Shay frowned. “What is it?”
“I’ve got a visual on two black SUVs. They’re farther down the road, though. No other drones in the area from what I can detect.”
“So our Japanese friends are here already, but they’ve overshot?” Shay motioned toward the forest. “Let’s go get our coin before it’s too late. Peyton, you keep an eye on them and let us know if they head our way.”
“Will do, boss lady.”
Shay grimaced. “Don’t ever call me that again.”
“You’re so picky about nicknames, Boo.”
Lily picked up her last piece of equipment—two metal divining rods.
Shay tapped an overlay command into her phone, and a pointer appeared on her glasses. Lily would make for a nice backup if she could get her power to work, but on this job, they’d been fed coordinates, and their competition was going the wrong way. Everything would be over before anyone had to rely on magic powers.
They headed into the darkening forest. The alpine trees seemed to grow denser with each step. A few birds fluttered away, but no strange shimmers appeared, nor any bizarre sounds. No monsters or enemies, just Swiss nature.
Shay’s stomach tightened. All this tranquility and peace didn’t feel right. Lily’s vision had suggested that something would piss the tomb raider off in less than fifteen minutes. It’d take them ten to fifteen to get to the coordinates, and from what their information indicated, the box containing the coins would be a couple of feet underground. She wouldn’t be able to dig it up instantly.
Don’t freak the kid out yet. She needs to see me confident.
“Get off my keyboard, you stupid cat,” Peyton growled in Shay’s ear.
She snickered. “That’s some valuable tactical information right there. Our friends doing anything important?”
“Still driving, but they’ve slowed down.”
“Maybe they’ve spotted your drone.”
“I doubt it. This thing is tiny, and I’m skimming the treetops.”
Lily raised her divining rods and frowned.
Shay glanced her way but didn’t say anything. “We’re almost there. If those assholes seem like they’re even gonna look our way, you let me know. I don’t know how long it’ll take to get the artifact out of the ground. Just hoping it’ll only be a few minutes.”
The next few minutes passed in relative silence. Peyton confirmed that the other team had stopped several miles up the road and was already tromping into the forest with their equipment. They had six men in total, the two Japanese treasure hunters and four others. Two of the four were large men who carried assault rifles, and the other two, who were equally large, only carried shovels as far as Peyton could tell.
Guess that’s the difference between treasure hunters and tomb raiders. These guys aren’t ready for the level of heat that can show up on these kinds of jobs. They think it’s all about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and forget about the rabid leprechaun who might be guarding it.
The blinking indicator on Shay’s AR display showed they were at the coordinates, a nice and mostly flat clearing.
“Okay, we’re here. Guess we start digging.” Shay frowned. She’d hoped the digging site would be obvious, but the overgrowth in the clearing didn’t give her any clues.
Damn it.
She turned to Lily. “Guess this is where a little magic tracking would help, after all. You might as well see if you can pinpoint the exact spot to save us some time. If you can’t, no big deal. No pressure.”
The teen stared down at her rods with her brow furrowed in concentration. They pointed together at an angle. “Something’s wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
Lily shook her head. “The coin isn’t here. I just don’t feel it. There’s no magical essence here that I can sense.”
“But these are the coordinates.”
“I’ve been trying to track the coin the entire time, even though you told me not to worry about it. Practice, I figured, but the closer we got to the coordinates, the farther it’s felt. My tracking’s working, but I’m pretty sure these are the wrong coordinates.”
Shay lifted the metal detector and flipped it on. She slowly stepped around the clearing with it close to the ground.
“I have one question for you, Peyton,” Shay began.
“What?”
“Has the other team stopped moving?”
“Yeah, they’ve stopped moving.”
Shay continued walking and swept the metal detector back and forth. “Son of a bitch. Lily is right. These are the wrong fucking coordinates, Peyton.” She shook her fist at the sky. “And those assholes probably have the right ones. Thanks a fucking lot. Damn it, Peyton. Shit. Damn. Fuck.”
“But those are the coordinates we were sent. The client sent them, and I cross-checked and found another dark web source that was talking about them. This isn’t my fault.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter, because the other guys are about to dig it up.” Shay groaned. “Damn it. Are they digging in a particular place?”
“They’ve brought metal detectors. Four of them are using them. It looks like they’re working some sort of expanding circle.”
“What are we going to do?” Lily asked.
“We can still salvage this. We’re gonna march over there and get that coin.”
“You gonna kill all those guys?”
Shay shook her head. “Not unless they try to kill us first, but we don’t know if they’re near it. The Japanese guys are nice enough to show us at least the general location. Here’s what we’re gonna do. You’re gonna find the damned thing once we’re close, then I’m gonna distract them while you dig it up. Okay?”
Lily nodded quickly and took a deep breath. “Okay. I… What if I can’t?”
“You can try, and that’s all I ask.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s do this, then.” Shay tossed the metal detector on the ground, and they both kicked into a jog.
Peyton continued to update them as they closed on the other team. The Japanese treasure hunters and their hired hands were walking in expanding circles with no indication that they’d located the coins.
Shay and Lily slowed as the distant figures of the men came into view. They both ducked behind a bush before breaking away
