“Move a half a mile to the southeast and await further instruction.”
Ajmal kept to a steady jog until he stepped onto a paved road. Directly in front of him were acres of farmland but nestled in between it all was a cream-colored wort in an otherwise green landscape. Ajmal had heard of the lavish resort. It had once been a mansion belonging to a European philanthropist. Now, it was a destination hotel for the rich.
He crossed the battered, two-lane street and continued along the narrow dirt path. It led up a soft sloping incline, winding itself back and forth to the resort. If he were Baahir, that’s where he would go. The first thing Ajmal would have done was find a phone and call for help.
It wasn’t just Khaliq’s life on the line if news got out.
It was also his.
The overloaded Cessna cruised at an altitude of 800 feet, nearly twice the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the monolith that Cork had joking said she was going to try and avoid hitting with her plane. Cork guided their plane over the Giza Necropolis only because she thought it would be cool.
She was right. It really was cool.
Zahra could still see the three pyramids in her mind. She’d visited them several times in her life but had never seen them from this vantage point.
“Incredible,” she said to herself.
Ali screamed into a satellite phone, and before Zahra could pull herself from the memory and listen in, he hung up. He slid the device back into his pack and delivered the news.
“My men on the ground say that Khaliq’s convoy stopped near Bawiti.”
“Bawiti?” Zahra asked. “The Bahariya Oasis?”
“The same.”
Cork turned around. “That could be a problem, Zahra.”
“It is?”
The pilot nodded. “Bawiti isn’t exactly a big place, but it isn’t all that small, either. Searching it on foot could take days.”
“We don’t have days,” Rabia said.
Zahra shrugged. “But we don’t have a choice.”
Cork didn’t look hopeful. She plopped back down in her seat. “We’re nearly there. Where do you want to be dropped off?”
Zahra rolled her eyes. They weren’t being “dropped off” anywhere.
“The main road into town is to the south,” Ali chimed in. “I suggest we begin our search there. Hopefully, one of the locals stopped them.”
Cork eyed Zahra in her overhead mirror.
Zahra nodded. “Do it.”
The line went dead.
Khaliq nearly crushed his phone with his bare hand. Waleed Badawi had captured his sister alive, and was attempting to use her as a bargaining chip.
It would not work, though. There was
Ifza’s life was now her own responsibility.
He pocketed the device and raised his hands to his head. Khaliq would have ripped his hair out of his scalp if he had any. He clawed at his exposed skin and roared at the destroyed seal. His voice echoed down the newly unearthed stairway.
Khaliq knew what he had to do.
“Feroz,” he said, getting the man to snap to attention, “with me. Junaid, stay here and guard the way in.”
Feroz and Junaid glanced at one another. The second man shrugged and stepped back from the opening. Feroz blinked hard and attempted to swallow his fear.
Khaliq knelt atop Gebel Dist, in front of the cracked top step of a path that had not been used in thousands of years. He flicked on his flashlight, and pointed it into the pitch darkness to reveal a fairly ordinary corridor of stone. The corridor looked like it had been formed as a natural fissure that had been modified. The rounded ceiling had been smoothed out, and stairs were cut. It was impossible to tell which had been done first, not that it mattered to Khaliq. All he cared about was what would come at the end.
“The Temple of Anubis,” he muttered.
“Sir?” Feroz asked. “What about Ajmal?”
Craning his head up and to the right, Khaliq melted his subordinate with his gaze.
Feroz dipped his head. “My apologies, Khaliq. Lead the way.”
Khaliq stood and lifted his foot, holding it aloft for just a moment. He was relishing the fact that he was the first man to cross into Anubis’ lair since the god’s time on Earth. It felt fitting, too, that he was the one to do so.
He closed his eyes and lowered his foot. When it connected, he didn’t stop again. Khaliq ducked his head and slinked into the low-cut path. He wondered if there had once been a grand entryway surrounding this spot. He figured there was, picturing it in his mind as he eyed his steps. The steps had been shallowly constructed, carved right out of Gebel Dist. As he and Feroz continued down the steep grade, the way spiraled to their right, and the ceiling rose, relieving the stress on the men’s backs.
