The older woman waved back and wished them good fortune on their impending endeavors. Zahra could definitely use a healthy dose of luck right about now. Currently, life was less-than-ideal, but it was nowhere near as bad it was about to get if the Scales of Anubis got their way. Once they touched down in Cairo, Zahra wouldn’t stop until Baahir and Grant were safe, and Khaliq’s genocidal plan was dead in the water.
Chapter 40
Grant
The burlap sack caused his sweaty scalp to itch intensely, and the covering reeked of something he couldn’t place, and it was making him ill. There was an almost barnyard-like quality to the odor, but he didn’t know if the stink was originating from the sack, or the place he had been led to. The last few hours had been the most trying in his young life, but they had gone by in a blur. He still couldn’t fully process what was happening.
Grant had been kidnapped by a group of violent zealots and then moved out of country somewhere. From the moment he had exited the SUV at an airfield he had never seen before, to boarding a private jet, Grant had been wearing the rotten sack over his head. There was no way of telling where he had been taken except that he had been flown out of the UK.
The outside temperature was presently much warmer than in London, and the ground was sandy and radiated the same heat as the air. The time aboard the aircraft clued him into his present location as did his present company. He was in Egypt somewhere. Grant had made that trek once before. A direct flight from London to Cairo was about five hours of total flight time.
His captors had mentioned Zahra several times — how she had killed a handful of their men with little trouble — and with no gun. Unknown to those around him, Grant understood enough Arabic to get around. Zahra’s reputation as a woman who could get the job done was plain to see. She was more than just an archeologist. Grant was confident in his assessment of her. She had shown him that — shown these people that.
Her abilities were what Grant was holding out hope for.
Chapter 41
Zahra
Zahra dreamt that everyone she cared about was dead, and based on her prior headcount, there weren’t that many people to mourn. But she also felt the weight of all the innocent lives that had been lost at the hands of Anubis’ plague. While the Scales of Anubis were directly responsible for the atrocities, Zahra couldn’t help but share part of the blame.
I should have done more.
She stood atop the Great Pyramid in Giza and witnessed a shambling, zombie-like horde closing in on her position. She had no idea how she had gotten to the peak of Khufu’s tomb. It didn’t matter. All she knew was that there was a voice in head laughing at her predicament, and then zoom, here she was.
Zahra spun, gauging her escape, but she saw none. The swarm surrounded her on all sides and was nearly halfway up the pyramid’s four sides. And the most horrifying element of this moment was the zombie-like crowd and those who were leading the charge.
Dina, Grant, Cork, and her brother and father.
Dina? How did she get here? It made no sense. None of it did. The contagion was supposed to resemble the same one that God used in the Old Testament. People died because of it. The firstborn of every family had been targeted in the event unless they smeared the blood of a lamb above their doorway. If they followed God’s instructions, the Angel of Death would pass over their homes and leave them be.
That’s not this, she thought, thinking hard.
The world around her shook, and she fell forward and nearly rolled down to meet her makers. Zahra climbed back up to the perch, breathing hard.
The people beneath her toes, to an extent, looked alive, but they also resembled that of the living dead. Their blank expressions, and unblinking eyes, sent a chill down Zahra’s sweaty, sun-stricken neck.
The stone below her rumbled and fell apart. Zahra was cast into a pit of utter darkness, screaming and thrashing like mad until her father woke her.
It was just a dream, she thought, realizing that a part of it was real. But the rumbling of the ground beneath the earth wasn’t that of the earth. It was Cork’s plane.
The pilot called back to them. “We, uh, may have a slight problem!” It was the first time Zahra had ever heard uncertainty in Cork’s voice. If she was concerned about something regarding her bird, then everyone aboard was in serious trouble.
Not a second after the thought had crossed Zahra’s mind did the rear engine cut out. There was a pop followed closely by a sputter. Then, nothing at all. The Cessna dropped. The sudden altitude change caused Zahra’s ass to lift off her seat in a moment of weightlessness, similar to how astronauts trained.
Cork leaned into view and turned around just in time to see Zahra land awkwardly back in her seat. “You may want to buckle up.”
Zahra wanted nothing more than to counter with a “No, shit, Sherlock,” but she didn’t. Her eyes were glued to the landscape off on the horizon.
“Are we going to make it?” George asked, once again gripping his armrests so hard that his knuckles turned white.
Cork called back. “Too early to tell, but you can bet your arse I’m going to try!”
Chapter 42
Zahra
Zahra gritted her teeth as the mechanical failure-induced turbulence rattled her fillings. She wanted to help Cork but didn’t know what she could do. Zahra was a lot of things, but a pilot wasn’t one of them. She understood the systems responsible but had no real flight experience aside from sitting up front and watching.
Better than nothing, I suppose.
Zahra went to unbuckle, much to the dismay of her father. George looked at her like she was nuts, and maybe she was… She was a person that was never comfortable sitting idly by and doing nothing in the face of danger. Call it a flaw of hers. It’s why she loved fieldwork, even back when she was in the army. It’s why she had trained so hard. She wanted to be combat-ready.
George reached across the narrow aisle and grabbed her left hand, halting her exodus. “Are you crazy?” he shouted, squeezing hard. “This,” he motioned around the cabin, “is not a fight you can help with!”
“I can try.” Zahra pulled her hand free.
“The hell you will!” Cork yelled. “Stay in your seat until I tell you to do otherwise!”
Zahra was going to argue but was, once more, defeated by the pilot.
“Sorry, Zahra, but my plane, my rules.”
The headstrong archaeologist wasn’t one to be put in her place all that often. She didn’t like the feeling of being scolded like a school kid. Zahra was always the boss on trips like this. However, she respected Cork. So, she did as the captain ordered and kept her ass planted and buckled into her seat.
And she was glad she had stayed put.
The Puss E. Galore lost altitude again as it approached the ever-growing landmass. They were headed toward an island, one that Zahra wasn’t familiar with.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Levanzo!” Cork called back. “It’s an island to the west of Sicily!”
“Can we land there?” George asked.
Cork laughed. “Doesn’t matter if we can — we are!”
Zahra saw pockets of low buildings dotted here and there. It wasn’t much, but at least Levanzo was inhabited.
A humming sound filled the cabin interior, freaking George out even more.