I bit my lower lip and chanced a look up into her spectacular eyes, so dark that they almost swallowed her pupils in their depths. I searched to see if she was just humoring me, but I had to look down at the sincere, if not entertained twinkle I saw there. My eyes fixed on her cupid's bow lips... crap, they were smiling and looked so inviting. I lowered my gaze to her chin, there, that was better, now I could concentrate on things other than my traitorous body.
She sighed at something then said, “Come on, let's get you back to Professor Harmon. I've seen him hovering in the corridors for the past half hour.” I glanced at the time and blinked. My cheeks heated at what I saw. She had let me prattle on for over an hour and a half? I glanced around to see that a few students and even some of the staff had gathered around our table to listen in. Most looked intrigued.
I chewed my lower lip then grabbed my hat to jam it on to hide my face. “Oh lord, kill me now.”
She exploded into that bark of chiming laughter she had, and said in that amazing accent of hers, “Fear not, fair maiden, I shall protect you.” She grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the corridor. I barely had a chance to grab my plate and glass to put in the receptacles at the door as she pulled me along.
I giggled as she made a show of placing herself between me and the impromptu gathering of people who had listened to me go on and on about ancient language structure. She winked at me and then hugged onto my arm as I said, “My hero.”
She sighed and straightened up and looked around as we headed down the corridors toward her office. “Now where is that man? Ah there.” She called out, “Professor Harmon. I'm sorry to have monopolized your protege's time. She was just giving a fascinating lecture on syntax archetypes in contextual translative application theory.”
Whaaaaaaa? She had read my book? My cheeks again heated, as I became aware of how hot her hands were on my arm. It was doing all sorts of things to me. The old man looked up from the papers in a folder he was studying with a beaming smile as he nodded, “Yes. She does that. It's not a problem. I had some colleagues and papers to catch up on.”
He cocked his head at me as I glared at the man. He made it sound like I did that all the time. Well, maybe I did to anyone who would listen, but still, I was trying to figure out the best way to kill him and make it look like an accident just then. I didn't want Olivia to think I was a hopeless geek.
He just grinned at me instead of looking afraid, and said, “Come along, young protege, we should get back to the dig. The team should finish excavating around those doors today, and we can move the slabs to see what lies behind.”
I grumped at both of them, looking at the Doc, “I'm not his protege.” Truth be told, I was just as excited as him to see what was behind the huge slab doors behind the altar.
She barked a single peal of laughter again and said, “Of course not.” Then she got serious as we stepped into her office to grab our things and the two idols. “Let me walk you out.” I waved at Sara who looked like a particularly pleased chipmunk at the moment as she waved back at us as her advisor dragged me around by the arm.
As we went, she said, “Be careful out there with that serial killer on the loose.”
The Prof asked, “Serial killer?”
Doc nodded at us and said, “The press is having a heyday with it. They're calling him 'The Pharaoh' since the victims are found somehow as mummified husks. There were three more last night between your excavation and Cairo.”
My heart skipped a beat. Mummified husks, three men, like in my dream? I shook that line of thought out of my head, and she walked us all the way out the doors in the back loading bay then said, “Goodbye Professor Harmon.” She reached out to squeeze his hand then turned to me and said, “Goodbye, Professor Bane. It was a true delight, we have to do it again soon. Dinner Thursday night?”
I almost panicked when she leaned over to me, and our lips brushed gently, intimately together. My body was on fire as she pushed our lips together a little more intensely as I returned the kiss before we pulled apart. My mind was short-circuiting, not able to comprehend that Doctor Olivia Nazari had kissed me.
I just stood there blinking at her. Trying to form a coherent sentence. I thought I was a linguist, why was I just gaping like a fool, looking for any words? She just looked smug as Albert chuckled while she said, “I just didn't want there to be any misinterpretation of my intentions.”
I swallowed and squeaked out. “O... Ok.”
Her smugness quotient seemed to double. I didn't care. Doctor Olivia Nazari had just kissed me. Her lips tasted of honey and cinnamon. She moved her hands to the small of my back to scoot me along after Albert, who was already moving toward the Jeep where I could see Rafa sound asleep, slumped over the wheel.
Just then, every nerve in my body seemed to be screaming out in warning, and the world seemed to brighten around me, and I could hear everything, smell everything, including the men hiding in the bushes by the Jeep. And the heavy, sickly sweet, antiseptic smell of tranquilizers.
The world seemed to slow down as I growled in a deep rumbling tone, hearing compressed air hissing and the sound of something slicing through the air toward us. I had dropped the case, and it hadn’t even traveled halfway to the ground yet as my arm burned like fire while I swiped my hand through the air at unimaginable speed. It felt like my fingers stretched and bone snapped as they reshaped. I swear it was a claw with skin an obsidian shade of night which knocked a dart out of the air.
But that wasn't the most shocking thing, as I continued the motion to twist around to protect Olivia, she caught a second dart mid-flight between two fingers like it were nothing. She blinked at it then at me as Albert crumpled to the ground, a dart in his shoulder. Her eyes! They were gold with slitted pupils, and her head was cocked in an avian manner.
We both spun back toward the threat when we heard the men preparing to fire again. We started running across the pavement toward the Jeep, knocking darts from the air as we went. But then I threw myself on Olivia when I heard the sound of metal sliding on metal, and smelled gun oil and gunpowder as my ears started to ring at the sound of gunfire.
The force of my tackle had us rolling into the Jeep, heavily denting the side of it and rocking the vehicle violently. We looked back over toward the door as a man in camouflage uniform stepped out for a moment to retrieve my dropped case, then he ducked back in the door. The Idols! Our distraction had cost us because we could hear a heavy vehicle on the other side of the bushes drive off down the road with our attackers.
My eyes widened, and as fast as a thought, I had dashed to the Prof's side. The world became much duller around me, the colors and smells more muted as I saw the obsidian sheen on my hand return to flesh as I called in desperation, “Albert?” I brought my ear to his face and listened and sighed when I heard him still breathing.
I glanced back to see Olivia at the Jeep, her fingers on Rafa's neck, checking for a pulse. I relaxed when she let out an audible sigh. She looked over at me with a large helping of curiosity and intrigue in her expression.
Whatever had happened to me, something had happened with her too. I know I hadn’t imagined her eyes, or her reflexes fast enough to catch darts from the air. And she moved faster than any human I had ever seen. But... I had done those things too. What in the hell was going on?
She reached me with her cell in her hand, calling for the authorities. I froze when she cupped my cheek with her free hand, an engaging, smirking smile on her beautiful face, “Aya, it seems you are even more fascinating than I could even imagine. What secrets are you hiding?”
Her smile had me averting my eyes from her now human ones, and looking down as I blushed. She looked almost aroused at finding out I was some sort of freak. She hugged me to her then brought her attention back to the cell. “Yes, this is Doctor Olivia Nazari of the Antiquities Department of Cairo University. There has been an attack at the loading docks, two men are unconscious. Please send an ambulance.”
After giving some information, she hung up then looked toward the door, her smile faltering as she said, “They took the idols. It was Lazarus.”
I nodded. I had recognized that uniform too. Then she turned to me. “We need to talk after the men get to the hospital.”
Again I nodded as I squeaked out, “That seems the understatement of the century.”
I couldn't help smiling at the explosive bark of laughter from her. Besides being the sexiest woman I knew, just what was she? No... what were 'we'? I looked down at my hand and flexed it. I was going mad, wasn't I?
Chapter 5 – Vassals
It didn't take long for the police, an ambulance, and for some reason, members of the Egyptian Army to arrive on the scene. As we waited, we didn't talk as we struggled to lift Rafa out of the Jeep and tried to make him comfortable beside Albert, who we had dragged out of the sun onto the loading dock.
I swear that scarab beetles were gathering in the shade of the bushes across the pavement, watching us the whole time. It was starting to freak me out a little more than I already was. That was like the scorpions from earlier that morning.
Doc got my attention, and the shameless woman gave me a sly smile as the first vehicles started arriving, and she said with heat and sexual innuendo in a purr, “I guess that explains the animal attraction I have to you, Aya.”
I was equal parts confused about what had happened and aroused at her words. Talk about feeling seven kinds of awkward as men rushed up to where we sat with the boys.
After three bouts of questioning by the police, we convinced them and a General Amari who had been jockeying to question us, that we could go in to make our statements after we were sure Rafa and Albert were going to be ok. I drove us in the Jeep behind the private ambulance that led us to a private hospital. I relaxed more at that, the public hospitals in Cairo were questionable at best, unsanitary at worst. Private hospitals fit modern expectations and cleanliness.
I kept looking back at the scene, where the authorities have set up police barriers and were scouring the loading docks as we left, police and military vehicles in tow. I may have snorted when Olivia caught my attention with a flourish of her hand and produced one of the darts like a cut-rate magician. She wiggled her brows, winked, and put it into her lab coat pocket. The scamp. How did she know I was wondering what was in those darts?
I just beamed a smile back at her and then stiffened when she exhaled and placed a hand on my leg as I drove. She was lucky I found a way to drive in my aroused state as all the adrenaline from the attack was burning off, crashing my body.
We arrived at the hospital, and then I found myself getting frustrated again when the police insisted on escorting us in. They gave a sideways look at my sidearm, which I had retrieved from under the Jeep seat. I'm sure they were questioning if we had anything to do with the attack. It was ludicrous, why would we call for help then sit around and wait for them to arrive. I swear, that... my mind blanked and instead concentrated on the warm hand that Olivia slipped into mine as we were lead to the waiting area just off of the emergency room.
It seemed like time was standing still as I worried over our men. Rafa was young and strong, but Albert.. well... wasn't. I had already lost two parents, I didn't want anything happening to the only other parental figure in my life.
When the doctors came out to talk to us, they shared that the men were heavily sedated by some unknown tranquilizer, but otherwise fine. They said that at the rate of metabolism they should regain consciousness in an hour or two.
I was so relieved and sat with them when they moved them to another room, a couple of officers in tow. Olivia got me situated in a chair and said, “I'll be back in a flash.” She patted her pocket where the dart was and said in a low voice so the officers at the door couldn't hear, “I've a mate here who can test this for us and see what it is. The professor went down instantly, I don't know any tranquilizer that can work so fast. The police don't seem to take much stock in our assertion it was those Lazarus wankers.”
I nodded at her, looking at her eyes, trying to see what I had seen before, but they were just gorgeous hypnotic human eyes. She grabbed one of my hands and gave it a squeeze. “We'll talk about it later...” She nudged her chin toward the police at the door. I nodded, and she gave me a reassuring smile then just strode out like she owned the place.
I snorted when she patted her leg as she went past the uniformed men, “Come along then, Fido. Come on boy.” One of the officers followed her down the hall. They didn't look too happy that we were splitting up.
The rest of the day was no picnic. As soon as Albert and Rafa were awake, and Mr. Funnyman Rafa saying that it was my book which put him asleep. Olivia and I were escorted to the local police precinct to go over our story again. Both of us left out the parts where we had been catching and knocking away darts in mid-flight, but kept to the truth otherwise.
Something odd that mom used to tell me when I was young was, “The best deceptions are those which use the truth.” I don't think I ever understood what she was saying until just then when we were being questioned like we were suspects in the drugging of the professor and my guide.
If there was any security video, our statements would match, I was praying there wasn't though. Would it show us stopping the darts, or what happened to my hand? I've never seen any security cameras on the loading dock, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. But the Doc didn't seem concerned as she spoke almost relaxed and uninhibited manner.
It worried me a bit when they separated us for the General to get statements from us as well. I felt I was being interrogated since I was brought to an empty office and two men stood at the door while he questioned me. “Hal taearaft ealaa alrajal?”
I blinked at him. “I'm sorry, but my Arabic is terrible, I can barely ask where the restroom is. Do you have an English translator?”
He looked toward the door when one of the men said to the other in Arabic with a smirk, “Stupid American.” Then he turned to me and squinted an eye when I didn't react, he snapped at them in Arabic, “Shut your mouths and make sure we aren't disturbed.”
Then he smiled, and it was a little disturbing on his face, the man couldn't pull off sincere if he wanted to as he offered a chair to me as he sat on the corner of the desk. His English was heavily accented. “There is no need, I studied two years at Georgetown University in the States.”
His buzzcut and blocky features did not do him any favors when he attempted a disarming smile. “These men you say attacked you, they were from the Lazarus Group? Be certain of your reply, they supply weapons and funding to our defense department.”
I nodded slowly, trying to read the man. I said, “They were dressed the same as the men who had been talking to Doctor Nazari. That man, Commander Xerxes.”
He asked almost carefully, “He was one of the men who attacked?”
I shook my head, and he said, “They were in camouflage uniforms, did they have markings or insignias on them?”
I shook my head. “We didn't see the ones in the bushes, only the man who stepped out of the loading dock door to steal the case with the artifacts.”
He looked almost relieved and shared, with what I believe was actual concern, “So... it could have been anyone then.” He almost prompted as he nodded slightly, “Just someone trying to steal and sell the artifacts then. Cairo is crawling with black market dealers of antiquities.”
I hesitated and said without any conviction, “I suppose.” I raised a hand to stop him. “But isn't it a coincidence they took the very idols that Xerxes and that creepy Truit woman were looking for?”
He lowered his voice. “The Lazarus Group is... dangerous, Miss Bane...”
“Professor.”
The general inclined his head. “Professor Bane.” He asked again, “Are you one hundred percent certain the man you saw was with Lazarus?”
His eyes prompted me again with urgency. I could feel a bit of ve
rtigo as I tried to understand the man, and then I could feel him... the man was quite wicked, but had a moral core that felt bent and bruised but not broken. I knew his true name just then, and something inside of me seemed to peer out at him through my eyes. I got the impression of interest, but that it wasn't the man's time yet so whatever it was turned its back to recede back into the shadows.
I cocked my head at him, seeing him a bit differently now. He was a flawed man, conflicted. I shook my head slowly and said as I glanced from him to the guards who were listening to our conversation, “No, I didn't see any insignias. I guess it could have been anyone like you said.”
The rigidness in his body seemed to flow out of him as he relaxed a little and he stood. He inclined his head to me. “Good. Then we are done here, Professor.” And he just walked out the door with his men in tow.
Ok, what just happened? Was he... afraid of Lazarus? He was part of the Egyptian military, and Lazarus was some sort of, what, security group? What the hell was going on here, and what was happening to me? I know I had somehow just read the man's soul.
I numbly walked out to the main squad room to find Olivia pacing. The moment she saw me she sighed in apparent relief and stepped quickly up to me, placing her hands on my arms, looking me over. “You good? You look frazzled, Aya.”
I nodded at her as I stared up at her face, searching. “I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. What's...”
She grabbed my hand and looked around. “They said we could go. They're holding your passport until their investigation is over.”
She looked around as she dragged me to the front desk and pounded the counter with a hand, and demanded my weapon in clipped tones. When they handed her a plastic bag with my gun and magazine, she tucked my arm in hers and said, “Come on. We can talk on the way to the hospital.”
Once we were back in the Jeep and on the road, with her driving, splitting her attention between me and the road, I glanced up to her and said, “My hand... what we did...”
Anubis Page 4
