“Sure, but among other things, if we can’t have someone watch the outside with a drone, it means no one else can either. It also means no one can sneak up a drone with rockets to try to blow our asses up.”
“Has that happened to you?”
Shay nodded. “Yes. It’s really fucking annoying. A little bit of everything has happened to me on this job. Remind me to tell you someday how I think I doomed Russia to a supernatural empress in the future.”
“Uh, okay, then. I think I’ll just stop talking for now.”
The tomb raider grinned.
Lily gave her a quick nod and fell into silence, her gray eyes locked on the passenger-side window.
The SUV continued to rattle along the snow-covered dirt road on their way up the back of the Argentinian mountain called Cerro Catedral. The vehicle could take them a good part of the way, and then more than a little hiking through the snow would be necessary.
Their heavy coats would help, but fortunately, from what Peyton’s information indicated, they wouldn’t have to do any true mountain-climbing versus glorified hiking. Ice-climbing wasn’t something Shay’d had a lot of experience with.
Maybe I should start practicing that. Hate to miss out an artifact because I can’t get to it.
Lily stared out at the white wonderland. “Maybe it’s lame considering I’m part elf and can see the future, but it’s really weirding me out that it’s winter here when it’s summer back home. It’s messing with my brain. It just feels so wrong.”
Shay chuckled. “That’s how the raids get you. It’s not the strange and exotic that breaks your brain when you see some weird ghost or bunyip or whatever. Those are so out there that it’s easy to compartmentalize. It’s just another monster on the checklist of problems to get through, something you know you won’t see again once you get home. But the other stuff—time zones, climate differences, hemispheres, different languages—it’s unsettling, but not alien. So it stays with you; it lingers and seeps into your soul.” She shook her head. “But it’s all the kind of crap you need to get used to as a tomb raider. It’d be nice if everything could just be hidden under a Walmart in Illinois, but it’s rare that I don’t have to leave the country for a tomb raid.”
“You get to go and see the world, at least. Maybe that’s why I like the idea so much. I like my friends and LA, but there’s a whole world out there. Heck, there are a couple of whole worlds out there, and I’ve barely even seen any of mine.”
Shay grinned.
Not just a couple of worlds, kid.
“True enough,” Shay agreed. “Half the time that world is trying to kill me, but at least I get to see it. Not a bad life, as long as you understand you’ll never be safe.”
“Not like my life in LA is safe.” Lily frowned. “But when you think about it, this is kind of more like the Walmart situation than some weird ancient tomb in Egypt.”
Shay glanced her way. “How do you figure? We’re grabbing this thing out of an allegedly hidden part of a cave.”
“But it’s not a remote mountain in the middle of nowhere. From what Peyton sent us, this place is a ski resort. We’re not that far from a bunch of tourists and South American ski bunnies. If they got lost on the mountain, they could almost end up in the cave.”
Shay nodded. “True enough. What’s the problem? You look a little annoyed by that. Not exotic enough for your tourist desires?”
“Not annoyed, just confused.” Lily shook her head. “I don’t get why no one has found the artifact. Even if they couldn’t handle it, you figure the government would have sealed off the cave with a big warning sign—Caution, flesh-melting egg inside. That kind of thing. Maybe bomb it closed or something. You know, typical government overreaction stuff.”
Shay shrugged. “Who knows? There might be a glamour on the cave, so unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, you won’t find it. I’ve run into that kind of thing a lot. Or it’s just the right time of year for us to find it. Sometimes it’s easy to hide things in plain sight.” She turned off the main road into a thicket of tall and dense trees. “I’m less worried about a few wayward ski assholes than I am competition. From the info Peyton sent along, other tomb raiders are targeting this place.”
“That was why we had to leave right away?”
“Yep. Maybe I should have told you that before I told you to come along.”
Lily shook her head. “I can’t run away every time there’s a little danger, and other tomb raiders are less scary than invisible cursed sword ghosts or Yulia.” She nodded, determination on her face. “I can do this. I need to get more experience, and the only way to do that is to go with you on jobs.”
Shay frowned a little. She was enjoying training Lily, but even as helpful as it was, the girl was supposed to be getting something out of it, too. Maybe it was time to push her a little and make her think about her future more.
“With your share of this,” Shay offered, “you can probably set your friends up somewhere other than those tunnels, you know. I’ve already given you some decent money. You don’t have to keep doing that magical Artful Dodger shit.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve been talking with Harry about that.” Lily laughed. “The funny thing is, now that I’m bringing money in, we’re not sure what to do with it. We’ve gotten so used to living the way we have that it’s hard to adjust. We don’t have to scavenge for food, but we’re also not sure about the idea of leaving the tunnels. Funny how that works. We know them,
