He felt nothing, and his body suddenly stopped working. His eyes fell to the impact point, and he was stunned to see nothing but a crimson-colored fist pulling away from it. He followed it to its owner, coughing up blood as he met face-to-face with the man who used to be Grant Upton.
The man’s exposed upper body rippled with dense musculature. Adnan didn’t remember the Brit being so well-built. His body mass resembled that of a steroided wrestler from the eighties and nineties.
The demon uttered one word. “Ayad.” But Adnan was too far-gone to formulate words, and his eyes rolled back.
Upton roared in anger, reached out, and tore Adnan to pieces.
It would typically take three hours to drive from Giza to Port Said. Ifza didn’t have that kind of time. She was currently airborne in her brother’s private helicopter, traveling directly to the area in question, and would arrive shortly. She had already received notice of her men’s failure to kill Zahra Kane. Even Waleed Badawi was still alive. Their bodies were not among the dead. Authorities had reported gunfire shortly after the lighthouse’s decimation. The only people that would be shooting back at her people would be Zahra and Waleed.
“Should I notify Khaliq?” one of her men asked.
“No!” Ifza blurted. “No… I will contact him myself.”
Ifza had no plans to tell him, either. His earlier threat still had its fangs dug into her throat.
If he did ask about the mission, Ifza would counter with an explanation that the operation was still in progress — which was true. She knew she could probably pawn off the failed op on the incompetence of her men — men that wouldn’t be alive much longer. She was going to personally end their wretched existences once she landed.
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
And she wouldn’t be getting any sleep anytime soon.
Wally’s operation, the SSC, was seriously impressive. All manner of heavy machinery was present, including three of the largest cranes Zahra had ever seen. The dockside gantry cranes were used to load and unload intermodal containers from container ships. The operator sat in an unsettling, glass-bottomed pilothouse directly above a mechanism called a
Machines like this had always caught Zahra’s attention. It wasn’t just mankind’s past that she was impressed with. She also enjoyed the planet’s modern ingenuities. At one time, all the things she studied from ancient times
“We’ve come a long way, huh?” she said, staring up at the cranes in motion.
Wally stepped up next to her. “Yes, we have. And yet…” Zahra unlocked her gaze and glanced at Wally, “we still have no concrete ideas as to how the pyramids were built.”
“Sure, we do,” Zahra said, turning and heading inside.
“We do?” Wally asked.
She stopped and placed her hands out, palms open, hovering around her head. “Aliens,” she said, imitating the well-known meme.
Wally rolled his eyes and stepped around Zahra, leading the way. The two had only just arrived and had yet to go indoors. Upon their arrival, Zahra had been too absorbed in the trio of gantry cranes. Wally’s property only sat two miles down the coast from the lighthouse and could easily be seen from the shoreline. Zahra still couldn’t believe the monument had been erased from history, only minutes ago.
The driver had taken a circuitous path back to the SSC.
“What are you doing?” Zahra had asked. “I thought your place was in the other direction?”
“It is,” Wally replied, “though I’d rather not have us drive straight to it. We will come in from the south and hopefully throw off the scent of Ayad’s dogs.”
The plan had worked. They had not been followed.
Before they exited the car, Zahra called her father and instructed him and Cork to join her and Wally.
“Yeah, Dad, we’re fine. Just get here as soon as you can. I have a feeling we’ll be leaving again soon.”
He opened the door to the gray, utilitarian warehouse. They passed by a series of offices where people chatted on phones and clacked away on keyboards. The business was just that, a business. Interestingly enough, no one paid Zahra or Wally any attention, even in their current state of filthiness.
A door led them into the heart of the SSC. Forklifts zipped around everywhere, carrying anything you could think of. Not only did Wally move entire containers for companies, but it looked as if he also did some local shipping and storing too.
A man around Zahra’s age came hustling over to his boss and delivered another gut punch.
“Ayad has mobilized.”
Zahra and Wally exchanged worried looks.
