Mick thrashes wildly, his madness like a raging tsunami. ‘My mind … a safe haven. My mind … protects me … a cave. Oh, God, let me die! I want to die! Let me die, let me die—’

The moon-shaped vessel appears in the view screen, an immense eighteen-mile-long, twelve-mile-wide iridium transport ship, its hull pockmarked by indentations and one very massive crater-sized dent.

‘Abomination! Abomination! I will focus on the cave walls and not the exit and the Abomination cannot harm me!’

‘Mick, stop, it’s me! It’s Dominique!’

A tractor beam grabs hold of the pod, guiding it inside a landing bay.

The craft stops with a jolt. The pod’s hatch pops open, revealing the three Guardian elders.

Mick is screaming, tearing at his harness.

The female Guardian reaches inside the pod and touches her palm to his forehead. ‘Sleep.’

Mick’s eyes roll upward, and he passes out.

The younger male grabs his wrist, effortlessly lifting him out of the ship, hoisting his inert body over his shoulder as if carrying a small child.

The female reaches inside the pod to assist Dominique.

She pushes the female’s hand away. ‘You lied to us. Why didn’t you tell us this was Earth? Why didn’t you tell us the Nephilim were dead?’

The female offers her a motherly look … as she touches her forehead.

Dominique blacks out.

An azure lagoon, surrounded by a lush tropical jungle. A cool breeze stirs the palm fronds.

Dominique climbs onto the foam cushion, lies back, and floats.

‘Dominique? Dominique, dear, it’s time to wake up.’

She opens her eyes, staring into the female’s face. ‘Where—’

‘Safe. On the transport.’

Dominique sits up, feeling light-headed. The female Guardian helps her off a free-floating medical table, then points to a solid wall.

A viewport projects upon the metallic surface. The image reveals they are traveling in outer space, the silvery red world growing smaller in the distance.

Jake …

Dominique turns to the female. ‘Jacob is dead. Why did he have to die? To save a bunch of evil people?’

‘The Nephilim were not evil, my dear, they were lost lambs, led astray. It was God’s will that they be saved. Jacob’s sacrifice

saved his own soul and theirs.’

‘And Devlin?’

‘That, I cannot say.’

Dominique rubs her eyes, thinking about everything. ‘So what happens now?’

‘The Earth we knew is long gone. By returning through the wormhole and into the past, we may yet be able to prevent the holocaust that destroys human civilization.’

The female’s attention turns inward as she listens to an incoming telepathic message. ‘Come. Michael needs you.’

Dominique follows her through a short corridor into the main compartment of the transhumans’ transport ship. She looks around, incredulous.

There are close to a million of them—eight-foot-high cryogenic pods, set in countless rows on multiple levels throughout the eighteen-mile-long vessel.

Dominique peers inside the frosted glass at the gangly being inside. ‘The posthumans?’