‘But the artefact will prove my theory!’ He indicated the symbols upon it. ‘This language is completely unknown. It’s valuable for that alone, but if it really did come from an ancient race, it could lead me to them!’

‘Or you might be risking your own neck for nothing. Remember my first rule?’

‘You took greater risks to find Atlantis.’

‘Yeah, and as I said, a lot of them were mistakes.’

‘But you still found Atlantis. Would you give that up?’

‘What’s done is done,’ Nina told him. ‘But now I want to keep other people from making the same mistakes. Or bigger ones.’

Cheng sat silently for a moment. ‘I’m sorry, Professor Wilde, but . . . I really have to do this,’ he said finally. ‘I’d hoped you might even come with me, but I guess I’ll have to go on my own.’ He closed the laptop.

Exasperated, Nina shook her head. ‘I can’t stop you – but I can seriously advise against it.’

‘If I don’t go, the artefact will probably disappear into someone’s private collection, or be melted down for the gold. The seller told me others are interested.’

‘He’s only saying that so he can jack up the price.’

‘The price hasn’t changed. I can fly to Germany to see him this weekend.’ He gave her a pleading look. ‘If the artefact is shown by testing to be older than Atlantis, would you be willing to hear my theory?’

‘Mr Hui, if you make it to my class on Monday, I’ll be willing to hear your theory,’ she said. ‘I think going to Hamburg alone, with fifty thousand euros in cash, to meet a criminal you contacted on the dark web is a spectacularly bad idea. Please, don’t do it.’

‘I’ll be fine,’ he insisted as he stood. ‘Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I’m naïve.’ He smiled. ‘I’ll see you on Monday. And I’ll have the artefact.’ He took out a folded piece of paper and put it on her desk. ‘The dark web address and password for the site where I found it. If you look, I hope you’ll be convinced it’s worth obtaining. Thank you for your time, Professor.’

He left. Nina blew out a frustrated breath. It was Wednesday now; knowing he was conscientious about attending lectures, she imagined Cheng would probably fly out on Friday night, arriving in Hamburg on Saturday . . . and then who knew what might happen? His protestations aside, everything about the chubby young Chinese screamed innocent abroad. Some criminal in a notorious port town was doubtless already licking his lips at the prospect of an extremely easy fifty thousand euros – at the very least.