They’d been here a day, and Dec and his team had already finished their assessment and started implementing new security procedures. The security guards they were working with were local but trained by an international security company. Not the best Dec had worked with, but not the worst.
There’d been no sign of Anders, and Dec wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or worried.
The one person who wasn’t making it easy was a certain archeologist.
He spotted a slim figure talking earnestly with some of the local workers. Rush tended to speak with her hands, and she rivaled an admiral at giving out orders. She always seemed to be busy doing something. He suspected relaxing was not in her vocabulary.
They’d butted heads. A few times.
As he watched, she smiled at the workers, then moved out onto the wooden scaffold that lined one side of the deep excavation. She disappeared from view.
A light wind picked up, throwing sand Dec’s way. He saw Hale circle around some tents and head up the dune toward Dec and Logan.
“Hate the sand,” Hale grumbled.
Dec grunted and thrust a thumb at Logan. “Join Logan’s club.”
“Kind of jealous that your brother scored the other job,” Hale said.
Dec wasn’t so sure Callum would agree. “Cal’s in the jungle. You have sand, he has mosquitos.”
“I hate mosquitos,” Logan added.
“I think you’re both going soft on me.” Dec looked at Hale. “Safe all set up?”
The man nodded. “Yep. Left a few artifacts in the storage tent, but that gold dog and anything else valuable will go in the safe I have hidden in one of the personal tents.”
“Good work.” A rush of movement around the excavation made Dec focus back on the dig. He frowned, wondering what was going on.
“Dr. Rush is planning to bring up a stone statue. A big sucker,” Logan said. “She’s pretty excited about a big lump of rock.”
The workers were tossing ropes down into the hole.
“Better keep an eye on this.” Dec started down the hill. “Hale, check out the western side of the site and check in with the guards.”
“Got it.”
“Logan, check in with Morgan. I want to make sure we haven’t seen any signs of anyone trying to get close to this dig.”
Logan nodded. “On it.”
In an instant, Logan and Hale turned into the serious former soldiers they were.
Dec reached the excavation hole and saw the workers heaving back on the ropes. He could hear Rush yelling orders up from the bottom of the pit. He stayed to the side, scanning, making sure everything was okay.
Then he heard a thwap sound. Workers started shouting.
A rope had snapped.
The workers on the other rope were pulled toward the hole.
Dec touched his earpiece, sprinting forward. “Logan, we need another rope. Fast.”
Dec jumped over the scaffold railing, landing on the uppermost wooden platform. He saw the large statue of a man hanging at a precarious angle. Below, Rush was urging workers and archeologists to get out of the way.
Then he heard another sound.
A metallic ping.
The scaffold beneath his feet lurched away from the wall.
Shit. The screws had given way and the scaffold was threatening to collapse.
He spread his feet, trying to balance on the wobbling structure. Below, he heard panicked cries. Workers stuck on the scaffold were trying to get down, making it rock even more.
“Dec!”
Logan’s and Morgan’s heads appeared above. Logan tossed a coiled rope down.
Dec grabbed the rope, moving it through his hands, getting a feel for the weight of it. He quickly made a loop at the end, then he leaned over, eyeing the dangling carving.
Then he saw Rush, right below the statue, helping workers down off the scaffold.
His jaw tightened, but he forced himself to judge the distance to the dangling artifact and compensate for the sway of the scaffold.
He tossed the rope.
The loop fell perfectly over the end of the statue. He pulled back, tightening the rope.
“Logan?”
“Here.”
Dec tossed the rope up. Logan grabbed it and yanked.
The statue leveled out and moved upward.
Dec swung onto the outside of the scaffold and quickly climbed down. He felt the structure tilt farther away from the wall. He moved faster.
It was going to come crashing down at any second.
He felt more screws let go, felt the wood giving way.
Dec leaped the last few feet to the ground, rolling once, then coming back up on his feet. He saw Rush and two workers still in the line of fire.
“Run!” he called out in Arabic. The workers scrambled back toward where the others were huddled by the far wall.
“The artifacts—” Rush’s face was pale, her eyes wide.
Dec ran like a football linebacker. He scooped Rush off her feet, hearing her muffled cry. He heard the groan of the structure falling behind them.