The Bone Scroll: An Elemental Legacy Novel

by Hunter, Elizabeth

  Ben’s eyes went wide. “Really?” Opportunity was sounding an alarm in his head. “That seems backward. What about you? Are you considered foreign or local here?”

  “I mean, I’m not strictly Ethiopian; I’m diaspora, but having a doctorate from UCLA definitely helps when it comes to getting funding because a lot of it comes from Europe or America. But I want to bring an Ethiopian perspective to Ethiopian archaeology, you know? It’s been dominated by people outside the country for a century.” Liya’s smile was rueful. “In the current climate, if I wanted to excavate up in the north at one of the traditional sites, I could probably get funding” —she snapped her fingers— “like that.”

  Chloe asked, “But that’s not your area of interest?”

  “Nope.” She spread her hands. “What can I say? I know people like the flashy stuff like gold artifacts and manuscripts, but I want to go dig around in mud.” She laughed. “I’m trying to get funding together for an excavation at an early human site along the Blue Nile, but it’s not looking too good.”

  “Really?” Ben asked. “I’m surprised.”

  “It’s like I said, the flashy stuff gets the attention. Finding out how early humans lived isn’t quite as exciting as gold artifacts. But I’ll make it!” she said. “It might just take a little longer. I have a grant application in with the cultural preservation agency right now, so I’m hopeful.”

  Ben raised a glass, ecstatic that he’d found his way in. “Hear, hear. To Liya and to the mud along the Nile.”

  Chloe joined him. “May you find lots of interesting things and maybe even your very own Indiana Jones partner.”

  Liya raised her glass. “I will toast to that.”

  Ben and Chloe took a cab back to the compound, only to find an unexpected altercation happening just inside the gate when they arrived.

  Daniel Rathmore was pushed up against the stone wall, and Dema had a knife slightly smaller than a machete against his neck. Far from looking angry, the lanky Englishman looked delighted.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were working in California?” He turned his head to the sound of the gate opening. “Ben! Good to see you.”

  Chloe turned and saw the pair. She let out a slight “Eep!” and put a hand over her mouth.

  Ben didn’t make a move to help Daniel. He had no idea what the Englishman had done, but he probably deserved Dema’s knife. “Dan, how’s it going?”

  “Really great. Fantastic actually. Absolutely thrilled to be working on this project with you. Why didn’t you tell me Dema was working for Giovanni?”

  Chloe was hitting his shoulder as if he ought to be doing something, probably because of the machete.

  Ben ignored the hand hitting him. “You know, it didn’t even occur to me that you’d know my sister’s nanny.”

  “Nanny?” Daniel grinned even wider.

  “Give me one excuse to kill you,” Dema said quietly. “Just one is all I need. You know I will not have a problem getting rid of your body.”

  “Darling, you were always incredible with children; it’s a brilliant idea. I hope she’s a little firecracker; that will keep you on your toes.”

  Chloe tugged his arm. “Ben—”

  “I have no idea.” He put his arm around Chloe and led her away from the pair. “And it’s probably none of our business. If she was really going to kill him, she’d have done it already. You know Dema.”

  “I mean” —Chloe looked over her shoulder— “I thought I did.”

  He patted her shoulder. “We all have that one embarrassing relationship we don’t want to talk about, okay?”

  They walked back to the table under the mango tree where Zain was enjoying wine with Mika.

  Zain raised a glass. “Hey, you guys. Did you see that Daniel got here?”

  “I did.” Ben sat down with a nod. “He’s earlier than I expected, but it sounds like he’s excited about the project.”

  “That’s good.” Zain swirled red wine around his glass. “Ben, you should try this one. You’d like it.”

  “Thanks.” He reached for the wine bottle. “Good meeting tonight with Chloe’s new friend. I think I have an idea for an opening there.”

  Chloe flopped into her seat and stared at Ben. “Are we really not going to talk about Dema trying to murder Daniel?”

  Zain shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think she’ll actually hurt him.”

  Mika frowned. “What’s going on?”

  Chloe said, “Daniel Rathmore, Giovanni’s friend who’s here to help with the project—”

  “Earth vampire from England,” Ben broke in.

  “Liiiiiittle bit of a player,” Zain muttered.

  Chloe gave them both dirty looks. “He’s at the front gate, and Dema has a knife against his throat.”

  Mika’s large brown eyes went wide. “And he’s an ally?”

  Ben looked around. “Is Sadia in bed already?”

  “She went down an hour ago,” Zain said. “Giovanni and Beatrice are with Doug.”

  “Oh good.”

  Mika was still clearly alarmed. “What should we do about—?”

  “Nothing.” Ben and Zain spoke at the same time.

  “Dema doesn’t pull a knife on people unless they’ve earned it,” Zain said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m sure they’ll sort it out.”

  “She’s pulled a gun on me countless times,” Ben said, “and I’m clearly still alive.”

  “Gunshots won’t kill a vampire,” Chloe said.

  Mika pursed her lips. “Well…”

  “They will if it’s directly aimed at the base of the neck.” Zain glanced at Ben. “Not that we’ve trained for that or anything.”

  “Hey, as long as I’m not the one in your sights, I’m not worried.” Ben sipped the wine. Zain was right; it was delicious.

  No less than a minute later, Dema joined them at the table in silence. Reaching for her ever-present thermos of tea, she poured a large helping into an empty wineglass.

  Chloe was the only one brave enough to break the silence. “Is Daniel still alive?”

  “Obviously.” She sipped her tea. “Mika, I showed him where he’s staying. The second room in the garden house, right?”

  Mika nodded.

  “Good.”

  Chloe opened her mouth again, closed it, then reached for the bottle of wine. “Vampires are weird.”

  Dema nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Zain asked, “So Gavin’s coming by the end of this week, huh?”

  “Sadly no. Change of plans.” Chloe stared, wide-eyed, at Dema. “If plans change again though, I’ll make sure to let all of you know.”

  “Good.” Dema nodded. “I don’t like surprises.”

  17

  The meeting with Doug happened the following night just after ten o’clock. Most of the humans were sleeping, but Doug and Zain—being the team drivers—had joined Ben, Tenzin, Beatrice, Giovanni, and Daniel in the compound’s lavish library.

  The house had once belonged to a French diplomat, and the furnishings showed it. The room was decorated in ostentatious European pieces, and oil paintings hung on the walls. The narrow windows had been converted to be light safe with heavy shutters painted in similar classical themes.

  Doug had found the largest computer monitor in the house and had put up a computer-generated diagram of the British embassy on the screen.

  “It’s a huge compound, as you can see, but we’re ignoring pretty much all the public buildings.” He motioned to the left side of the diagram. “This is where all the security is run, but I’ve taken a look and…” He shrugged. “I’m not impressed. They’re really depending on reputation here.” He nodded at Ben and Tenzin. “For you two, getting in is going to be simple.” He gave an overview of the public buildings. “There are artifacts and manuscripts scattered over the entire embassy compound—most notably there are quite a few books and more than a few historic maps in the officers’ club here.” He pointed to a round building. �
�It’s a traditional tukul structure—those are the old-fashioned round houses with the grass roofs—but don’t be mistaken, it still has modern security. Cameras mainly.”

  Ben asked, “Where do the video feeds go?”

  “Here.” Doug motioned to a building right on the front row that faced the road. “All the security is run through here, and there is an embassy-wide alarm. If the guards see anything suspicious on the video feeds, they’re supposed to hit that alarm, which would alert basically everyone living in the compound. It is loud. It is effective. You do not want to be seen.”

  “But you don’t know where all the cameras are?”

  “No. That’s where your electronic sense and simple observation is going to have to come in.”

  Ben had been working harder every year on detecting electronic waves and signals. He was nearing perfect accuracy with most regular-frequency electronic equipment.

  Tenzin asked, “Who lives in the compound? Are there soldiers?”

  “No, but the ambassador and his family do live there, and he does have security at the main house.” Doug pointed to a large European-style home near the back of the compound. “In addition to the ambassador’s house, there are twelve other residences within the compound, including a couple of the tukuls which are still in use for guest housing. There are several kilometers between the front gate and the ambassador’s house though. It would take time for more than basic security to reach you if the alarm was tripped.”

  “Sheesh.” Ben leaned forward. “There’s like a small city in there.”

  “Like I said” —Doug gestured to the screen— “it’s a huge place and very spread out. Pool, houses, stables, and playing fields. There’s even a golf course and a private medical center.”

  Giovanni tapped his chin. “But despite that, they mainly depend on perimeter security?”

  “Yes, and it’s not good.” Doug flipped to a series of pictures. “The embassy is set on a hill above the city, and the mountain behind it is covered in forest. There’s a gravel path beyond the back wall that local people use to cross the hill between this creek” —he flipped to another picture— “and the road. I don’t think it’s pertinent to you two” —Doug looked at Ben and Tenzin— “but at night there’s a pack of hyenas that hunt all along this trail. That’s going to keep most humans away.”

  Tenzin perked up. “They hunt people?”

  Doug grimaced. “Hyenas will take dogs and children if they’re hungry, but they’re mainly scavengers. If these guys don’t get enough garbage from the human population in the forest, they might go after serval cats in the forest. Monkeys. That sort of thing.” He flipped to another picture. “The forest at the back of the embassy and then extending beyond the wall is pretty dense. Mainly eucalyptus trees. Some cedar. Now, there are reports of a couple of leopards in that area, but again, I don’t think that will be an issue for you two.”

  Daniel raised his hand. “Can I be part of this break-in? Please?”

  Giovanni glanced at Daniel. “Isn’t this your embassy?”

  Daniel waved a hand. “Listen, we all know the sins of my fathers. You’ll get no excuses for England from me. I just really want to see the leopard. And the servals.” He tapped a busy foot. “Maybe the monkeys. I like monkeys.”

  “Go on safari,” Ben said. “You’re staying put for this. We have to come from the air if we’re going in without being spotted, and we don’t need extra baggage.” Ben nodded. “The trees in back. That’s the best entry. We can drop in and no one will see us.”

  “I agree with Ben.” Doug flipped back to the embassy diagram. “If you wait for a nice stormy night with some fog up there on the hills, you’ll be well camouflaged from the air. And don’t worry about sensors or lasers or anything like that. Security is not that advanced.” He raised a finger. “Now, you may have to deal with electronic alarms on the ambassador’s house, which is where we believe the private safe is mostly likely to be, but you’ll be able to deal with that…” Doug shrugged. “…in whatever way you two normally deal with those things; I don’t ask questions.”

  “And what are you looking for again?” Daniel asked. “Sorry, the information I received before I took off was vague at best.”

  The lights in the house suddenly switched off.

  “Power outage?” Giovanni asked.

  “The generator will switch on in a minute,” Doug said. “It’s pretty common, especially during the rainy season.”

  Ben turned to Daniel. “We’re searching for a fourth-century Aksumite gold crown that we’ve been told is held in the private safe here in the embassy. Apparently it was acquired on the black market several years ago.”

  “Naughty, naughty Nigel,” Daniel muttered. “Or whatever the current ambassador’s name is. Why haven’t you turned that one in to the proper authorities, hmm?”

  Doug said, “We suspect that most of the European governments keep stashes of Ethiopian antiquities they’ve received as bribes or taken as spoils during conflict. They turn them over to the Ethiopian antiquities authority whenever they need a good splash of PR or are trying to cover up an embarrassing story.”

  The lights in the room suddenly switched on again, and Doug set about rebooting the computer, which had blinked off.

  “The British aren’t even that coy about it,” Ben said. “I’ve seen pictures of the officers’ club and the chancery. They have their goods on display.”

  “But not the really valuable stuff.” Doug had the computer on again and turned to a new slide. “That’s in the residence.” He pointed to a diagram of a large rectangular house with two distinct branches. “Okay, the house is built around two courtyards that extend from the main hall and the formal dining room that’s used for parties and that sort of thing. The west side is the residence, and the east side used to be offices, but it was converted to entertaining space after the chancery building was finished. Library, meeting rooms, billiard room, things like that.”

  Tenzin leaned closer to the screen. “It’s only one story?”

  “At various points it’s actually four, but you’re going to focus on the ground floor and the basements, which are where the private treasury is.”

  Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “And we know for certain—”

  Doug cut Ben off. “We don’t know anything for certain, but let’s just say I am fairly sure that these rooms” —he pointed to two rooms on the east side— “are where you’re going to find your safe.”

  Daniel raised his hand again. “And once you get this crown, you’re going to give it back?”

  Tenzin pursed her lips. “Eventually. That is the long-term plan, yes.”

  Daniel scratched his chin and frowned. “So… you’re going to do what these blokes have been doing? Trade valuable cultural antiquities for good public relations with the vampire in charge of Addis?”

  Tenzin turned to Ben. “He was the only option?”

  He reached over and took her hand. “He was the best one, yes.”

  Tenzin stared at Daniel until the earth vampire began to squirm.

  “Fuck, my father was not exaggerating about that stare,” he muttered. “I’m just saying…” He cleared his throat. “It’s clearly an effective strategy and an excellent plan. Well done, you.”

  Giovanni smiled. “At the end of all this, Daniel, a mother will have her daughter’s crown returned to her, along with her personal devotional book, and we will have safeguarded an incredibly dangerous immortal artifact that is in no way native to this country.”

  “Good.” Daniel’s voice was back to chirpy. “Excellent.” He glanced at Tenzin. “That all sounds… very good.”

  Ben and Tenzin watched the ambassador’s house through the trees. They were perched in a stand of eucalyptus, staring at four canines barking at them from the ground.

  “Dogs.” Ben grimaced. “He didn’t think to check for dogs?”

  “An ancient and still-effective alarm,” Tenzin said. “It’s good we came; let’
s see how they react.”

  A voice in Amharic called from the back of the ambassador’s residence. The dogs didn’t listen at first, but there was a sharp whistle, and they retreated.

  “See?” Tenzin smiled. “They don’t pay attention to the dogs. I suspected as much. The dogs are probably constantly barking at the hyenas beyond the gate.”

  “And it looks like they’re going into a kennel.” Ben craned his neck and peered through the misty night. A light rain was falling, and the clouds hovered close to the ground. “So they’re not in the house at all.”

  “I see one perimeter guard,” Tenzin said. “And he only walks around once an hour.”

  “This is going to be very easy,” Ben said. “Which makes me think there’s something we’re not seeing.”

  “I’ve checked the roof for wildlife and I don’t see any.”

  “Wildlife?” Ben glanced at her, then scanned the roof. “What would live on the roof?”

  “I mean… if we were in Asia, sloths maybe.”

  “Guard sloths?”

  “I’m just saying they’re more effective than you might think.” She adjusted her position on the cedar branch. “I love the smell here.”

  “So do I.” The rain falling in the grove of eucalyptus and cedar reminded him of nights in San Francisco. “When we’re done with this, what do you want to do?”

  “Honestly?” She turned to him. “I need some time away from cities.” She nodded toward the twinkling lights of Addis in the distance. “New York. Addis. Los Angeles.”

  “You need quiet.” Ben tried to imagine life without Tenzin, even for a short time. “I get that; I do.”

  They’d spent two years apart, and it had been the longest two years of his life. They’d been back together less than a year, and he was still trying to figure out what he meant to her and what she was to him.

  Was he her mate? He only knew vampire mating from Giovanni and Beatrice, who were also married in the Catholic Church. He knew Tenzin would never go for marriage, and he didn’t want to ask her.