Colton shot her a glance. While Abet walked over to convey the message, Dallas was filled with doubt. Had she just done a good deed or bribed the men to risk their family’s safety—and maybe lives?
“That’s a lot of money,” Colton said.
“We’ll make it work,” she said in a low voice to him. “I’m not going to pay these men slave wages. I didn’t know their circumstances were so dire. And they need that incentive if they are going to take the risk to go against somebody threatening their families. I don’t even know if I’m doing the right thing.”
Colton put his arm around her. She hadn’t realized she was so close to tears until she felt his embrace.
“Damn it, Colton.”
“It’s going to be okay,” he said.
She shook her head to clear it and smiled. “Thanks for your faith.”
Her mind was whirring, doing calculations in her head about how much money they had left and how it would be spent. The Daughters of Isis had deposited a large sum into her account, but it wasn’t endless. But Dallas was determined to make it stretch. If it meant paying the men better and her doing without, so be it.
The first thing she would do is downgrade her own accommodations. If Colton felt okay spending some of their precious funding on a fancy hotel room, fine, but she didn’t.
She’d rather pay the workers more and stay in a place with a single bed and no Wi-Fi. She could head to the corner café for Wi-Fi if she needed it at night. But the way things were going, she usually came home too exhausted to do anything but eat and fall in bed and then was up again early the next morning. All she really needed was a bed.
But right now, what they needed was to figure out how to keep the site guarded at night. Her brow furrowed as she thought. How would they find someone?
“We can’t leave the site untended at night? Grave robbers will come.” Or worse.
Colton turned to her. “You stay here and oversee the dig. I’ll go into town with Abet and he can help me find some new guards.”
“Thanks, Colton.”
He’d take care of it. Relief filled her. Now she could concentrate on that corner, the spot where she was growing increasingly sure she’d find the tomb.
As the sun rose, Dallas watched the vehicle’s leave.
Colton and Abet in one vehicle.
Eban and the crew member in the other.
She poked her head in the tent. Sam and Danny were busy so she decided to walk around the temple.
By noon, Colton nor Eban had returned. Dallas felt a sense of desperation claw at her. What if she couldn’t find people to help with the dig?
Bringing people in from outside of the area would cost too much—money and time.
But then around 2 p.m., a white truck kicking up a wake of dust pulled in.
It was Eban, the older, gray-haired worker, and about five men.
About one-third of the crew they’d had the previous day, but it would have to work.
When the crew members started walking toward the cemetery, where they had excavating the mummy’s the day before, Dallas called out to Eban.
After a quick conversation, Eban and Dallas led the men over to the one corner of the temple. A few of them exchanged glances, making her wonder if they knew something about the tablet being found in that corner, but she let it go.
By afternoon, the men had found something.
It was a hole the size of a small person that appeared to open up into a tunnel.
When they had cleared the sand and dirt and the entryway was revealed, Dallas called for a break. While the men retreated to find water and shade, Dallas crouched down, staring into the dark void below her. It was tough to tell how far down the hole went but it was clear it led to something. Some rocks and rubble had dropped while they were digging and it was quite a long time before they heard them hit something below. She picked up another small rock and let it drop, listening intently for it to hit bottom. Clink. It struck rock.
Danny and Sam had been summoned and were soon at her side.
“Nice work. This must be the tunnel system we saw with Sam’s program,” Danny said, nodding at Sam.
Dallas nodded and took a long swig of her water. She wiped the sweat dripping down her brow and grinned. “I want to go in.”
Danny laughed. “Of course, you do.”
“I mean right now.”
“We have to stabilize it to some extent,” Danny said. “Hate to see you buried alive, boss. Even if it is with the entombed body of our beloved queen.”
A chill ran down Dallas’s spine despite the heat.
The thought of being this close to Cleopatra’s tomb was both thrilling and unnerving.
This was the biggest find so far. Now they would have access to the maze of underground tunnels they’d only seen on computer screens.
Dallas and the skeleton crew spent the rest of the day installing supporting struts at the entrance to the hole. Even so, Dallas knew exploring the hole would be dangerous.
A risk she wouldn’t hesitate to take.
She couldn’t wait to tell Colton about it. Every once in a while, she’d hear the distant noise of a vehicle and look up but it was usually a car passing by on the road below.
It wasn’t until dusk that Colton returned.
At first Dallas didn’t recognize the small white car as it pulled up and was wary, but as it grew closer she saw Colton behind the wheel.
He was alone.
Dallas had been bursting to tell Colton the news about the tunnel, but now she was concerned. She dropped her tools and headed toward the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” she asked as soon as Colton stepped out of the car.
“I gave
