Treasure

by K. T. Tomb

  Chapter Five

  He had come straight into bed from the shower and held her body closely to him, kissing the nape of her neck.

  She looked so peaceful lying there, like an angel fallen against the white pillows of the bed. Anthony moved closer to her until her naked body was pressed firmly against his. He let out a sigh and snuggled closer to her warmth. She smiled and turned to face him, taking in the soft scent of his shampoo and letting her kisses trail over his neck and shoulders and down his chest. When she kissed the skin on his shoulders, Anthony pulled her closer and sighed deeply. He lifted her head to face him and they smiled at each other as he took her mouth with his. He kissed her with a passion that rose from deep inside him, a hunger that he couldn’t explain. The desire he felt for Chyna now was nothing like the young love he had experienced with her when they had just met years ago in a lecture hall at F.B.I. headquarters. This was something deeper, truer, more urgent, and more potent.

  He knew he was as hard as a rock by the time he dipped his mouth to the bounty of her breasts. Chyna’s head went back as her back arched, moving her body even closer for him to enjoy. A breathy sigh escaped her lips and soon after she was moaning deeply. Her thighs undulated seductively against him and it wasn’t long before Anthony could stand it no longer. He lifted her leg and swung it over his hip and around his waist, separating her delightful thighs. She grasped hold of his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye as he positioned himself at her entrance. With one powerful movement, they were one and he had filled her with his manhood.

  She held on to him as if for life itself when he started to move inside her. Chyna felt as if he were moving her entire world with every kiss of his hips. She met his every move with the rocking of her thighs and the feeling of intense unity between them soon made him throw back his head in ecstasy as he exploded with their passion. His body was cosmically charged and so was hers. The energy between them was intense. Even as they reveled in each other’s embrace, Anthony began to move inside her again. He never faded after his brush with rapture but only took a moment to regain his breath and to lavish kisses along Chyna’s neckline.

  It was her turn to surprise him as she swung her leg around, turned him over and sat squarely on top of him. She gathered the sheets around her waist and positioned herself. Slowly, she moved her hips back and forth, rocking in the rhythm of passion and abandon. They were one, moved as one and soon their breathing was ragged and urgent but she was determined for their encounter to last so she slowed the pace, her movements becoming more deliberate and sensual. Their eyes were locked on each other, both of them drinking the other in and fully immersed in their lovemaking…

  Chyna sat up suddenly in bed, not sure what it was which had awakened her and not really fully conscious of where she was. She reached out to touch Anthony in the dark, but found no one there. In the same instant, she realized where she was. She heard a sound coming from the suite outside her room.

  Reaching under her pillow, her fingers closed over the grip of the SIG as she rose up slowly and moved toward the door of her bedroom. Either someone was already in the suite or was working on coming through the balcony doors. She squatted and eased the bedroom door open.

  Across the living room, in the direction of the patio doors, the silhouette of a figure appeared as the door eased open.

  “You better fuckin’ freeze right now,” she hissed, leveling the pistol at the target.

  The target dropped and rolled backward, regained his feet on the balcony and scrambled over the rail as Chyna, being careful to remain concealed, rushed forward after him. By the time she reached the balcony rail, the figure had dropped to the ground from the rope he had used to scale the wall and was running away from the hotel.

  What was that about? Even as she considered the question, she recalled the man watching her in the airport. Something besides curating a dig was going on in Damascus. Someone else wanted something she had and they were becoming pretty bold about getting their hands on it.

  With her adrenal maxed out, there wasn’t much point trying to go back to bed, so she collapsed on the couch, placing the SIG on the lamp table beside her. Try again, bitch, she thought, glancing toward the balcony doors. Maybe it was time to bring in the whole team, including her security guys. Scooping up the SIG, she went back into the bedroom, got her phone and pressed a speed dial button.

  “I need my watchdog,” she said as the call connected.

  “Damascus?”

  “Yes.”

  “Albal?”

  “Yes.”

  “On our way.”

  The call disconnected and Chyna went back out to the living room. She collapsed in the same place on the couch without turning on the lamp and sat the SIG and the phone on the table. The dream she had been having when she had awakened made her smile. It was just like it had been the last night her and Tony had been together. In fact, it had been what they discussed which had sort of thrown her off her game concerning the project in Damascus. The conversation ran through her mind again as she sat in the dark.

  “Me and the team made some decisions today that you are going to like,” she said as they sat down to dinner.

  “You decided to fire yourself and come live with me in Izmir?” he grinned, taking hold of her hands.

  “Close,” she teased. It had been a running joke between them for a while, though like most jokes hovered around the truth.

  “I am on the edge of my seat with curiosity,” he returned.

  She and Anthony had spent a record amount of time together over the past year while she traveled the Middle East; he and his team from Izmir had assisted Chyna’s team tactically every time they had been in Turkey and he had spent the lion’s share of his six week hiatus with her at her seaside cabin in Cape Cod. They had come back to the city a week before and Anthony was scheduled to travel back to his post in Izmir the next day. Their night out would be the last one for a while. Of course, that was about to change and she was sure that the news of her moving to Istanbul would make him ecstatic.

  Anthony would be in Istanbul to see her every weekend; it was only fifteen minutes by plane as opposed to the usual fourteen hours he traveled to New York when he sometimes came to see her. Although he would never admit it to anyone, he was just about ready to settle down; the problem was that he wasn’t quite ready to leave the Middle East. He had done a lot of work and spent a lot of time there but he hadn’t done a lot of exploring and he wanted to see some of the Orient before he had to leave it behind.

  So many times, when one of his postings or one of Chyna’s assignments had brought them to the same region or city, he had told her that they were lucky to have each other. They were pursuing their dreams, each of them on a different path almost parallel to each other but every now and then their paths would cross and it would be as if they had never been apart. He always felt lucky to have a woman in his life who felt exactly like he did about his career; it meant they could have absolutely no contact for years, and come together as if they were never apart, with neither being bitter about anything.

  It was a half-life of sorts though; learning to take satisfaction from a lot of pieces of everything as opposed to a whole lot of one. He had always felt that a little bit of something was always better than a whole lot of nothing and Chyna felt the same. Having her so close on a permanent basis would be a great way to transition into the next phase of his life though. What exactly the phase would entail, he didn’t have a clue, but the prospect of having Chyna so much more prominently in his life while he moved through it was like a dream come true.

  “We decided to open up Found History, East,” she began.

  Tony raised an eyebrow and allowed his smile to fade a bit as he considered her words. “Found History, East?”

  “Yep,” she beamed, biting her lips to keep from gushing.

  “Where would this new Found History, East be located?” His smile started to broaden as he started to catch on to the fact that the
twinkle in her eye was already revealing something wonderful.

  “We considered Athens, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Dubai, and New Delhi,” she responded, enjoying an opportunity to tease him.

  “All good locations.” He nodded and considered the options. “Which one did you choose?”

  “Istanbul,” she responded casually, picking up her wine glass and taking a sip.

  It took a moment for the name of the city to sink in, but when it did, his smile widened. “Istanbul? Seriously?”

  “Um hum,” she responded.

  Excited chatter about all of the possibilities erupted between the two of them. They had never had an evening so full of excitement as they considered the possibilities for their future that the move provided for them. Their excitement had spilled over into the bedroom of the apartment and they had exhausted themselves with lovemaking before finally falling asleep with satisfied smiles on their faces. It was that night of which she had been dreaming before the intruder had awakened her.

  The following morning, Chyna had driven him to J.F.K. to catch a flight to London; it was time to get back to work. There was so much going through Anthony’s mind, he had to physically shake it off. At the terminal, he took his bags out of the trunk of Chyna’s Audi A4 and set them down on the pavement. She walked close beside him holding on to the left sleeve of his coat as they made their way to the check in counter and waited. When his bags were checked, he turned to walk her back outside to her car. Chyna turned to him and held him close and his arms went around her tenderly.

  “I’ll be right behind you, I promise,” she said, softly.

  “I know you will,” he replied. “Just remember what I’ve always told you; we’ve got a little bit of a lot of different things.”

  “We do,” she agreed, “but maybe it’s time for us to have a whole lot of just a few.”

  He put his lips to hers and kissed her as deeply and as passionately as he could.

  She was reveling in that remembered kiss when she heard a knock at the door. Scooping the SIG from the table she moved toward the door cautiously.

  “Who is it?” she called out.

  “Lana and Oscar,” Oscar’s voice drawled from the other side of the door.

  She opened the door to her team, heavy-laden with equipment and being trailed by a bellhop whose cart was crammed completely full.

  “Don’t get too comfortable guys,” she said. “We’re going to have to move.”

  Chapter Six

  The call she had placed before Lana and Oscar showed up had been to a pair of guys who had gotten her out of more than one scrape and kept her ass secure.

  Their names were Demetri and Thorin. They were really big dudes who were very dangerous to fuck with and knew their shit when it came to security. Her call had started off a chain of events behind the scenes which only Demetri and Thorin knew about, but the end result was a new, more secure, place for them to eat and sleep and the kind of security to and from the warehouse which only presidents and foreign dignitaries are typically privileged to.

  Already behind on getting started, they ordered lunch and decided to get started in the hotel while security was being beefed up around the warehouse. Chyna was eager to get in touch with Bjorn concerning the falcon immediately.

  Chyna slipped off her jacket and readjusted the gun holster she wore over her shoulder; she never took it off when she was on assignment these days; except to sleep and after what had occurred the night before that was even subject to change.

  “My equipment is a little off,” Oscar pointed out as he got things set up. “It’s been tampered with. It was probably returned when they realized they couldn’t crack it or that it would be traceable.”

  Chyna sat at the table and shook her head, worried.

  “That’s not good, Oscar,” she said, pointing out the obvious, given the addition of her security team and the rush to relocate the moment Oscar and Lana arrived. “Someone’s been expecting us. They know why we’re here and it seems we have something they want.”

  “Do you think it has anything to do with the falcon, Chyna?” Lana asked.

  “I’d take a wild guess and say that it does, Lana,” she replied. “Outside of that bird, this assignment would have been rather cut and dried stuff.”

  “I’ll call Nigel and let him know we got the stuff back, but just to be sure I’m going to get them online and start running some diagnostics to see if we’ve been compromised.”

  “That’s a great place to start,” Chyna said.

  Later that day, they reconvened around the table of the sweet for coffee and an update. Lana had been going through the government dossier selecting the items she thought would make the most impact during the exhibit. Oscar and Nigel had been running their checks of the computers and Chyna had spoken to Bjorn in Sweden and had also taken the initiative to let Anthony know what had happened with the computers.

  “Lana, do you think you’ve settled on the forty eight pieces we need for the museum?” Chyna asked.

  “I’m only going off of pictures since I haven’t had the actual items in my hands yet, butI think so. Let’s have a look,” she said, rolling her pin board around so they could see her design.

  She had printed pictures of each item she had selected and pinned them to an enlarged copy of the alcove floor plan in the places she thought made the most sense. There was a good mix of the more unique, singular items, such as statuettes, jars and jewelry, placed on the pedestals while the collections of plates, coins and weapons were situated in the rear display cases. It was perfect for an initial showing of the horde.

  “I don’t even know why I came,” Chyna said shaking her head. “You could have handled this all on your own, Lana. Good job!”

  “Well, you’re the one who came here first, so that kind of makes that point moot, but thanks, Boss lady,” she replied beaming.

  “So tomorrow I want us to separate the items we’ll put on show and do our own verification on them. For the rest, I just want us to check the work Dr. Epstein’s people already did, label and package everything and get them into the secure storage facility at the museum.”

  “That shouldn’t take us more than three days or so,” Lana said.

  “That’s good because I think our biggest task is going to be getting that alcove looking like a million dollar showpiece. Once everything is in Fatma’s hands, we’ll need to sit down and come up with the look and feel of the exhibit. Could you find out from her who does her print media?”

  “I’ll do that.”

  “Oscar, is the equipment all checked out? Is it safe to use?”

  “I wish I had good news for you, Chyna,” he began, “but it looks like whoever took it couldn’t hack it without getting online. They knew we’d be able to track it once they did that and they would have had no way of telling how fast we’d be able to locate them. So instead of taking that risk they uploaded about three thousand different viruses into the brain. Nigel’s still trying to isolate them. The only good news is, we haven’t lost any data or infected the main server.”

  “I’m satisfied with that. You two keep doing what you’re doing. I made a call to Fatma’s contact, Bjorn Gunnarsson in Oslo. He gave me a little insight into what he thought we might be dealing with as far as the falcon is concerned, and then he put me on to a woman in Stockholm called Inga Mannusson at the Swedish History Museum. According to Inga, it sounds like Lana could be right. Based on the description I gave her, she thinks that the finial we have is a part of a two piece set. She said she has something similar on display at the museum there which could very well be the other one. I sent over the pictures to her so she could see what it is we have. I’m thinking I’ll hear back from her later tonight or tomorrow.

  Other than that, I called Agent Stewart and told him about our troubles here. If we come across any more strife, he promised to get us any backup we might need from the embassy here, but he also warned me that the situation in Homs is getting worse and if the embassy deci
des to close he advises that we pack it up immediately and get out on one of their evacuation lifts. I’m not pleased about that; we’ve never had to abandon an assignment before but I guess if the country plunges into civil war the last thing on anyone’s mind is going to be a museum exhibit.

  ***

  While Chyna sorted through the pieces at the warehouse, ran tests and packaged up the relics, Oscar verified all the information that Dr. Epstein’s scientists had entered in the database and made corrections to some of the entries.

  They excluded everything that had been recorded about the Phoenician Falcon, as they had nicknamed it, and put that data into a separate file. Lana busied herself at the museum supervising the painting of the walls, cleaning of the display cases, lighting installations, security system upgrades and finalizing the layout. Fatma had brought in her media people and Lana had ordered the banners, storyboards and pamphlets from them. Oscar had already laid out some chic, modern designs for the entire thing that they had all liked.

  By Friday that week, all the pieces from the warehouse were crated, labeled and categorized and being delivered to the museum for secured storing. Chyna was relieved to turn them over; she still wasn’t quite sure what to expect from whoever had hijacked their computers at the airport. With a whole week to get everything completed for the opening, they were way ahead of schedule so Chyna decided to lend Fatma a hand with the finer details. Lana and Oscar spent the afternoon running tests on the security systems and when they were satisfied, they set up all the items in their respective cases and admired their handy work. The collections looked magnificent; the lighting was complementary to each piece and the progression of the displays was flawless. All that was left was for the storyboards and banners to be hung and they had made arrangements to get that done the day before the opening.

  There had been no further threats since the rest of the team had arrived. Demetri and Thorin had kept things running so smoothly that they were nearly invisible and no one seemed to notice that they were even there.