Buried Secrets

by Kristi Belcamino

  He’d take care of it. Relief filled her. Now she could concentrate on that corner, the spot where she was growing increasingly sure she’d find the tomb.

  As the sun rose, Dallas watched the vehicle’s leave.

  Colton and Abet in one vehicle.

  Eban and the crew member in the other.

  She poked her head in the tent. Sam and Danny were busy so she decided to walk around the temple.

  By noon, Colton nor Eban had returned. Dallas felt a sense of desperation claw at her. What if she couldn’t find people to help with the dig?

  Bringing people in from outside of the area would cost too much—money and time.

  But then around 2 p.m., a white truck kicking up a wake of dust pulled in.

  It was Eban, the older, gray-haired worker, and about five men.

  About one-third of the crew they’d had the previous day, but it would have to work.

  When the crew members started walking toward the cemetery, where they had excavating the mummy’s the day before, Dallas called out to Eban.

  After a quick conversation, Eban and Dallas led the men over to the one corner of the temple. A few of them exchanged glances, making her wonder if they knew something about the tablet being found in that corner, but she let it go.

  By afternoon, the men had found something.

  It was a hole the size of a small person that appeared to open up into a tunnel.

  When they had cleared the sand and dirt and the entryway was revealed, Dallas called for a break. While the men retreated to find water and shade, Dallas crouched down, staring into the dark void below her. It was tough to tell how far down the hole went but it was clear it led to something. Some rocks and rubble had dropped while they were digging and it was quite a long time before they heard them hit something below. She picked up another small rock and let it drop, listening intently for it to hit bottom. Clink. It struck rock.

  Danny and Sam had been summoned and were soon at her side.

  “Nice work. This must be the tunnel system we saw with Sam’s program,” Danny said, nodding at Sam.

  Dallas nodded and took a long swig of her water. She wiped the sweat dripping down her brow and grinned. “I want to go in.”

  Danny laughed. “Of course, you do.”

  “I mean right now.”

  “We have to stabilize it to some extent,” Danny said. “Hate to see you buried alive, boss. Even if it is with the entombed body of our beloved queen.”

  A chill ran down Dallas’s spine despite the heat.

  The thought of being this close to Cleopatra’s tomb was both thrilling and unnerving.

  This was the biggest find so far. Now they would have access to the maze of underground tunnels they’d only seen on computer screens.

  Dallas and the skeleton crew spent the rest of the day installing supporting struts at the entrance to the hole. Even so, Dallas knew exploring the hole would be dangerous.

  A risk she wouldn’t hesitate to take.

  She couldn’t wait to tell Colton about it. Every once in a while, she’d hear the distant noise of a vehicle and look up but it was usually a car passing by on the road below.

  It wasn’t until dusk that Colton returned.

  At first Dallas didn’t recognize the small white car as it pulled up and was wary, but as it grew closer she saw Colton behind the wheel.

  He was alone.

  Dallas had been bursting to tell Colton the news about the tunnel, but now she was concerned. She dropped her tools and headed toward the parking lot.

  “What’s going on?” she asked as soon as Colton stepped out of the car.

  “I gave Abet the night off and rented this car. Sam can drive you back to the hotel,” Colton said.

  “I don’t understand.” Dallas took a slug of her water.

  “I’m camping out here. I’m sleeping in this car.” That’s when Dallas noticed Colton wore a heavy coat. A sleeping bag could be seen in the passenger seat. “I rented this car for the month. Figured it was safer in here than the guard shack.”

  “Colton. That’s crazy. You don’t have a gun. What are you going to do if grave robbers arrive?”

  “Honk?” He grinned. “No, but seriously. I’ll park right in the road, blocking the way in and turn on my lights.”

  “Did you forget about Hemede?”

  She wasn’t sure when during her weeks in bed—or how—she’d learned the name of the crew member who’d been murdered, but she knew this was the first time she’d said the man’s name out loud and it made her sick to her stomach.

  Colton grew somber. “No. But remember they made an arrest in that case? It was random, right?”

  Dallas thought back. That was right. During her depression, Colton had called to tell her that Egyptian authorities had made an arrest. She didn’t believe it then and she didn’t believe it now.

  “That’s what they wanted us to think.”

  Dallas was convinced that the man who was arrested took the fall for someone else. Whomever had been causing trouble for her from day one, back in the States.

  Danny came up with a broad grin, not picking up on the tension.

  “Did you hear? Dallas found it We’re close buddy. Real close.”

  Dallas couldn’t hide her smile or excitement as she filled Colton in on the day’s discovery.

  “I’ll be here bright and early, boss,” Danny said. “I’m going back to my hotel to call the minister and let him know about the latest development and see if they can send us some special camera equipment. Even if they ship it overnight, we won’t see it for another day so I want to get on it right away. I tried to call earlier but couldn’t get a signal”

  Cell reception was spotty at the dig site.

  After Danny drove away, Dallas took Colton over to the hole, which was now covered with a tarp, she shone a flashlight on it.

  “It’s not very big, is it?”

  Dallas shook her head. “Big enough for me to fit in, though.”

  “Wow. This is incredible, Dallas. You must be on top of the world.”

  “I’m a nervous wreck,” she admitted. They walked back to the parking lot.

  As the crew finished packing up for the night and piled into the two trucks to return to town, Dallas and Colton stood silently watching. One truck had so many people in it, that a few were standing on the sideboard holding onto the open window. They were laughing and lively despite a hard day working out in the sun. Dallas knew she couldn’t offer them money to stay the night. Because they probably needed the money enough to agree to it.

  But that wouldn’t be fair. They deserved to go home to warm meals and families.

  She squared her shoulders and headed over to where Sam was waiting for her in his rental car. She leaned in the window and spoke to him. A few seconds later he pulled away and Dallas began walking back toward Colton.

  “Hey! Hey!” Colton yelled at the car as it drove away.

  When she got to his side, Dallas smiled at Colton and reached for the passenger door handle of the white car.

  “I’m staying with you.” She slumped into the seat and leaned it as far back as it would go before closing the door.

  “Jeez, Dallas. Seriously?”

  “You’re stuck with me now,” she said, pulled her hat down over her face and closed her eyes. “I’m exhausted. Night?”

  Colton swore under his breath.

  She feigned snoring.

  “I’m not amused.”

  “Get in,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep now if I had to. I’m too excited about the tunnel. Colton! This is so exciting. This is it. What we’ve been looking for. I just know it.”

  “It’s pretty incredible,” he said. He closed her door and came around the car to the driver’s side door.

  After he got in, Colton started the engine and cranked up the heater to warm the inside of the car for a few seconds.

  “Can you grab those blankets out of the back seat? And there is a huge thermos of coffee and s
ome snacks.”

  She smiled. He was already over his irritation.

  Bundled up in blankets and warmed with hot coffee and pastries, Dallas finally was able to relax a little. The excitement of today’s find had finally worn off a little. She was starting to grow sleepy. She yawned loudly.

  Colton exaggerated his own yawn, making her laugh.

  They sat there in the dark for a few minutes. The night sky was a reddish black velvet dotted with pinpricks of stars everywhere she looked.

  “It’s so beautiful,” Dallas said with a small audible sigh.

  “Sure is.”

  Something about his voice made her tilt her head. He was watching her in the dark.

  “Why Cleopatra?” he asked.

  Dallas’s hand instinctively reached for the ankh on the leather cord around her neck.

  “It was the movie with Elizabeth Taylor,” Dallas began.

  “Aha. I knew it,” Colton said.

  “Wait,” Dallas said and held her palm up. “That was what started it. It was playing on TV and my mom and Dad were watching it. And they got into an argument. It was one of the worst arguments I’d ever seen them have. They didn’t know that I got out of bed and was watching them from the doorway. I was astonished that my mother could be so angry at my father. She was normally a pretty laid back hippie mom, but my dad had said something about how Cleopatra’s beauty could make a man do anything.

  “It didn’t seem like a statement that would rile my mother. I mean she might tease him about him and tell him women were the superior sex and so on, but get mad? Unlikely. But like I said, even though she was normally really easygoing, she was ticked off. She stood up and turned toward my dad standing between him and the TV. Her face was red. I’d never seen anything like it.”

  “Whoa,” Colton said.

  “Right? She went off on a rant about how Cleopatra had been possibly the most educated person in the world at the time. How she spoke a bajillion languages, how she was smarter than any Harvard graduate today and so on.”

  “Your mom knew a lot about her.”

  “That’s what my dad said. I mean he was instantly contrite. So maybe it wasn’t an argument so much as me seeing my mother furious and passionate about something and standing up to my dad about it that made such an impact on me.

  “I mean normally she just went along with anything he said. But even when he agreed he was wrong to say that and that Cleopatra seemed amazing, my mother still had to go get down a giant book from the bookshelf and brought it over to him.

  “They sat side by side on the couch and she told him all about Cleopatra while they thumbed through the book. She wasn’t angry anymore and I could hear the excitement in her voice. Most of the time she was so busy with work and being a mom that I never got to see this side of her. I was fascinated. I sat and listened.”

  “I can just imagine you. I bet you were so cute.” Colton reached over and tugged at her ponytail a little. “Did you have long hair like this in a ponytail?”

  “Stop!” She playfully swatted his hand away. “My dad said, ‘Karen, I never knew any of this.”

  My mom told him she’d begun studying archeology in college, but that when my grandmother died, she dropped out and returned home to raise her younger brother.

  “Oh man.”

  “Yeah, right? He was the one who died.”

  “Ugh.”

  “I know. She gave up her dream.”

  “Wow.”

  Colton and Dallas sat in silence for a few seconds.

  “I thought that they didn’t know I was there, but toward the end my mom yawned and stood up and winked at me. I ran to my bedroom and jumped in my bed, pulling the covers over my head and pretended to snore and that was that.”

  “That was that?” Colton said wrinkling his nose.

  “Well, I guess not exactly.” Dallas felt like she’d talked too much as it was, but Colton seemed genuinely interested in hearing more.

  “After a while, when I heard my dad snoring from their room, I got up and went back in the living room to look at the book my mom had been reading. Gosh, it must’ve weighed as much as I did, and I sat up all night looking at it. I fell asleep but luckily woke in the morning in time to get in my own bed before my mom came in to wake me for school. For some reason, I felt like I needed to keep it a secret that I’d overheard them.”

  “That’s cool,” Colton said.

  “A few weeks later, for Christmas, my dad got my mom this necklace.”

  Two months later he landed a job as a photographer at National Geographic and took off. He came home a few times a year and stayed for a week or so, but then left again. Right after I turned eighteen, he got a book deal and moved home to write the book. He told me and my mom he would never leave us again. That night they were killed by a drunk driver.

  Colton reached over and gently put the ankh in his palm.

  “Oh Dallas, I’m so sorry.” Colton let go of the ankh and reached for her hand, lightly rubbing it with his thumb.

  Dallas felt tears forming in the corner of her eyes and tried to blink them away. “I guess after that I always made Cleopatra larger than life. She was the one thing my mother was most passionate about—well besides me and my dad.”

  Colton leaned over then and kissed her, long and hard.

  Dallas didn’t even care about the console between them digging into her side. All she could think about was how amazing the kiss was.

  Colton pulled back too soon.

  “We probably shouldn’t start something we can’t finish.”

  “Who says we can’t finish it?” Dallas said, jutting her chin toward the back seat.

  Colton raised an eyebrow. “Well … it’s not exactly how I planned it. I’d hoped for a more memorable … well, damn it, Dallas. I want it to mean something.”

  “Oh, it will mean something all right,” she said. “Today might be the most important day of my life—the day I discovered the tunnel that leads me to Cleopatra’s tomb.”

  “Um, no offense, but wouldn’t the most important day be the day you found the tomb? He smiled. He was teasing her. “Wouldn’t you want us to celebrate at the Marriott or something.”

  “No!” Dallas was adamant. She pointed to the windshield. The moon was rising and casting a blue metallic light on the jutting silhouettes of the temple. “I can’t think of a more beautiful or fitting place.”

  Colton smiled. “It does suit us, doesn’t it?”

  She liked the way that sounded—us.

  Dallas leaned her seat back all the way and had climbed into the back seat. “Come on, Indiana Jones!”

  “Only if you take your hair out of that damn ponytail,” he said and then laughed. But before he could crawl over the seat, headlights flashed on his features. “Crap.”

  Dallas scrambled back into the front seat, her heart pounding. “Who is it? What is it? What do we do?”

  She turned to Colton. He was watching the approaching vehicle in the rearview mirror. He triggered the locks on the door. Dallas looked around. There was nothing that could be used as a weapon except maybe the empty steel thermos. She reached for it.

  Before she could react, the car had come to a skidding halt behind them and a man appeared at her window pointing a gun at her. That was all she could see. A large gun being held to her window.

  Even with the window closed, she could hear their voices.

  “Get out.”

  “Colton?” she said.

  “Don’t do it, Dallas.”

  The man let the safety off the gun. Now the gun was pressed to the window. It would blast right through the glass, Dallas had no doubt. And if she managed to duck then it would hit Colton. She had no choice. She reached for the door handle. Without taking her eyes off the man, she said, “Colton, as soon as I’m out, start the car and get the hell out of here. Go get help. I’ll distract them.”

  Without waiting for an answer, she opened the door and slid out.

  As she did, o
ne of the men knocked the thermos out of her hand and it clattered noisily on the pavement and then rolled under the car. She’d been a fool to think she could use it as a weapon.

  Behind her, the car remained still and quiet. She scowled. Colton needed to get out of there.

  Instead, she heard him getting out the other side.

  “My hands are up. Take me. Let her go. She knows nothing.”

  “We just want to talk to you,” the man in front of Dallas said. He spoke English but had a slight accent Dallas couldn’t place. “But first we want to look around.”

  The man then said something in Arabic and two more men with guns stepped forward. He turned back to Dallas and Colton. “My men will escort you to our vehicle. You will wait there until we are done looking around.”

  With guns pressed to their lower spines, Dallas and Colton walked toward the first of two large, black SUV’s parked behind their car. The gunmen indicated they should get into the backseat of the one parked the furthest back.

  After they crawled in, Dallas saw there was a glass partition between the back seat and the front. The gunmen positioned themselves, one on each side of the car and kept their guns pointed toward the doors.

  “This isn’t good,” Dallas said.

  “Could be worse,” Colton answered.

  “Yeah?”

  “We’re still alive.”

  “Until they ‘question’ us or whatever,” Dallas said. “We have to get out of here before then. Let’s think.”

  “I hate to say it, but I think we’re screwed, Dallas.”

  “Then don’t say it.” She hated that she snapped at him, but there was no time for that kind of thinking. “Let me think. Let me think. Let me think.” She tugged at her hair as she said this, looking around frantically. There had to be some way out. Some way to get away.

  Colton was leaning back on her and bending his knees with his feet aimed toward the window between them and the front seat. A thump from a very large gun striking the window stopped him. He put his feet down and swore.

  Dallas reached for the door handle to see what the goon on her side would do. The gun was instantly pointed at her window. Okay. Got it. She searched the back seat for something that might trigger the partition to slide open but no matter how many buttons she jabbed, it remained closed. What now?