Читать книгу The Caged Ruby - Rodney Syler - Страница 6

When they left the door to the Monastery, the cab driver from earlier was waiting at the entrance.

Taylor started to look back but she knew the tall monk would be gone. She didn’t know how they did it, but she knew enough about special abilities not to question it.

At the airport they retrieved their luggage from the lockers and checked in for the flight to Cairo. Taylor felt the pendant on her chest and it felt warm. It was solid gold and heavy. She examined the shape and the tiny slot with a thin blade like feature near the bottom. She could think of no use except maybe to sharpen a pencil point. On a whim, she plucked a hair from her head and held it over the slot. A gentle movement down and the hair fell in half from the slightest touch.

“Sharp?” asked Rex.

“No wonder the tiny blade is tucked in the slot where you can’t touch it. It’s a razor.”

***

The tires chirped as they touched down in Cairo. While waiting for their bags, Rex called to confirm that his contribution to the explorers had been made. A taxi drove them to what was rated a five star hotel. In Rex’s opinion, it would be three stars in the U.S.

Rex knew excavations like this tomb were notorious for underworld characters, thieves and corrupt local officials. It would not surprise him to find that his contribution went to pay bribes or government officials. The next morning Rex bought them some more appropriate clothing and they went to the site to meet the foreman. He quickly took them aside and told them to come back in the evening when the workers were gone.

Rex and Taylor went to a local antique dealer and talked with the owner. They bought a few trinkets and asked the owner if he had a personal collection. Suspicious of Rex’s intentions he avoided the question. Later Taylor pointed to a back room and said, “What’s in there?”

“It’s off limits.”

Rex said. “I am told in your personal collection you have memorabilia from early explorers. May we see?”

Calling an assistant to watch the front of the store, he led them through the curtains.

“As you can see I collect discarded items that others think worthless at the time.”

A scarred pith helmet hung in a dusty glass case. It was classic style for explorers in the early nineteen hundreds. Many of the pyramids and tombs were being explored by scientists from Europe and the United States. Below the hat was a tiny label. “George Andrew Reisner, Circa 1910.” Rex knew of him as one of the great pyramid explorers.

“How can you possibly know the pith helmet is authentic?” asked Rex.

“I was there as a boy. When he left, he gave it to me with his thanks for helping at the site. I never saw him again.”

Rex offered him a fair price for the explorer’s helmet. He did not sell until Rex offered twice his original offer. Then he reluctantly gave up the famous explorer’s helmet. With tears in his eyes he handed over the piece.

When they left the store, Taylor said, “I will bet you ten dollars tomorrow he will have another helmet just like that one hanging over the plaque.”

“Well I’ll never know. As far as I’m concerned, this is the real deal. I won’t be going back to look.”

That evening they met at the tomb. It turned out the foreman was sneaking Rex in and that is why he waited until dark. They followed him in and through the narrow stone lined passage. Deeper in the vault the air got cooler and the smell was stagnant.

Rex asked about the air quality. “Have you ventilated the tomb since the discovery?”

“No. There was no money to spend until you came along. It isn’t much further.”

Taylor said, “Is it safe to be down here?”

“Perfectly safe”, the foreman answered, “We have only lost one worker. We think he already had malaria before he entered the tomb. Two others left not because they were sick, but because they were afraid of curses. There were some inscriptions that warned of plagues on the families of those who enter.”

“Aren’t you afraid for your family?”

“No. I am all alone. I have no family to kill.”

Taylor wondered how much of the talk was for effect. She didn’t like the feeling she was getting from him.

They stopped at the doorway. Rex took pictures of the glyphs near the door. The entry was low and just wide enough for a sarcophagus. Taylor offered to wait outside. Rex took her by the hand and led her inside. The ceiling barely cleared their heads. Around the room lay artifacts intended to comfort the entombed in the afterlife. Rex took picture after picture.

The foreman said, “Please touch nothing. It must be as we left it earlier today.”

“What’s in the casket?” asked Taylor.

“No one has looked inside yet. There is much paperwork with the authorities.”

Something didn’t feel right to Taylor. She had a good sense of a person’s character. This guy was setting off all kinds of warning signals.

She said, “Rex, I don’t feel well. We better go. I’m sure they don’t want vomit in the tomb.”

Rex said, “Just a few more pictures.”

Taylor walked up to him, looked him in the eye and said, “We go now.”

Rex shrugged at the foreman and said, “We really don’t want her to be sick in the tomb.”

Just then there was a rustling from outside the low doorway. Two men came in with guns.

The tallest one said, “Looks like we have some grave robbers here. You two came along at just the right time. We needed somebody just like you to be found with some loot, while we make off with the real good stuff. You can even help carry it out.”

Stiffening and standing as tall as he could in the low room Rex said, “And why would I help you carry anything?”

The taller one said, “Because you are strong, and she’ll be tied up and left here to die if you don’t.”

He grabbed Taylor’s hair and held the gun against her side. Rex said, “Don’t hurt her. I’ll do what you want.”

The gunman walked Taylor over to the corner and sat her on a low box. He tied her feet and hands with a cord and gagged her. To humiliate her more, he bent down to kiss her on the head. She drew back as if repulsed and head butted him right on the nose. He went down bleeding and came up ready for revenge. His partner grabbed his gun hand and said, “No more. If we have time later you can deal with her. For now stop the bleeding and let’s get this stuff out of here.”

Rex had tried to escape during the excitement but found the foreman also had a gun and was in on the robbery.

Rex and the three men wrestled the sarcophagus from the stand. They removed the top to verify there was in fact a mummy inside. It was surrounded by gold objects and a few small ceramic vessels. Satisfied with their haul, they replaced the lid and dragged it through the doorway.

Outside the door they belted a small set of wheels to the sarcophagus and pulled it through the corridor. Taylor knew they would be a while getting it up the steps. She had memorized the corridor as they entered. Her near photographic memory would serve her well now. Every step, nook, and corridor was catalogued in her mind. She thought of her tortured mom and hoped she could avoid her mom’s fate.

It got darker in the room as the men got further away. She thought, “They plan to leave us dead in the tomb and blame us as part of the theft.” In the last bit of light that flickered in from the corridor she saw a reflection on her chest. The pendant the monk had given her caught the light and winked back at her face. The sharpened edge in the inside of the crook was about the size of the sturdy cords that bound her hands and feet.

She bent forward in the darkness and felt the necklace touch her bindings. After several attempts, it hung on one of the cords. Pulling back against the leather thong with her neck she cut through the cord. Wriggling her hands, she loosened the bindings, and used the pendant to cut the cords on her feet.

Free from the bindings she needed a plan and a weapon. The darkness didn’t bother her because she knew the way out. Removing the lid from her stone seat, she rummaged around inside. She settled on a metal object shaped like a baseball bat. Hoisting it onto her shoulder, Taylor felt less vulnerable knowing she had a weapon.

Out the door and down the corridor she made it easily to the top of the stairs in total darkness. Hearing them returning she ducked into a small nook beside the top of the stairs ready to attack.

Lights danced on the floor and ceiling as they approached. A plan came together in the seconds before footsteps crunched on the sandy stone before her. Taylor thought, “Rex will be forced in front where he can’t escape. The three thieves probably won’t even have their guns drawn. I’ll wait till the first person is clear.”

As soon as the first set of feet passed she swung the heavy metal bat and hit two solid shins. As they bent and fell she came back and connected with another. “Who’s next she wondered,” as hands touched her from behind. Stepping to one side, she rammed the bat backwards with all her strength and felt a crunch as she connected with someone’s sternum. Like a berserker in Norse tales, she lunged at anything that moved. Light glinted on a gun and the bat crushed hard against the wrist. The foreman reached for a secreted gun in an ankle holster as Rex caught sight of him in the beam of a fallen flashlight. Rex kicked his hand away and removed the gun. Three men writhed moaning on the floor as Rex gathered up the remaining weapons.

Suddenly Taylor thought, “Please don’t start again. I can’t lose control again.” The flashbacks started. Random memories from anywhere and everywhere, all at once, flooded her mind. Taylor was momentarily in a daze. The scenes, smells, and sounds of a thousand events flooded her consciousness.

Rex came to her and wrapped her in a tight hug. “It’s okay. You had to do what you did. You were great.”

She calmed and the visions went away. Regaining her composure, they hurried up the sloped ramp and through the iron gate. Locking it, they ran past the truck where the robbers had stashed the sarcophagus.

Standing in the darkness near the car, Taylor said, “Let’s get out of here. I don’t think we need to be caught up in this. We would probably end up in jail even though we stopped the robbers.” She pitched the bat into their gear bag in the dark trunk. On their way to the airport, they stopped at the hotel only long enough to get their luggage. Just before the plane left, they called the police and reported the attempted robbery.

Sleeping while snuggled on the plane, they arrived in France within a few hours. Reasoning that the captives would try to blame the attempted theft on them, they went straight to a hotel room and checked in under an assumed name.

After resting, Taylor unpacked her bags. She opened the duffle and found the bat she had used to fight the men. As she removed it Rex let out a low whistle. The bat was a solid gold scepter. The big end was the shape of a small cage. Looking more closely, Taylor could see the rounded shape was really the form of a huge scarab beetle wrapped around glimmering rubies. The shell of the beetle was a grid-work of heavy gold lacings with rubies filling the gaps. Gold jointed legs, and pincers wrapped around the biggest ruby. The beetle blended into the twisted ornate gold handle.

“You really know how to choose a weapon.” He took a rag and polished it up, removing some dried blood and hair in the process.

“I was fumbling in the dark for something to use. It felt like a bat so I took it. How are we going to get it back to them?”

Rex came to Taylor and held her tightly. “You were great back there. We escaped with our lives and accidentally one of the most fabulous relics I have ever seen, and you worry how we are going to get it back.”

He wrapped it in a hotel towels and tucked it back in the duffle. “We better let things cool off a bit and see what the news reports say. The thieves may not know what was in the room. I think we better store it somewhere while we wait.”