Kathlyn Trent, Marcus Burton 01 - Valley of the Shadow (8 page)

“All right,” he said after a moment, responding to her caressing touch by gently toying with her fingers. “But you better believe when we’ve finished here, I’m going to….”

She nodded her head emphatically. “I know, I know, me too. I’ve got a call into Abrahams right now. I don’t want anybody else on my dig, either.”

He was still righteously upset but he held her hand all the way back to the doorway where the others stood. He gave her hand a squeeze before letting go and kneeling down beside Dennis, who was preparing to use the pneumatic drill on a designated corner. Otis and Ed stood by with containers and meters for the air samples. Kathlyn listened carefully and when it became clear that Dennis was about to apply the drill, she bent over Marcus’s right shoulder and kissed him, very gently, on the cheek.

“For luck,” she whispered.

He looked up at her when he should have been watching Dennis. Dennis bore down with the drill and ancient plaster flew in all directions. In a matter of seconds he had breached the wall and Otis and Ed leapt into action, collecting and gauging what they could. Ed declared it to be three thousand year old air, much to the delight of everyone. Even Marcus, when he tore his gaze away from Kathlyn. Old air was intact air, and the excitement was palpable.

Kathlyn stood back while Dennis finished slicing through the wall. The antiquated plaster was brittle and fell away with relative ease. Every piece was gathered up by Marcus’ foremen for later analysis. Soon enough, there was a two foot by two foot hole and Dennis was chipping away even more, but Marcus stopped him.

When the drilling stopped, a peculiar silence settled over everyone. There was something sacred about the hole in the wall and the darkness beyond.  Kathlyn sniffed the air, long and deep.

“Smell it?” she asked quietly.

The group looked at her. Marcus sniffed the air. “Yes. I smell an unopened tomb.”

She sniffed again, closing her eyes as the scent overtook her senses like the flow of the valley had.

“Not just that,” she murmured. “I smell History. I smell Time. God, what a wonderful smell.”

When she opened her eyes again, Marcus was smiling at her. He handed her the Maglight.

“After you, Dr. Trent.”

He was going to let her have the first look. Overwhelmed, Kathlyn took the flashlight, their eyes meeting over the black cylinder of metal.  He leaned forward and kissed her, a gesture not missed by anyone in the shaft.

“For luck.”

She laughed softly, thinking his lips on her cheek had felt more than wonderful. But now was not the time to linger on it and want for more, which she very much did. Removing her trademark duster and handing it over to Mark, she lay on her belly and shined the flashlight into the hole.

No one said anything for several long, painful moments. Marcus lay down beside her, his big body up against her, his head next to hers. It was difficult to see anything; the beam, normally so strong, seemed to go a great distance before falling on anything. All they could make out was a massive granite arch.

“Turn off the light,” he told her. Then he craned his head back to Lynn and held out a hand. “Give me the infrared.”

Lynn handed over a United States Army issued Infrared head set, the kind used by helicopter pilots and other military personnel for night operations. It was a heavy thing, with a sling that fit over the crown of the head and secured to a large set of technical goggles. The goggles had a series of magnification lenses like the ones in a doctor’s office. Kathlyn looked at them with interest.

“Where in the world did you get those?” she asked.

Marcus pulled it down over his eyes. “You’d be surprised what you can get on the black market out here. These are apparently left over from the Gulf Wars.”

“I want to look when you’re done.”

“Okay, give me a second.”  He grew quiet as he examined the void beyond the entrance. “I have a granite arch about ten feet from the doorway, approximately ten feet wide by about ten feet high. On either side of it are statues, seated pharonic, about six or seven feet high. Definitely New Kingdom style. Beyond the arch there’s a great void, like a black hole. I can only imagine that the floor falls away somehow.”

“Do you see a wall or a ceiling suggesting it’s a descending passageway beyond?” Lynn asked.

Marcus didn’t say anything for a moment. “No,” he said frankly. “I can’t see anything at all. It’s just… blank.”

“Well, there’s one way to solve this problem.”

Kathlyn slithered in through the hole as slick as a snake into its den. Marcus grabbed her ankle before she could get all the way through.

“Hold on,” he commanded. “I have no idea what’s in there, and you’re going to wait until I can go in first.”

She pulled and yanked, trying to break free. “Let go of me,” she demanded. “There’s no harm in me taking a look.”

“This is still my dig, Dr. Trent. We do things my way.”

“But if you can’t make out the…oh, damn… Marcus, pull me out, quick!”

There was a tremendous surge of panic in her voice, shrill and completely unlike her. Marcus didn’t hesitate. He yanked her back through the hole in one clean motion. Kathlyn’s face was filled with fright.

“Run!” she screamed. “Everyone, get the hell out of here, now!”

Kathlyn’s people moved as if the Devil was about to appear. Marcus’ group, unfamiliar with the fact that Kathlyn Trent was the last person in the world to panic, were a bit slower to react. She started to move, tugging Marcus along with her.

“What the hell…?” Marcus sputtered. “Kathlyn, what’s wrong?”

They were a few feet from the opening. Suddenly, a tide of scorpions spilled out through the breach, golden little insects with massive stingers on their curled tails. They were running, spilling out all over one another. There must have been hundreds, all moving like a tiny army of death.

“Damn!” Lynn hollered, racing from the shaft with Dennis, Kathlyn and Marcus on his heels. Outside, Kathlyn’s people were already in the process of creating mass hysteria, shouting at the media and the tourists to return to their vehicles immediately. When the line of scorpions appeared at the tunnel entrance, spilling down the thirty-one steps and crawling in uneven lines down the slope, it became abundantly apparent that this was no joke or media stunt. People began screaming and running in all directions. Marcus pulled Kathlyn onto one of the bulldozers in the parking lot.

“Christ,” Marcus breathed, watching the onslaught as it poured into the Valley of the Kings. He stood up on the back of the bulldozer, waving his big arms at the startled security guards. “Get those people in there to safety!”

Kathlyn hated bugs. Snakes didn’t bother her very much and neither did spiders, but crawly bugs were another story. As hot as she was, she still rubbed her arms to smooth away the goose bumps.  But the goose bumps didn’t go away; it took her a moment to realize that the flow she so often felt at this place was rushing to tremendous proportions, flowing like the scorpion tide that now surrounded them. She couldn’t shake the feeling.

“Oh, my God,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like this. What do you supposed triggered them?”

Marcus watched an old Japanese couple barely make it on to their tourist bus. “Who knows,” he said. “We could have disturbed a massive nest with our digging, or maybe it was some ancient booby trap. I just don’t know.”

Kathlyn watched as a herd of the little critters milled under the bulldozer.  “They just came out of nowhere,” she murmured, sensing the increasing flow. “They were just… there.”

He looked at her, the way she was holding herself, and he instinctively put his arm around her. “Are you all right? You didn’t get stung, did you?”

“No,” she shook her head. “But they scared the heck out of me.”

He smiled at her. “Me, too. You sure you’re okay?”

“I am.”

He settled down in the driver’s seat of the bulldozer. He tried to coax Kathlyn down from the highest point on the rear of the vehicle, but she wouldn’t budge.  Finally, with a good deal of persuasion, he pulled her down into the cab, but she was uncomfortable just standing there as if the scorpions were going to crawl up through the floorboards.  With little protest from her, he pulled her onto his lap and held her legs up off the floor. It was blazing hot, too hot for her to be sitting on him, but neither one would have had it any other way; Kathlyn because she was apprehensive, and Marcus because he wanted her near him.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly.

Lynn, Dennis and Ed were on the neighboring bulldozer several feet away. Mark, Otis, Andy and Larry had raced over to the camp to warn everyone. Even though it was a half mile away, they wanted everyone to be vigilant.

“Is she okay?” Lynn called over.

Marcus had one arm around her waist, the other under her knees to help keep her legs up. “Yes,” he called back. “She’s just scared.”

The tourist busses were pulling out at lightning speed, crushing a great number of the scorpions. It gave Dennis an idea and he started up the bulldozer and began driving around, smashing any he could find against the pavement.   When most were smashed or wandered off, he pulled the bulldozer alongside Marcus and Kathlyn.

“Well?” Lynn wiped the sweat from his smooth cocoa forehead. “What now? Do we go back in again?”

Marcus looked at Kathlyn. “It’s up to her,” he said. “I vote to let it go until tomorrow morning. Let’s just secure the site and go back to camp. I need a drink.”

She was sitting there on his lap, head on his shoulder, arms around his neck.  She hadn’t answered him. Lowering his head to get a look at her face, he saw that her eyes were closed.

“Kathlyn?” he shook her gently. “What about it? Do you want to wait until tomorrow?”

She lifted her head and the green eyes slowly opened. She focused on Ed, sitting on the other bulldozer.

“Ed,” she said slowly. “The flow… it’s painful now.”

Ed knew what she was talking about. He was the only one who did. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head, holding on to Marcus with a death grip. She craned her neck back to look at the great yawning entrance on the side of the slope.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “It’s so painful now, like knives cutting my fingertips. It’s like… like evil or something. I can feel it and it hurts.”

“Flow? What flow?” Marcus asked her.

“It’s so weird, Ed,” she acted as if she hadn’t heard Marcus’ question. “It’s flowing the other way now, out of the tomb.”

Ed didn’t like the sound of that. “What does it mean, Kat? What are your feelings about this?”

She laid her damp forehead against Marcus’ cheek and closed her eyes again. “I don’t like it at all,” she whispered. “I’m scared, Ed. For the first time in my life, I’m actually scared about this. I don’t think those scorpions were a happenstance; they were a warning.”

Marcus wasn’t happy that he hadn’t been given an answer. In fact, he was feeling a bit apprehensive too. “Hey, what’s all this talk? What in the hell is going on here?”

She didn’t answer for a moment. When she looked up at him, he noticed she was very pale in spite of the heat.

“You asked me once how I found the tomb,” her voice was soft. “I didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid you’d think I was crazy. But when I said hocus-pocus, I wasn’t far off. If you’re ready to listen, I’m ready to tell you.”

Marcus stared at her, his cobalt blue eyes intensely serious. “Am I going to want to hear this?”

“You probably should because it’s the truth.”

“It is, Dr. Burton,” Ed cut in. He was a devoutly logical man and even he had come to believe. “I’ve seen it in action too many times for it to be coincidence or luck.  She’s got a sixth sense I can’t explain. No one can. You need to listen to her.”

Marcus looked her in the eye. He suspected what she was going to tell him but he’d seen her in action over the past few weeks and had come to see how very talented and brilliant she really was. Her reputation as a media whore was a cruel farce for such an intelligent and brave woman. Now that he’d seen her in action, had come know her, nothing she could say would ever change his mind about her. He’d already made up his mind some time ago that he was in love with the woman, hocus-pocus or not.

“All right,” he sighed. “Let’s hear it.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“With all due respect, Dr. Abrahams, I was the one who located this tomb,” Kathlyn said. “I think it’s only fair that I be allowed to stay and at least help excavate it. Until today, I thought we agreed on this.”

The Iridium satellite cellular phone was on speaker. In the tent Kathlyn shared with Juliana and Debra Jo, she paced back and forth with the phone in her hand, wearing a path in the vinyl flooring. Juliana and Debra Jo sat on one couch, watching her closely and listening to every word of the tense conversation. Mark, Ed, Otis, Andy and Larry were spread around in various positions around the tent. Marcus, Lynn, Dennis and Jobe stood near the entrance. All of them were crammed into the small shelter, waiting, listening.

“I understand your desire, Kathlyn, and I understand that you feel you have a right to excavate this tomb and rightly so,” Dr. Ronald Abrahams said on the other end of the orbital connection. “But you must understand that the Israeli government has petitioned the WAQF, the Muslim authority that controls the Temple Mount and other holy sites, and we have finally been granted our permit request. Do you understand the significance of this?”

Kathlyn nodded even though he couldn’t see her. “Believe me, Dr. Abrahams, the implication of this is not lost on me. The Muslim clerics consider the Calvary Escarpment a holy site, and I know as well as you do that permits to excavate at holy sites are few and far between.”

Abrahams pushed on. “Then you must also understand that we cannot wait for another opportunity like this. Your job in Egypt is finished; you’ve done what you were asked to do and now Gary Crawford is moving in. That’s how we do things, Kathlyn. You know that.”

“But I’m perfectly qualified to excavate, Dr. Abrahams.”

“I don’t mean to suggest that you aren’t,” he said evenly. “But that’s not how we’ve worked in the past. You find things; you don’t excavate them. Besides, you are not an Egyptologist. Crawford is. Furthermore, I cannot understand your lack of enthusiasm about the Calvary Escarpment.  No one has been allowed there in years and now they’ve given you the green light. If the Ark is there, you’ll find it. I’m quite baffled as to why you’re not thrilled with this.”

Kathlyn pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting off another one of the migraine headaches that so often plagued her.

“Dr. Abrahams,” she struggled for calm. “I am thrilled. If anyone knows how difficult it is to get permits to dig in Israel, it’s me. Especially with my reputation; the Israelis don’t like that at all and neither does the Muslim authority. But all I’m asking is that I be given two or three months to really get a feel for what I’ve uncovered. Surely you can’t fault me that and I’m sure the Israelis will understand my position. If you like, I can talk to the Department of Ministries about it.”

“Sorry, Kathlyn. The wheels are in motion and cannot be changed.”

“But you don’t understand, Dr. Abrahams,” she tried a different approach. “This situation is different. It’s not just the initial discovery of the tomb, but the exploration and excavation that requires my expertise, too. They need me. I can’t leave them on their own with this. There are just too many,” she glanced at Marcus, “unknowns.”

The crowd in the tent watched her expression as they listened to Abrahams repeated denial. It was obvious that the old man wasn’t budging, driving the frustration level high. McGrath turned to Marcus.

“I talked to Abrahams myself earlier,” he whispered. “It’s apparent he doesn’t want her sedentary. I think he likes her treasure hunter tactics; he likes the publicity. He’s already told the media that her next destination is the Calvary Escarpment and the Ark of the Covenant.”

“She told us that the first night she was here,” Marcus muttered back. “I must admit that I’m surprised she wants to stay. I didn’t think she would.”

McGrath wriggled his eyebrows. “Gary Crawford is a talented Egyptologist, Marcus. Abrahams wants to move him over here in the next couple of days.”

“Over my dead body.”

“This is now a joint effort, Marcus. If he really wants to move Crawford in here, you have no say in it. Trent wasn’t supposed to stay, anyway, and Bardwell will support whatever Abrahams wants to do.”

“It’s Trent or nobody.”

McGrath pulled him out of the tent while Kathlyn remained on the phone. Outside, the Egyptian night was smooth and balmy. The smell of smoke from the village cooking fires wafted heavily on the air as Marcus took a deep breath to calm himself. 

“Look,” McGrath said quietly. “I know how you feel. I’ve gotten attached to her, too. But her university has plans for her just like we have plans for you, and sometimes those plans can’t be changed.  Just be thankful you convinced her to stay as long as she did.  If it hadn’t been for her, they would have closed your dig for sure.”

Marcus raked his fingers though his close-cropped hair. “That’s why I don’t want her to leave,” he insisted softly. “She’s entitled to excavate this if she wants to. Hell, I owe her everything.”

McGrath smiled faintly. “And just think; you didn’t even want her here to begin with.”

Marcus felt rather foolish. “Now I can’t imagine her not being here.”

“You’d better prepare yourself for that happening, my friend.”

Marcus glanced up at the stars, thinking of the night he found Kathlyn crying behind the crates.  It seemed like so long ago, yet he couldn’t remember life around the site before she had arrived. Kathlyn suddenly emerged from the tent, alone and without the phone, interrupting his thoughts.

“What happened?” he asked.

She wandered over to him, oddly enough, calmer than she had been when on the phone to Abrahams. She smiled weakly.

“I’m not quite sure where to begin,” she said.

McGrath looked concerned, but Marcus beat him to the punch. “Are you staying or leaving?”

She scratched her head. “Well, I’m not sure. Gary will be here on Friday.”

Marcus rolled his eyes in defeat. “Christ, you’re leaving.”

She shook her head. “Not really,” she looked at McGrath. “Abrahams wasn’t willing to compromise in the least about this. So I quit. He tried to put Juliana in charge of the team, but she quit too. In fact, my entire team quit with the exception of Larry and Andy, because they’re doctoral students and committed to the university. They feel bad enough as it is. So Gary is coming and at this moment, I don’t have a job or a place to go, or a university to work for.”

McGrath didn’t hesitate. “Bardwell will hire you. I just can’t believe Abrahams is so foolish to let you go at this point in your career.”

“He didn’t really let me go. As I said, I quit. He was trying to talk me into reconsidering when I hung up on him.”  She laughed softly at the expression on Marcus’ and McGrath’s faces. “Don’t worry so much. World Geography Magazine has been trying to hire me on for years as a permanent field correspondent. And all of the money the university has been making off of me for the programs I’ve done for The World of Exploration Channel will now finally go to me and my team, where it belongs. We make anywhere from thirty thousand dollars to up around seventy thousand, per year individually. Do you know how much money those Exploration Channel specials make? Millions.”

“And you’ve never got a cent of that?” Marcus asked.

“Not directly, no,” she said. “It’s always been channeled through the university, funding everything from football to health sciences programs. I’m a gold mine to them; Abrahams is going to have to do a hell of a lot of explaining to the regents about my leaving. Every college in the nation is going to be clamoring at my door now with offers. They know how much I bring in.”

“Would you consider coming to UCPR?” Marcus asked her directly.

She smiled at him. “I think for now I’ll have to. I can’t work on this dig without a sponsor, and unless I get a hold of the World Geography people tonight, I suppose my presence now is illegal. I’m not working under anyone’s permit.”

“Don’t give it another thought. I’ll file the temporary paperwork right now,” McGrath said. “As of this moment, you and your team work for the University of California Paso Robles.”

He marched off, excited to tell Bardwell the turn of events, knowing how thrilled the man would be.  Kathlyn and Marcus stood alone for a moment, smiling at each other, remaining awkwardly silent. Kathlyn would laugh softly, Marcus would snort, and then they’d pretend to look around and find interest elsewhere. It was all very new and strange at the moment.

“So you’re staying,” he finally said.

“It looks that way.”

“I didn’t know you were the type to hang around and dig once you uncovered something.”

She looked at him. “I’m not, usually. But this dig is different.”

“Why?”

She bit her lip, not wanting to admit the truth. “Well, because… well, it just is. I’ve really come to admire your work and I think I can learn a lot from you. Maybe I’ll even learn to settle down and quit treasure hunting.”

“Do you really think you can?”

She lifted her shoulders. “I’ve never really had any ties to anyone or any place, so traveling the world in search of historical treasures is a very challenging life for me and I seem to have a knack at it. But this dig… well, it’s kind of grown on me for some reason. You’ve kind of grown on me, Burton, as crazy as it sounds.”

He smiled broadly. “Christ, I’m glad to hear you say that.”

She was relieved he didn't run from her or change the subject. Her admission had been a big one. “Really?” she breathed hopefully. “Why?”

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his Levi’s and kicked at the dirt. She had to laugh because he looked like an embarrassed little kid. “I guess because you’ve grown on me, too,” he admitted. “I know I was a real ass when you first came here, but I’m like that to everybody.  I guess in your case it was just because I was so taken aback by you.”

“In what way?”

He let out a hissing sound. “Where to begin? All I’d ever heard about you was that you were a myth-chasing bimbo hiding behind an archaeological degree to further your celebrity status.”

He hadn’t realized what he’d said until it came out of his mouth. As he looked at her in horror, she burst out into laughter.

“Good Lord, Burton, don’t hold back,” she snorted. “Tell me how you really feel about me.”

She was laughing hysterically. He was embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it… hell, I shouldn’t have said that.”

She whooped and hollered, then tried to catch her breath. “Whoa, Nelly,” she gasped, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. “It’s been a long time since anybody’s said that to my face. It’s nice to know what your opinion is.”

“It’s not my opinion that anymore.”

“Oh? I’ve improved my status?”

“Hell yes,” he insisted. “I’ve come to see that you’re an exceptionally bright and talented woman and there isn’t anyone else in this entire world that I’d rather spend my time with, on a dig or off it.” He took a step closer to her, his cobalt eyes boring into her. “And if I ever hear anyone say those nasty things about you again, I’ll kill them. I’ll goddamn kill them.”

It was everything she wanted to hear from him. She stepped closer, too, until their bodies brushed against one another. “Then you’ll be killing a lot of people, including colleagues of yours.”

“Bring ‘em on.”

She smiled, baffled by his chivalry. “But why would you do this?”

His answer was to pull her against his broad chest and kiss her, long and hard and hot.  Kathlyn’s moment of surprise was replaced by passion that matched his own. Throwing her arms around his neck, she held him fast against her as she matched him suckle for suckle. Tongues invaded, plundered and tasted.  He was a wonderful kisser, his mouth moving over her cheeks and neck, sampling her soft flesh for the first time. She was sweet and warm.  Kathlyn gasped as his mouth moved up her neck, suckling a tender earlobe erotically.

“Lord,” she breathed as his mouth claimed hers once more. “If I’d known you were going to do that, I would have let you insult me like that a long time ago.”

His big arms were around her tightly. “I’ve wanted to do that since you licked my sweat off your finger,” he murmured, suckling her lower lip feverishly. “Do you know how hard it has been for me, watching you prance about in front of the cameras or laughing with my crew, wanting so badly to tell you how I felt but scared to death you’d laugh at me? Christ, I feel like such an idiot for even telling you this.”

“Laugh at you?” she ran her fingers though his short hair, feeling the thick texture for the first time. “Why in the hell would I do that?”

He shrugged, wanting to explore her now that he had her in his arms. “Because you’re the darling of the world,” his mouth moved across her cheek. “Everybody loves you. And who am I? A guy from a little town in California who got through college on a wrestling scholarship. My parents live in a mobile home on a half acre of land outside of Modesto.  Sure, Harry Burton was my dad’s great-uncle, but it’s not like we had any relationship with him. In spite of my family name, I’m not a wealthy, worldly creature that you deserve.”

“Now you hold it right there,” her voice was stern and she pulled away from his searing mouth, fixing him in the eye. “The only thing I have going for me is uncanny intuition and a bold streak. I go where angels fear to tread because maybe I’m too stupid to realize I shouldn’t be tampering with such things. The world likes idiots, so that’s why I’m popular. So far I’ve been successful at it but I can guarantee you the moment I fall flat, my popularity will plummet and I’ll become yesterday’s news. What to know the sad thing? I haven’t even the blessing of a good reputation to fall back on. Everyone thinks I’m a myth-chasing bimbo and unless I settle down and do some real good, that’s all I’m ever going to be.”