water would fill the valley. Feluccas would unfurl white sails, speedboats and skiers would cut through the water, and swimmers would lounge on the man-made beaches, already curved, groomed, and ready, hundreds of feet above the floor of the valley.
Isis put a hand on his arm. “Let’s go back to Husani and get the men and supplies and come back first thing in the morning when it’s cooler. We’ll go down to reconnoiter, see what we can see, and go from there.” She bit her lip when Thorne made no comment. “You’re right. We should stop by and see Dr. Najid first. At least we can get the stopping process in motion.”
“He won’t be predisposed to stop a multibillion-dollar project without concrete proof. I suggest we take a breath and regroup. If you’re up to it, we’ll go down since I know exactly where we need to be. We can drive most of the way, I don’t think it would be much of a walk to reach the place. You take plenty of pictures, and then we’ll go and see him. Good enough?”
Isis took off her hat to swipe at the sweat running down her temple, using the large red and blue cotton scarf tucked in her belt. “Good idea. She’s down there. Waiting.” Plopping the hat back on her head, she squeezed his muscled forearm and grinned up at him. “I can feel it.”
TWELVE
If the lakeside businesses had been open, Thorne would’ve checked into one of the hotels, grabbed a cold shower, and fallen into bed wrapped around a hot Isis. After the heavy workout the day before, his leg was stiffening up. All the hours behind the wheel today had made it throb like a son of a bitch. He should probably get in some of the exercises prescribed by his London physiotherapist. Running through the streets and hand-to-hand altercations weren’t part of her suggested therapies. Neither was a marathon bout of sex. On a sagging sofa, on the floor, against the wall, and finally in the shower… no, once more on the sagging furniture before they succumbed to exhaustion.
In fact, if he bothered to recall several conversations between himself, the therapist, and his surgeon, running and getting shot at were right there at the top of the Do Not Do list if he wanted to fully recover the use of his leg. They’d made no mention of sex.
He didn’t relish clambering around the rocks and sand in the valley searching for a tomb he didn’t give a rat’s ass about. But since it needed to be done, he wanted an early start, Husani’s well-armed, able-bodied men, and the correct supplies and equipment.
Tomorrow.
For today he’d take Isis where she wanted to go. Show her whatever, then get her on that plane.
The intense heat made a mirage shimmer on the road ahead, and he cranked up the air to blast musty-smelling, relatively cooler air into the interior of the vehicle. He smelled Isis: a turn-on combo of clean perspiration and sexy cinnamon.
The road from the dam project back into Cairo was deserted. A couple of vehicles—an electrician’s van, a flatbed truck with plastic irrigation piping, and several black, tinted-window sedans—had passed them, heading the way they’d come. But those had passed half an hour before. No one behind them. Thorne was driving an easy hundred miles per hour, which out here on the vast, undulating sands of desert felt like standing still. Nothing but dunes as far as the eye could see. Sand, pale sky, black-tarred road. Midafternoon and the dunes on either side of the road were bleached blindingly white by the sun glaring from the pale blue bowl of the sky. The air shimmered in undulating waves with both heat and moisture.
Isis rubbed her plastic bottle across her flushed cheek before chugging down the rest of the water. “Is there anything I can do for your leg?”
Thorne realized his fingers were clamped tightly around his upper thigh, and he withdrew his hand from the daggerlike pain. “I’m fine.”
“Then why are you massaging it? I can do that—”
He grabbed her wrist as she reached out to touch him. “I just need to stretch. We’ll be in the city in a couple of hours; it can wait.” She settled back in her seat.
“We passed a small village,” she said after a brief silence. “We can stop there. I’d be happy to walk around a bit, too. This heat is making me a little sick to my stomach. I’ll grab