But not all the Nephilim were dead. One warrior, sheltered between boulders, raised his baraka in response to a human’s cry of pain from a balcony above. A beast staggered with a bloody wound to his arm, another jumping up from behind the parapet to help him.

The Nephilim took aim – and fired.

Eddie and Barney hurried back through the tunnel. Gunfire echoed up the side passage. ‘Down here,’ said the Yorkshireman.

‘They might be on the balcony!’ Barney protested.

‘That’s all coming from floor level. Hurry up!’ He descended, the ranger reluctantly following.

The piercing crackle grew louder as he reached the balcony, dropping low to peer over the parapet. Wu’s team had come in from the main passage to the left, the Nephilim mostly on his right and clearly caught by surprise. Several were already dead or wounded. But they had recovered enough to fight back, a grotesque red burst showing where a soldier had taken a baraka’s full force.

Orange smoke erupted almost directly below – then a pair of snipers equipped with what Eddie guessed were thermal sights opened up. He had a ringside view as more Nephilim were cut down with pinpoint precision. The survivors flattened themselves behind debris and the room’s carved fixtures – only for Wu to shout an order.

Grenades sailed over the fog bank as another man unleashed several rapid shots from a forty-millimetre launcher. Three of his rounds exploded devastatingly in the chamber, a fourth hurtling through the archway onto the bridge. The sound of its detonation reached Eddie just as the hand grenades went off below.

He ducked as shrapnel filled the air. Barney was not so quick to react. Steel shards slashed into his forearm. He screamed.

Eddie sprang back up to pull him into cover – only to see a spear swing towards them—

An earth energy blast ripped into the balcony. It collapsed under the two men.

Eddie was thrown clear as the falling slab hit a pile of rubble, landing hard and tumbling down the broken debris. He came to a painful stop on the floor, smoke swirling around him. Despite being winded, he held his breath – coughing would give away his position.

He heard Barney groan nearby and crawled towards him, moving clear of the smoke to find the Australian sprawled against a stone-walled booth; some part of the processing centre. Whatever it was, it was keeping them out of sight of the Chinese – for now. But if they advanced, the pair would be sitting ducks . . .

‘Keep quiet,’ he whispered, dragging the wounded man into the booth as Wu shouted commands. ‘We’re stuck between both sides! Stay here.’

‘Where are you going?’ Barney asked through pain-clenched teeth.

‘I’ve got to get past them to find Macy. Fuck knows how, since I don’t have a gun – or even a stick.’