man from New York, who Macy had said was called Diamondback. She also spotted Hamdi, talking to someone outside her narrow field of view. But it was the object of their attention that had also grabbed hers.
It was on the ceiling - a zodiac, a star map about six feet in diameter, the constellations carved into the stone in the form of the ancient Egyptian gods. Nina knew of others - there was one in the Louvre in Paris - but unlike them this was still painted, as its creators had intended.
But it was no longer complete. It had been dismantled, desecrated. Only one part remained on the ceiling, a roughly triangular section running from its southern edge to just past the centre. She could see the circular outline of where the rest had been clearly enough; power tools had carved away the surrounding stone, then pieces had been carefully and precisely cut from the ceiling. A man wearing goggles, a facemask and ear protectors was using a circular saw to free the final piece.
Another masked man was also working on the ceiling, but with much less sophisticated tools - a hammer and chisel. Nina was puzzled, before realising what he was doing: knocking dents into the perfectly flat swathes cut by the saw. All he had to do to remove any evidence that the zodiac had ever been there was roughen the newly exposed circle to match the limestone ceiling. With so many other treasures in the Hall of Records, nobody would pay any attention to a discolouration of the roof. She appreciated the ingenuity of the operation . . . even as she was utterly appalled by it.
The man Hamdi was addressing stepped into Nina’s view. She recognised him from his picture.
Sebak Shaban.
She also saw that Macy hadn’t been exaggerating about his facial scar, which dominated the right side of his face from the top lip to the nub of the ear. She couldn’t help cringing at the thought of the pain he must have endured.
But that didn’t earn him her sympathy. He was still a thief, stealing one of the world’s greatest archaeological treasures.
The saw’s screech died down, its user gesturing to a third man - Gamal, who had helped to carry the case from the tent. Now she was sure what it had contained: a piece of the zodiac. The cramped vertical shaft made it impossible to remove the map intact, so it had been cut into more manageable sections.
That, and the care being taken not to damage the last piece, suggested the thieves intended to reassemble it. Maybe it could still be restored.
But for that to happen, the conspirators would have to be caught.
‘Give me your camera,’ she whispered to Macy, who passed it to her. ‘How does it record?’
‘Just press the button, then press it again when you want to stop.’
‘Okay.’ Nina held the camera out past the lighting rig and started recording, watching the image on the LCD screen. To her annoyance, Shaban and Hamdi had turned to regard the zodiac, only the backs of their heads visible. ‘Turn round, dammit,’ she hissed. If she could get a clear shot of their faces, they would be heading to prison for a very long time.
Eddie crept alongside her, straining to hear what they were saying. The discussion was in Arabic; he could make out some words, but not enough to understand the entire conversation. ‘Is that the zodiac?’
‘What’s left of it.’ And the last section would soon be gone. Gamal moved a piece of equipment into position beneath it - a support frame, padded bars mounted on a pneumatic jack. He operated a control, and a piercing hiss of compressed air echoed round the chamber as the jack slowly extended. Hamdi put his fingers to his ears and backed out of the camera’s view.
Shaban remained focused on the jack. The frame rose until it was just below the zodiac, then slowed, advancing step by tiny step until the pads touched the ancient carving.
The jack’s hiss stopped - but was quickly replaced by the whine of the circular saw as the masked man cut into the stone once more. With the jack supporting it, the last piece of the zodiac could be safely cut free of the ceiling.
Diamondback said something to Shaban, and both men moved out of sight. Nina cursed. But at least the camera now had a clear view of the zodiac as it was being stolen. That would hopefully be enough to convince the Egyptian authorities—
Movement forced her to duck back into the darkened room. A muscular Caucasian man with close-cropped grey hair started down the stairs. He was carrying what looked like a chainsaw, though its heavy teeth set it apart from the average lumberjack’s tool: a piece of specialised stonecutting equipment. As he descended, he coiled up the saw’s power cable, following it into the illuminated chamber.
‘Looks like they’re about to sod off,’ Eddie whispered once he was out of sight.
‘We probably should too,’ said Nina. She stopped the recording, and they retreated through the two dark chambers - only to stop at the entrance to the first room.
‘Buggeration,’ Eddie muttered. The man was checking the jacks supporting the stone slab.
‘We could just run past him,’ Macy suggested.
‘Yeah, but if he’s got a gun, he’ll have an easy shot at us in that tunnel. We need to get out without anyone seeing us.’
But that soon became even less likely. Diamondback swaggered into the entrance chamber, wiping dust from his beard. The saw’s noise died away, replaced by the hiss of the jack lowering. Before long, Gamal and the other man brought another case into the room, Shaban and Hamdi close behind them.
‘That everything?’ asked Diamondback. ‘So what now?’
‘Now,’ said Shaban, ‘we clean up.’ He looked at his watch, then indicated the eastern entrance. ‘We have just over five hours before the IHA open that door. Lorenz, how long will it take to seal the royal entrance?’
The grey-haired man looked up from the jacks. ‘Once we’ve got everything out of here, about an hour to move the block back into position,’ he said, his accent Dutch.
‘There can’t be so much as a footprint left behind,’ Hamdi said, nervously regarding the tracks on the dusty floor.
‘There won’t be.’ Shaban indicated some gas cylinders beside the compressor. ‘We’ll use compressed air to clear the floors - by the time the IHA get in, the dust will have settled.’ A nod to the man standing with Gamal. ‘Broma, get started.’
‘Shit,’ Eddie whispered. ‘We’ll have to make a run for it after all. Soon as they go back upstairs for their gear, we’ll leg it.’
They waited in the darkness as Broma began erasing stray footprints with blasts of compressed air. The other men moved away from the swirling dust clouds.
‘Should we risk it?’ said Nina.
‘There’s still that bloke by the door,’ Eddie said, watching Lorenz check the jacks. ‘When he moves away . . .’
Broma suddenly stopped working, peering with a puzzled expression at the floor near the entrance to the dark chamber. Eddie immediately knew why.
He had seen their footprints, freshly made in the dust.
‘Back, back, back!’ Eddie hissed. Broma followed the new tracks to the entrance. He squinted into the shadows.
Eddie and Nina ducked down behind a section of the ruined pillar. Macy crouched beside a smaller hunk of broken stone as Broma swept a torch beam across the floor. He fixed the circle of light on one set of tracks and followed them.
To Macy’s hiding place.
Frightened, she hunched lower - and crunched a small piece of debris under her sole. It was only a faint scrape, but it was enough to make Broma twitch. The torch beam locked on to the fallen pillar. He put down the air cylinder . . . and drew a knife.
Macy froze. The beam exposed more of the pillar as he approached . . . then found the young woman hiding behind it.
The knife snapped up—
A five-thousand-year-old piece of pottery exploded into fragments as Eddie smashed it over Broma’s head. The man fell to his knees against Macy’s hiding place - and Eddie kicked the back of his head, cracking him face first against the stone. Broma slumped unconscious to the floor.
