He didn’t even have time to see who it was. All he could do was force his legs into motion as he was hauled up. The pillar smashed into the earth behind him like a piledriver. He stumbled with his rescuer across the grass.

The hail of debris died away. Pained, exhausted, he flopped to the ground, looking up to see—

‘Ay up,’ said a familiar voice. Nina knelt over him, looking down with a relieved smile.

‘Ay up,’ he echoed wearily. ‘Fancy meeting you here.’

‘I wouldn’t recommend the airline, but I’m glad I made it. Where’s Macy?’

His daughter’s name gave him the energy to sit up. ‘With Cheng. I’m hoping they’re well clear of all this.’

‘We need to find her.’

‘I know.’ She helped him stand. ‘How’d you get out of the fortress?’

‘Long story, involving way too much falling from great heights and being shot at. I took the key – but they got it back.’

‘Don’t think they’ll be doing much with it, though.’

‘Why not?’

They moved clear of the drifting dust – and Nina was startled to see the fortress swaying drunkenly as it fought to stay airborne. It was fighting a losing battle, dropping slowly but inexorably back to earth. ‘Turns out it had a glowing weak spot like something from a PlayStation game,’ Eddie told her. ‘So I blew it up with a rocket launcher. Job done.’

She grinned, but only briefly. ‘They can still wake the rest of their people with the key – and they’ve got the Chinese earth energy weapon as well.’

Eddie frowned. ‘What weapon?’

‘That so-called tracker of theirs? It’s more like a targeting system! Like the weapon DARPA built, but even more powerful. That must be how they blew up the skyscrapers.’ She regarded the ruined towers. ‘Gadreel made me wake his wife, Sidona – she’s some sort of high priestess, and can control earth energy.’

‘So can you.’

‘She’s better. A lot better. Colonel Wu said the tracker can use qi energy to blow up a target anywhere on the planet – and now the Nephilim have it. They’ve used it.’

‘If their UFO’s fucked, they won’t be able to escape with it,’ said Eddie – but then all concerns about the giants vanished as he saw two figures enter the park. ‘Macy!’

‘Oh, thank God!’ Nina cried, breaking into a run. Eddie followed at his best stagger. ‘She’s all right!’

‘Mom!’ Macy cried, leaving Cheng behind as she rushed to meet her parents. ‘Dad! Are you okay?’

‘We’re fine,’ Nina assured her, embracing her tightly. Eddie caught up to join in the reunion. ‘What about you? Are you hurt?’

Macy shook her head. ‘I got some bruises when the skyscraper fell over, but I’ll be fine.’

Nina blinked. ‘You were in the skyscraper?’ She rounded on Eddie. ‘You took my daughter inside a collapsing skyscraper?’