Abigail held her breath.

  The professor looked around the train. “We’ll need to keep this a secret. I mean, my small research team knew, but they kept it a secret. They have all moved on to better things these days. It was an obsession of mine, you see, and no one shared my interest.”

  Abigail wasn’t quite following him. “What do you mean…” she began, but he interrupted her.

  “I’ve been in the labyrinth,” he said.

  A collective gasp went up from the four. “You have?” Charles said in wonderment.

  The professor nodded slowly. “Only the beginning of the labyrinth. I had only just discovered it when my research grant was refused. If I hadn’t been on the point of retiring, I would have tried to raise funds again, but at any rate, I have a house in Dahshur.”

  “But where was the entrance?” Abigail asked him. She tried to picture the area. There would be sand and rock. Any entrance would surely have been discovered by now.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Alaric told her. “Somebody would have discovered the entrance by now. I can assure you, they didn’t. The entrance to the underground complex is in the far west of the town of Dahshur, and I bought a little farmhouse there. I paid handsomely for it, mind you, since it wasn’t for sale at the time. I had the house extended over the labyrinth’s entry point.”

  Abigail could scarcely believe her ears. “Are you saying you own a house in Dahshur and it gives access to the labyrinth under the complex of Amenemhat III?”

  The professor smiled. “The very same.”

  20

  EN ROUTE TO EDINBURGH

  Riley thought the professor eccentric, although he had always found academics somewhat eccentric, apart from Abigail, that is.

  “And why did you build a house over an entrance to the labyrinth?” he asked the professor.

  The professor frowned and then said, “It wasn’t built over the entrance to the labyrinth.” He stopped speaking and scratched his head. “I bought the house because it stood over where I knew the labyrinth at its westernmost point to be. I excavated there, and when I had found a way into the labyrinth, I extended the house. That is to say, I had the house extended over that point with an entrance into the labyrinth.”

  Riley had never heard such a thing. “And for what purpose?”

  “I wanted it to be there for when technology improved,” the professor said. “You can see for yourself that the Black Pyramid is in a terrible state of ruin.” He waved his hands through the air expressively. “And I have no idea of the state of the labyrinth because I didn’t go far into it. But one thing was certain, I didn’t want the site ruined by clumsy archeologists such as…” He reeled off a list of names.

  “And did you intend to excavate there at a later date?” Abigail asked him.

  The professor shook his head. “No. I was nearing retirement age, you see. I wanted to keep the entrance to the labyrinth safe for posterity.”

  Riley could see Abigail seemed perplexed by the professor’s words.

  “But you didn’t want to publish on it?” she asked.

  The professor shrugged one shoulder. “Why would I publish? Like I said, I was about to retire. My career was over. All the publishing in the world wouldn’t have helped at that point. Now, if I had been a young man, that would have been a different matter.”

  “We don’t want to alert anyone of the labyrinth, I can assure you of that,” Riley said. “We need access to the labyrinth to find a storage room or wherever this spear would be located.”

  The professor looked at Riley with renewed interest. “My dear boy, do you realize how dangerous that is? Over two and a half thousand years ago, Herodotus wrote of the labyrinth. Even if the labyrinth isn’t flooded, you could easily get lost, or it could collapse on you.”

  “Surely it wouldn’t collapse after all these years?” Abigail asked him. “If parts were going to collapse, they would have collapsed by now.”

  The professor nodded slowly. “So true, so true. Still, I wouldn’t go into the labyrinth carelessly. There were warnings.”

  “Warnings?” Charles repeated.

  Riley did not like Charles. He was a little jealous of the attention Charles paid Abigail, truth be told, but there was something about him that made Riley rankle. He didn’t trust the man.

  “Yes, the hieroglyphs on the walls warned against anyone entering the labyrinth. Herodotus didn’t mention that as such, but he said he did not go into the underground labyrinth, only the above ground one.”

  “There was an above ground labyrinth too?” Riley asked.

  Charles grunted. “Yes, didn’t I tell you that already?”

  “And just how large is this labyrinth?” Riley asked Alaric.

  “Huge,” the professor said, holding out his arms for emphasis. “Huge.”

  They were closer than ever to the location of Goliath’s spear, but Riley didn’t fancy walking through an ancient labyrinth. “Was it flooded?”

  “We had to wade through ankle deep water at some points,” the professor said, “but we didn’t have to swim.” He chuckled.

  Riley rubbed his forehead. “And you will allow us entrance to your house at Dahshur?”

  The professor smiled. “I’ll do better than that. I’ll give you my key.” He produced a set of keys and then looked through them. To Riley, it seemed like an age before he finally selected a key and held it up to them. “You can borrow this. I do have a spare, but make sure you return it.”

  “We will definitely return it,” Riley told him, watching as the man fumbled to detach the key from his key ring.

  He handed it to Riley. “And of course you need the address.”

  Myles spoke up for the first time. “Thanks, Professor. You’ve been ever so helpful.”

  Riley was only half listening as the professor gave his address and Myles wrote it down. Something didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Still, his instincts hadn’t been wrong before. For a moment, he wondered if the professor was an imposter, someone from Vortex there to lead them astray or maybe even give them the correct information so they could retrieve the spear for Vortex and be waiting in the professor’s house when they emerged with the spear.

  He shook his head. The professor looked exactly like the photos he had seen online. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful. He took Abigail’s arm and drew her aside. “Abigail, are you sure that’s Alaric Addington?”

  Abigail looked startled. “Of course! I mean, I’ve never met him. What do you think? That he’s a Vortex agent pretending to be Dr. Addington?”

  Riley bit his lip. “I don’t know. I’ve had an uneasy feeling about this mission for a while now. Could I ask him something that an imposter wouldn’t know?”

  Abigail stared off into the distance. “You could ask him who won the Battle of Kadesh.”

  “The Battle of Kadesh?” Riley repeated.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  Riley nodded. “If the answer is wrong, ask me how long before we arrive in Edinburgh.”

  Abigail did not seem to think his request strange. “And what if his answer is correct?”

  “Simply agree with him,” Riley said. Riley went to walk back, but Abigail caught his arm. “But what if he is an imposter and doesn’t know the answer, what will he do? Would he be armed?”

  “Don’t worry about that. He would likely just shrug it off, maybe say his memory is going, or something like that.”

  “Okay.”

  Riley could see Abigail looked doubtful, but he thought his plan a good one.

  When they returned, the professor was telling Myles and Charles about Amenemhat III.

  When the professor paused for breath, Riley took the opportunity to ask. He said, “Professor, who won the Battle of Kadesh?”

  Alaric looked startled. “The Battle of Kadesh?” he repeated. Riley nodded. The professor pushed on. “But this has nothing to do with Amenemhat III.”

  “I know,” Riley said. “But I’ve always wondered who won the Battle of Kadesh.”

  The professor narrowed his eyes. “Well, you were wise to ask. Of course, Ramses III claimed victory, but Egyptian pharaohs always claimed victory even if they had suffered a crushing defeat. The Hittites claimed victory too and they weren’t so likely to make things up. But today, the academic consensus is that it was a draw.”

  Riley quirked one eyebrow and shot Abigail a look. “A draw?”

  Abigail nodded. “That’s right.”

  As the professor droned on and on about the ancient Egyptian proclivities to claiming success when they didn’t win, and other characteristics of pharaohs, Riley looked out the train window at the landscape speeding past. So, the professor wasn’t an imposter, after all. That is, of course, unless Vortex had replaced the professor with someone well versed in Egyptian history, but that seemed unlikely, especially given the timeframe. No, Riley’s uneasy feeling had to be due to something else.

  Riley wanted to scout out the train to make sure they weren’t being followed. He stood up. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said.

  “There is no food on this train,” the professor told him. “I have an apple if you want one?” He reached into a crumpled plastic bag and produced an apple.

  “That’s all right, thanks for your offer,” Riley said. He shot Myles a pointed look. “I’ll be right back.”

  Myles nodded. Riley walked through the carriages all the way to the end of the train and then turned around. He hadn’t seen anyone remotely suspicious on the train, but then again, a Vortex agent could be anyone. He could have passed a dozen of them for all he knew.

  He was walking back to the others when he noticed a man with his head bent down over a newspaper. Something about the man, maybe instinct, gave Riley pause. Spies usually have a nondescript appearance so they won’t stand out, but this man had a shaven head, a long black beard, a nose ring, and was covered with tattoos.

  He hesitated. The man looked up.

  It was Atwah, a man who had been working for Vortex. Riley had run into him on an earlier occasion. Atwah had hair and no beard when Riley had last seen him. At that time, Riley had pursued him, but he had gotten away.

  The man jumped to his feet and aimed a punch at Riley, causing a collective gasp to go up from the passengers. As Riley ducked, the man ran along the corridor with Riley in hot pursuit. As they ran past the restroom, an elderly lady opened the door into Riley. He apologized and skirted around her, and then the man he was pursuing was no longer to be seen.

  Riley took off at a sprint along the next carriage and saw the man disappearing outside. Riley realized the man must have gone up on the roof.

  Riley did not hesitate. He ran after the man, hauling himself up to the roof by means of the bars on the side of the train. As his hand was reaching the top bar, he saw a foot coming down on it hard.

  He pulled his hand away with nanoseconds to spare and grabbed the man’s foot, hoping to pull him off the train. Atwah lost balance after his miss-aimed kick and fell backward onto the train roof. Riley jumped up after him. He had always seen spies in movies fighting on the top of a train and had always thought it ridiculous, but now he was doing the very same thing.

  It was hard to keep his balance up there with the velocity of the wind rushing past. Riley crouched lower to keep his center of gravity down. Atwah stood up and staggered. He lunged at Riley, knocking him down, and the two of them engaged in a brawl.

  The man’s hand connected with Riley’s jaw, but Riley rolled over and grabbed the man’s hand. He twisted it back hard. The man grunted and lunged for Riley.

  Riley only barely escaped falling off the train. He knew it wouldn’t do him any good to fall from the train at this speed. He also knew the two of them were matched for weight and competence. It was a defensive fight and neither of them were getting anywhere.

  The train whistle blew, and the train started to slow. Riley figured they were approaching a station. He ducked, but too late—the man’s fist skimmed his face. The train continued to slow.

  The man threw himself at Riley once more, knocking him off balance, and the two of them flew off the edge of the train roof.

  21

  MOTHERWELL, SCOTLAND

  Riley hit the ground hard but rolled swiftly down the embankment. He lay there for a second, moving himself to see if anything was broken, and at once jumped to his feet. He had gotten off lightly—the roll down the embankment had saved him. He scurried up to the top of the ridge. There was no sign of Atwah.

  Then a terrible thought struck Riley—what if Atwah had deliberately shown himself to Riley to get Riley off the train, to lure him away from the others?

  Riley couldn’t see where Atwah had disappeared to so quickly. Obviously, he had not rolled down along embankment and so probably had sprinted along the railway line. There were houses nearby and some bicycles lying against a stone fence. Maybe Atwah had stolen a bicycle. Riley took off at a jog to the train station. He pulled his phone from his pocket and called Myles.

  “I ran into a Vortex agent, Atwah,” he told him. “We fought. We both went off the side of the train.”

  “Are you hurt?” Myles asked him.

  “No,” Riley said. Of course, he was battered and bruised, but that wasn’t hurt as such. “He got away. I’m concerned he might have wanted to lure me off the train. Can you get off at the next stop, and I’ll meet you at the station?”

  “I don’t think it’s safe to meet at the station,” Myles said. “Why don’t I take them all to a café and call you with the location so you can meet us there?”

  “Sounds good,” Riley said.

  “What happened?” Abigail asked Myles as soon as he hung up.

  “There was a Vortex agent on the train and he and Riley both fell off the train roof.”

  Abigail’s hand flew to her throat. “Is Riley all right?”

  “He’s fine,” Myles said.

  Abigail searched Myles’s face to see if he was lying. How could anyone be fine after falling off the train roof? It didn’t seem possible to her. Still, Riley had made the call, so he couldn’t be too badly hurt.

  Myles pushed on. “We are to get off at the next station and Riley will meet up with us. We also need to extract the professor.”

  Abigail nodded. She had seen RHTF agents collect other people to take them to safe houses on the previous mission.

  “I might need your help explaining it to him,” Myles said. “And there’s one other thing, there could be more agents on this train.”

  “You’re kidding!” Charles said. “Do they have guns?”

  “I’m sure they’re more interested in following us than attacking us,” Myles said, “but we can’t be too careful. We need to stick with each other at all times and keep our eyes open.”

  “So does Riley think that man lured him off the train to leave us more vulnerable?” Charles asked, narrowing his eyes.

  Myles shot him a look. “That’s a possibility. Abigail, maybe you should explain to Professor Addington that agents will take him to a safe house.”

  “Alaric, you know how we told you that there are dangerous agents after Goliath’s spear?” The professor nodded. Abigail shot him a big smile and then added, “Until we find that spear, you won’t be safe.”

  Myles interjected. “We’re going to take you to a safe house for a short time.”

  The professor looked most put out. “But my sister! And I wanted to go shopping. I’ve booked a hotel room. I don’t have any books.”

  “We’ll see if we can get you some books,” Myles said.

  “I have very specific taste in books,” the professor said. He looked most put out.

  Abigail leaned forward. “It’s for your own safety. There could be agents on this train right now.”

  It was Myles who spoke next. “Professor, Riley’s already had a fight with a Vortex agent and he’s fallen off the train.”

  The professor gasped. “He’s not badly hurt, is he?”

  “He’s fine,” Myles said, “but that means your life is in danger. Those agents would like to find out what you know about the spear and the labyrinth. We’ll have to take you to a safe house for a few days.”

  “They will get you some books and they’ll feed you well,” Abigail said, raising a questioning eyebrow at Myles. Alaric did look in need of a good home-cooked meal.

  “You can have whatever food you want,” Myles added.

  “Fish and chips and mushy peas?” the professor asked.

  “Sure,” Myles said.

  He nodded. “Then I agree.”

  Abigail breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Now, everyone get ready to get off the train,” Myles said. “We need to stick close together. We can’t get separated under any circumstances, and please keep your eye out for other agents.”

  Abigail was afraid. Who knew such a simple thing as getting off a train could instil fear, but instil fear it did.

  Abigail breathed a sigh of relief when they were in the train station without incident. She was not even puzzled when Myles directed the taxi to drive out of town and then back into town to a café.

  “I’m buying everyone lunch,” Myles said to the professor.

  Alaric rubbed his hands together. “That’s very kind of you.”

  “Wait out here. I’ll go in and see if this is a suitable café.” Myles returned in less than a minute. “It’s fine.”

  The café was not one Abigail would have chosen in normal circumstances. It seemed dark and dingy, from the forest green carpet to the dark grey walls. Still, from the outside, it was all but impossible to see inside, and there were barely any tables. A Vortex agent would surely stand out in this environment.

  They walked to one of the few tables, one at the back of the room. The table was a roughhewn wooden table with uncomfortable silver plastic chairs. A lamp behind them offered the only illumination in that section. From there, they had a good view of the only other tables, a small black table the height of a coffee table, flanked by a bright red couch and two black plastic tub chairs. Behind that was a small wooden table that looked like a piece of garden furniture with matching wooden chairs on either side. Between the three sets of tables in the entrance was a large dresser on which was a carafe of water with glasses. Opposite it was a large brown vinyl couch.