“Possibly Greek. It’s driving me crazy.”
While Tommy pined over the dilemma of recalling just who Dorieus was in the annals of history, Sean turned his head around, peering out at the upper reaches of the pyramid through slits in his eyelids. Something wasn’t right. An old feeling he only got when trouble was coming started creeping up inside him.
“We need to go,” he said abruptly.
Hank jerked his head back and scowled. “Why? What’s the matter?”
“I don’t like this place. It’s a kill box. We need to get out of here.”
“What’s the worry? We’re all alone here. And if someone were coming, we’d see them at the top of the passage.”
Hank pointed up the slope through corridor leading to the upper end.
“He’s right,” Slater said. “We should move.” He suddenly had a concerned look on his face as he scanned the pyramid’s horizon.
“What’s with you two?” Hank asked. “I’m telling you, no one is here. And who would be following us? We left that French guy way back in Dubai. No way he could track us here.”
“It might not be him we have to worry about,” Sean said.
“If not him, then who?”
Tommy knew his friend well enough to know when something wasn’t right. If Sean’s danger-radar was going off, nine times out of ten that meant there was trouble on the way. He picked up the case and stuffed the medallion into a back pocket.
He led the other three back toward the passage and then stopped in mid-stride at the base of the slope. He stared up at a silhouette against the backdrop of the darkening evening sky.
The figure was dressed in black, loose fitting clothes. It appeared he had something wrapped around his face with one piece of fabric dangling to the right, flapping in the wind. It was impossible to see the man’s face, but the weapons were easy to spot. A sword dangled from the figure’s waist, and a Kalashnikov hung in his hands.
The four Americans looked around the chamber for another way out. That’s when they saw the others begin appearing around the upper edges of the pyramid. Each one looked identical to the figure at the top of the passage, and they were all similarly armed.
They pointed their guns down into the pyramid at the Americans as if waiting for the four men to make a move.
“Them,” Sean answered Hank’s question from before. “That’s who.”
Chapter 14
Giza
The man at the top of the passage remained there for what seemed like an eternity, staring down at the four trapped Americans.
Sean noticed Slater easing his hand back toward where he kept his pistol. “Don’t provoke them,” Sean said. “Besides. We’re severely outgunned here. They’d cut us down in seconds.”
“You don’t want to take a few of them with us?”
Sean took a long, slow breath and assessed the situation for the third time in half a minute. “No. If they wanted to, they could have killed us already.”
Slater gave a single nod, acknowledging Sean was correct. “What, then?”
“I think we’re about to find out,” Tommy said.
The man at the top started lumbering down the path toward them. His weapon swung from side to side, and the sword on his hip dangled back and forth with each step. When he reached the bottom, he stopped fifteen feet short of the Americans and looked into each man’s eyes.
The guy had a black piece of fabric over his face. Combined with the head wrap, the only things that were visible were the top of his nose and his eyes.
“Why have you come here?” the man asked in a gruff, heavy accent.
Sean placed it from somewhere in the Middle East, but which country was hard to say based on one sentence.
“We’re taking in the sights,” Tommy offered.
The man shook his head. “You’re not tourists. Tourists do not come to this place. They don’t teach people about this place in history books. And no travel guide tells anyone to come here.”
“You speak good English,” Sean said. “Where did you learn that?”
The gunman raised his weapon and pointed it at Sean’s face. Sean didn’t flinch.
“Answer my question,” the man said.
“You think that’s the first time I’ve had a gun like that aimed at my head? You’re not even in the top fifty.”
He shouted something in Arabic, and the men around the top of the pyramid tightened their grip on their weapons.
“What did he just say?” Hank asked, suddenly panicked.
“He told them to ready their weapons,” Sean said. “But they’re not going to kill us. Are you, friend?”
The gunman cocked his head to the side. The four Americans could see a quizzical look in his eyes, as if he was unsure how to take Sean’s assessment.
“That’s right,” Sean said. “Because if you were going to, you would have done it before. That tells me you’re not interested in killing us.” He paused for a second, sensing the case at Tommy’s side. “That means you want what we have.”
“You have trespassed on sacred ground,” the gunman said. “Long have we watched this place to keep the secret safe from thieves like you. Now you have desecrated it and stolen something that doesn’t belong to you, a relic more powerful than you could ever conceive.”
“Oh, you mean the medallion?” Tommy said.
Hank looked like his head was about to explode. “Don’t…why would you tell…don’t let on….” He couldn’t form a full sentence.
“We already know about the medallion,” the gunman said. “What do you think we’ve been protecting for the last few thousand years?”
Sean raised an eyebrow. “Guardians, eh? We’ve encountered some of those in the past. Remember those guys, Schultzie?”
“Oh sure. Good fellows. Took a little getting to know them, but once we did they were real stand-up guys.” Tommy’s tone was as casual as he could make it for having a few dozen automatic weapons pointed at him.
“Give me the medallion,” the gunman said, sticking his hand out with palm up. “And never return here again.”
“No,” Sean said. “Don’t give it to him, Tommy.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Tommy chirped. “He’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hand.”
The gunman shook his head slowly back and forth. “Very well, Americans. Have it your way.”
The guy started to step back and raise his weapon to waist high. Tommy suddenly whipped the case up. The hard edge struck the man’s weapon, and he drove the gun up into the air, knocking it from his hands.
Sean stepped forward and in the same movement drew the pistol from his belt. He wrapped his arm around the gunman’s neck and pressed the muzzle to the guy’s temple hard enough to indent the skin.
“Now,” Sean said as his companions gathered close around the hostage, “here’s what’s going to happen. Tell your men to drop their guns, and I’ll let you go. Deal?”
“No. I am willing to die to protect that holy relic your friend has in his pocket. As are all my men.”
Tommy wondered how the guy knew it was in his pocket. He figured the gunman and his followers were watching when he retrieved it.
“Tommy,” Slater said, pointing at Tommy’s leg, “look at your pocket.”
A strange red glow was coming from Tommy’s pants. It was in the shape of the gem embedded in the ankh.
“What in the world?”
“You see, foolish ones? The medallion contains a stone of power. You have no idea what you’re meddling with. One order from my lips, and my men will cut us all down to keep it safe.”
“We’re not thieves,” Sean said. “You called us thieves. We’re not. We’re archaeologists.”
“Well, I am,” Tommy argued. “You’re more like the head of security.”
“Anyway,” Sean said, ignoring his friend. “We aren’t looking for trouble. But if we don’t secure this medallion, there’s a very bad man out there looking for it, too. If he finds it, that will mean tr
ouble for everyone. I’m talking on a global scale here.”
The gunman’s eyes narrowed as he assessed Sean’s explanation. “You lie.”
“No,” Sean said. “I’m telling the truth. His name is Gerard Dufort, and he’s the worst kind of human being. He sells children for money and who knows what else. He’s looking for the lost city of Zerzura. And if he finds it…well, it’s gonna be no bueno.”
“That’s Spanish for not good,” Tommy clarified.
Sean loosened his grip on the gunman and let him go. Then he lowered his weapon to his side before stuffing it back in his belt. He raised his hands in surrender.
“What are you doing?” Slater asked. “He was our only bargaining chip.”
“No,” Sean shook his head. “We’re on the same team as this guy. They’re on a mission to protect a powerful item from the wrong hands. So are we.”
He peered through the gunman’s eyes and into his soul. In doing so, Sean let the man see the honesty in his own eyes.
The gunman raised a hand to the sky and held it there for a second. Then he called out a command in Arabic. The men around the lip of the pyramid lowered their weapons and relaxed.
“This man you speak of, Dufort. Why does he want to find Zerzura?”
“Same reason anyone else does,” Sean said. “He wants to live forever.”
The gunman nodded. “For centuries we have worked to keep the legend of Zerzura a secret. Men and women have come to this place investigating the works of the ancient ones. Television crews have even visited here, but no one has ever looked for the medallion or disturbed a single stone. Until you four showed up. Now, I fear, the secret will be undone.”
“No,” Tommy said. “We’ll keep it safe.”
“Why do you seek the lost city?” the gunman asked. “Do you also seek to attain eternal life?”
“No. I don’t. I look to uncover history that has been lost to the world. I seek answers. And more importantly, I’m on a quest to fulfill a dream my parents had before they disappeared.”
The man raised his head, assessing Tommy and his story. “Your parents disappeared?”
“Yeah, well, for like twenty years. They’re back now, but that’s beside the point. Before they vanished, they were working on something big. It took up most of their time.” There was a hint of sadness in his voice. Maybe he’d lost time with his parents as a result of their relentless efforts. “Anyway, I’m trying to finish what they started. I need to find Zerzura. If I don’t, someone else will.”
“Not if you give me the medallion,” the gunman said. “I will take it and throw it into the sea. Then no one will find it for all of eternity.”
“That,” a new voice interjected, “my good man, will not be happening.”
The five men spun around and looked up the passage to where the nasally voice originated.
Sean and Tommy’s hearts sank into the pit of their stomachs. They instantly recognized who spoke.
At the top of the path, the outline of a skinny, middle-aged man stood between the stone walls.
“Dufort,” Sean muttered.
“How does he keep doing that?” Tommy wondered out loud.
“I don’t know.”
The gunman shouted an order to his men. They raised their weapons, ready to fire. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out from somewhere in the distance. Down in the chamber it sounded like nothing more than a balloon popping. One of the men around the top edge shuddered for a moment and then fell over into the pyramid. He landed on his face with a thud and never moved again.
The other men on the upper perimeter immediately spun around and searched for the shooter. Many opened fire on the unseen sniper, but they had no idea where he was or what they were shooting at.
Another man caught a round in the chest on the opposite side of the pyramid and fell backward into the chamber. Then another was shot in the gut, a fourth in the neck, a fifth in the chest, a sixth in the head. One by one, the men dropped from their perches, most dying before they hit the stone floor below, some on impact.
“Stop!” the leader shouted at his men. “Cease fire!” he yelled in Arabic.
The men stopped shooting their weapons and raised them up over their heads.
The cacophony of noise ceased, leaving nothing but an eerie silence and a cloud of gun smoke lingering in the air. The acrid fog drifted down into the chamber and then floated away, dissipating into the dry night air.
Dufort waited for a moment before he sauntered down the long path. He reached the bottom and stopped, looking with disdain at the five men before him.
He shook his head and wagged a finger, clicking his tongue as he did so. “You just never seem to learn, do you, Sean? No matter where you go, I will always find you. There is nothing you can do to stop that.”
“You killed my men,” the gunman said. “You will pay for this with your life.”
Dufort looked surprised. Both eyebrows raised, and he almost chuckled but held it back. “I doubt that, whoever you are. Your men are lucky I didn’t have them all executed. Tell them to lay down their weapons before any more of them die.”
The gunman hesitated.
“You don’t seem to understand, so I’ll say it again. Tell your men to put their weapons down, or they will all die here tonight. One word to my snipers, and they’ll cut down all of your rabble like weeds in a field.”
The man in black blinked rapidly. The other four knew Dufort wasn’t messing around. He’d have no problem ordering the deaths of all the remaining men on top of the pyramid.
“You should do as he says,” Sean chimed in. “He’s not a man to be taken lightly.”
“Ah, very good, Sean. I’m glad to see you’re finally coming around.”
“And I’m glad to see you’re finally calling me by my first name instead of the usual Mr. Wyatt crap.”
“Well, you can’t blame one for trying to be formal. Now, I believe we were about to have your men drop their weapons, hmm?” He tilted his head forward and stared at the gunman from under his eyelids.
The masked man shouted out an order, and his men immediately set their weapons down and put their hands in the air.
“Much better. Thank you for your cooperation. Cody, kill them all.”
The masked man’s eyes went wide with a mix of fear and rage. He surged forward, but Dufort whipped out a pistol from inside his jacket and pointed it at the man’s face.
“Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn’t do that. Did you really think I was just going to let your little horde go free?”
A gunshot fired from off in the distance. This time, however, none of the men around the upper perimeter fell. Dufort waited for a second and then frowned. There should have been more shots fired, more men dying. Something was wrong, and Dufort didn’t do a good job of hiding his sudden concern.
“That didn’t sound like the same weapon from before, did it?” Sean asked. “If I had to guess, I’d say that was a 9-millimeter. Not sure about the make, but it certainly wasn’t the big .50 caliber you had going off before.”
Dufort took a wary step back. “Cody, come in. Do you copy?”
“Sounds like someone took out your boy.”
“Shut up.”
Another shot popped from the darkness, then another.
“Cody? What’s going on out there?”
One of the men up top saw what was transpiring below and risked picking up his weapon. He took aim at the retreating Frenchman and fired. The round blew off a huge chunk of stone at the corner of the passage, narrowly missing the villain by a few inches.
The abrupt boom from the AK-47 caused Dufort to stumble backward and up the corridor, accidentally finding his way to safety behind the stone walls. He kept backing up, faster and faster, while waving the pistol at the five men still standing below.
The guy in the mask shuffled a foot toward his weapon on the ground, but Dufort fired his pistol. The round sailed over the group and harmlessly into the wall behind them, but the shot did what it nee
ded to do—bought Dufort time to get away.
Near the top, he turned and sprinted into the darkness, disappearing from view the second he went behind the wall.
Sean and the others took off after him, running at full stretch up the slope until they reached the crest. At the top, Sean halted the others and peeked around the corner. An SUV was spinning out in the dust and whipped around in a fury of dust and taillights before speeding away down the hill.
Sean fired two shots, hoping he might get lucky and take out a tire, but at that distance that hope was fleeting at best.
The men caught their breath from the hard sprint up the hill and then looked around at the rest of the masked guys standing over the pyramid.
“We were lucky,” Slater said. “I guess someone was watching over us.”
“It wasn’t luck,” Sean said. “Before we left Qatar, I called in a favor. I had a feeling Dufort was going to show his ugly mug again. I figured having a little backup might be a good idea.”
“Backup?” Tommy asked. Even he was confused about Sean’s mysterious helper.
Sean flashed a stupid, toothy smile.
Tommy’s eyebrows lowered for a second until the answer hit him. “Oh. Wait, no. Seriously? Where was she when you called her?”
“I didn’t ask. I assume she was somewhere in Europe.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“I’m sorry, guys,” Slater interrupted. “Who are we talking about here? Sean, you called someone in to help?”
“It’s his girlfriend,” Tommy explained. “I can’t believe you called her.”
“Um, first of all, you’re welcome. Secondly, why not?”
“Well, one, because I would think keeping your girlfriend out of harm’s way would be your first thought, and two, I was hoping this could be like the old days, just you and me working our way through a series of puzzles and clues.”
“You know what you sound like right now?” Hank asked.
“Don’t start with me, Hank.”
Sean chuckled, and then he remembered the masked man was still standing there with them.
“Oh, sorry. You’re probably completely lost right about now. My name is Sean, by the way. This is Tommy, Hank, and Slater. My girlfriend, Adriana, is out there in the dark somewhere.”
The Sahara Legacy Page 11
