‘Maybe if you didn’t spend so frickin’ long reading it…’ She glanced at the phone in his hand. ‘Who was that?’
‘Macy. She wanted to check we were okay — and find out what was going on.’
‘What did you tell her?’
‘Most of it.’
Nina eyed him. ‘Are you sure that was wise?’
‘I didn’t tell her the part about Nazi war criminals hunting for the Fountain of Youth, if that’s what you’re worried about,’ he said, tetchy. ‘I still know how to keep secrets.’
‘Okay, okay. Is Macy all right?’
‘Yeah. A bit pissed off that we left LA without seeing her, but apart from that, she’s fine.’
‘Good. I’m glad nothing happened to her. It’s bad enough that we got dragged into this business without our friends getting involved too.’
‘Speaking of business…’ His expression became harder. ‘Are you still definitely wanting to go to Egypt?’
She drew the towel tighter. ‘Yes, I am.’
‘For Christ’s sake, Nina! It’s the exact opposite of what we planned!’
‘What am I supposed to do?’ she fired back. ‘Just ignore the fact that someone tried to kill me? Whatever’s going on, I’ve been dragged into it, whether I like it or not! Besides, the inner tomb’s going to be opened in two days from now. If the Egyptians do that and secure everything without any trouble, then we can come back home and pick up where we left off. For all we know, just the fact that we know about their plan might stop these people from trying.’
‘Or if they’ve already gone to so much effort, they might try even harder to get what they’re after. They don’t need you there, Nina,’ Eddie insisted. ‘The world of archaeology doesn’t fall apart when you’re not in it!’
‘It’s two days, Eddie. Two days! That’s all.’ Nina waved her hands for emphasis, the towel accidentally slipping away from her body. She quickly yanked it back — but it was too late.
Eddie stared hard at her side, gaze as piercing as an X-ray. ‘Let me see that.’ His voice was suddenly, oddly calm.
‘There’s… there’s nothing to see,’ she told him lamely.
‘Nina, I’m not fucking blind. Let me look.’
Reluctantly, she drew back the towel. Eddie bent down to look at her side. He regarded the pale skin in silence, then let out a heavy sigh. ‘So, when were you planning on telling me?’
‘I… don’t know,’ she admitted. ‘I didn’t want to worry you.’
‘You didn’t…’ Another sigh, this time of disbelief and exasperation. ‘I’m your fucking husband, Nina. How could you not tell me?’
Revealed on Nina’s flank was a line of ugly lumps, the largest almost half an inch across. They could easily have been mistaken for blisters, or warts — but both Nina and Eddie knew they were far more malevolent. ‘When did these appear?’
She couldn’t meet his eyes, using the excuse of examining the blemishes to look away. ‘I don’t know exactly,’ she lied. It had been close to two weeks. ‘The biggest one came out first, and it… it’s just been growing ever since.’
‘And you deliberately kept them hidden from me? Is that why you suddenly started wearing T-shirts to bed?’ She nodded. ‘For fuck’s sake! You should have told me!’
Nina looked back at him. ‘What could you have done about them?’
The simple, quiet question floored him. ‘About them? Not much,’ he had to admit. ‘But I could do things for you! Whatever you need, I’ll do it.’
‘You already are, Eddie.’ She blinked away a tear. ‘You already are. But…’
‘But?’
‘There’s nothing you can do about — about these.’ She jabbed at the lumps with sudden anger. ‘There’s nothing anyone can do, nothing! We both know what’s going to happen to me. These things are going to kill me, and I didn’t tell you about them because the thing I need most from you is for you not to worry for me, and if I think about what’s going to happen I get so mad because — because — because of all the things I’ll never get to do! Like having a child — only now we daren’t risk it…’
‘The doctors didn’t think I could get infected.’
‘But the baby would be! We already know that…’ She broke down, letting the wet towel drop to the floor as she clutched Eddie tightly.
‘It’s okay, it’s okay,’ he said, wrapping his muscular arms around her.
‘It’s not, though, is it?’ she managed through her sobs.
He choked back tears of his own. ‘No, it’s fucking not. If I hadn’t already killed the fuckers who caused all this, I’d kill ’em again! Bastards.’
Nina sighed. ‘Enough people have died already. All that death, and nothing to show for it. We found Valhalla, we found something that had been hidden for over a thousand years, but they burned it down. It’s a waste.’ Anger flared in her once more. ‘The whole thing’s such a waste, Eddie! I’m dying, and for what? I found something incredible, and they destroyed it!’
‘Yeah, and we also found something horrible, and it’s a bloody good job that got destroyed too,’ he reminded her. ‘We kept a bunch of arseholes from getting hold of the worst poison on the planet. And we stopped a nuclear war while we were at it.’
‘Saving the world again, right?’ She managed a small, sad laugh.
Eddie made a similar sound of strained amusement. ‘Wouldn’t be the first time. Christ, it wouldn’t even be the second time.’
‘And this is what we get in return?’ She felt her naked side again, disgusted by the tumorous excrescences. ‘This is why I want to go to Egypt,’ she said, looking back at her husband with renewed determination. ‘One last job, as the cliché goes. If nothing else, I can help make sure that Alexander’s tomb is opened properly. Part of that legacy I talked about.’
‘What, finding Atlantis and Excalibur and El Dorado and everything else wasn’t enough?’ There was still an edge behind the words, even though his tone had lightened.
‘I just don’t like loose ends. Please, Eddie. Let me do this.’
He took a deep breath. ‘Two days?’ he finally said. ‘Two days, and then we’re done. Okay?’
‘Okay,’ she promised. ‘Let me see this through. As you like to say, fight to the end.’
Despite his clear reluctance, he nodded. ‘Fight to the end.’
5
Nina opened the shutter to squint out of the window of the 747 at the blue Mediterranean below and the sandy shoreline on the horizon. She checked her watch; the flight had taken over twelve hours, yet on the ground it was a full day ahead of when they had left New York. ‘God, overnight flights always screw me up,’ she mumbled. ‘My body clock’ll be so out of sync, I’ll probably think we’re meeting Alexander the Great in person.’
Eddie was holding her Kindle. ‘Good, we can tell him he should be called Alexander the Dick.’
‘You’ve been reading about him?’ Before falling asleep, she had used the e-book reader to refresh her memory of both the Alexander Romance and the historical exploits of the ancient leader.
‘Yeah. I knew a bit about him — that he was a tactical genius who never lost a battle — but I’d no idea he was such a bloodthirsty arsehole. That story you told me about how he threatened to kill the entire tribe who took his horse; he would’ve done it, wouldn’t he?’
‘Yes, he would. Alexander preferred to show mercy to the rulers of the lands he conquered, as it made the transfer of power smoother if it seemed like they were voluntarily submitting to Macedonian rule. When it came to ordinary people, though,’ she went on with a grim shrug, ‘he could be completely merciless. It took his army months to win the siege of the city of Tyre, and when they finally broke through the walls, Alexander let his soldiers murder every man, woman and child they found during the first few hours, as a reward for what they’d endured to get in there. After that, anyone suspected of being a defender of the city was crucified, and every surviving civilian was sold into slavery.’