“I think this is our chance,” Stone said. “Run!”
They skirted the temple at a full sprint. None of the warriors paid them any mind. The fighting had ceased as the troops watched Sobek mount the temple. The Night Queen shrieked and gesticulated, ordering her troops to fight, but none were willing to face a god.
As they entered the tunnel, Stone stole a glance back. Sobek had Yineput trapped in his jaws. Her screams drowned in blood as she was slowly crushed. With a jerk of his head, Sobek flung her limp body aside. Her broken body tumbled down the pyramid and lay still.
The pyramid turned from blood red to brilliant green. Sobek raised his scepter and hissed. All the warriors, crocodile and jackal alike, genuflected before him.
“Stop staring,” Trinity said. “Let’s get out of here before he decides to purge the rest of the unwanted intruders.”
They made their way unimpeded out of the temple. Alex and Constance were waiting for them.
“Where is Hawk?” Stone asked.
“He cut the leads on all of Kane’s camels and is driving them away,” Alex said. “Any of their lot who escape will have to do so on foot.”
“Have you seen Kane or Fischer?” Stone asked.
“Kane got out ahead of us. We saw him riding away,” Constance said.
“And Fischer?”
“She is right here.”
Stone froze, turned slowly to see Magda Fischer holding a knife to Trinity’s throat. Stone drew his Webley.
“Don’t!” Fischer warned as she pressed her knife into Trinity’s flesh. A trickle of blood oozed down Trinity’s neck. “If I press any harder, she dies.”
“It’s over,” Stone said. “The Night Queen is gone. Your plan has failed.”
“You think so?” Fischer’s laugh was like a blizzard in summertime. “How little you understand.”
“What do you want?” Stone said.
“I want the tablet. I wanted the Night Queen’s army, but Sobek’s forces will do just as well.”
“Don’t let her have it,” Trinity said. “I’ll gladly trade my life for the thousands she and her fascist friends will slaughter.”
“He won’t kill me,” Fischer said. “I have it on good authority that your friend has a problem killing women.”
Visions of Rose flashed through Stone’s mind. He remembered the moment as if it were yesterday.
His pistol was aimed at her heart. Squeeze the trigger and his mission was complete. He must have flinched at the last instant, missed her heart by inches. He had failed to kill her, and he wasn’t sorry, because in the end, it was he who had unknowingly been doing the Illuminati’s work.
Today was a different story.
“That is where you’re wrong,” Stone said. “Rose was a friend. You, however, are the face of evil.”
His bullet took Fischer in her right eye. She spun away and fell flat on her face.
Trinity ran to him and caught him in a tight squeeze. “You did the right thing,” she whispered. “She was terrible.”
“I know, but I still don’t feel good about it.”
Hawk returned a few minutes later and they journeyed back to where they had left their camels and pack mule, mounted up, and began the slow trek to civilization. Stone didn’t talk much on the way back. He was grappling with feelings too deep for words. He had long ago accepted the fact that taking a life was sometimes necessary, but it came with a cost to all but the most hardened sociopath.
He was still brooding when they checked into the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor. When they reached their rooms, Trinity pulled him aside.
“Stop being so hard on yourself,” she said. “You did the right thing.”
“Then why does it feel wrong?”
“Sometimes the right thing feels like the wrong thing. That’s why we have to trust our brain and our heart.” She gave him a squeeze and he felt himself relax for the first time in days.
“What is your heart telling you right now?” he asked.
Trinity grinned. “It’s telling me I want to take the longest bath in recorded history.”
28 Epilogue
The offices of Kane Industries were strangely quiet when John Kane entered. His employees, who normally greeted him warmly, cast nervous glances in his direction and said only a few words before hurrying away. His footsteps echoed down the quiet hall as he walked to his office. It was odd. He had only been gone for a few months, but they treated him like a stranger.
Patricia, his longtime secretary, nearly jumped out of her skin when he stepped through the door. “Mister Kane! It’s you!”
“Who else would it be?” He tried and failed to flash his trademark confident smile, but it fizzled.
The events at the Night Queen’s temple had a profound effect on him. Until the moment Yineput rose from the dead, he hadn’t truly believed in the supernatural. Magda’s Nazi friends and his own Illuminati allies were true believers. Kane always leaned toward a scientific explanation for anything that appeared to defy the known laws of nature. But he was deeply indebted to both and had no choice but to indulge their every whim — pyramid power, the Bermuda Triangle, Egyptian curses, and all the rest.
A wave of shame washed over him at the thought of Magda. When he had come to, the Anubis warriors were slaughtering his men. Kane had fled like a coward with no thought for anyone but himself.
At least I’m alive. Which is more than I can say for Magda.
“They told us you were dead.” Patricia directed a glance at Kane’s office door.
Kane wasn’t surprised. It had taken him a week to find his way back to Luxor. He had arrived sunburned, dehydrated, and half-starved. The specter of the Night Queen haunted his dreams and he saw jackal-headed warriors around every corner. He spent a week holed up in a hotel room with the door locked and the curtains drawn before he summoned the strength and courage to make the journey home.
“Who told you that?”
Patricia blanched. She swallowed hard, cocked her head toward the door. “In there,” she whispered.
Kane frowned, opened the office door and stepped inside. He was immediately confronted by a hulking man with snow white hair.
“Mister Kane, it is good to see you,” the man said in a thick German accent. His meaty paw engulfed Kane’s as they shook hands.
Kane was thoroughly befuddled. Who was this man and what was he doing in Kane’s office?
“I fear you have the advantage of me, Mister…”
“My name is Gerhard.”
“You’re with the Germans, obviously.”
“That is correct, but I also represent another group.” He flashed the sign of the All Seeing Eye. A Nazi and an Illuminatus.
“I fear I have only bad news for the men you represent,” Kane said. “Our mission was a complete failure. I was the only survivor.”
“You do not have to explain yourself to me, Mister Kane,” Gerhard said. “I am here to assist the new director of Kane Industries.”
“New director?” Kane’s head swam. “What in God’s name are you talking about?”
“Your loans were called due two weeks ago. All of them. Your businesses now belong to us.”
“This is intolerable! I nearly died for you people.”
“Your sacrifices are appreciated, which is why you are still alive. We believe you can still be useful. You will remain director, but as a figurehead only. You will now take orders from the actual director.”
Gerhard stepped aside. Someone was seated at Kane’s desk with their back to him. Anger surged through him. That was his desk, his chair, and his company!