The sniper turned to see Teo land on the ground, his cylindrical weapon aimed at him.

'Who are you? What do you want?' Teo inched his way closer to remove the balaclava the gunman wore.

Rhun, in the meantime, retrieved the gun and turned on a mini-flashlight to get a look at their attacker's face.

'I have to be sure you are who I believe you are.'

Teo was shocked as he removed the gunman's disguise to discover a woman. Her long, dark curls fell about her shoulders, and her eyes were violet like Tory's, only much paler.

'Who are you?' Rhun repeated the query, coldly aiming her gun at her and cocking it so it was ready to fire.

'I am Neraida, the daughter of Alexander and the humble servant of the serpent, who was the great-grandfather of my tribe.'

'Not Doc Alexander?' Teo hoped.

'I think she means Alexander the Great, Teo.' Rhun deduced this from her colouring, which was as dark as the native Middle Eastern peoples. Teo was speechless as the woman nodded in confirmation of Rhun's comment.

Upon closer inspection, Rhun recognised her as a one-time ally of his father's. She was Cara, the wife of Vortipor the Protector of Dyfed, who had become the High King of Britain after Maelgwn had vacated the position. Upon realising this, Rhun felt inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. 'I am ...'

'King Rhun of Gwynedd,' Neraida stated. 'Son of Maelgwn, the Dragon of the Isle. Your mother is Tory Alexander, the grand-daughter of the Lord Marduk, and therefore my cousin.' The two men were so obviously taken aback by her words that she obliged them with an explanation. 'I recall much of the life and times of my other earthly incarnations, one of which was in Gwynedd, with your father and Tory Alexander.'

'I remember,' Rhun concurred, 'but Lady Cara died when I was only ...' he stopped himself, thinking the comment might be inappropriate or hurtful to her.

'Indeed. The last memory I have of you, you were just a little boy.' Neraida chuckled at how different he appeared now. 'Sorry I had to shoot you but, if you were who I suspected, it wasn't going to do you any permanent damage.'

'And if I wasn't.' Rhun considered Teo's addiction to coffee rather fortunate in this instance.

'Then you were a dead man,' she stated coldly.

'Where is your legendary mother? Her vision was supposed to lead her to Babylon, not Baghdad.'

Rhun urged Teo to be calm, as he was obviously insulted by Neraida's casual disregard for the lives and worth of mortal men. 'We followed Doc Alexander here.'

'Oh, no,' Neraida gasped. 'Please don't tell me she's attempting to penetrate Unken headquarters.'

'If that's where the secret entrance in the clearing up yonder leads, yes she is?' Rhun, knowing the full extent of his mother's talents, wasn't as quick to panic.

'No, no, no, we can't afford to lose her!' Neraida wandered around, anxiously forming a strategy in her mind.

'How do you figure that.' Teo thought she was overreacting. 'Tory is immortal.'

'I'm not worried about her being killed,' Neraida replied and enlightened them. 'I'm worried about her being brainwashed. I've already lost several of my kin trying to penetrate the Unken ranks.'

'Lost,' Rhun frowned. 'How? Were they not skilled in the higher mysteries?'

'Yes, of course.' Her accent became more pronounced as she became angry. 'I'll explain later ...'

'You'll explain now.' Teo aimed his Stormer at her once more. He didn't recall knowing her in a past life and therefore was not as trusting.

Neraida sighed, exasperated, deciding it would be faster to oblige. 'My grandfather's kin, the Nefilim, recently created a device designed to control insubordinate immortals. NERGUZ they called it, meaning, reversing weapon. The module, clamped around the wrist or forehead of the subject, creates a hole in their electromagnetic field and temporarily drains them of all psi ability. Then the executor of the NERGUZ and subject are mentally linked, until all the insubordinate's undesirable thought patterns are reversed. The NERGUZ module can only be removed by the executor, and only he knows the key word he has used to activate the device. This word, and only this word, will deactivate it.'

'I just know you're going to tell me that Doc got his hands on this technology?' Rhun was turning pale.

Neraida nodded. 'The weapon has since been renamed here on Earth the NERGUZ-I-NUEN - reversing weapon of the dark lord.'

'But how?' Rhun was pacing now, not wanting to waste time on acquiring details that he knew were unimportant.

'The prototype of the NERGUZ was stolen by Inanna, and she used it for her own selfish ends for a time. She was eventually persuaded by her brother Utu, or Shamash as you may know him better, to let him have the weapon - just long enough to analyse and reproduce it. When Doc Alexander formed his alliance with Shamash, he passed the intricacies of the NERGUZ onto him.'

'Doc has formed an alliance with Shamash?' Rhun was stunned to learn. 'How do you know?'

'I have connections in high places that keep me well informed.' Neraida raised both brows. 'Besides, I would have thought that was obvious considering that Doc has become somewhat more accomplished in the ancient mysteries of late and is operating under the God's name.'

'So Doc is Lugal Shamash, the leader of the Unken?' Teo lowered his Stormer.

'Just work that out, did you?' Neraida jeered at Teo as she reclaimed her weapon from Rhun. 'Most of my tribe, including those I have lost to Lugal, are over two thousand years old ... Tory Alexander, in psychic terms, is a mere novice compared to them. If they couldn't resist the power of the NERGUZ-I-NUEN, how long do you think she's going to last?' Neraida took a few steps backward and began to fade.

'Wait inside Merlin.' Rhun captured Neraida's image in his mind, willing himself after her.

A moment later, Teo was alone. 'Hold on, if Doc is Lugal, why is he threatening his own project?' With no one left to answer him, Teo wandered reluctantly back to Merlin II to wait the crisis out.

17.

THE LORD GIVETH.

AND THE LORD.

TAKETH AWAY.

The Unken had a nuclear missile alright. In fact they had several ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles), capable of travelling distances of up to 30,000 kilometres. The first of these was to be launched within the next twenty-four hours, though it was not, nor ever was, intended for the host or main fusion station in New Mexico. This missile had a divine purpose. A purpose that, properly disguised, would make Doc Alexander look like a hero in the eyes of the American people. The US government, in return, would see to it that nobody else learned the truth.

Doc was running over details of the missile launch with the Unken squad, when their head of security entered to report to him.

'Forgive the interruption, O Great Lugal. The motion detectors in the tunnel indicate a presence, but our cameras show nothing.' He shook his head, his hands raised in bafflement.

'Really.' Doc was rather delighted. 'How intriguing.'

He excused himself from the meeting and followed the young man to his post.

After following the tunnel for a kilometre or so, Brian, Tory and Rhiannon had paused some distance away from a guard post.

Two men kept watch in front of a solid lead wall that entirely blocked off the tunnel. The door was also lead, and the electronic keypad seemed to indicate that they needed to keep one guard conscious to acquire the entry code.

A good opportunity to ambush them did not take long to present itself, as one of the guards headed up the tunnel in their direction. At first they feared he might be wise to them, but when the guard started to unzip the fly of his trousers, they realised this was not the case.

The soldier had paused in the shadowy area between the lights to relieve himself, when a hand seized his throat. Fingers pressed into the pressure points in his neck, so hard that he immediately blanked out.

Tory assumed the guard's image, whilst Brian taped the soldier's feet and hands together. He then taped over their captive's mouth and right round his head to ensure his silence.

The remaining guard, who awaited Tory's approach by the entrance to the fortress, didn't notice that his comrade's form had become slightly smaller. He was lighting a cigarette as Tory reached him, and he offered her one. With a shake of her head she assumed her post.

Moments later, a noise was heard in the tunnel up ahead of them and the guard immediately ditched the cigarette and cocked his weapon ready to fire. Tory motioned for him to investigate, and cautiously he moved to do so. The guard was so focused on seeking the trouble ahead of him that he failed to notice that his comrade had followed him into the shadows.

'Drop it,' Tory advised, the barrel of her gun pressed deep into the back of his neck.

The soldier obliged at once.

Brian, who had assumed the appearance of the guard Tory held captive, came out of nowhere to claim the weapon, and the soldier was speechless upon confronting himself.

Tory spun the guard around and demanded the code to the door.

'I do not know it.' He spotted his real comrade bound, gagged and unconscious on the ground nearby.

'He has it,' the soldier claimed, pointing to his friend.

'Is that right?' Tory gripped hold of his jaw, her eyes glaring deep into his. 'Tell me the code.' As the soldier persisted with his claim not to know it, Tory bethought the code-key from him. She smiled, triumphant, whereby Brian blasted him with his Stormer and the guard dropped to the ground like a stone.

With the second guard bound and gagged, Tory and Brian headed off towards the entrance to the Unken hideout. Rhiannon followed them, still masked by the enchanted mantle.

Tory headed straight for the keypad, but while she was occupied with entering the code, her Stormer was snatched from her belt. She was startled when a laser bullet hit Brian and he slid down the fortress wall to the ground. She was not given the chance to turn and see their attacker, before she had joined her brother in an unconscious state.

Rhiannon held her Stormer poised ready to fire as Doc, in his regular form (blonde, blue-eyed and handsome), checked over his victims. Then, looking to the weapon in his hand, he grinned, impressed. 'Please, don't fire.' He turned to view the empty tunnel, casting aside the weapon he held. 'I haven't harmed your kin, nor do I intend to. I only wish to speak with you.'

Rhiannon bit her lip. She very much wanted to remind him of how he'd brutally killed her father, but she didn't think it wise to confirm her presence in case he was bluffing. Her finger tightened on the trigger of her Stormer, wanting to shoot, but Doc's form seemed to glow like an angel and she couldn't bring herself to do it.

'Come, come, Miss Devereux. I know you're here, I can sense you.' He looked directly at her. 'Or should I say, Rhiannon?'

His words set her back a few paces. How could he know?

'No, don't be frightened,' he urged, dropping to his knees. 'God knows that's the last thing I want to do. I have gone to the same pains to discover your true identity as you have gone to discover mine. I am in love with you, you see ...' He paused, hoping for a reaction.

What? This was the last thing Rhiannon had expected him to say. Is he kidding me? 'Cadwaladr was a merciless barbarian, incapable of love.'

'Yes, I was,' he admitted, freely. 'But I have changed since then. I am more enlightened now.'

But his words only served to make Rhiannon's blood boil. 'You are a liar, a murderer and a fraud, Cadwaladr ...

tell it to my father's corpse.' She raised the Stormer once more, of the mind to use it.

'Your father lives. You know that as well as I.' Doc sat back on his heels in a casual fashion. 'There has been no true harm done, so please allow me ...'

'What about John Pearce, his wife, and Nicholas ...

is torture a pastime of the enlightened these days?' She brushed the mantle back from her shoulders. Her eyes were filled with tears as all the pain and anger accumulated over the last four years engulfed her, causing her to tremble in her stance.

'They are all still living, too, Rhiannon, in one part of the universe or the other. You have lost no one.'

He made a strong appeal. 'If you want to know what it is I am doing, I shall show you. You don't have to trail me ... we are kindred after all.'

Rhiannon was openly weeping now, and she felt him penetrating her psychic shield to influence her.

Shoot him, she ordered herself.

Doc held both hands out towards her, urging her to take them. 'Doesn't everyone deserve at least one chance?'

This was something her mother often said. No! she warned herself as she replaced the Stormer on her belt.

Don't trust him.

'Here, I have a present for you.' He stood and held out a bracelet made of a pinkish-gold metal.

'I don't want anything from you.' She steered clear of him to approach the entrance.

'Well, I'm afraid if you want to come inside, you must wear this. There are nuclear weapons therein, and this band detects and absorbs radiation. Believe me, these will be in great demand soon.'

Doc showed her the one he wore which was larger and more complex than the one he offered her, but it appeared to be based on much the same principle.

'Radiation is of little concern to me,' Rhiannon bluffed.

'Until you experience physical death, my dear, you will suffer the ailments of mortal man.' Doc was firm with her, then his voice softened. 'Please, radiation sickness is not very pleasant, and I have no desire for you to add falling ill to your long list of reasons to despise me.'

'Alright.' Rhiannon held out her left hand, in a huff, wondering how he'd managed to find out so much about her.

'No, right hand,' he advised. 'It's designed -'

'Oh ... here.' She switched arms impatiently.

'Ouch!' she cried as the band clamped around her wrist.

'It pricked me.'

Doc uttered something, a word that was unfamiliar to her.

'What did you say?'

'Nothing.' He keyed the code into the keypad and the heavy lead door clicked open. 'Come, my love.' Doc again held his hand out to her and this time Rhiannon took it. 'Mission accomplished.' He guided her inside, and sealed the door closed behind them.

Neraida and Rhun arrived at the Unken's outer defence wall to find Tory and Brian spread-eagled on the ground.

'Oh Jesus.' Rhun scanned the area. 'Where's Rhiannon?'

'Praise the Goddess.' Neraida breathed easier as she finished checking both Tory and Brian's right wrist and forehead.