Tomb Raider Emeritus: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (I Fear No Evil Book 6)

by Martha Carr

  Shay smiled to herself.

  What if?

  Something wasn’t right.

  Shay shot out of bed, alert. Her heart was racing. Whatever else might have changed, her decade-long career as a professional killer had left her permanently a light sleeper. The smallest irregularity at night led to her waking up. The big exception was when James was there. Sleeping in his arms, even the jaded Shay felt safe.

  Of course, it was a double-edged sword.

  Wish James didn’t snore so loudly.

  She frowned and shook her head. James wasn’t there. He was in Las Vegas. So why had she woken up?

  A couple more seconds passed before she realized her cell phone was ringing.

  “Who the fuck is calling me at 4:30 in the morning?”

  The tomb raider snatched the phone from the nightstand and frowned.

  “Peyton? Why the hell is he calling?”

  Her heart kicked into overdrive. Peyton wasn’t brave enough to piss her off with a pointless call, let alone a prank, which meant something very damned important was happening, such as a warehouse breach. His monitoring systems were supposed to send alerts to her phone as well as his, but the eager man was constantly tinkering with them so she couldn’t be sure they were even working.

  Shay accepted the call. “What’s going on, and how much shooting or stabbing will it involve?”

  Peyton let out a long yawn. “Not sure yet, but probably some shooting and a little stabbing.”

  “Huh? What do you mean? Why the fuck did you call and wake my ass up?”

  “Because the Professor contacted me and woke my ass up.” He sighed. “I liked it better when he contacted you directly and left me out of the loop. Now he calls me first half the time, and it’s weird talking to a guy who calls me ‘lad’ and says ‘aye.’”

  “Well, you’re my assistant, and I might not have access to my phone, but I’m still confused.” Shay rubbed her tired eyes. “What did the professor have to say?”

  “The Professor has a job for you. Expiration date of today. If you don’t call and arrange to meet with him within an hour, he’s moving on to someone else, and he’ll be, and I quote, ‘Very disappointed in Miz Carson.’”

  Shay shot out of bed. “What the fuck? A job, and I have to meet with him in an hour?”

  “That’s what he said. He also said don’t bother calling him, just show up at the Leanan Sídhe in an hour.”

  “Okay, okay. I’m up. I’m up.” Shay shook her head. “This better damn well be important.”

  Shay frowned as she approached the front door of the Leanan Sídhe. The pub wasn’t going to be open for several hours, but she assumed the man hadn’t been totally drunk when he’d called Peyton and had directed her to come there.

  What the fuck is so important that the Professor is snapping his fingers to get me here?

  She looked up and down the sparse post-dawn streets before approaching the front door and trying it. It was open.

  Her hand slipped inside her jacket. Maybe the whole damned thing was a trap.

  Shay frowned and stepped inside. No one else was inside the bar except two men in the back: the Professor and Correk.

  It was a trap, all right.

  She narrowed her eyes and marched over to their table. “What’s he doing here? If this is about the damned egg, I’m not fucking giving it up, so waking me up at the ass-crack of dawn was a waste of everyone’s time.”

  She dropped her hands to her sides. She was pissed at Correk, but she didn’t plan on shooting him. Not yet, anyway.

  The Professor smirked. There were no empty glasses in front of him and no rosiness to his cheeks. Apparently, he had a limit to when he’d start drinking.

  Correk raised his hand. “This isn’t about the egg. I come in peace. There’s no argument between the two of us. I came to offer help, and you’d be wise to accept it given what you’re about to do.”

  Shay frowned and looked at the two men. She doubted they’d pull some long-play scheme just for the egg, and the Professor had seemed fine with her keeping the melting artifact of doom.

  The tomb raider sat down reluctantly, her face twitching. “Help with what? What’s the Professor got for me?”

  “Anzick. I know that the Demon Generals were seeking information on the site from your department head at UCLA.”

  “How the hell do you know about that?” She rolled her eyes and waved a hand. “Don’t answer it. It probably ends with, ‘I’m the Fixer. Of course, I know.’ Well, Fixer, it doesn’t matter. The Demon Generals who were interested in the site only cared because of a new leader. I took care of that gentleman in a rather permanent way. Those bastards will stop caring about ancient history to artifacts soon enough, so it doesn’t matter if they got the coordinates from the old papers.”

  “Coordinates. That makes sense.” Correk nodded slowly. “It’s a good thing more competent people haven’t come looking for that information.”

  “I told you, I ended it. Those assholes aren’t gonna be artifact-hunting anymore.”

  The Professor leaned back in his seat, observing them in silence.

  The Fixer sighed. “Unfortunately, you taking care of their leader isn’t enough. I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately, the gang was even more short-sighted than you realize.”

  Shay frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “They were blabbering too much, trying to look like big men among their fellow criminals. Their new leader should have taught them the value of discretion.”

  The tomb raider shook her head. “What am I missing?”

  “My wife, Leira, is a bounty hunter.” A proud smile crossed the Light Elf’s face. “The original of the modern sort, really. James Brownstone is simply following in her footsteps.” He shrugged. “But anyway, an informant of hers recently coughed up some information to save himself.”

  The tomb raider smirked. “Apparently, your wife rolls a lot like James.”

  “She can be very persuasive and stubborn when she needs to be. She also shares his penchant for destroying Japanese gangster organizations.”

  Shay nodded. “Definitely like James. So what did this informant say?”

  Correk frowned. “That the Montana burial site is on the lips of a lot of seriously dangerous people in the dark underworld.”

  “Why exactly? Dr. Weber says he thought it used to be a portal to Oriceran. Why would they care so much about that? It’s not the only site like that. If he’d proved that thirty years ago it might have been a big deal, but now it’s just more proof of something we already know.”

  The Fixer nodded. “You’re right. It isn’t unique for that, but there are a lot of rumors that there’s a powerful and extremely old artifact buried there. Some people claim the magic of ancient Oriceran kings is contained in it. Others claim it’s a concentration of Rhazdon’s dark magic.”

  Shay winced. Rhazdon was like Hitler, if he had been an Atlantean and controlled particularly powerful magic.

  Correk leaned forward. “Others say it’s something else entirely, perhaps some source of magic ancient and complicated even by the standards of Oriceran.”

  “Don’t you know what it is?”

  “Being the Fixer means I have access to certain spells and books. It doesn’t make me omniscient.” He shrugged. “The point is, I think you should go after this artifact immediately and expect the unexpected. Watch your back. This isn’t going to be a simple artifact hunt, no matter what it looks like on the surface. I know that much.”

  Shay eyed the elf. “If it’s so dangerous and important, why aren’t you going?”

  “I’ve got limitations due to my situation, and some recent encounters would make it dangerous for me to go there. I’d rather not upset the status quo too much in such a volatile situation.”

  The Professor cleared his throat. “Thirty million if you return the artifact, Miz Carson. You’ll need to depart today, and unlike the egg, this time we can’t let you keep it no matter what happ
ens. Understood?”

  Shay stared at the Professor. He wasn’t wearing his customary amused smile or smirk. Even Smite-Williams could be serious when needed. The lack of booze probably helped.

  She took a deep breath. “Fine, you’ve got yourself a tomb raider.”

  Someday, I’ll spend weeks planning a raid and take my time. Always in such a damned hurry.

  Ten minutes later, Shay was on the road again, dialing Peyton.

  “Is this revenge for earlier?” he whined. “I’m sorry I woke you up, but the Professor made it clear the time limit was non-negotiable.

  Shay snorted. “This isn’t about revenge. It’s about money. “The Professor offered me a thirty-million-dollar job. Correk was there to give me extra info on it.”

  “Thirty million?” Peyton fell silent for several seconds. “More melting eggs?”

  “Even Correk doesn’t seem to know what’s up exactly, but it turns out I need to get to the Anzick site today before assholes show up and steal whatever it is. Probably some melt-the-whole-world kind of thing. Who the hell knows?”

  Peyton laughed. “You’ll probably get there and find out it was some dwarf’s childhood sled.”

  Shay chuckled. “We can hope. Anyway, I need to get more background information on this, and we don’t have a lot of time. I need you to arrange the transportation for Lily and me in the afternoon, then go prep our equipment. We’re hitting this thing today. If those guys woke your ass up and my ass up this early, this isn’t the kind of thing I can sleep on.”

  “Does Lily even know she’s going? Plus, does she want to? I know we helped her, but that doesn’t really change the whole watching-a-guy-get-melted-by-an-artifact thing. Maybe she’s done with tomb raiding.”

  Can’t blame her if she is. Not everyone has the stomach for every job.

  Shay sighed. “I’ll call her in a second. Can you do everything else for me?”

  Peyton yawned. “Yeah, yeah. Aye, aye, ma’am. Better get started. Talk to you later.” He disconnected.

  Shay immediately dialed Lily.

  The phone rang four times before the teen answered with a long yawn.

  “Why are you calling me so early?”

  “Major job. I want you to come, but I also understand if after what happened on the last job you don’t want to.”

  Lily sighed. “Shay, if you need me, I’ll be there. It’s like you said the other night. If I want to walk this path, I’m going to have to get used to seeing freaky and disturbing stuff.”

  “If it makes you feel any better, I think we might be helping save the world this time. At least a little bit.”

  The teen chuckled. “And how much does that run these days? Helping to save the world?”

  “Thirty million.”

  “It’s hard to say no to helping save the world, especially when I’m getting a cut of thirty million.”

  Shay laughed. “See you later. I’ve got a few things to take care of before we head out.”

  A couple of hours later, Shay found her way to Prophecy Affiliates. It was surprisingly easy to find Tubal-Cain’s business this time. She wondered if it helped that the mall had just opened, and the crowds weren’t as thick.

  Madge sat in her tiny chair, flipping through a tiny magazine. It was as ridiculous as it was cute.

  She looked up, lowering her head and staring at Shay over the tops of her cat-eye glasses. “You’re early.”

  “I need to talk to Tubal-Cain.”

  Madge shrugged and set her magazine down. “He’s napping.”

  “Napping?”

  The pixie laughed. “Did you think he never slept?”

  “Maybe.” Shay shrugged.

  The pixie’s wings fluttered, and she rose into the air. Shay watched, fascinated, as Madge lifted her round body with her tiny wings to fly between the desk and a nearby cabinet. She wasn’t sure if the cabinet had been there before or if she just hadn’t noticed it.

  “If you’re just here for gossip,” the pixie commented, “I’m a better resource anyway. That gnome is in love with pointless riddles and vague phrasing.”

  “One second.” Shay pointed toward the cabinet. “You still use filing cabinets?”

  Madge nodded. “Yeah, to store my lunch.”

  She lifted her hand, and a shimmering wave came out and flowed toward the cabinet. It slid open. She peered inside at several tiny trays filled with what appeared to Shay to be colorful pellets, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself by asking what pixies actually ate.

  Madge waved her hand again, and the shimmering wave traveled again to the cabinet, and it closed itself. “Tubal-Cain’s kind of a hoarder. Hates to get rid of anything.” She grinned. “Besides, these were once owned by Eisenhower and spent some time in Area 51.”

  Shay resisted the urge to ask the pixie about Project Ragnarok or Project Nephilim. She had more pressing concerns.

  “So there’s a site in Montana, Anzick. Native site, big archaeology deal. Very important.” The tomb raider shrugged. “I’m gonna cut to the chase. A guy I sort of work for has done a lot of research on this site, and he’s found some evidence that it might have been the location of an ancient Oriceran portal. I didn’t care that much before some criminals tried to steal his information about the site, and then the Fixer came and gave me a big speech about a dangerous artifact maybe being there.”

  Madge grimaced. “The Fixer? Ugh. He’s got a few too many wands up his butt if you know what I mean.”

  Shay snickered. “Not gonna argue. He’s all right, but we don’t always see eye to eye.”

  “That’s what having too much responsibility does for you, you know? That, and gives you wrinkles.” She fluttered back over to her chair. “But Tightbutt Elf might be onto something this time.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Madge shrugged. “There are a lot of stories that have been passed down among pixies for generations, and I mean pixie generations, not your sad little human years. I’ve heard some versions of this story that involve the place you mentioned.”

  Shay furrowed her brow. “What kind of stories?”

  “Other species roaming this world.” She gestured around. “Earth.”

  “So? We know that now. The Oricerans came here, and some stayed. Some didn’t. They did a lot of stuff, like inspire religions. That’s not news.”

  Madge let out a long, labored sigh and stared at Shay like she was an idiot. “I’m a pixie, honey. We wouldn’t pass down a bunch of stories about other Oricerans wandering the Earth. We wouldn’t find that strange. Keep up.”

  Shay shrugged. “Sorry. Go on.”

  Madge leaned forward, suddenly looking surprisingly sinister for something so small with such delicate wings. “These stories have been around for thousands of years about how you got other species coming here a lot more often than you’d like. Not Oricerans, but from other planets..”

  “Shouldn’t Oricerans be stopping that sort of thing?”

  “Why? They aren’t the planet’s cops, and if these other species weren’t using magic that Oricerans could even understand, a lot of them would be just as clueless about these guys coming.”

  Shay stared at the pixie, frowning. Project Ragnarok. Project Nephilim. The government knew, and at least some of the Oricerans knew.

  Maybe Dr. Weber had stumbled onto a far more important truth than anyone realized.

  “Thanks, Madge. That’s interesting, and maybe even a little helpful.”

  The pixie winked. “Keep your head on a swivel out there, honey. This world has a lot more to teach you, some of it deadly. I’ll tell Tubal-Cain you stopped by when he wakes up.”

  19

  Shay pulled the SUV off the dirt road. A short wooden fence surrounded the Anzick site. The simple structure was too low to do a good job of stopping people, so she presumed it was there to stop wandering animals. The actual dig site was a series of deep rectangular pits. A few no-trespassing signs were up, even though there hadn’t been much ac
tive digging in years.

  Unless Dr. Weber gets his way.

  “Are we going to have to beat up some deputies?” Lily asked, pointing to one of the signs.

  Shay shook her head. “Officially, I’m here as part of a preliminary survey for a new excavation with my department head’s blessing and everything.” She frowned. “That is gonna get annoying in the future.”

  “Why?”

  “Because unlike tomb raiding, actual archaeology is very slow and methodical, and now Dr. Weber’s expecting me to actually commit to an excavation.” Shay shrugged. “I’ll just have to make something up. As it is, I’m gonna have to lie about this. Besides, I don’t have weeks to take off to sit in Montana. I’ll be a real archaeologist in the future after I retire from tomb raiding.”

  Lily peered at the fences and the pits. “This isn’t what I was expecting, to be honest.”

  Shay shrugged. “It’s not some grand tomb. It’s just where they found some bones and artifacts under what was likely a collapsed rock shelter. It’s about as impressive as some of the other jobs I’ve taken you on.”

  “Those weren’t just literally holes in the ground. I’m surprised anyone still cares about this place. Wouldn’t they have found everything important already?”

  Shay chuckled and opened the door and stepped out. “In the last few decades, they’ve come back with newer technology, and they discovered more bones and artifacts.” She pointed to a pit in the corner. “That’s the one place they found evidence of a more extensive structure a few years back. They didn’t bother to follow up because of funding, but that’s unfortunate because that’s where things get interesting.”

  Lily exited the vehicle, and both tomb raiders went to the back. Shay opened the hatch to pull out a drone.

  “What do you mean by interesting?” the teen asked.

  “Subsequent excavation uncovered several out-of-place artifacts. They found several crystals that aren’t indigenous to the area and have evidence of being artificially shaped by technologies far beyond not only the one in this area but any human culture at the time.” Shay flipped a few switches on the drone and set it a few yards from the vehicle. “Make sure nobody ambushes us, Peyton.”