Uncharted The Fourth Labyrinth - By Christopher Golden Page 0,52
with sand blowing around them and the sun glaring, Sully had to shield his eyes to give her a surprised look.
“What?” Jada said. “I’m just looking on the bright side.”
“Your bright side is pretty dark,” Drake muttered. Then he smiled. “It’s strangely appealing.”
Jada jabbed him with her elbow as they walked after Welch. The archaeologist led them between a pair of tents and into a place where they could see the entire dig while remaining mostly hidden. A group of men and women were making their way around the outer circle of the depression, a man with a camera filming a woman who was gesturing toward the implied outline of the labyrinth and talking to the camera. The others trailed behind them, including a dark-haired woman in loose clothing and a tall, broad-shouldered blond man in a crisp white shirt and gray trousers. He looked like a politician attempting and failing to dress casually. A man constantly campaigning even if he was not running for office, Drake thought.
“Is that Henriksen?” he asked.
Jada mumbled her assent, staring at the group. She had gone pale despite the flush of the heat, and when he touched her arm to comfort her, she flinched. Her skin was cold.
“The tall woman with the dark hair is Hilary Russo. She’s the director of the expedition, in charge of the whole dig,” Welch said. “I take it you know the blonde.”
Drake said nothing. They did indeed know the woman trailing the rest of the group. Her golden hair had been tied back in a ponytail, and she looked more suited for a safari than an archaeological dig, her clothing the female equivalent of Henriksen’s Lands’ End perfection.
“I guess she’s a better actress than you thought, huh, kid?” Sully muttered, glancing at Drake.
“What the hell are they doing here?” Jada whispered, hugging herself now as if she were in an icebox instead of the desert.
“I told you, Henriksen’s taking over funding the dig,” Welch replied, hands fluttering up to tug at his hat and adjust his glasses, squirrelly as ever. “Phoenix is the sole sponsor now. He’s financing this dig and the next three that Hilary undertakes—years of funding for her and her team, which includes me if you being here doesn’t get me fired—but in exchange he gets control of the disposition of the relics, all media rights, and rights to museum exhibits. All of that. The documentary team is supposedly putting together some footage to prepare for a TV series he wants to make about all of this. Last night you mentioned how big a discovery this is, and you weren’t wrong.”
Drake paced back and forth between the tents. Jada kept staring at the group across the depression from them, but he caught Sully looking at him.
“We’ve gotta get down there before they do,” Sully said.
Drake nodded. He turned to Welch. “What you said about your job. Are you going to bail on us, Ian? We need to know. Luka and your sister’s boyfriend are dead, and we think Henriksen is the guy behind it. But it sounds to me like you’re having second thoughts about helping us.”
Jada turned to watch the exchange, her eyes wide with hurt. It had not occurred to her that Welch might go back on his word.
Welch hesitated, squirming, a man caught between the points of his moral compass. After a few seconds, he gave a small shrug. “Gretchen would kill me if I didn’t help.”
Drake thought how fortunate the man was that Henriksen’s goons had been after Jada the night before and not him. His sister would kill him if he didn’t help, and Henriksen might have him killed if he did. They had to warn him what kind of danger he was in—as soon as he showed them the labyrinth.
“So, how do we beat Henriksen into the labyrinth?” he asked. “They’ll be going inside any minute now.”
Welch smiled, nodding to himself. “Hilary wants to give them the whole tour, make a show of it. They’re supposed to be filming, right? She wants to impress, which means she is going to take them in through the front.”
Drake stared at him. “You’re saying we go through the side door?”
Jada pointed at the larger excavation, the original part of the dig, where the wall of the labyrinth had collapsed. “Can we get in that way? Is it clear?”
“Not only is it clear, it’s a hell of a lot closer to the worship chambers and the anteroom we just started digging out. One