“Entry team to Eagle Leader,” said the man on the other end. “We’re in the temple, and we’ve located the stolen artifact. It’s in a smaller chamber behind a statue. Jason, this place is incredible!”

“I’m sure it is,” Starkman said dismissively. “What else have you found, Günter?”

“You won’t believe this, but there’s a map here, an actual map! It’s scribed onto a huge orichalcum sheet on one wall. It shows the location of Atlantis!”

Starkman became a lot less dismissive. “How accurate is it?”

“The continents are quite distorted, but recognizable. And there’s something else, Jason. The map… it shows the positions of landmarks relative to Atlantis. We can use them to work out Atlantis’s exact position!” The man’s voice became more excited. “The northern mouth of the Amazon is marked as being at latitude seven south, just as it said on the artifact Yuri stole, and the Cape of Good Hope is at… there are six dots and an inverted V. We know from our archives that this symbol first appears after eight single units, so it must represent nine. Nine plus six equals latitude fifteen.”

“The Cape ’s at thirty-four degrees south,” Starkman informed him. “The top of the Amazon delta’s at about one degree north.”

“A difference of thirty-five degrees, then, with fifteen minus seven, eight Atlantean units of longitude between them. So one unit is thirty-five divided by eight…” The radio fell silent for a few seconds as he made the calculation. “It’s 4.375 degrees!”

“So what latitude is Atlantis at?” Starkman asked.

“Let me check on the laptop… 4.375 multiplied by seven is 30.625 degrees, and add one degree to account for the position of the delta… Atlantis is located somewhere between thirty-one and thirty-two degrees north!”

Starkman gave Nina a mocking look. “That’s quite a way south of the Gulf of Cádiz. Guess we didn’t need to worry about your theory after all.”

Nina said nothing. The map in the temple had clearly placed Atlantis within the Gulf of Cádiz. The shapes of the continents had been inaccurate, but surely the Atlanteans couldn’t have been that far out?

Günter spoke again. “Even allowing for errors-the Atlantean system is not as precise as ours-a sonar sweep of the area should only take a few days.”

“And then we can make sure nobody ever finds Atlantis,” said Starkman with rising excitement. “Good work, Günter. Plant the thermite charges and prep for evac. Melt the place down.”

“You’re going to destroy it?” Kari cried, appalled.

Starkman fixed her with a cold stare. “We’ll do whatever we have to do to stop people like you and your father from finding Atlantis.”

“The greatest archaeological find in history, and all you care about is destroying it so your insane boss can keep the knowledge for himself?” said Nina, her fear overcome by her utter disgust. “You make me sick.”

Starkman snorted in disbelief. “Jesus. You really don’t have a clue what’s going on, do you?”

“Why don’t you enlighten me?” she sneered.

“You think your friend Kari here and her dad are looking for Atlantis as a hobby?” said Starkman. “You know how much money they’ve spent? Tens of millions of dollars, maybe hundreds! Even for a billionaire, that’s one hell of a hobby!”

“We’re doing it for a good reason,” said Kari. “Unlike Qobras.”

“I know what your reasons are. That’s why I joined up with Giovanni.” He looked questioningly at Nina, then back to Kari. “But does she know? Did you even bother to tell her why you’re so desperate to find Atlantis?”

“As long as they don’t want to destroy it, that’s good enough for me,” Nina told him. Kari gave her an admiring look.

“You might have changed your mind,” Starkman said as his radio squawked again. “Not that you’ll get the chance now.”

“Eagle Leader, we’ve got everything we need. Setting the charges,” said Günter.

“Roger that.” Starkman looked up. The two Halos were still following their slow circle, about two hundred feet above the ground. He switched radio channels. “Chopper two, this is Eagle Leader. Move into pickup position.”

“Roger,” replied the pilot. One of the helicopters wheeled lazily about to head for the temple. More ropes dropped from its side.

“Well, I guess this is the end,” said Starkman, looking back at his prisoners. “Sorry about this, Eddie, but I’ve got my orders.”

“You can take your fake sympathy and shove it up your arse, you two-faced twat,” Chase snarled. “I should’ve let those al-Qaeda wankers kill you in Afghanistan.”

“The world’ll be glad you didn’t. Good-bye, Eddie.” Starkman gestured to his men, who forced Nina and Kari down onto their knees next to Chase.

Nina felt the cold, hard barrel of a gun touch the back of her head. She closed her eyes…

And heard a hissing noise.

Thok!

The man behind her let out a wet, bubbling gasp before crashing to the ground. Nina opened her eyes to see spears and arrows flying overhead. One of the men behind Philby took an arrow to his leg. He grimaced, then reached to pull it out… only for his eyes to bulge wide. Fingers spasming, struggling to breathe, he collapsed.

Poisoned!

Starkman whirled-and was hit in the chest by another arrow. But it struck only his Kevlar body armor, not flesh. “Open fire!” he shouted, taking cover by the nearest hut as he raised his UMP-40 and unleashed it into the surrounding trees.

The men covering Nina and Kari jumped back, following Starkman’s lead and firing into the jungle. Kari grabbed Nina’s arm. “Go!”

She hauled Nina with her as she ran. A commando behind her turned to shoot them, but a bola whirred from the jungle, two of its weighted strands yanking his gun away from its targets. The fist-sized stone on the third strand smashed into his face, knocking out teeth.

Chase saw his chance as the huge man behind him moved, and thrust his elbow savagely backwards to catch him in the groin.

He missed. The man grunted in pain, but had taken the impact on the bulging muscles of his upper thigh. Chase looked up to see him staring back, anger twisting his face. The mercenary’s gun came around-

Chase flung himself backwards at the man’s knees, trying to knock him off his feet. The man staggered, then fell-landing on top of him, his knees slamming onto Chase’s chest. Wheezing, Chase grabbed at his adversary’s UMP-40-

A fist smashed into his face. Chase heard a sharp crack as his nose broke. He was almost surprised at the lack of pain, but he knew from experience that it would come soon enough.

The fist drew back for another strike. Chase released the gun and snapped his hands up to block it as it descended. He squeezed, trying to crush the man’s fingers…

Kari and Nina ran towards Castille and the other prisoners. “Get into the hut!” Kari shouted as a spear sliced through the air just behind them.

“No, we’ve got to help them!” Nina answered. One of the dead Indians lay on the ground in her path. She snatched up his knife. “Come on!”

Starkman fired off more rounds into the trees as he shrieked into his walkie-talkie. “Chopper one! I need suppressing fire on the treeline! Now!”

One of the men near the captives was hit from behind by a spear, the razor-sharp obsidian blade penetrating deep into his skull. Still firing wildly, he fell against the wall of a hut, breaking the wood.

The big man pulled his hand free of Chase’s grip with a roar, then drove his knees down with piledriver force onto his ribcage. Chase tried to yell, but there was no air left in his lungs.