His smile quickly faded.
And he turned to look out the window to see the second chopper flying adjacent to them.
Inside the second chopper, Obsidian Hall held a briefing with his team.
“Eden? The biblical Eden?” Butcher Boy appeared amazed, not sure if Obsidian Hall was spinning a tale or telling the truth.
“Is there another?” he returned.
“The bloody Garden of Eden?” asked Aussie, leaning forward so that he could be heard over the rotor blades.
“Except it isn’t much of a garden anymore,” he told him, “but rather a desert plain.”
“So our mission is to protect you from what?” asked Red.
“It’s twofold, actually,” he began. “One: there is something inside that’s not too friendly to those not indigenous to its territory.”
“Like what?” asked Carroll.
“That’s the question, isn’t it? It appears that nobody knows for sure! Whatever it is, I want it dead should it come anywhere near us!”
“And two?” asked Butcher Boy.
“And two: It’s believed that there are crypts within. And what is a constant in every crypt?”
Aussie smiled, and then leaned back. “Treasure,” he said. “Lots and lots of bloody treasure.”
“Exactly! But, of course, Ms. Moore will protest your newfound profits should you decide to pilfer from the ancient till, if you know what I mean. I, however, want only one thing!”
Aussie leaned forward to get within earshot. “And what’s that?”
“I want what’s inside those crypts!”
For a brief moment, nothing could be heard but the loud swinging of the rotors. They were all thinking the same thing. But it was Butcher Boy who forwarded the question to Hall. “You want what’s inside these crypts for yourself?”
“That’s why I funded this project!”
“Ms. Moore is not about to allow you to do that, sir!” he said loudly. “And neither will the Istanbul Institute!”
“Maybe Ms. Moore and her team will, unfortunately, meet with a horrible and untimely fate, just as her father did before her!”
“You want us to take her out?”
“When the time comes!” he shouted. “And that priest, or whatever the hell he is! We’ve been hired to protect them, which we’ll do up to a certain point. But we need her to read the texts that will show us the way to the chamber! After we find it and no longer need Ms. Moore or her team, then they are to be terminated with extreme prejudice! Is that clear, gentlemen? Whatever profits are to be had will be ours and ours alone!”
Aussie, Butcher Boy, Red and Carroll looked at Hall with the look of men who had gladly nailed their souls to the devil’s altar.
No one had regrets. Especially not Obsidian Hall.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
When the choppers landed, they did so far enough away from anything remotely civilized. The rotors kicked up a swirling vortex of sand as a couple of shepherds stood on a small rise a distance away. After everyone had debarked, the helicopters lifted and banked to the west.
In the distance, one of the shepherds waved. Alyssa returned the action. The second shepherd stood idle. In his hand was a tether that held a grouping of twelve camels.
Obsidian Hall walked up to Alyssa, who was shrugging on her backpack. “Ms. Moore,” he said. “You don’t expect to get on one of those things, do you?”
“They’re called camels,” she told him. “We need them to cross the rough terrain in order to get to the site. But if you prefer to stay here, Mr. Hall, then be my guest.”
“Can’t we take a jeep or something?”
“A jeep wouldn’t make it across.” She walked away from him. While the others congregated with their packs, Alyssa climbed the small rise and greeted the shepherd with a small hug. “It’s good to see you again, Adskhan.”
The man was Lincolnesque in stature, his posture bowing with the onset of age. His beard and hair were striped with gray, and his face was fantastically seamed and weathered. “And it’s good to see you too, Ms. Moore.” His smile wilted to genuine sorrow. “Please allow me to offer my condolences regarding your father. He was a man of great honor who appreciated the history and antiquities of my country.”
She reached out and grabbed his hand. “I miss him, Adskhan. I really do.”
He cupped his hand over hers, patted it. “As you should,” he said.
“I see you have our transportation.”
He looked behind him. The shepherd holding the camels at bay was beginning to struggle with the tether. “It appears the camels are as anxious as you,” he told her. “So take them with my blessing. For what your father has done for the heritage my people, it is still not enough.”
“It’s plenty,” she said, smiling faintly.
“Then be careful.”
“I will.”
Adskhan waved to the second shepherd, who came forward with the caravan by tugging on the tether, guiding them forward. “For the most part they are docile creatures. They should not present a problem in your travels.”
When the second shepherd joined them, he and Adskhan spoke in Turkish with Alyssa piecing enough of the language together in order to understand the gist of their communication. Adskhan wanted him to hand her the tether, but the second shepherd insisted that he hand it off to someone with the strength to handle ten camels. In other words: a man. She took the initiative, however, by grabbing the line from the shepherd’s hand, startling him, and pulling the train towards her team.
When the shepherd tried to protest, Adskhan held him back, saying something about the foolishness of trying to battle the will of American women. The second shepherd cared little as he huffed away with his camel in tow, ready to leave.
Adskhan, however, called after Alyssa. “May your journey be a safe one!” he cried.
She waved back. “Thanks, Adskhan!” By the time she joined her group, both shepherds were gone.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hall said.
She looked at him hard. “Seriously, Hall? Are you really that prissy?” She tossed him the tether line of his camel and walked away.
Hall — who stared at the camel — considered the beast most foul. He turned quickly and called after Alyssa. “But I’ll get my pants dirty!”
She ignored him.
Everybody with the exception of Obsidian Hall, who maintained difficulty by staying squarely on the saddle by sliding from one side to the other, enjoyed the novelty of the camel ride over rocky terrain. The clouds remained overcast and the threat of rain became a concern to those who understood that flashfloods could kill instantly. So Alyssa led them by taking the highest available ground, with Noah bringing up the rear.
By nightfall the clouds abated, and Alyssa felt more at ease as they made camp for the evening. The sky was abundant with stars and constellations, the air cool and dry. Obsidian Hall’s team took by the fire, as always, claiming territoriality by the flames by chasing the others away, including Noah and the two senior archeologists, Eser and Harika, who gladly surrendered the area.
Alyssa, however, did not like their mocking banter against anyone who didn’t carry a weapon and brought her objection to Obsidian Hall, who sat away from the camp leaning against a large stone, looking skyward.
“Mr. Hall?”
He rolled his eyes. “What now, Ms. Moore?”
“I don’t think I like your children very much,” she said, standing in front of him with her hands on his hips.
“That’s makes two of us.”
“So what are you going to do about it?” she asked.
He shrugged. “They’re grown men. What do you want me to do?”