BLOODLINE ZERO
Somewhere north of it, in a shooting lodge in Sutherland, nine people who were told what they were before they had to carry it are asleep in a building named after a room in Aberdeen.
And under all of it, in a channel she can no longer hear, something very old is going about its business, in no particular hurry, waiting for a door that has opened four times before.
"Quiet," she says. "It feels quiet."
She picks up her glass.
"I'm going to need about ten years to get used to it," she says, "and I'd like to spend them here."
END OF BLOODLINE ZERO