Sean decelerated to keep a safe distance. Ahmed panicked, jerking the steering wheel back and forth. He overcorrected in his desperate attempt to keep the car on the road. The BMW twisted at an angle and sped across the right lane. It launched over a small ditch, slamming into mound of dirt and sand.
Sean tapped on the brakes and sat up on the bike. He pulled the bike over onto the side of the road and jumped off. He ripped off the helmet and tossed it on the ground as he ran to the wreckage.
Smoke and steam poured out of the crumpled hood. The smell of burned oil drifted through the air.
Sean took the pistol out of his belt and ran toward the vehicle with caution. He could see Ahmed’s silhouette inside the car and assessed his condition on the approach.
No movement came from inside the sedan. Sean kept his weapon raised, the sights locked on the target.
As he rounded the trunk and crept around the passenger side, he saw why Ahmed wasn’t moving. The impact had sent the driver’s head through the windshield. His shoulders had stopped his momentum so only Ahmed’s head stuck out. It was at a twisted, awkward angle. His lifeless eyes stared out toward the rising eastern sun.
Sean opened the passenger door. Alarms were dinging and beeping. As he suspected, Ahmed’s body showed no signs of life. It hung limp on the dashboard and across the steering wheel.
The American agent lowered his weapon and sighed. He ran his hand through his hair and looked back down the road. The few cars and trucks on the road were slowing down to see what was happening or possibly if they needed to help.
Sean tucked the weapon in the back of his pants.
He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at the desert. “I need a vacation.”
35
The American Navy had little trouble locking in on the location of the homing beacons. Once they had, it was all a matter of alerting the Egyptians to what was going on.
The Egyptian officials were shocked to learn what was about to happen from their own backyard. They immediately agreed to a joint-forces ground assault to take out the terrorists.
While an airstrike would have been more efficient, the Americans recommended against that due to the nature of the nerve gas contained in the warheads. Apache attack helicopters provided support for the ground forces during the attack.
Khalif’s men put up little if any resistance.
The missiles were collected carefully and disarmed before being transported back to the nearest base.
With the world momentarily safe, Sean decided to return to Mbeya with his friend.
The two Americans stood behind the engineer who was staring at two computer screens. The images on the monitors were scans of the golden statue they’d found near the temple dig site.
“So the president called you to thank you personally?” Tommy asked.
Sean stared at the screens as he answered. “Yep. Kinda weird to think about it.”
“I’ll say. But that’s pretty cool.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you, Schultzie. In fact, he probably should have called you.”
“Who said he didn’t?” Tommy looked over at his friend and winked.
Sean’s tone turned sincere. “Listen. You saved my life. Twice. I’ll never forget that. Thank you.”
Tommy shrugged like it was no big deal. “That’s what friends do for each other, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah it is.” There was an appreciative tone in his voice.
The two of them never had been comfortable with things getting too sentimental. So Tommy changed the subject. “Did they ever find out how Khalif got those missiles and the nerve gas?”
“They’re still working on who supplied the nerve gas. Khalif did a good job of covering his tracks. Not much of a paper trail to follow. The guy had accounts all over the world, and money was always moving from one place to another. Nearly impossible to trace. So that part will take some time.”
“And the missiles?”
“Yeah, those came from the U.S. Turns out a senator named Harold Thorpe was dealing under the table with Khalif. Thorpe had his fingers in a lot of cookie jars. One of those jars is a weapons manufacturer. They’re conducting a full investigation.”
“Unreal,” Tommy said, shaking his head. “They’ll crucify Thorpe. I mean, treason? Jeez.”
“Well, they would crucify him if he weren’t already dead.”
Tommy raised his eyebrows. “Dead? What, did he kill himself?”
“Reports said he died from a heart attack. If I had to guess, I’d say Khalif took him out. Thorpe was a loose end.”
The engineer at the computer stopped scrolling and pointed at a line segmenting the statue’s arm from the body.
He interrupted the Americans’ conversation. “Okay, we have something.”
They peered at the screen where the man’s finger pointed.
“You see here,” he said in a Scandinavian accent. “This arm is most definitely detachable. I think we have found the answer to how they were able to get the statue in there. There is a thin layer of gold over the joint to make it look like one piece.” He tapped the screen to emphasize his point.
Tommy nodded. “Great. Now we just have to figure out how to cut that thing up without damaging the integrity of the piece.”
“Yes,” the engineer agreed. “But there is something else. I’m not sure what it is.” He scrolled down a little farther and then to the left. In the center of the statue’s torso was a round shape. It looked like some sort of disc.
Tommy leaned in and squinted his eyes. “That’s inside the statue?”
The engineer nodded. “It appears so. Just below the neck, this part of the statue is hollow. Whatever that is, it seems no one was supposed to find it. That disc must have been extremely important to the people who left it there.”
“I wonder what it could be,” Tommy said.
It took two days for the crew to cut away the thin layers of gold separating the arms, legs, and head of the statue. The boat had been relatively easy to remove in that it was essentially sitting on the idol’s hands.
The weight, however, made it extremely difficult to move. No one could come to a conclusion as to how the ancient people who put it there were able to do it. When the head was detached, Sean and Tommy climbed the scaffolding that had been constructed around the statue.
They reached the top and looked down inside the torso. Tommy shined a flashlight into the dark cavity. A small stone disc sat cradled in a golden cuff.
“It’s not made of gold,” Sean said.
Tommy shook his head. “No, you could tell from the scans that it was something else. I just wasn’t sure what.” He reached his hand down into the hole.
“Wait. You sure it’s safe?”
Tommy snorted a laugh. “This isn’t a movie, buddy. Poisoned darts aren’t going to shoot out of the wall or something.”
He grabbed the disc with his gloved fingers and gently lifted it out of the cradle. “Ah!” he shouted. His voice echoed throughout the chamber, startling Sean as well as some of the workers down below.
Then he grinned. “Got you.”
“You’re an idiot. Scared the crap out of me.”
Tommy’s eyes narrowed as he chuckled. “I know but you should have seen your face.”
He pulled the disc out of the hole and put the light on it. “This is weird. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“What is it?”
Tommy frowned. “These hieroglyphs and the image.”
“Looks like a mountain.” Sean peered at the object and leaned close. “Is that some kind of a boat?”
“Maybe. The hieroglyphs on the other side are sort of vague. The gist of it means home.”