Baahir stumbled, pausing against a lone boulder protruding from the sand. He turned to face Gebel Dist and spotted something he dreaded. A lone figure was nearly to the bottom of the formation, and if he had to guess who it was, he reckoned it was Ajmal. Though, the real question wasn’t who had been sent, it was whether or not the person had been instructed to bring Baahir back to the temple seal or silence him.
At this point, given everything Baahir had just said to Khaliq, he wouldn’t be surprised if the man hunting him was doing so with a kill order in his back pocket.
Weight issues delayed Zahra and the others longer than expected. The
Ali had supplied Zahra, himself, and two additional men with parachutes. Zahra’s was already secured to her body, fitting tighter than she remembered. She had clocked a decent number of hours skydiving, but it had been quite a while. Since her army days, in fact. Her nerves weren’t buzzing from the prospect of jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft — but from jumping out of a sixty-year-old, overloaded Cessna.
“Okay,” Cork called out from the cockpit. “It’s now or never!”
Ali glanced at his men before turning to Zahra. She nodded.
“Take us up.”
The pilot groaned. “I was afraid you’d say that.” She powered up the engines and slowly pushed the Cessna’s thrust lever forward.
They chugged along the runway, getting to takeoff speed in the nick of time. The nose lifted, then the rest of the plane. Cork needed to continue to apply more speed while also pulling back on the yoke. If the
Zahra gripped her armrest harder. The whine of the twin props grew louder. Cork wasn’t in the business of giving up.
Luckily for them, the old bird didn’t fail them.
Cork visibly relaxed. The tension in her shoulders subsided, as did her grip on the yoke.
“How high are you taking us?” Ali asked, shouting over the noise.
Cork shrugged. “High enough so we don’t bonk a pyramid.”
Ali’s eyes darted to Zahra. “It would be suicidal to jump from that altitude.”
The archaeologist smiled, implying that Cork had been joking. She faced the window and look out over the landscape.
The beautifully carved seal over the doorway was now gone, obliterated by plastic explosives. There were stairs beyond the smoldering opening, and Khaliq was anxious to start exploring inside.
But the seal wasn’t the only thing missing from the ancient space.
“Where is Hassan?” Khaliq was furious, and as usual, he blamed someone else.
Ajmal stood his ground, not allowing his employer to intimidate him. His obsession with the Temple of Anubis had clouded his judgment. If it were up to Ajmal, Baahir Hassan would have been dead long ago.
“He slipped away while we tended to the seal, per your orders.”
Ajmal threw the last bit in for good measure. It was Khaliq’s fault Baahir had gotten away. While Ajmal, Feroz, and Junaid took the time to properly set the charges, Khaliq had recessed into his own head, and lost track of Baahir. The man’s entrenched psychosis was making him sloppy. He was also too used to getting his own way and having others do things for him.
His only job had been to keep an eye on
Ajmal was fed up with his superior, and instead of fighting with him, he did the best thing for himself and walked away.
“Bring him back, Ajmal!” Khaliq called after him.
Ajmal growled and stopped. He looked over his shoulder. “And if he refuses to comply?”
Khaliq’s phone buzzed. He turned back toward the entrance and hovered his thumb over the screen. “Then bring me his corpse. I still want his blood.”
The town of Bawiti was the largest settlement in the Bahariya Oasis, and the closest destination from Gebel Dist when traveling on foot. Ajmal had a feeling that it was where Baahir would go. His gut had rewarded him too. Down below, he could see a figure heading southeast, shambling along on what must have been tired legs.
He raised his pistol.
But Baahir was too far away to hit with the small caliber. After a half dozen tries, Ajmal holstered his weapon and continued down the slopping face of Gebel Dist, fumbling with his phone while he did. He quickly notified Lahan and Qadim, the pair they dropped off at the southern edge of town, that the Egyptologist had escaped.
