And as she orbited the planet slowly, on the night-side of the Earth she saw the lights of thousands of Xynutian cities, and she understood why they had slipped under the radar of human science for so long. Their cities mainly occupied the lowlands that were now in her time under the oceans and seas.

A small flare of light shot from one of the cities and flew towards her, and she knew the Xynutians had reached their space age. In the moments that followed, hundreds of rockets left the planet on various voyages of discovery, and she already knew that for some, that voyage would end on Mars. She wondered what other planets and stars had been touched by the ancient beings.

In the African Savannah, she gasped as she saw more early hominids walking upright through the long brown grass, with spears in their hands. So we evolved separately, she thought in wonder. This new knowledge would shatter everything they knew about human evolution. What were the chances of humanity evolving twice? She watched as the hominids fought against the Xynutians along rivers, though the Xynutians easily pushed them back into the forests and plains, and she found herself caught in an emotional tug of war between these fascinating Xynutians and her ancestors that they were killing, like a man might kill a beast. That’s all we were to them, she shook her head.

Before she could give it any more thought, a shadow in the shape of the Amarna Stickman, Aniquilus, covered the Earth and the hominids disappeared from view. In their place she saw fire and death spreading through the Xynutian cities. The towering buildings collapsed into the water of the rivers and seas, and Xynutians lay dying in the dust of the fields.

One final armada of spaceships blasted off. As they reached orbit they paused, as if to say their last, silent, goodbyes, before pointing to the depths of space and vanishing in a flash of light.

Below her, the fires from the cities extinguished one by one, and the seas rose, swallowing Xynutian civilisation forever. Sadness overwhelmed her as she saw the last of the Xynutians slip beneath the waves.

The shadow of Aniquilus went. The age of Man had arrived.

In the room, darkness followed.

The wind whistled in her ears, and gradually dawn broke over the ridges of mountains she instantly recognised: Amarna, before humans. Though the vegetation was different, with lush forests and green plains all the way down to the Nile, the shape of Amarna was unchanged. A small doorway on the plateau above the plains of Amarna led to a spiral ramp with shallow steps every meter or so that descended into the ground.

She found herself walking and instantly knew where she was going. At the end of a long corridor, she reached the inscriptions on the wall that had been at the top of the stairs in the Egyptian hall. The red light was there, and as she watched it flicked to green.

As she descended another spiral staircase she thought of the coincidence that red and green had similar meaning for both humans and Xynutians, and wondered whether there was something universal about the two colours and what they represented. She reached the airlock, noting the absence of Nefertiti and Akhenaten.

On the other side of the airlock, she passed the statue with the staff in its hand, and entered the room with the three doors. The doors with the tree and bear were already closed, but the Xynutian door was open. She entered.

The vault within was as deep as the tallest skyscraper on Earth was tall, and just as wide again. She was standing on a small ledge, jutting out into space, and facing a wall of small drawers, like millions of filing cabinets stacked on top of each other. The drawer in front of her was open, and looking back at her from within was the frozen face of a Xynutian, completely naked inside a glass bubble.

The drawer closed and she exited the vault. The door shut behind her and she found herself at the control benches in the middle of the room. She didn’t understand any of the symbols or concentric circles that hovered before her, but somehow their meaning seeped into her mind.

She had no time to digest the significance of this information, however, as all the lights suddenly went out.

When they came back on, her body and senses abruptly came into focus. She was back in the room with Ben, Henry and Walker, facing the Xynutian statue.

They stood there in silence for at least a minute before Ben reacted. Walker had caught him off balance in the airlock, and he had been waiting to return the favour.

Diving towards the American, Ben slammed his upturned palm into his chin and reached out with his other hand to grab the pistol. His knee found the other man’s groin, and Walker let out a yelp of pain.

The Egyptian’s advantage only lasted a few moments, however, and it quickly became apparent that the American would overpower him. Ben was focusing most of his strength on obtaining the pistol, which had left Walkers left hand free to try and gouge one of Ben’s eyes out.

Reacting instinctively, Gail jumped into the air and grabbed the Xynutian’s staff. Hanging from it for a few seconds, it suddenly gave and ripped out of the statue’s hand. She ran up behind Walker and struck him across the back of the head with all of her might.

He shuddered under the impact and fell into Ben, sending them both crashing to the floor, the pistol held in between them. A shot, muffled by their bodies, echoed in the ante-chamber.

Patterson ran to pull the two of them apart, and as he did so Walker pulled the pistol barrel round and fired a second shot, hitting Patterson in the chest.

As Ben lay motionless on the floor and Patterson gasped for air, his back against the wall, Walker stood up and faced Gail.

“Just you and me now,” he grimaced, nursing the back of his head. “And from what I’ve just seen in that little mind-fuck back there, those people didn’t make this place with an exit. So we’re stuck down here after all.”

Gail brandished the Xynutian staff defensively and took a step away from him. She looked down at Ben and tried to see if he was still breathing or not. He blinked at her slowly, his face pale. Patterson was gasping for air and reaching out to her.

“You bastard,” she said between clenched teeth.

He took two steps towards her. “Sorry you feel that way, sweetheart, because I was kind of hoping you’d make the stay down here more interesting.”

She cringed at the thought of it, and took another step back, moving past the Xynutian statue. “You’re crazy,” she said. “After all this all you can think about is raping me!”

“Rape!” he laughed. “I’m not that kind of guy.” He levelled the gun at her chest and his smile disappeared. “But I don’t see why you need to be here any longer taking my air.”

She closed her eyes and raised her arms defensively in front of her.

The cacophony of gunshots that followed made her eardrums feel like they were exploding, and she fell backwards. The Xynutian staff clattered to the floor beside her.

But the pain she had been expecting never came.

She waited for a moment before opening her eyes to see Walker lying on the floor in front of her; blood covered his face and the wall behind him. The angle of his head told her instantly that he was dead. She looked beyond the Xynutian statue and her whole body started to tremble. Her heart pounded in her chest and her breath shortened. Tears streamed down her face, and while she was still unable to hear following the gunshots, she knew she was uncontrollably repeating his name over and over out loud.

Because there, standing in the airlock with a gun held to his shoulder like the last action hero, was George.

Chapter 80

George lifted Gail up and spun her around the room, and as her feet finally touched the ground they kissed, melting into each other with unrestrained abandon.