Something flickered in the distance.
“What the fuck was that?”
Shay narrowed her eyes. More flickers.
“What now? Some Australia firefly that’s five feet long and has acid breath?”
The tomb raider rolled her eyes and grabbed binoculars from her saddlebags. Shay laughed as she looked through them.
“That’s about the last thing I expected, but it’s almost a relief.”
Six men on horseback rode in her direction, a couple carrying lanterns. Their holsters at their sides cleared up the question if they were armed, but not if they were a danger to her. Only an idiot would have wandered these cursed desert lands without weapons, but the kind of men who were prepared to face such dangers were often the same kind who’d kill people rather than walk away.
Shay slipped her tactical harness back on but left the sword on the ground. A gun and her knives would be sufficient to deal with humans. She jogged over to the gum tree, where she could maintain line-of-sight on the new arrivals but still retain some cover.
The tense minutes passed as the men rode closer. In the moonlight she’d be harder to spot than they were with their lanterns, but she wasn’t invisible, which explained why they slowed as they neared the site.
“Just turn around and leave,” Shay called. “You’re too late.”
One of the men raised a hand, and all of them brought their horses to a stop.
“Now this was about the last thing I expected,” the man called back. His accent was American.
“The site’s been looted. Nothing here for you.”
“By you?”
“The point is, there’s nothing left.”
The man sighed and shook his head. “Sorry. We can’t walk away from this. Do you have any idea how many creatures attacked us on our way here?”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s been a big fucking pain. Not exactly like it’s been Easy Street for me.”
Several of the men’s hands rested near their pistol grips, and Shay’s hand drifted toward her holster. The red sand was about to get even redder.
“I’ve got to say, though,” the man continued, “I’m impressed. When I heard about the great Aletheia taking the job, I thought there was no way a single tomb raider would be insane enough to go into the middle of the cursed desert by herself when she couldn’t even call for extraction if things got too hot.”
Shay’s jaw tightened. These men shouldn’t have known she was involved, even through her alias. The fact they did and were still there wasn’t a good sign.
“What can I say? I’m a crazy bitch, but I’m not walking away.”
“Because of Antarctica?”
Fucking Yulia.
Shay narrowed her eyes. “Because I complete my jobs.”
The men all laughed before their leader spoke again. “I’ve got nothing but respect for you. You came onto our scene like a lightning bolt. It wasn’t all that long ago that no one had heard of you, but you’ve pounded out high-profile raids left and right by yourself.” He sighed. “That still doesn’t mean I can let you have the artifacts. Here, I’ll even cut you a deal—one we can all be happy about.”
“A deal?”
“Yeah. Ride back with us, and we’ll split the proceeds. Fair’s fair. We’re all taking a hit, but then no one has to worry about getting shot.”
Shay shook her head.
“Well, the other option is we just shoot you and leave your body here for the buzzards, but fuck…there aren’t even many buzzards around this place. Live hard, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse and all that.” The man shrugged and grinned. “I know you’re supposed to be tough, but, sorry, honey, we outnumber you six to—”
Shay’s shot punched the man off his horse. His horse reared, and several of the nearby horses did as well. The tomb raider took advantage of the confusion to keep shooting. Three of the men fell before the group managed to counterattack, and the poor bastard who’d managed to get the shot off received a 9mm bullet in his chest for his trouble.
The whole fight, if Shay could even call the one-sided slaughter that, was over in less than thirty seconds. The men’s horses rushed in every direction now, some with their riders on the ground, and others dragging dead bodies. Her horse shook its head and whinnied.
“Wait, you seriously just fucking woke up? Talk about a deep sleeper!”
The other horses continued bolting into the darkness. Shay had no idea if the men had somehow been following her, or if they’d just been lucky. The former was unlikely. There weren’t a lot of places to hide in the vast expanse of the desert scrubland.
She tsked and shook her head. The only thing the bastards had managed to accomplish was putting a bullet in the gum tree. She felt worse about the hardy tree that had survived centuries in the middle of a cursed wasteland taking a hit than the men she’d killed.
“I gave them the chance to walk away,” she murmured to herself.
Shay patted her horse on the shoulder. “Guess we should get away from here, just in case more assholes show up. Sorry, boy. Just a little more riding tonight, then I have to figure out how to track down the last artifact.”
The tomb raider shot up at the warm touch of the dawn sun, sore but with a clear mind.
Better than a clear mind. Shay was downright inspired.
She grinned and fished the compass out of the backpack, holding it and concentrating on the eternal lantern.
The tomb raider stifled a huge yawn as she stared down at the silver compass. The background research hadn’t provided much information on how to activate the artifacts, so maybe the whole thing was pointless, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.
The needle jerked and spun for a few seconds before stopping abruptly. Judging by the sun, it wasn’t pointing north.
Shay patted the horse. “I’m so damned smart.”
The horse snorted.
“Quiet, you. What are you, a four-legged Peyton?”
A few hours of travel later, Shay stood inside a small cave in a sandstone outcropping staring down at two
