Kuiper hastily interposed herself between Nina and her patient. ‘I’m sorry, but you need to leave now.’

‘No, no, wait!’ Nina begged. ‘Wim, the key! Where did you find it? What happened to the Dionysius?’

The mention of the ship instantly changed his attitude, blind fright becoming a contemplative confusion as his brow furrowed in thought. ‘It . . . it came to rescue us, came into the cave. But too late. Everything . . . turned over.’ Kuiper backed away, startled by her patient’s change of mood. ‘The spaceship was . . . trying to move, it turned everything over.’

‘The what?’ exclaimed Nina. ‘The spaceship?’

‘In the ice,’ Stapper went on. ‘Buried inside D43. It was very old. Sanna and I, we found it in the cave.’

She had no idea what D43 might be, but Kuiper filled in another blank. ‘Sanna Onvaan,’ the doctor said quietly. ‘One of the people on his ship.’

Nina made a mental note to investigate the Dionysius and its mission, but there were more important questions to be asked. ‘And is that where you found the key too?’

Stapper’s gaze returned to the orichalcum artefact, regarding it with a mixture of awe and fear. ‘Yes, yes. In a room of gold and crystal. Sanna saw where it belonged and put it in.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘Nothing, at first. Later the spaceship started to light up, but by then . . .’ His expression began to shift back towards fear. ‘We had found the demons.’

‘The demons,’ Nina echoed. ‘What can you tell me about them?’

‘Dead, but alive,’ was the contradictory reply. ‘Giants, lots of them, in glass coffins. The key . . . Sanna used the key, and one of them woke up. It—’ Sudden horror filled his eyes. ‘We tried to talk to it, but – it killed her!’ he shouted. ‘It killed her, and tried to kill me! It – it wanted the key!’

‘Now you need to leave,’ Kuiper told Nina forcefully, rapping on the door to summon the orderly. ‘He is terrified!’

‘Wim, where did you find the key?’ Nina asked as she backed away. ‘Where is this – this spaceship?’

‘D43!’ the young man cried. The orderly hurried in, firmly ushering Nina through the exit. ‘Inside D43, the ice cave! The Dionysius – it’s still there!’

The door closed again, cutting him off. Nina stood still for a moment, then looked at the object in her hands.

A spaceship? She didn’t believe for a moment that was what the Dutchman had found. Partly because it would mean accepting as fact the ridiculous pseudoscience Macy and Eddie enjoyed taunting her with, but also because of the obvious inconsistency with Stapper’s other claims. Demons were as unacceptable to her as UFOs.