Gene of Isis (54 page)

‘Yes I am,’ he confirmed, ‘but I rather thought I might hang around for a while.’

I shook my head. ‘You’ve done your time as a guardian spirit and although I shall miss you every time I sleep, I cannot condemn you to that purgatory any longer. You must move on,’ I urged, bravely denying my own feelings on the matter.

The look on Albray’s face was not gratitude or regret, but a rather odd look that I didn’t know how to intepret. ‘Well, if that is what you want.’ He sat me up, placed the two vials in my hands and stood to depart. ‘I was rather hoping that you would show me the ropes of living in the twenty-first century, but if you have other plans then I guess…’ He shrugged and then waved to me as he moved toward the exit tunnel.

The vials.
I looked to the items in my hand, then to the dark chamber around me. The door to the Ark chamber was closed. I stood up and noted the flat sack lying nearby; the bones were no longer in it.
Albray used the Star substance on me!
It had miraculously healed before, and that was why my wounds had vanished. My consciousness hadn’t shifted to Albray’s realm of existence, his consciousness had somehow returned to mine! ‘The goddess,’ I uttered under my breath and an inner voice told me: I
am only complying with the wishes of all involved.

Albray heard me running after him. He turned to catch me as I overpowered him with a hug. ‘I suppose, as I did draw you into this era, the least I can do is make you feel at home.’

‘I have never had a home before.’ Albray considered the notion, well disposed toward the concept. ‘You make me feel like I have finally found one.’

For the first time we kissed and there was no urgency attached—no time, dimension or alternative existence waiting to pry us apart.

‘Mia!’

The sound of Andre’s voice sent shockwaves through my system. I had forgotten about Molier’s three partners in crime.

‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked as he was accompanied down the path into the Star-Fire Temple at the tip of Akbar’s sword. They both looked badly beaten about and rather the worse for wear.

‘Thank heavens you’re all right.’ I conveyed my relief to the Arab. The Frenchman was not happy about this development.

‘You’re on his side!’ Andre protested, genuinely surprised. ‘What about me?’

I was about to tell Andre exactly what I thought of him, when it clicked that his subtle body was quite free of darkness.

‘He doesn’t remember a thing,’ Akbar advised. ‘Neither do the other two.’ He motioned with his head back toward the daylight, where Tusca and Conally were being held by other members of the Melchi brotherhood. ‘We had a little trouble bringing them under control, but then all three lost consciousness.’ Akbar shrugged.

‘Who is this?’ Andre motioned to Albray, who was still wearing nothing but his thirteenth-century trousers.

‘This is the new man in my life that I’ve been telling you about,’ I informed him and introduced them.

‘Did Molier bring you down here?’ Andre was suspicious of the stranger being let into the site before Andre himself had been in.

‘Molier entered the chamber beyond those doors and did not come back out,’ I told him truthfully. ‘I
fear he has ventured to go where no man ought, and has paid the ultimate price for his defiance.’

‘He is dead!’ Andre was disturbed by the news, but seemed more worried about the complications this might cause him than about the probable death of Molier. ‘That’s the trouble with these archaeologists. They are always getting themselves killed before they finalise their bloody accounts…when am I going to learn.’ He threw his hands up, then noticed the vials I held. ‘What are they?’

‘These belong to Akbar.’ I moved to hand the keys to him, and when Andre protested, he again felt the tip of the Arab’s sword in his back.

‘All right, they’re yours.’ The Frenchman held his arms up in submission. ‘I think I’m beginning to understand the situation a little better.’

‘My deepest gratitude, Dr Montrose.’ Akbar sheathed his sword and accepted the vials from me. ‘There are sites more secret than this one where the keys can be stored until their ultimate purpose is revealed to mankind. As long as the keys reside here, the security of the porthole will remain at risk.’

‘I agree.’ It was a relief to hand the keys over to the Order of Melchi, for they were the true custodians, who would not abuse their position as guardians of the vials. ‘Still, this is not the thirteenth century.’ I voiced my only concern. ‘With modern surveillance and tracking systems, how can you be sure that the keys can be delivered to a safe location without some ancient brotherhood creeping out of the woodwork to abscond with them again?’

Both Akbar and Albray were amused, but Albray played ignorant and allowed Akbar to explain.
‘There are places on this Earth that even the most sophisticated machines cannot find and the most ingenious men cannot go, without an invitation.’

‘How do you mean?’ Andre didn’t understand. Neither did I.I wondered if Akbar was being a little naive—Albray most certainly was.

My expression must have reflected my doubt, for Akbar said, ‘If it will reassure you, doctor, why don’t you attempt to track my party when we leave this place? Molier has left the most modern technology at your disposal…use any and all means that you have,’ the Arab challenged us with a winning smile. ‘But first we shall bury this gateway once and for all.’

Albray and myself nodded to second the motion.

‘But it has taken me months to get it open!’ Andre protested. ‘I haven’t even had the chance to look around yet!’

‘Believe me, you don’t want to,’ I advised, accompanying my guardians up the red-gold pathway to the exit.

‘But what about the fame and fortune?’ Andre was reluctant to leave the grand chamber and its walls of glittering gold.

‘The sun is setting,’ Akbar commented to his one-time employer. ‘You could stay here
alone
for all eternity, if you choose.’

Andre, not finding this a very attractive scenario, hotfooted it up the exit path behind us.

Outside, as the sun set, Andre, Conally and Tusca watched in bemusment while a multitude of Arab warriors buried the gateway in dirt and sand with the aid of Andre’s dormant excavation machinery. When the job was done the site was pretty much as they had probably found it. A few
sirocco storms and no one would ever know that this side of the mountain had been excavated. The Melchi, having completed their chore, abandoned the equipment and took to their horses.

‘Just fantastic,’ Andre grumbled. ‘The most promising dig ever, ruined by some backward cult of thieves!’

‘It is you who are the thieves.’ Akbar overheard the comment and took offence. The murder of his two young companions was fuelling his resentment. Still, as the offenders had not been in possession of their sensibilities at the time, Akbar had decided not to seek retribution—he knew well enough the power of the creature that had been controlling them. ‘If you treasure your lives,’ he advised Andre and the others, ‘you will be gone by tomorrow noon and you will never return to the Sinai.’ Akbar looked at me and all his anger melted away as he approached to say farewell. ‘You, on the other hand, doctor…I feel sure we shall meet again.’

I was going to bow politely, or offer him a handshake, but at the risk of offending the man, I embraced him, albeit briefly. ‘No offence, Akbar, but I hope you are wrong about that.’ I pulled back to find him looking stunned but honoured. ‘Thanks for being there to catch my fall.’

‘Your death at this time would have been a great loss for humanity.’ He accepted my gratitude graciously before turning to Albray. ‘Fare thee well, my mysterious friend. I suspect I am more indebted to you than I know.’

‘Likewise.’ Albray returned the Arab warrior’s grin, as they shook hands.

‘Take very good care of this woman,’ Akbar requested, as I slid under Albray’s arm. ‘She has a
thing for flinging herself off cliffs in the middle of the night.’

Albray looked at me in confusion—the stone had not been in my possession at that time, so of course my knight knew nothing of my near-death experience whilst trying to save the amulet.

‘Tell you later.’

‘Mia’s wellbeing is my reason for being,’ Albray assured Akbar, who nodded to wish us both well. If the man had questions he wanted to ask Albray, he refrained and mounted his horse instead.

We watched the hordes depart on horse and camel. ‘You do realise that my fee for this job just tripled,’ I said to Andre.

‘You speak as if the job is over, but we are just getting started.’ Andre winked at me ahead of striding off toward camp.

‘The project just got sabotaged by a local religious sect. Claim it on insurance and move on,’ I suggested, going after Andre to prevent him from picking a fight he would never win without starting a war.

‘I am not going to allow months of work to go to waste!’ Andre quickened his pace and waved forth Conally and Miss Resi. ‘I am taking our cocky Arab friend up on his challenge,’ Andre said. ‘I planted a tracking device on him.’

‘That is not really standard excavation equipment,’ I chided, concerned at the development, as I had seen Molier’s high-tech office.

‘Molier was not your standard archaeologist. He had ways and means.’ Andre did remember that much about his recently deceased employer. ‘I also planted the micro-camera from the headset that Molier gave me earlier.’

‘Good for you.’ Conally was inspired into action. ‘I’ll chase up Marty and we’ll follow the thieving bastards in the chopper.’

‘Here we go again.’ I threw up my hands, exasperated. ‘Do you people never learn?’ My colleagues ignored me as they shifted into hunting mode. I looked back to Albray, to find him having a quiet chuckle.

‘How do you expect them to learn from an experience they cannot remember?’

‘There is that,’ I granted, as my knight caught me up.

‘Not to worry, they shall realise their folly presently.’ Albray took up my hand and kissed it. ‘Shall we retire to your tent and leave them to their wild goose chase?’

I wished that I were as confident that Akbar could not be tracked. ‘It is not that I don’t trust you, or that your proposal is not far more inviting—’

‘I know, you just worry that I am a little old-fashioned and naive,’ Albray said, not insulted, but aware.

‘I need closure.’ I backed up to follow Andre and Miss Resi into Molier’s abode.

‘Suit yourself.’ Albray changed course from my tent to follow me.

‘Let me handle Andre.’ I urged my knight against accompanying me. ‘Your presence will probably just aggravate the situation.’

‘Whatever you think is best.’ Albray kissed me, and reluctantly dragged himself away to resume his course to my tent. ‘I shall find some clothes then, shall I?’

‘No, don’t.’ I grinned, wanting desperately to accompany him back to my tent. But I owed it to
Ashlee, Lillet and all my foremothers to see those keys delivered beyond the reach of treasure seekers like Tusca, Conally and Andre.

In Molier’s mobile office, Andre had Miss Resi in the computer hot seat and was shooting orders at her in French.

‘I do know what I’m doing,’ she barked back at him, whilst typing at triple the speed of a normal human being. ‘We should have a visual.’ She hit a final key and a window opened on the desktop screen of the overhead monitor—this featured a bouncing view of the desert, as seen from the right-hand saddlebag of Akbar’s horse.

‘What about the transmitter?’ Andre wanted confirmation that they could track the signal hidden on our target.

Tusca resumed typing nineteen to the dozen, whereupon a second window opened on the overhead monitor. This window contained a radar screen that was reading one solitary flashing dot, slightly left of centre. ‘The target is about half a kilometre from us on a westerly bearing.’

‘Merci, Mademoiselle Resi.’
Andre pulled the walkie-talkie from his belt and informed Conally and Marty to head west in the chopper.

‘Even if you do discover where they take the keys, how do you plan on reclaiming them?’ I attempted to reason with my colleagues. ‘Only Allah knows how many of these warriors there are.’

I had never seen Andre truly annoyed at me before, but the dark look on his face told me I was not in favour at present. ‘Well, if you had not given an assassin the keys to our find, I would not have to go looking for them.’

I placed my hands on my hips. After the day I had endured I was not going to become the scapegoat for the failure of this project. ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t assume to place blame for this affair on
anyone,
until I could explain my own whereabouts at the time. You have nearly cost me my life several times—’

Andre’s eyes fell upon the bloodied holes in my shirt. ‘Oh, my goddess, Mia. You’ve been shot!’ Of course the Frenchman did not hesitate to seize the opportunity to rip open my shirt, and gasped when he found nothing but smeared bloodstains on my bare belly. ‘What the…?’

I was at a complete loss for words. The thought of recounting my tale was completely exhausting to me.

‘What happened to us…to Molier?’ Tusca humbly appealed. She was as beat up as Andre, and like him could not remember how she had sustained her injuries. I think she sensed that she’d done something horrible that, like a nightmare she couldn’t remember, had left her with a deep sense of foreboding.

‘You do not want to know.’ I began to shake as the recollection of the day’s events sent shockwaves pulsing through my being. ‘Molier is dead…but as he was ultimately responsible for the murder of Akbar’s two young companions—’

Tusca gasped. Maybe she had a recollection of something.

‘—I’d say that Christian Molier’s demise was karma, and long overdue. I gave the keys to Akbar because the treasures of the gods are dangerous in the hands of ordinary men. Trust me when I warn you that no good will come from pursuing those keys at this time.’

‘Andre, are you there?’ Conally’s voice sounded from the walkie-talkie and startled us all.

Andre fetched up the communicator.
‘Oui.’

‘There is a sirocco headed our way. Our Arab friends are heading straight into a towering cloud of dirt! We cannot take the chopper in there…we’ll have to turn back. Are you tracking them?’