‘The offspring of angels and human women. They were supposedly cast out by God and imprisoned beneath the earth for all eternity. But why do you think this,’ Nina pointed at the towering figure inside the coffin, ‘is one of them?’

‘Because that’s what they called themselves, according to the Chinese.’

‘But the entire myth of the Nephilim originated from the Middle East, not China.’

‘You found them in an iceberg that came from Antarctica,’ the older woman pointed out. ‘It seems they got around. According to my contact, the Chinese took the name directly from the records they translated. And I don’t mean a transliteration from an ancient text. They had some kind of audio recording.’

‘I’ve seen them before,’ Nina said, remembering a Veteres artefact. ‘Clay cylinders inscribed by a needle as they rotate, like a kind of primitive gramophone.’ She approached the sarcophagus. It stood at a steep angle so its occupant was resting almost vertically. ‘They actually used the name Nephilim?’

‘Everything else my man has given me panned out. I have no reason to believe he’s lying about this.’

She stared up at the indistinct form behind the crystalline cover. ‘And you think – they think – this guy is still alive?’

‘They do, yes. They’ve spent decades, and a lot of money, trying to rebuild what they found. Not just these coffins either; they found other artefacts as well. But none of them work; they were all broken. Even if they’d been intact, though, the Chinese wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. They need a key – which they don’t have – and a priestess. Which ditto.’

Nina raised an eyebrow. ‘They need a priestess to make their technology work? Just so you know, I haven’t been ordained.’

Eleanor smiled thinly. ‘I doubt it’s the title that matters. It’s the DNA. It seems Nephilim men could use some of the items the Chinese found, but all the important matters were jobs for the ladies.’

‘Plus ça change . . .’ Nina walked around the sarcophagus. The section of broken pipe under its base had been connected to a hose running to a long rack of large metal cylinders. The skull-and-crossbones symbol signifying poison gas was prominently displayed upon them. ‘When you had the gas manufactured, you brought it here?’

‘Ready for use. I was hoping to recover at least a dozen stasis chambers; that’s why the room’s so big. But if one is all I could get, then one will have to do.’

Nina gave Miller a look of sardonic pity. ‘I guess you get to experience the apocalypse first-hand while Momma sleeps through it.’ His flash of tight-lipped bitterness told her it was not the first time he had thought about it.

A soft buzz sounded. ‘Excuse me, please,’ said Broates, answering a cell phone. ‘Yes? I see, excellent. I’ll tell her at once.’

‘What is it?’ Eleanor demanded.