He followed her path to catch her as she reappeared – but then her companion flashed through his sights, his own gun coming up. Eddie unleashed another burst. The soldier fell. Where was Wu? He swung the MP7 towards the exit—

She reappeared. He fired again – but she disappeared into the tunnel, the rounds blasting shrapnel from the sandstone. ‘Shit!’ he barked, running in pursuit.

He quickly cleared the smoke. The cathedral was now in a sickly half-light, the orange fog tainting the crystal pillar’s glow. He hurried to the tunnel’s mouth. Wu was gone. He raced after her.

Chapter 44

44

The bridge came back into sight below as Nina completed another circuit of the pillar. There had been another couple of explosions and several bursts of gunfire as she descended, but now the chasm had fallen eerily silent. Who had won the battle?

More loops around the pulsing pillar, and she neared the walkway’s foot. She slowed. Zan was down here somewhere, and she had no idea where the rest of the Nephilim might be.

The living ones, at least. She looked across the bridge. Nephilim corpses littered its other end. Gadreel was not amongst them – but he could now have few, if any, surviving followers.

Nobody was in sight within the cathedral, though, human or otherwise. She took that as a good sign and hurried down to the broad stone platform at the bridge’s end.

A wide opening had been carved into the pillar. She went towards it—

Some instinct made her halt. The glowing crystal wall was translucent enough to reveal a shadowy shape inside. A standing figure. It wasn’t large enough to be Nephilim . . .

Zan. The translator lurked in the chamber’s entrance.

She quietly moved to the side of the opening. The Chinese hadn’t yet realised she was there. She hefted the strut. A brief hesitation – what she was about to do could easily have fatal results – but then decided: fuck him. Zan’s treachery had caused enormous destruction and death, to say nothing of the peril she and her family had faced.

She readied herself, then whipped around the corner – and swung the spar at Zan’s head.

He heard the movement and started to turn – only for the metal bar to strike his skull with a flat crack. The blow dropped him instantly. Nina quickly dragged him out, pulling him under the foot of the walkway, where he would hopefully be out of sight. He was still alive, but would have a hell of a headache, if not a concussion, when he awoke.

It was the least he deserved. She returned to the entrance, stepping through it . . .

And stopped in amazement.