Authors: Kathryn Le Veque
“I am not sure,”
Beni replied. “He was digging as of two days ago in the Manjam Hamsh
wilderness.”
“Did you see
what it was?”
Beni shook his
head. “No,” he replied. “You gave these men orders to follow Dr. Fox and that
is what they are doing. We are following him. We did not stop to see what he
had been digging.”
Alia fell
silent, contemplating the strange actions of Fox. He was obviously following
some pre-planned path; Fox Henredon was methodical if nothing else. She knew
that much about him to know he had something in mind. She began to think about
the ancient journal and the papyrus translation contained therein. Maybe it
wasn’t such a worthless venture as she thought it was because Fox was still
pursuing something that had him fascinated. Maybe he had actually found
something in spite of Alia’s prediction that he wouldn’t.
“What about his
wife?” she asked. “Do you have her yet?”
Beni cleared his
throat softly; she wasn’t going to like the answer. “We made an attempt,” he
said. “Mrs. Fox carries a gun and she is very good with it. Alezer is not so
incline to abduct her because she shot one of his men.”
On the other end
of the line, Alia growled. “I cannot believe this,” she hissed. “She is one
small woman. Alezer has many men. It cannot be difficult to take the gun from
her.”
“You would think
not, but it is,” Beni replied steadily. “Alezer will not try to take her again
for fear he will lose more men in the process. So he follows Dr. Fox as you
asked him to. What more do you want us to do?”
Alia was
furious. She stomped around her office, knocking things angrily off her desk,
throwing pencils to the floor. In her warped mind, this was turning into more
and more of a game, a competition, and it was one she intended to win. Fox and
his stupid American wife would not outsmart her.
“Idiots!” she
fumed. “You’re all idiots!”
“Is that what
you wish for me to tell Alezer?”
Alia froze,
hearing something of a taunt in Beni’s voice. She didn’t like it one bit.
“Listen to me and listen well,” she hissed. “Since you cannot seem to do what
has been asked of you, I am coming down to Edfu. I will take care of this
myself.”
Beni didn’t like
the sound of that. “Take care of what?” he asked sincerely. “Dr. Alia, there is
nothing you can do. Dr. Fox has done nothing wrong, nor has his wife. What is
it you want from him? I do not understand.”
Alia wasn’t
going to explain herself but she made a mental note to slap Beni silly for his
insubordination. And then she would fire him.
“I will be down
there tomorrow,” she snapped. “There is a flight that runs from Cairo to Luxor
around seven thirty in the evening. I have taken it before. You will pick me
up at the airport and take me to Fox. I will handle this myself; is that
clear?”
Beni didn’t say
a word. Chilled, full of regret and torn by the knowledge of what Alia was
capable of, he hung up the phone. He just couldn’t take it anymore, fear or no
fear.
He turned the
phone off.
***
Morgan had been
wide awake for hours. Fox thought he had put her to sleep sometime around
midnight, when he had massaged her sore shoulders and back until his hands
hurt. She had been still and unmoving so he had fallen asleep beside her, only
to awaken a couple of hours later to find her sitting up next to him. He sighed
heavily, glanced at his watch, and put his hand on her back again.
“Love, please
lie down and get some sleep,” he was lying on his side, gazing up at her.
“Morning is a few hours off yet.”
She looked down
at him, her blond hair mussed and circles under her lovely eyes. “I know,” she
whispered. “I’m trying to sleep but I just can’t. Fox, how can you be so calm
when the discovery of the century is right outside of this tent?”
He tugged on
her, pulling her down against him. He swallowed her up in his big arms, his
chin on the top of her head.
“There’s
absolutely nothing I can do about it right now,” he murmured. “We didn’t come
prepared for night excavations, so until the sun comes up, we’re just going to
have to wait.”
“I don’t know if
I can.”
“What’s your
alterative? Running up that hill in complete darkness and breaking your neck
because you can’t see anything?”
“Maybe.”
He grinned and
began rubbing her back again, hoping to relax her enough so she would fall
asleep. “You know,” he said, “this is something I’ve never been faced with you
before. I’ve never seen anyone fall asleep at the drop of a hat like you do.
Now you can’t fall asleep no matter what I do. Maybe I should blast some music.
Or maybe we should have wild, passionate sex.”
She smiled in
spite of herself, her eyelids becoming droopy as she lay against his warmth.
“What do you think is underneath that hole?”
He sighed,
closing his eyes. “I told you earlier,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to
speculate until we open it up and I can see what Allahaba saw. I’m not going to
even guess.”
Morgan was
growing increasingly sleepy; something about his heat and deep, soothing voice
lulled her. “If it is a tomb, are you going to excavate it?”
“Don’t get ahead
of yourself.”
“But if you had
a choice, would you excavate Ranthor or Isis’ tomb?”
“Will you go to
sleep if I give you an answer?”
“Yes.”
“The tomb. Good
night.”
“You’ll go into
the history books.” She wouldn’t shut up. “You’ll be bigger than Howard Carter.
The greatest archaeologist who’s ever lived.”
He rolled his
eyes. “Good night, Morgan.”
She fell silent but
it was all a ruse. Her mind was still working.
“Think of our
kids,” she murmured. “If you’re going to excavate the tomb, then I’m staying
with you. Our kids will be born in Egypt. I don’t think I like that; I don’t
want them raised out here in the sticks.”
He sighed
heavily. “Love, we don’t have to decide that tonight.”
“Why not?” she
mumbled. “And just so you know, I’m not naming our kids any odd family names,
okay? I don’t know where your parents came up with Chase, Marsh, Chat and Lowe,
but I’m not naming my kid Rudell.”
Half-asleep, his
eyes suddenly lolled open in the darkness. “Rudell? What’s that?”
“My mother’s
maiden name.”
He started
laughing. “Bloody hell, Morgan, go to sleep. I mean it.”
She giggled.
“And don’t think I’m naming our daughter Foxy.”
He shook with
laughter, joining hers, and together they finally laughed themselves to sleep.
It was all the noise that Morgan needed to be lulled into a deep, dreamless
slumber.
The next
morning, Fox was up before dawn. Morgan was still asleep and he knew she’d kill
him if he started without her, so he quietly dressed, got his coffee, and then
went back to the tent to wake her up. He thought he’d have to dress her
himself, but to his surprise, she struggled through her extreme grogginess and
managed to dress herself. She wasn’t going to miss this moment no matter what.
Jabeel had
brewed very strong Arabic coffee, very sweet, and Morgan swallowed an entire
cup before they even made it to the top of the hill. The morning was cool, with
very high scattered clouds across the pale blue expanse of sky. They had
covered up the hole the night before with a tarp held down by heavy rocks, so
Fox and Allahaba went about removing the rocks and peeling back the blue
plastic tarp.
The five foot
wide by three and half foot deep pit looked the same as it did the night
before. There was an eight inch in diameter open, black hole yawning at the
bottom of the cavity. Fox and Allahaba had brought ropes, picks, shovels and
the flashlights with them and Morgan had the implements all organized neatly by
the time the men pulled off the tarp. Fox neatly folded up the massive tarp and
set it down beside his wife.
She was gazing
up at him expectantly and when he looked at her, she smiled brightly with her
big baby doll dimples. He couldn’t help but smile back as he picked up a rope
and began to tie it around his waist.
“I don’t think
I’ve ever seen you quite so happy in the morning,” he teased her. “I always
thought waking up to me would be reason enough to be happy every morning but I
guess I was wrong.”
She gave him an
intolerant expression. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, Henredon,” she shook
her head. “I wake up every morning, look at your face, and still think I’m
dreaming. I have to pinch myself even now. How did I get so lucky to rate such
an amazing guy?”
He fought off a
smile. “So you’re not just in this for the fact I’m willing to go down into a
deep, dark hole for you?”
“Of course not,”
her smile faded. “I’m going with you.”
He lost his
smile as well. “Not right now. You’re going to stay here until I secure
whatever this is. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
They were
gearing up for a disagreement in the most unexpected of places; Morgan could
feel it and she tried to stay cool. “I appreciate that, baby,” she said. “But I
can take care of myself. I have for thirty-two years. I promise I won’t do
anything stupid. Let’s see what’s down there together, okay?”
He didn’t look
happy at all; she could see his jaw ticking faintly, which was rare for him.
Given his boxing and rugby background and tremendous size, he was one of the
calmest people she had ever met. Other than the incident at the Cairo museum,
she’d never seen him truly angry since she’d known him.
“Love, I really
wish you would let me scope this out first,” he said patiently. “If something
happened to you down there, I’d never forgive myself.”
Morgan didn’t
want to fight with him, not on this day of all days. She stood up from where
she had been seated next to the shovels and went to him, wrapping her arms
around his narrow waist and laying her head against his sternum.
“I just really
want to be a part of this,” she said softly. “I don’t want to sit on the
sidelines while you do all of the dirty work. This means so much to me, you
know? It’s the entire reason we met, the entire reason why we’re here.”
He just closed
his eyes, his arms around her, knowing he was about to cave in like a fool. He
hugged her gently.
“I know,” he
said quietly. “And I don’t have any intention of doing all of the dirty work by
myself. But you need to at least let me make sure it’s safe. I’d do that with
anything like this under normal circumstances, regardless of if you were
involved or not. It just needs to be done. As soon as I make sure it’s safe,
I’ll let you take a look; I promise.”
She craned her
neck back to gaze up at him; the baby doll dimples were back. “Good enough.”
He leaned down
and kissed her before letting her go to finish tying off the rope around his
waist. He handed Morgan the rest of the rope as he reached down to collect a
pick. Then the two of them moved over to the pit where Allahaba and Jabeel
were standing.
“Well,” he said
decisively as he looked between his helpers and the hole, “I’m going to see
what I can do about chipping away at the hole and try not to fall through in
the process. I figure with the three of you holding on to the rope, I have a
better chance of not crashing to the bottom of whatever this is. Three of you
outweigh me, but not by much. Al, when you looked through yesterday, how far
would you say it was from that opening to the stairs below?”
Allahaba
appeared thoughtful. “Not far,” he said. “The first step can’t be more than a
meter down, but then the steps descend at a steep rate. I could see the
doorway at the bottom.”
“About how far
down was that?”
“Perhaps four or
five meters.”
Fox thought on
that. But rather than try to picture what Allahaba was describing, he wanted
to see for himself.
“Very well,” he
pointed at Allahaba and Jabeel. “You two anchor the rope at the front and the
back. Morgan, you get in between them. Be prepared to dig in if this hole
starts to go and I start to go with it.”
Everyone shifted
around and took position. Morgan had a pair of work gloves on that were too big
for her hands but she didn’t let that stop her; she held tight and braced her
legs. When everyone was situated, Fox took a few steps into the pit and began
to swing at the hole in the bottom.
Even though the
ground was hard, it began to give way quickly. In little time, the hole was
about two feet in diameter and Fox could see at least three of the stone-cut
steps. He stopped swinging for a moment and shifted position to get a better
look.
Morgan saw what
he was doing and she was wildly curious. “Baby?” she called. “What does it look
like?”
He was still
staring. “Well,” he said after a moment. “The stairs don’t look like their cut
into the mountain. They look like stone.”