‘Yeah, I thought some things didn’t seem right,’ said Nina. ‘Like when you said the fortress was “placed” on an earth energy confluence; I could tell you thought that wasn’t the right word.’

‘Come on,’ said Hui, looking at her watch. ‘We have to go.’

They set off again. Zan, suddenly sweating, put one hand in his pocket, something small clutched tightly in his palm.

Chapter 27

27

Two military helicopters waited outside the bunker’s entrance, transport aircraft that nevertheless had guns mounted on each side. A troop of soldiers stood before one, a smaller group with a large case that Nina guessed contained the qi tracker at the other. All were armed.

‘Going in heavy for an archaeological expedition, aren’t you?’ she said, ostensibly to Hui but deliberately loudly enough for both Colonel and Major Wu to hear.

‘This is a matter of national security,’ the younger Wu snapped. ‘The area will be sealed off and any civilians removed. For their own safety,’ she added, almost as an afterthought.

‘Uh huh.’ Nina, Hui and Zan stopped at the helicopter. ‘So where’s Gadreel?’

Colonel Wu looked back. Nina turned to see three more soldiers escorting the Nephilim into daylight. Gadreel was now shrouded in a camo-patterned tarpaulin hastily repurposed into a cloak, sandals on his feet. ‘Nice camouflage. I almost didn’t see the ten-foot-tall man.’

‘It will be windy in the mountains,’ Hui told her. ‘We did not want him to die of exposure – and,’ a small smile, ‘we did not have any coats in his size.’ Nina half smiled too. ‘There was something else inside the sarcophagus as well as his clothing,’ the scientist went on, serious again. ‘A trikan. Like the Atlantean weapons, but larger.’

‘Yeah, we found one in the ice fortress.’ Nina watched the approaching Nephilim survey his surroundings. Some of the soldiers, having not seen the giant before, looked on with wonderment, uncertainty and even fear. ‘He took the clothes, but left his weapon?’

‘He knows we outgun him,’ said Major Wu.

Hui had her own view. ‘Perhaps he trusts us and does not think he needs it?’

‘Or he’s got something better,’ said Nina, more cynical.

‘He has been searched,’ Wu informed her. ‘He is not a threat.’

The American reserved her judgement on that. Now that he was out of confinement, Gadreel’s confidence had grown to match his stature, looking down on everyone else literally and figuratively. He spoke to Zan, who replied in the Nephilim language before translating for the other Chinese.

‘He told him that we are taking him in a flying machine to find the fortress,’ Hui said for Nina’s benefit.

‘He doesn’t seem impressed,’ the redhead replied.