‘Our world will be better for it,’ Marren said. ‘Human beings are sheep, easily led. They like more than anything to know their place. They will know it precisely when they wake up after the Omega Event.’

Pooh Bear said, ‘Why were you going to Washington, D.C.? Why not stay in Europe, in Salzburg?’

‘When we perform the transition, we will do it from the White House,’ Marren said. ‘It is the closest thing to the seat of world power. When Sphinx emerges from the Labyrinth, he will make his announcement of this new world order from the White House, surrounded by the bells and his new royal governors.’

Pooh swapped a look with Stretch as they both digested the full extent of Sphinx’s plan: a wholesale takeover and reordering of the world.

Stretch jerked his chin at Marren’s suitcase. ‘The master lists of all the royal families and military people loyal to the royal world: they’re in that?’

‘Yes.’

‘We’d like to see those lists, please. When we defeat you, we’re going to need to know the names of everyone who was part of your giant take-over-the-world plan.’

Marren nodded sagely. ‘Go fuck yourselves.’

‘We have people who can crack the security codes protecting that case. We’ll get those lists, one way or another.’

‘You haven’t been listening to me,’ Sir John Marren said. ‘You cannot win this. Look at you, a ragtag bunch of misfits, led by an idealistic fool who is probably already dead inside that maze. You are fighting against a royal organisation that has been preparing for this time for centuries. Things are in motion and they cannot stop now. Bells are ringing, whole populations are falling asleep, the heavens are shifting, the very universe itself is about to realign. No. You won’t get anything from me. The only thing that will happen, as I said, is that you will all die begging for your lives and screaming in agony.’

They drove on and he would say no more.

Red Sea Coast, Egypt

26–28 December

It had taken the two big-bearded pilots, Sky Monster and Rufus, a whole day and a half to ride their motorcycle-and-sidecar across the mountainous landscape of the Sinai to the edge of the Red Sea.

They stopped twice to grab some sleep under the star-filled sky.

This was all rather new to the two airmen.

For one thing, they were not used to staging rescue missions without their more outwardly heroic partners, Jack West and Aloysius Knight.

For another, they just weren’t used to doing it on the ground. Both men felt like fish out of water or sailors trying to adjust to their land legs after many months at sea.

Deep into the second night of their travels, they crested a rocky hill on their motorbike and beheld the Red Sea.

Sky Monster hit the brakes.

‘Goddamn . . .’ Rufus breathed.