“We’ve been very careful with it,” Berat said. “What does it say?”
“It’s inventory,” Abigail said. It actually was inventory. She had planned to say it was, even if it wasn’t. She had no intention of telling him the treasure’s location. Anything but that.
“An inventory of treasure?”
She nodded. “It says the treasure is in five different locations, but the main location is inside the Temple of Artemis.”
That was the truth, and Abigail considered it too vague for Berat to find the treasure.
“Go on,” he prompted her.
“It’s a partial list of treasure. Do you want me to read the items?”
“Not specifically,” he said, “but give me an idea. You don’t have to read the whole thing. Just get to the bit where it mentions the location.”
“It mentions vast amounts of gold and treasure.”
Berat clenched and unclenched his fists. “Quit stalling. Get to the location. It must be at the end.”
Abigail pointed to where the scroll was broken. “It doesn’t give the location at the bottom,” she said. “It’s still listing the inventory there.”
The man’s face flushed beet red. “You’re lying!”
“I’m not,” Abigail protested. “I’m telling you the truth. You can see for yourself it’s broken and if, as you say, the location is at the end of the scroll, then you can see for yourself that the scroll is broken before it reaches the end.”
Berat put his face close to Abigail’s. “You’re lying,” he hissed again. “I was told the scroll lists the location at the end.”
Abigail looked at the scroll once more. “But it doesn’t. There are two words at the end which might be a clue.”
The man appeared to have lost his temper entirely. “What are they?” he yelled, completely enraged. He reached for Abigail’s arm and twisted it behind her back, just as a shrill sound rent the air.
He dropped Abigail like a hot potato. He put the copper scroll back in the backpack, nowhere near as carefully as he had removed it, and ran outside. Abigail hurried to the door and watched him drive away.
Abigail had no idea what to do. It was then she realized her phone was still in her jeans pocket. She could have cried with relief. She pulled it out to call Riley when she saw a white SUV travelling up the dirt track at speed.
Was this Riley? Or was it Vortex? She had no idea.
Abigail was looking for somewhere to hide when the door burst open.
It was Riley. Abigail ran over and flung her arms around his neck. He held her close, stroking her hair. “Are you hurt?”
Abigail shook her head but didn’t let him go. “No, he wanted me to translate the copper scroll,” she said into his chest.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Ellis and Thatcher walk into the hut.
“Where’s Berat?” Riley asked, still stroking her hair.
“He had an alarm. He knew you were coming. An alarm went off.”
“He must’ve had an alarm on the posts at the bridge,” Thatcher said. “Was he alone?”
Abigail nodded. Riley finally set her aside. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes. He seems a bit of a fanatic, but he isn’t working for Vortex. He said his family has been guarding the treasure for generations, even though he had no idea where it was, apart from the fact it’s in an underground cavern. He has explosives with him. He’s going to find it and blow up the entrance to make sure no one ever finds it. He also said he would get rid of any witnesses.”
Riley looked angry.
Ellis and Thatcher had disappeared, presumably to search the vicinity.
“I actually saw the copper scroll,” Abigail said.
“You did?” Thatcher said as he walked back into the room. “Did you translate it?”
Abigail nodded. “It said Croesus divided the treasure into five separate locations, but the main one was at the Temple of Artemis.”
“At Ephesus?” Thatcher said, looking confused.
Abigail shook her head. “No. Berat said the treasure is inside the Temple of Artemis in an underground cavern.”
“Maybe there’s an underground cavern under the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus,” Thatcher suggested.
“Yes, possibly,” Abigail said. “There was a Temple of Artemis at Sardis as well, and Sardis was the capital of Lydia.”
“So let me get this right,” Riley said. “The copper scroll didn’t tell you the location of the temple?”
“The scroll was broken at the end and it ended on two words,” Abigail said. “They must be the clue to its whereabouts.”
15
SELCUK
“No Amazons.”
“Do you have any idea what that means?” Ellis asked her.
After Abigail remained silent for a few moments, Riley said, “It might help to think out loud.”
Abigail nodded. “Good idea. Two words—not much to go on. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus had a large frieze depicting the Amazons—you know, the famous mythical warrior women. And there’s a strong connection with Croesus as well. He made very generous offerings to the Oracle at Delphi as well as generous donations to the rebuilding of the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Herodotus wrote that Croesus paid for many of the columns, so it’s not known whether he paid for the entire temple to be rebuilt as well. Archeologists did discover a column drum with the inscription ‘Dedicated by Croesus’ on it. What’s more, there are Lydian inscriptions from the time of Croesus mentioning the cult of Artemis.”
“What remains of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus today?” Thatcher asked.
“Not much at all, I’m sorry to say,” Abigail said. “Basically, just a huge column. There’s not much at all to see.”
“Do you think that’s what the reference to the Amazons meant?” Thatcher asked her. “The fact that the temple was destroyed?”
“But it wasn’t destroyed at the time of the copper scroll,” Abigail pointed out. “It would have been still standing.” She tapped her chin. “I think I know what it is!”
She looked up to see three impatient faces. She pushed on. “Croesus was fond of helping the Greeks—he consulted the Delphic Oracle and he rebuilt the Temple of Artemis, either in whole or part.”
“You’ve already said that,” Ellis said with barely veiled impatience.
Abigail waved one hand at him in dismissal. “No, I’m getting to the point. The Amazons were depicted on the frieze at the temple at Ephesus because legend states they fled there when escaping from Hercules. There was also a Temple to Artemis in Sardis, Croesus’s capital.”
Ellis interrupted her once more. “Does it depict Amazons?”
“It’s not standing today,” Abigail said, “but I very much doubt it depicted Amazons. There was no geographical link to them as there was at Ephesus. Some ancient writers did suggest there was another Temple to Artemis, a subterranean one, in which Croesus hid most of his treasure.”
“Sounds like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Riley said.
Abigail shook her head and tried to quell her growing excitement. “No, that’s just it! When I was a doctoral student, I knew a scholar who started to excavate at Sardis, but he ran out of funding and couldn’t get any more. He went on to dig at Jezreel and then Dor because it was easy to get funding for those sites. He told me he had, in fact, uncovered evidence that there was a subterranean Temple to Artemis near Sardis. He published on it.”
“What did he say?
“He only mentioned some small finds, but he said it was located above the Pactolus River. When I was a doctoral student, I was his research assistant on the Lydian dictionary. I still have my email correspondences with him.”
“Can you search them on your phone?” Riley asked.
Abigail clutched her stomach. “Yes.”
“All right, let’s go. Let’s find a café somewhere where we can eat and decide what to do next.”
Abigail could see that neither Ellis nor T
hatcher approved of such action, but they didn’t say anything. “Find one on a busy street,” Riley said to Ellis.
Abigail pulled out her phone, but Riley shook his head. “Wait until we get there,” he said softly.
Abigail had no idea why, but she nodded.
As soon as they walked inside the little café, Riley said to Ellis, “Get a table. I want a quick word with Abigail.”
Both Ellis and Thatcher hesitated but walked away.
Riley waited until they were out of earshot. “Abigail, when you look through your emails, don’t say aloud what you find. I want you to show anything you find to me, but don’t tell the others. Also, don’t mention the professor’s name in front of them.”
“Why?” she asked.
Riley frowned, and at first Abigail thought he wouldn’t answer. After continuing to frown for some time, he did. “I don’t know who to trust.”
Abigail was shocked. “You mean you don’t trust Ellis or Thatcher?”
“I don’t trust anybody,” Riley said. “Something is just not right about this situation and it’s making me uneasy. So when you find the emails, show them only to me.”
“What if they ask me about them?” Abigail said.
Riley patted her shoulder, sending electric tingles running through her body. “Leave that to me.”
His hand remained on her back as he guided her to the table.
Abigail logged into her email on her phone and then tried to set the search for years earlier. It wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. She was still searching when the food arrived.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Riley asked her.
“I have to find it first,” she said. It took her a while to find the emails, given they were years earlier, but once she found the group of emails, it wasn’t hard to find the one she was looking for. She swiped to make the text bigger, and read the entire email.
Professor Briggs said he had uncovered a site of tomb robbers killed by an earthquake. With them were gold figurines depicting Artemis as well as gold brooches containing seeds linked to the cult of Artemis, and this led him to believe they had robbed a nearby Temple of Artemis. He had also found a cave entrance, which he believed was a subterranean entrance to the Temple of Artemis.
Briggs said he had discovered the cave entrance on the day he was to leave, so he didn’t pursue it any further, and of course, he didn’t return when he couldn’t get any funding. He’d asked Abigail to keep the information to herself because he didn’t want robbers to go in there and remove artifacts illegally.
Abigail couldn’t believe her luck. She tried to mask her features as she handed the phone to Riley.
“Found something?” Thatcher said.
Riley answered for her. “Possibly. I’ll tell you when we’re back in the car.” He put Abigail’s phone inside his jacket pocket.
Abigail was too excited to eat, but she didn’t know where her next meal was coming from, so forced down mouthful after mouthful. The men ate a hearty meal while watching the road. Abigail noted that the car was within sight of the window at all times. Maybe Riley was afraid someone would put a tracking device on it.
As soon as they finished their meal, Riley paid and they hurried outside to the car.
“Where are we going?” Ellis said when he jumped behind the wheel.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Riley said. “For now, head to the Izmir Airport.”
Ellis turned back to the front, but not before Abigail saw a scowl on his face. Thatcher too looked angry; she could tell from the set of his jaw.
Riley pulled out Abigail’s phone and took screenshots of her emails. She watched as he emailed the screenshots to his own phone. He then put her phone back in his pocket.
Abigail looked at the two men in the front of the car. Riley wasn’t sure if he could trust them. Her stomach churned. What if they were Vortex agents?
16
EN ROUTE: IZMIR TO OXFORD
To Abigail’s dismay, the flight to Heathrow was going to be a long one. What’s more, there was no direct flight; flights offered two stopovers or one. Riley selected the next flight out with a single stopover in Munich of two and a half hours. Abigail hoped the stopover wouldn’t extend much more than that. She’d had her fill of long airport stopovers in her years as an academic, traveling to conferences to present papers on everything from Akkadian loanwords in Biblical Hebrew to the language of the Book of Ben Sira, Ben Sira being the Second Temple Period author of Sirach.
“Stay close to me at all times,” Riley whispered in her ear.
She stood on her toes to whisper back. “Are you worried about Berat?”
“Yes, and others as well.”
Abigail was worried about being in danger. She told herself to take it one step at a time: arrive safely in Munich, arrive safely in Heathrow, arrive safely in Oxford, and visit Professor Briggs. If she broke everything into steps, it didn’t seem so daunting. And surely she would be safe at the airports and on the flights.
The flight from Izmir to Munich was uneventful, apart from the fact that one of the flight attendants appeared overly flirtatious toward Riley. Despite the fact he seemed oblivious and all but ignored the woman, Abigail’s hackles rose. For all the woman knew, the two of them could be married, or at least dating.
Abigail must have drifted off to sleep at some point, because she awoke to find her head resting on Riley’s shoulder, much to her embarrassment. “I’m so sorry.”
“Any time! I don’t mind at all.”
Her cheeks burning, Abigail turned away so Riley wouldn’t see her blushing. The plane was beginning its final descent so Abigail distracted herself with the fact she was close to the first step of arriving safely in Munich.
The airport at Munich proved to be magnificent. As they walked through Terminal Two, Abigail saw plenty of restaurants, bakeries, and snack options.
Riley strode along looking as though he knew where he was going. The others fell in beside him. He stopped at a restaurant decorated in an unusual way with narrow tree trunks throughout the restaurant. “It’s usually crowded,” Riley said, “so we’re in luck. They have good burgers here.”
The restaurant offered a direct view of the airport ramp and Abigail assumed that was the reason Riley had chosen it. She certainly hoped they hadn’t been followed.
Abigail’s stomach was a little queasy, so she ordered a vegetarian burger with red onions, sun ripened tomatoes, and fresh salad. The three men ordered grilled beef burgers with fries.
When the food arrived, Riley turned to Abigail. “Feel free to help yourself to my fries. They’re sweet potato fries.”
Abigail was about to refuse but decided to try one. “Oh, it’s delicious,” she said.
Riley pushed his plate across to her. “We’ll share.”
Abigail noticed Ellis rolled his eyes. Still, she didn’t mind. She wondered what it would be like to be in a relationship with Riley, if he was a normal person and she was solely an academic and they were on a date. Warmth flowed through her body.
The cold light of reality followed soon after. They were there on a mission, a mission which could get them killed and already had nearly done so. Abigail at once lost her appetite and refused dessert, although Riley ordered waffles with vanilla ice cream and both Ellis and Thatcher ordered chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and cream.
Abigail wished she could eat so much without putting on weight, but figured their excessively active lifestyle burned off the calories in no time.
After they ate, Riley cast a look around him and checked his watch. Given the hour, the place was all but deserted.
“Are you going to give us the name of this professor now?” Ellis asked him.
“It’s too much of a risk, to be honest,” Riley said.
Thatcher raised his eyebrows. “Have you even contacted him yet?”
Riley shook his head. “Not risking it. We’ll make contact after we arrive at Heathrow.”
“So he li
ves in England?” Ellis asked.
Riley simply gave a curt nod by way of response.
After the men finished eating, they ordered coffee. Abigail glanced at her watch and was pleased to see more time had passed than she had estimated.
Would Professor Briggs even be in the country? She wanted to google him to find out but hadn’t had an opportunity to do so. She certainly couldn’t google him with Ellis and Thatcher around. Nevertheless, she was certain Riley had it all under control.
And when they found Professor Briggs, would they take him back to Turkey so he could show them the entrance to the temple? She supposed so, but she was highly reluctant to put him in danger. Vortex had already killed her friend, Jason Hobbs, as well as Eymen Bulut. How many more would die?
And were the Vortex agents already on their trail? Was Thatcher surreptitiously reporting to them? Or was Ellis? Maybe both? Or perhaps Riley was suspicious of everyone. Maybe that came with the territory.
When they boarded the plane for Heathrow, Abigail continued to study other passengers. What did Vortex agents look like? She assumed they were fit people like the men she was now with. Consequently, she stared at every athletic person she saw. There were plenty of them on the flight, a fact which did nothing to ease her nerves.
Abigail was also certain by now that Vortex agents were following them so she could lead them to the treasure. She hoped they didn’t already know about Professor Briggs and would make their way to him first and murder him. But how could they know?
Still, she couldn’t help but worry.
The flight to Heathrow was bumpy, which made sleep difficult if not impossible. Abigail abandoned all hope of sleep and instead watched a movie. It was such a bad movie, she thought it must have been an old one until she remembered she had read a review for it only recently.
When they landed at Heathrow, Riley put a protective hand on her back as they headed for customs. Abigail’s heart was in her mouth, but once more they passed through quickly.
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