by Martha Carr
She stood and activated her headlamp before striding into the cave. A few feet in she stopped, frowning.
Condensed moisture coated the rocks. She’d seen it with her drone, but she hadn’t considered the implications. Where there was water there was usually life, and she didn’t see a single mushroom or strand of moss. Maybe there were toxins or heavy metals in the rock, or residual alien radiation from centuries prior.
“Should start bringing a Geiger counter, too.”
Shay frowned as she came up to the door. She took a deep breath and placed her palm on the flat panel. Nothing happened.
Guess it’s not some ancient alien panel, or if it is, it’s looking for something I don’t have. Time to try this the old-fashioned way and hope this shit will open.
She pushed on the door, and the bottom scraped against the cave floor. At least it hadn’t been locked. With the aid of her shoulder and a little grunting, the door swung open.
The headlamp revealed a vast cavern choked with long stalagmites and stalactites, almost as if she were inside the jaw of a monstrous stone beast pretending to be a mountain. Unlike the outer cave, the irregular shape of much of the chamber didn’t suggest anything unusual. She’d gone from unnatural to natural-but-unnerving.
Soft dripping and running water echoed from a narrow passageway at the back of the cavern.
Shay didn’t move for a couple of minutes as she continued sweeping the room for any sign of enemies or traps with both her headlamp and the IR and UV modes of her goggles. Nothing. Empty. No humans, no demons. Not even any bugs.
She chuckled.
Sometimes it’s more about just finding the damned place. At least it’s a nice change of pace.
Satisfied with the lack of any killer ancient alien laser death traps or scaly demons, the tomb raider maneuvered through the maze of stalactites and stalagmites to the passageway. The sloping path took her forty feet down and into another chamber.
A deep, cloudy pool of algae-infested water filled the center of the room, the source of which was water steadily dripping from several holes in the wall. The running water noise she’d heard before emanated from the walls above her—a hidden stream.
That mystery was of minor interest. The more obnoxious find was the lack of other exits, or anything looking like the artifact or a container.
Shay stared at the pool of water and groaned. “There’s no way I’m lugging a stupid aquatic drone all the way up here.”
She moved closer to the pool and shined the light into it, but the thick algae blocked any attempts to plumb its depths. She switched to IR mode, but couldn’t spot any major thermal differentials in the water.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Over the next couple of minutes, Shay removed all gear that couldn’t take a little water. Bile rose in her throat at the idea of swimming through a slime-infested pool in the middle of a cave.
On the other hand, If I ended up dying because of some brain-eating amoeba rather than some asshole shooting me, it’d be kind of funny.
Shay finished by removing her holster and tactical harness and grabbed a single adamantine knife. She didn’t expect to find anything in the water, but she didn’t want to end up dying because some random underwater plant snagged her leg.
She moved to the edge of the pool and took several deep breaths. “Yeah, gonna have to shower five times when I get back to Quito to feel clean after this.”
Shay closed her eyes and dove into the pool. She kicked with her legs to dive straight down, her free palm out. The slimy bottom of the pool turned out to be only eight feet down.
The thick algae coated her exposed skin as she pushed through the water. She shuddered under the light touch of the plants and didn’t dare open her eyes.
Fumbling around with her hand, she felt along the bottom of the pool. Thirty seconds passed without finding anything more than rocks. A minute.
Shay shot up, breaking the surface and taking a deep lungful of air. Her disgusting first trip had given her nothing, but she’d only explored a small portion of the pool.
“Okay, attempt number two.”
Six tries later her hand passed over something angled and smooth, but her burning lungs forced her back up before she could get a good hold on the object.
Shay tossed her knife into the pile with the rest of her gear and returned to the spot in the center of the pool. Using both hands, she felt along the edges of the suspicious object, which was clearly some sort of metal box. She braced her feet, and with a mighty tug, she freed the box.
Once back at the surface, she dared opened her eyes. A smooth golden box with a hinged lid rested in her hands. She swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out, a stupid grin on her face.
“Now let’s see if all that disgusting swimming was worth it.”
Shay turned on her headlamp and lifted the lid, and something gold shone under the light—a small figurine, a thick golden triangle with two long connected wings and what might charitably be interpreted as two tail fins, rested inside. The Bomber.
Up close, the figurine didn’t strike the tomb raider as looking all that close to an aircraft, but it didn’t resemble any animal she’d ever seen either.
Of course, the artisans might have just been making something cool.
Shay shrugged and gathered her gear. She’d get paid whether it was the key to an ancient alien mystery or a nice toy for the emperor’s kid. Before she handed it over to the client, she’d perform a thorough examination and take some pictures.
Other than the whole swimming through muck thing, this wasn’t so bad.
The small chamber shook, and a loud bellowing groan echoed around her.
“Now what?”
22
Stray rocks shook loose from the walls and roof of the small chamber, pelting the ground and splashing into the pool. The shaking stopped, but a dark shadow moving in the pool made the tomb raider’s heart pound.
Yeah, that’s what I get for thinking it’d be so easy.
She yanked out her gun and backed toward the passageway leading to the next chamber. Water splashed all over the room as something leapt out of the pool with a screech.
Shay’s headlamp illuminated the slick and scaly body of a tall humanoid creature. It was more lizardman than demon, having glowing red eyes and long sharp claws. The monster hissed as he landed.
“You don’t have to die here,” Shay yelled, “but I’m not going to either. Back the fuck off.”
The lizardman charged, and Shay’s three shots echoed in the small chamber. The lizardman jerked back and dropped to the ground, his wounds spewing glowing blue blood. Shay put two more bullets into his head to be sure.
“Okay, that wasn’t so bad.”
Several additional dark forms appeared in the pool.
“Shit. This is what I get for not bringing a grenade on the climb.”
Shay spun and rushed through the passageway. Red eyes and hisses followed her from the darkness. She unloaded her magazine into the darkness. Two loud screeches followed.
The tomb raider maneuvered between the dense stalagmites and stalactites choking the next chamber. A claw sliced at her from the side, from a lizardman hiding in the shadows. She ducked, whipped her gun up, and pulled the trigger.
Click. Empty.
Fuck.
Four more enemies lumbered from the darkness, snapping mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth and brandishing their claws.
Let’s see how sharp my babies are.
Shay dropped the gun and yanked out an adamantine knife for each hand. She rushed the closest lizardman and slammed a blade into his head. The monster collapsed in a spray of glowing blue.
The tomb raider stayed low and darted between the mineral formations, slashing with both knives at two closing lizardmen. Her blades dug deeply, but didn’t finish the creatures off. Both screeched and stepped back.
At least now I know these things understand fear. I can work with that.
> “That’s right, you ugly assholes. Don’t fuck with me if you want to leave this cave alive.”
More screeches and hisses sounded from the passageway.
“How many of you things were hiding in here?”
An unwounded lizardman leapt at her. She met his throat with a knife, but his claws ripped into her, slicing through her shirt and undershirt. Shay hissed as pain lanced through her side, warm blood welling up from the wound.
The two enemies she’d wounded earlier pressed a new attack. Both charged her, but their movements were unsteady and their glowing blood dripped to the ground. Shay met their charge by thrusting knives into their chests, and they screeched and thrashed for a few seconds before slumping to the ground.
Guess their hearts are in the right place. Lucky me.
Shay hurried through the chamber, not willing to risk the time to try to find her lost gun in the darkness. She had several reserve guns in her vehicle—assuming she didn’t get torn to pieces before returning to it.
Her footfalls echoed as she bolted toward the thankfully-open golden door. More lizardmen boiled from the passage behind her, their screeches and hisses forming a dissonant choir.
Do they have a whole fucking city hidden under this cave or something?
The tomb raider rushed toward the mouth of the cave, her side throbbing from her earlier wound. She was hours away from Quito, and had only a single healing potion in the back of the Wrangler. If their claws carried any sort of venom or toxin, her agonizing death might soon await.
Shay shook her head. She needed to concentrate on escaping.
Rappelling back to the base of the mountain without proper safety precautions when she was already wounded wasn’t one of Shay’s better ideas, but she’d rather die quickly from falling than be torn apart by a horde of angry lizardmen.
“Here goes nothing.”
Shay slid into the harness and anchored a rope as quickly as she could, feeding the rope through the carabiner before she leapt off the edge. “Don’t look at the dog that’s chasing you,” she said between clenched teeth.
Pain in her side pulsed in time with her heart as she started her descent. A half-dozen lizardmen stood on the ledge, staring down at her with their red eyes as they hissed and screeched. They waved their claws.
“Damn, half-wish you guys would have run off the edge.” She gave them a little salute. “But I have to go now.”
The tomb raider continued making her way down the mountain, but the dark forms above didn’t retreat to the cave. Nothing but her car awaited below, so she wasn’t sure why they were waiting.
Hoping I just fall to my death, assholes? Good luck with that. I’ve been hurt way worse than this and escaped from much smarter killers than you.
Shay’s breaths came out shallow and ragged. Her side was on fire, but she had hundreds more feet to go. The pain focused her awareness on her body and the descent, the cave’s guardians pushed to a small corner of her mind. It was time to solve the immediate problem before moving to something else.
The Wrangler had started as a distant blur before growing into a flat angular shape. The minutes passed, and suddenly it looked three-dimensional again.
Sweet, sweet ground lay only a few feet below her.
Shay dropped from the rope with a hiss, unhooking herself from the anchor and stumbled to the back of the vehicle. She opened the back hatch and grabbed the first-aid kit to apply an analgesic spray. A long sigh of relief followed. Some pain remained, but at least the fire had been extinguished.
Slumping against the vehicle, she lifted her shirt to assess the extent of the wound. Deep lacerations lined her side. If she hadn’t had a healing potion, she would have needed stitches, in addition to a risk of infection.
Underestimated the raid just because I got here and didn’t see anyone. Damn it.
Shay took out the potion from her first-aid kit. She’d wanted to keep it for a worst-case scenario, but there was no way she could risk the bumpy ride back down the mountain without taking care of the wound first.
Shay uncorked the bottle and downed the sour-tasting contents. Her wounds knitted themselves closed over the next thirty seconds, and the residual pain left. Another sigh of relief followed.
After a deep breath, the tomb raider stared up toward the ledge. It was too far now to make out any details in the thickening mist. The guardians might still be waiting, or they might have started down the side of the mountain. Waiting here to go another round didn’t appeal.
With her heart slowing and her wounds taken care of, Shay’s water-soaked clothes weighed on her body, and their earthy, rotten stench turned her stomach.
She reached into her pocket. The Bomber rested comfortably inside. She’d found what she’d come for. There was no reason to stay.
“See you around, lizard assholes. If it’s any consolation, at least no one has a reason to come here anymore.”
Shay wrapped her hair in a towel and put on a fluffy terrycloth robe. A forty-five-minute shower might be excessive under normal circumstances, but she wanted to ensure she eradicated any hint of the smell of the cave water in her nostrils. Even after her shower, the slimy feel of the algae lingered.
Ugh, that was nasty. Next time I should bring a cargo drone and ferry some equipment up first in case I need it.
She laughed. Next time? She’d gotten out of the hitman business because she had worried about dying young and being forgotten, but she wasn’t so sure that being a hitman wasn’t safer than being a tomb raider.
In her career, she’d already faced, among other things, ghosts, lizardmen, witches, mercenaries, frog-men, the world’s strongest wand, and an invisible army. Being a tomb raider meant being shoved into the middle of dangerous locations to seek out powerful artifacts.
I’m not gonna die in my kitchen. I’m gonna die in some musty cave in the middle of nowhere, and no one will find my body for decades, if not centuries.
Shay stared at herself in a mirror for a moment. For whatever reason, the idea didn’t scare her. The plan remained the same—save money and retire—but tomb raiding filled her with satisfaction that went beyond a job well done.
She was pushing into dark history long since lost, uncovering truth. Sure, sometimes that truth ended up in some asshole’s private gallery, but better there than under hundreds of feet of water or in a destroyed ruin.
The only question she couldn’t answer was how long she could do the job. Years? Decades? The original plan had an end goal, but no real timeline. Given all the money she’d already saved, she could probably retire tomorrow if she wanted to.
But I just don’t want to. Fuck it, a little danger plus history makes for a nice spice. Not like James couldn’t retire either.
I’ll sip drinks on a beach when I’m old and broken. For now, I still have a lot of asses to kick and artifacts to find.
Shay stepped out of the bathroom and smiled down at the Bomber, which sat on a nightstand near her hotel bed. Although the room had a safe, she didn’t trust it to hold something so valuable. Once she got her new clothes, she’d keep the artifact on her person until she turned it over to the client’s representative back in the States.
Her phone rang, and she hurried to the bed to pick it up. Peyton. She’d sent him a quick text once she’d gotten a signal on her phone again, but she’d left out the details about getting sliced up by lizardmen. The man wouldn’t be able to resist some horrible joke about the job.
“What’s up?” Shay answered. “Client whining or something?”
“Nope. Have I ever told you how awesome I am?”
Shay snorted. “Yeah, lots of times. What about it?”
“I’ve got good news, or maybe bad news depending on how you look at it. But I think you’ll believe it’s good news.”
“What’s the damned news?”
“Durand’s in Quito right now. He should have just landed.”
Shay grinned. “Did he now?”
“Yep. I’ve spent the e
ntire time you’ve been gone trying to track him, and I got lucky. Well, not lucky. I’m awesome still, but… Anyway, he’s in Quito. Thought you might want to know.”
“Thanks, Peyton. That is good news.”
“See? Knew it.”
“I’ll take it from here. I’m gonna have a little fun with our favorite Frenchman, but I’ll be on a flight home tomorrow morning.”
“See you then.”
Shay hung up and smirked.
Too damned late, Durand.
Shay strolled toward the tree-flanked patio of the cozy restaurant. The colorful tables were filled with chatting customers happily eating a glorious array of mouth-watering food; empanadas, soups, fruit, fried plantains, and ceviche.
Her stomach rumbled, but she didn’t care about getting a snack or breakfast. She only cared about the blond man sitting at a table near the corner, his back to the wall and a bowl of soup in front of him.
Good for you, Durand. Nice defensive seating. Too bad about everything else.
The retrieval specialist might have been better on the ground in DC and Russia, but she’d been ahead of him from the start this time. It’d been pathetically easy to find the man. He might be a ghost electronically, but a few bribes to the local underworld representatives had gotten Shay his location within hours. He stood out in Ecuador, as did she, but she was more than willing to splash enough cash around to earn some assistance, and her proficiency in the language helped.
Durand folded his hands in front of him and wore a mocking smile on his face as if he’d been expecting her. Maybe he didn’t want her to think he was about to shoot her. She kept her hands visible to communicate the same, even though she had knives strapped to her thighs beneath her dress and a gun in her purse. Becoming a fugitive in Ecuador wouldn’t help her.
I’ll make you wipe that shit-eating grin off your face. You don’t know how badly I’ve beaten you, asshole.
Shay sat across from him with a grin. “No goons today? I’m disappointed. Who’s gonna wipe your ass for you?”
“Sometimes I need assistants, but often I don’t. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s often better to work alone.”