She hissed and fell to the ground as a bullet ripped through her forearm. Unfortunately for the other man, Shay’s bullet blasted right through his night-vision goggles and into his head.
Shay took a deep breath and reached into a small pouch on the harness. Her last healing potion. She’d need to get more, but she had to finish the expedition first.
Hope this was the main group of assholes.
She downed the potion, the agony vanishing from her arm as her wound closed.
Shouts erupted from the expedition camp.
Shay holstered her weapon and sprinted toward it. She needed to reach it before they turned on the lights or she would have a lot of explaining to do.
The shadows of several of the men emerging from the tents appeared. Everyone’s attention was focused on the source area for the gunfire and not on the tents. Shay vaulted the fence with ease and hurried into her tent.
“What’s going on?” Shay shouted as several light poles clicked on.
“Gunfire.”
Shay stuck her head outside the tent to look for damage from the gunfire. She didn’t see anything obvious, so she grabbed a jacket to cover her harness and the bullet hole in her shirt. “Grab a couple of guns, and let’s check it out.”
Good. Now that the riffraff’s clear, we can get what we need tomorrow.
Daniel arched a brow as he skimmed the incident report the next day. Extraction of the gold containers and other valuables was proceeding even faster than he’d anticipated. Professor Carson claimed she’d never been there before, but she seemed to have an uncanny understanding of where to find things and the magical defenses.
Hmm. She’s hiding something, maybe some sort of clairvoyance artifact. That’d make a lot of sense, but that’s not the real problem. Can’t believe the expedition was attacked.
There must have been a leak. I was sloppy, and could have lost a good resource in Professor Carson.
He narrowed his eyes as he continued reading the report. Six men dead from gunshot wounds before the expedition team had even pulled their weapons out of the storage lockers.
That meant someone had taken out a well-trained team armed with assault rifles and night-vision goggles in the dark. One major question remained.
Who?
Chapter Twenty-Two
“No one else showed up?” Peyton asked over the phone.
Shay checked her GPS as her Mercedes continued down the road. She wasn’t that far from Munich. “Nope. Did you find anything else on them?”
“Those six guys were the main group, so unless they’ve done a bunch of recruiting in the last few days, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. You get everything from the lake, then?”
“Yep. We did some additional sweeps to verify, and the team collected everything. I stayed with them as far as Salzburg, where some very serious and angry-looking individuals in suits showed up to take control of the cargo. The government payout will come to me in a few weeks.”
Peyton laughed. “But you’re used to getting paid right away.”
“Shit, it’s the government. I should be happy it doesn’t take months.” Shay changed lanes to let several cars zoom by. “Besides, I have this job you found me in Munich for an easy payout. Just have to raid a tomb that’s a little more recent.”
Peyton sighed. “Weird mix of people buried at Munich Waldfriedhof, everything from Nazis to Nobel Prize winners.”
Shay laughed. “Well, I don’t care unless they rise from the dead. Just gonna pop into the crypt, grab the diadem, and get the hell out. I’ll hit the cemetery at night, so I don’t have to worry about running into anyone.”
“Well, running around a cemetery at night isn’t my idea of fun, even if it is to get an artifact that lets you tell lies.”
“Beats going under a lake or into rickety old tunnels underground that might collapse on you.” Shay grinned. “Don’t worry. I’m sure this will be an easy job.”
Daniel sighed and shook his head as another man stepped out of the crypt with a briefcase in hand. The CIA agent had been afraid of this ever since he’d read a report the British government had hired Hollingsworth Retrieval Specialists to recover the diadem.
Maybe if he’d finished his previous job a few hours earlier he wouldn’t be in this situation, but scoring a minor artifact after his previous mission would be a nice bonus. He’d been lucky to be able to get to Munich so quickly.
Between the lake, my last job, and this one, it’s been a good week. I was right to bring on Carson to supervise the lake expedition. I might have missed out on the second artifact otherwise.
The Hollingsworth tomb raider continued walking away, oblivious that he was being watched.
Sorry, my friend, but I need this more than you do.
Daniel kept low, darting from gravestone to gravestone. The English tomb raider whistled a jaunty tune as he continued away from the crypt.
The CIA agent wasn’t above killing when necessary, but Hollingsworth men weren’t actual scumbags so he’d have to do this the hard way.
Daniel jumped up from behind a gravestone and the tomb raider spun toward him, his eyes wide, just in time to get a good old-fashioned American punch to the face. He lost his grip on the briefcase.
The tomb raider stumbled back with a grunt. “You’re not a bloody zombie.”
The CIA agent shrugged. “Not yet, anyway. Just walk away, and this doesn’t have to go badly. I’ve got nothing against you, but I need that artifact.”
The Englishman raised his fists. “Come on, you bloody arsehole. Let’s see what you got.”
The men exchanged a few quick jabs, but couldn’t land a solid blow. The tomb raider charged low and tackled Daniel with a grunt. The men sprawled to the ground and rolled, slamming their fists into their enemy’s body and head.
Daniel untangled himself and hopped back to his feet, then smashed one of his black wingtip into the tomb raider’s stomach. The other man grimaced and stood, his face bloody and battered.
The Englishman shook out his hands. “You’re
