‘I know, I know,’ Zoe said with her crooked Irish smile. ‘I think you could say that I pulled a Jack West.’

Zoe explained.

As she’d fallen into the abyss with the massive inverted skyscraper and the pieces of the bridge falling all around her, she’d reached into her backpack and pulled from it the Maghook that she had brought into the Labyrinth and fired it at the wall. It found purchase and she’d swung over to the wall, slamming into it with such force that it took the wind out of her, but she managed to hang on.

It had then taken her a full two hours to scale the wall and reach the exit.

‘What about the stone exit door?’ Jack asked. ‘It closed after we went through it.’

‘I had two grenades on me so I gave them a shot. Planted them at the base of the door and blew them,’ Zoe said. ‘The door didn’t budge—didn’t get a scratch—but the stone floor beneath it cracked and a small hole was created, big enough that I was able to dig my way under the door. It wasn’t exactly elegant, but screw elegance, it did the job.

‘After that, Ningizzida showed me which of the six tunnels to take. Then I kept my eyes averted from the goldmen and took the left-hand fork—the sinister one—at every junction.’

Zoe smiled at Jack’s reaction. ‘You’re not the only one who can solve ancient riddles, you know.’

‘I’ve never doubted that. Not for one moment.’ Jack shook his head. ‘What about the city-maze around the Life Throne? It flooded shortly after I went down the well. I mean, the water chased me.’

Zoe nodded. ‘That whole place is probably fully flooded by now. I arrived there shortly after the seawater rose up over the base of that castle in the middle. Found Lily, Easton and a very sorry-looking Smiley huddled beside a crashed Russian rescue chopper near the exit from the Endless Tunnel. Alby had just joined them, but I’ll let him tell you his story in a moment.

‘Lily and Easton told me everything that happened. Most importantly, Easton told me where he last saw you: running into the base of the castle just before it flooded over.

‘So I grabbed some scuba gear for all of us from the crashed Russian rescue chopper and we went diving . . . swimming through the flooded city and down into the well at the bottom of the castle. Swam all the way up this tunnel until we reached dry ground. And we’ve been hiking up through it ever since. Got here just in time to see you sitting on your ass with those two monks standing over you.’