‘A superweapon?’ She could almost see his smile widening even over the phone line. ‘Now, this isn’t all some publicity stunt for another of your movies, is it?’
‘I wish it was, but I’m deadly serious, literally. People have died – and if the Nephilim reach Uluru, there might be more deaths in your country. You need to evacuate the area and get the army to cordon it off.’
His tone changed as he lost patience. ‘Cordon it off? Now listen, Professor, I don’t think you appreciate just how big Uluru is! We’d need thousands of men to do that, and do you know how many soldiers I’ve got sitting around in the desert? Here’s a hint: none! Now, if there really is a UFO heading for our airspace, we’ll either force it to land or shoot it down. Anyone who gets out, we’ll deal with them like we do any illegal immigrant: lock ’em up, then send ’em back.’
‘Okay, well, I can tell I’m not going to convince you,’ Nina said, exasperated. ‘Thank you for your time, Prime Minister. But remember: I did warn you. I’m recording this call, so if the shit hits the fan, everyone will know you ignored me. G’day.’ She hung up before Sainsbury could reply.
Macy stared at her with wide eyes. ‘Mom. You just swore at the prime minister of Australia!’
‘It didn’t go well?’ Eddie asked.
‘He didn’t believe me – and I can’t entirely blame him,’ Nina sighed. ‘But he wouldn’t even lift a finger to close off Uluru. I’ll have to contact someone with authority actually in the area and hope they’re more willing to act.’
‘I’ll call Matt in Sydney and get him to find out who to speak to,’ he suggested.
‘Thanks.’ Nina leaned back in her seat, annoyance giving way to concern. The Nephilim had departed Xinengyuan as fast as a jet five hours ago, giving them a considerable head start. If Sidona used the qi tracker to guide them, they would probably reach Uluru before dawn. And that was when hundreds of tourists would be at the rock to watch the sunrise – innocents who could find themselves targets for Gadreel’s wrath . . .
But there was nothing more she could do. Even after escaping China, she was still trapped, helpless.
Three hours later, they landed at Melaka airport, south of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. Refuelling had been arranged in advance, a tanker truck pulling up alongside the jet almost as soon as it stopped. ‘How long before we take off again?’ Eddie asked.
Cheng conferred with the pilots. ‘About forty minutes.’
Nina struggled out of a half-sleep, Macy dozing against her. ‘What about the next leg of the flight?’
‘About five and a half hours.’ He spoke to the co-pilot, who gave him a quizzical look but opened the main cabin hatch. Hot, muggy air with the sharp tang of aviation fuel wafted in.
‘We’re not getting out, are we?’ said Eddie. ‘We don’t need to be messing about with customs checks. Especially not with hmm-hmm aboard.’ He glanced pointedly at his leather jacket; the gun was inside. By necessity, international pilots spoke at least some English, and he didn’t want to warn them he was armed.
‘No, no,’ the young man assured him. ‘But I’ve got to find out what’s happening at Cangliang, and the satellite link won’t work through a window.’ He started to set up the antenna in the open hatch.
‘Did you reach Matt?’ Nina asked her husband.
He nodded. ‘Got a contact number for the ranger station at Uluru. Tried to ring it, but nobody answered. Must be closed at this time of night.’
‘We’ll have to try again in a few hours.’ She looked at her watch; it had been a long time since she last ate. ‘God, I’m hungry.’
‘There’s some food back there,’ he said, gesturing aft.
Nina gently shifted Macy off her. The sight of the compartments at the cabin’s rear used as cells during their flight from New Zealand reminded her of their former occupants. ‘What do you think happened to the Millers?’
‘Not sure I want to know. I doubt they’re going to give ’em tickets back home.’
‘I would say it couldn’t happen to nicer people, but . . . I just feel we should do something.’
‘What can we do?’ Eddie asked with a rhetorical shrug. ‘They got taken out of New Zealand on a black-bag flight – the Chinese’ll deny knowing anything about them.’
The truth of his statement did not make Nina any happier. She tried to take her mind off the grim thought by finding food. The pre-packaged meals she discovered were only marginally more appetising than the typical airline fare, but they were all that was on offer.
By the time she returned to her seat, Cheng had connected to the research facility – and she saw at once that something bad had happened. She put down her meal and went to him. ‘What is it?’ she asked, concerned. Eddie joined her.
‘I . . . I tried to contact my mom, but she didn’t answer,’ Cheng said in a low voice, lips tight. ‘So I messaged someone else on the team. He told me, uh . . .’ He blinked, eyes brimming. ‘She was arrested. Major Wu’s . . . interrogating her, to find out where we are.’
Eddie gave the cockpit a wary look. ‘Think I’ll keep an eye on things in there. Make sure there aren’t any unexpected radio calls.’ A sympathetic hand on Cheng’s shoulder, then he engaged the pilots in mock-casual conversation.
Nina stayed with her student. ‘My God. Cheng, I’m so sorry . . .’
He put on a brave front. ‘I don’t think she’s told her anything yet. Otherwise someone would have ordered us back to China. But . . .’ The tears broke free, rolling down his cheeks. ‘When they say “interrogate”, they mean “torture”! They’re torturing my mom!’
‘She hasn’t told them anything yet because . . . because she’s protecting you,’ said Nina, trying to provide some comfort, however small. ‘She’s protecting all of us. She’s doing something unbelievably courageous to give us a chance to stop the Nephilim.’
He jumped up. ‘And that’s supposed to make me feel better?’ he shouted in sudden anger, the outburst making Macy jerk awake. He turned towards the exit, but with the plane’s steps still raised, there was nowhere to go. Instead, he stormed to the cabin’s rear, dropping heavily into a seat.
‘I’m sorry,’ Nina said again, but to no response.
Macy looked after him in concern. ‘What’s wrong? Why’s Cheng so upset?’
‘He got some bad news, honey. About his mom.’
‘Is she okay?’
‘I don’t know,’ was the only answer Nina could give.
The refuelling took less time than predicted; the plane took off after thirty-five minutes. Eddie moved to the seat nearest the cockpit door, paying even closer attention to the activity within. Sure enough, thirty minutes after departing, both pilots reacted in surprise to a radio message. ‘Cheng, I need you,’ he called out. ‘Now.’ This was not a time for empathy: he needed to know exactly what was happening.
Cheng reluctantly walked up the aisle, giving Nina an angry look as he passed. By now, Eddie had returned to the cockpit door. ‘There a problem, guys?’ he said loudly, hand slipping inside his jacket.
The pilot looked back at him. ‘We have been ordered to return to Cangliang.’
‘Oh yeah? Why?’
He and the co-pilot exchanged worried glances. ‘You, ah . . . they said you are not supposed to be on this flight.’
Eddie gave him a humourless grin. ‘Well, we’re more than halfway through now, so we might as well finish it.’ He indicated a spare set of headphones. ‘Cheng, put those on and tell me what the radio’s saying.’
The sudden tension overcame Cheng’s recalcitrance. He squeezed past Eddie and donned the headphones, sitting on a folding jump seat behind the pilot. ‘It’s someone at Cangliang,’ he whispered. ‘He’s waiting for an answer.’
The Yorkshireman could tell from the pilot’s brief lick of the lips that he wanted to respond. He drew the gun. Both officers react
ed in shock. ‘Yeah, let’s keep quiet for now, eh?’
‘If you kill us, you won’t be able to land the plane!’ the co-pilot gabbled.
Eddie shrugged. ‘I’ve had flying lessons.’ He opted not to mention that they had been in a helicopter, there had only been three, and on the last he had crashed into a New York skyscraper. ‘But I’m lazy, so just keep going and I won’t have to do anything drastic.’
Cheng signalled for silence. ‘He’s talking again . . . “I repeat, you must return to Cangliang immediately. Your passengers are spies who have committed espionage against the People’s Republic of China.” We’re not spies!’ he protested to the pilots.
‘No, we’re not,’ Eddie added. ‘You think we’d bring our little girl with us if we were doing some James Bond crap? Besides, we’d have had to work bloody fast. You brought us to the country in the first place, remember!’
‘Yes, we did,’ the pilot grudgingly agreed. ‘But I must still turn back.’
‘No. You mustn’t. After you’ve flown us to Uluru, you can tell ’em I had you at gunpoint the whole time. Which I will if I have to.’
He scowled, but gave Eddie a small nod. ‘We will take you there. If you promise you will not hurt us.’
‘Take us there without any trouble, and I won’t need to. Deal?’ Another nod. ‘Okay. Now, I’m not daft, despite what a lot of people say, so I’ll be keeping an eye on things.’ He indicated the control panel. ‘So long as that compass keeps pointing south, I’ll be happy. Cheng, you listen to the radio. Make sure they’re not getting any sneaky messages – or sending any.’
He returned to his seat. ‘I think everything’s under control,’ he told Nina. ‘Just got to make sure one of us is always awake so they don’t do a one-eighty while we’re having a nap.’
She nodded, then said quietly: ‘Is Cheng okay?’
‘I think so. Probably good to give him something to do to keep his mind off what’s happened, at least for now.’
‘Yeah,’ Nina replied sadly. In a way, the news Cheng had received was worse than being told his mother was dead: not only did he have the awful knowledge that she was suffering, but he would almost certainly never see her again even if she survived. She looked over to Macy. What if her daughter had to endure the same one day?
That she had already, and more than once, almost put Macy through exactly that torment because of her own obsessions was a piece of self-realisation she did not want – was afraid – to face. She turned away, looking out at the darkness beyond the window as the plane continued its journey.
Major Wu stood at the shoulder of the nervous communications officer. ‘Well?’ she snapped. ‘Have they turned around?’
The computer at his station was running a flight tracking program, showing the positions of numerous aircraft over the Java Sea. ‘No, Major,’ he replied. ‘I explained the situation, but since then they haven’t responded.’ He indicated one of the dots, the Longitude’s tail number beside it. ‘They’re still holding course for Australia.’
‘Hui gave Chase a weapon,’ growled Wu. ‘He’s probably got them at gunpoint.’ Her face darkened at the thought of the traitorous scientist. Hui had held out for hours of interrogation, to the younger woman’s surprise and anger, before finally giving up the information she had been protecting. She had used her authority as head of the research facility to put Wilde and Chase – and her son – on the same plane that had brought them to Cangliang, now on its way to the Nephilim’s destination: the great red rock of Uluru in Australia.
Wu had been disgusted – both at the scale of Hui’s treachery, and at her own failure to realise the significance of the jet’s absence. Her father’s death had affected her judgement. She should stand down.
But she couldn’t bring herself to do that. The Nephilim had to pay – not just for his murder, but for declaring war on her country. They were a threat to China – with the stolen qi weapon, to the whole world . . .
That thought suddenly changed her entire perspective. Recapturing Wilde and Chase was no longer important. If anything, they might actually help – by leading her to the last of the Nephilim. From what Hui told her, the Shangdi had imprisoned hundreds, even thousands, of the giants in suspended animation. If Gadreel freed them, an army of monsters would emerge to attack humanity.
But she had a chance to stop them; to exterminate the entire nest . . .
She turned to another officer. ‘Get me the Central Military Commission in Beijing. I need to speak to the head of special operations forces. And also,’ she added, face set and grim, ‘the commander of the tactical nuclear division.’
40
Uluru, Australia
Dawn was still a couple of hours away, but Rosie Tapaya was already at work. The park ranger guided her white Land Cruiser around the long road circumnavigating the great sacred rock of Uluru, the curves of both as intimately familiar to her as a lover’s, then turned off the asphalt, heading north-east into open desert.
The 4x4’s banks of spotlights cut through the darkness to illuminate the rust-red terrain. Normally she would have taken it slowly – even knowing the track, it was still a bumpy ride – but tonight, lives could be at stake.
Whose lives, she had no idea. When she was first stirred from sleep by a call from her boss, Sandra Piddock, she’d thought it was a joke. A UFO landing in the park? Sounded like, as she’d politely put it, a load of ’roo poo.
But a quick check of the news on her phone told her something weird was going on. Sightings of strange lights in the sky from the northern coast down through Western Australia and into the Northern Territory – and now somebody on the road to Yulara, the tourist town twelve kilometres north of Uluru itself, had reported something coming down in the desert. The airport had seen nothing on radar, but the caller was adamant.
So now Rosie was scouring the outback for signs of a plane crash. She stopped the off-roader at the top of a rise and got out. Ignoring the bugs swarming around the spotlights, she surveyed the plains ahead. The distant lights of Yulara were off to her left, a lone vehicle on the empty desert road further north. But there was nothing else in sight . . .
She started to turn back to the truck – then glimpsed something. As she looked directly at it, though, it vanished. She frowned, then reached into the Toyota and closed her eyes before switching off its lights.
The spots’ intense glare vanished. She opened her eyes again, letting them adjust to the darkness. It didn’t take long. It was a clear night, and the sky was bright with stars, the glowing band of the Milky Way cutting across it. She looked back at the desert.
There: a softly shimmering bluish light. Chemical glowsticks? There was a shape that she at first took to be a tent, before realising it would be a really big one – it was well over a kilometre distant.
There was definitely someone there, though – and she had a good idea what they were doing. She got back into the Land Cruiser and picked up the radio handset. ‘Hey, Sandra, are you there? It’s Rosie.’
‘I’m here,’ came the reply. ‘Have you found anything?’
‘Yeah, but it’s no UFO – no plane crash, either. I think we’ve got some illegal campers.’
‘You sure? The bloke who called was sure he saw something come down from the sky.’
‘I’m going to have a look. Pretty sure it’s just some penny-pinchers who don’t want to pay for a hotel room, though. I’ll call back soon.’
‘Okey-dokey. You need any help, Barney and I can get out to you.’
‘I’ll let you know.’ She restarted the engine. Camping inside Uluru national park was prohibited, and there was no shortage of signs to make that clear. Bloody tourists! She set off again.
The terrain was tricky, but she was an expert off-road driver. She travelled over a kilometre before halting at a dry riverbed. Its sides were too steep even for the Toyota to traverse, but she was not
far from her goal. She switched off the engine and lights, then collected a torch and set out on foot.
The journey to her final destination did not take long. She climbed another rise – and stopped in surprise.
Maybe it was a UFO. Something as big as a truck, part buried in the sand a hundred metres ahead. It was the odd light’s source, but it wasn’t coming from any bulbs; rather, the whole thing seemed to be faintly aglow. Silhouetted figures moved around it.
Rosie felt a chill as she realised they were not human.
They were giants, three metres tall, some even bigger. Too many to count in the darkness, but at least twenty.
And they knew she was there, heads turning towards her torch. She froze. What the hell was she going to do?
Her job, she decided, overcoming her shock. Whoever – whatever – they were, they were visitors to her land, and as both a park ranger and a representative of the local Anangu peoples, she ought to greet them. She started down the slope. ‘G’day!’ she called out, cringing inwardly – the first word said to a bunch of space aliens, and it couldn’t have been any more stereotypically Australian! ‘My name’s Rosie, and, ah . . . I’d like to welcome you to Uluru.’
One of the towering figures strode towards her. He wore robes, and was carrying some kind of golden staff. The leader? She raised her light to see his face. The pale being flinched, narrowing his wide, slanted eyes. Another shiver ran through her at the sight of his features. Tribal stories she had been told as a child came back to her, ancient legends of gods who shaped the world before people ever walked it. Something about the giant felt almost familiar . . .
She dipped her torch so as not to dazzle him, then waited for his response—
The staff whipped down – and Rosie exploded into a bloody haze.
Zan Zhi, straining to carry the tracker from the grounded craft, gasped. ‘What— My lord!’ he cried, aghast. ‘You did not need to kill her, she was greeting you!’
The Resurrection Key Page 44