The Lost Tomb

by N. J. Croft

  “And with guilt,” Noah continued. “On balance, I do trust him, even though he’s given almost a lifetime of loyalty to Michaela Clayton. And I think he loves her, even now. That’s a hard thing to shake off. Maybe he’s just biding his time. But, as I said, I don’t have a lot of choice. And he also loves Harper. I think she was the final straw. Maybe blood is thicker than whatever he has with Clayton.”

  Michaela Clayton was a powerful woman. But there was never any indication that she wasn’t exactly what she appeared to be. Would the information be enough to sway Sara’s people into lending their support instead of killing Noah out of hand? Perhaps—though maybe it was wishful thinking—her people would not kill Noah straight away if she was with him. That would at least give them a chance to argue their case.

  Then what?

  Did they try and get them to agree to leading Michaela Clayton to the tomb they had guarded for centuries? Never going to happen.

  There had to be a way. She just had to keep thinking until she found it.

  “Are you married?” Noah asked.

  Sara had been deep in thought, and the question came out of the blue. She shook her head automatically, partly in denial, partly to clear her mind. “No. Why?”

  “I just wondered. You said you had a daughter. I assume she must have a father somewhere.”

  Why did he care? “We were never married and haven’t been together for a long time.” They’d met when she was nineteen and fallen in love, but he’d had a job to do. He’d been brought up in Russia and just back for a visit. He had no choice in where he went, just as she had no choice. “It was Yuri,” she said.

  He frowned. “The archaeologist who worked with Eve?”

  “Yes. The man your ex-wife killed. At least we believe she killed him.” Though only after he had no doubt tried to kill her. Would Noah deny or confirm it? But he said nothing. Her father had told her Yuri was dead, that he’d gone into the cave system—his job was to make sure Eve never came out with the spear. Instead, he had never been heard from again, and the guide who had taken them into the mountains had been shot dead. The spear was nowhere to be found; presumably, the senator had it now. She sighed. “They’ll never let you take her to the location.”

  “Eve says it’s not the actual tomb that the senator wants, but this talisman that’s buried with the body.”

  While her people had always known about the talisman, they’d considered it nothing more than a fairytale. A magical item that Khan had supposedly carried and that had been buried with him. Legend had it the Talisman and the spear had been with him through every battle. With them at his side, he was said to be invincible.

  Obviously, her people had been wrong, and it was more than a fairytale. When she’d seen the image the real Star had sent to Eve, she’d known from the distinctive shape and size that she was looking at the Talisman.

  “That’s how she managed to locate the tomb,” Noah said. “Apparently, the tomb itself would be almost impossible to identify alone. One of the reasons being that they know there are others buried in the same area. A tomb could belong to another family member, not Genghis Khan at all. But the box that holds the Talisman is a distinct shape, and the Descendants knew that. They gave the details to Eve. She had the shape and the size, the general location from the positioning of the spear when it was found. With those, she was able to give the real Star something to look for and somewhere to look. High-resolution imaging enabled her to see beneath the ground, and she found the Talisman.”

  Sara thought back to the image. She’d been picked for the role of Star because she had a computer/technical background, though she hadn’t known anything about space archeology. But then neither had Noah, so it was considered the risk of him catching her out would be low. All the same, she’d done a lot of reading on the subject, and she’d been able to at least make sense of what the image showed. And recognize the GPS coordinates.

  No one knew exactly what Genghis Khan had been buried with. Some said that he had wanted no pomp and ceremony, just to be made one with the earth. To go out as he had come in, with nothing. Others believed his family had buried him with huge amounts of wealth. That they had sacrificed his horses and surrounded him with their bodies, along with the bodies of the men who had dug his grave. Gold and jewels from his campaigns. The Talisman.

  “Clayton wants the Talisman,” Noah continued. “Actually, she needs the Talisman. According to Peter, there’s some dissent in the group. Many of their people don’t believe she’s the true leader. Or do believe, but don’t want her anyway. If she wants to unite the whole group, she needs the Talisman to show that she is the leader who was prophesied.”

  That made sense. Sort of. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder how many within the group believed in the prophecy or how many were just in it for the money and the power.

  Her people didn’t care about the Talisman; they cared about the body. Their task had always been to protect the remains from desecration. They’d always translated that into keeping the location a secret.

  However, if one person had found the tomb, then others would as well. Technology was too advanced now. She needed to make her people see that.

  Her mind was churning. Would they listen to her?

  So far they hadn’t.

  At that moment, Peter Blakeley appeared in the doorway with a bag in his hand. He stood for a moment looking around the bar before heading their way. His gaze flickered across to where her hand still rested on Noah’s arm. She almost moved it but then tightened her grip. He looked so like Noah. She knew there was only ten years between them—they looked more like brothers than uncle and nephew. The likeness made her uncomfortable, probably because she didn’t trust him. A man who could lie to his family for almost all his life. What was he hiding now?

  “We have to go,” Peter said.

  Noah looked at her. “Well?” he asked.

  He was asking if she would help. She gave a brief nod.

  Too many had died. Somehow she had to find a way through this, a way for the killing to end. A way to make her people listen to reason and change the beliefs that had sustained them for centuries.

  It wasn’t going to be easy.

  And there was a good chance they would all die before tomorrow was out.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Noah kissed Eve on the forehead. “Give Lucy and Daniel a hug from me,” he said. “Tell them I love them.”

  “You can tell them yourself,” Eve said. Then her face softened. “Find her, Noah. Bring her back to me.”

  “I will.” Or he’d die trying. Which right now seemed the more likely outcome.

  Eve wasn’t happy with the arrangements; she’d wanted to stay, to go with them and help rescue Harper, but Noah needed her out of the country. Unless Peter had double-crossed them, the Descendants still believed Eve was dead. And they had two more children who needed her. She was going to get Lucy and Daniel and disappear for a while. Maybe forever.

  He glanced over to where his uncle stood leaning against the wall away from the group. Eve hadn’t forgiven him. Noah doubted she ever would.

  Zach was going with her. Another who wasn’t happy about the plans, but he saw the sense to it. They’d spent last night interrogating Peter, getting every bit of useful information from his head. The scale of the organization was terrifying. They’d had centuries to position themselves, and now they had people high up in every major government and industry in the world. Some of the names on the list had blown his mind. Even if they managed to take down Clayton—and right now it seemed highly unlikely—the infrastructure would still be there, hovering just beneath the surface, waiting for the right moment to strike again.

  At least with Zach staying alive, someone would have the intel. Zach would wait to see the outcome, and then he’d have to decide how best to use that information. MI6 was compromised. It looked like Project
Arachnid was no more. But Peter had also given them a list of names he believed to be untainted by the Descendants. Zach would try to approach them, get someone to believe in his highly unlikely conspiracy theory. All while staying alive.

  He turned to Zach. “Look after her. Don’t let her die. Again. Once was enough.”

  “I’ll do my best.” They shook hands, and Noah watched as they got into the waiting car.

  Peter came up beside him and put a hand on his arm. “You can walk away from this. Go with them. There’s still time. I’ll do everything I can to get Harper back.”

  “She’s my daughter.”

  “And you don’t trust me.”

  It wasn’t a question, so Noah didn’t bother with an answer, just watched as the car pulled away and they disappeared into the flow of traffic. “Have you tried to contact Clayton?” Noah asked.

  “Of course. But nothing. My direct link has been cut off. However, I did get a message with a meeting point.”

  “She knows you’re working with me?”

  “I doubt she knows. But likely she suspects.”

  “Maybe you’re the one who should be leaving, then.”

  He snorted. “There’s nowhere I can go. She’ll hunt me down. You, Eve, the children—she’ll let you go. Whatever you think, she’s not a vindictive woman. You owed her no loyalty. As long as you don’t get in her way, she won’t come after you. Me? I’m a dead man walking. It’s just a matter of time.”

  “Unless we kill her.”

  Peter winced slightly and wasn’t quick enough to hide the reaction. “I doubt we’ll get the chance. Not this time, anyway. She’ll come with a small army.” He sighed. “We need to go.”

  They headed toward the car. “Do you trust her?” Peter asked in a low voice, nodding toward where Sara stood by the vehicle, hands in her pockets, waiting for them to say their good-byes so they could be on their way.

  Hell, Noah had no clue. He shrugged. “She can help.” Maybe the only one who could.

  “How?”

  Peter sounded skeptical, but Noah wasn’t about to reveal to Peter that Sara had the location. Not until he needed to, anyway. He still wasn’t certain of where his uncle’s loyalties would lie when put to the test. “We need to get into the Great Taboo. Without Sara, I doubt I’d get more than a few feet in without them putting a bullet in me. They sort of promised that would happen.” Or a spear. Or an arrow. He’d prefer the bullet.

  Peter nodded. Up ahead, Sara waited at the car, one eyebrow raised. She didn’t like Peter. Didn’t trust him, that much was clear. She was watching them closely and would likely protect Noah from his uncle if necessary. Which was sweet. He couldn’t remember a time when someone had tried to protect him.

  Yet unlike Peter, she hadn’t tried to make him walk away. In the short time they had been together, he figured she had gotten to know him pretty well. Knew when something was futile.

  “Peter wants to know if I can trust you,” he said as they came to a halt. “If it comes to a choice—which side will you choose?”

  She cast Peter a dirty look. “I’ve already chosen. And I’ll do everything in my power to finish this.”

  “Good enough. Let’s go.”

  Peter was driving. Noah sat in the back with Sara. “Okay, what do you think?”

  “Right now, if you step into the Great Taboo, you’ll be killed before you can get a word out. They won’t wait for your explanations. As far as they are concerned, by their standards, they already risked enough in letting you go.”

  “Why did they?” Noah asked. At the time, questions had not seemed a good idea.

  “Because my father owed Tarkhan his life. He once told me that their friendship was the only thing that had kept him alive when they were in the labor camp. And he’s a man who pays his debts. However, he will only bend so far for friendship.”

  “But with you along, they won’t kill me straight away?”

  “That’s the theory,” she said, though she didn’t sound convinced.

  “But they might?”

  She shrugged. “They might. I left without telling anyone, but if they’d wanted to, they could have stopped me before I left the area, so I’m hoping they’ll give me a chance to speak before they kill us both.”

  The plan was that Peter would drop them off at the point where they would have to change vehicles. They would go on to the Great Taboo. Peter would go to his meeting with Clayton. So he would be part of the swap.

  “And if they do give us a chance to talk?”

  “Then we ask for a meeting with the council. Not all of them are as entrenched in the old ways. Some may be willing to listen.”

  “And at the meeting?”

  “We ask for their help. We tell them the truth, or at least some of it. The Descendants will never stop hunting, and next time, they will find the tomb, but that they actually want the Talisman not the actual remains. Maybe we can work with that.”

  “So how do we stay alive? Any advice?”

  She smiled. “Genghis Khan used to pray to the eternal blue sky. Maybe that would be an idea.”

  He glanced out of the window. They were leaving the city now. Outside, the sky was a deep, overarching blue. It was the height of summer. Christ, he’d give anything a try right now.

  He wanted this.

  He wanted to stop Clayton so badly, it consumed his mind, and that was not good. He needed a clear head.

  He stared again at the blue of the sky and prayed…

  Let me stop her.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Sara leaned against the vehicle as she waited for Noah. He was talking to his uncle, presumably making the last arrangements. Both the same height, both lean with short dark hair.

  How could they be so different?

  But were they?

  Was General Peter Blakeley a bad man?

  Any more than she was bad?

  He’d clearly believed in what the Descendants were doing. If they hadn’t kidnapped Noah’s daughter, would he have ever turned on them? Clayton had made a serious error of judgment because Peter clearly loved his niece as he loved Noah. Up until then, he’d been on Clayton’s side. While he might have doubted that some of her ways were justified, he had never stepped out of line. Noah claimed that his uncle was in love with the senator. People did strange things for love.

  She had gone against her own people to help Noah, because she couldn’t bear the thought of him losing his daughter. She’d had doubts herself, hadn’t liked the easy killing. But while she’d thought of making changes from within, she had never contemplated outright betrayal. Because that’s what this was. It went against their most basic beliefs.

  So really, she was like Peter. Both of them betraying their own sides for the people they loved.

  There. She’d admitted it. She cared for Noah. Not that she would ever tell him that. It was definitely on a need-to-know basis, and he did not need to know.

  It looked like they had finished talking. She climbed into the driver’s seat. It made sense for her to drive. She knew the route—she’d driven it a hundred times.

  Finally, with a last nod, Noah came over. He slung his bag into the back of the ATV and climbed in beside her. She pulled away as he was fastening his seat belt. She cast him a sideways glance. He was relaxed back in his seat and staring at the sky through the open top of the vehicle. Maybe he was praying after all. When she was a little girl, her papa had taken her up the sacred mountain, and she had prayed to the eternal blue sky.

  She had believed back then.

  Now she no longer believed.

  Not in that, anyway, though she still believed in a better world. That it could be possible, but they had to fight for it. All it took for bad people to win was for good people to do nothing.

  They had to do something or die trying.

 
; They were driving along the banks of a river. As they reached the ford, she turned and drove into the water, over the rocks and up the steep bank on the other side. She could feel the vehicle straining, but it pulled through, and then they were into the forest, the track through the trees almost invisible unless you knew it was there. She weaved between the trunks.

  “We just crossed the border into the Great Taboo,” she said.

  “So how long until they know we’re here?”

  “They already know.”

  She’d seen the spotter, sitting astride a horse, as they entered the area. He would have already contacted the camp. They could expect a welcome committee any moment now. Her skin prickled. She had no clue what form that welcome would take. They might just decide to take Noah out, and she’d warned him there was a chance, though he didn’t appear concerned. In fact, he seemed more relaxed now. She reckoned he wasn’t a man who did well with inactivity, and waiting was not a strong point. He was happier on the move.

  No one shot them.

  “This is as far as we go,” she said, hitting the brakes and coming to a halt at the base of a steep incline. As she turned off the engine, a rider appeared over the first ridge, leading two saddled horses.

  “That’s a good sign, right?” Noah murmured from beside her.

  “Yes. They might still decide to shoot you, but I’m guessing they’ll listen to us first.” Though she had an idea they weren’t going to like what she had to say. She climbed out of the vehicle and waited as the rider approached. Noah grabbed his rucksack from the back and slung it over his shoulders.

  The rider was armed, a pistol at his thigh, though it remained in the holster. He didn’t speak, just stopped beside the ATV. Sara nodded then took the reins of one horse and led it to Noah before mounting the second.

  Still without speaking, the rider turned and headed back up the mountain. Sara followed, Noah behind her. The track was too narrow to ride side by side. She glanced back over her shoulder. He seemed at ease on the horse, his position relaxed, moving easily, leaning forward in the saddle as they climbed.