to secure the passageway. The rest took up the search for the missing professors.
At a nod from Fitrat, Layla entered the cave as well. She stepped carefully, trying to avoid stepping in any of the slowly spreading pools of blood.
***
Galvanized by the crash and thunder of the gunshots in the cave behind them, Boris Glukov traveled quickly through the passageway. Lourds found himself suddenly hard-pressed to keep up with his friend.
The rough stone bit into Lourds’s palms and knees as he scrabbled along. Somehow, Boris had managed to hang on to his flashlight, and it was the only illumination they had in the tunnel, and even then it bounced around so much as Boris scrambled that it was like a dance floor light show.
“Are they coming after us?” Boris sounded partially out of breath.
“I don’t know. Don’t slow down.”
“We’re coming to a dead end.”
“What?” Lourds tried to estimate how far they’d come.
“A dead end. Here.” Boris flattened as much as he could in the passageway and shined the flashlight beam steadily at the wall ahead of them.
Lourds groaned.
Boris crawled forward a few more feet until he was pressed up against the wall. He trailed the light across the carved message. “This is the same language as that on the wall, yes?”
“Yes.” Lourds reached around his friend and brushed dust from the symbols. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered the men with guns and all the shooting, but at the moment, that didn’t matter.
They’d found the hidden secret.
“It is, Boris.” Lourds clapped the other man on the back. “You have indeed discovered a prize. Now we just need to see what it is you’ve found.” He squinted at the writing. “I need to be closer.”
Boris tried to back up and discovered that he couldn’t. “I fear I am too large for such gymnastics.”
“I don’t really like our chances of crawling back out.”
“Neither do I. We survived once. I do not care to press our luck.”
“Agreed.” Carefully, Lourds slithered up beside the Russian. He brushed at the dust again, uncovering more of the symbols, then blew on them and nearly choked in the dry backdraft. He took Boris’s flashlight and shined it on the wall.
Boris’s labored breathing was practically in his ear. The cramped position was uncomfortable for both of them.
The symbols translated easily.
“‘For the treasure you seek, you only have to look to Heaven.’”
Boris looked at the ceiling of the passageway. “There is nothing there.”
“You have to think of Islamic customs. Heaven isn’t up. It lies to the east.” Lourds flicked the light around the walls and discovered a small indentation on the wall beside Boris. “Can you reach that?”
“I don’t know. Let me try.” Boris rolled and twisted. His finger hovered over the indentation less than an inch beyond his reach.
Suddenly light flared at the other end of the passageway.
For a moment, Lourds thought the light might be a muzzle flash. Rigid, he waited for a bullet to tear through his body and to hear the sound of the shot roll over him. Instead, he heard a woman’s voice speaking in Russian.
“Professor Glukov? Professor Lourds? Are you all right?” The questions were repeated in English.
Lourds thought he recognized the voice. “Professor Teneen? Layla?”
“Yes. Are you all right?”
“Yes. There are men with guns–”
“They have been dealt with, Professor Lourds. The two of you need to come out here at once.”
For a moment, Lourds felt like a schoolboy about to get scolded for improper behavior. “Boris and I think we have found something.”
“If you have, there will be time to come back in the morning and have a better look at it. At the moment, I’ve got quite the mess to clean up here, and to find out what is going on with some of our fellow dig personnel.”
“Thomas, I can almost reach it.” Boris sounded strained. “Perhaps if you could give my arm a shove.”
“Professor Lourds.”
“We’re on our way.” Lourds turned to Boris and placed his hand on the man’s elbow. “Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t want to break or tear anything.”
“And I don’t want to wait till morning—or possibly later—to find out where this trail has led us. Push.”
Lourds pushed. Boris’s middle finger made contact with the indentation.
“Push again.”
Lourds did as he was requested.
This time something clicked. At first, he thought the sound might have been made by cartilage tearing in Boris’s arm.
Then a spear point came out of the ceiling and smashed into the stone below, sliding between the two men and missing them by less