Sparkling under the sunlight, its waters were wide and fast-flowing. What she could see of the river banks were sandy and rock-strewn, just like most of Egypt, she reckoned. Crouch, at the wheel, continued to pick his way through the streets, following his app and aiming for the place where, earlier, he’d dropped a pin at the best vantage point he could find.
“Three minutes,” he said. “Get ready.”
“What are we looking for?” Alicia asked.
“Anything tomby,” Drake said. “And capstoney.”
“That’s a great help, thanks.”
“No worries.”
Crouch guided the car to the place he’d dropped the pin and braked, staring out the windshield. From here, the banks of the Nile were wide open due to a gap in the buildings. Dropping many feet from the top to the flowing river.
Crouch commented as he switched off the engine. “It’s possible were looking at a Tombs of the Nobles situation.”
Alicia raised one brow. “Totally.”
Crouch cracked open the door. “The Tombs of the Nobles lie on the west bank of the Nile, about halfway down the slope that leads to the river. The entrance stares over the width of the Nile. Could be the same here.”
“You got that view pinpointed?” Luther asked.
Crouch raised a thumb to gauge the distant peak, then checked his phone. “I do.”
“And they knew it would stay this way for all time?” Luther sounded supremely skeptical.
But Crouch had no problem rounding on him. “Y’know, stop being such a bloody wet towel. No, of course they couldn’t be sure. People build tombs and raise buildings every single day, hoping they stand the test of time as some kind of memorial. But they don’t know. What they have—is faith. I’m so sick of hearing people like you repeating the same old bloody mantra. Nobody knows what will survive a thousand years or even ten, and for the relatively few treasures we do manage to find I bet you now there are hundreds we don’t.”
Luther held up both hands, letting Crouch have his day, then as he turned away caught Drake’s and Dahl’s attention.
“Your time is almost up. I gave you leeway; you’re just about out. Best get ready to come quietly, boys.”
Alicia was standing quietly behind the big soldier. “And there I was thinking we’d managed to sway you slightly over to our side.”
“I see no gray area,” Luther said. “I got tasked with bringing you in. That’s about to happen. Like I said before, fight your case with the suits. Maybe you’ll win.”
Drake didn’t want to lock horns with him. “How about the proof we promised?”
“I don’t see nothing.”
“You’re a bloody pig-headed brute of single purpose,” Dahl groaned. “Refusing to see the truth and shouldering a lifetime of regret.”
“I have no regrets.” Luther gazed into the middle-distance where the glimmering sunlight met the waves. “That’s why there’s a chain of command and you boys are enemies of the state.”
“Depends what day of the week it is,” Alicia said. “Next week—we’ll be heroes.”
“And like I said—I wouldn’t regret that either. This is the sixth seal right?”
“Yeah. This should show us the location of the weapon.” Alicia felt the familiar rush of adrenalin returning now as they all recovered from their arena ordeal.
Luther pursed his lips. “I can promise you another hour, but not much more than that.”
Drake looked like he wanted to argue, but Alicia saw him shrug and mouth “what’s the point?” He was right. Luther was a hound with dogged, unwavering ideals. The mission, the orders, could never be compromised.
Right?
Hayden’s voice cut through the tension like a bullet through parchment. “How much longer until FrameHub’s announcement?”
Luther checked his watch, and planted his earplugs in. “Ten minutes.”
“Best to get a move on.” Kinimaka followed Crouch to the edge of the road.
Alicia followed, knowing the storm of storms was coming and wanting to take her mind off to a different place. A treasure hunt with Crouch should do the trick. It had worked before.
The team joined them near the top of the slope that ran down a sandy bank to the lapping waters. The incline was steep but still negotiable. Crouch shaded his eyes.
“Nothing obvious.”
Of course, there wouldn’t be. Hayden had already crosschecked the area to see if anything important had ever been found. Crouch aligned his position with the picture as best he could. “Moment of truth,” he said. “Wish me luck.”
Alicia followed him over the edge. “Don’t be silly. We’re all coming.”
They started down the slope, inches at a time, balancing uncertainly on the rocky, shifting ground. Shales of grit ran away from their heels, ending up in the Nile. Sunshine glared down upon their heads and blinding lights shimmered off the water. Alicia felt the breeze rushing along the Nile like a racehorse around a track and welcomed the cool respite.
From above, Luther called out. “You have three minutes.”
Crouch picked up the pace, almost fell and then steadied. Drake came alongside him. Alicia stayed above, scanning left and right for any kind of jutting rock or alcove. So far, all they could see was endless rock.
Mai ranged furthest to the right; Kenzie to the left. Those in between searched with increased desperation and doubt.
“Not looking good, Michael,” Drake said. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“It matches the symbol,” Crouch replied. “Like no other contours along the entire Nile. I guess the picture, being old, could depict anywhere along this whole stretch.”
Luther called down to them, signaling to the buds in his ears. “Time’s up. FrameHub are broadcasting.”
“Is it really going ahead?” Kinimaka asked, fearful not for himself but for those that would undoubtedly be caught up in it.
Luther nodded. “They getting to it. Some kinda juvenile speech about toeing the line and doing as you’re told. Sounds like a parent telling a child off.” He glanced over at Pine without thinking, giving Alicia something to ponder on. “Everyone had the same chance, everyone had the same amount of time. Blah, blah, frickin’ blah. Shit, they’re promising to lay waste to certain areas and cripple others.”
Luther looked down at them. “I hope to hell they’re bluffing. This could get real bad, real quick.”
Alicia thought about the town they’d just driven through, the civilians going about their daily business, many of them having no clue who FrameHub were and what they were threatening.
Luther tensed. “Just naming the countries now.”
Alicia looked up at the man, her friends and colleagues alongside. For a moment nobody breathed.
“Greece,” Luther said. “And . . . Egypt. The countdown has begun.”
A knot of tension roiled inside Alicia’s stomach. With everyone else she turned her gaze to the skies.
“Ten, nine, eight . . .” Luther counted it down.
And eventually: “One.”
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
The nightmare turned into reality.
Drake felt his face slacken and his eyes close as rockets took to the air. He saw vertical and arcing ones; heard one explode out of a bunker only a few miles away and scream into flight. He saw the lovely, peaceful waters of the Nile and the air filled with death high above it.
Luther breathed a running commentary. “Egypt have SCUD launchers, at least ninety of the Project Ts with increased range. They have FROG-7s, purchased from the Soviets with a seventy kilometer range. They have M270s from the United States.” He stared in horror. “This is . . . Armageddon.”
Drake counted eight on their way to a terrible devastation. FrameHub had challenged the world, and no one had managed to stop them.
Did anyone even try? He wondered how many other teams were scattered around the world now, watching this in torment and utter helplessness.
“It wa
sn’t all about the missiles,” Hayden reminded them. “FrameHub promised a countrywide breakdown. Infrastructure, utilities, everything.”
In moments the missiles had vanished and the sky was clear. Drake made out several spiraling clouds of smoke toward the direction of Cairo and other cities, and could only guess as to the devastation.
“We get this done,” he said. “And then we get FrameHub done.”
Alicia nodded. “They can’t get away with this.”
Hayden agreed. “And just as importantly—they won’t stop this. How long until the next ransom demand?”
Drake, for once, felt powerless. Usually, they were at the tip of the sword, saving the day. But now . . . somebody in America had taken on a wealth of sins today and, soon, they were going to pay.
Luther sat down at the top of the slope, body language showing distress and disbelief. He stared at the floor, ignoring the SPEAR team.
Drake said nothing, just continued searching along the rocky bank. The team spread out in silence, each lost to their own thoughts, and when Crouch and Mai stumbled across something it took three low-key shouts to gather everyone together.
It wasn’t a splendid Egyptian tomb, nor even a marked burial site, just a hole in the side of the hill, covered over by a three-foot-thick slab and hidden by years of silt build-up and gathering sand. It had to be dug out. The only reason they continued in the light of everything was that this hole lay exactly where the depiction said it would be, and the thick plank overlaying it spoke to the fact that it had been made to last. Even the occasional Nile flood wouldn’t wash away the murals, and this site may never even have been flooded. The ancients knew what they were doing.
Drake’s fingers were bleeding by the time they finished removing sand. Then Crouch tried to wriggle into the hole and found he was too large. As ever, it was Alicia that turned to Yorgi and flashed a grin.
“What say you, Yogi? If anyone can get in there, it’s gotta be you.”
The Russian thief stepped up, dropping down into his belly and wriggling into the tiny alcove.
“You know what you’re looking for?” Crouch fretted, always anxious to be at the center of the hunt, inside the actual chamber.
“Got it,” Yorgi said a little thickly, concentrating hard. “I see darkness.”
Alicia looked like she was about to crack a witticism, then Drake saw her glance at the far-off plumes of smoke and let it die right there on her lips. He felt the same.
“Take my phone,” Crouch said, handing it over. “Just don’t lose it.”
“I will try.”
Yorgi struggled inside the narrow recess, forcing his body further and further into the hole that it concealed. The hole itself was behind the rock, invisible to the naked eye unless a person climbed down and dug it out. Crouch voiced the opinion that if they hadn’t found the picture and knew where to look, it would have gone unnoticed for many more millennia.
Slowly, and with a steady patience, Yorgi forced first his shoulders and then his torso into the gap. He moaned constantly, scraping flesh even under clothes. Drake saw his legs wiggling and then he was gone. He pressed forward.
“You okay?”
“Yes. I forget flashlight. Please pass down.”
Drake managed to reach in and hand his down. Yorgi wriggled off into the dark, leaving the team alone. Drake sat down, staring at the horizon and Alicia landed at his side.
“We can’t save everyone, Drakey.”
He nodded. “We should be trying,” he said. “Being stuck on the outside like this . . . it’s fucking unbearable. Totally undermining.”
Many pairs of eyes stared with undiminished dread and distress into the clear distance, wishing they had been able to help. This was what it felt to lose then, to be cut off and forgotten. Drake hated it.
In time, Yorgi reappeared. The climb in and out had exhausted him, and Dahl was called upon to help drag him out. Even then his sides were bleeding and, without a word, he collapsed into a heap, breathing shallowly.
But he held up Crouch’s phone.
The Englishman plucked it deftly from Yorgi’s grasp, turned it around and stared hard at the screen. At first, he seemed confused, then unhappy.
“Oh dear,” he said with typical understatement. “I think we may have to go back down.”
Drake winced. Who else could even fit down there? Mai?
Pine?
Hmm, an interesting conversation. He caught Luther’s eye and beckoned him down.
“We have a little problem.”
Luther stopped. “No,” he said. “We don’t. It is the people over there, those on the sharp end of this hell. We are fine.”
“Agreed, mate. But—”
“Wait.” Yorgi finally found breath to speak. “It is what you see. It is. I did not believe what I saw but stayed and stayed and looked and looked. I took pictures from every angle. Look at them. Look! It is what you think it is!”
Crouch backed away from them, the horror and fear on his face mirroring that which had crossed it when the missiles flew. “We came all this way, went through everything we did, and the answer was right in front of us all this time.”
“What are you talking about, Crouchy?” Alicia waved at him. “Snap out of it.”
“The seventh seal. It’s been there all along. We missed it. I missed it. The doomsday machine. No, oh no, it can’t be. There has to be some kind of mistake because, I see it now, and it’s horrendous.”
Drake was almost hopping. “C’mon, mate. What do you bloody well see?”
Crouch sent a dismayed face to the horizon, unable to speak. Drake followed his gaze, beyond the columns of smoke, beyond the mayhem and the twisting Nile and the mountains.
All the way to the giant pyramids of Giza.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
“The seventh seal and the key to the doomsday are inside the pyramids of Giza?” Luther asked in disbelief.
“The pyramid,” Crouch said. “That’s the Great Pyramid. And it does sound odd, since the capstone has been missing since before records were taken.”
“What could it be?” Kinimaka gazed at the horizon.
“But that’s impossible,” Hayden said. “The Great Pyramid has been explored already.”
“Ah, that’s not strictly true,” Crouch said. “It has been discovered quite recently that there are at least three passages inside that are still unexplored and, possibly, another tomb.”
“But why? Why would they not investigate it?”
“That,” Crouch said. “Is a very good question. I suggest we head that way and find out.”
To a person, the whole team followed his hand gesture at the distant pyramids.
“And into Cairo,” Drake said.
“I’m counting three hits,” Dahl said quietly. “And if the infrastructure has failed that’s going to be one hairy ride.”
“Gonna be some frightened people in there,” Luther said. “It will help to see some American military ride through.”
Alicia goggled her eyes at him. “Dude, that’s some scary blind faith you got there.”
“What are you talking about?”
Drake knew the American soldier was going to prove the hardest nut to crack and held out no illusions that it was even possible. “Y’know,” he said. “We should go there. That’s where we should be. Even if we help only one person or one family it’s the right thing to do.”
They walked away from the ancient tomb, leaving it now for some adventurist or local fisherman to ‘discover’. Who knew what other riches lay down there?
As Hayden came over the top of the slope and Crouch headed for the car a cellphone started to chirp.
Kinimaka tapped her. “That’s you.”
“Yeah, I thought so, but it can’t be.”
Drake heard the incredulity in her tone and hesitated. “Why?”
“Because it’s . . .” She pulled the cell out and stared at the screen. “Kimberly Crowe.”
If the team had b
een struck by a missile at that point they couldn’t have been more surprised. Mai summed it up: “This can’t be good.”
Luther latched on to the name immediately. “Secretary Crowe is calling you? Now? Can you prove it?”
“How about this?” Hayden jabbed the answer button and then the speakerphone, holding the cell in the palm of her hand.
“Hello?”
“Hayden Jaye? Is that you?”
“It is. I’m surprised to hear from you, Madam Secretary.”
“I’m surprised you still have this cell, Miss Jaye. Can’t it be traced? Even by your own ex-CIA colleagues?”
“I have a special chip that reroutes my location five times every second. I installed that in case you ever wanted to get back in touch.”
“Oh, well that’s fine. That’s fine then. There are no words for what has been done to you, so I’ll say nothing. My hands have been tied but now I’m starting to find options. Do you know Tempest?”
“It’s an operation, I believe. Something about finding the weapons of the gods.”
“It’s not an operation, Hayden, it’s the codename of the cabal behind your team’s quiet disavowing. And others, I might add. Their goal is to amass all the remaining weapons of the gods.”
“To what end?” Drake asked.
“I haven’t figured that out yet. But they’re influential in all governments. They’re like the worst damn weed in your garden. It has roots everywhere.”
Hayden looked momentarily taken aback by the Secretary’s language. Luther took the opportunity to bob his head toward the phone.
“Is this really Secretary of Defense Crowe?”
“Who is this?”
“Luther. I mean it is Luther, Madam Secretary, sorry.” The soldier looked embarrassed.
“It is Luther,” Dahl mimicked, grinning, and Drake looked away. Luther gave them both a stone-cold glare.
“Luther?” Now Crowe sounded astonished. “The same soldier they sent to kill you? I feel like I’m dreaming here.”
“No dream,” Luther said quickly. “We’ve apprehended the suspects and are bringing them in.”
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