Sirens wailed in the distance, but Baahir had a feeling that the authorities wouldn’t get there in time to save his life. So, he ran, aiming for a nearby alleyway. Automatic gunfire pursued Baahir. Bullets pinged all around him, impacting the walls of the surrounding buildings and shattering the business’ windows. The barrage made Baahir flinch, and he reflexively closed his eyes and turned his head away. He clipped his shoulder on the alley entrance, clumsily bouncing off it and into the opposite wall. The accidental change of direction had saved his life. A single bullet impacted the wall right where his head should have been.
Baahir didn’t stop to thank his lucky stars. He pushed himself off the wall, gathered his footing, and ran as fast as his battered and bruised body would allow him. It was amazing what adrenaline could do.
Baahir, an accomplished collegiate long-distance runner, had never run so fast.
Chapter 14
Zahra
Zahra’s phone vibrated noisily across her desk, startling her. She snapped her head up, tossing her disheveled hair back over her shoulders. Blinking awake, she smacked her dry, parched lips together, looking for her bottle of water. Not finding it, Zahra groaned and checked the time on her laptop’s screen and saw that she had been out cold for nearly thirty minutes. Grant should have been by to find her, but he had been engrossed in his own work all night, same as Zahra.
Grant Upton had recently been assigned to Zahra as her assistant. She didn’t want one, yet here he was, at the behest of her superiors. Grant was a spectacled, athletic college kid — an intern — studying archaeology at Oxford under the institute’s top professor, Zahra’s father, George Kane. The whole thing felt like an attempt by her father to keep an eye on her. Zahra knew her “old man” was aware of her off-the-books excursions, and he worried deeply for her safety.
Thanks, but no thanks, Dad.
Currently, Zahra and Grant were sorting through artifacts and photos she had taken while she was down in the Amazon. She had successfully retrieved her pack and the rest of her gear from outside the quaint plunge pool — the same pool she had used to enter the underground realm of The Lost City of Z.
The mission, as a whole, had been a bust. While she had found the fabled city, she had taken very few photos of anything important. Not that she had the chance… the only artifact she had found was a journal belonging to the late Jack Fawcett.
The museum’s restoration department was now doing its best to save the heavily soiled book. Its torn and waterlogged pages were nearly indiscernible by the time she had made it back to London. It was a long shot, but if they could repair even a fraction of the journal’s guts, her travels would have been worth it. The Fawcetts were important to the people of England. Anything relating to them would surely draw more visitors to the museum.
Zahra had almost died several times, too — that had to count for something.
She wiped the sleep from her eyes and snagged her phone, and saw that it was Dina who was calling. Zahra checked the time again.
12:05? Why in the hell was Dina calling her so late?
Zahra rolled her eyes. She knew why…
“Hey, Dina,” she said, yawning as she answered.
“Z?” Dina shouted over the phone. “That you, love?”
The Brit was yelling at the top of her lungs, speaking over a voluminous, bassy beat. If Zahra had to guess, the woman was at a club and was utterly trashed.
“Yeah, Dina… it’s me.”
“Zahra?” Dina couldn’t hear her. “Zahra, that you?”
“Dina!” she yelled. “Yes, it’s me!”
Her outburst got Grant’s attention. The younger man poked his shaggy, dirty blonde head through the door into the next room and gave Zahra a questioning look. He removed one of his earbuds from its place, unsure if she had been trying to get his attention or not. Zahra waved at him and focused on the call. Grant replaced the earbud, shrugged, and disappeared back into the darkened room. It was, in essence, a large storage closet that Zahra had given Grant to use as his personal workplace. It wasn’t much, but at least he had that. Back when Zahra started, she was forced to share office space with other people and had constantly been searching for her things.
“Hey, Z.” Dina hiccupped. “Whatcha doin’?”
Zahra put the call on speaker and set it down, rubbing her face hard. She didn’t have time for this.
“I’m working, Dina.”
Dina snorted. “No, shit, what else is new?”
Zahra sighed. Dina loved to point out that she had no life outside of work. “Look, Dina, I—”
“Come out with us, Z! Have three to five drinks and blow off some steam.”
The combination of the background music and Dina’s shouts were too much for her. Zahra dipped her head and closed her eyes.
“Sorry, Dina, but I think I’ll pass. It’s already after twelve, and—”
“And nothing!” Dina interrupted. “It’s Friday, love!” She giggled. “Josie — stop! Let go of that… Come have a drink with us, Z!”
Us meant Dina and the person who had grabbed her something, Dina’s girlfriend, Josie. They belonged to a scene that Zahra had never enjoyed, and one she had rarely ever partaken in. Zahra was solely focused on her career and her physical training. Her laser focus was a trait she had acquired from her father. Her mother had been on the other side of the spectrum, to a degree. Her mother would have happily laid down whatever she had been doing to be with her family. Her dad had been a wonderful provider, but he sometimes lacked when it came to the “love department.” He was a workaholic to the core — still was to this day.
“Goodnight, Dina!” Zahra yelled, picking up her phone. “See you Monday!”
She ended the call before Dina could say anything else. For a moment, she contemplated hurling the device across the room. Instead, Zahra turned it over and set it facedown so she couldn’t see the screen. Her face fell into her hands.
“Trouble with Dina?”
Zahra paused and spread her fingers open. Grant was, once again, poking his head into her office.
Zahra’s hands fell to her lap. “No. She’s fine. You know Dina…”
Grant frowned. “Yes, I do.”
Shortly after joining the staff, Grant had gone out with Dina and her crew to celebrate his onboarding. For the entire two days following their barhopping expedition in downtown London, Grant looked like he’d been through hell.
Since then, he followed Zahra’s lead and stuck to his work.
Smart man, she thought, waking her wireless mouse with a jiggle.
As soon as she got back to work, her phone began vibrating again. If she could have, Zahra would have crushed the mouse in her hand. She squeezed it as hard as she could, gritting her teeth in annoyance. Dina got like this sometimes, and for whatever reason, the only person she ever called was Zahra — on purpose or with her butt cheek.
Zahra sighed. She couldn’t get mad at her. Dina was her friend, and she truly was looking out for her well-being. Zahra worked long hours and was constantly traveling on behalf of the museum. No one knew the mental and physical toll Zahra’s job took on her better than Dina.