Secret of the Ankhs: A Maggie Edwards Adventure (Maggie Edwards Adventures Book 2)

by Nellie H. Steele

  Maggie squealed as she contorted her foot and pulled her leg upward, freeing her foot from her shoe. After a moment, her left leg was freed. Ollie raised his eyebrows at her. “Good going, Maggie! Can you free your other leg?”

  “Mmm,” Maggie murmured as she struggled. “I’m not sure. He caught the buckle of my left shoe with the zip tie, so it wasn’t tight. I was able to wiggle out. I’m not sure I can get my right foot out.”

  She battled against the zip tie for a few moments but was unsuccessful. She heaved a sigh. “It’s no use. This ankle’s stuck.” She breathed heavily with effort.

  Maggie hung her head in frustration for a moment. “Can you make it to the kitchen on your free leg?” Ollie inquired.

  Maggie tried to stand but found it impossible to balance with her hands behind her and one leg still attached to the chair. She sunk down with a sigh, hanging her head.

  “It’s okay, Maggie. It’s okay,” Ollie assured her.

  Her head shot back up. She stared at the table in front of her. “I have an idea!” she exclaimed.

  Maggie pushed back in her chair. She drew her leg up to her chest. She raised it above the table and extended it toward the table’s center. Her brow pinched as she stretched to reach the vase that graced the dining table. Her toes grazed the blue glass. She strained her leg to extend to its limit. Muscles pulled and stretched as she attempted to reach the vase.

  Maggie shrieked as she lengthened her leg until it connected with the vase. The glass vase fell on its side, thudding against the wooden table below it. It rocked back and forth before settling. “Come on!” Maggie groaned through clenched teeth.

  She rolled the vase toward her. It oscillated to and fro as she inched it closer to the table’s edge. In another moment, the vase teetered before it crashed down to the floor. The glass object shattered as it hit the hardwood.

  Piper stared at the fragmented glass. “Why did you do that?” she questioned.

  “We need something sharp to cut the zip ties,” Maggie informed her.

  “But it’s just all over the floor! We can’t use that!” she shouted.

  Charlie gave Maggie a half-smile, understanding her plan. “Smart, chicky,” he commented. “If you wouldn’t mind speeding it up, though,” he said, jutting his chin toward the living room behind Maggie. Smoke began to fill the room as the flames crawled across the ceiling. Ollie coughed as the smoke thickened in the room.

  “Sure thing,” Maggie promised. She hopped on her chair until her back faced the mess on the floor. Once it did, she pushed with her left leg. Her chair toppled backward. Maggie landed hard against the chair’s back. The force knocked the air from her lungs. She groaned as she regained her breath. Her hands searched the floor under her. Her fingers grazed the glass. Blindly, she worked to wrap her fingers around a glass shard. Tiny pebbles of shattered glass cut her fingertips, but she managed to grab hold of a thick piece.

  Maggie spun the shard in her hand and pushed it against her zip tie. As she sawed at the cable tie, she eyed the flames. They crept closer to them. Her eyes stung from the smoke, though the air on the floor was clearer and easier to breathe. Piper began to cough along with Charlie.

  Maggie yelped as the glass cut into her palm as she continued to slice through the bond. Finally, the zip tie severed, freeing Maggie’s hands. She rolled to her side, slicing through her final bond.

  Maggie stood on shaky legs. She coughed as the smoke burned her eyes, nose and throat. After steadying herself, she raced to the kitchen and grabbed two knives. Maggie ripped a kitchen towel from the oven door, wrapping it around her sliced and bleeding hand.

  She raced back to the dining room. Henry’s head still lolled; he hadn’t regained consciousness yet. She hurried to Charlie and began to saw at the zip ties binding his wrists. “Hurry, chicky,” Charlie urged, “your friend isn’t doing so good.”

  “I know, I know. I can’t believe Henry hasn’t regained consciousness yet,” Maggie admitted.

  “No,” Charlie corrected. “Piper.”

  Maggie glanced up and across the table. Piper’s head hung limply. Maggie returned her attention to Charlie’s bonds. In seconds, his hands were freed. He grabbed the second knife and used it to slice the zip tie binding his left ankle while Maggie freed his right.

  “Cut Piper loose and take her out,” Maggie shouted. “I’ll get Ollie and Henry.”

  Charlie raced around the table and began to slice at Piper’s cable ties. Maggie severed the ties binding Ollie’s wrists, then cut his legs free. Charlie had Piper freed. She fell forward into his arms and he tossed her over his shoulder. He raced to the patio door, flinging it open and stepping outside.

  The influx of fresh oxygen intensified the flames. Ollie grabbed Charlie’s discarded knife and he and Maggie crossed to Henry. Ollie freed his wrists while Maggie cut the ties around his ankles. “Henry,” Maggie prodded. “Henry! Come on, babe, wake up!” She patted his cheeks in an attempt to rouse him.

  “I must get my notes!” Ollie shouted to Maggie as she continued her attempts to rouse Henry.

  Maggie coughed, choking on the smoke-filled air. “Uncle Ollie, you can’t! It’s too dangerous!”

  “I can make it!” Ollie insisted, eyeing the notes on the coffee table.

  Maggie growled as he raced toward the flames. She returned her attention to Henry. “Henry!” she called again. It made no impact. She would be forced to drag him from the room. She prayed she had the strength. As she stood to begin her rescue operation, she spotted a watering can next to a potted plant near the patio door.

  Maggie hurried to it. She breathed a sigh of relief as she lifted it, feeling the water slosh inside. She sprinted back to Henry and dumped the cold water on his head.

  Henry’s head shot up. He blinked several times before glancing around. “Maggie!” he shouted as he scanned the room.

  “I’m here! Come on, we have to go!” Maggie shouted as flames licked the chair she had occupied. She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the chair. “Uncle Ollie!”

  “Here,” Ollie answered, skirting the burning couch and rejoining them. “I got it! Now let’s go!” Ollie held up a worn leather journal. Maggie nodded in agreement. They rushed across the room to the open patio door.

  Everyone gasped for breath as they emerged into the warm, clear air. Sirens screamed in the distance, sounding closer with each passing moment.

  Maggie rushed into the grass where Piper lay sprawled on her back. Her eyes remained closed. “Piper!” Maggie shouted. She grasped Piper’s wrist and felt for a pulse.

  “Pulse is okay, she just inhaled a lot of smoke,” Charlie answered. “She needs oxygen.”

  “We need to move the smoke from her lungs,” Maggie responded. “And get her oxygen.”

  “I hear sirens. They should have oxygen,” Charlie answered.

  “No, we can’t wait,” Maggie countered. She blew air into her mouth. She waited a few seconds and blew again. After the third try, Piper began to cough. Maggie sat back on her haunches and breathed a sigh of relief. Henry squeezed her shoulder. She grasped his hand as Piper’s eyes fluttered open.

  “You’re okay, Piper, you’re safe,” Maggie assured her.

  “How…” Piper began, her voice hoarse from the smoke. She pushed herself up to sitting.

  “Charlie dragged you out after you passed out,” Maggie informed her.

  Piper’s eyes flitted to Charlie, who gave her an awkward wave and a half-smile. Piper flung her arms around Charlie’s neck. “My hero!” she exclaimed.

  Charlie, surprised at her unexpected display of affection, uttered a flabbergasted, “Oh!” as the color rushed to his cheeks. Maggie smiled at the touching scene.

  She turned her attention to Ollie and Henry. “Are you all right?” she asked Ollie.

  “I’m fine, Maggie, I’m fine. Thanks to your smart thinking!”

  “Hey, you had some pretty smart thinking there, too! Good going giving him completely wrong answers about
the location of the other two ankhs!”

  “It won’t take them long to find out I lied,” Ollie admitted, “but at least it bought us some time.”

  Maggie eyed the cut on Henry’s forehead. “How’s your head? This cut looks nasty,” she said.

  “I’m fine, Maggie. How are you?”

  “I’m okay,” Maggie answered. Henry eyed her. “Really, I am.”

  A bevy of emergency responders interrupted their conversation. In short order, firefighters doused the flames consuming the interior of Ollie’s house with water while paramedics checked the group.

  After everyone’s health was attended to, they gathered on the front lawn.

  “We need a place to hole up, regroup,” Henry suggested.

  “I agree,” Ollie answered. “We should put some distance between us and Aberdeen though.”

  “Agreed,” Henry responded.

  “We can’t leave Piper here,” Maggie chimed in. “That maniac nearly killed her. I’m not risking her life.”

  “Fine,” Henry answered. “She comes with us for now.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Piper challenged. “Would someone mind filling me in on what the hell is going on here? Some crazy gun-wielding dude just kidnapped Maggie and me, insisting she knew the location of some ankh and then almost killed us. Now everyone’s all like ‘let’s hole up and regroup.’ What the hell is going on here?”

  Maggie sighed. “It’s a long story,” she answered. “Come on, I’ll explain in the car.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.” Piper crossed her arms and set her jaw.

  “Piper, we don’t have time for this! Once they realize we’re not dead, they’re going …”

  “WHO ARE THEY?!” Piper shouted.

  Charlie stepped between Maggie and Piper. “Fair maiden, if I may entreat upon you to forgive the lack of explanation. Everything will be explained, but for now, the most important thing is your safety. And I trust these people with my life. If you could see fit to trust my judgement, I am certain you will not regret it.”

  “What the hell is he talking about?” Henry whispered to Maggie.

  Piper’s face softened. “Okay,” she agreed. “Okay, I trust your judgement. I feel safe with you. After all, I owe you my life, good sir.”

  “Who cares,” Maggie responded in a low voice. “It worked.”

  “All right,” Ollie said. “With that settled, let’s head out, then.”

  They piled into Henry’s car. Maggie shared the backseat with Piper and Charlie. She smiled as she spotted Charlie’s hand wrapped around Piper’s. Henry drove for an hour, adding as much distance as possible between the group and Aberdeen.

  Henry veered off the highway at an exit signifying various hotel options. He wound around the roads as he followed signs leading to a hotel hidden from the main highway.

  As Henry eased the car into a parking space, he asked, “Up to your standards, princess?”

  Maggie scoped the building. “You’re getting better at picking hotels,” she admitted. Piper eyed the hotel, then Maggie, a slack expression on her face. “First place he ever took me to was a real dump.”

  “Wait here, Maggie and I will check in alone. They’ll be searching for a group of us, not a couple,” Henry said.

  He and Maggie exited the car and entered the hotel, checking in under assumed names. They retrieved the keys and gathered the rest of their group before proceeding through a side entrance to their room.

  “Anybody else hungry?” Maggie asked as they settled into the room. She perused the nearby delivery options. “We could grab a couple of pizzas. Pepperoni? Mushroom? Any special requests?”

  “Hungry?” Piper questioned. “Dude, are you serious? We almost just died, and you’re worried about pizza toppings?”

  “Yeah,” Maggie answered. “It’s BECAUSE we didn’t die that I’m worried about eating. It wouldn’t be a concern otherwise.” Maggie offered her a wry smile.

  Piper stared at her, crossing her arms in an unimpressed display. “Would someone mind explaining to me what is going on here? Against my better judgement, I came with you. AFTER WE ALMOST DIED. After you told me ‘they’ would try to kill us again once they realized we were alive. Who ‘they’ are, I’m still not sure. So, my topping of choice would be answers.”

  “Would you settle for mushroom?” Maggie inquired, wrinkling her nose.

  “Not funny,” Piper responded.

  “It’s okay, Piper,” Ollie chimed in. “We’ll explain everything. But Maggie’s correct. We should eat and rest while we can.”

  Piper’s eyes grew wide. “While we can?”

  Charlie put his arm around her shoulders and guided her to sit on one of the beds. “Food’s the best thing. You’ll feel much better once you eat something.”

  Henry placed their order. “Forty-five minutes,” he announced as he replaced the receiver on the cradle.

  “Perfect,” Maggie answered with a sigh. “Just enough time for us to make a plan on moving forward.”

  “Agreed,” Henry responded. “We need to find the other two ankhs. Any leads on those?”

  “I have a few,” Ollie answered as he waved his notebook in the air. “Not great but…”

  “Okay, stop!” Piper exclaimed. She leapt to her feet, glancing between the other four in the room. “Stop! No more plans, no more ‘moving forward.’ I want some answers and I want them now!”

  Maggie glanced at Henry. He raised his eyebrows at her. She shrugged. “She deserves the truth. That madman nearly killed her,” Maggie said.

  Ollie nodded at her, as did Henry. Maggie began her explanation. “It relates to the theft at the museum,” Maggie admitted.

  “I KNEW it!” Piper exclaimed. “You DID have something to do with it! You’re in trouble!”

  Maggie scoffed, her jaw slack. “No,” she corrected. “We’re trying to SOLVE it! We didn’t do it!”

  Piper eyed them all. “You’re trying to solve it? You?” Piper inquired. Her lips curled into an amused smile.

  “Yes, us, Piper. Why are you laughing?”

  Piper shrugged, a chuckle escaping her. “Well, I mean Dr. Keene, I understand maybe as a consultant. And perhaps even your rough-and-tumble boyfriend, although he looks more like he’s on the opposite side of the law than the right side of it. But you, boss lady? Why would the police ask a boutique owner for help to solve a crime?” She issued another chuckle as the last question came out of her mouth.

  Maggie set her jaw and crossed her arms. “I resent that,” she responded. “I am smart and capable and…”

  “It’s not the police. We work for the government,” Henry interrupted.

  “The government? You all work for the government?” Piper questioned.

  “Yes,” Ollie confirmed. “Yes, Maggie, Henry and I work for the government. Charlie is a contractor who often works with us providing tech support.”

  Charlie saluted as Piper glanced at him.

  “So, you’re all secret agents or something?”

  “Well, no. There’s not really anything secret about it. Even though we don’t broadcast it. We work on special projects,” Ollie explained.

  “Special projects?” Piper repeated, suspicion creeping into her voice.

  “Yes, like hunting down Cleopatra’s tomb or retrieving this artifact,” Ollie answered.

  “Why is it so important? Why would the government have any interest in retrieving a worthless artifact from the Cleopatra exhibit?” Piper inquired.

  “It’s not worthless,” Maggie countered. “It’s…”

  Piper held up her hands. “Okay, not like totally worthless. Obviously, it is worth something because it came from Cleopatra’s tomb but it’s not worth as much as something like the jewels or the twenty-four-carat gold cat statue or something.”

  Ollie raised his eyebrows and cocked his head. “Some may argue its worth far more than either of those.”

  “The stone cross thingy is worth more than a ma
ssive solid gold cat? On what planet?” Piper inquired sarcastically.

  “Yeah, Piper, it is,” Henry answered.

  “Why?” Piper queried.

  “Because it leads to the lost Library of Alexandria,” Maggie responded.

  Chapter 9

  “What? Didn’t we learn in history class that it burned down or something?” Piper questioned.

  “A cover story,” Ollie answered. “Another theory is that the library was moved piece by piece to a new, secret location.”

  “And this ankh points to it? Why was it on display then? Why didn’t you use it to find the library?”

  “As I explained to most of the group earlier, this minor item didn’t cross my desk before it was sent out for cleaning.”

  “So, you missed it and now someone else has it and can find the library.”

  “It only contains a partial map,” Maggie explained. “There are two other pieces. Two other ankhs. Which is where our focus should be. The first ankh is lost to us, but Uncle Ollie’s quick thinking may have bought us some time to find the second and third.”

  Henry glanced to Charlie, who smirked. The exchange intrigued Maggie. “What? What’s that look between you two?”

  Henry shrugged. “I wouldn’t say ‘lost,’ princess,” Henry replied. He raised an eyebrow, offering a devilish grin. He reached into his cargo pants and retrieved an object wrapped in a white cloth.

  Maggie’s jaw dropped. Then her brow furrowed. “Is that… How?”

  “Indeed, it is, princess,” Henry assured her, unwrapping the object. “Cleopatra’s ankh. The first piece of the map leading to the Library of Alexandria.”

  Maggie raced to Henry and relieved him of the object. She studied it, sharing it with Ollie. “Great job, Henry! How did you get it?” Maggie repeated.