The Ancient Starship Read Online Free Page B

bush. It was completely dark by now, and Amelia couldn’t see what had caught his attention. Probably a possum up a tree.
    â€˜Look at this,’ said Lady Naomi. The image changed from the natural colours of the desert to a dull blue-grey. The dig site, though, was different. An oblong shape glowed red.
    â€˜What’s that?’ said Amelia.
    â€˜Radioactivity,’ said Lady Naomi.
    â€˜It’s a nuclear bomb?’ Charlie gaped.
    â€˜Not that kind of radioactivity,’ Lady Naomi went on. ‘Everything has some radioactivity, even you and I do. I’ve asked the computer to screen out every expected radioactive signature, which is why the screen is basically all blue. But this red – well, that’s a radioactive signature that is out of time, and out of place.’
    â€˜Alien?’ said Charlie.
    â€˜Definitely.’
    Another click, and the holo-screen became completely black, before quickly filling with tiny green dots. The dots were grouped together in one place, with some slowly drifting away from the group, and others coming in to join it.
    â€˜What are the dots?’ said Charlie. ‘People?’
    â€˜Close,’ said Lady Naomi. ‘They’re phones.’
    â€˜You can see a dot for every mobile phone?’
    â€˜Yes, and …’ Lady Naomi typed at the keyboard, and some of the green dots disappeared. ‘That removed the phones without cameras. And this …’

    Half the dots turned red. ‘This shows up which phones have taken video in the last fifteen minutes.’ She beamed at the kids. ‘Who wants to see what those guys are filming down there?’
    Amelia did. But she was also slightly freaked out by what Lady Naomi was doing. Could she really get into the memory of any mobile phone on the planet? Did that mean she could also look into any computer? And why would she want to do that? She thought about Callan shouting about the Illuminati, and wondered if it was really all that crazy an idea …
    Grawk let out a sharp bark of warning as a branch snapped under someone’s foot, just outside the workstation.
    Lady Naomi pressed a button and the holo-screen vanished. The whole clearing lit up as halogen lights flared. All three of them swung around to see who the intruder was.
    Grawk scampered away from the workstation and over to the figure, frozen in the light, her usually neat scarf pulled awry on her head.

‘You!’ said Charlie. ‘You followed us!’
    The woman in the scarf ran toward them.
    â€˜What do you want?’ Lady Naomi demanded.
    Amelia braced herself, waiting for some proud, angry retort. To her surprise, though, the woman couldn’t have been meeker or more apologetic.
    â€˜I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I overheard you with the children at the hotel …’
    Lady Naomi was stony-faced, her hands on her hips. ‘Yes?’
    The woman nervously straightened her scarf. ‘You mentioned that you could find out about the starship in Egypt …’
    Amelia noticed Grawk sniffing delicately at the woman’s shoe.
    â€˜Well, you see,’ the woman said miserably, realising that no-one was about to make things easy for her, ‘I’ve lost my husband, and I wondered if you could help me find him?’
    â€˜What’s your husband got to do with us?’ said Charlie. ‘Is he an Egyptian archaeologist?’
    Lady Naomi crossed her arms, clearly wary. ‘Yes, go on. Why do you think I can help you?’
    â€˜I thought …’ The woman wrung her hands. ‘I don’t know. I came here to find him myself, but then when I heard you offer to help find the children’s father … I wondered …’
    Lady Naomi frowned, unmoved. Then Amelia realised that Lady Naomi didn’t know one crucial fact about the woman in the scarf.

    â€˜She came through the gateway,’ Amelia blurted. ‘She already looked human when she