Abigail rubbed her forehead. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  The cab deposited them a few miles away, and they walked in the direction of a car rental booth. When it was in sight, Myles said, “You all stay here while I go rent it. I’ll meet you back here.”

  Soon they were on their way again. “It’s a shame this one isn’t bulletproof,” Charles lamented. “Shouldn’t I be sitting in the back with Abigail? They won’t shoot if we’re sitting close together.”

  She turned away and looked out at the scenery, the road often running alongside the Red Sea. Abigail was entranced.

  “Head for Hurghada airport,” Riley said. “We’ll fly from there to Edinburgh.”

  16

  EN ROUTE TO EDINBURGH

  Hurghada airport looked just like any other international airport. Abigail was sitting with Riley and Charles while Myles was away buying the tickets.

  “Thank goodness you’re carrying your passport,” Abigail said to Charles.

  “Yes, I was carrying my money in my wallet concealed on my person,” he said. “You can’t be too careful, especially in some countries.”

  “How is your arm?” Abigail asked him.

  He winced and patted it. “It’s a bit sore but no more sore than a tetanus injection. And luckily for me, I had one of those recently.” He turned to Riley. “Can you fly direct from here to Edinburgh? I’d look it up for myself only I don’t have my phone.” His expression turned into a scowl.

  “It can be anywhere between one to three stops,” Riley told him. “I expect Myles is getting the first available flight.”

  “The first available flight might not necessarily get us there the fastest if it involves three stops,” Charles said in a haughty manner.

  “I’m sure Myles has taken that into account.” Riley’s tone was even, but Abigail could tell he didn’t like Charles.

  Myles walked over to them. He was smiling. “We’re in luck. We were just in time. They’re boarding in half an hour.”

  “And how many stops on the way?” Charles said, raising his eyebrows.

  Myles was still smiling. “Just the one. Istanbul.”

  Charles yawned and stretched. “That’s a relief. I’ll just pop to the bathroom.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Myles said.

  Charles put his hands on his hips. “Am I going to be able to go anywhere by myself? Even for a minute?”

  “No,” Myles said. “I’m sticking to you like glue.”

  Charles rolled his eyes and the two men walked away.

  “You don’t like him, do you?” Abigail said to Riley.

  “Charles?”

  “Yes, you know I mean Charles.”

  “I don’t really know him,” Riley countered. “Do you trust him?”

  “I don’t know him well enough to say either way,” Abigail said. “I’ve known him for years, though. Not well, mind you. We’ve attended many of the same conferences, and I’ve read his papers. He’s a well-respected Egyptologist and I haven’t heard anything bad about him. Don’t you trust him?”

  “I don’t trust anybody,” Riley said. “Oh, I trust you. Of course,” he added as an aside.

  Abigail tried not to look too pleased. “How long will it take to get to Edinburgh?”

  “The flight to Istanbul I think is around two hours.”

  Abigail was surprised. “That’s quite a short flight.”

  Riley nodded. “The flight from Istanbul to Edinburgh is over five or so hours, as far as I remember.”

  Abigail’s face fell. “That is a long time,” she said. “I hope it’s all worth it. I hope…” She was about to say the professor’s name, but remembered she had to be careful in a public place. Instead, she changed her statement to, “I hope it all works out for us.”

  “I’m sure it will,” Riley said. “Good work by the way, figuring it all out.”

  “It was you who figured it out.”

  “You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Riley said.

  Abigail noticed he was watching Charles and Myles return. Charles was still complaining. “I don’t know why you’re sticking so close. Do you think I’m going to buy a phone, and then it will somehow magically get bugged by those agents—what was their name again, Vortex?”

  “No names in public places, please,” Myles said. “Come on, let’s go.”

  It wasn’t long before Abigail was seated on the plane. She was relieved to be sitting next to Riley this time, and Myles and Charles were seated on the other side of the plane just in front of them. She could see the backs of their heads.

  She was pleased to be having a respite from Charles. Sometimes he was funny, but his grumbling did wear her down. Her thoughts turned to Alaric Addington. She hoped he was in Edinburgh and that they didn’t have to go somewhere else searching for him, but given the fact he was recovering from a cold, she figured he would be in Dumfries. She also hoped Vortex hadn’t figured out they should ask him, but if Charles was the only Egyptologist they had looking at the papyrus, it would take them time to find someone else, and she doubted they would recognize the labyrinth determinative for what it was.

  As the plane took off, Abigail was pushed back into her seat. She gripped the sides of the chair and shut her eyes tightly. As they hit a patch of turbulence, she grabbed Riley’s arm for comfort and held on hard. “Sorry,” she said.

  She opened one eye when she felt his hand on hers, patting it gently. “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s just turbulence,” he said.

  “I know,” Abigail said, “but it’s scary. The plane’s shaking.”

  “That’s normal with turbulence,” Riley said. “It happens all the time. I was on a plane once where the turbulence was so bad, people flew out of their seats and hit their heads on the overhead luggage compartment. The plane had to be diverted to New Zealand so they could have medical treatment, but for all that shaking, the plane was perfectly fine.”

  Abigail looked at him. “Are you making that up?”

  He shook his head. “It’s true. I was flying from Australia to San Francisco and the plane hadn’t long left Sydney when it happened. We had to divert to New Zealand so the passengers could have medical treatment.”

  “Was there shaking more than this?” Abigail asked him.

  “This is nothing compared to that.”

  He was still patting her hand. The shaking stopped and the plane leveled out a little. Riley stopped patting her hand, and Abigail removed her fingers from his arm. “I hope I didn’t hurt you,” she said.

  “I can handle it,” he said.

  Abigail sighed with relief. The flight attendants were already walking along the aisles offering tea and coffee. Abigail wished she could study the papyrus further, but of course couldn’t bring it out in a public place.

  “Do you think we will get there before the others?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrow.

  Riley at once took her meaning. “I’m sure we will,” he said. “I think we’re one step ahead of them at the moment.”

  Something occurred to Abigail. “Shouldn’t they just follow us? I mean, why did they attack us before? Wouldn’t they want us to lead them to it?” Riley opened his mouth to respond, but she pushed on. “I mean, wouldn’t it be faster for them to let us do all the work and just follow us?”

  To her surprise, Riley agreed. “I think that’s exactly what they’re doing,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “They ran to the car, but…” He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “But they shot wide of the car. Didn’t you think it was strange that no bullets hit the car? It was all a pretense. They don’t want us to think that they’re following us.”

  Abigail let that sink in for a moment and then said, “You don’t think they’re still following us, do you?”

  “I have no idea, to be honest,” Riley said. “I’m sure they only managed to do so before because of Charles’s phone and his watch—either or both, I have no idea—and I’d be surprised if they had eyes on us now, but you never know.”

  Abigail was concerned. What if Vortex agents were still following them, maybe even on the plane with them. Maybe they had followed them to the airport and had somehow found out what flight they were on. Then they could take other flights and arrive in Edinburgh separately. At least she took heart with the fact that they didn’t know about Alaric Addington. There were any number of Egyptologists in Scotland, and also Vortex might think they were trying to obfuscate matters by landing in Edinburgh, then heading south for England to the Egyptologists there. She allowed herself a small sigh of relief.

  Abigail’s relief was short-lived. She heard a crackle, and then the captain’s voice spoke. Abigail was expecting the captain to welcome everyone aboard.

  “We have received an indication that there is a possible issue with one of the aircraft engines. Simply as a precaution, we have elected to divert to El Arish International Airport.”

  17

  EGYPT

  Abigail clutched Riley’s arm, but before she could speak, a flight attendant appeared beside them. “When you’re given the signal, put your heads down and brace for landing. Try it now so I can see if you’re doing it right.”

  Abigail and Riley did as she suggested.

  “That’s fine,” the flight attendant said before moving onto the next person.

  A flight attendant who was standing at the front called for attention. “Ladies and gentlemen, the flight attendants are coming through now to make sure you are prepared for landing. Fasten your seat belts at once. Remove ties, eyeglasses, and scarves, and loosen your collars.”

  “Everything will be fine,” Riley whispered to Abigail.

  “How can you say that?” she said, her voice rising to a high pitch. “We have to crash land.”

  Riley shook his head and patted her hand. “No, I don’t think we do. I didn’t hear a sound. There’s been no smell of burning, and there’s no smoke in the cabin. Besides, the plane hasn’t lost height or done anything unusual.”

  “But it did bank sharply,” Abigail protested.

  Riley patted her hand once more. “That’s only due to the fact that it changed course.”

  Abigail leaned close to Riley and whispered in his ear. “What if Vortex agents have put a bomb on board?”

  “They wouldn’t have had time and they don’t know where we’re going,” Riley said. “Plus, we think they need either you or your friend alive.”

  His words gave Abigail a small glimmer of hope. “So then, why don’t you think there is genuinely something wrong with the engines?” Then a worse fear replaced her earlier fears. “Or do you think there is genuinely something wrong with the engines?”

  Riley shook his head once more. “No, like I said to you, we didn’t hear anything that would suggest anything was wrong with the engines. If you look out the window, that engine looks perfectly fine and I don’t see any passengers looking out the other window.”

  Abigail was puzzled. “Then why do they think there’s something wrong with one of the engines?”

  “I imagine that’s protocol if there’s been a threat,” Riley said. “A false threat,” he hastened to add. “Maybe Vortex made a threat saying there was something on the plane, and the pilot has to follow protocol and divert to the nearest major airport.”

  Abigail digested what he said. “For what purpose?” she asked, although she had already figured most of it out for herself.

  “Maybe they were still following us and knew which plane we had boarded, and they wanted the plane diverted to the El Arish International Airport for whatever reason. It gives them time to put a tail on us, which they wouldn’t have been able to do if we had landed in Istanbul. They will expect us to fly out from here.”

  “You don’t think we’re going to crash?” Abigail asked in a small voice.

  Riley put his arm around Abigail and held her to him briefly. “I’m sure we won’t.”

  Abigail had been glancing at the back of Charles’s head from time to time. He didn’t appear perturbed, as far as she could tell from the back of his head. He wasn’t waving his arms in the air and he hadn’t stood up. She wondered how he was taking the news. No doubt, Myles had managed to placate him.

  “Put your head down and brace for landing,” a flight attendant said over the microphone. Abigail clutched Riley’s arm once more as the flight attendant ran through the safety procedures at length.

  As the plane descended, Abigail could see ambulances and fire engines screaming toward the runway.

  “It’s just protocol,” Riley said. “Try not to worry.” He reached for her hand and held it.

  Abigail thought she was perhaps clutching Riley’s hand too tightly, but she was terrified.

  Abigail continued to clutch Riley’s hand as the plane hit the runway. She shut her eyes tightly and held her breath as the plane hurtled at great speed down the runway. She only opened her eyes to the sound of everyone cheering.

  “We made it,” she breathed. The plane came to a stop. Everyone was ushered down the stairs onto the runway and straight into waiting buses.

  Adrenaline surged though her on the bus ride to the terminal.

  “That was a bit of excitement,” Charles said when they all got out of the bus. She envied his cool demeanour—he did not look as though he had just been through an ordeal.

  A woman addressed the crowd. “We apologize to you all for the inconvenience. If you would care to line up here, we will give each of you a thirty-dollar food voucher to use while you wait for your next flight.”

  “How long will that be?” a burly man at the front asked her.

  “I can’t tell you at this time, but it will be sometime this evening,” she said. “We’ll announce it as soon as we know.” With that, everyone was dismissed. The passengers were animated, talking with each other.

  “TV crews,” Myles said sharply. Riley took Abigail by the arm and the four of them marched off quickly in the other direction. Abigail looked over her shoulder to see journalists already interviewing passengers.

  “What do we do now?” Charles asked.

  “We catch a flight on another airline,” Riley said. “Myles, you go rent a car. The three of us will wait here.”

  “So we’re not catching another plane from this airport?” Charles said. His tone was incredulous.

  Riley simply shook his head.

  Soon, Abigail was bundled into a car that she assumed was heading for Cairo. She didn’t really care. She had just had the fright of her life and was glad to have escaped alive. Still, the boring countryside, the same mile after mile, began to take its toll.

  Charles was the first to break the silence after fifteen minutes of driving. “I suppose we’re headed for Cairo?”

  “That’s right,” Myles said.

  “I still can’t see why we couldn’t have flown out of that airport tonight,” Charles said. “Still, I suppose those Vortex agents were expecting us to do that.”

  “Possibly, but they might have also suspected we would drive to Cairo,” Myles said. “If we had to wait for hours at El Arish International Airport, that would give them time to catch up with us.”

  “So then, they would probably know we were going to Cairo,” Charles pointed out.

  Myles shrugged. “Yes, they’ll know we have either flown out from El Arish International Airport or driven to Cairo.”

  “So, they could have agents at both airports,” Charles said.

  Myles simply nodded.

  “But isn’t it a stupid idea to fly out?”

  “What do you suggest?” Riley said. “Catch a boat?”

  “I could do with a cruise,” Charles said with a chuckle.

  Conversation ceased, and Abigail looked out the window at the huge billboards and the flat scenery that seemed the same mile after mile after mile. Her stomach rumbled loudly and she was embarrassed when Riley asked her if she was hungry.

  Before she had a chance to answer, Charles said, “I’m hungry. Is it safe to stop for food?”

  “I’m sure it’s safe to stop at a gas station if we don’t stay long,” Myles said. “We’ve got plenty of time to catch our next flight.”

  Charles gasped. “You’ve booked flights already?”

  Myles did not answer, but said, “According to the GPS, there’s a gas station not far ahead.”

  As soon as he spoke the words, a gas station came into view. It was painted mustard-yellow. When the car stopped, through the expansive windows Abigail could see men seated at tables. All were smoking.

  “Someone needs to stay with the car this time,” Myles said. “Riley, I’ll take Charles for a bathroom break and then we’ll get some food. Then Charles and I can stay with the car while you and Abigail go.”

  Abigail was pleased to have some nourishment, even though it was only a soda and some chocolate. When they reached the car, she felt more human after some food in her stomach. She realized she had been trembling after the fright on the airplane. “Are you all right?” Riley asked her as they walked back to the car. “You’ve gone white.”

  “I’m just a little afraid about getting on another plane so soon,” Abigail said. “I know it doesn’t seem logical since it was clearly a false alarm, but I’m a bit scared.”

  “It’s perfectly understandable, but you’ll be all right,” Riley said. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Abigail.”

  A warm sensation fluttered in Abigail’s stomach. Charles had clearly overheard the words because he rolled his eyes. Soon they were on the road once more, traversing mile after mile of flat fields punctuated by large billboards. They passed the wreckage of several cars at frequent intervals.

  “Maybe we should wear a disguise so the Vortex agents won’t recognize us,” Charles said. He chuckled and added, “But obviously that dark hair didn’t work as a disguise for you, Abigail.”

  When nobody responded, he added, “Can we get flights direct to Edinburgh?”

  Both Riley and Myles said, “No.”

  “I’m tired,” Charles complained.