Tomb Raiding PHD

by Martha Carr

  The students laughed again.

  Mary, who was sitting in the front, shot her hand up. “Professor Carson, I just wanted to say you really did your research. It’s like you were there.”

  A few other students nodded in agreement.

  Basing a lecture around an actual tomb raid might have been risky, but with the artifact secure under all the logs, Shay wasn’t worried that anyone was going to retrieve it anytime soon.

  Shay shrugged. “That’s the power of using primary sources.” She glanced up at the clock. “And it looks like it’s time to go. Thank you all for coming.”

  She spotted a familiar man in a navy-blue suit in the corner.

  Came to check up on me, huh, Goldstein?

  Shay waited at the lectern for a few minutes, fielding a few final questions as the students filed out. Once the last student had left, Daniel made his way toward her lectern and set his silence cube atop it.

  “Interesting lecture,” Daniel offered.

  “I try to make it engaging. It’s hard enough to get students to care about the past, and sometimes harder to get them to care about the changing views of the past.”

  The CIA agent smiled. “It really does sound like you were there. You sure you haven’t been?”

  Shay laughed. “I’ve been to Austria, won’t deny that, but it’s not like I’m the kind of person who’d go diving for sunken treasure. I like to keep things safe and academic.”

  “Sure. Maybe.” Daniel stared at her.

  Does he know?

  “What?” Shay asked.

  “What if you could be the kind of person who could go diving for sunken treasure, or at least help supervising it, but you wouldn’t be at risk?”

  Shay frowned. “What the he… What are you talking about?”

  It was easy to maintain her Professor Carson mask in front of the students, but the CIA man set her on edge, and the real Shay burned to come out and challenge him in voice and manner.

  “Among other responsibilities, I need to recover the pin you discussed in your lecture. I’m well aware that it’s a magical persuasion pin.”

  Shay watched the man, looking for some sign of discomfort or nervousness, but he displayed the same overly-pleasant demeanor he’d shown during their earlier discussion.

  “That pin is dangerous.” Shay shrugged. “It might be better off at the bottom of that lake where no one can ever abuse it.”

  “Oh, I know it’s dangerous, which is why it shouldn’t stay there. Twenty years ago, big deal. It’d take a lot of tech and time. But these days, with all these abracadabra, you never know when someone might march in and get it. Serious artifacts can’t be left around for random elves or wizards to pick up.” Daniel pointed at Shay. “And that’s where you come in.”

  “Oh?”

  “I want you to act as the supervisor for a team I’m putting together to find the gold and the pin in Lake Toplitz. If you agree, you’ll get ten percent of the value of the gold.”

  Shay almost laughed, again wondering if Daniel knew she was a tomb raider. “That’s a lot of money for a project supervisor.”

  “Well, consider it a fee to exploit your knowledge of the area and your experience concerning this lake. I won’t be on site, but I’ll make it clear that everyone is to follow your orders. You won’t have any trouble leveraging your knowledge.”

  Shay shook her head. “I’m interested in the job, but I want to make it clear that I haven’t been to Lake Toplitz.”

  “If that’s how you want to play it, fine.” Daniel shrugged. “We all have our secrets, Professor Carson.”

  Shay sighed. “That said, I know how dangerous the area is. If I’m going to be involved, I want ninety percent.”

  Daniel wasn’t polite enough to turn away. He laughed straight in her face.

  He wiped a mirthful tear away. “Come on, you work for a university. You should know the government doesn’t pay that much.”

  Shay shrugged. “Not my problem. Enjoy the magically booby-trapped log maze. It’s your problem now. Just being around there might get me blown up.”

  The CIA agent smirked and scratched his eyelid. “I can convince them to give you thirty percent, which is really damned generous. You’d never have to work again if you didn’t want to. No more lectures to spoiled kids.”

  “Like I already told you, I like my job. There’s only one other thing I need before I agree to take the job.”

  “What’s that?”

  Shay pointed at him. “The truth about why, if this is your responsibility, you won’t be coming along on the jo…expedition.”

  Daniel chuckled. “Aren’t you the curious one?”

  “Most academics are. That’s why they choose that path.”

  Daniel watched her for a few seconds before nodding. “I’ve got another artifact that has priority, and I can’t go to Austria to play right now.”

  “What’s the other artifact?”

  He shook his head. “Let’s just say that’s need-to-know. Right now, you’re not part of my team. You’re a contractor. Maybe we can revisit that after this Austrian job, if you’re willing to take it.”

  Shay nodded. “Okay, I’ll supervise your team, but that doesn’t mean I’m committing to anything else.”

  Daniel smiled. “Of course. Congratulations, Professor Carson, you’re moving up in the world.” He grabbed his cube and stuffed in his pocket.

  Shay said nothing else as the man walked toward an exit.

  What the hell am I doing cozying up to some government agent? If this guy digs enough he’ll eventually figure out the truth, but I do need to make sure he’s not sniffing around James.

  She frowned. If Daniel already knew the truth, then everything might be some sort of big test. The CIA wasn’t renowned for their ethics. He might know all about her current career and past and not give a damn.

  Shay sighed and ran her hands through her hair. What with Peyton’s brother, James’ alien secrets, helping Lily, and now subcontracting for the CIA, her life had gotten damned busy.

  21

  Shay frowned as she stepped on the escalator. The flight to Salzburg had gone well enough, and her team had already arrived. It should have been a simple matter of meeting her contact and being driven to Lake Toplitz.

  Of course, shit was already going south.

  She feigned checking her phone while using the camera to check behind her. Three men. She’d spotted them watching her the second she’d stepped off the flight. They were almost comically obvious with their oh-so-painful casual clothes that didn’t match their buzzcuts and practiced movements, and did little to hide suspicious weapons bulges from a person who knew what to look for.

  A person like Shay.

  Who are these assholes?

  The tomb raider who was pretending to be nothing more than a simple professor made her way through the crowds and away from the rental-car pick-up area. If something went down, she didn’t need people witnessing her ass-kicking skills and Austrian cops taking her in for questioning.

  Shay continued walking away from the main gates. The crowds thinned out, and the men picked up their pace. She no longer had any doubts that they were following her.

  She glanced around, looking for cameras. The great thing about airports was they often wanted the surveillance to be obvious, with the thought that it would be a deterrent in and of itself. The cameras were sparse in the area, so as long as she controlled where she walked, she could easily avoid them.

  The tomb raider altered her course with that in mind. After a quick final survey of the area, she turned the corner and entered a long, empty hallway.

  This will do. Probably don’t have much time before someone shows up.

  Shay stepped a few yards into the hallway and waited, reaching into a hidden pocket in her jacket. About thirty seconds later, the three buzzcuts walked around the corner. They blinked, clearly surprised to see Shay waiting for them.

  She didn’t hesitate, just charged the men.
A quick throat-punch sent one man to the floor, and an elbow to the second’s face put him down. She whipped out a butterfly knife from the hidden pocket and had it to the third man’s throat in an instant.

  “Who the hell are you?” Shay demanded.

  “Fuck you, bitch,” the man responded. His accent sounded vaguely French.

  Could he work for Durand? No, this doesn’t seem like his style.

  Shay slammed a fist into the man’s stomach. Two more quick punches had him on the floor unconscious. She strolled to the two other groaning men and knocked them out with kicks to the head.

  Shit. Someone’s either targeting me or the expedition. Shay took a picture of the men, then glanced both ways.

  She couldn’t kill them without causing too much trouble. At least, she couldn’t kill them there, but she was sure she would be seeing them again soon.

  It was time to contact Peyton and get a few things figured out.

  Her rental Mercedes barreled down B145. She’d called ahead, and the team was expecting her and already almost set up. The only problem was that she doubted they’d be ready to do anything before nightfall, and that was even before considering her new friends from the airport.

  Shay’s phone rang with a call from Peyton, and she answered it on speakerphone.

  “Find anything?” she asked.

  “Those guys are trouble.”

  Shay snorted. “I already knew that. Can you be more specific?”

  “Turns out they used to work for Alpha Explorers. “

  The tomb raider frowned. “So, what, this is revenge for Oak Island?”

  “I don’t think so.” The clicks of Peyton’s typing came over the line. “I don’t honestly think they know who you are. I mean, that you’re a tomb raider.”

  Shay glanced into her rearview mirror to make sure she wasn’t being followed. “What do you mean?”

  “The new guys they work for aren’t tomb raiders in the same way Alpha Explorers were. Instead, their new strategy is to track research around the world. They find out who the leader is, capture them, get the info, kill the leader, and steal the prize.”

  “Perfect. Fucking idiots. If they know enough to target me, then they know enough to come after the expedition.”

  “Probably. You could tell everyone that someone’s after you.”

  “No. I don’t want my new CIA friend getting suspicious and digging deeper. It’s a miracle he hasn’t seen through the fake identity shit, especially the college stuff.”

  Peyton huffed. “Hey, that was quality work.”

  “Not saying it wasn’t, just saying this guy’s CIA.” Shay frowned. “I’ll just have to take these assholes down, along with any friends, without anyone seeing me do it.”

  Peyton laughed. “Good luck with that. Sounds impossible.”

  She snorted. “You forget what I used to be.”

  “Nope. Not that. Never that. Don’t think I’ll ever forget again.”

  A soft wind blew over the surface of Lake Toplitz and cooled Shay’s face. Some of the tents ruffled in the wind. This wasn’t a tomb raid. It was a true expedition.

  So this is what it feels like.

  She grinned at the dozen men working on finishing their inspection and unloading of three huge submersible cargo drones from trucks. The drones all had manipulator arms, and with careful guidance, would be able to help move the logs and ferry out the heavy gold.

  The tomb raider wasn’t sure if they’d be able to gain access to the magical artifacts without an actual person. It depended a lot on the nature of the spells, although her last trip to the lake might have already triggered all the defensive magic.

  A girl can hope.

  The first time, she’d come to the lake by herself and nearly died. Now she had an entire government-sponsored expedition. It was nice to be appreciated for her knowledge rather than her killing skills.

  Is this what could have been? Do I have my own Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future hanging over me?

  Shay wanted to be free of her past but had mercilessly gunned down, stabbed, and blown up the Phoenix Gang the other day. She’d never escape it if she kept running into its bloody embrace whenever it was convenient.

  She sighed.

  Wonder if I should tell James about working for the CIA as a consultant?

  Shay frowned and shook her head. Daniel knew too much about aliens, which meant she needed to make sure he was kept far away from James. Too many plates were spinning. At some point, they would start to fall, and Shay would have to make some hard choices about which ones to save.

  The beautiful orange-pink of the setting sun and the deepening shadows announced the coming darkness. The team had erected light poles along the edge of the lake and behind their fenced perimeter, but she didn’t like the idea of wasting time poking around at night, especially if they ended up deciding to send divers.

  “Just finish getting everything ready,” Shay shouted. “We’ll hit the lake at dawn with the drones and figure out possible dives after that. If we’re lucky, maybe we won’t have to dive at all.”

  One of the team members, an engineer named Bill, rushed over to her. “The drones are almost ready to go, but we’re having some trouble with the interface. There’s a lot of interference. Your report didn’t say anything about broad EM frequency interference up here. Do you think that’s a side effect of the magical defenses?”

  Shay frowned.

  You guys don’t see the obvious, do you?

  Daniel had secured the necessary permissions from the Austrian government and provided her with a skilled team of engineers and divers, not to mention all the best equipment, but it was painfully obvious that these people were not tomb raiders.

  Even though they weren’t aware of the incident at the airport, they should have been more suspicious.

  It wasn’t as if they didn’t have any guns. Everyone possessed at least some proficiency with a firearm, and they had a weapons locker in one of the cavernous green tents. Unfortunately, shooting a gun and having the paranoid instincts honed by tombs raids were separate things.

  The reality was that if they had been tomb raiders they would have realized the immediate implications of the interference, and that it wasn’t some spell messing with their equipment.

  Someone’s jamming us. If they’re jamming us, they’re going to be coming at us soon.

  The surrounding pines and other trees grew thickly enough to hide a small army.

  Shay sucked in a breath. She could tell everyone to arm up, and they could try and repel an attack, but the men’s lack of tactical experience would make an already-chaotic situation disastrous.

  No, she needed to handle this problem herself.

  Shit. As far as Daniel’s concerned I’m Professor Shay Carson, a slightly eccentric academic. I’m lucky he hasn’t seen through my fake identity already. If I start killing people he’ll figure out who I really am, and that won’t end well for Peyton or me. It’s not like I can take on the CIA.

  Shay glanced at her tent. She’d brought a few of her toys, even if the expedition members and the CIA agent didn’t know about them.

  “Let’s pack it in for the night,” she announced. “I want everyone bright-eyed tomorrow morning. Maybe by then, the interference will have cleared.” She clapped. “And I want us to find ourselves some gold.”

  The men laughed.

  So the enemy is probably jamming us and watching us. The smart play would be to let us go to sleep, wait an hour or so, and then ambush us.

  Shay retreated to her tent and pushed in, closing the flap behind her. She dug through several biometrically-sealed metal boxes until she found a small one with a DNA lock. She pressed her thumb to the plate and hissed at the familiar burn. The lock popped open, and she opened the lid.

  Her three adamantine knives lay inside, nestled atop her folded tactical harness and a 9mm with a few magazines.

  If they ask about this, I’ll just claim the knives are valuable arti
facts I dug up a long time ago, and I always want to make sure I can protect them.

  Shay slipped on the harness and loaded a mag into the pistol before holstering it. She sheathed the knives, then slid under the open sleeping bag on her cot. Now it was time to wait.

  Thirty minutes later, when chatter had drifted to silence and everyone was in their tents, Shay carefully and slowly unzipped the front of her tent and crept out into the darkness.

  The lights had all been killed, and their only real defense was the pop-up chain-link fence they’d deployed. The intent wasn’t to stop people, but rather the wildlife that might wander in.

  Shay crept through the darkness, resisting a snicker. It wasn’t even like she was doing anything wrong. Taking out the people who were trying to attack her and her team was simple self-defense, but she was skulking through the darkness like some scumbag criminal.

  She just couldn’t tip her hand to Daniel. It was too much of a risk to her and everyone she cared about.

  This is why superheroes have secret identities, but am I a superhero or a supervillain?

  The tomb raider smirked as she made her way to the fence and vaulted over it without trouble. A stray flash of green caught her eye.

  Sloppy, assholes. Really, sloppy.

  Shay rushed toward the forest, keeping low to the ground until she hit the tree line. She was grateful there wasn’t a full moon. Some nearby branches crunched, the quiet sound almost a scream in the still night.

  The shadowy forms of a half-dozen men emerged from the tree line. All wore night-vision goggles and held rifles.

  These guys definitely mean business.

  The tomb raider had already moved well to their side in an attempt to flank them, saving her from being spotted right away. She hurried until she was behind the men. The earlier fight at the airport must have convinced them that she wasn’t a simple college professor, which would explain the jamming and night assault.