‘Okay, heard enough,’ said Nina hurriedly.
‘Nice work in the casino, by the way,’ Eddie told Macy. ‘That big bugger would’ve tackled me if you hadn’t tripped him.’
Macy smiled. ‘I just remembered what you said about always being ready for action - and I figured that with you two, there’s always action.’
‘Unfortunately,’ said Nina, grimacing. ‘But never mind that. There are more important things.’ She took the photo of the zodiac from her pocket and showed it to Macy. Though crumpled, the picture was still clear enough to show the details of the painted relief. ‘I think I figured out where the pyramid is. It’s somewhere near Abydos.’ She quickly explained her reasoning.
Macy regarded the picture in wonderment. ‘That’d make sense. Abydos was supposed to be the site of Osiris’s tomb - nobody’s ever found it, but the Egyptians definitely believed it was near there. All the First Dynasty pharaohs were buried there so they could be close to Osiris. You think the pyramid’s to the west?’ Nina nodded. ‘That fits, too. The western desert was supposedly where the dead went to enter the Underworld, where the sun went down.’
‘What about the “second eye of Osiris”? Does that ring any bells?’
Macy frowned, thinking. ‘The second eye? I dunno. Unless . . .’ Her dark eyes opened wide. ‘Unless it’s something in the Osireion!’
‘The what?’ Eddie asked.
‘The Osireion - it’s a building, it’s meant to be a copy of Osiris’s tomb.’
‘A second tomb,’ Nina realised. ‘A second eye. And if it looks in the direction of the silver canyon . . .’
‘. . . we’ve found the pyramid,’ Eddie finished. ‘So, back across the Med, then!’
‘Rest assured, I will be co-operating with the authorities to find out who was responsible for this catastrophe,’ Osir told the news crew. ‘It’s been a terrible day for the sport, for Team Osiris, for Mikko Virtanen - and for myself personally, as you can imagine.’
‘What about the reports of a shootout on your yacht?’ asked the newsman, thrilled to have a story more juicy than sports reporting.
Osir needed all his acting skills to keep a neutral face. ‘I don’t know anything about that, only what the Monaco police have told me. Thank you, and excuse me.’ He retreated into the VIP box, the newsman still firing questions as he closed the door.
Shaban and Diamondback were waiting. ‘Well?’ Osir demanded.
‘Wilde and Chase must have got away,’ Shaban said grimly. ‘The Monaco police haven’t caught them, and since it would only take them ten minutes to reach the border I doubt they will.’
‘What about the yacht? Did the zodiac survive?’
‘Yes, so we still have that, at least. I’ve arranged for it to be shipped to Switzerland once the police clear the scene.’
‘My God,’ said Osir, shaking his head as he sat. ‘How did they escape?’
‘Because you were soft,’ Shaban snapped. Osir was startled by the fury in his brother’s voice. ‘I warned you! You fell for that woman, and she betrayed you. I told you to kill her, but you refused - and now look what has happened!’
Osir jumped up again, stabbing a finger at Shaban. ‘You do not speak to me like—’
‘This is your fault!’ Shaban roared, making Osir flinch. ‘Everything I do, I do to protect the Temple - but this has gone too far for you to tie my hands! If you want to find the Pyramid of Osiris - and keep it for yourself - then it will take blood. It has taken blood. And because you didn’t let me do what needed to be done, the blood is of our own followers instead of our enemies!’ His voice softened, slightly, as he put a hand on Osir’s shoulder. ‘Don’t you see, Khalid? If we don’t get everything, we will be left with nothing . . . and I will not let that happen. Let me do what needs to be done. We have to find Dr Wilde before she finds the pyramid - and kill her. You know I’m right.’
‘Yes,’ Osir said reluctantly. ‘Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I should have listened to you, my brother.’
Shaban nodded, satisfaction on his scarred face. ‘Then we’re agreed. We find them, and kill them, and take the pyramid for ourselves.’
‘Agreed,’ said Osir.
‘Just one minor problem,’ Diamondback said, voice heavy with sarcasm. ‘We don’t know where they’re goin’, and we don’t know where the pyramid is either.’
‘We need an expert,’ said Shaban. ‘Someone who knows the entire history of Egypt.’
‘Hamdi?’ asked Osir.
Shaban shook his head. ‘Hamdi is a glorified librarian. We want someone world-class . . .’ He smiled malevolently as an idea came to him. ‘And someone with a grudge against Nina Wilde.’ Raising his phone, he selected a number: the Osirian Temple’s Swiss headquarters. ‘This is Sebak Shaban. I need you to contact the International Heritage Agency in New York, and tell them . . . tell them I want to speak to Dr Logan Berkeley.’
21 Egypt
What initially seemed like a simple trip back to Egypt quickly turned into a far more stressful experience. An attempt to book a flight from Nice was stymied when Macy discovered - to her mortification - that her credit card had been cancelled. Her parents had pulled the plug.
An angry phone call home made it clear that her line of credit would be only restored if she agreed to go straight back to Miami. Nina’s suggestion that, now they knew Abydos was the key to finding the Pyramid of Osiris, her work was done and she could return to the US did not go down well.
Eddie managed to defuse the tension between the two women by cobbling together an itinerary that was - just - manageable on his and Nina’s strained finances, flying from Nice to Athens on a no-frills budget carrier, then on to Cyprus, and from there a plodding ferry to Egypt’s Port Said. Following that was a slow and draining overland journey south by rail to the town of Sohag. Tempers frayed, they traversed the last miles in a rented 4×4, finally reaching their destination three days after leaving Monaco.
If Cairo had been uncomfortably hot, then Abydos, three hundred miles further south on the edge of the Sahara, was almost agonising. The temperature was well over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and what breeze there was provided little relief, being laden with gritty, astringent sand. Nina was already on her second bottle of water, and it was still only morning.
As usual, Eddie barely seemed to notice the conditions, still wearing his leather jacket; his only concession to the burning sun was a floppy cloth hat to protect his balding scalp. ‘Could be worse, love,’ he offered. ‘At least it’s a dry heat.’
‘Hilarious,’ Nina snapped. Her pale skin had forced her to cover up, and unlike her husband she was sweltering. ‘God, I hate deserts. Why are the best ruins always in such God-awful places?’
But despite her foul mood, she was still impressed by what awaited them. The remains of the ancient city of Abydos sprawled over a wide area, the majesty of the temples in stark contrast to the ugly little village nearby. But when they stood before the structure they had come to see the modern world was figuratively and literally behind them, nothing in sight beyond the partially buried remains of the Osireion except the bleak wastes and distant cliffs of the Western Desert.
They had the place almost to themselves, a coach party there when they arrived having left for the next destination on its whistle-stop tour of Upper Egypt. A couple of policemen had been lurking nearby - unescorted visits to the ruins were discouraged - but a bribe persuaded them to wander back into the village for a few hours.