the captives until they agreed to talk, he did not bother filling the water can or food pan. Nor did he bother firing up the generator for the lights. What he needed to learn could be discovered in the semidarkness of High Priest Anen’s tomb.
Pressing a hand to the stairwell stone, he descended the narrow steps into the tomb’s vestibule, paused a moment to allow his eyes to adjust, then proceeded into the first chamber. He crossed the empty room to the door of the smaller second room, wherein lay the remains of the great granite sarcophagus that had once contained the coffin of the high priest. This room was secured by an iron grate. All was quiet in the darkened chamber.
He approached. No one stirred at his arrival.
Dex stood listening for a moment, but heard nothing—neither the brush and rustle of men moving about, nor even the intake and exhalation of sleeping men breathing. The tomb was silent.
“Wakey! Wakey!” he called, his voice loud in the emptiness. “You’re wasting the best of the day!” He smiled at his little jest.
There was no response.
“Are you dead in there?” he called and considered that this was only too likely to be the case, and that the captives had succumbed in the night, following Cosimo and Sir Henry—two right royal pains in the arse if ever there were—into the grave.
Splendid, now he would have to go and fire up the generator, turn on the lights, and then get the key and come back and deal with the bodies. Bloody bother, muttered Dex inwardly. But before he went to all that trouble, he decided to make sure the two remaining captives were not merely sleeping after all. Thinking to rattle the iron with a sound loud enough to rouse them, he put his hand to the grate and gave it a shake.
The door swung open at his touch.
The Burley Man pushed it open and stepped inside. He could dimly make out the great bulk of the stone sarcophagus in the centre of the room, but the rest of the chamber remained steeped in darkness. He could not see into the corners, but a heavy stillness lay all about and the air reeked with the sickly pungent sweet stench of death.
Pressing the back of his hand to his nose, Dex turned and fled the room. What are we doing in this awful place anyway, he wondered. What’s the point?
Back outside, he sucked in clean air, then went to the equipment room to crank the generator to life and switch on the lights. He paused at the mess tent to dip the hem of his kaftan in some vinegar, then returned to the tomb. This time, with the lights on and the vinegar-soaked material over his mouth and nose, he confirmed what he feared: the captives were gone.
Spinning on his heel, he ran back up the stairs and out into the wadi, shouting, “The prisoners have escaped!”
Con and Mal were still in the bunk tent and seemed unimpressed with this news. “Pipe down, will you?” muttered Mal, a hand to his head. “It’s too early to be yelling like that.”
“What’re you on about?” asked Con.
“The prisoners aren’t in the cell. They’re gone. They must have escaped somehow.”
“You sure?” Mal regarded him with suspicion.
“Of course, I’m sure. Idiot!”
“Okay, okay, keep your shirt on.”
“What about the other two?” asked Con. “They still there?”
“Which other two?”
“The dead ones. Who do you think?”
“Yeah, they’re still there.”
“They still dead?” wondered Mal.
“Shut up,” snarled Dex. “I’m warning you.”
“They can’t have got far,” Con said. “We’ll find ’em.”
“You better hope so—and before Tav gets back. He won’t like this.”
The three trooped out into the canyon.
“I’ll get Baby,” said Con. “Maybe she can track them down.”
“I doubt it,” said Dex. “Leave her. Go get the guns instead. Those two yobs don’t know their way around the wadi, so we should still be able to catch them before they work out how to get out of here.”
Armed and keen to recover their charges, the three Burley Men set off to work their way along the two main branches of the dry ravine. “Mal, you check out the back way,” ordered Dex. “And, Con—you come with me. We’ll take the big wadi.” The other stood looking at him. “Well? Let’s get cracking.”
Mal turned and soon disappeared along the winding path that was the canyon bottom. Dex and Con made their way towards its mouth, moving quickly, senses alert to any stray sight or sound. They