Ancient Danger

by Jo-Ann Carson

  “Why do they think it happened?”

  “No one has a clue. I figure they’re just another group of wing-nuts living in the shadows and somehow I pissed them off. Unless…”

  “Unless what?” Bakari said.

  “Unless they wanted to kill me to get back at you.” A bit of a leap, but not beyond possibility. And it drew him in.

  Bakari’s mouth flattened and he looked at Chasisi. “Is that possible? Would stealing amulets upset them?”

  Chasisi blew more smoke into the air. “To my knowledge the group exists for one purpose and one purpose only, to protect the Emerald Tablets. While some of them may curse you for stealing Egyptian treasure, I don’t think they would act on it. It’s not what they do.”

  “Where the hell are these green tablets?” Sadie asked.

  Chasisi shrugged. “I don’t believe they exist. Like you, I think they are a group of—what did you call them?—wing-nuts.” He exhaled more smoke. “But wing-nuts can kill. The power of faith and the sense of belonging that a cult gives its members cannot be underestimated.”

  Bakari leaned back in his chair. “Why can’t you find out more about them?”

  “They take an oath, swearing they’ll die before they talk. I got my information from a crooked Venetian policeman, not from the back alleys of Egypt.”

  Sadie winced. None of this was making sense. “You’re thinking that one of their operatives penetrated your security and attempted to kill me? Once or maybe even twice?”

  Dead Eyes gave her his darkest look.

  Chasisi mulled over her words, blowing more smoke into the air. “That’s my best guess.”

  Bakari pounded the table with his fist. “Find him and kill him.”

  “Or her.” Chasisi said. “We’ve vetted all the staff. The poison was in the Madeira. They must have known she would choose it and you would not, which means they know things about both of you. That is my only clue. Nothing else was contaminated.”

  “So who had access to my liquor cabinet?” Sweat beaded on Bakari’s brow. “I thought our staff controlled all our food and drink.”

  “They do, but someone slipped poison into the bottle. Elizabeth heard Sadie fall and ran to the dining room, but it was too late. Sadie was unconscious on the stairs.”

  Sadie stretched her neck. “What about your CCTV cameras?”

  “The kitchen one…” Chasisi hesitated, “malfunctioned. None of the others show anything unusual.”

  Sadie gave Bakari a hard look. “Are all your personnel really above reproach?”

  Bakari held her stare.

  Chasisi answered. “On my life, I swear they have all been vetted and have sworn allegiance to the family. We pay for loyalty.”

  “And threaten them on the side,” she added, breaking the eye-lock with Bakari to look at Chasisi.

  “Of course.” Chasisi’s smile would look good on a snake. No, a snake would shed it. It looked so evil and so… arrogant, in a slimier than slime way. It messed with her head. Or tried to.

  Bakari waved his hand to dismiss this tangent of the discussion. “None the less, Sadie was poisoned in my home.”

  “What about him?” Sadie said pointing at Dead Eyes.

  The body guard twisted his face her way. His eyes bulged out of his head and twitched with a malicious light. His jaw clenched. His cheeks colored. Sweat ran down his face. “I didn’t do it.”

  Wow, a whole sentence! “You have the run of the house. I assume you have the intelligence. And you hate me.”

  Bakari leaned back and smiled, as if humored by the play of children. “No, Sadie. Not Gahiji.”

  “It’s possible.”

  “First of all, Gahiji obeys all my orders. One of which is to protect you while you are in my home. Second, if Gahiji decided to kill you, he’d never use poison. His methods are…” Bakari hesitated, “shall we say more of the flesh and blood variety.”

  Chasisi laughed. “Much more blood.” A grim smile stayed on his face. Asshole

  Great. Let’s all take a mental picture of what Dead Eyes would like to do with me, if he had the chance. “Elizabeth?”

  All four men shook their heads.

  “Definitely not,” said Bakari in the severest of tones.

  There had to be a lot more to her story. She tilted her head and cocked a brow.

  He took a moment as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her more about the maid, then he said, “I rescued her from… shall we say an ugly situation.”

  “Ugly?” Okay.

  “She would die before she would betray me.”

  “You surround yourself with loyal people.”

  “Of course. Don’t you?”

  “Then why has your security been breached?” Slowly, she tossed her hair over her shoulder. Bakari’s eyes took in her shoulder then traveled to her breasts. She gave him a quick, seductive smile.

  Chasisi broke his mood. “There weren’t any problems until an American spy came into the house.”

  She glanced his way. “I could leave,” she said.

  Chasisi smiled like a Cheshire cat. Bakari sat up straight. “You are my guest. This is my house. I won’t have you chased out.”

  “It might be safer for her elsewhere,” Chasisi said in a razor-sharp voice. “Have you thought of that?”

  She waited, expecting Bakari to answer, but silence tumbled into the room. Her scalp tingled, but she remained stoically calm.

  Warring emotions played across Bakari’s face. “Chasisi is right. Until I know who breached our security system, you are safer elsewhere.”

  Sadie stood.

  “I will see that you have a nice room in your favorite hotel.”

  She leaned over the desk and put her hand on his. “No need Bakari. Chasisi is right. I am being hunted. I’ll find a safe place to figure things out.”

  “Sadie…” Bakari took her hand in his and stood to face her.

  “Bakari, we will find our time. It’s just not now.”

  Anger rippled across his face like a dark wave, clouding his eyes. “When I find the men tracking you, they will die.” The fury in his voice stiffened her backbone. He squeezed her hand. “Slowly.”

  She swallowed and smiled, but it wasn’t easy. Her throat had tightened and become dry. Some women get flowers. The image of a pile of brutally murdered men left at her feet didn’t warm the cockles of her heart.

  It was meant to be a testament of his affection. One she needed to answer accordingly. Sheesh. Flirting with arms-dealers could really could get nasty. What could she say? She wanted the bodies of her enemies left in small pieces for the dogs? Her gut twisted. Humor couldn’t shake the feelings that sank into her with his words.

  She gave him as warm a look as she could manage. “Bakari, before I go…” She let her voice trail off and held his dark gaze.

  “Yes.”

  “I have to ask you, beg you, one more time, to reconsider what you’re doing. No relic has the power to extend Rashida’s life. Spend what time she has left with her. Be together. Honor her with your presence, not your crimes. The amulets belong in a museum.”

  Chasisi put his cigarillo to his side. “Listen to the woman, Bakari. Both you and Rashida are safer without the relics.”

  “Why can’t you understand? Why can’t anyone understand? I can’t sit and watch my daughter die. I can’t. I must do whatever I can to save her. My destiny is sealed.” His anger spoke louder than his words.

  Chasisi rose slowly and headed for the door with his distinctive limp. “Stubborn old goat.”

  Sadie couldn’t help smiling. They may be serious bad-guys, but they were also brothers. Dead Eyes and the young man headed for the door. Sadie held her ground.

  “Lock the door on your way out,” Bakari said in a steady voice as his eyes swept over Sadie’s body like a lover’s hand.

  40

  Chapter Forty

  After her interlude with Bakari, Sadie threw on her clothes and took a cab to the grand entrance of Hyde
Park. His sweat had dried on her body. His smell clung to her nostrils. The deed was done.

  Part of her wanted to get away more than anything in the world, preferably to another universe, while another questioned, yet again, her mission. Bakari held crazy old ideas, but all he really wanted to do was protect his daughter. Was that so bad?

  Who the hell has the right to own ancient Egyptian amulets anyway? The British aristocracy? Dusty museums? Who?

  Oh shit. She had forgotten to turn her feelings off when her clothes fell to the floor. And then there was the matter of him not using a condom. Shit, shit, shit.

  While the car battled the busy traffic she sent a text to Reggie, her friend at MI5. He replied that he was out of the country, but would get his office to send another operative to meet her inside the Ionic columns of the entrance. A woman about her age with long blond hair pulled up into a classic French twist approached her with a welcoming smile. She had a decidedly pointed nose holding up large, square glasses, and dressed like an executive secretary. With a highbrow English accent, the woman said, “A good time to visit London.”

  “Never better,” Sadie replied. “The sound of the pigeons cooing is mesmerizing.” Who the hell thinks up these lines?

  The woman took her by the elbow and ushered her back out to the street at a fast clip. “My name is Eleanor. I’ll take you to the safe house.”

  Her car was small, but fast. As they weaved through traffic, in a circuitous route, Sadie sent a text to Jeremiah on her new cell-phone, updating him on her situation. She ended with, “Let me know if you get anything interesting from the bug.”

  It was noon by the time they reached their destination, a non-descript, brick townhouse in a run-down residential area. Eleanor handed her a key and a business card, which read, “Eleanor Riggs, Management Consultant. Let me manage you.”

  Eleanor checked her rear view mirror one more time. “Everything you need is inside. Text me if you need help. It’s been a pleasure to meet Mata Hari in person.” Her eyes twinkled as she said this.

  Sadie nodded and exited the car. Mata Hari. It wasn’t the first time she regretted being given that code name. It was a lot to live up to.

  Once inside she locked the door and turned on the sensors set up on the wall. Then she cased the place. On the entrance floor was a small living room with worn furniture and an electric fireplace, a basic kitchen with three mousetraps, a line of mouse turds and a fridge stocked with milk, eggs and bread. As she climbed the stairs covered in 1970s-era shag carpet the color of mustard, she could hear the neighbors in the next house arguing, but couldn’t make out the words. On the second floor were two bedrooms and a bathroom that smelled of mildew. One bedroom had been decorated for a young girl, the other for the girl’s parents. On the child’s bed sat a fat marmalade cat who gave her a bemused look, as if he owned the house.

  “You could at least catch the mice,” she said to him.

  He growled, arched his back and hissed at her. Not her best day. She turned and walked into the master bedroom.

  Placing her bag on the bed, she continued to listen to the fighting next door. This seemed as good a place as any to catch her breath. Sebastian had left three text messages. Biting her lip, she sent a reply. “Safe, no longer with B. Don’t worry.” She wouldn’t risk saying more. Was that the way their life together would be? Half-truths and reassurances that sounded weak even to her ears? Other men? She shrugged.

  The acid in her stomach had settled, but she still didn’t want to eat. She stretched out on the floor and folded herself into a sitting, forward bend. After holding the position for a minute her cell-phone buzzed. Grabbing it she found a message from Jeremiah. “Tomorrow, two o’clock, Highclere Castle Ceremony.” The plan was in motion.

  “Do we know his plans?” She typed back, as she pushed her hair out of her face.

  “No, just that he expects his men to be in place before the ceremony to hand over King Tut’s scarab to the museum.”

  “Is the bug in his office still in place?”

  “We think so, but Bakari is guarded with his words, as if he knows someone is listening.”

  That paranoia was probably what had kept him alive so long. “Anything else?”

  “That’s it. All we know is that he plans to take the scarab and it involves a team of his men.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “I’ll send George to back you up and liaise with MI5. Get some sleep. You’ll need it.”

  “About Sebastian.”

  “Leave him out of this Sadie.”

  41

  Chapter Forty-One

  Sadie had left Bakari’s house, but not his heart. Her musky smell lingered in his office, drifting into every crevice of his libido. Taking her on his desk hadn’t been the romantic move he’d wanted to make with her, but he couldn’t wait any longer. He had grown tired of the man-woman games. He’d wanted her, and now he’d had her.

  But once was not enough.

  Funny how life always surprises. Chasisi had told him he would only need to be with Sadie once, said one good screw with her would give him a sense of possession, a sense of completion. But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough.

  Sadie was the consummate femme-fatale, sensual, sexy and playful. That was the part that flirted with him, but that wasn’t the part he’d taken on the desk. He’d made love to the real Sadie, warm, caring and passionate. She may be a spy, but even spies can’t act that well. He’d had the real woman.

  There was an undeniable attraction between them and now they’d cemented it by making love. Could there be a future for them? If he could stop Chasisi and Gahiji from killing her… He smiled in his empty office. And if the CIA didn’t try to cage her spirit, or some weirdoes from her past didn’t catch up with her… He started to pick up the items that belonged on top of his desk from the floor. Could his family accept an American woman? He laughed. The impossibility of their relationship just made it all the more tempting, like a taboo just beyond reach.

  He’d been seduced by Sadie’s charms, taken-in more by her than by any other woman, possibly even more than with Djeserit when he was under her spell.

  Sadie. Her soft green eyes came to mind, and her sultry voice calling his name as he moved within her, deep within her. Damn it. He sat back in his chair. She could be his ruin.

  He heard a knock on his door. “Come in,” he said.

  Khalid entered. “I thought you might need me.”

  Bakari laughed. Yes, everything might work out after all, as long as he stayed in control. “I need you to reach Sadie Stewart in her dreams. Do you know how to do that?”

  Khalid smiled.

  42

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Sadie fell into a fitful sleep. Her mind drifted back to the scene of horror in the jungles of Nigeria, far from civilization.

  The oppressive heat hung in the air, making it hard to breathe. Her hair stuck to her face with sweat. The smell of the wild clung to her nostrils. The sound of animals moving behind her in the bush sent tremors up her spine. She was back in the center of it all, feeling helpless and alone—again.

  The drums beat loudly with a hard rhythm that would haunt her till her dying breath. Her awareness floated above the scene. The shaman, dressed in a robe of vibrant oranges and red, bound JaJa to his dead mother’s body with thick vines. He danced and chanted to his spirits. The grave digger stood beside him, saying nothing.

  Every detail of the nightmare was the same as all the others, until the shaman turned his head and looked directly into Sadie’s eyes.

  Sadie screamed, but knew no one could hear her. The drums were too loud and help was far away. Why had she strayed away from the others? Why had she thought herself invincible?

  Her body trembled with fear.

  Three black holes tore open on each of the witch doctor’s cheeks. Worms slithered from inside his body, crawling through his blood to mount the surface of his eyes. He spat words at Sadie. “Do not think you are safe
.”

  Sadie stared at the transforming figure of the witch doctor. A scream of horror caught in her throat.

  “Do not stop Bakari, or the vengeance of the gods will fall upon you and your son.”

  When Sadie woke in the morning a horrible ache had settled into the center of her forehead. After a long shower she made herself coffee. The feeling that something had happened to her during the night would not leave. It stuck with her, like a bad…nightmare. Was that it?

  The ancient Egyptians believed in dream travel. Mitch was convinced that a sorceress had tried to reach her through her dreams before. Had it happened again? Khalid? If so, why didn’t she remember it this time? Was he that much more powerful than his mother? What had he done to her in her dream?

  Sadie shook her head. Hocus pocus kafooey. Seriously weird stuff. She needed to focus. Today, King Tut’s scarab would be revealed.

  43

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Sadie planned to arrive at the castle at one thirty, thirty minutes before the event. A rented car waited for her outside the safe house. As she drove through the busy streets of London and into the country, she ran through what she knew about the Carnarvon estate.

  A closet Downton Abbey fan, she’d picked up some of the lore about the castle and its secrets. It stood on a one-thousand-acre estate, which had been the site of a bishop’s medieval castle. They’d found evidence of hill forts and habitats that dating back to the Iron and Bronze Ages.

  At the beginning of the nineteenth century a plain mansion replaced the bishop’s castle. It was later extensively renovated in a Jacobethan style by the third earl of Carnarvon. The modern castle was completed in 1878 and called Highclere. It became one of the centers of political and social life of the Victorian era.