Said occupants were nowhere in sight – but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. ‘We need to land right now and get out,’ Eddie said with commanding urgency. ‘Then take the chopper well clear.’

Sandra turned in alarm. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘The people we warned you about are definitely here,’ said Nina. ‘They blew up that truck – and they might blow up this helicopter.’

‘You what?’ squawked the pilot.

‘Just get us down, fast,’ Eddie ordered.

Dougie reluctantly landed on level ground a hundred metres from the wrecked truck, keeping the rotors just below take-off revolutions as his passengers hurriedly disembarked. As soon as they were clear, he took off again in a blinding flurry of dust. ‘Jesus!’ Nina coughed. ‘He could have let us get farther away!’

‘Can’t really blame him,’ said Eddie, shielding Macy’s face as they waited for the whirlwind to subside.

Sandra hurried towards the riverbed. ‘Rosie! Can you hear me?’

The others followed. ‘I can’t see anyone,’ said Eddie as they reached the bank. Metallic debris was scattered around them; the 4x4 had been parked here when the baraka’s bolt blasted it apart. There was no sign of a body, or even remains.

Nina slithered down the bank and crossed the dry river, seeing tracks where someone had climbed up the far side. ‘She went this way. Macy, wait there with Cheng.’

‘But Mom—’

‘Just do it, Macy,’ Eddie told her curtly as he followed his wife.

Sandra hurried after them. ‘All right. What the hell’s going on?’

‘You’ll see in a second,’ Nina told her as she picked her way through the scrub. ‘But the short version is that the Chinese found a fortress that had been buried for a hundred thousand years. The people preserved in it . . . weren’t human.’ The Australian stopped, her expression a picture of disbelief. Nina faced her. ‘Do you know your Old Testament at all?’

‘A bit. Wouldn’t call myself a Bible-thumper, though. Why?’

‘There was a race that existed before humans developed civilisation. Some of them interbred with humans, and their offspring were a hybrid of both species. They called themselves the Nephilim.’

Sandra frowned. ‘I’ve heard the name.’

‘In the Bible, they’re considered to be fallen angels, who were imprisoned for eternity beneath the earth. They’re not angels, that was just how ancient humans saw them because of their advanced technology, but some of them really were imprisoned.’ She looked back at the towering monolith of Uluru. ‘Here.’

The ranger’s instinctive response was a sharp laugh. ‘What, you reckon they’re inside the rock?’

‘I don’t know – but it’s what the Nephilim think. The Chinese found them in a kind of suspended animation, and woke them up.’

‘Not their brightest move,’ said Eddie.