No Rules(99)

“Crap,” she muttered. “How do we get inside without being ambushed? We should have brought tear gas. Or flashbangs. Something to incapacitate the kidnappers.”

She was right; they needed a plan that wouldn’t jeopardize the hostages. But Donovan’s mind went to Wally, the only other person to find the tomb robbers. When he discovered their secret, they’d tortured and killed him. He couldn’t expect they’d do any differently with Jess.

“No time for that now. We use the lights on the guns. Don’t fire unless absolutely necessary, and then you damn well better hit a bad guy and not some priceless antiquity. Jess said the tombs have long entrance tunnels sealed on both ends, so it’s possible they’re so far inside they haven’t heard us. We may take them by surprise.” It seemed improbable and he wouldn’t count on it, but it was about time they got a lucky break. “Ready?”

In reply he heard several clicks as bullet cartridges and light mounts were double-checked, followed by three curt affirmatives. “First me, then Avery, then Mitch. Kyle at the rear.” He wanted to be first, to have control of the situation, but also wanted Mitch under someone’s eyes at all times. He nodded at Kyle to move the limestone slab again, and flicked his Glock’s light on as he aimed the barrel into the dark.

The light hit a roughly excavated wall. He leaned in, gun first, illuminating the narrow staircase that descended below the wadi. No one shot at him, which was mildly encouraging. Avery reached into the hole, adding her light to his as he ducked inside.

He heard the others slip in behind him as he carefully descended the stairs.

The robbers had not excavated more than they’d had to—even at the bottom the ceiling was low and they had to remain in a crouch, single file. The stairs ended after twenty feet at a crudely made wooden door. An obvious twenty-first-century addition. The door was no more than three feet high, made of two-by-six boards nailed onto a square frame and hinged to supporting timbers. Crawling on hands and knees was not the best way to make an entrance when taking someone by surprise. At least the door looked sturdy enough that it might have blocked the low-pitched scrape of stone on stone from the outside when Kyle had opened the entrance shaft.

He pressed his ear to the boards. From far away he heard raised voices, indistinct and impossible to recognize. They sounded male, which meant nothing. Jess could still be there.

He turned to Avery, who was so close to his back she was touching him. Beams of light from their guns bounced off the tunnel walls, revealing Mitch and Kyle behind her. Avery and Kyle looked ready to go, but a thin film of nervous perspiration slicked Mitch’s forehead.

Mitch was the youngest of the group, but he was experienced in assaults and had always been unflappable. Seeing him nervous made Donovan nervous, too. “Something wrong?” he asked in a low whisper.

Avery shifted in the cramped quarters to stare back at him. Mitch looked uncomfortable. “No, nothing.”

They waited. A nervous team member could be a death sentence.

“Okay. I was just thinking…what if there’s a curse? You know, for entering the tomb.”

“There’s no such thing,” Donovan said.

“Yeah,” Avery added with a malicious smile. “Just a mummy whose body was prepared by the priests in a secret method to be resurrected as a god in the afterlife. And who might be a tad annoyed at finding foreigners violating his tomb.”

Mitch flipped her off, and she grinned.

“It’s not so crazy,” Kyle said, his low whisper sounding rational in the claustrophobic passage. “I read that a bunch of people died in weird, unexplained ways after opening King Tut’s tomb.”

“No they didn’t,” Donovan told them. “Lord Carnarvon, who financed the expedition, had already been sick and weak when he picked up the infection that killed him. And Carter, the actual guy who discovered the tomb and opened it, the one who would have been cursed if there had really been such a thing? He lived for many more years, finished the excavation, and died peacefully at home in England.”

“You just happen to know that?” Kyle said drily.

“Obviously, Jess told me. We talked about a lot of stuff while we were waiting for you guys to call.” Most of it while they were naked in bed, and much of that hadn’t involved talking, but he was grateful for the part that had and wasn’t going to allow Mitch to make excuses to fall back. “Look, it’s all a myth, but if you’re gonna get spooky and weirded out, you can wait outside.”

He didn’t want him where he couldn’t see him, but needed to see if he’d take the opportunity to separate from the team, maybe seal the entrance with them inside it.