them, they clung to the ceiling. About a hundred feet below them was another chamber, brightly lit by massive floodlights. Thorne made out piles of artifacts, carriages, giant statues, shiny trinkets piled in boxes, lids nearby. Furniture, beds, chests, chairs, and tables were piled one on top of the next, and baskets and boxes were everywhere. Some neatly stacked, the rest in untidy piles.
A storeroom of some kind.
A way out.
A robed man circled the room, turning off each light and leaving that area shadowed as he moved to the next. A small group of men, dressed in Western wear, clustered nearby, conversed without fear of being overheard.
Their voices carried fairly well through the soul door. But the susurrus of wings, squeaks of the bats, and distance made it hard to get more than a word here and there. Still, he was pretty sure he could identify the man in charge by his size, and the sound of his voice. Surprising, but not completely unexpected.
Behind him, he heard Isis’s slightly unsteady breathing. But she didn’t insist on taking a look herself, and she didn’t say a word.
The men stayed another ten minutes, walking the area, pointing out objects, which one guy noted on an electronic tablet. A few moments later, the lights and the voices faded away, leaving the stink of ammonia and the rustle of the bats.
“WHAT DID YOU SEE?” Isis asked softly when she heard him move away from the wall. He found her hand unerringly in the dark, and wound his fingers tightly with hers. His touch immediately centered her.
“Looks like they’re packing up the artifacts for transportation.”
“Who, where, and why?” The indignation in her voice was clear.
“In light of what I just witnessed, I have my suspicions.”
“Care to share?”
“The guy in charge appeared to be Dr. Khalifa Najid.”
“The Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources? That son of a bitch! He knew the tomb was here all along, and lied to us.”
Thorne smiled at her horror. “He’s the bad guy. Bad guys have a tendency to prevaricate to cover their nefarious deeds.”
If the information wasn’t pissing her off, Isis would’ve smiled at his very British and oh-so-dry delivery. But hearing that the man in charge of the new recreational area, the man who had lied to her face about knowing her father, really set her off and made her want to go and confront him. Preferably with a strong force of police officers beside her. Or just Thorne.
“This is more than a nefarious deed! He knew my father found this tomb. Knew, damn him. Worse than lying right to my face, is that he’s depriving the world of—” Incensed, the words logjammed. “He’s covering up a find with major historical impact! It’s a criminal act.”
“Well, we can’t do anything to remedy that while we’re still trapped here. First things first. Did you give me the hand sanitizer a while ago?”
Okay, that wasn’t the furious response she was looking for, but she knew him well enough to know he was processing something. She hoped when he was done, he’d fill her in. But she made a mental note that in the future she needed to teach him how to play well with others. Or at least, play well with her. “You want to clean your hands?” Of course, that was supposing that there’d be a future for them.
He started walking back around the shrine, his limp more pronounced. Isis suspected she was more aware of how badly he was limping due to the stygian darkness. “I want to relight the torch. See how to get down to that level.”
“You do realize I have no idea what you’re talking about, right? What level?”
“There’s a chamber below this one—eight or nine stories below this one. The temple must be built on a steep hill. Some chambers on this level, and at least that one on a much lower level. There were men and equipment down there, so that’s the way out. All we have to do is find a way down.”
He leaned over, and she heard him rummaging through the stuff he’d tossed on the floor. “Give that to me. I’ll put it back in my bag. You never know when we’ll need a notebook or a pack of tissues.”
Thorne squirted sanitizer on his torch, then there was the flare of his lighter.
“Holy cow! I can’t believe how much better I feel with that little bit of fire. I’m going to add a lighter to the contents of my camera bag