Lily frowned. “What about the energy? And what exactly is a bad end?”
Shay pointed toward Lily. “Girl asks some good questions. Do you have good answers?”
Peyton rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, yeah, those are some good questions, and I have some answers, but um…”
“Spit it the fuck out already.”
“They melted.” Peyton shrugged.
“Huh?” Shay blinked.
“The people who tried to access the energy melted like those Nazis looking at the Ark in that old movie you made me watch last week.”
Shay rolled her eyes. “Now you’re disrespecting the classics.”
“Just saying, there might be a few Nazi mummies down there in need of melting. It is Argentina, after all.”
Lily shuddered. “Melted? That’s harsh.”
Peyton managed a smile. “Good news is, at least there are no demonic chickens involved. Bad news is that if you want the job, you’re going to have fly out tonight, according to the offer.”
Shay considered that. She normally wanted a little more background before she agreed to take on a job, but twenty million was a lot of money even by her standards.
Not like I can’t bail if things go south.
“Dig some more,” Shay ordered. “And pass anything you find along to me on the way. Book two seats on a supersonic flight. It’ll probably still take a good six hours to get down there, and that gives you plenty of time to find some shit out.” She shook her finger. “Make sure you get all the relevant info before I leave the airport down there. I don’t want to end up a puddle. That’s a pretty damned pathetic way to die.”
Lily eyes widened, and she looked at Shay and Peyton.
Shay shrugged at the girl. “You don’t have to come if you think it’s too dangerous.”
The girl shook her head. “And pass up my chance to maybe see melting Nazis?”
Chapter Four
An hour later, Shay was walking among racks of firearms, grenades, knives, and gadgets in Warehouse Three. Regardless of what Peyton found out, she needed to go in with a standard complement of weapons. The egg might not melt them, but it wouldn’t do them any good if someone shot them in the face before they got anywhere near it.
She pulled down several guns and knives and dropped them into a box.
Need more artifacts, so I don’t have to rely on guns and the adamantine knives so much. If I had more artifacts, I probably could have beaten Yulia. Magic might be annoying, but it’s still damned necessary.
Lily eyed the box. “I still don’t quite understand how you get away with this.”
“Get away with what?”
“Bringing all sorts of guns and grenades and stuff like that on planes. It seems like most of the time you take commercial.”
Shay nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.”
Lily shook her head. “Yeah, I’ve only flown with you on a few private flights, but mostly commercial. How do you smuggle boxes of weapons past security and customs without ending up in some foreign dungeon? Even if you could explain away the guns, I doubt anyone allows people to fly with grenades in their luggage.”
Shay winked. “It’s all about knowing the right people and hacking the right systems in other situations.” She shrugged. “It’s really not a big deal. It helps if I’m with James on occasion, because they pretty much let him bring anything he wants legally, but most of the time, I’m not doing jobs with him. The thing is, if I’m flying a short distance, it’s very easy to arrange a private plane, but there aren’t a bunch of supersonic planes out there that I can easily charter for private trips. Doesn’t matter that I’ve been…”
She frowned. Lily didn’t know about her pre-tomb raider past and didn’t need to know. It wasn’t that Shay was ashamed. It was more that it’d unnecessarily complicate their relationship. She might not be James, but the last thing she needed was more complications in her relationships.
Shay forced a smile. “Let’s just say I know how to get a thing or two through customs and security.” She leaned over to start grabbing boxes of magazines. “Since you’ve been hiding in your tunnels lately, I don’t even know if you still have what it takes.”
The girl rolled her eyes and brushed some gray hair out of her eyes. “You make it sound like it’s been months. It hasn’t been that long.”
“Just saying.” The tomb raider moved past her and set the box down on a table. She pulled out a small 9mm and a magazine and handed it to Lily. “Prove it. A person-melting egg isn’t a junior varsity mission.”
Without hesitation, the teen slapped the magazine into the gun and readied the pistol. She marched across the room and aimed at a paper target down a shooting lane. Lily whipped up the pistol, took aim, and fired three times. She lowered the weapon and flipped the safety on, a smirk on her face.
Shay pressed a button, and the hanging target slid toward the pair. When it arrived, there was a tight center-mass cluster of hits.
She nodded. “Well, all right then. You have always been a natural.”
Lily smirked and handed Shay the gun, grip-first. “Was that why you decided to train me?”
The tomb raider shrugged. “Maybe I just see a little of myself in you.” She walked back over to the other side of the room, ejected the magazine, and placed the gun in the box. “That, and you can sometimes see the future. It’s just a little incentive.” She pressed her thumb and finger together. “Teensy little bit.”
The teen followed her. “Going to get some grenades, too?”
“Never know when one might come in handy, and I’d rather say, ‘Darn, didn’t need it’ than ‘Shit, I really wish I had a grenade right now.’” Shay’s phone rang. “What’s up, Peyton?”
“I’ve got the background info you need,” he answered. “At least enough to not get melted. I figured telling you now might make your flight more comfortable.”
Shay snorted. “Yeah, not getting melted is pretty high on my list of important shit.”
“I’ve
