Part 2 (1/2)

From the shadows of the far sh.o.r.e a white shape flapped its wings and streaked away in a blur, a ghost in the night. Leaning against the rail, he watched the dark verdant rim of the Nile slip past, thick with papyrus reeds, each snapshotted scene slide-showed by the slow progress of the boat: clumps of date palms with their fronds clacking in the cool breeze; the silhouette of the lateen sail of a felucca; the darker irregular contour of an old man in a galabaya leading a donkey laden with sheaves of grain.

The cruise s.h.i.+p Queen Hatshepsut was laid out on three levels, with the party in full swing in the aft bar of the middle deck, sandwiched between the restaurant and shopping area at water level and the sky deck up top with its gently-flapping sun canopy and forest of deck chairs. From below the sound of a woman's laughter drifted up to him, seemingly keeping time to an old-fas.h.i.+oned melody tinkled out on a piano. Above him, the constellations wheeled in their timeless courses, as ancient as the Nile itself. It made him wonder how many faceless millions had looked up at those same stars, immersed in their own hopes and dreams and fears, haunted by their own memories, now nothing but dust that littered the tombs and temples crumbling in the desert.

They had sailed from Cairo, where Ha.s.san Ma.s.sri, the Undersecretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, had boarded the s.h.i.+p, a short, round man smelling of cardamom-laced coffee. Dr. Stephen Cowell had boarded there, too, the owlish archaeologist who had discovered the ancient papyrus scroll that was on its way to its new home at the Luxor Museum. With OSR's backing, Cowell had spent an entire frantic season excavating a limestone shaft sunk in the bedrock between the rear of the Sphinx and Campbell's Tomb, a series of shafts that had already been cleared of sand in 1830. At the bottom of the shaft he found chambers containing empty sarcophagi and niches carved into the rock that held a number of Predynastic mummies wrapped in reed matting and surrounded by pottery jars that had contained food for the afterlife. But his major find was a red granite box with the papyrus inside, preserved through the millennia by the hot desert sands. And a portable GPR unit had picked up what looked like a false wall with another chamber beyond it. Cowell speculated that this might be a pa.s.sageway connected to the Sphinx itself. Tomorrow would be the public unveiling at the museum. So far no one but Cowell had seen the papyrus unrolled, and he had hinted at a wondrous discovery.

The sound of distant sing-song voices carried across the water and the breeze brought a scent of hibiscus and agapanthus. The smell of the flowers reinforced Skarda's melancholy. He glanced up at the pale sliver of the crescent moon and closed his eyes, seeing for the millionth time the explosion of bubbles as Sarah's body crashed into the water, so horribly out of place, blood gus.h.i.+ng like black squid ink from the wound on her throat, the look of horror in her dying eyes, her hand outstretched to him for help, her fingers clutching in vain at unsubstantial water as the riptide grabbed her and dragged her out to sea.

With a shudder he chased the image away.

He was turning to head back to the party when he saw the first man swoop out of the sky.

___.

Intuition was jangling April's nerves.

Nursing a gla.s.s of mediocre Egyptian Blanc de Noirs, she reconnoitered the party room: aft end of the s.h.i.+p, tables set with steaming trays of food and dinnerware, piano player, three exits, two of them manned by an armed security guard. Capacity crowd of well-dressed, sophisticated people of far-flung nationalities. Next to her, inside a vacuum-sealed gla.s.s case, the unrolled papyrus had been laid out like a precious jewel on a swath of black velvet.

Everything cool. But her subconscious mind had seized upon some subliminal clue missed by her visual scan of the room.

Nothing looked wrong.

But she knew something was.

Tonight she was wearing a black Carolina Benaki strapless c.o.c.ktail dress that showed off her long, magnificently-sculpted legs. It also showed the raised tip of an old knife scar that ran from the bottom of her left collarbone to the start of her stomach. She was half Native American-Shoshone and Crow-and half French, descended from the line of some nineteenth-century mountain man whose name had long been forgotten by history. A straight cascade of dark hair framed her face, where the high jut of her cheekbones was softened by her European genetics, and her eyes were bottomless wells of an umber so dark they looked black.

A man wearing an impeccable tuxedo was finessing himself into her personal s.p.a.ce. She'd been aware of him for a while now, knew he'd been checking her out from different vantage points in the crowd. His slim waist and squared shoulders made him look taller than he actually was, and his full-lipped, carnal mouth lent him an air of the piratical. Immediately she pigeonholed him as the kind of guy who would try to impress her with his abs, and mentally she wrote him off.

He stepped in close to her, flas.h.i.+ng brilliant white teeth. ”h.e.l.lo.” His breath smelled of some kind of sweet spice.

With a calculated dip of her head, she acknowledged his presence, not returning the smile. Around her conversation and laughter swelled, and several couples had moved to the center of the room, dancing to a melody she didn't recognize.

He stuck out his hand. ”I am Zayd,” he said in a mild Arabic accent. ”And you are?”

”April.” She allowed her hand to touch his in a brief clasp.

Again he smiled, making a show of glancing around the room. ”Where is your husband? The man you came with?”

”He's not my husband.”

”I am sorry. Your boyfriend.”

”We work together.”

That dialed up the wattage of his smile. An expression of l.u.s.ty predation flashed behind his steady gaze. He was good-looking and c.o.c.ky, very sure of his ability to conquer women.

Looking past his shoulder, she saw Flinders and Stephen Cowell locked in conversation.

”Excuse me,” she said. Turning her back on Zayd, she weaved through the crowd and approached the pair. Reed-thin and scatter-haired, and wearing what looked like a rented suit and scuffed brown shoes with a ribbon of sand packed between the soles and uppers, Cowell looked hopelessly out of place in the swirl of tuxedos and evening gowns. At her approach he looked up, owlishly blinking through fas.h.i.+on-challenged gla.s.ses.

April showed him a warm smile. ”h.e.l.lo, Stephen.” She glanced at Flinders. ”I suppose you two are talking shop?”

He stared at her as if the words had no meaning. ”Shop...? Oh...shop! Yes...we are! We are! Dr. Carlson is going to work on the translation of the papyrus for me!”

”So I heard-” Suddenly April whipped around. Out of the corner of her eye she'd glimpsed a flash of black. Next to an open doorway one of the security guards was sinking to his knees, his throat slashed open in a gaping wound. A tall man in black body armor stood over him, holding a red-splashed combat knife. Across the room, another man grabbed the second guard, raking his knife across his throat. Both commandos had HK G36 a.s.sault rifles slung over their shoulders.

She turned to Flinders, jabbing her finger at the unguarded exit. ”Go get Park! He's on the sky deck!”

Flinders took off running.

But so did Cowell, toward the papyrus case.

”Stephen! No!” April shouted.

From out of nowhere Zayd stepped into view, grabbing Cowell by the shoulder and spinning him around. With his free hand he pressed a .45 ACP against the small of his back.

Cowell's eyes went wide with shock.

Zayd marched the archaeologist to April's position.

”What's going on?” Cowell blurted out.

”Just keep your cool,” April told him a bit harshly. She knew that at this range the Colt's 220 grain hollow-point bullets would mushroom on impact, shredding his internal organs to confetti.

Zayd flashed his brilliant smile, but his bedroom eyes were as cold as the black gulfs of s.p.a.ce.

Then he lifted the Colt and Stephen Cowell's head exploded in a spray of blood and bone.

___.

When he saw the man soar overhead, Skarda ducked into a doorway, gluing his spine against the bulkhead of a gangway landing. The man had looked like a giant bat. But bats didn't have a.s.sault rifles strapped to their backs.

Boots thudded on the deck. At least five different sets, as far as he could tell. Maybe more. A sound came to his ears: the stealthy slap of footsteps moving toward his position. Skarda held himself perfectly still, not daring to breathe. If the man stepped into the doorway, he was toast-he had no chance against a rifle in the confined gangway. He glanced around. Nothing he could use as a weapon, and he didn't have a fraction of the combat skills April had. A surge of panic engulfed him, constricting his chest. With sweaty hands he shrugged out of his tuxedo jacket.

The footsteps padded closer. Skarda strained to listen. Through the open doorway he could see an almost imperceptible shadow gliding toward him. Then the shadow solidified into the man himself: about 5' 10”, muscular build, Heckler and Koch G36 a.s.sault rifle.

The commando darted a quick glance into the doorway, then moved on, disappearing into the darkness. Skarda knew his best weapon was surprise. For a few quick heartbeats he stood in place, emptying his mind of doubt and indecision, the way she had taught him to do.

Then with a deep breath he launched himself forward, holding the jacket with both hands in front of him, pumping his legs in long, abrupt strides toward the commando's retreating back. His shoe sc.r.a.ped the metal walkway. It sounded like a cannon shot in his ears.

In what seemed like a millisecond the man was swinging around in a lethal arc, snapping his rifle up into firing position.

But Skarda had already reached him- With a lunge, he flung the jacket around the commando's head like a matador's cape and yanked hard, dragging him over the rail in one fluid motion as the man's finger tightened on the trigger and a burst of high-velocity bullets tore a line of holes in the bulkhead above his head. The man cried out, his body somersaulting over the rail. There was a dull, flat sound as his skull smacked against the hull, followed by the clatter of the rifle. Then two splashes erupted in the dark water.

Craning his neck, Skarda watched the wake boil from the Queen Hatshepsut's stern. No sign of a head bobbing above the surface.

Then from the deck below came the stutter of automatic weapons fire.

___.

When the Colt went off, April stepped in close to Zayd to block his aim for a second shot. The blast rang in her ears, echoing inside her skull. Even so, she was aware of a sudden hush in the background as party-goers stood stock-still, trying to comprehend what had just happened.