It was Tommy.
He let go of Adriana and staggered through the onslaught of rushing people. She followed close behind as they made their way across the crowded road. He had to push and pull a few of the crazed citizens out of his way until he finally reached his friend.
Tommy’s gray cotton pants were torn and tattered with singed holes and spots of blood all over. His white shirt was in similar condition. A small gash on the side of his head was bleeding slightly. Sean knelt down next to the wounded man and checked his pulse and breathing. Sean let out a sigh of relief. He was still alive.
“We have to get him out of here,” Sean looked back to Adriana, hovering over the two.
She nodded sharply, then reached down and hefted up Schultz, swinging one arm over her shoulders, with Sean doing from the other side. Tommy’s head hung down to his chest, unconscious from the blast. Sean and Adriana quickly carried him down the street, away from the scene, dragging his feet as they moved. They ducked around a corner just before the Cairo police arrived at the anarchic area.
“We need to get him to a hospital,” Sean said.
The two laid Tommy down on the ground, leaning his torso up against a building. More sirens could be heard in the distance.
“I’ll take him,” Adriana volunteered. “Whoever did this may not know who I am. But they are definitely going to be looking for you.” The Spaniard’s conviction was sincere, but he knew they’d be looking for her too.
Sean shook his head and paused to take a breath. “I can’t let you do that. You know they will be looking for you too.” He looked down at his friend. “We need to get him out of the country, somewhere he will be safe.”
Adriana looked puzzled. “How?”
He removed the black phone from his pocket and checked the touch screen. He was relieved to find it wasn’t cracked. After a few seconds, the phone was ringing on the other end.
“Sean?” A familiar woman’s voice answered on the other line.
“Emily, I need your help,” he cut to the chase. “Do you have anyone in Cairo right now? I need an evac two minutes ago.”
There was silence on the other end for a moment before she spoke up again. “Sean, what happened? Are you okay?”
“Emily, do you or don’t you. There was a bombing outside our hotel in Cairo. Tommy is unconscious. Someone tried to kill us, Em. We need to get Tommy out of here now, somewhere safe.”
“Give me one second, Sean,” she answered. The other line was silent for nearly a minute before she came back on. “I have someone in the area. I’m tracking your exact location.”
Another twenty seconds went by while he waited. Two more police cars passed by, but their progress was slowed by the throngs of people running through the street.
“I’ll have someone there in less than three minutes, Sean,” Emily’s voice came back on, stealing his thoughts away from the police and back to his current objective.
“Thanks, Em. He’ll need a flight out of the country.” He looked down at his friend again. Tommy still wasn’t moving, but his chest was heaving up and down. That was a good sign.
“Do you need one of our planes?” she asked.
Sean shook his head. “No, he can take the IAA jet. You’ll have to scramble the pilot. He should be nearby. What’s the closest city to Cairo where we have friendlies?” he asked.
On the other end, Sean imagined Emily Starks typing furiously on her computer, somewhere in Atlanta. She’d always been good at directing. In the field, she’d been an effective agent, and a good partner, but her true calling was administration. When she’d been made director of Axis, her true talents blossomed. In recent months, she’d pushed for Axis headquarters to be moved from its tight little space in Washington, D.C. to a more upscale area of Atlanta, Georgia.
“I have an asset in Athens right now. That close enough? Flight time is about an hour from Cairo.”
“That will have to do,” Sean answered. “Have your person notified when our plane will be landing, and have them take Tommy to the hospital immediately.”
“Are you sure you shouldn’t just take him to get treatment there?”
“Not an option,” he replied determinedly. “I think he’s going to be fine. Probably has a concussion, but he’ll live. Though we still need to get him looked at and kept safe. Whoever did this won’t just take one shot.”
“Understood. I’ll have a medic waiting at the hangar for you in Cairo,” she answered.
“Thanks again, Em.”
Sean hung up his phone just as a black SUV pulled up next to them on the sidewalk. The tinted window in the front rolled down and revealed a twenty-something, dark-skinned man. He appeared to be of Arab descent. His black hair and eyebrows framed deep, java eyes.
“Sean Wyatt?” he asked in an English accent.
“That’s me.”
“Emily said you needed a ride. Hop in,” the man ordered.
Sean opened the back door to the vehicle and Adriana helped him lift Tommy into the back seat. Sean got in the rear with him as Adriana slid into the front. The moment the doors slammed shut, the driver took off.
He weaved his way through the flood of pedestrians and vehicles, honking the horn in an attempt to get them to disperse faster. After a few quick turns, they were out of the madness and onto a less crowded street, heading toward the airport.
“My name is Jolian,” the driver introduced himself as he steered the vehicle through the city.
“We appreciate your help,” Sean replied. Then he looked down at his friend. Tommy groaned slightly, something Sean took as a good sign.
“What happened back there?” Jolian asked.
Sean shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s all still really hazy to me.” He’d been fighting his own problems the last ten minutes.
“We were meeting at the museum to investigate some ancient writings,” Adriana answered. “We thought they might lead to the location of an artifact we’re searching for.” She was clearly in the best shape of the three who’d been rocked by the blast. “I was standing inside the building when it happened. The car sitting outside exploded. Tommy was closest to it.” Her face was grim as she looked out the windows, watching the buildings whiz by.
“Someone knew we were going to be there, at that exact moment,” Sean stated. He tried to contain his anger at the thought.
“Emily said you are going to the airport,” Jolian interrupted. “Where will you go?” he asked.
Adriana looked back at Sean. “We need to get Tommy out of here. If someone knew that we were meeting at the museum, they can find us again. He won’t be safe in a hospital here. The plane will fly him to the nearest city where Axis has people on the ground. They can keep him safe there.”
“You’re not going with him?” the driver wondered. He turned the wheel sharply, and the airport came into view in the distance ahead.
Sean shook his head. “No. We’re staying here.” His face was full of resolve. “And we’re going to finish this.”
Chapter 2
Cairo, Egypt
“Now that we have our only potential problems out of the way, we should be able to proceed with relative ease.” Alexander Lindsey looked over at a man in a gray, pinstriped suit.
The man nodded. His thin, brownish hair was combed over to one side on top of a narrow face and a long, hooked nose. His tired, greenish eyes were sunken back into his face. A caramel-skinned woman dressed in a form-fitting pair of cargo khakis and a tight black shirt stood off to the side. Her espresso hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. She watched the discussion intently with deep chocolate eyes. Her face was strong and narrow.
The men were sitting in an old laboratory. Lindsey had procured the building before flying to Cairo six days ago. He’d had his best asset, Will Hastings, following Sean Wyatt and his cronies for several weeks. Thanks to the tenacious work of Hastings, Lindsey had known everything Wyatt was planning to do, and just when to strike.
Lindsey had mai
ntained a distant supervision of operations during their search for the golden chambers. His old age had led to a desire not to be burdened with the rigors of chasing down buried treasure. So, Hastings had been in charge of the hands-on details.
The game had changed, though. Initially, he had made the first move, kidnapping Tommy Schultz and forcing him to lead the way to the first chamber. But Sean Wyatt had interfered.
Lindsey’s crew had taken a different approach in the search for the second chamber. Since Wyatt and his group possessed the clue to the chamber’s location, Lindsey had been forced to wait and follow. He’d lost some of his best hired guns during the fiasco. A necessary sacrifice.
He stood and walked slowly over to one of the nearby windows and looked out. The late afternoon sun was pouring in through the glass, and he squinted against the light. He wore a pair of brown trousers and a lightweight, olive green jacket. The weather had been beautiful since he’d arrived. He hoped it was a sign of things to come.
“When will your man be here?” The gangly man in the gray suit spoke with a French accent.
Lindsey turned around. “Soon,” he answered. He had brought Luc DeGard in as part of the operation three weeks before heading to Egypt.
The Frenchman was one of the top researchers on the planet when it came to ancient history and languages. Lindsey wished the man could have been brought on sooner, but DeGard had been experiencing some personal troubles. Once contacted, DeGard accepted the offer eagerly. Lindsey wondered how much less the man would have taken, but the deal was done.
Rumor had it that Luc DeGard had come upon hard times. He’d been a professor of archaeology at University College in London for several years. The institution had a highly respected program, one that DeGard had disgraced when he had been caught in his office with his pants down, with one of his younger male students.
After his dismissal from the college, he spent much of his time gambling and drinking, a combination that had led to the lowly end in which Lindsey had found the man, in debt up to his eyeballs and desperate for anything. DeGard may have been a degenerate, but he was a ruthless researcher, and his desperation provided the perfect motivation for Lindsey.
The door at the end of the room opened and a young man with thick, dark hair appeared. He wore a brown leather jacket and tanned pants. The man glanced over at the woman with mocha-colored skin, exchanging a momentary stare before he turned his attention to the old man.
Lindsey looked over at him expectantly. “Did you get it?” he asked.
Will Hastings nodded and held up a small, stone disc. “Yes, sir. I got it.”
Chapter 3
Cairo, Egypt
The plane’s engines were already warming up when the black SUV pulled up to the private hangar. The jet with three giant black letters on the tail belonged to Tommy’s International Archaeological Agency.
Sean had checked his friend several times en route to the airport. Tommy had not regained consciousness, but was still alive. A dark-haired man in a blue button-up shirt stood just outside the plane with a stethoscope around his neck and a briefcase in one hand. Sean realized Emily must have called a physician, too.
Jolian parked the vehicle next to the plane, just outside the hangar. The doctor rushed over immediately and assisted in getting Tommy out of the SUV, onto a stretcher, and into the plane.
Once they had him secured, Sean turned to the physician, who was already opening up his briefcase and removing devices Sean didn’t recognize. “Take good care of him. He’s like my brother.”
The man answered in a Middle Eastern accent. “Your friend will be fine, Mr. Wyatt. He’s in good hands.”
Sean nodded, satisfied with the answer, and looked down at Tommy one last time before leaving. His eyes narrowed. It tore him apart to see his close friend lying there, helpless. Sean had witnessed some terrible things in his career with the government. He’d seen agents killed, strangers murdered, and had done his fair share of killing. Tommy was his best friend, though. When the whole thing was over, Sean was going to have to have a serious talk with him about sticking to an administrative position.
He said a silent goodbye and started to exit the plane. Then he remembered something. He stepped back over to the gurney and searched Tommy’s pockets. The only thing he found was his cell phone, hotel key, and wallet. Sean’s face became immediately concerned. The stone was missing. He thought for sure Tommy would have brought it with him to the museum. He must have left it in the room. That, or their only clue to locating the third chamber had been stolen.
In his head, Sean ran through the short list of possibilities as to where the object could be. Nothing added up. And he was fairly certain Tommy had the stone with him when he’d left the hotel room.
That meant only one thing. Someone had taken it off him after the explosion. Sean realized that maybe the explosion hadn’t been too early; it had happened exactly when it needed to. The timing had been perfect. If Tommy had been in the car, retrieving the stone would have been nearly impossible. He shook off the theory; still choosing to believe that maybe they had just been lucky.
The point still lurked in the back of his head, though. Someone was trying to kill them, and would do whatever it took to find the last chamber.
Chapter 4
Cairo, Egypt
The Frenchman snatched the stone away from Will and held it up to the light. He examined one side of it, and then the other, carefully inspecting the inscription.
“I have seen this writing before,” he announced. “And the image on the other side has only been discovered in one place.”
Lindsey appeared hopeful. “And where is that, Doctor DeGard?”
DeGard smiled. His crooked teeth made his grin appear more like a crocodile’s than a human’s. “It’s a temple, to the south. I’ve been there one time on a dig. It must have been twenty years ago. But I have no doubts that the images on this stone are an exact match for what I saw there.”
Lindsey moved closer. He wasn’t entirely convinced. “How can you be sure? You must have seen tens of thousands of hieroglyphs and ancient writings. Yet you’re telling me you remember these from twenty years ago, after just one glance?”
DeGard shrugged. “I can take you to the site or you can pay me my money and I will return to London. I don’t care about your little treasure hunt. As I remember it, there wasn’t anything significant about that location. We unearthed a few clay jars, but the temple had been stripped of any treasures long before we arrived.”
Lindsey seemed to consider it for a moment. They could ill afford to waste precious time on the Frenchman’s hunch, but it was all DeGard had to go on, and he was the only expert in the room on the subject.
“Fine,” he said at last. “Take us to the location. If you are right, I’ll give you another ten thousand.” He eyed the birdlike man suspiciously. “However, if you have wasted our time, my men will bury you there in the desert.”
DeGard raised an eyebrow. “I assure you it is the correct place, Monsieur Lindsey.”
“Will,” Lindsey turned to the younger man. “Get the others ready. We will leave at once.”
Will nodded and started to leave the room, but Lindsey stopped him. “Wait.” Lindsey turned and pressed for one more answer from DeGard. “Is there anyone else you know of, who knows about the temple or could decipher the language from that disc?”
DeGard thought for a moment. “I can only think of a few people with such knowledge. One of them is in Cambridge, England. I believe there is one other, here, in Cairo. He could have been the one your enemies were going to visit today.”
“What is his name?” Lindsey asked intently.
“His name is Richard Firth. He does a great deal of work for the Museum of Antiquities.”
Lindsey glanced at Will. “Take care of it. Send the rest with us.” Will nodded and left the room.
Then Lindsey returned his attention back to DeGard. “I pray, dear Doctor, that you are right.”
“We shall see.”
Chapter 5
Cairo, Egypt
Adriana sat in the corner of Sean’s hotel room, watching him go through his things. Jolian had driven the two of them back to their hotel after leaving Tommy at the airport. The ride had been a silent one, save for their driver asking where they needed to go. Adriana had kept quiet, knowing that Sean was trying to think. He’d appreciated that about her. She seemed to know when he needed to process things.
Now, he was looking frantically around the room for any sign of the stone they had found in Ecuador. Their expedition to South America led to the discovery of a second golden chamber, but they’d had to leave quickly, and barely managed to escape with their lives. Before exiting the chamber, though, they’d taken the stone disc that would lead them to the next marker, and hopefully, the final clue to the location of the final chamber. The disc was missing, however, and Sean feared the worst.
He found a piece of paper in one of Tommy’s bags and unfolded it. On it were etchings from both sides of the stone disc.
“What is it?” Adriana asked. She stood up next to him to get a better view of what he’d found.
“It’s a drawing of the stone. We make precise copies or document every artifact we find in case something happens to the original. Everything appears to be on it in exact detail.” He examined the sheet of paper closely.
“That’s good, right?”
“It’s a start,” he answered. “But Tommy said that the person we were meeting at the museum could help us find the next chamber, based on the clues from the stone.”
“It sounds to me like we need to find that person before someone else does.” Her comment was right in line with his thoughts.
Sean Wyatt Compilation Box Set Page 61
