Temple of the Gods - Andy McDermott [154]
And she felt the stone itself.
A sixth – or seventh? – sense, a homing instinct; however she could think to describe it, all she knew was that the thread led her directly to it. There was no life around it now, but there had been, once. She had impressions of heat, light where there should have been darkness, being beneath the ground yet not buried. The feeling was so intense that she could almost see it, a visual echo from the people who had been there long ago.
It was far away, she could tell, but closer than it had been when she was in Takashi’s skyscraper. She knew in what direction—
That thought made her open her eyes. She knew, but now so too did the Group. The joined statues floated just above her cradling palms, shining brightly. Some of the Group were looking at the wall towards which the light was strongest, as if hoping to see through it all the way to the meteorite’s hiding place.
She felt an instinctive urge to follow the path back to its origin—
The statues suddenly moved, gliding silently away from her across the table. She was so startled that she didn’t think to try to grab them until they were out of reach. Meerkrieger jerked aside as the linked figures spun past him.
The glow began to fade . . . and the statues arced towards the polished wooden floor. ‘Catch them, catch them!’ Warden cried.
Stikes was already running round the table. He dived headlong, landing hard and skidding along the floorboards just in time for the figurines to drop into his hands. He breathed out heavily in relief. ‘Haven’t made a catch like that since I played cricket for Eton.’
Warden rounded on Nina. ‘What happened? How did you do that?’
‘I don’t know,’ she replied, truthfully. The statues had responded to her impulsive thought, as if she had been able to channel and direct the earth energy flowing through them by the power of her will alone. But even in her confusion, she still had enough forethought to keep this to herself. ‘It just sort of – happened. Like they were drawn toward something.’
‘The sky stone,’ said Warden. ‘They were being drawn to the meteorite.’
‘We can triangulate,’ said Frederick Bull excitedly. ‘We know the bearing from Tokyo, and now we know the bearing from here too!’
His brother was already tapping away on his smartphone. ‘The bearing from here was a hundred and forty degrees east, more or less,’ he said, bringing up a map app. ‘It was two hundred and sixty degrees west from Tokyo, so . . .’ He swiped his fingers across the screen to find where the two lines intersected. ‘Africa! Somewhere in Ethiopia, by the look of it.’
‘How could it end up so far from Atlantis?’ asked al-Faisal doubtfully.
‘I don’t think we’ve even started to comprehend the full power of earth energy,’ said Warden. ‘But now that Dr Wilde is helping us, even if,’ he smiled smugly at Nina, ‘less than willingly, we can explore its possibilities.’
‘Our first priority is finding the meteorite, though,’ said Brannigan firmly. ‘We’ve got to get the progenitor DNA.’
‘And we shall,’ Warden replied. ‘But first—’
Two doors on opposite sides of the room opened simultaneously, cylindrical metal objects flying through them to bounce noisily off the floor and skitter towards the table. Everyone looked round at the unexpected interruption.
Nina recognised the items. Stun grenades! The instructions Eddie had given her earlier sprang back into her mind, and she closed her eyes and clapped her hands to her ears.
Stikes also instantly knew what they were. He dropped, releasing the statues safely on to the floor before he too protected his senses—
Both grenades detonated, their flashes blinding anyone looking at them and the twin piercing bangs so