The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (23 page)

She just cried. He was beyond
words at the moment. It was enough to just feel her, alive and well, in his
arms. When she began to settle down, he helped her wipe her face with the edge
of the robe.

"You okay?" he asked
gently.

She nodded. "Yes," her
voice was raspy. "How did you know I was here?"

"McGrath's assistant,'"
he said. "Sweetheart, why didn't you call me sooner? I had to track you
down."

All thoughts of anguish and hurt
seemed stupid now. She didn't want to tell him the truth. "I... I was just
so confused and glad to be free that I called the first number that came to
mind... it was McGrath's...."

He bought it. He had no reason
not to. "It's okay," he held her tight. "What in the hell
happened?"

She blurted out everything, from
the moment she was knocked unconscious until that very second. She told him
about Fayd and de Tormo's wild scheme, including her part in it, and watched
his face turn red. But she didn't tell him about her final conversation with
Fayd, however. She was so glad to see him that she wondered if even mentioning
it was wise. For whatever reason he had kept that from her, it must have been a
good one.

"That bastard," Marcus
hissed. He kissed her in between words, as if he was incapable of doing anything
else. "That's the most goddamn ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"But it's not just Fayd and
de Tormo," Kathlyn said. "They have to have the support of CeMEH.
They couldn't do anything without major backing and resources."

 Marcus just sat there, his lips
on her forehead, his thoughts flying in a hundred different directions.
"McGrath needs to know all of this. So does the American Government."

Kathlyn agreed. "It's just
so crazy. I always knew Fayd was ruthless, but I never imagined he'd try
anything like this."

Marcus let his thoughts linger on
that madness a moment longer before giving his wife a squeeze and kissing her
again. "But you're okay and that's all that matters. Whatever happens to
Fayd and his mad scientists is out of our hands."

She smiled up at him weakly.
"Truthfully, since I was unconscious for a couple of days, I don't
remember much of the experience. Just yesterday and today. And then Fayd let me
go."

Her mood suddenly darkened with
the reasons why he had let her go, but she became more resolute not to say
anything to Marcus. She didn't want to fight with him right now, no matter what
the issue.

 "Just like that, he let you
go," Marcus said thoughtfully. "Did you find that strange?"

She sighed. "Not
really," she brushed her damp hair from her face. "I asked him to let
me go, and he did."

"Just like that?"

"Pretty much."

"But you said that they
wanted a fertilized ovum from you for their little experiment."

"That's what they said, but
rather than keep me a hostile captive, they let me go and hope that I'll change
my mind about participating, I suppose."

"Was de Tormo there?"

"No. I don't know where he
was."

Marcus looked at his wife, his
thoughts growing more sinister. "This may be way off base, but how long
did you say you were unconscious?"

"A couple of days, so I was
told."

Marcus stood her up. She stood
naked in front of him, her delicious curves evident as he ran his fingers over
her abdomen and down the soft rounding of her belly. He inspected every inch of
flesh in her pelvic region.  Kathlyn thought at first it was foreplay, but she
soon realized he was looking for something.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking."

"For what?"

"I'm not sure yet," he
ran a finger over her belly button. He did it again, sticking his finger in it,
and she giggled.

"That tickles."

His response was to put his big
hands on her waist and pull her closer so that his nose was practically in her
stomach.

 "Kathlyn," he said
slowly. "You've got an incision wound in your belly button."

Her ticklish smile turned into a
grimace of shock. "What?"

He probed her belly button,
revealing a tiny red scar, freshly made.  They bumped heads as Kathlyn tried to
get a better look at it.

"Oh, my God," she
breathed. "What is that?"

Marcus could feel rage building
within him like nothing he had ever experienced before. "I could take a
wild stab at this and say that while you were unconscious, they harvested one
or more of your eggs."

She was horrified at the thought.
"But how...how could they do this?"

"Easy," Marcus fingered
the tiny red welt. "They knocked you out and ran an endoscope through this
incision. It's barely visible, something you wouldn't notice unless you were
looking for it."

Kathlyn ran her hand over her
stomach, feeling sickened. "Then when they told me about their plans, they
already had their ovum."

"Looks that way."

"So that's why they just let
me go."

"After holding you a nominal
amount of time so you wouldn't become suspicious, they released you."

When the shock settled, Kathlyn
began to feel very violated. She took the robe and wrapped herself up in it,
protectively. Marcus pushed aside his own rage to focus on his wife's horror.
He stood up and put his arms around her.

"Hey," he kissed her
hair. "It's okay, sweetheart. We'll get through this."

"But... they cut me open.
Marcus, they took something from me."

"I know. They'll be punished
for it, I swear to God."

She was silent a moment.
"You know, now that I think on it, Fayd asked me in Iraq if I was
pregnant. It was all in the course of a theoretical conversation, but he did
ask. If I was, they couldn't have done... this. He had to know in order for his
little experiment to move forward."

Marcus' jaw flexed. "He'll
pay for it, don't worry about it. He'll pay for all it's worth and then
some."

"What are we going to
do?"

He didn't have an answer yet. But
he was working on it.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

After an exam by an
American-educated Gynecologist that confirmed Kathlyn had indeed had minor
pelvic surgery, Marcus took her back to Egypt. He didn't want her out of his
sight in California and he couldn't leave his dig at the moment. He'd already
spent a great deal of time distracted from it. Moreover, he thought it best at
the moment not to tell her about her father. She was near the breaking point as
it was and he didn't want one more burden to collapse her completely. When the
time was right, he would tell her. In his opinion, the best thing to do was put
her right back to work.

Everyone was incredibly glad to
see her, relieved that she was back among them. McGrath in particular seemed
very glad to have her back. Strangely, he wasn't angry that she went ahead to
Iraq without the backing of SCU. Piggybacking on another expedition wasn't
unusual.  Kathlyn immersed herself in her friends and colleagues, using them
like security blankets. Naturally, they were very protective of her. The angels
of Iraq were forgotten for the moment.

The Valley of the Kings was one
of the busiest visitors sites in Egypt, and Marcus had the biggest, most intact
tomb ever discovered. There were legions of workers from the Egyptian
Antiquities Organization (EAO), conservators, librarians, scientists and
laborers. Since its discovery a year ago, it had only been perhaps twenty
percent excavated. The sarcophagus chamber itself had been minutely excavated,
the actual coffin containing the mummy of the pharaoh still lying deep within
the great dark granite sarcophagus.  That chamber was Marcus' particular focus
and he pulled his wife down into it with him.

Gary Crawford, who had been in
charge of the excavation in Marcus' absence, was busy at work in the inner
chambers when Marcus and Kathlyn arrived early one morning. It had been a few
days since their return. A tall man with blond hair and an Errol Flynn look
about him, he greeted Kathlyn amiably. He and Marcus snarled at each other good
naturedly, but in truth they had an excellent working relationship. Although
the excavation of KV63 was considered Marcus Burton's endeavor and,
consequently, under the authority of his university, the University of California
at Paso Robles, it was still in conjunction with Southern California University
since Kathlyn Trent had actually been the one to discover the tomb. But
Kathlyn's area of expertise was not Egyptology, which was why Gary Crawford was
called in. As Associate Site Director, he was an invaluable help to Marcus.

"How is our fearless
adventurer this morning?" Gary asked after he kissed Kathlyn's cheek.

She grinned weakly; clad in long
olive-colored jean shorts, an oversized white shirt and her big black boots, she
was every inch the delectable modern scientist. She was ready to work.

"I'm okay," she said.
"I see you've made a good deal of progress in our Antechamber F."

Antechamber F had been a death
chamber of sorts. More than a dozen moldy skeletons had been found there when
the tomb was first explored, making it something of a grisly mystery. Gary had
made it his pet project to unravel the pieces.

"Yes," he looked into
the chamber, sectioned into carefully-examined squares. "We've pieced
together three of the skeletons since you were last around, all adult male, all
showing signs of curved bones and adequate nutrition."

Kathlyn thought a moment.
"Bent bones from heavy labor?

Gary nodded. "Exactly.
Slaves."

Kathlyn smiled with satisfaction.
"Well, at least we're getting somewhere," Marcus was already in the
sarcophagus chamber, clearing his throat loudly at her. She made a face at her
husband. "Sorry, Gary. I'm being hailed by our supreme leader."

Gary wriggled his eyebrows.
"You'd better go. Wouldn't want to tick the big bruiser, excuse me, I mean
the big guy off."

She snorted but went dutifully
into the chamber. Lynn and Dennis were there along with two conservators from
the EAO. Lynn hugged Kathlyn; he, more than any of them, had been sticking
close to her since her return.  While Marcus put her to work helping locate and
clear the seam in the coffin that contained the pharaoh's mummy for its
eventual opening, he lost himself in conversation with the two Egyptian
conservators about the condition and transport of the first and original wooden
coffin.

 It took him a few minutes to
realize that even though he was listening to the conservators, his eyes went
repeatedly to his wife as if she was going to disappear. Every time she moved,
his attention was on her. It was terribly distracting. Finally he found himself
staring at her butt as she leaned over the side of the sarcophagus and his
thoughts turned to more carnal pleasures. But the bickering curators would snap
him back to reality and he struggled to maintain his concentration.

Lynn helped Kathlyn work on the
coffin throughout most of the morning. Dennis had gone back into one of the
main chambers to supervise the clearing of eight fragile gilded chariots. It
was stuffy down in the chamber even though the big work fans were sucking in a
great deal of air from the surface. After three hours of intense concentration,
Kathlyn decided she needed a break and left the chamber. Marcus was right
behind her.

"Where are you going?"
he asked.

She paused, wiping her forehead with
the back of one hand as she removed the surgical gloves she had been wearing.
"Just topside for a drink. I'll be back. Do you want something?"

It was a struggle for Marcus not
to demand to go with her. He realized that his sense of protection was in overdrive.
The last time she left his sight like this, she had disappeared. Kathlyn could
see the indecision in his eyes and she removed the other glove, putting her
arms around his neck.

"Honey, I'll be fine,"
she kissed him. "I just want a soda and I promise I'll be right back.
Nothing's going to happen. There are forty Marines up there to watch out for
me."

She was right. But he wandered
out with her anyway. Kathlyn flirted with him as they left the tomb, trying to
alleviate his concern, by pinching his tight butt or winking exaggeratedly at
him. He just shook his head and tried to spank her when she got out of hand. It
was good to be interacting with one another as they normally did.  Burton was a
terribly serious character but Kathlyn could always loosen him up. By the time
they hit the surface, Marcus had her thrown over one shoulder, as was customary
with them, and carried her kicking and squealing down the slope. The Marines
and workers on duty who saw them just smiled and shook their heads; there they go
again.

 Marcus put her down when they
reached their tent. He kissed her deeply, tasting her honeyed mouth, instantly
ready to make love to her.  His dirty work shirt was coming off and Kathlyn's
mouth was latched onto his earlobe. The gesture always drove him crazy. He had
his hands on his wife's breasts when the soft, unmistakable sound of her name
came from outside the tent. Someone was timidly calling for Dr. Trent.  Marcus
growled, but Kathlyn shushed him. They froze a moment, waiting to see if whoever
it was would go away, but they heard her name again. With a heavy sigh, Kathlyn
buttoned her shirt back up and tossed back the flap.