“The fourth expedition?” asked Nina. “There were only three.”

“Only three that were recorded. At least, in known records. There were other documents.” His tone became somber. “Your father came into possession of some of them. They were what led him first to Tibet, in search of the Golden Peak… and then to here.”

“Here?” said Nina, puzzled… but also with a growing sense of awful foreboding.

“This way.” Qobras directed his flashlight down the passage at the rear of the chamber, nodding at Starkman to bring Nina. Philby hung back, his face filled with fear.

And something else, Nina realized.

Guilt?

She followed Qobras down the passage. His light illuminated what lay at the end of the passage.

It was a tomb, an Atlantean tomb; the aggressive architecture and Glozel inscriptions were unmistakable. That realization, though, became insignificant when Nina saw what else was within the chamber.

More bodies.

But unlike the corpses of the Nazi expedition, these had not died peacefully. They lay against the walls in twisted, frozen poses of agony. She saw pockmarks in the stone behind them: bullet holes, surrounded by faded brown splashes that could only be long-dried blood.

And among the faces of the dead were…

Nina raised her hands to her mouth. “No…” she whispered. Qobras looked back at her, then gestured to Starkman, who pulled her forward. She resisted, only for him to drag her.

“No!” This time it was a wail, an uncontrolled release of horror and despair.

Time and cold had turned the skin a dry leathery brown, soft tissues long since decayed to leave the eye sockets as empty black holes. But Nina still recognized the faces. They had been in her thoughts every day for the past ten years.

Her parents.

They hadn’t died in an avalanche. They had died here, gunned down.

Murdered.

Starkman forced her forward, closer to the terrible reality pinned in Qobras’s light. She struggled and kicked at him, not wanting to look but unable to avert her gaze. “You did this!” she screamed at Qobras. “You killed them! You bastard, you fucker! I’ll fucking kill you!” The two guards moved as if to protect their boss, but he held up a hand for them to stop. They stood back and waited as Nina’s screams lost coherence, reduced to angry, anguished sobs.

“I’m sorry,” Qobras said in a low voice. “But it had to be done. Kristian Frost could not be allowed to obtain the secrets of the Atlanteans.”

“What secrets?” Nina cried bitterly. “There’s nothing here! It’s just a tomb!” Her eyes narrowed with hatred. “You killed my parents for nothing, you son of a bitch.”

“No…” Qobras slowly panned his flashlight around the walls. “I thought there was nothing here ten years ago, that the tomb had been plundered. But if the last inscription from the temple in Atlantis itself is true, there must be something more to this place.” He turned to the two guards. “Search every centimeter of the walls. Look for anything that might indicate another opening-a crack, a loose block, a keyhole-anything!” As they moved to obey, Qobras himself started examining the walls around him in minute detail. Starkman kept hold of Nina.

Her sobs of grief slowly died away… replaced by a cold, expressionless mask.

Almost expressionless. Only her eyes gave away the fury burning inside her.

The search took only a few minutes before one of the guards called out to Qobras. Everyone hurried to where he stood, carefully tracing a line almost concealed between the columns.

“Doors,” said Qobras, sliding a fingertip down the narrow gap. “There doesn’t seem to be any way to open them from outside. We’ll need to break them open.”

One of the guards was sent back to the helicopters to bring the necessary equipment. In the meantime, more of Qobras’s men arrived, hauling with them on a fattired cart the large crate Nina had seen being loaded onto the second helicopter. A chill of fear ran up her back. Even if the bomb it contained was only half the size of the crate, it would still be larger than a man.

The charges Qobras intended to use on the doors, however, were far smaller. A drill was used to carve out a fist-sized hole in the stone. Once the hole was made, Qobras placed the explosive-a fat disc the size of a silver dollar-into it.

“You’re just going to blow it up?” said Nina.

“Yes.”

“What about them?” She pointed at the bodies. “You going to blow them to pieces as well? It’s not enough that you killed them, now you’re going to desecrate them too?”

Starkman made an impatient noise, but Qobras paused, considering her words. “Jason, get some of the men to take them into the entrance chamber,” he said at last.

“It’s a waste of time, Giovanni,” Starkman said, barely concealing his disapproval. “We should be getting the job done, not letting her delay us. And what difference does it make? They’re already dead.”

“Dr. Wilde is right. Move them.”

Starkman scowled, but followed his orders, summoning a group of men to assist in removing the bodies. Nina couldn’t watch, feeling a new burst of almost unbearable anguish as the corpse of one of the Tibetans was lifted up as if he weighed no more than a child. That was all that was left of these people, of her family, nothing more than husks. Her throat clenched so tightly with resurgent grief that she could barely breathe. She fought past it, refusing to break down in front of her enemies.

Once the bodies were gone, Qobras returned his attention to the explosive. He attached a timer to it before quickly retreating, ushering everyone else back to the cavern.

“CL- 20,” explained Starkman to Nina, without being asked. “The most powerful chemical explosive ever made. A piece the size of an Oreo can blow a hole right through six inches of armor plate.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed by that?” she replied sourly.

“Maybe not. But you might want to cover your ears.”

Nina saw that the others were doing just that, and hurriedly followed suit. A moment later there was an earsplitting bang and a swirling cloud of dust.

Qobras was the first to move, his flashlight beam slicing through the dust like a laser. “Clear all the debris from the doors so we can get the bomb through them,” he ordered. “Jason, Jack, Dr. Wilde-come with me.” Nina was unsurprised when her two guards came as well.

What had appeared to be a solid wall was now a gaping hole. Huge chunks of the shattered door were scattered over the tomb floor. The other door was still in place, though seriously damaged.

Beyond the doors lay darkness.

Qobras stepped over the debris, leading the way down what turned out to be a smooth slope descending deeper into the heart of the mountain.

The air was cool and, to Nina’s surprise, fresh, lacking the almost indefinable stale, ancient mustiness she associated with long-sealed environments. Presumably there was another entrance, or at least some way for air to reach it from outside.

Like the entrance chamber, the long tunnel had been widened out from an existing natural passage. Considering its length, with only basic hand tools it must have taken years to excavate.

And as for whatever lay ahead…

“It’s opening up,” said Qobras. Distance reduced his flashlight beam to a tiny coin. The echo of their footsteps faded, suggesting they were about to emerge into the open.

But that was impossible. They were inside the mountain.

Which meant the space they were about to enter was huge…

They emerged onto a road, a broad paved lane stretching beyond the range of their lights. Buildings lurked on either side, imposing pillars glinting with gold and orichalcum rising into the darkness.

“Christ, it’s huge,” said Starkman. He cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, “Hello!” A very faint echo returned a couple of seconds later.