Tomb Raiding PHD

by Martha Carr

  “Well, as long as it’s something normal and not overpowered chickens.” Peyton chuckled. “Two sets, though? Lily coming?”

  “That’s the plan. She there right now? If so, let her know I need to talk with her.”

  “Nope. She went back to the tunnels.”

  “Okay, thanks. I’ll stop by there. Talk to you later.”

  Shay hung up and grimaced. She didn’t have time to wander through subterranean Los Angeles to find the teen, but maybe she’d get lucky.

  She tried to dial the girl, but after several rings, the call went to voicemail. That didn’t surprise Shay. Tunnels deep under the ground had proven to not have cell phone coverage.

  I hope she’s somewhere near the entrance and not in the middle of some maze fighting a minotaur. We don’t have time to mess around.

  “This is a bad idea,” Shay muttered as she stepped into the huge pipe. She had a pretty good notion of how to navigate to where Harry had performed his bird calls, but a pretty good notion wasn’t the same thing as certainty.

  Her wrist light cut through the darkness as she pushed deeper into the tunnels, looking for any sign of movement, two-legged or otherwise.

  Funny how this place puts me more on edge than the damned cursed ancient tombs I’ve actually raided. Those kids survive in these tunnels just fine, so they can’t be that bad. And rats aren’t a big deal. Not like they can take a bullet like a frogman or invisible swordsman ghost.

  The tomb raider walked deeper into the tunnels and turned at what she hoped was a familiar junction. A few more minutes of travel had her questioning whether she’d made a wrong turn. Everything looked the same. Shouldn’t there have been some sort of numbers or something?

  Damn, these kids have memorized these layouts without any real landmarks that I can see. Impressive. They could do a lot if they got out of the tunnels and just settled down to something approaching a normal life. They are smart and resourceful.

  Shay burst out in laughter, the sound echoing in the tunnel. What did she know about normal life? She was a tomb raider who used to be a professional killer, and she was dating an alien. Compared to her, a bunch of magical orphans who called these tunnels ‘home’ was the definition of normal.

  Wait a second.

  “Fuck.” She stopped and looked at the different tunnels leading off from her current junction.

  I think I know where I am, but damned if I know where to go from here. This was a dumbass plan.

  Shay took a breath and raised her fingers to her mouth. It was time to try what Lily had taught her. The bird call came out half-strangled, but at least she managed decent volume. She tried a few more times, then crossed her arms and waited.

  The scuffle of footfalls and murmurs came from a nearby tunnel. Shay didn’t go for her gun. The last thing the tunnel kids needed was to think she’d pull a gun on them without good cause. She’d earned their trust, and she didn’t want to squander it by overreacting.

  The footfalls grew closer, and Harry emerged from a tunnel, followed by Lily, Casey, and a few other teens.

  Harry offered a polite nod to Shay, but it was Lily who stepped forward.

  “What did you need, Shay?” Lily asked, confusion on her face. “I’m guessing it’s important if you’d come to the tunnels and use that call to get our attention.”

  Shay nodded. “Have a job, and I need your help. I have to recover an artifact, but it’s guarded by an invisible army that technology can’t detect. I don’t have a decent magical means to spot them either.”

  “And you think my divination will help?”

  “Yeah. You’re perfect for the job, but I’ll be honest—this shit might get dangerous. I want you to know that up front.”

  Lily snorted. “And taking on the Ice Witch wasn’t dangerous?”

  Harry frowned and crossed his arms, but he didn’t say anything.

  Just stay out of it, kid. I know you’re into her, but it’s her decision to make. No one likes an overbearing man.

  Harry shook his head. “If it’s so dangerous, why not bring more backup? The more eyes, the better. We could help.” He gestured around. “All of us.”

  “Didn’t you hear me? The army’s invisible. Eyes are useless. You can hear them, but that’s about it.”

  He shrugged. “Fine. The more ears, the better.”

  Shay shook her head. “No can do, ki…Harry. Tomb raiding isn’t like stealing from a few Demon Generals, especially when we’re talking magical guardians. You wouldn’t be more ears. You’d just be more targets.”

  “We have magic.”

  “You have unreliable magic.”

  Harry squared his shoulders. “And what do you have?”

  Shay smirked. “A magic sword that I’ve used to kill several magical creatures. So I’m good.”

  Harry blinked. He obviously hadn’t been expecting that response.

  Lily patted him on the arm. “It’ll be okay. I can take care of myself, and Shay can kick ass. She’s proven that to us and then some.”

  Shay nodded. “Look, Harry, I can’t be responsible for all of you. This isn’t a local job. Your knowledge of Los Angeles and the tunnels would be useless. It’s going to be in the middle of a field near a forest, not a city, so your movement skills would be useless.” She gestured to Lily. “And I’ve been training her.”

  Harry shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of her doing something so dangerous by herself.”

  The other teens nodded in agreement.

  “She won’t be doing this by herself,” Shay countered. “I’m doing the heavy lifting. I just need her to point, and I’ll slice.” She glanced at Lily. “Like I said, I’m not gonna bullshit and claim there’s no danger, though. It’s your choice.”

  Lily nodded, a determined look on her face. “It’s time for me to pay back the two thousand I owe. If it hadn’t been for you and Peyton, those Triad guys might have tracked me down or hurt my friends. You cleaned up for me when I made a mistake, and I don’t forget that. And I haven’t forgotten how you helped us with the Demon Generals.”

  Shay grinned. “If we pull this off, your share will be a lot more than two thousand.”

  At least we’re doing this in the middle of the day,” Lily mumbled as she stepped out of the truck.

  Shay laughed. “Yep. No reason to make this shit harder than it already is, but maybe we’ll get lucky. See anything, Peyton?”

  “Nope,” he replied through their earbuds. “I’m searching on UV, visible, and IR. Minor temperature differences, but nothing else. Certainly nothing that looks like an army of ghosts.”

  The tomb raider stared at the simple stone crypt. At ten feet long by eight feet wide, it wasn’t all that large. There were no decorations on the outside except a carving of an oak tree on the front door.

  Thirteen stones were evenly spaced around the crypt, all thirteen yards away by her estimate. All had large runes that appeared to have been burned into them.

  Scorched patches of land peppered the inside of the runestone circle. The glint of sunlight on shell casings from outside and inside caught Shay’s attention, along with the dark stains on some of the stones and surviving grass. There’d been a battle here recently.

  Your friends, Professor?

  Shay knelt near the closest stone. “These must be the wards the Professor mentioned. Said they don’t work anymore. Lucky us. Or unlucky us, depending on how you look at things.”

  Lily glanced around with a pensive expression on her face.

  “Anything?

  Lily shook her head. “No.”

  “That could be good.”

  “I’m… No. I just don’t think my power is working right now.” Lily sighed.

  “Don’t worry about it. You’re doing fine.”

  Lily nodded, a slight smile returning.

  Shay shrugged and walked back over to the squat moving truck. She strapped on the sword belt containing the tachi. “Don’t have a magic sword for you, and I don’t want you t
rying to take on invisible swordsmen with a knife, so just stay close to me if anything happens.”

  “Okay.”

  The tomb raider moved to the cargo door and opened the back hatch. She grabbed a few crowbars and extended a ramp from the back to the ground then pulled the hand truck out. It dropped to the ground with a thud.

  Shay pointed inside. “Got rope and a few other things to play with to get the coffin onto the hand truck. We might wish James was here when we have to move the coffin, but once we get it on the hand truck we’re golden.” She snorted. “No pun intended.”

  “I’d help you move it if I were there,” Peyton commented over the line.

  “Yes, the pure muscle that is Peyton.” Shay chuckled. “Anyway, we’re gonna to need to hear these guys, so we’re gonna remove our receivers now. Okay, Peyton?”

  “If you’re sure.”

  “We can’t be distracted. Talk to you after we grab the coffin.” Shay pulled her earbud out.

  Lily did the same. “What are we going to do with a golden coffin? Isn’t that kind of obvious?”

  “After we grab it, we drive to a private airstrip. The Professor’s sending some guys who’ll take it back. We’ll head to London so we can take a supersonic back. Easy shit.”

  The teen laughed. “But I wanted to see you try and take a golden coffin through Customs. The looks on their faces alone would be worth it.”

  “That kind of thing is easier than you think.” Shay winked.

  “Bringing strange coffins through airports?”

  Shay shrugged. “Yep. Or strange artifacts. I smuggle a lot of things because it’s too risky to get noticed by other tomb raiders and that sort of thing, but I’m not as worried about some Customs agent. It’s the weapons, more than the strange artifacts, that are the problem.”

  Their cargo-loading preparations complete, Shay eyed the thirteen rocks.

  Too bad that magic didn’t last but the damned soldiers stayed around.

  Shay drew her sword. “From here on out, don’t speak or make noise if you can avoid it. I don’t know when the army will show up, but my guess we won’t have much time after we open the crypt.”

  Lily nodded.

  The tomb raider took a few careful steps past the rune stones.

  The sound of metal scraping against wood filled the air.

  Shay narrowed her eyes and looked at Lily, who shook her head and shrugged.

  The same sound came again, this time from a different direction.

  “They’re drawing swords,” Shay whispered, tightening her grip on the hilt of her tachi.

  Lily lifted her father’s artifact and bit her lip, but her panicked expression made it clear it wasn’t working.

  She didn’t use it last time we went on a mission. Wonder if she was trying to see if she didn’t need to rely on it? Just like I worried about relying on James. Doesn’t matter, though. Seems like it’s not working.

  I gambled and lost. Not her fault.

  “Stay close,” Shay whispered.

  Lily nodded.

  A light wind kicked up. The tomb raider’s head swiveled back and forth. She looked for any signs of depressions in the grass and dirt, but there was nothing.

  Completely fucking invisible. Sure. Yeah. Perfect.

  Shay took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She could do this. She’d fought people in the dark when she was a killer. The only difference was that it was broad daylight, and she still couldn’t see them. A little unnerving, but the principles remained the same.

  Clear my mind and listen.

  More draws followed, some closer than others. Adding in the original sounds, Shay counted forty enemies.

  Forty invisible ghost soldiers. Yeah. This is fun. Very fun. Clear my mind. Clear my mind.

  A soft moan reached her ears from her left.

  Shay spun and slashed with the tachi. The sword slammed into something. A bright blue flash outlined a man’s form before he collapsed into a pile of white ash.

  Okay, thirty-nine to go. Hurray, me.

  Shay listened for more moans and the scuff of boots. She spun to her right, and the ring of metal on metal sounded even though her sword appeared to have hit nothing but air. She hissed and pulled back slashing low then up.

  Another ghostly soldier appeared, only to dissolve into white ash.

  Thirty-eight.

  The wind blowing behind Shay sounded slightly off. She spun, shoved Lily out of the way, and raised her sword just in time to block the blow from an invisible blade.

  Lily scrambled behind Shay as the tomb raider stepped back and slashed to her side at the scuff of boots. Her blade separated the spectral form’s head from his body before he dissolved into white ash that was blown away by the wind.

  Thirty-seven.

  The wind carried the sound of several more swords being drawn.

  Well, shit. Maybe if I threw some dust? No, the ash is blowing straight into the wind. There’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to make them visible. Clear my mind and listen. I can do this.

  Shay spun toward a hiss, bringing her sword up just in time to knock a hidden blade away from her heart. She gritted her teeth as the sword sliced through her shirt sleeve, cutting her bicep. Ignoring her wound, she stabbed straight forward and made another pile of ash.

  Her arm throbbed, and blood welled up from the wound.

  Okay, he nicked me, but we’re down to thirty-six.

  Shay shifted the sword to one hand and made three quick throws with her adamantine knives. Three blue flashes highlighted the cursed soldiers before they joined their comrades as ash. The knives fell to the ground but looked unharmed.

  Both her hands returned to the hilt of her sword.

  Thirty-three.

  The next couple minutes passed without Shay getting cut again, but she finished off only three more enemies. Her wound continued to throb, sapping her concentration.

  Fuck. It’s not like I’ve not been stabbed or sliced before. Don’t know why this shit hurts so much.

  Shay again spun and shoved Lily out of the way to block an attack. The whistle of a blade to her left brought her sword up, and she parried a second attack. The enemy was starting to gang up on her. The tomb raider would probably never know whether that was a sign of intelligence or was just an inevitable part of the spell that had bound the men to the area.

  “Nine o’clock, one yard,” Lily whispered.

  Shay didn’t even think before she thrust that way. Her blade met another soldier, and he drifted in the wind as ash. The girl’s power had finally kicked in.

  “One at ten and another at twelve, both half a yard.” Lily stepped beside Shay to point and reinforce the location of the enemy.

  Knowing exactly where the enemy was helped. Despite their numbers, the spectral soldiers lacked the swordsmanship they possessed in life. It was likely the only reason Shay hadn’t been killed.

  Lily kept her father’s artifact in hand as she continued to shout directions and point. Shay’s tachi reduced enemy after enemy to ash.

  Twenty-five. Twenty. Ten. Five.

  Shay panted, her arm on fire. She needed to close the wound, but she couldn’t spare the seconds to take a healing potion.

  Lily stayed close to Shay. “Four surrounding you, evenly spaced out, with one directly in front.”

  The tomb raider rushed forward, slashing low. She didn’t wait for her enemy to turn into ash before spinning and slashing to her left and right. More piles of ash appeared.

  Lily pointed toward the last of the four. Shay sprinted forward and stabbed, but this time her blade met invisible metal. She twirled her blade around the hidden weapon until she found the body of the spectral soldier.

  Just one more.

  “He’s right in front of me,” Lily squeaked.

  Shay twisted and shoved the girl out of the way. The tomb raider shot her sword up. Sparks flew as her blade scraped against the invisible sword of her final enemy. The soldier pushed down, and Shay hiss
ed, the ache in her arm intensified by the force.

  Two quick slashes and a thrust finished the final enemy. White ash now coated the entire area. It looked like it had snowed.

  Shay sheathed her blade and winced. “Damn. They only got one hit on me, but it hurts like hell. Go get the first aid kit. We’ll do a little analgesic spray, and I’ll slap a bandage on it, then we’ll get the coffin. A little cut isn’t worth a healing potion.”

  The tomb raider shook her arm.

  Beating forty invisible men. Not bad for a woman with a sword and a Gray Elf.

  Hours later, Shay’s eyes fluttered open. Her stomach tightened, and a few seconds passed before she remembered where she was. Safe. Well, safe enough. She was on a commercial supersonic flight back to Los Angeles.

  Her arm throbbed and burned. She spared a glance at Lily. The teen slept peacefully in her first-class seat.

  Shay rose and made her way to the lavatory. She’d thought the bandage and spray would have been enough. The wound hadn’t looked deep enough to need stitches.

  She closed the door and pulled up her shirt sleeve. She hissed from surprise rather than pain when she stared at the mirror. Her arm was swollen.

  Shay removed the bandage. The clean slice before now was a pus-filled green, red, and black mess, like some nasty infection from a wound in jungle water.

  With a deep sigh, she pulled a healing potion from inside her jacket pocket and downed the contents. Thirty seconds passed without any relief. Then a minute. Then two minutes.

  It didn’t work. What the fuck? How did it not work?

  Shay held up the small blue glass potion bottle. What kind of wound couldn’t be fixed by a healing potion?

  16

  As Shay stepped into Prophecy Affiliates, her entire arm throbbed and a fiery ache shot up it. She’d done her best to conceal the wound from Lily before dropping her off at the tunnels, but she knew the girl was suspicious.

  The tomb raider didn’t need Lily worrying about her or feeling guilty because her power hadn’t been reliable. Shay had known the risks when she’d chosen to take on a dangerous tomb raid and bring along a tomb-raider trainee with questionable magic.