towards Nina, but for the remote.
Stikes sat up – and found one of his prisoners had gone. He whirled, seeing Eddie running across the ledge, and grabbed the Jericho from the ground beside him. Teeth bared in an expectant snarl, he brought the gun round.
Eddie saw the detonator amongst the scattered debris. He dived headlong at it as Stikes’s first shot whipped past. Ignoring the pain of the landing, he twisted the dial to the ‘Full’ position.
Stikes rose, adjusting his aim. His prone target had nowhere left to go . . .
Eddie flicked up the protective cover – and jammed his thumb down on the red button beneath.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened—
Then the meteorite blew apart.
35
The three explosive charges Eddie had placed in the sky stone shattered the great rock’s heart, sending countless pieces flying in all directions. They were still aglow, held in the air by the earth’s invisible lines of force . . . but the smallest fragments almost immediately lost their charge and fell like hail. Most dropped down the volcanic shaft, heading for immolation in the searing magma chamber below, but some hit the ledge – and the people on it.
Eddie yelped as a stone bounced off his head, and looked up to see where it had come from. ‘Oh, bollocks,’ he gasped.
A swirling cloud of glowing rocks hung above him, ranging in size from golf balls to trucks. More energy bolts spat from them, stabbing at the rocky walls of the shaft. But the unearthly lights were rapidly going out, darkness spreading as increasingly larger chunks of debris exhausted their residual energy – and were reclaimed by gravity.
A piece of meteorite the size of a tennis ball smacked down beside him. Another, slightly larger, landed nearby a moment later.
A hard rain was going to fall.
There was danger below as well as above. The ground trembled, a low thunder rising from the base of the shaft as something huge slowly stirred from its long slumber.
The lava lake was boiling with the sudden release of earth energy. The volcano was erupting. Just as Nantalas had triggered a natural disaster in Atlantis, so Nina had here.
‘Nina! Dad!’ he shouted as he stood. ‘Get into cover!’ He started to run for the temple—
Stikes recovered from his shock, raising his gun.
Eddie dived behind the statue of Poseidon as he fired. ‘Get up!’ Stikes yelled to his men as more rubble fell around them, some pieces as big as footballs.
Nina had heard Eddie’s shout and struggled upright, briefly mesmerised by the sight of the asteroid field hanging overhead. She snapped out of it at a cry of pain from nearby. Larry lay on the ground, one hand to his head where a falling stone had struck him.
Another, much larger lump of rock was directly above him, the shimmering glow across its surface fading . .