Rothschild’s voice turned cold. ‘Nina, I really do not have the time to listen to paranoid conspiracy theories. Don’t call me again.’
‘At least look at the pictures. I’ll send them to you—’
‘Don’t bother.’ She hung up.
‘God damn it,’ Nina muttered. She emailed the pictures anyway, then called Lola once more.
‘I’m guessing it didn’t go well,’ said Lola. ‘Professor Rothschild just told me never to put you through to her again.’
‘Yeah, I thought she might. Listen, I just sent her an email with some photos attached - she’ll probably delete it without even looking, but I’m going to send it to you as well. Can you print them out and put them in her in-tray or something? It’s really important that she at least looks at them.’
‘I’ll see what I can do. Hey, did you see what happened in Times Square last night?’
‘I might have heard something,’ said Nina, deadpan. ‘Bye, Lola.’ She sent a second copy of the email to Lola, then slumped in her chair. ‘God, this is so frustrating! If I’d still been at the IHA I could have had someone check it out in five minutes.’
‘There’s got to be something else you can do,’ Macy protested. ‘If these guys get their hands on the zodiac, they’ll work out how to find the Pyramid of Osiris and go rob it - and nobody else will ever know that they’ve done it. The whole place’ll be lost for ever! Is that what you want?’
‘Of course it’s not what I want,’ Nina snapped. ‘But there’s not really much I can do about it, is there? Unless we actually go to Egypt and catch them red-handed . . .’ She tailed off.
Eddie recognised her look. ‘No,’ he said in a warning tone.
‘We could go to Egypt.’
‘No, we couldn’t.’
‘Yes, we could.’
‘We don’t have visas.’
‘Our UN visas are still valid.’
‘We’ve got no bloody money!’
‘We’ve got credit cards.’
‘That are almost maxed out!’
‘I’ve got a credit card,’ offered Macy. ‘I’ll pay.’
Nina gave the nineteen year old an incredulous look. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Sure! I’ve got tons of credit.’
‘Must be nice,’ Eddie muttered.
Nina was still dubious. ‘I don’t know how much it costs to fly to Egypt, but I’m pretty sure it’s not cheap. We can cover it ourselves.’
He made a face. ‘If we sell a kidney or two.’
‘It’s not a problem, I can afford it,’ said Macy. ‘Well, my mom and dad can, but same diff. My dad’s a plastic surgeon and my mom’s a psychiatrist, they’re really rich. They pay for all my stuff anyway.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Nina. ‘Macy, have you actually told your parents about any of this?’
She looked sheepish. ‘Ah, that would be no. They don’t even know I’m back in the country.’
Nina was horrified. ‘Oh, my God! How could you not tell them?’
‘I was trying to protect them! That scar-faced guy said he was going to send people to watch our house and tap the phones, so they could find me. If Mom and Dad didn’t know anything was wrong, they wouldn’t get worried, and they couldn’t give me away.’
‘Well, they’ll know something’s wrong now,’ Nina told her. ‘Even if the IHA didn’t contact them after you got in trouble - which I’m pretty sure they would have done - I had to tell the police about meeting you last night. They’ll have got your parents’ details from the IHA, and called them.’
Macy went pale. ‘Oh. I . . . didn’t think of that.’
Nina indicated the phone. ‘Call them, right now. Let them know you’re okay.’
She picked it up and dialled. ‘Mom, hi! Mom? Mom, calm down - I’m okay, I’m fine. Yes, I’m okay, really! Oh, the IHA called, huh?’ She grimaced. ‘No, that’s not what happened at all, they’re totally lying!’ She huffed impatiently. ‘Mom! No, I can’t come home, not just yet. I’ll come back as soon as I can, but there’s something I need to do first, it’s really important. I’ll tell you and Dad all about it afterwards. Oh, and if you think anyone’s watching the house, call the police, ’kay?’
That prompted a near-hysterical response loud enough for her hosts to overhear. ‘Jeez, Mom! Look, really, I’m okay. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Give my love to everyone. Mom. Mom! I said I’ll call you. Okay, hanging up now. Bye. Bye.’
Macy lowered the phone, looking flustered and frustrated. ‘Parents! God! They can be such a pain sometimes.’ Then she looked at Nina, suddenly apologetic. ‘Oh! Sorry.’
Nina was confused. ‘For what?’
‘I read in the Time article that your parents died when you were about my age, so I didn’t want you to think I was saying that about all parents. I’m sure yours were great. Sorry.’ She went back to the laptop.
‘Er . . . okay,’ said Nina, taken aback.
‘Subtle, ain’t she?’ Eddie whispered.
‘Yeah. I think you two’ll get along fine.’
‘Tchah!’
‘Okay,’ said Macy, looking round at them, ‘so, flights to Egypt. Do you guys want regular or vegetarian meals?’
6
Giza
‘Hey,’ joked Eddie, ‘didn’t they get smashed up by the Transformers?’
‘I am so never letting you choose the movie again,’ muttered Nina as she gazed in awe at the three enormous monuments before them. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the others lost to time and conflict millennia ago. Part of the reason for its endurance was sheer size; though Khufu’s pyramid and its companions, the slightly lower Pyramid of Khafre and the markedly smaller - but still massive - Pyramid of Menkaure, had long since lost almost all of their white limestone outer casings, their colossal cores of sandstone and granite remained intact after more than four and a half thousand years.
Macy was less impressed. Her hair hidden beneath a baseball cap and her face partly covered by a pair of oversized sunglasses, she ground an impatient foot into the gritty sand. ‘I’ve already seen the pyramids. Like, every day I was here. Why aren’t you talking to Dr Berkeley?’
‘Partly because he’s not here yet.’ Afraid of being recognised, Macy had not gone with Nina and Eddie to the Sphinx compound, where they unsuccessfully tried to persuade the IHA team to grant them access. ‘He’s doing some TV show in Cairo, talking about the dig. He won’t be back for a couple of hours. And partly because . . . well, I’m not coming all the way to Egypt and not visiting the pyramids!’
They set off up the road along the compound’s northern side. Eddie peered over the wall at the construction site below. ‘This shaft, it’s down there?’
Macy joined him. ‘Yeah. In that tent.’ She pointed it out.
He made a mental note of its position, also taking in that it was better guarded than Macy had described. Two men in uniform - though not that of the Tourist Police, suggesting they were private security contractors - were on watch.
Macy looked towards the Sphinx. ‘There are more guards than before.’
‘Making sure nobody else cocks up their dig,’ Eddie said. ‘Might be a good thing, though.’
‘How?’
‘If they’ve brought in new guys, there’s less chance of someone recognising you.’ He ran his fingers along the underside of the stone slab topping the wall as if testing its weight.
‘Something?’ Nina asked.
‘Just planning ahead. So, we going to get some pyramid power?’