translating it when I spoke to him. All he needed to find this place was the numerical system.’
Chase watched as the white-haired man took out a pair of handcuffs. The woman raised her hands in protest. His expression darkened - then he lunged forward and punched her hard in the stomach. She dropped to her knees. Before she could recover, the man roughly yanked up her arms to cuff them behind her back.
Chase’s hands tightened on the binoculars. ‘The bastard just hit her,’ he growled as the blonde was dragged upright. Ribbsley was also angry - but not enough to intervene. Chase looked back at the trio. Vogler had an expression of mild distaste, while the cigar-smoking man’s face was carefully neutral. The bearded Arab, on the other hand, wasn’t bothering to conceal a cruel smirk. ‘And none of the others are trying to stop him. Fuckers.’ Half dragging the struggling woman back to the Winnebago, the white-haired man slammed her against the side of the vehicle before entering it and pulling her after him.
Ribbsley said something to Vogler, obviously complaining about his companion’s treatment. He received no sympathy, the Swiss man gesturing towards the newly uncovered structure. Trying to salvage some degree of authority, Ribbsley strode past Vogler, waving arrogantly for the others to follow.
Nina saw the white-haired man emerge from the Winnebago and go after the others. The blonde woman remained inside. ‘I’ve got to see what they’ve found. Once Ribbsley’s translated it, I don’t think they’ll leave it intact.’
Chase searched for the quad bike riders, seeing one of them coming into view off to the right. ‘Soon as this guy goes past, follow me down to that rock. Keep as low as you can.’ They waited as the rider continued his circuit. ‘Okay,
He slithered quickly out from the bush. Nina followed more awkwardly, crawling in his wake as fast as she could. They dropped into a shallow, dusty ditch where Chase rose to a crouch, scurrying along until he reached another tangle of bushes. He popped his head up to check the way was clear, then shoved through them, snapping off a large branch to make Nina’s passage easier.
‘Okay, keep crawling,’ he said as he dropped and headed for the boulder, Nina following. ‘If I go “Hssst!” then drop flat and
Nina didn’t like the sound of that - but she liked the rising noise of the second quad bike even less. The rock loomed ahead, a ragged crescent lit from one side by spill from the floodlights.
She looked to the right. The quad bike’s headlight came into view, jolting over the sandy ground. Getting closer.
Chase was almost at the rock. Nina scrambled after him. Plants scratched her face as she brushed past them. The headlight grew brighter.
He would see them at any moment—
‘Hssst!’
Nina dropped flat. The headlight was coming straight at her. It got closer,
The Kawasaki veered away to pass on the other side of the boulder.
‘Roll!’ Chase ordered.
She did, plants crunching under her. Chase did the same, rolling round the rock after her. The quad bike’s rear lights cast an unreal glow over the ground; he stopped inside the boulder’s shadow, waiting until the red light faded before moving.
‘Okay, go!’ he hissed, pointing across the tracks to a ditch. Stooping, Nina hurried to it. Chase followed more slowly, backing over the tracks and sweeping the branch to cover their footprints. Even though he was trying to match the marks as closely as possible, if the riders slowed to look they would immediately notice the lack of any tread patterns, an erased line pointing at the intruders.
He just had to hope they didn’t slow down.
Another headlight, the other bike coming round the circuit.
‘Eddie, come on!’ Nina called. He was almost across, only the last few footsteps to remove.
Engine noise getting louder—
‘
Done. He dropped the branch and leapt backwards to land beside Nina. The quad bike was almost on them. Its headlight swept across the path of their footprints, the hastily scrubbed patches standing out clearly . . .
The quad rasped past in a spray of sand, wiping out the evidence of their passage with a new set of tracks from its fat, knobbly tyres.
Nina blew dust from her face. ‘Jesus! Could you
‘I dunno. Want me to try again? Just run back across . . .’
She huffed. ‘Come on.’
They moved down the shadowed side of the ditch, heading for the thrum of a diesel generator ahead. Signalling for Nina to stay still, Chase crept up the stony slope for a look, then slid back down to her. ‘Looks like they’re taking a break - most of the men are over by the tents. There’s still a few hanging around, though, so we’ll need to be careful.’
‘You know which way to go?’
‘Yeah. There’s a trench - if we drop into it, we can go almost all the way round.’
They crawled up and took shelter behind the generator, checking there was nobody nearby before moving along behind a loose line of parked vehicles. One of them was Ribbsley’s Winnebago, a top-of-the-range model the size of a small bus. Chase hesitated as they reached it. ‘What?’ Nina asked.
‘We should help that woman. Even if she’s Ribbsley’s girlfriend, the rest of them weren’t big fans.’
‘Eddie, I know you always want to be the white knight and help damsels in distress,’ said Nina, ‘but you can’t right now. If we help her escape, what happens when they find out she’s missing? We can’t do anything - not yet, anyway. Maybe after we’ve found what we’re looking for.’
‘You’re all heart,’ Chase said, unimpressed. Nina gave him a dirty look, then continued onwards.
They reached the trench. Chase took another look at the surrounding area. A couple of men were working on an excavator’s engine, but their backs were to them. He looked past the machine at the tents. The rest of the men were eating, which would hopefully keep them occupied for a while. He also noticed that they appeared to be divided into three groups, seemingly on ethnic lines, and that each group favoured a different type of assault rifle - Belgian FN SCARs, Israeli TAR-21s and Swiss SIG SG-551s - although all shared the same 5.56mm ammo.
Before he could think about that any further, Nina nudged him. ‘Is it safe?’
‘Yeah, looks like it’s teatime. Think they’d mind if I blagged a sandwich?’
‘Let’s not find out.’ She climbed into the trench. Chase checked that the mechanics were still occupied, then followed.
Staying close to the wall, they advanced. The broken remains of buildings protruded from the trench floor, tracks from the excavators’ caterpillar treads running right through them. ‘I can’t believe this,’ Nina said, anger rising as they passed another smashed wall. ‘This isn’t archaeology, this is just
They reached the end of the trench. Chase climbed up first, then pulled Nina after him. They were close to the spot where the discovery had been made. Hiding behind a pile of sand, they crawled to the edge of the next trench and peered down.
A man stood outside the curved wall marking the trench’s end. Another two men were carrying a wooden reel of electrical cable, laying the line behind them as they reached the broken hole in the wall. They climbed through, unreeling more cable as they disappeared from view. Other lights were visible inside the buried structure: torch beams.
Nina could make out voices, but not clearly enough to hear what was being said. She was sure one of them was Ribbsley’s, though; the arrogant, affected English accent was quite distinctive. ‘Sounds like Ribbsley’s giving a lecture,’ she whispered to Chase.
‘About what?’
‘The translation, I guess. God, I hope he hasn’t figured it all out already.’
They moved back as the two men emerged from the hole and retreated up the trench. A short time later they returned, one carrying a pair of metal stands, the other two heavy-duty electric lamps. After another minute, the flitting torchlight was replaced by a constant, even glow. The men re-emerged and went back up the trench, the
