The man howled in pain, much to the satisfaction of Upton.
He leaned in close. His breath smelled of rot and copper.
“Is this not what you wanted?”
Ajmal was so close to the man’s face. He watched the inside of Upton’s eyes undulate with worms. It was sickening.
“No!” Ajmal cried. “I wanted none of this! This was Khaliq’s dream!”
Upton sneered. “Ayad… Where is Ayad!”
The elevator door slid open.
“You looking for me?” Ifza asked, stepping out.
“Ifza!” Ajmal shouted, wailing when Upton crushed his mangled wrist more. “Help me!”
“You?” Upton said. “Yes, I know you. You’re—”
Ifza raised her steady hand, aimed her pistol at Upton’s head, and pulled the trigger. The nine-millimeter jacketed hollow point did as it was designed to do and punched a hole in the man’s forehead. It entered and spread, shredding everything it touched until it busted through the back of his skull.
Worms exploded outward from the gory wound. Upton fell backward, dying. He writhed for a moment on the floor, but eventually went still. Ajmal leaped to his feet, swatting the creatures off of his body and face. Ifza descended the steps and took in the room, leveling her gaze at Ajmal when she was done.
Ajmal cradled his broken wrist in his other hand and nodded his thanks to her.
“Ifza, your brother—”
“Is dead, most likely.”
Ajmal was taken aback by the ease with which she had said it.
Ajmal sat back down to rest. “This place… it is ours for the taking, Ifza. We can mold it into something else — something better.”
Ifza nodded softly and turned and faced Ajmal. “You’re right, my friend. We could transform the Scales of Anubis into something amazing.”
She lifted her gun and shot Ajmal in the chest twice.
“Or… I could do what I should have done years ago, and I can burn this place to the ground.”
Epilogue
Zahra sat back with her eyes closed and got lost in the cool breeze coming off the Mediterranean. She cradled a freshly made coffee in her hands, allowing its warmth to offset the crisp temperature. She sat in the same chair as she had done with her father, though he wasn’t here this time.
George had returned to Cambridge with the intention of staying in touch with both of his kids, regularly. Wally had done what he said he’d do and taken care of him. Besides a few scrapes, and a headful of unanswered questions, her father had fared well.
Baahir was back in Cairo, digging further into the myths surrounding the gods of Egypt. He needed to confirm that there wasn’t anything else to fear. If Anubis had been real, man or not, what about the other gods? He was also working with George and looking deeper into their family history. Baahir was still talking to Durah, the woman he met at the Big House market. He had kept his end of their deal and taken her out. Now, they were something of an item.
Rabia and Ali rejoined Wally back at the SSC but were doing so with the idea of shutting down the weapons trafficking portion of their operation. With the Scales of Anubis gone, Ali didn’t seem to think it was necessary anymore.
“There are still a lot of bad people out there,” Zahra had argued.
Rabia nodded. “Many of which have benefited from our business.” She laced her finger within Ali’s, showing more outward emotion than she had ever shown before.
“At the very least,” Ali added, “we will be more selective on who we do business with.”
Zahra was happy to hear that. She wasn’t sure what her future held, but could always use someone in their field of work to have in her back pocket.
The breeze kicked up, jettisoning Zahra from her thoughts. She opened her eyes, spotting a sailboat gently rocking back and forth further out to sea.
I could sit here all day.
And that was the plan. Zahra was on a permanent leave of absence from the museum. It was going to be under construction for months. Plus, everyone that was killed there… It was just too painful to go back to. Dina had been sad to hear that Zahra wouldn’t be returning, but she understood. She was even trying to decide whether or not to stay.
It took Zahra some time, but she was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing when it came to the deadly events at the British Museum. Dina had helped with that. She had told the police that Zahra had spent the night with her and her girlfriend, even going as far as recording videos of a house party that never happened and then backdating the videos to during the time of the museum’s attack.
“You sure Josie can handle this?” Zahra had asked, rightfully skeptical. She knew the woman was good with computers and coding, and dabbled in some less-than-legal hacking and tampering, but to this level?
“Josie is a wiz with stuff like this, Z. Don’t worry about a thing.”
Investigators didn’t take much longer to declare that Zahra had nothing to do with what happened. Explaining Grant’s disappearance was something else altogether. What could she honestly say? The only positive was that he didn’t have any close family nearby. As of now, there was still a missing person’s case centered around him.
And as for Cork…
The front door opened. “Hey, girl, how’s it hangin’?”
Zahra leaped to her feet and rushed inside from the porch to embrace her good friend. Cork and Dina had gotten together to collect Zahra’s things from her London flat.
“You get everything?” Zahra asked.
“Sure did,” Cork replied, sticking her thumb over her shoulder. “Have it all in Vincenzo’s truck.” She grinned. “You have some nice toys, you know?”
Zahra winked and slapped Cork’s shoulder. “I know. Give me a hand?”
The two women headed out front, and with the help of Vincenzo, the newly made millionaire, they brought in the rest of Zahra’s personals.
“Put them anywhere,” Zahra said, moving to the fridge. “I’ll go through everything as the days pass.” She procured three cold beers from the door and handed them out. “Drinks?”
Cork and Vincenzo happily accepted the beverages.
“It really is a nice place, huh?” Cork asked, getting a grin out of the local. “It was ace of you to buy it for Zahra, Vincenzo.”
He gave the women a small bow. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t have anything without her help.” He smiled. “It was the least I could do.”
Zahra lifted her bottle toward him and then drank.
“So,” Cork said in between sips, “I don’t suppose you’d, um, want a roommate?”
Zahra looked around. As amazing as her new home was, it was small, and wouldn’t comfortably sleep more than just Zahra unless she shared her upstairs bed with Cork. But what could she say? None of this would have been possible without the pilot’s aid.
“I mean, I can’t have my hero pilot sleeping on the streets, can I?”
Cork dove at Zahra and gave her a huge bearhug. Luckily, both women had set their beers down before they embraced. The wood floorboards were beautifully stained and decades old, and Zahra wasn’t about to ruin them so soon after moving in.
“Ugh,” Zahra groaned, gasping for air. “Down, girl.”
“Or,” Vincenzo said, getting Zahra and Cork’s attention, “Cork could stay in the next-door cottage.” He flashed a big smile. “I bought that one too.”
Cork released Zahra and dropped her to the floor like a sack of potatoes. She pounded over to Vincenzo, picked up the shorter man, and planted the biggest, wettest kiss on his lips. When they parted, the local looked dazed and concussed.