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  ‘Another example of American laxness with works of historical significance,’ she replied, shaking her head. ‘Perhaps it is because you Americans are so gung-ho and careless, and have no concept of real history.’

  ‘And what,’ Sam said, ‘something like that would never happen in Germany?’

  She stopped walking and turned to faced them. ‘No.’

  ‘Well, we’d love to chat more, but …’ Xavier said, his voice finding some authority. ‘My collection?’

  Sam looked to Xavier who shrugged. Both knew that the charade was crumbling—they had to see what was left and get out while they still could.

  ‘It’s here,’ she said, tapping away at her tablet computer.

  ‘Let’s get on then, shall we?’

  ‘Americans …’ she muttered. ‘Always in a hurry.’

  An electronic whirring noise erupted out of the gloom high above, followed by hydraulic sounds, and then an ever-increasing whine as a robotic lift came down to their level, loaded with several plastic containers, each the size of a large crate.

  ‘Here they are,’ she said. ‘We can follow the lifter to the viewing room, where you can inventory what remains of the excavation that you financed, Dr Dark.’

  ‘Er, excellent,’ Xavier said, faltering in her scathing gaze. ‘Thank you, Fräulein.’

  They fell into step behind the archivist and her robotic crane, walking in silence. Sam hoped they’d find what they needed and hoped they’d find it in time.

  08

  EVA

  ‘Sam’s just popped up,’ Lora said as she ended her call and turned around to the girls who were looking out the plane windows at the spectacular mountains below.

  ‘Where?’ Eva asked.

  ‘Berlin. His face came up on the city’s security cameras and Jedi got a match through his computer system,’ Lora said, tapping on her phone screen again. ‘It’s odd though, his dreamcatcher is stationary—in Italy.’

  ‘Is he OK?’

  ‘Jedi said he looked fine.’

  ‘Berlin—how’d Sam get there so fast?’ Eva said.

  ‘Well, judging by where he’s left his dreamcatcher,’ Lora said, frowning, ‘I’m guessing he caught a flight from an airstrip near Siena.’

  ‘What’s in Berlin?’ Gabriella asked.

  ‘He’ll be following his next dream,’ Lora said.

  Eva said, ‘Without help?’

  Lora shook her head. ‘Jedi said he was with his friend, Xavier Dark.’

  ‘I wonder why he’s with Xavier again?’ Eva said. ‘I guess that’s how he got his ride to Germany …’

  ‘I suspect so,’ Lora said, then, noticing Gabriella’s vacant expression, asked, ‘Are you all right?’

  Gabriella nodded and pointed out the small plane window. ‘Look how beautiful the world is … it’s so easy to forget, to just not notice,’ she said slowly, gazing out across the seemingly endless mountains. ‘The world looks different now—more precious … knowing that it is in danger, that we’re fighting for it, no?’

  ‘Can’t you call him?’ Eva asked Lora, bringing the conversation back to Sam.

  ‘I tried, but his phone’s been off. What’s more worrying,’ Lora said, ‘is that the German Guardians have defected too. So we don’t even have anyone locally who can get there quickly if he needs help. We don’t have many people left we can trust to protect him.’

  Gabriella turned to look at them both, her face now as serious as theirs.

  The mountain campus of the Academy never failed to impress Eva. She resisted the urge to press her nose against the window of the light plane as it touched down on the short runway and came to a stop outside the main building. But she did laugh at Gabriella’s horrified expression at their abrupt landing on the tiny airstrip, remembering how she’d felt the first time arriving here.

  ‘It was a monastery, yes?’ Gabriella said, climbing out behind Lora and Eva.

  ‘It was, once,’ Lora said, ushering them inside and out of the billowing high-altitude winds that whipped ice and snow in a vertical assault.

  Eva dusted the snow out of her short dark hair and followed Lora. They passed a group of students, who smiled nervously at them. It was only days ago they had lost two of their teachers, Sebastian and Tobias, and also Alex. They’re probably thinking about who hasn’t come back.

  ‘I’ll let the Professor know we’re here, and show him these,’ Lora said to Eva and Gabriella, holding the brass disc, the book and key. ‘I’m sure he’ll want to speak with you once you’ve rested. Eva, Gabriella can bunk with you, and then I’ll see you both later.’

  ‘Sure, whatever …’ Eva said, feeling all talked-out. She was so tired. She just wanted a bed, any bed—now.

  ‘Share the room?’ asked Gabriella, stopping in the corridor.

  ‘Yes,’ said Lora, ‘all the students here at the Academy share with someone else. Especially in the current circum stances.’

  ‘Or perhaps I could stay in a hotel, close by? I can visit here when you need me, yes?’ Gabriella said.

  ‘There is no hotel near here,’ Lora said. ‘Besides, you wouldn’t be safe. You need to be here, you are one of the last 13—your involvement in the rest of this race could be vital.’

  ‘But I have had my dream, we already found the piece from the Pantheon and I don’t know anything else. I don’t even understand what it is for,’ Gabriella said, confused.

  ‘Yes, that’s all true,’ said Lora, sympathetically, ‘but we still aren’t certain what lies ahead, for any of us. For now, we need to stick together. Look—go with Eva, get some rest. We can discuss it more with the Professor.’

  Lora smiled at them before turning and walking through a doorway off the main corridor, leaving Eva and Gabriella staring at each other.

  ‘Well, I guess you’d better follow me,’ Eva said. ‘This way.’ She led Gabriella down the hallway in the direction of her dorm wing. Gabriella looked around with curiosity as they passed the dining hall and study rooms. Their silent journey was accompanied by stares, whispers and even some squeals from the other students—Gabriella’s arrival was not going unnoticed. Some looked starstruck to see the pop idol among them. Gabriella waved and flashed her megawatt smile at everyone. By the time they had reached the rec room near the dorm, a huge group of kids were trailing them, calling out to Gabriella.

  ‘Well, that didn’t take long,’ Eva murmured to herself.

  Gabriella stopped to meet her fans, signing autographs in a frenzy. Flashes of light from phone cameras popped continuously, and Gabriella posed for photograph after photograph.

  She doesn’t even look tired—or like she’s been battling Solaris half the night.

  ‘Thank you! Thank you, everyone. Grazie!’ Gabriella said, finally. ‘I’ll see you all again soon.’ She blew kisses in the air and made her way back to Eva. Eva took this as her cue to continue to lead the way to what was now their room.

  ‘It’s not your usual five-star hotel,’ Eva said, as they entered the room, closing the door behind them.

  ‘No … it is a change from the Ritz, for sure,’ Gabriella smiled.

  ‘I know it’s not glamorous, but the people here are pretty amazing,’ Eva replied, hearing the defensiveness in her voice, before adding, ‘and you’re not on a red carpet now. You don’t have to act like that for them.’

  ‘That’s normal for me,’ Gabriella retorted.

  ‘Yeah, well,’ Eva said, collapsing on her bed, ‘I don’t think there is a normal for anyone anymore.’

  09

  SAM

  ‘So, why is this called the Larnaca find?’ Sam asked Xavier. A minute ago, the woman had left them alone with the container in a lab—the room they had both dreamed about.

  ‘Larnaca is a city in Cyprus,’ Xavier said. ‘It’s an island in the Mediterranean,’ he continued, seeing the blank look on Sam’s face. ‘Seriously, did you never listen in geography class? No, wait, that’s because you used to sit with what’s her name—what was he
r name? The pretty blond girl, with the braces …’

  ‘I listened in class,’ Sam replied, ignoring the jibe. ‘Guess the difference is that I never had my dad’s jet plane to go flying around the globe proving Newton’s third law of motion.’

  ‘First law,’ Xavier said. ‘Geez, you still thinking about that science class?’

  ‘It’s kinda burned in my memory,’ Sam said. ‘Seeing as that’s the day I was plucked from school at gunpoint and all that.’

  ‘This was from the dig site!’ Xavier interrupted, pulling out the contents of the plastic tubs lined up on the stainless-steel counter. He rifled through them, suddenly full of anxiety. ‘It must be here, I know it.’

  ‘We both saw the scroll, we’ve just got to find it,’ Sam said, looking through all the documents recording the archaeological dig.

  Xavier stopped his rummaging and looked at Sam and said, ‘Look for tracing paper, a big sheet with a wax rubbing on it.’

  ‘A rubbing of …’

  ‘Hieroglyphs. You’ll know it when you see it.’

  They pulled smaller boxes out onto the table and looked at the inventory sheets affixed to each lid.

  ‘Sixteenth century pottery fragments,’ Xavier said, reading off the first one.

  ‘Unknown organic matter,’ Sam said, reading off a lid. He looked inside—it looked like bits of rocks and debris.

  ‘Animal bones,’ Xavier said. ‘Gross.’

  They went through the tubs systematically, sorting through stacks of documents, and little plastic bags and containers filled with old coins.

  ‘So tell me more about Larnaca …’ Sam said.

  ‘Right. Well, from what I remember, my father had an archaeological team, overseen by Ahmed, excavating there,’ Xavier said, ‘specifically at Larnaca Castle. They identified an area where no previous archaeological work had been carried out. They found an underground vault where artefacts had been buried five hundred years before.’

  ‘How old is the castle?’ Sam asked.

  ‘Much older than that,’ Xavier said.

  ‘So someone buried this ancient Egyptian stuff there around 1500?’ Sam said. ‘The bottom half of Ramses’ Dream Stele, and the Star of Egypt, which we now know was really made by da Vinci,’ Sam said, ‘and contained his key.’ He looked at Xavier.

  ‘Maybe explain the whole story to me later, huh? Let’s keep looking,’ Xavier said.

  ‘Hmm,’ Sam said, scanning over several other tubs with similar contents, then, ‘Here’s something—recordings from site.’

  Xavier opened the box and saw stacks of notes and papers, depicting grid diagrams of the excavations carried out and journal entries. ‘Here!’ Xavier pulled out a rolled piece of tracing paper and they cleared the bench to lay it out. ‘I knew Ahmed would have done this! He taught me to do these as a kid. Wow, this is so cool.’

  I’ve seen this before! At least the top half of it.

  ‘This is it!’ Sam said, marvelling at the detailed wax rubbing of the Dream Stele. ‘It matches what I saw at the Academy—it’s the missing half, the piece that the rogue Guardians destroyed in New York! I thought your father said that no-one had seen the broken half of the Dream Stele?’

  ‘That’s just what he said at the museum—that’s my dad, a showman to the last …’ Xavier said. ‘The researchers would have checked over everything that was sent to New York, probably planning to do 3-D laser scans after the artefacts were revealed to the public.’

  ‘Well, they can’t do that to the Dream Stele now. Or the Star of Egypt.’ Sam instinctively reached for the key that hung under his shirt. But it was gone, given to Gabriella for safekeeping. A long way from here. A long way from danger.

  Sam swallowed hard. I wonder how they’re all doing. I hope they’re safe back at the Academy now.

  ‘I can’t believe I forgot to ask, but have you heard from Dr Kader?’ Sam said.

  ‘Nothing so far … but listen, let’s take this and—’ Xavier interrupted Sam’s reverie but stopped short as he heard footsteps echoing along the concrete floor outside. Whoever was coming was headed there in a hurry.

  We’ve taken too long … Xavier’s dream is coming true!

  10

  ALEX

  Alex watched Stella, the operations director for the Enterprise, as she took her team of Agents through a training drill. He sat in a glass-fronted observation room overlooking the mock-battlefield below, which was really a two-storey warehouse, the size of three basketball courts. Several small structures were set up as houses or offices, and there were a couple of fake parked cars and a few big wooden boxes for defensive positions.

  It was a paintball shootout minus the paint. In the dim light of the black-painted landscape below, he could make out two teams with twelve Agents on each side. Stella led one group, a large guy called Henk led the other. Their objective seemed to be to get whatever was in the centre building, which looked like a little timber house. Their weapons were laser guns, which recorded hits on their full-body armour.

  Alex leaned forward and watched the tactics play out below.

  Stella moved her team first, and they moved fast. She split them into three smaller teams, silently motioning for two teams to wrap around the opposite sides of the room in a pincer movement, suppressing the other force. Their middle team, with Stella leading, surged forward for the prize. In reach of the target building, the opposition had split into two and made their big defensive move, pushing outwards with all their personnel at once. The ensuing battle was fairly even, with half the advancing team down and the remainder pulling back to cover.

  After that skirmish, Stella’s two side-teams were down to two Agents each, the ‘dead’ ones having to walk back to the start lines with their laser weapons held above their heads.

  What happened next was so quick he almost missed it—those two teams of two each began to fire on their opposite numbers, forcing them to remain in cover positions and keep their heads down, while Stella and her group of four rushed for the house. One of the other team, Henk perhaps, broke free and ran to a cover spot behind a vehicle, and that’s when Stella’s final team split again: two rushed the breakaway guy, running out in the open to flush him out as if their lives were expendable so long as Stella won.

  And win, she did. She rushed to the house and the lights went up, signifying the end of the exercise. Alex watched as Stella exited, smiling and victorious. She did not bother to thank her team and shouted at the ‘dead’ men who’d made stupid mistakes. Then she walked from the room alone, leaving the Agents to regain their battered pride and talk through their mistakes.

  Alex learned one thing that he’d already suspected—I wouldn’t want to come up against Stella in a fight.

  11

  SAM

  ‘Where can we hide?’ Xavier whispered as the footfalls outside neared the door.

  ‘Here, quick!’ Sam pointed to a long steel cupboard tucked under a bench set into the wall. It was a tight squeeze and Xavier’s elbow pushed into Sam’s nose which was pressed up to the crack between the doors. The sound of the paper crinkling in Sam’s grasp echoed inside the steel confines of their hide-out. The lab door was flung open and five pairs of boots marched in.

  ‘Can you see anything?’ Xavier whispered.

  ‘Only your elbow!’ Sam replied.

  ‘Sorry.’ Xavier shifted slightly.

  ‘Quiet!’ Sam muttered.

  There was near-silent shuffling as they shifted positions. Through the small slit between the doors Sam peered out and saw a group of men walk over to the large open containers. Sam glimpsed their unmistakable uniform as they went past their hiding spot.

  The German Guardians … of course.

  A big guy had his back to them, along with the woman who’d shown them into the room. Three others remained near the wall, but were swiftly ordered with a couple of hand-motions to search other rooms.

  Maybe if we stay in here, and stay quiet …

  Sam’s sweaty hand s
lipped on the steel under him and poked Xavier who let out a little yelp.

  They fell silent. Sam swallowed hard and put his eye back to the crack between the doors.

  Their commotion hadn’t gone unnoticed.

  The big guy turned around and Sam recognised his face. It was definitely one of the German Guardians. He’d seen him in one of the vans—he’d fired the dart at Sam’s scooter. And now here he was, with the same idea that Sam and Xavier had—to gather any remaining trace left of the Dream Stele. Only this guy would want to … what, destroy it? Take it to whoever he was working for? Either way, Sam couldn’t let that happen.

  Sam watched as the guy cautiously walked towards their cabinet.

  ‘You trust me, right?’ Sam whispered to Xavier.

  ‘Trust you?’ Xavier asked.

  ‘Count of three, we jump out. I’ll grab his legs and try to bring him down, you go for his gun.’

  ‘How come I’m the one going for a weapon?’ Xavier said.

  ‘One, two—’

  The cupboard doors flew open.

  ‘ARGH!’ Sam lunged head first and took the Guardian by surprise. That was all he had—surprise. He managed to knock him off his feet and pin him to the ground.

  ‘Xavier!’ Sam yelled. ‘Now!’

  But Xavier was not right behind him as planned. The Guardian was struggling to catch his breath and sat up, bringing his hands up towards Sam’s throat.

  Sam flipped backwards off the Guardian and the two of them leapt to their feet, ready to fight.

  ‘Eat this!’ Xavier said, pulling an object from his backpack. There was a BANG! and sparks flew.

  The Guardian convulsed and stumbled back in surprise and unwilling compliance. Xavier had shot the Guardian square in the chest with a taser, the two probes sticking out of his chest, fine wires flexing as Xavier applied more juice and the Guardian collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

  ‘Wow,’ Xavier said. ‘I’ve always wanted to try that,’ he grinned.