The Lost Tomb

by N. J. Croft

  That was Eve’s voice, so he hadn’t imagined her after all. She was alive. He tried to get his head around that—how he felt. He wasn’t sure. Why the hell had she let them all believe that she was dead? Him, maybe he could understand. But the children?

  “Hey, I didn’t shoot him,” Zach said. “And I think your husband—”

  “Ex-husband.”

  “Your ex-husband is quite capable of taking care of himself.” He looked at Noah, saw he was awake. “He’s back with us.” He turned his attention to Noah. “You’ve got to stop this fainting business.”

  As Noah made to push himself up, Eve placed a hand on his good shoulder and shoved him back down. “Stay there.”

  He didn’t remember her being this bossy. Maybe that’s what rising from the dead did for you. She was kneeling at his side, a pair of scissors in her hand. He stayed still; he wasn’t sure how safe this was. She cut his T-shirt up the middle and peeled it away from his shoulder then cut through the sodden bandage and did the same with that. He tried to raise his head to look at the wound, and she frowned. “Stay still.”

  He stared up at the ceiling. Right now, it seemed like good advice. He might never move again. Except he had to, because Harper was relying on him.

  Oh God, Harper. He had to tell Eve, though he didn’t want to while Zach was in the room. Actually, he didn’t want to at all. He was going to break her heart. First, he wanted to know what the hell was going on. Were they all prisoners? Though at least the cuffs were gone.

  He searched her face. She looked good. Always before there had been a hint of fear, a darkness behind her eyes as though she had seen bad things and expected them to happen again. Now her expression was clear, the lines between her brows smoothed away. “You look good for a dead woman.”

  “I’m sorry.” She must have taken his words as an accusation, and he supposed they were.

  He tried to shake his head, but pain flashed through him. He sank back down to the ground. “What happened?”

  “The crazy fucking Darkhats happened.” She took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself. “Just let me clean this up, then we’ll talk.” She pressed a warm damp cloth to the wound in his shoulder, and he held himself very still. A waft of antiseptic filled the air, and sweat broke out on his forehead. She pressed harder, and he hissed. Finally, she took the cloth away and examined the wound. “You need a doctor.”

  Zach came and hunkered down beside him, studied his shoulder. “No. The bleeding has already stopped. He could maybe do with another stitch in there. I can do it.” He stood up and rummaged through what Noah presumed was a medical kit. He came back with a syringe. Without saying anything, or asking permission, he crouched down again and jabbed the needle into Noah’s arm, just below the wound. He pressed the plunger, pulled it out, and jabbed him again on the other side. It was over before Noah could protest. Not that he wanted to. Almost immediately, the pain receded, a lovely numbness taking its place. “Local anesthetic,” Zach said. “Give it a minute to work, and I’ll sew you up.”

  Noah turned his head so he could see Eve. “Talk,” he said.

  She pursed her lips then sat back on her heels and ran a hand through her hair. “Zach told you I called him that night?” He nodded. “I was scared. I believed John Chen had come back to finish the job. After I called Zach, I went to the Marriott, got a room, and waited for someone to come and rescue me.” She snorted, casting Zach an accusatory glance, before shifting her gaze to Noah to give him more of the same. “I called you. You weren’t there. But then what’s changed?”

  He considered pointing out that she was actually the one who had left him. Plus he was in the States and would have been able to do little to help her in some out-of-the-way town in Russia, but he decided to keep his mouth shut. In some ways, she was right—he had never been there for her, always off on some job of his own.

  “I tried to stay awake but must have dozed off, because I woke in the night, and someone was in my room. I felt a jab on my arm and after that, nothing. The next time I woke up, I was in a goddamn yurt.”

  He’d never known Eve to swear so much. She had definitely changed. And actually, it was for the better. He needed her to be strong because he was going to have to tell her about Harper; it wasn’t something he could keep from her.

  “I had no clue what was going on. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”

  “You were a prisoner?”

  “Yes, and I was going crazy not knowing what was happening. I didn’t even know who they were, which side they were on. And I didn’t know you all thought I was dead until Tarkhan turned up a week later, by which time I was going seriously crazy. He told me that when Zach had called him for help, he hadn’t known what to do. He was in Mongolia; no way could he reach me in time. Besides, he was still on crutches from his broken leg and hardly in a position to help. So he’d reached out to someone he trusted. Tarkhan has been around a long time. He knows lots of people. He’d been in a labor camp with some man who was high up in the Darkhat hierarchy under the Soviet regime. They’re good friends. The Darkhats already had people in Russia—following John Chen, actually. He’d been flagged when he came into the country, and they’d been watching for him since he ran off with my spear.” She paused for breath, and Zach leaned closer and pressed a finger to Noah’s shoulder. He felt nothing. Bliss.

  “Just let me do this,” Zach said.

  Eve nodded and got to her feet, paced the room, peered out the flap that covered the opening of the yurt, then came back to stand over him, foot tapping on the ground. He glanced at his shoulder, where Zach was threading a needle through his skin, drawing the edges of the wound together. He felt nothing. Finally, Zach snipped off the suture with a pair of scissors. “Done.”

  “Go on,” he said to Eve, pulling himself into a sitting position. He was fed up with lying down.

  She sank onto the floor and sat cross-legged, facing him. “Once Tarkhan came, things were better. While I was still a prisoner, they let me wander around the camp. Tarkhan eventually told me that they’d faked my death. I begged to call you and the children, to let you know I was alive, but they wouldn’t allow me any contact. I was still considered pretty high on their enemy list. They’d saved me because of Tarkhan. I suspect, if it hadn’t been for him, they would have put a bullet in my head before John even had a chance. Especially if they’d known I’d found the location of the tomb.”

  “They don’t know you found it?”

  “It wasn’t something I wanted to tell them. I didn’t know how far Tarkhan’s friendship would stretch. They might have shot me anyway.” She frowned. “How did you know I had the location?”

  “We found it in the safe deposit box at the Marriott.”

  She glanced between him and Zach, who was rummaging again in the medical kit, presumably looking for a bandage. “The two of you? You’ve been working together?”

  “No. I was working with someone else. A woman claiming to be Star—”

  “Star?” She jumped on the name, a smile breaking out on her face. “She’s okay? I was worried that someone might have gone after her.”

  He should have kept quiet. “Star is dead. Her body was found not long after we got the notification of your death. She’d been tortured. They believe she died of a heart attack under interrogation.”

  Eve blinked. “She once told me she had a weak heart. It’s one of the reasons she took up what she did. It was something she could do with little physical exertion.” She was silent for a moment. “Bastards. Do they know who did it?”

  “No.”

  She frowned. “But you said Star helped you.”

  “I thought it was Star. She had a tattoo of a star on her neck and claimed to be her. She told me she’d worked with you. She had a lot of information. I never doubted her.”

  “So she was probably someone working for Star’s killers?”


  “I don’t know. Maybe.” That didn’t make a lot of sense, though, because if she was, then why were they still trying to get him to find the tomb when Sara could have given them the location herself? Why were they threatening to kill his daughter if he didn’t do as they asked? All he could think was maybe Sara had gone out on her own, planning to sell the information to the highest bidder.

  “There’s something else,” he said. “But finish your story first.” He wasn’t sure how much he would get out of her once he had told her about Harper, and he needed to know all the facts.

  Eve shrugged. “There’s not a lot else. I’ve been here ever since. People come and go, but I think this is a permanent base camp. Well, as permanent as they get. They like to follow the old ways, or so Tarkhan tells me. Anyway, he left a week ago then arrived back last night and informed me that you and Zach were on your way. And that’s it.”

  “Do you know what happened to John Chen?” Zach asked.

  “Not for sure.” She bit her lip. “I think they took him. Tortured him to find out where the spear was. I don’t think John would have talked, so I’m guessing he’s dead now. These people are ruthless. So what happens now?”

  Zach came over with the bandage, and Noah pushed himself to his feet then raised his arm to allow him to wind the bandage around the wound. He rolled his shoulders but felt nothing; the area was still numb.

  “Our biggest problem is the summit,” Zach said. “It’s connected to what’s going on here.”

  “What’s the summit?” Eve asked.

  “A meeting of all the top leaders to discuss a global response to terrorism. It’s taking place in Russia in four days’ time, and we believe they’re going to do something big—probably take out all the world leaders.”

  “Who is?”

  Zach and Noah exchanged a glance. “The Descendants.”

  They were in agreement there. But the summit wasn’t Noah’s priority—Harper was. Even so, while he had no clue what the Descendants were planning, like Zach, he was guessing it would be big, and it couldn’t be allowed to go ahead.

  “I sent a message to Peter,” he said. “He should have flagged an alert by now. Hopefully they’ll stop it or at least up the security, but there’s no guarantee they’ll take the warning seriously without evidence to back it up. We need to get them something, and fast.” After he had found Harper. He wouldn’t do anything overt until his daughter was safe.

  He wandered over to the doorway and peered out. There was no guard, but armed men and women were milling around the area. Likely, he’d get some attention if he stepped outside. The camp was quite large from what he could see, maybe between twenty or thirty yurts, and the corral had held around a hundred horses. There had been guards at the perimeter.

  He had no doubt that they would shoot him if he attempted to leave.

  He glanced back at where Eve stood talking to Zach. There was a closeness to them, and as he watched, she reached out and touched him on the arm. It was a curiously intimate gesture. Just how close had these two gotten? He shook off the thought, because really, it should be none of his business.

  “Eve.”

  She must have heard something in his voice, because she glanced up then came toward him. “What is it?”

  He looked at Zach, but he figured it was safe to talk in front of the other man. He had an idea Eve would tell him anyway. Just how the hell was he supposed to word this? “It’s Harper,” he said. “Someone took her.”

  For a moment, the words didn’t seem to sink in, and she blinked a couple of times. “I don’t understand.”

  “She was taken from your parents’ house four nights ago.”

  “Why? Who took her? Is she all right? Oh my God.”

  “I was arrested almost immediately after I found out and had no contact for two days.” He swallowed. “When I got back to the hotel, they’d left me her finger.”

  She made a small noise and swayed. Noah reached for her, but Zach beat him to it, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and holding her against him.

  “What do they want?” Zach asked.

  “They want me to find the tomb. And I have a week to do it. Less now.”

  Zach frowned. “Why would they think you could find it when everyone else failed?”

  “Maybe because I was tracking Eve. I assume they know she had the location before she died—or they think she died. Maybe they got that much from the real Star.”

  “The Descendants?”

  He nodded. Eve still hadn’t spoken, her face pressed into Zach’s chest, but now she raised her head. Her eyes were dry, haunted, and her skin was pale. “I should never have left them. I should never have gone after the spear. If only I hadn’t come here. She must be so scared. And hurt.” She pulled free and took a step toward him. “Are you sure? That the finger was hers?”

  “There was a video.” He took her hand. “At least it proved she’s alive and we’ll get her back.”

  “How?” She turned away and wrapped her arms around her middle, paced the length of the yurt then came back to stand in front of them, biting down hard on her lower lip. Then something flared in her eyes. “What about Lucy and Daniel?”

  “They’re fine. Peter has them in a safe house, his own people watching them.”

  “We’ve got to get out of here, and then we give them what they want. If they want the tomb in exchange for Harper, then give them the goddamn tomb. What does it matter?”

  He took a deep breath. “I don’t have the location.”

  “But you said you got into the safety deposit box. You said you had it.”

  “Sara took it. The fake Star. The morning after we found it, she disappeared. I assume she made the phone call to the local police and got me arrested.” He studied Eve. “Can you remember the location? Could you reconstruct the image?”

  She shook her head. “No. I didn’t have much time to study it. I was so rattled that night, I just put it in the safe deposit box.”

  He pressed a finger between his eyes, trying to get his brain to see a way through this. One thing was for sure—they had to get out of here. Then he had to find Sara, and he had no clue how to do that. He could feel the panic rising inside him, swirling in his mind, choking him, Harper’s scream echoing in his head. He shut it down. “Is Tarkhan still here?” he asked Eve.

  “I think so.”

  “Then let’s go talk to him. I think we need to tell him the Descendants are planning something at the summit. It sounds like our best chance of getting their cooperation. At least we can get an idea of who these people are. Whether we can expect any help from them.”

  He watched as Eve visibly pulled herself together. She was a different woman than the one who had left him. Somehow she had conquered her fears. While she was clearly devastated by the news, she was functioning. She gave a quick nod.

  He was naked from the waist up, but his T-shirt was clearly unwearable. And his bag was nowhere in sight. There wasn’t a lot he could do about it. Eve led the way out, then Zach. As Noah made to exit the tent, a man stepped in front of him, a rifle in his hands. He gestured with it back into the tent.

  Eve turned back, a frown on her face. She said something in what he guessed was Mongolian, but the man just shrugged.

  “You’re not to leave the yurt,” she said. “We’ll find Tarkhan and talk to him.”

  He clenched his teeth but gave a curt nod then glanced at Zach. “Make this work.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  No.

  The word was screamed over and over in Eve’s mind. Panic clawed at her stomach, fear threatening to crawl out of her throat.

  She’d lived with PTSD for twelve years, and for most of that time, panic and fear were close companions. She thought she’d conquered her fears, but obviously they were just waiting in the background for something to bring them front and cen
ter of her life again.

  Oh God. Harper.

  She couldn’t get her head around it. Her brain refused to process the information. Her vision blurred, and she stumbled, felt Zach take hold of her arm and steady her.

  “I’m sorry,” Zach said. “If I’d left you alone, not bullied you into the trip, then none of this would have happened.”

  Eve ignored the comment, mainly because he was right. It was irrelevant now. She had come on the trip, and it had happened. And now, some depraved monster who cut the fingers of innocent children had her beautiful daughter. She held her lips tight together to stop the whimper falling out. She couldn’t bear to think about it. Harper scared and alone, in pain.

  Unconsciously, she rubbed her hands together, tugging at her fingers. How much would it hurt? To lose a finger. Which finger was it? She almost turned around to go ask Noah. As though it mattered. She forced herself to walk on.

  “They likely have her sedated,” Zach said from beside her.

  She stopped again and turned to face him. “You don’t know that.”

  “And you don’t know she isn’t.” He rested a hand on her arm, squeezed. “Look, Eve, you have to get past this. And it won’t help imagining what your daughter is going through. Imagining the worst. Just focus on finding a way through. Of getting her back.”

  She searched his face. She’d thought they were growing close before all this had happened. When they’d been traveling together. However, she also knew how highly motivated he was. “Do you even care? Or is this just a way to get to your terrorist?”

  “I care.”

  “Harper comes first,” she said fiercely. “She’s the number one priority. We get her back, and then we find them and we stop them.”

  “Of course.”

  She studied his face, unable to read anything from his expression. “You cross me on this, and I’ll rip your jugular out.”

  A faint smile flashed across his face then was gone, and he gave a nod of acknowledgment. “What do we tell Tarkhan?”

  She bit her lip. While she was fond of the scholar, she was no longer sure how far she trusted him. “We don’t tell him about Harper. And we don’t tell him that I had the location and that Noah found it.”