She crouched down and took the man’s arms and helped him back up. Not letting go of his forearms she continued to speak, her eyes locked on his.
“Tell him to go to the front desk of the Happy Hotel tonight after eight. There will be an envelope waiting for him. It will contain enough money for him to pay his daughter’s medical bills. Tell him I wish her a speedy recovery.”
The man had tears running down his face as Abet led him toward the parking lot.
Dallas turned toward Eban. “Tell the other men he will be adequately punished for his transgression.”
Eban hesitated. He was frowning. “Are you certain? I mean about your decision regarding Afrim?”
She hadn’t even known that man’s name.
“Yes,” she said. “I am one hundred percent sure.”
Eban tried to hide his smile. “Okay.”
He turned and walked back to the other men who were still speaking angrily and spitting on the ground. After a few minutes the men seemed to calm down and went back to work, looking for more treasures where Afrim had found the broken piece of a cat statue.
She and Colton returned to the spot where they’d been digging.
“How much is $8,000 pounds in U.S. dollars?” Colton asked.
Dallas shrugged. “Dunno. About 500 or 600 bucks I guess. Why?”
He smiled. “Let me get half.”
She smiled back. “Thank you.”
A few hours later, one of those same men whooped loudly and Colton and Dallas ran over again. This time the man held up a small piece of jewelry—a gold earring.
The crew spent the rest of the day carefully excavating it, documenting it, following all the rules and regulations for digging in an ancient site.
Excavations took place centimeter by centimeter in gridded trenches.
The dig area was only 10 by 10 meters as specified under law. That way every inch could be documented. Eban was handling the documentation, carefully mapping out the area and showing where the cat was found and where the earring was found.
At one point, another piece of jewelry was found. A small broach or pin shaped like a serpent. Dallas heard the traditional whoop and raced over.
Abet pointed out the piece where it lay on a small piece of tarp.
“Unbelievable.” Dallas couldn’t stop, smiling.
“This is good, no?” Abet said.
“It’s great,” Dallas said. But she also knew every small find delayed her finding the tomb. What she needed was a big find.
She was running out of time.
Excavation rules in Egypt required them to not only document for artifacts found, but they also had to record and note other clues to the environment and life at the time, such as animal bones and seeds that may indicate the diet of the people who lived and were buried at the site. She explained all this to Abet.
“Aha.” Abet said. “So, you are saying that while this is good, two weeks may not be enough time.”
He walked away before Dallas could answer. She hated hearing it out loud. Because he was right.
But still, the find filled Dallas with hope. If they could show the piece of jewelry was from the same time period that Cleopatra lived, that meant that Dallas’s theory was still very viable, even more viable than before.
However, Dallas would still need even more proof if she was going to get the minister to approve the permit.
Dusty and sweaty, after the sun set, she called it a night and she and Colton piled into the backseat of the Volvo. For once, Abet sat up front with the driver.
Formalities had apparently been ditched in the lingering heat. The thought of the three of them squeezing in the back had been distasteful to more than just Dallas apparently. As much as she had liked her thigh pressed up against Colton’s the day before, today, all she wanted was to not be touched until she’d showered. The thought of contact on her hot, sticky skin made her skin crawl.
But she kept her mouth shut. She was going to be the last one to complain on this dig. After all, it was a dream come true. That didn’t mean a shower wouldn’t feel heavenly, though.
Both she and Colton were quiet on the drive back to the city. The two men up front kept a low chatter in their own language. Dallas recognized a word here and there—something to do with politics. She tuned it out.
With plans to meet again bright and early the next morning, Colton and Dallas said goodbye to the men in front of the hotel. After a quick discussion with the hotel desk clerk to make arrangements for the money to be left for Afrim, they headed upstairs.
Colton froze as they approached the door to their room.
“Dallas? Hold on.” He reached an arm behind him with his palm open. Dallas froze. “Did you close the door all the way when we left?”
“Yes, I’m pretty sure, why?”
“It’s ajar.”
Dallas was already at his side, frowning. “You gotta be kidding?”
She took the toe of her boot and nudged the door, it swung open with a loud creak. They could see most of the room from the doorway. Everything seemed in order. That’s when Dallas saw a neat stack of fresh towels on the bottom bunk.
“Room service?” she said.
Colton nodded but headed straight for the bathroom. “Nothing in here.”
Dallas shrugged. “We’ll have to tell them we don’t need room service. At least not every day.”
She tried to remember if the room had been cleaned after her first night here. It hadn’t. Maybe it was an every other day thing here.
“I call shower,” she said, scooping up some clean clothes out of her pack and plucking one of the towels off the bed.
In the shower, Dallas’s stomach grumbled. After they ate dinner, she was going to hop on her laptop to study the pictures of the piece of jewelry found today and compare it to pieces worn by
