Maybe it was a UFO. Something as big as a truck, part buried in the sand a hundred metres ahead. It was the odd light’s source, but it wasn’t coming from any bulbs; rather, the whole thing seemed to be faintly aglow. Silhouetted figures moved around it.

Rosie felt a chill as she realised they were not human.

They were giants, three metres tall, some even bigger. Too many to count in the darkness, but at least twenty.

And they knew she was there, heads turning towards her torch. She froze. What the hell was she going to do?

Her job, she decided, overcoming her shock. Whoever – whatever – they were, they were visitors to her land, and as both a park ranger and a representative of the local Anangu peoples, she ought to greet them. She started down the slope. ‘G’day!’ she called out, cringing inwardly – the first word said to a bunch of space aliens, and it couldn’t have been any more stereotypically Australian! ‘My name’s Rosie, and, ah . . . I’d like to welcome you to Uluru.’

One of the towering figures strode towards her. He wore robes, and was carrying some kind of golden staff. The leader? She raised her light to see his face. The pale being flinched, narrowing his wide, slanted eyes. Another shiver ran through her at the sight of his features. Tribal stories she had been told as a child came back to her, ancient legends of gods who shaped the world before people ever walked it. Something about the giant felt almost familiar . . .

She dipped her torch so as not to dazzle him, then waited for his response—

The staff whipped down – and Rosie exploded into a bloody haze.

Zan Zhi, straining to carry the tracker from the grounded craft, gasped. ‘What— My lord!’ he cried, aghast. ‘You did not need to kill her, she was greeting you!’

The spear swung towards him. ‘Do not tell me what to do,’ Gadreel growled. ‘Until we wake the rest of our people, all humans are a threat. We have to find Tartarus before they know we are here.’ He kicked sand over the dead woman’s torch and stared at the landscape beyond. The great rock of Uluru was a black, whale-like shape rising into the starry sky. ‘It is definitely here?’

Sidona came up behind him. ‘I have felt it. It is here. And so are our people.’

‘Then I will lead the way.’ He called out, and one by one, the Nephilim trailed after him across the sands. Zan followed with the tracker, rounding the burst of gore with an expression of trapped horror.

By the time the Longitude landed at Ayers Rock airport north of Yulara, the sun was well into the sky.