Wolfgang shrugged, feeling his cheeks flush. Had any other member of Charlie Team extended the compliment, he would have basked in the praise. But with Megan, he felt bashful. Awkward.
“You pulled the fire alarm,” he said. “That got us out. I just started jumping.”
Megan chuckled.
“What?” Wolfgang asked.
“I was just thinking . . . I’m still gonna kick your ass for that damn drone.”
Wolfgang grinned. “You think you’ve got it in you?”
She punched him in the shoulder, and he winced as pain rocketed down his spine. “Okay! I tap out.”
She laughed again, but the door opened, and Edric stomped in from the adjoining suite, followed closely by Kevin.
“You two made a hell of a mess,” Edric said, his voice a mixture of amusement and genuine irritation. “Turns out my theory about IronGate placing a building in Cairo for demonstration purposes was right on the money. We just waltzed up to their prize show car and pissed all over it.”
Megan grinned again.
Wolfgang realized he’d never seen her this relaxed before and wondered if she were secretly an adrenaline junkie, still riding the high of her fix.
“We got what you wanted,” Megan said. “A simple thank you would suffice.”
Edric shot Wolfgang a challenging glare, and Wolfgang elected to take Megan’s side. It wasn’t a tough choice.
“The lady has a point,” he said.
Edric muttered something about hotheads as he navigated to the minibar and poured himself a tumbler of scotch. Wolfgang was suddenly aware of Kevin standing in the background, eyeing him with a renewed coldness.
“What?” Wolfgang mouthed.
Kevin said nothing, and Edric returned from the bar.
“Regardless of the outcome, the point remains. We won’t be welcome in Cairo much longer. As soon as Lyle hears back about the translation, I want everybody ready to go. Standing plan of action is to locate the tomb and recover Pollins and the scroll”—Edric paused and gestured toward Megan and Wolfgang with his glass—“without fireworks.” He tipped the glass back and finished the drink in one gulp. “Ice those knees, Wolfgang. We aren’t home free yet.”
“It’s right there.” Lyle pointed to a spot on one of Megan’s maps. The five of them gathered around a hotel bed, now spread with notes and more maps. The point Lyle gestured to was east of Cairo, maybe twenty kilometers from the city in an expanse of open desert occupied only by occasional industrial complexes.
Megan leaned close, inspecting the spot and tracing her finger back toward the city. She shook her head. “That can’t be right. That’s open desert.”
Lyle shrugged. “The linguist who translated Dr. Pollins’s images of the scroll indicated that the tomb was close to Cairo. Ancient landmarks are difficult to use because not all of them still exist. But they’re pretty sure the area we’re looking for is someplace over here, east of the airport.”
“But that’s in Cairo,” Megan said. “Cairo wasn’t founded until A.D. nine sixty-nine. During the time of the ancient Egyptians—the time of the pharaohs—most Egyptian civilization was concentrated far inland, near the ancient city of Thebes, or modern-day Luxor.” Megan shuffled to a bigger map of Egypt, then pointed to a spot about four hundred miles south of Cairo. “Here. This is where the Valley of the Kings is. King Tut’s tomb was discovered there, along with many others.”
Wolfgang frowned. “But the pyramids are near Cairo.”
“The pyramids are west of Cairo, in Giza, because Giza sits on a rock plateau that is uniquely suited to building a very heavy pyramid but is not suitable for digging an underground tomb. By the time the Egyptians switched to digging underground tombs like King Tut’s, they’d migrated south. An underground tomb in Cairo doesn’t make sense for the era.”
“How do you know all this?” Kevin asked.
Megan sighed. “I read. You should try it.”
Edric held up a hand. “It doesn’t matter. All of you are missing the point. We’re not looking for an undiscovered tomb—we’re looking for a kidnapped woman and some stolen Egyptian property. Finding the tomb isn’t our prerogative.”
The group glanced impulsively at the door into the adjoining suite. Ashley Pollins still lay in bed, as she had all day. They’d given her sleeping pills, food, and encouraged her to take a shower, but all she would do was sit on the end of the bed and stare at the television, waiting for news of her kidnapped sister to appear. The thought of her bloodshot eyes brought a hush over Charlie Team, and Wolfgang stared at his shoes.
“Lyle,” Edric said, “how sure is the translator?”
Lyle pushed his smudged glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Impossible to be sure. The best they can give us is a general location in the desert. There are so many industrial complexes around that it’s difficult to believe a tomb could lay undiscovered so long.”
“It doesn’t matter if there’s a tomb or not,” Edric replied. “It only matters if our kidnappers think there is.”
“What if Dr. Pollins lied to them?” Megan asked. “They kidnapped her to translate the scroll, but she could’ve made something up. Sent them on a wild goose chase anywhere in Egypt.”
Kevin shook his head. “She knows they had her sister, and she doesn’t know they sent her sister to die. They’ll use that to motivate her.”
Wolfgang nodded. “Plus, she’s obsessed with Egyptology. She’s not going to waste time in the desert when there’s a chance to find this thing—a chance for her to write her name in the history books.”
Edric grunted agreement. “I agree. We work with what we have, then. My arm is still giving me hell, so Lyle and I will take the van and maintain operational control. The rest of you will take the 4Runner and head on-site. Lyle, how’s the drone?”
Lyle’s face turned dark, and he indulged in an involuntary pout. “Pretty messed up. I managed to replace most of the burned wires and reinstall the battery. It’ll run.”
“Good. We’ll put the drone in the air for communications and a live video feed.”
Edric rolled up the map, then glanced around
