Its columns had been blown apart, causing the roof to crash down on some kind of ceremonial obelisk that had been inside it. Landing on the obelisk had both cracked the roof in half and crushed most of the obelisk.

Blood was everywhere.

Grisly chunks of raw human flesh covered the debris. Whether it was Jack’s or the commandos’ or from all three of them didn’t seem to matter.

Sobbing and hyperventilating, Lily slid to her knees and started digging into the pile, hurling the shattered pieces of the cupola away, searching for her father.

But there was no sign of Jack.

Nothing at all.

The only remnant of his presence was his fire helmet lying askew on the ground a short way along the next bridge.

Her fingers smeared with dust and blood, Lily desperately snatched rocks and stone chunks from the pile and threw them clear.

Beside her, Alby could see the truth of the situation. It was beyond hopeless.

The look on Zoe’s pale, shocked face said that she knew it, too.

Alby touched Lily’s shoulder gently.

‘Lily. Stop. It’s no use. He’s . . . gone.’

On her knees, amid the charred and still-burning ruins, in the last place she had seen her beloved father alive, Lily dropped her head against her chest and began sobbing uncontrollably.

Alby could only hold her.

Zoe just stared at the scene, speechless.

And then the gunfire started.

A fusillade of bullets sparked off the rocky chunks all around them.

Zoe spun and saw the source of the gunfire.

It had come from behind them, from . . .

. . . Sphinx and Mendoza. The two men were standing at the entry archway, two hundred metres away, firing assault rifles.

Zoe hauled Lily off the ground. ‘We gotta keep this mission alive! Even if we have to do it without Jack! Move!’

Zoe dragged the despondent Lily down the next two bridges with Alby bringing up the rear.

They had no guns anymore, so all they could do was run.

They reached the base of the black tower in the centre of the superhigh cavern—just as Sphinx and Mendoza hastened across the soaring bridge.

Sphinx and Mendoza hurried through the crumpled ruins of the first cupola, ignoring the large amounts of blood and gore on its shattered pieces.

Then suddenly Sphinx stopped.

And bent down.

And picked up something from the ground.

It was Jack’s fire helmet, covered with blood.

Some liquid fire had landed on it and the left edge of its brim was, even now, sizzling and melting, the hard black fibreglass bubbling.

The utility box on its right side near the flashlight had come open and, sticking out from it, Sphinx saw a note.

Curious, he opened it.

Dear Everyone,

Well, I guess that’s it. I’m gone.

God, so much has happened over the last twenty years, I don’t know where to start.