Sharon Ede www.magethenovel.com © 2023 all rights reserved
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AMBRA WAS WOKEN a few hours later by a huge commotion from MAGE’s laboratory. Still half asleep, she stumbled out of her bunk and hurried down the corridor to the main lab.
She found her father and Mortlock in an uproar, arms waving and bellowing, but she couldn’t comprehend what they were saying, or what had happened.
Were they fighting?
John Goyder was nowhere to be seen.
Ambra glanced at the wall of MAGE controls. There was one glaring omission.
The socket in which the Saturnian diamond had been placed was empty.
The gem was gone.
‘Half an hour! Half a bloody hour’s kip since the diamond arrived, and this happens,’ ranted Lightstone, as he and Mortlock began frantically examining CCTV footage from within and at the exit points of MAGE.
‘There!’ shouted Mortlock.
Lightstone skipped back through the footage.
Barely half an hour ago, the security cameras showed John Goyder sneaking out of MAGE, back through the vault and its series of doors, and out into the white world. In his hand, he held a black-velvet pouch with an object the size of an orange in it.
He left a trail of deep prints in the snow, and then stopped, waiting.
Within a few minutes, the footage showed a snowmobile emerging from the darkness. The driver’s identity could not be determined, his face hidden by a blue-and-black balaclava.
Goyder jumped onto the back of the snowmobile, which then sped off towards the coast of the island.
Mortlock slammed his fist onto the desk, causing Ambra to jump.
‘Goyder!’ he shouted. ‘This time you’ve really crossed the line!’
