At one point during his lunch, Pooh Bear made a phone call on his cell, looking around cautiously as he did so, knowing he was being watched.
Then—also according to plan—he went to the men’s room, leaving his backpack unattended in the concourse café. It took the nearest security guard exactly twelve seconds to hear the soft ‘beep-beep. . . beep-beep’ coming from the unattended bag.
The museum went into bomb-scare mode.
A single-tone warning siren blared out and a courteous but firm announcement was made for all patrons to evacuate the museum.
A heaving stream of people converged on the exits, hundreds of school children, tourists, museum staff and members of the public.
Pooh Bear—emerging from the men’s room—was immediately detained by four security guards and hauled away.
Among the throng of people who gathered in the wide courtyard out in front of the British Museum were two red-haired men wearing gardeners’ overalls over Transformers T-shirts.
They pushed between them a wheeled cart, on which was a small stone basin of some sort. It looked like an ornament from one of the museum’s many water fountains, all the more so since it was covered in a green moss.
By all appearances, the two gardeners had been wheeling it out for cleaning when the alarm had been raised and the museum evacuated.
Fifty minutes later, a British Army bomb squad would discover that the beeping object in Pooh Bear’s backpack was a Nintendo DS handheld game unit that he’d accidentally left switched on. The DS had been asking him if he wanted to continue playing.
Naturally, Pooh Bear was released to a chorus of bashful apologies, although he was warned not to leave his backpack lying around in a public place again.
The British Museum was re-opened shortly after.
Strangely, however, the two red-haired gardeners and the mossy stone basin were nowhere to be found. They’d last been seen heading away from the crowd massed in front of the museum, toward a parked van driven by a tall thin Israeli.
EASTERN RUSSIA—LONDON, ENGLAND
9 MARCH, 2008, 0145 HOURS
2 DAYS BEFORE THE 3RD DEADLINE
The Halicarnassus sat parked on the runway of an abandoned Soviet airbase deep in the mountains north of the Russian Pacific seaport of Vladivostok.
After escaping from Genghis Khan’s Arsenal in the Gobi Desert and hiking their way back to the Hali, Jack, Lily, Zoe and Sky Monster—along with their prisoner, the wounded Tank—had flown eastward, arriving here only a few hundred miles from the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
It was late. A full moon illuminated the grim mountain peaks around the Halicarnassus. And it was cold, twenty below. In fifteen minutes, Jack was scheduled to check in with Pooh Bear’s team in London.
Still reeling from the loss of Wizard—Lily had hardly spoken in the days since the dreadful confrontation at the Arsenal—Jack tried to keep them all busy.
They attempted to contact Alby again in Perth hut got no response.
‘Odd,’ Jack said.
‘Yeah. Usually, he answers on the first ring, he’s so keen to be involved,’ Lily said.
What they did receive, however, was an email from Alby, containing the times of the Titanic Rising on the Pillar-laying dates, plus a theory Alby had about tsunamis caused by the Dark Sun.
‘Not a bad theory,’ Jack observed. ‘That kid’s smarter than half the adults I know.’
He checked the list of times Alby had added to the dates taken from the Mayan Killing Stone:
3RD PILLAR - MARCH 11 (0005 HOURS - JAPAN)
4TH PILLAR - MARCH 18 (0231 HOURS - GMT)
5TH PILLAR - MARCH 18 (0231 HOURS - GMT)
6TH PILLAR - MARCH 20 (1800 HOURS – MAYA/MEXICO) (THE DUAL EQUINOX)
The Third Pillar had to be laid by March 11. Two days from now.
Jack considered what he knew about the Third Vertex: the golden plaque at the First Vertex had called it ‘The Fire Maze’; the Third Pillar was hidden somewhere in there in its own internal maze; and according to the twins, the whole complex was located somewhere on the north-western coast of Hokkaido.
Jack bit his lip. ‘If the maze is as big as the Shogun said it was, it’ll take time to get through. We don’t want to get there too late. And at the moment, Wolf is the only person who can actually cleanse the Third Pillar and set it in place, since he has the Philosopher’s Stone and the Firestone.’
‘So what do we do?’ Zoe asked.
‘The only thing we can do right now is watch. Watch from afar. We’re only an hour away by air from the coast of Hokkaido. We watch Wolf’s progress from a distance, and hope he can find the entrance and negotiate the maze inside.’
‘Do you think he can?’ Lily asked.
‘He’s a ratbastard, but he’s smart, smart enough to do this,’ jack said. ‘And unlike the Japanese Blood Brotherhood, he’s not suicidal. My father wants to rule the world and to do that he needs to lay this Pillar.’
Just then, from behind them, Tank groaned, waking.
He was bound to a flight seat with flex cuffs, his face blistered and scorched by the blast of his own grenade inside Genghis Arsenal. His cheeks and forehead glistened underneath a layer of antiseptic cream Jack had applied to the burns.
The old Japanese professor blinked awake, took in his surroundings. Then, feeling his bonds, he looked up sharply at Jack, Lily and Zoe.
‘You failed, Tank,’ Jack said.
Tank said nothing.
‘You destroyed the Egg, but Genghis copied its images onto his shield.’ Jack held up the magnificent pentagonal shield.
Tank still said nothing.
‘We’ve deduced that the Third Vertex is on the coast of Hokkaido. Now thanks to this shield, we know what the entrance looks like. It’s only a matter of time till Wolf finds it and, for a change, we have a little time on our hands.’
Tank snorted derisively.
Then he spoke in a hoarse croaking whisper.
‘You don’t have time.’
‘What?’
‘You’re out of time,’ Tank grinned through his burnt face. ‘You still don’t understand, do you? My blood brothers and I do not act alone in our mission to stop you placing the Pillars. We are but the point of a much larger sword.’
Jack frowned at that.
Tank said, ‘The imperial rulers of Japan have long known the location of our nation’s Vertex. It is our people’s most sacred shrine, its location passed down from emperor to emperor since the time of the Great Khan’s visit.’
‘Jack, you foolish man, understand! I do not represent some small group of ageing fanatics bent upon destroying the world out of simple vengeance. I represent the entire nation of Japan bent upon righting the most profound insult to our honour.’
‘If you venture toward Hokkaido now, you will find the coast guarded by warships of the Japanese Imperial Navy. You will find the landward approach guarded by our best special forces troops.
Throughout this mission, I have acted on the express authority of my government and my emperor. You are not doing battle against just me and my brethren, Jack West, you are fighting the entire nation of Japan.’
Jack’s face fell.
Zoe turned to him. ‘A naval blockade of the coastline? How is Wolf going to get past that?’
Jack was thinking fast. ‘I don’t know, I hadn’t—’
‘Jack,’ Sky Monster said from the top of the stairs. ‘Pooh Bear’s on the line from England.’
Stunned, Jack, Zoe and Lily headed to the upper deck to take the call.
On a monitor in the Hali’s upper deck, Jack saw Pooh Bear in London.
Pooh Bear, Stretch and the twins were sitting in a cheap hotel room not far from Waterloo Station.
Jack informed them of Wizard’s death in Mongolia.
‘Oh, no. . . ’ Pooh Bear breathed.
‘It was a disaster,’ Jack said. ‘The Japanese Blood Brotherhood were there, Wolf, too, and a massive Chinese contingent. My fathe
r killed Wizard.’
‘Jack, I’m sorry,’ Stretch said.
‘And the mission?’ Pooh asked gently.
‘We got what we needed,’ Jack said. ‘We didn’t get the Egg, but we have the images from it: pictures of the entrances to all six vertices. Genghis Khan had them inscribed on his shield. Zoe’s emailing you a digital photo of it right now.’
‘Got it,’ Julius said from his computer nearby, eyeing the jpeg of the shield. ‘Sheesh, that’s beautiful . . . ’
‘How about you guys?’ Jack asked. ‘Did you get the Basin?’
‘We got it,’ Pooh said.
Stretch added, ‘But we were hoping to talk with Wizard about our next step. Lily said that the last three Pillars must be cleansed twice: in the Philosopher’s Stone and in the Basin in the pure waters of the Spring of the Black Poplar. We have the Basin, now we have to find the Spring of the Black Poplar, whatever that is.’
Julius said, ‘We also need the Fourth Pillar, which we cleansed at that base on Mortimer Island, back when we cleansed the First Pillar, when that royal chick, Iolanthe, was on our side. I assume she still has it.’
‘But how will we find her?’ Lachlan asked.
‘Maybe the answer is to get her to find you,’ Jack said. ‘Sorry guys, you’re gonna have to figure out the rest of this by yourselves, because we’re about to get very busy over here. The Third Vertex is more heavily defended than we anticipated. We’re watching Wolf now: he’s got to get past a massive Japanese naval blockade of Hokkaido just to get into the maze protecting the Vertex.’
‘Right, then,’ Zoe said, ‘we’d all better get cracking . . .
At that moment, her laptop pinged. The videolink window was flashing with an icon that read: ‘RON’.
‘It’s Alby!’ Lily exclaimed, immediately clicking on the icon. At the same time in London, Pooh Bear did likewise, making it a conference call.
Jack and Lily huddled around the screen, eager to see—
—the dark beak-like face of Vulture appeared.
‘Hello, minnows,’ the Saudi intelligence agent said. He stepped aside to reveal— Alby and Lois gagged and hound behind him, covered by Scimitar. They were in a beige cabin of some sort: the interior of a private jet. Lois was slumped in her seat, unconscious. Alby’s eyes were wide with fear.
‘Look what I found,’ Vulture hissed. Then he noticed Pooh Bear:
‘Why, Zahir, you escaped from that mine in Ethiopia. You might not be as useless as I first thought.’
‘What do you want, Vulture?’ Jack demanded.
Vulture shrugged carelessly. ‘You know, Huntsman, they say children can withstand a considerable amount of pain. I’ve often wondered just how much torture a small boy could tolerate—torture exacted upon him, or perhaps witnessed by him when it is exacted on his mother. What do I want? I want your attention, Huntsman, and I think I just got it.’
The screen cut to hash.
Lily burst into tears. Zoe spun to face Jack.
Jack closed his eyes.
Vulture and Scimitar had Alby and his mother. It was one thing to take a hostage dear to Jack. It was another to take someone dear to his daughter.
Goddamn it...
‘Jack.’ Sky Monster emerged from the cockpit. ‘Wolf just launched his attack on Hokkaido and it sounds like World War III just started. If you want to keep an eye on it, we have to go now.’
Jack sat up straight, collected himself, and said, ‘Pooh Bear, find that Spring. We gotta move.’
AIRSPACE OVER THE ARABIAN SEA
In the plush cabin of his Gulfstream-JV private jet, Vulture turned from the computer, smiled at Alby and removed the boy’s gag.
‘Thank you, Albert. Part of every battle is the psychological war, and you’ve proven to be quite useful, again.’
‘Again?’ Alby frowned. Beside him, his sedated mother groaned in her restless drug-induced sleep.
‘But of course, you don’t know . . . ’ Vulture said, sliding into a wide leather chair. ‘You will recall that last year, Captain West experienced an unfortunate invasion at his farm in the Australian desert.’
‘I was there.’
‘We know you were,’ Vulture grinned over at Scimitar, who knocked back a slug of whiskey. ‘It was you who led us to the Huntsman’s farm, Albert.’
‘What?’ Alby sat upright.
‘The Huntsman is a skilled operator, a man who makes few mistakes. We watched the girl, of course, but he ensured she was well protected when at school. And he never returned to his farm via the same route, even when he picked her up from that school of yours in Perth. So we could never find his farm and the Firestone it contained.
‘But then you befriended the girl. So we started watching you, and suddenly the Huntsman made a rare error. For you, young man, do not possess the fieldcraft of a professional. When you went to their farm for a holiday, you were being watched the whole way there. It was you who led our associates—Wolf and Mao and Mao’s Chinese force—to Jack West’s home in the desert. Yes, Albert, you were his biggest mistake.’
Alby was horrified that this might be true. Could he really have led Lily’s enemies right to her secret home?
‘We know a lot about you, Albert,’ Vulture said, clearly enjoying Alby’s discomfort. ‘We know how your mother dotes on you, how your brother ignores you and how your father distances himself from you, appalled by your bookishness, your softness.’
Tears began to well in Alby’s eyes.
Scimitar glanced over at him. ‘Oh, cut that out. You remind me of my own worthless brother.’
Scimitar extracted a glistening knife from his belt. It was an extraordinary blade, long and sharp, with an exquisite gold and jewel-encrusted hilt.
‘See this?’ he grunted. ‘A gift from my father, given to me on my thirteenth birthday. A gift from a man to a man. To this day, my father has not given a similar one to Zahir, because Zahir is not a man, because Zahir has not proven himself worthy of such a gift.’
‘Pooh Bear is twice the man you’ll ever be—’
Scimitar crossed the cabin with surprising speed and before Alby knew it, the ornate knife’s blade was pressed against his throat and Scimitar’s hot whiskey-flavoured breath was right in his face.
‘Say that again,’ Scimitar hissed softly. ‘Just say that again . . . ’
‘Scimitar!’ Vulture barked. ‘Not now—’
A pair of thunderous noises from outside made everyone spin.
To Alby, they sounded like sonic-booms. . .
He peered out the windows of the Gulfstream and suddenly saw two MiG fighters with Russian markings swing into formation on either side of the private jet, paralleling it, flanking it. They were so close, Alby could see the visors of their Russian pilots glinting in the sun.
‘They’re ordering us to follow them or they’ll shoot us down!’the Saudi pilot called back from the cockpit.
Vulture seemed both enraged and perplexed at the same time. ‘What the hell is this. . .’ he breathed as he moved from window to window.
Abruptly, one of the MiGs fired a burst of tracers across the bow of the Gulfstream.
‘What do you want me to do!’ the pilot asked urgently.
‘There’s nothing we can do,’ Vulture said, his mind whirring at this unexpected turn of events. ‘We go where they tell us to go.’
And so the Gulfstream banked away to the right, departing from its intended course, escorted by the two Russian fighters.
THE NORTH-WESTERN COAST OF HOKKAIDO, JAPAN
9 MARCH, 2008, 0730 HOURS
2 DAYS BEFORE THE 3RD DEADLINE
The fierce ocean storm that assailed the north-western coast of Hokkaido on the 9th of March, 2008, would break records. Never once in 1,300 years of precise Japanese record-keeping had a storm of such ferocious intensity been encountered.
Huge fifty-foot waves crashed against the coastal cliffs. Sleet lashed down from low stormclouds. Icy gusts of snow swirled down from the mountains bord
ering the strife-torn sea.