“Understood. I’ll have a medic waiting at the hangar for you in Cairo,” she answered.
“Thanks again, Em.”
Sean hung up his phone just as a black SUV pulled up next to them on the sidewalk. The tinted window in the front rolled down and revealed a twenty-something, dark skinned man. He appeared to be of Arab descent. His black hair and eyebrows framed deep, java eyes.
“Sean Wyatt?” he asked in an English accent.
“That’s me.”
“Emily said you needed a ride. Hop in,” the man ordered.
Sean opened the back door to the vehicle and Adriana helped him lift Tommy into the back seat. Sean got in the rear with him as Adriana slid into the front. The moment the doors slammed shut, the driver took off.
He weaved his way through the flood of pedestrians and vehicles, honking the horn in an attempt to get them to disperse faster. After a few quick turns, they were out of the madness and onto a less crowded street, heading towards the airport.
“My name is Jolian,” the driver introduced himself as he steered the vehicle through the city.
“We appreciate your help,” Sean replied. Then he looked down at his friend. Tommy groaned slightly, something Sean took as a good sign.
“What happened back there?” Jolian asked.
Sean shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s all still really hazy to me.” He’d been fighting his own problems the last ten minutes.
“We were meeting at the museum to investigate some ancient writings,” Adriana answered. “We thought they might lead to the location of an artifact we’re searching for.” She was clearly in the best shape of the three who’d been rocked by the blast. “I was standing inside the building when it happened. The car sitting outside exploded. Tommy was closest to it.” Her face was grim as she looked out the windows, watching the buildings whiz by.
“Someone knew we were going to be there, at that exact moment,” Sean stated. He tried to contain his anger at the thought.
“Emily said you are going to the airport,” Jolian interrupted. “Where will you go?” he asked.
Adriana looked back at Sean. “We need to get Tommy out of here. If someone knew that we were meeting at the museum, they can find us again. He won’t be safe in a hospital here. The plane will fly him to the nearest city where Axis has people on the ground. They can keep him safe there.”
“You’re not going with him?” the driver wondered. He turned the wheel sharply, and the airport came into view in the distance ahead.
Sean shook his head. “No. We’re staying here.” His face was full of resolve. “And we’re going to finish this.”
Chapter 2
“Now that we have our only potential problems out of the way, we should be able to proceed with relative ease.” Alexander Lindsey looked over at a man in a gray, pinstriped suit.
The man nodded. His thin, brownish hair was combed over to one side on top of a narrow face and a long, hooked nose. His tired, greenish eyes were sunken back into his face. A caramel-skinned woman dressed in a form-fitting pair of cargo khakis and a tight black shirt stood off to the side. Her espresso hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. She watched the discussion intently with deep chocolate eyes. Her face was strong and narrow.
The men were sitting in an old laboratory. Lindsey had procured the building before flying to Cairo six days ago. He’d had his best asset, Will Hastings, following Sean Wyatt and his cronies for the several weeks. Thanks to the tenacious work of Hastings, Lindsey had known everything Wyatt was planning to do, and just when to strike.
Lindsey had maintained a distant supervision of operations during their search for the golden chambers. His old age had led to a desire to not be burdened with the rigors of chasing down buried treasure. So, Hastings had been in charge of the hands-on details.
The game had changed, though. Initially, he had made the first move, kidnapping Tommy Schultz, and forcing him to lead the way to the first chamber. But Sean Wyatt had interfered.
Lindsey’s crew had taken a different approach in the search for the second chamber. Since Wyatt and his group possessed the clue to the chamber’s location, Lindsey had been forced to wait and follow. He’d lost some of his best hired guns during the fiasco. A necessary sacrifice.
He stood and walked slowly over to one of the nearby windows and looked out. The late-afternoon sun was pouring in through the glass, and he squinted against the light. He wore a pair of brown trousers and a lightweight, olive green jacket. The weather had been beautiful since he’d arrived. He hoped it was a sign of things to come.
“When will your man be here?” The gangly man in the gray suit spoke with a French accent.
Lindsey turned around. “Soon,” he answered. He had brought Luc DeGard in as part of the operation three weeks before heading to Egypt.
The Frenchman was one of the top researchers on the planet when it came to ancient history and languages. Lindsey wished the man could have been brought on sooner, but DeGard had been experiencing some personal troubles. Once contacted, DeGard accepted the offer eagerly. Lindsey wondered how much less the man would have taken, but the deal was done.
Rumor had it that Luc DeGard had come upon hard times. He’d been a professor of archaeology at University College in London for several years. The institution had a highly respected program, one that DeGard had disgraced when he had been caught in his office with his pants down, with one of his younger male students.
After his dismissal from the college, he spent much of his time gambling and drinking, a combination that had led to the lowly end in which Lindsey had found the man, in debt up to his eyeballs and desperate for anything. DeGard may have been a degenerate, but he was a ruthless researcher, and his desperation provided the perfect motivation for Lindsey.
The door at the end of the room opened and a young man with thick, dark hair appeared. He wore a brown leather jacket and tanned pants. The man glanced over at the woman with mocha-colored skin, exchanging a momentary stare before he turned his attention to the old man.
Lindsey looked over at him expectantly. “Did you get it?” he asked.
Will Hastings nodded and held up a small, stone disc. “Yes, sir. I got it.”
Chapter 3
The plane’s engines were already warming up when the black SUV pulled up to the private hangar. The jet with three, giant black letters on the tail belonged to Tommy’s International Archaeological Agency.
Sean had checked his friend several times en route to the airport. Tommy had not regained consciousness, but was still alive. A dark-haired man in a blue button-up shirt stood just outside the plane with a stethoscope around his neck and a briefcase in one hand. Sean realized Emily must have called a physician, too.
Jolian parked the vehicle next to the plane, just outside the hangar. The doctor rushed over immediately and assisted in getting Tommy out of the SUV, onto a stretcher, and into the plane.
Once they had him secured, Sean turned to the physician, who was already opening up his briefcase and removing devices Sean didn’t recognize. “Take care good care of him. He’s like my brother.”
The man answered in a Middle Eastern accent. “Your friend will be fine, Mr. Wyatt. He’s in good hands.”
Sean nodded, satisfied with the answer, and looked down at Tommy one last time before leaving. His eyes narrowed. It tore him apart to see his close friend lying there, helpless. Sean had witnessed some terrible things in his career with the government. He’d seen agents killed, strangers murdered, and had done his fair share of killing. Tommy was his best friend, though. When the whole thing was over, Sean was going to have to have a serious talk with him about sticking to an administrative position.