“And you do not wish to be immortal?” he asked boldly while taking a step forward. His loose black clothes ruffled around him dramatically.
“No,” Sean shook his head, grinning to one corner of his mouth. “I don’t think I want to be around forever in this old world. And I’m definitely not righteous. I’m a sinner.”
They were lost without the clue to the next marker. But it seemed like the mysterious stranger could help. He knew where Lindsey was headed. Even though the stranger had given up that little tidbit, Sean had a feeling there was something he was keeping back. Sean decided to take one more leap of faith. He flipped the gun around in his hand and gripped it by the barrel then slowly extended it out to the Arab.
Jabez nodded slowly as he reached out and grasped the weapon. “Your trust has earned my allegiance, Sean Wyatt. I will honor that trust. Your eyes are honest. I believe that you do not seek the treasure for selfish gain. You have my gun, and my sword.” He bowed deeply in a dramatic gesture.
Firth’s mouth was agape. “You mean you’re going to trust this…this man, who moments ago, was going to kill us and leave us for dead in this…this tomb?”
Sean twisted his head around. “Oh, hey, Doc. I honestly forgot you were there for a second. And it isn’t a tomb. No one was actually ever buried here.”
The sarcastic comment cut the tension with the other two, but only served to rile the professor. He pulled Sean close by the sleeve of his shirt and lowered his voice. “How do you know you can trust him?”
Sean was still grinning the mischievous smile that made his cheeks dimple on both sides. “I can’t, Doc.” He slapped the professor on the back.
A few minutes later, the group was trudging back through the darkness of the tunnel, the only light was the spotty glow that came from the flashlights. For the first few minutes, no one said anything. Dr. Abdulkarim seemed to feel particularly awkward. Sean had given him a cold glance when they’d climbed back up the ladder to where the man had waited.
“So, are you one of them?” Sean had asked the portly, dark-skinned man. He didn’t try to hide the fact that he was annoyed by the betrayal from earlier.
“No,” he shook his head and continued pressing forward through the darkness. “I am a friend to their cause,” he replied. “The Brethren are very influential. Their connections help get me permits to do excavations in place I normally wouldn’t be allowed. In short, they help eliminate the red tape that usually surrounds my line of research.”
“And all you have to do is call them whenever you find something or someone goes snooping where they aren’t supposed to,” Sean’s words carried a snicker of derision.
In truth, he wished more of the world’s decent archaeologists could be afforded similar luxuries. It was something he’d grown tired of during his time with IAA. There were several things he’d grown tired of, the more he thought about it. He had been hoping to have a job where he got to travel, study ancient cultures, and use some of his less-violent skill sets. But he had found that travel seemed overrated. There were no real free moments for him to get out into the communities and dig into the local cultures. It had become a routine, just like anything else. Except for the last few months.
Being shot at and nearly killed on several occasions were just the kinds of stress Sean was trying to get away from when he left the agency. The more he thought about it, the more he considered telling Tommy what he’d been planning.
No one knew about his little retirement scheme. At the moment, it was rattling around in his head like a pinball. He’d purchased two pieces of land, one in the mountains near the Tennessee/North Carolina border, and the other a few miles east of the busy beach town of Destin, Florida. The cabin in the mountains would be finished within the next few weeks. But the bungalow in Florida was already completed. It was within walking distance to the beach, and in a small area where traffic was low, and tourists were non-existent.
He’d thought about different things he could do to keep busy. While there were several surf shops around the region, he found there were surprisingly few paddleboard and sea kayak shops. Kayaking had been something he’d had a vague interest in for a while. But once he’d gotten out onto a lake and tried it, he was ready for more. The plan had started formulating in his mind to open up a kayaking shop that also had paddle boards. Making money wasn’t the point. He’d saved up enough over the years to live on the rest of his life. He just wanted to get away yet still have something to occupy his time.
A draft of air blew into the passageway, forecasting that the group had nearly reached ground level. A beam of sunlight poured into the entry chamber through the portal in the front, illuminating one portion of the chiseled wall on the other side. When they exited the ruins, each member of the party was forced to shield their faces from the bright Egyptian sun. After a few minutes, their eyes began to adjust. Sean looked around at a group of men dressed similarly to Jabez, all surrounding them in a semi-circle. Each man held a black, sub-machine gun. Instinctively, Sean put his hands up as the men in black clothing came into focus. Adriana and Firth did the same as their eyes began to clear up.
“Jabez, I thought we had a deal,” Sean said. He noticed his driver, Sahid, sitting on a chair nearby, being watched by another one of the brethren.
The young Arab seemed terrified. Sean had seen that look on a lot of faces the first time they’d had a gun pointed at them. He wondered what his own face had looked like on his initial experience.
Jabez turned around and ordered the men in to lower their weapons in something that closely resembled Arabic. They did as he commanded then he spoke a few more words. Seconds later, they were hurriedly loading up into tan-colored Range Rovers. The two who had been guarding Sahid also ran off to one of the nearby vehicles, leaving their captive confused and somewhat bewildered. The leader of the strange group walked over to a thick, mustached man who stood next to one of the vehicles. They exchanged words for a minute, ending with Jabez giving a few quick nods.
He stalked back over to where Sean and the others were standing. Firth’s arms were crossed, clearly annoyed with whatever was going on. Adriana seemed to be a little more patient, standing with one hand on a hip. A few of the men in the trucks were staring at her with wide eyes. She was probably the first woman the men had seen in a while, assuming they were nomads of some type. Though, it was possible they had wives somewhere, and they just weren’t used to seeing a woman not being covered from head to toe.
“My men said that the ones you spoke of are on their way back to Cairo. We have three cars in pursuit. The clue will be in our possession before nightfall.” Jabez’s confidence was genuine.
But Sean had a feeling it wouldn’t be so easy. “I hope you’re right,” he warned. “Lindsey has surrounded himself with a group of mercenaries who follow him religiously. They even call him The Prophet.”
“And why do they call him that?” Jabez scoffed.
“I don’t know. I guess they think he’s some kind of a religious guru. All I’m saying is your men should be careful. I’ve come face to face with some of his group. Taking him down won’t be easy. And these mercenaries are like weeds. You pull one and three more pop up.”
“My men can handle themselves.”
“Fair enough. Still, I think we’d both feel a lot better if we were on a plane headed to Turkey.”
Jabez nodded and turned, heading back to one of the Range Rovers. Sean motioned to Sahid and the young Middle Easterner bounced up out of his chair and jogged over to one of the big tents. A few moments later, he and the others from Sean’s convoy appeared through the flaps of the tent in the blinding sunlight, and began loading up their vehicles. Sean cast an apologetic glance at Sahid as the young man headed towards him.