Storm Cycle Page 3

  “He has his Las Vegas casinos, three on the Riviera, one in Australia, and one in Macao. Besides, he has enough clout with the locals in Las Vegas to bring a bonanza of computer cycles to us if he only lifts his finger. I need those cycles.” Her lips tightened. “That damn leak is crippling me. I have to get a new influx.”

  “You sound like a vampire after fresh blood. You’d better be careful Demanski doesn’t decide to sink his teeth into you. I don’t think he’s one of the businessmen you can charm or browbeat into giving you what you want.”

  She scowled. “I don’t use either of those methods. I just figure out how to make a donor feel it’s to his advantage to do it. Demanski is difficult, but I’ll work it out.” Her smile had a touch of the tiger. “I’ve been waiting to tap him for a long time.”

  “That sounds a little personal. Have you met him before?”

  “Once. When I was nineteen. He tossed me out of one of his casinos.”

  “Why?”

  “I’d just taught myself card counting, and I was too good at it. He saw to it that I was banned from every casino on the strip.”

  Simon chuckled. “And now you want to get a little of your own back.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe he’s just an excellent prospect to give us what we need.” She shook her head. “If I can figure out one final piece to the puzzle of how to do it.”

  “Don’t think about it tonight.” He squeezed her hand. “Go to sleep. I’ll go check on Allie, then go back to Galveston.” He started to turn away. “I’ll have more for you when you wake up tomorrow.”

  “Wait. Could you trace where our computer cycles went?”

  “Yes. He was evidently in a hurry and wasn’t meticulous about covering his tracks. You’re not going to like it.”

  “Where?”

  “Egypt.”

  “Hell’s bells. The Middle East. That’s all I need. If a terrorist organization is using our system to develop a new superweapon or to crack into classified databases . . .”

  “Look on the bright side. It’s Egypt, not Iran. Jonesy may not be supplying the brainpower for the development of another nuclear state.”

  “But someone could still use it to infiltrate and shut down power grids around the world. You know how powerful Jonesy’s become.”

  “That’s not the bright side.” He moved toward the door. “And when you get out of here, we’ll find a way to close all his backdoors and kick him out. Now if you want to worry about something, Norton called and said he was jumping on a flight from Washington. He was disturbed that you were shot. I think he’s afraid it may interfere with his project.”

  “Heaven forbid that anything do that.” She closed her eyes. “Come back and check me out first thing in the morning. Bring me something to wear. Don’t tell Allie I was shot. Tell her it was an accident at the lab.”

  “She may find out. You’re on the news.”

  “She doesn’t watch the news. It makes her unhappy.”

  “It makes all of us unhappy.”

  “Not like it does her.”

  “I’ll do my best.” He left the room.

  Egypt.

  She tried to hold off sleep. She should think of all the ramifications so that she could prepare herself. It didn’t have to be a disaster. But a hacker of that brilliance and capability had to be in demand, and the money in the Middle East had to be tempting to . . .

  She was drifting away. Not now. She had to get a grasp on the problem and . . .

  It was no use. Let go. Sometimes when she slept, she woke with the answer to a problem.

  Egypt . . .

  SAQQARA, EGYPT

  “Let’s go back,” Ben Leonard muttered. “This is crazy. Crawling through a damn tomb isn’t my idea of any way to spend a night.”

  “We’re almost there.” John Tavak slid forward on his belly toward the wall of rocks ahead. He hoped he was telling the truth. They didn’t have time for mistakes. But so far the other information about Kontar’s tomb had checked out. Their guide, Ali, had only led them down to the main corridor before he’d scampered away like a scared rabbit. But the central room of the small tomb built in the time of Shepseskaf had been where he’d been told it would be. All artifacts had been removed from the primary burial chamber, but there was no sign of any digging in this area yet. If the secret shrine existed, then there was a chance it had not been discovered. “The wall is just up ahead, and the shrine should be just beyond it.”

  “How do you know?”

  “The magic oracle of the Internet.”

  “And it told you about a shrine no one has discovered for thousands of years?”

  “Sure. It whispered in my ear. That’s why it’s magic.”

  “Have I ever told you that I’m claustrophobic?” Ben asked.

  “No. What a pity. We’ll take you to a therapist when we get home.” He’d reached the wall and was exploring the rocks with his hands. No adhesives, but the stones were tightly compacted together. It would take too long to dig through. He pulled some C-4 out of his backpack and inserted it between the rocks.

  “What are you doing?” Ben asked warily. “Tell me you’re not going to set off an explosion down here. This tomb has to be over two thousand years old.”

  “More like forty-five hundred years. And it will be just a tiny, baby explosion.”

  “What if it brings down the roof?”

  “It won’t. I’ve made the calculations. Back up. There may be a few shards.” He lit the fuse and started moving back himself. “You might cover your eyes. Not that I think—”

  The C-4 ignited. The explosion was loud, but it caused little reverberation.

  Tavak lifted his head to see a jagged hole in the rocks of the wall. “That should do it.” He started to crawl back. “Let’s see if we’ve struck pay dirt.”

  “My God, you’re crazy.” Ben crawled after him. “I’ve suspected it for years, but this is proof positive.”

  Tavak was already tearing the stones away from the wall. “There’s something . . .” He shined a beam from his flashlight into the darkness beyond. “Yes.” He wriggled through the opening. “Come on. We’ve found her.”

  Dust.

  Dank odors of centuries.

  And, in the darkness, color gleaming on the wall across from him.

  He rolled over as he reached the floor and pulled out his lantern from his backpack. He turned it on and lifted it to view the mural on the wall. “There she is.”

  “Wow,” Ben murmured as he climbed through the broken wall into the chamber. He sat back on his heels. “Do you think it’s really her?”

  “Oh, yes.” Tavak didn’t have the slightest doubt that the woman in the mural was the legend that had brought him here.

  Peseshet.

  “Hell, it’s no wonder the Pharaoh had her murdered,” Tavak murmured as he stared at the mural on the tomb wall. “They didn’t tolerate any usurping of power. She looks like a damn Pharaoh herself.”

  The woman in the mural was sitting on a throne with arms crossed, and in her hands she was holding forceps and a long thin knife. She couldn’t have looked more proud or royal.

  “Take the picture,” Ben said nervously. “This place is smothering me. And Ali said we could only have thirty minutes down here before the guards came back. The Egyptian government doesn’t tolerate trespassers at new finds.”

  “Relax.” Tavak was already taking photos of the mural from every angle. “A few more minutes . . .”

  “It’s weird that this mural is even down here. It’s not her tomb. You said it belonged to one of the rich merchants in the town. Why would he have put in a secret room with a shrine to Peseshet?”

  “I have no idea. With any luck we may find out . . .”

  “How did you know it was here if the locals had no idea there was a chamber?”

  “I had the help of another lady who may just be as smart as Peseshet. Thank you, Rachel Kirby.” He took a close-up shot of the hieroglyphics on the side of the mural. He removed the camera’s memory card and slid it into his computer. “But I don’t want to leave until I let my program run a check on the text and see if there’s anything else down here that we should be checking out.”

  “Will your laptop work underground?”

  “It should. I set up a relay outside in the sand before we started down. It’s connecting . . .” Not fast and not clean. But then deciphering hieroglyphics was usually a slow, painstaking process even with the power he’d harnessed from Rachel Kirby’s supercomputer. Well, not harnessed, stolen. “I’m getting bits and pieces, but it’s a jumble.” He e-mailed the text to his computer in Cairo and closed down and returned the memory card to the camera. “You’re right, this isn’t going to be fast enough. We’d better get out of here.” He took a few more shots of the mural, then of the other walls of the tomb to study later. “I think I’ve got enough.”

  “Good,” Ben said, relieved. “I can’t breathe down here. Next time you decide to go tomb raiding, I’m going to opt out.”

  “I’m not raiding the tomb, I’m just taking a few pictures.” Tavak smiled. “And if I find what I need in this text, then we won’t have to look further.”

  “If? I don’t like ifs.”

  “Too bad. The world is composed of ifs.”

  “And you’re obsessed to resolve every one that comes your way.”

  “Only the ones that offer a great deal of money.”

  Ben snorted. “Bullshit. If that was true, we wouldn’t be crawling around down here when the chance of you finding the tablet is a million to one.”

  “You never know. There are always answers if you work at any problem hard enough.”

  “For you. Not for me.” Ben backed away from the wall and stood looking at the mural. “She’s no Nefertiti. Look at that big nose.”

  “She evidently had brains, not beauty. Though if she’d lived a little longer she might have invented plastic surgery. And I like her. She’s going to make us billionaires.” He took a final photo. “I think I’ve got everything. God knows if it will do us any good. We may have to go down another path. I can’t see anything that even resembles a—”

  The stone floor heaved upward!

  “What the—” Tavak dove for the floor. “It’s a cave-in. Down!”

  Rocks falling. Walls collapsing.

  He heard Ben cry out, but he couldn’t see him through the veil of dust and falling rock. “Ben!”

  The rocks had stopped falling. The lantern had been smashed, but he still had his flashlight. He turned it on and looked around. The entrance to the chamber was blocked with rocks, and the ceiling had collapsed. The only wall fully intact was the one on which the mural was depicted. Peseshet was still sitting serenely on her throne staring coolly out at the world that had called her a goddess, then destroyed her.

  Tavak heard a choked gurgling sound behind him.

  Ben.

  He spun around to see Ben half-buried in the rubble, with a mixture of blood and dust caked over his mouth.

  “Don’t try to move,” Tavak said. “I’m on my way.”

  “Like I have a choice?” Ben rasped.

  Tavak lifted the larger stones from the right side of Ben’s torso and shined his flashlight over him.

  Blood.

  Chunks of flesh protruding from his ripped shirt. Shit.

  “That bad, huh?” Ben’s voice was hollow.

  Tavak grabbed the first-aid kit out of his backpack. “You’ll be fine.”

  “That’s not what your expression is telling me.”

  The blood was flowing, not gushing. He could probably stop it. He set to work. “Be still. Don’t try to talk.”

  “Fat chance.” Ben winced in pain. After the spasm subsided, he glanced around the chamber. “Looks like your brilliant calculations were wrong. You almost brought down the entire tomb.”

  He sliced through Ben’s trousers to look at his legs. No open wounds. Maybe broken bones in his hips or back. Better not move him. “No way. I don’t make that kind of mistake.” Tavak sniffed the stale air. “Cyclotol.”

  “I thought you used C-4.”

  “I did. Someone else set another charge. One meant for us.”

  “Ali?”

  “If not him, then someone he told about us.” Tavak nodded toward the still-intact south wall. “It’s no coincidence that wall is still standing. Someone besides us knew the room was here.”

  “Then don’t let the bastards get away with it. Find a way to get yourself out of here.”

  “I’m working on it. And it will be both of us, not just me.”

  Ben grimaced in pain. “I don’t think so, Tavak.”

  “You’re coming with me.”

  “I can’t feel my legs, and my chest hurts like hell.” His lips were thinned with pain. “Sorry to be . . . such a wimp.”

  The extent of Ben’s injuries scared the hell out of him. They had to get out of here. Tavak began to go through the contents in his knapsack. There had to be something he could use . . . “You’re not a wimp, or you wouldn’t have come along for the ride.”

  “If Ali really set us up, no one even knows we’re here.”

  Tavak shook his head. “Except the person who wants to kill us.”

  “Dawson?”

  “Good chance.” He looked at the mural on the wall. “You know, many of the priests in the Middle Kingdom hated Peseshet. I’d think they rigged something to make sure no one would ever resurrect anything she stood for, except that they had no explosives in 2500 B.C.”

  Ben closed his eyes. “Keep looking in that magic bag of yours. I hope to hell you find something to use to get us away from here.”

  So do I, Tavak thought grimly. He wasn’t claustrophobic like Ben, but he didn’t like the idea of spending his final days being buried alive down here. “It’s not magic. If it was, I’d be turning it into a flying carpet and buzzing out of here.” He set out the contents of the knapsack on the ground. “But I might be able to find something.”

  “Have you ever been in a cave-in before?”

  “Once. Australia. Opal mine outside Perth.”

  “And were you prepared then?”

  “No, I almost died of thirst before I crawled out of there. Live and learn. I swore I’d never go more than six feet underground. And then only when they buried me.”

  “Yet here you are.”

  “What can I say? I got greedy.”

  “So did I, my friend.”

  Tavak stared at the stones and rubble separating him from the rest of the tomb. Even if they made it out, they might be met with lethal force. Whoever had set up this scenario hadn’t wanted them to come out alive and wanted to preserve the information on that wall. “There’s got to be a way to get out.”

  “Like Jonah in the whale? I wouldn’t count on divine intervention.”

  “I never do. I’ve always believed God helps he who helps himself. If he feels in the mood. Let me think about this.”

  Someone was holding her hand . . .

  Rachel knew that touch. She had to open her eyes. Maybe Allie needed her.

  “Allie . . .” She struggled to lift her lids. Lord, it was hard. The sedative had taken hold, and every effort was almost impossible. She finally managed to open her eyes.

  Allie’s face a blur beside her. Allie’s hand on hers. “Go back to sleep, Rachel. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “Are you . . . okay?”

  Allie nodded. “I should have known that would be the first thing you’d say. You’re the one who was shot.”

  “Who told you?”

  “Not Simon. But he’s not hard to read. I had Letty check and see what was really happening.”

  “Did she bring you?”

  “Yes, she’s in the waiting room. Now hush. I’ll have to leave if I disturb you.”

  She was barely able to form the words. “Shouldn’t be here. It’s not good for you. Hospitals . . .”

  “Don’t bother me anymore. I’ve been in so many, it’s like a second home. And where else should I be when my sister is sick?”

  “Not sick. Some nut—”

  “Tried to blow your head off.” Her eyes were glistening with tears. “And you didn’t even want them to tell me. How worthless do you think that makes me feel?”

  Don’t cry, Allie. It hurts me. You never cry. “Sorry. I thought . . . Don’t worry. It will be all right.”

  “I love you. I’m not well, but I’m still able to function as a human being. Why did you try to take that away from me? Listen to you. Even now you’re trying to comfort me.”

  Didn’t she understand? “It’s not right. I’m . . . so strong. There should be some way I could give some of it to you.”

  “Yeah, real strong.” Allie leaned forward and brushed a kiss on Rachel’s cheek. “Go back to sleep.”

  “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “I’ll leave as soon as you drift off.”

  Rachel’s lids closed. “Promise?”

  “Yes. I’ll let Letty take me home and tuck me into my safe little bed.”

  “I just want you to be . . .”

  “I know. I know.”

  ______

  “How is she?” Letty Clark asked, when Allie came into the waiting room. “I was talking to the nurses. They think she’ll be fine.”

  “She’s Rachel. What else can I say?” Allie took the jacket Letty handed her and slipped it on. “She wants you to drive me home and take care of me.” She shook her head. “And she doesn’t even realize how ridiculous she’s being.”

  Letty smiled. “She’s protective. But then so are you. You’d like to whisk her away from this place.” She tilted her head. “And I can see you standing guard over her.”

  “As she hired you to stand guard over me?”

  “It made her feel better since she couldn’t always be with you.” Letty handed her a cup of coffee in a Styrofoam cup. “And we’ve made a good thing of it, haven’t we, Allie?”

  “A very good thing.” Allie smiled affectionately at Letty. When Letty Clark had appeared in her life eight years ago, she’d fiercely resented this new inroad on her independence. She’d known at once that the term “housekeeper” was really a misnomer. Letty had been a registered nurse for most of her career.