‘Do you think I’d go to all this trouble for a joke?’ Eleanor replied. ‘During their nuclear testing, the Chinese discovered a fortress hidden in the Gobi Desert. It was smashed, all the sarcophagi damaged and the people inside them dead, but they also found and translated the records buried with them. They were very clear.’

Despite herself, Nina couldn’t help but be intrigued. ‘What did they say?’

‘The sarcophagi are filled with a gas that suspends cellular functions – and they also use qi, earth energy, to somehow put the whole body into a state of indefinite stasis. My man in China sent me as many technical details as he could, including the gas’s chemical formula; I’ve already had large quantities manufactured. But recreating the sarcophagus has been harder. It requires some kind of crystals that even the Chinese haven’t been able to find or duplicate. All the ones they have are broken, useless.’

‘So you thought it’d be easier to steal a sarcophagus instead.’

‘I wanted more than one.’ She gave Harhund a critical stare.

‘We were only able to get one before the iceberg broke up,’ the mercenary told her, unfazed.

Eleanor huffed. ‘Excuses, excuses. I’ve had enough of them.’ Her glower turned upon her son. ‘Especially from you, Donny. But I suppose I should be glad I have even one sarcophagus, after you almost wrecked the entire plan before it started.’

‘I did what I thought you wanted, Mother!’ Miller protested. ‘If you’d told me more—’

‘I told you as much as you needed to know!’ she snapped, making him flinch. ‘If I’d wanted you to send people to get the key in Germany, I would have told you to.’

‘You didn’t know what he was doing?’ asked Nina.

Eleanor shook her head, still glaring at her contrite son. ‘I wanted you to get the key, Professor Wilde, so you would follow the trail to the Dutchman in the madhouse, then hopefully get enough out of him to find the iceberg. That way, I would have the key, the sarcophagi and you, all in one go. But my idiot boy almost ruined everything by trying to steal it in Hamburg!’

The redhead let out a dismayed sigh. ‘So the whole thing was a set-up? Oh, man! Eddie keeps warning me, and I keep stepping right into them!’

‘Like I always say, there’s book smarts, and there’s common sense,’ said Eleanor with mocking amusement. ‘Just because you have one doesn’t mean you have the other. Donny’s living proof of that.’ To Miller’s relief, her gaze finally went back to Nina. ‘But I got all three eventually.’

‘You haven’t got the key yet,’ she reminded her.

‘I will soon.’ She turned the wheelchair and headed for the door. ‘I want to be ready when your husband arrives. Broates, show her down to the bunker.’