“That’s what you said.” Dalai’s heart was beating hard as she carefully edged away from the knife she’d plunged into Zahra’s hand. She swallowed. Everything had gone so quickly, she was having trouble believing what she’d done. “And you might be right if you hadn’t always let me prepare the poisons for the comb. But I couldn’t take a chance that you would use the poison on Eve Duncan instead of Varak. I had to be in control.” She stared into Zahra’s eyes, then her glance shifted to the knife sticking upright in the hand clutching the comb. “You understand control, Zahra.”
Zahra’s eyes widened in horror as she realized what Dalai meant. “The comb had no poison? You switched the poison to that knife?”
“I had to be prepared. That’s what I told myself. But it might have been a lie.” She said wearily, “Maybe this was always how I intended it to end. I could have run. I could have hit you on the head. I could have just pretended that nothing had changed. But I let the words come. I let you go after me.” She was slowly sitting up. “Because something had changed, and I couldn’t ignore it.”
“It hurts.” Zahra was staring dazedly down at the wound in her hand. “It’s burning, you bitch. You did it. It’s really the poison.” She was suddenly trying to move toward her. “I’ll kill you.”
Dalai shook her head. “You’re already too weak. Remember how you described what the poison would do to frighten me? All you can do is lie there and hate me. It won’t be long now.”
“I won’t die,” Zahra panted. “Weak people like you die. I’ll live through this. I’m like Kiya and Cleopatra, queens who ruled the world.” Zahra’s voice was frantic with fear and anger as she felt the poison sear inside her. “But I would have been greater than them. I have to be greater. I won’t let you take that from me. I won’t let anyone take—”
Dalai shook her head. “You’re not great, Zahra.” She leaned closer and looked into her eyes. “You’re nothing. You should recognize that word. Nothing. And soon you’ll be less than nothing.”
Zahra’s eyes were filled with outrage and horror. Her mouth fell open, and her eyes glazed. “No! Not me. I won’t have it! This can’t happen to—”
She was dead.
Dalai stared at her for a long moment. So many years of fear and torment…She should feel something, shouldn’t she? She felt nothing but flatness and bewilderment. She got wearily to her feet. It didn’t matter what she was feeling. Maybe she’d know later.
Now she had to do something to help Jill or Eve Duncan. Varak had seemed so confident that he could get through that tunnel. Dalai had to call Jill and let her know. She was helping no one staying down in this splendid golden treasury that Zahra had worshipped.
Hurry!
She reached for her phone as she started to run up the ladder.
She heard the explosions before she’d gone more than two rungs.
She climbed the rest of the rungs, panicked.
Then she was outside, staring desperately in the direction of the museum. But she couldn’t see it! It had disappeared.
All she could see was the thick layer of rolling black smoke reaching for the sky.
* * *
“Come back inside.” Hajif was trying to draw Jill back into the cave. “You’re not supposed to be out here. All is going well. Mr. Novak said that it should be over soon.”
She could see that it was going well as she gazed down at the streets of the village. Varak’s men had been sitting ducks for Novak’s team waiting for them. But there was still violence and blood and all the hideous signs of war to which Jill had become accustomed.
The acrid scent of tear gas…
Gunshots.
Men running…
Explosions.
Men firing automatic rifles…
And men with machetes…
How she hated those machetes.
“Come back inside,” Hajif said again. “Mr. Novak will not be—”
Kaboom.
The ground shook, throwing her to the ground.
Then another explosion.
Her eyes flew toward the hill.
Smoke. The entire hill was wreathed in thick, black, smoke.
“What is that smoke?” Hajif’s gaze had followed Jill’s to the top of the hill. “Was it a bomb? I don’t see a fire.”
Neither did Jill though she thought she could see a dull glow beyond those thick clouds of smoke. “I think…it’s a military-grade smoke grenade. I’ve seen them before, in Pakistan. Varak must have launched it with a chemical explosive of some sort to keep feeding the