The Burning Man

2

Dawn was breaking when they left the hotel in a four-wheel-drive. They had found several other people sacrificed to Tyr, hanging in their rooms. Hunter had been keen to burn the hotel to the ground to cover their tracks in what would be seen as another terrorist outrage, but Church was adamant that the bodies needed to be left intact for their relatives to claim.

‘You recovered now?’ Laura lounged in Shavi’s lap in the back. ‘You looked like shit when you came out of your little ritual room.’

‘It is becoming easier, but never easy. At least we now know where we are going.’

Church brooded in the front. His eyes flicked continually across the landscape, always searching. ‘Interpol’s going to be looking for us,’ he said. ‘This isn’t going to be easy.’

‘I know a few tricks,’ Hunter said as he steered onto the deserted main road.

Church allowed himself one last look for Ruth. Even after everything that had happened, he still had hope.

Behind them, the Morvren blackened the sky.