Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [0]
The right of Andy McDermott to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
First published as an Ebook by Headline Publishing Group in 2012
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
eISBN: 9780755385935
HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
An Hachette UK Company
338 Euston Road
London NW1 3BH
www.headline.co.uk
www.hachette.co.uk
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Author
Reviews
Also by Andy McDermott
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1: Zimbabwe
Chapter 2: New York City
Chapter 3: Mozambique
Chapter 4: New York City
Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Tokyo
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11: Rome
Chapter 12
Chapter 13: Maryland, USA
Chapter 14: New York City
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18: Nevada
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21: Washington, DC
Chapter 22: The Gulf of Cadiz
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27: New York City
Chapter 28: Switzerland
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32: Ethiopia
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Andy McDermott was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and now lives in Bournemouth. As a journalist and magazine editor, amongst other titles he edited DVD Review and the iconoclastic film publication Hotdog. Andy is now a full-time writer. His debut novel, The Hunt for Atlantis, has been sold in twenty-two languages to date. Temple of the Gods is Andy’s eighth novel.
Praise for Andy McDermott:
‘Adventure stories don't get much more epic than this’ Daily Mirror
‘An all-action cracker from one of Britain’s most talented adventure writers’ Lancashire Evening Post
‘If Wilbur Smith and Clive Cussler collaborated, they might have come up with a thundering big adventure blockbuster like this . . . a widescreen, thrill-a-minute ride’ Peterborough Evening Telegraph
‘True Indiana Jones stuff with terrific pace’ Bookseller
‘A true blockbuster rollercoaster ride from start to finish . . . Popcorn escapism at its very best’ Crime and Publishing
‘A rip-roaring read and one which looks set to cement McDermott’s place in the bestsellers list for years to come’ Bolton Evening News
‘Fast-moving, this is a pulse-racing adventure with action right down the line’ Northern Echo
‘A writer of rare, almost cinematic talent. Where others’s action scenes limp along unconvincingly, his explode off the page in Technicolor’ Daily Express, Scotland
‘McDermott writes like Clive Cussler on speed. The action is non-stop’ Huddersfield Daily Examiner
By Andy McDermott and available from Headline
The Hunt for Atlantis
The Tomb of Hercules
The Secret of Excalibur
The Covenant of Genesis
The Cult of Osiris
The Sacred Vault
Empire of Gold
Temple of the Gods
For my family and friends
Prologue
The ocean had no name, nor did the gnarled land rising from it. There was no one to name them. In time there would be, after the scarred primordial world had completed another four billion orbits of its sun, but for now it was utterly barren. The planet could not even truly be said to be dead; it had never seen life.
Yet.
Had a person from that far future somehow been able to stand on the nameless obsidian sands, they would have seen a world very different from the one they knew, countless volcanoes spewing smoke and ash into the sky. This was a landscape in flux, growing literally by the day as the planet’s molten core forced itself outwards through the cracks in its crust.
The hypothetical