After a time, the C-5 Super Galaxies took off and flew away to the west, leaving the dusty plain in front of the five gates to the Labyrinth empty.

Nothing moved.

All that remained on the barren desert plain were the vestiges of the enormous battle that had been fought here.

The remains of the V-88 lay smouldering on the low hill while the crumpled fuselage of Sphinx’s equally large quadcopter had crashed in front of another gate.

The Super Galaxy that Sky Monster had flown in as cover for Jack’s Hercules rested nose-down in the sand, unmoving and veiled in dust.

Closer to the Labyrinth, Jack’s Hercules lay amid a heap of bronzemen, many of them tangled in its landing gear. His crashed troop truck was similarly enmeshed in twisted automatons.

Some of the bronzemen moved, waving their arms, but they were hopelessly pinned beneath the heavy vehicles.

The final element of Jack’s Russian Doll plan—a vehicle within a vehicle within a vehicle—was parked outside the left-most gate of the Labyrinth beside an overturned jeep: his motorcycle-with-sidecar—

Movement.

Rufus sprang back.

A figure was stepping tentatively out of the broken Super Galaxy.

It was a man, a bearded man, staring in mute shock at the carnage all around him.

‘Sky Monster . . .’ Rufus gasped to himself.

Rufus broke cover and ran out onto the empty battlefield, calling out to his fellow pilot.

Sky Monster heard him and when he saw Rufus running up, he smiled.

They clasped hands and Rufus said, ‘Jack got inside the maze, but the Golden Knights just took Aloysius and Alby. I heard their leader say they were taking them to the Red Horizon Star-4, which is apparently near some surface point to the Labyrinth.’

Sky Monster frowned.

‘Zoe mentioned something like that once. It was in a note she found in the Pope’s study at the Vatican: the fourth red horizon star. But none of us know what it refers to.’

‘Oh, I know what it is,’ Rufus said.

‘You do? What?’

‘The Horizon Stars are a fleet of oil rigs owned by the Horizon Oil Company out of Russia,’ Rufus said. ‘Aloysius and I did some protective work for Horizon a few years back. Defended a couple of their rigs off the African coast from pirates. The rigs that the company designate as “red” are the ones that drill in the Red Sea. Red Horizon Star-4 is the company’s fourth rig in the Red Sea.’

Sky Monster blanched. ‘That’s some seriously helpful knowledge you got there, Rufus. You can hang with us anytime.’

As he said this, Sky Monster turned and watched their rivals’ Super Galaxy planes become tiny dots in the sky heading west . . . in the direction of the Red Sea.