It was entirely depressing, but Abigail was certain it would serve the purpose.

  Myles indicated that Abigail and Charles should sit opposite him, and he sat facing the door with his back to the wall. Charles pushed in next to him. Myles raised an eyebrow but did not complain.

  “I’ll text Riley and tell him where we are,” Myles said to the others. He looked up at the waitress standing over them, her pen hovering over her notepad. “You need more time?”

  “Just a little time,” Myles said. “Could you tell me what street this is? A friend’s meeting us and he doesn’t know the area.”

  “Brandon Parade, not far past McDonald’s,” the waitress said.

  Myles thanked her before turning to the others. “Order up big. We don’t know where our next meal is coming from.”

  Charles didn’t need to be told twice. He stabbed his index finger on the menu. “I’ll think I’ll have the Builder’s Big Breakfast with an extra fried egg, the Beef Chilli Jacket Potatoes, and plenty of coffee,” he said. “What about you, Abigail?”

  Abigail didn’t even know what meal she should be having: breakfast, lunch, or dinner? She was thoroughly jet lagged and wondered how the agents managed to fly across the globe without a second thought.

  The waitress returned just as Myles had finished texting Riley. Charles ordered first, and then Myles ordered sausages, bacon, hash browns, baked beans, mushrooms, fried eggs, and two slices of black pudding with one slice of fried bread. “And the same for my friend who’ll be along shortly,” he told the waitress.

  Abigail’s jaw dropped open. Clearly, he wasn’t worried about cholesterol. “Is Riley all right?” she asked Myles.

  Myles looked entirely unconcerned. “He didn’t say.”

  “Is the coffee good here?” Charles asked the waitress.

  The waitress assured him that it was.

  “I guess I’ll have coffee too please,” Abigail told the waitress. “And eggs on toast with mashed avocado.”

  Charles shot her an appraising look. “No wonder you’re so thin. Shouldn’t you order more? Like Myles said, we don’t know where our next meal is coming from.”

  “That’s all I could manage,” Abigail said. A faint wave of nausea hung over her, and she was worried in case Riley was, in fact, hurt.

  “I don’t eat much,” the professor said. “I’ll have a cup of tea with porridge, topped with banana and honey and maybe a fruit teacake with butter.”

  After the waitress left, Charles turned to Abigail. “I’m sorry, we should have let the lady order first.”

  Myles flushed red. “Sorry, Abigail. I’m not used to women on missions.”

  Abigail waved their apologies away. She was about to say something when Riley appeared. She gasped at the sight of him. A nasty graze covered one side of his face, and a small area of caked blood sat above it on his forehead. He was limping ever so slightly, and his clothes were crumpled.

  “I ordered for you,” Myles said. “The same as I’m having.”

  “Thanks,” Riley said. “Charles, can we swap places?”

  Charles looked quite put out but did not object.

  Riley slipped in beside Myles. Abigail was shocked at his appearance. “We’ll have to stop somewhere and get something to patch you up with,” she said.

  “I’m okay,” Riley said. “It could be worse. Is everyone all right?” Riley asked, although he was looking directly at Abigail when he spoke.

  “We are all fine,” the professor said. “What’s happening now? Where do we go from here?”

  “We fly back to Cairo,” Riley said.

  Alaric looked shocked. “I will have to go home to get my passport.”

  Riley leaned forward and spoke in little more than a whisper. “We will meet some people at the airport. They’ll take you to a safe house.”

  “Somewhere in Scotland?” Alaric asked hopefully.

  Riley shrugged his shoulder and then winced. “I have no idea. That’s not my department. You will be perfectly safe.”

  “So, they’re going to take the professor to a safe house?” Charles asked.

  “Why are you interested?” Riley asked.

  “Why shouldn’t I be interested?” Charles asked in a churlish tone.

  Myles cleared his throat loudly. The waitress deposited a cup of tea in front of the professor and coffee in front of the others. “I don’t like tea bags,” the professor said. “I like loose leaf tea.”

  “Sorry, that’s all we have,” the waitress said before disappearing.

  “Oh well. I hope they have loose leaf tea at the safe house.”

  “I’m sure if you ask them, they’ll get it for you,” Riley said.

  “Gosh, can you put me in a safe house?” Charles said. “It sounds like a good holiday.”

  Everyone ignored him. After an interval, Charles said, “What do we do from here? When do we leave for Edinburgh?”

  “After breakfast,” Myles said.

  Charles nodded appreciatively. “And a good breakfast it is too. How will we get to Edinburgh?” Charles asked.

  Myles exchanged glances with Riley. “We’ll get a taxi,” Riley said. “I think we should avoid trains for now.”

  “We got a taxi from the train station and then came back to town in case someone was following us,” Myles said. “I don’t know if it helped, but it was worth a try.”

  Riley nodded. “I have no idea whether that agent wanted to intercept us or not. Still, he was on foot and it wasn’t far from the station, so he could likely be in this town. He wouldn’t have reached the station before you all got off.”

  Myles pushed the last of his meal around his plate with his fork. “Well, that’s something in our favor.”

  “Then shouldn’t we have kept going to Edinburgh?” Charles said.

  Myles shot him a look. “We had to connect with Riley, and the agent has no idea we got off at the station. For all he knows, we’re still on the train to Edinburgh.”

  Charles slapped himself on the side of the head. “I didn’t even think of that.”

  “And I take it that we’re flying out from Glasgow in that case?” Myles asked Riley.

  Charles agreed. “I think it’s safer.”

  “Is it a direct flight to Cairo from Glasgow?” Abigail asked hopefully.

  Riley met her eyes. “I’m afraid not. There are no direct flights from Glasgow.”

  Abigail’s spirits fell.

  “I’ve actually booked us from Edinburgh, and there is only a one and a half hour stopover in Istanbul. We need to push our advantage of time.”

  Abigail sensed Riley was worried about something, something he was not telling her. Did he know something she didn’t?

  22

  EN ROUTE TO DAHSHUR

  Abigail was certain she was in a constant state of jet lag, which was becoming to her more normal than not having jet lag. Her head was fuzzy, and the slightly nauseous feeling never seemed to leave her. She had no idea what day of the week or date it was, or even what time it was back home. She resisted the urge to find out due to Riley’s warning that she would be better off not knowing.

  Still, when the plane touched down in Cairo, Abigail could not resist a little thrill of excitement to be in the labyrinth of Amenemhat III, where only Alaric and his small team had set foot in thousands of years. She shuddered with excitement.

  She was less than thrilled about the labyrinth being underground. The Black Pyramid had already started to subside not long after Amenemhat III had built it. She didn’t want the labyrinth to collapse on her when she was in there, but she told herself that if it had stood for nearly four thousand years, then surely it would be highly unlikely to collapse on her when she was there.

  “What sort of booby-traps did the Egyptians have?” Riley asked her as they were heading toward customs.

  Charles responded before Abigail had a chance. “There were blocks of granite falling on someone, and deep pits to trap unwary tomb raiders.”

  “And some of those pits had poisonous snakes and scorpions,” Abigail added. “No one put them there as such; they found a nice place to live, I suppose.”

  “So, nothing like Indiana Jones?” Myles said with a smile.

  Riley raised his eyebrows. “You’d be surprised.” He and Abigail exchanged glances.

  “There is no evidence that the Egyptians planted deliberate booby-traps and structures, apart from the pits I mentioned to trap tomb robbers and things like that,” Charles said.

  Abigail shook her finger at him. “I’ve learned the hard way in recent times that just because we don’t have evidence yet that there were booby-traps in some Egyptian structures doesn’t mean there weren’t any.”

  Charles nodded. “Point taken. We’re finding out new things all the time. Who’s to say we won’t find something that will change our thinking entirely about certain ancient cultures.”

  The taxi deposited them at Edinburgh airport despite Charles’s continual protestations. “They obviously have someone watching the airport,” he complained.

  “They’re not all-seeing,” Myles pointed out. “They’re not a cohesive organization like the CIA or MI6 as such. They mostly employ mercenaries to do their bidding.”

  Charles glanced around nervously. “I don’t like it. I still don’t like it.”

  “What’s going to happen to me?” Alaric asked.

  “Someone will meet us presently,” Riley said. He looked behind Abigail and she looked around, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Wait here,” he said to Myles. Riley took the professor’s arm and guided him around the corner. He returned moments later.

  “So that’s Dr. Addington off then?” Charles said.

  Riley afforded him a half nod. “Let’s go.”

  “To Dahshur?” Charles said. “I know you said it before, but I’m just trying to get my bearings.”

  “Best not to mention locations in public,” Riley told him.

  Soon, they were speeding in a rental car in the direction of Dahshur. Abigail fervently hoped they were not being followed. She noted Myles took several detours. He must have been satisfied he wasn’t being followed, as she soon saw a sign announcing that Dahshur was only a few miles away.

  Abigail wished she was there on vacation taking a few days to wander around the three pyramids: the Black Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. Instead, she had to risk her life going into the labyrinth under the temple complex of the Black Pyramid. She still had no idea if they would be able to reach Goliath’s spear, even if it was, in fact, in the labyrinth.

  Riley must have been thinking the same thing. “How far do these passageways in the labyrinth stretch?”

  “I couldn’t say,” Abigail told him.

  Myles stopped the car outside a rather insignificant little house. Abigail figured the house was made of mud bricks, maybe even stone. It appeared to have been built in a haphazard manner. She looked out over the palm groves and tilled fields to the desert beyond.

  “I’ll scout around and see if there’s somewhere to hide the car,” Riley said. He disappeared around behind the house while the other three stayed in the car. “There’s a shed of sorts out the back,” he said upon his return. He hopped back in the car, and Myles drove the car around behind the building.

  Riley got out of the car, followed by the others. “The car can’t be seen from the road at least,” Riley pointed out. “Now let’s get inside the house.”

  Riley inserted the key in the lock, but it wouldn’t open. “Oh dear, I hope the professor gave us the right key.”

  “We can simply break in if he didn’t,” Charles said.

  Just then, the key turned and Riley held the door open for everyone to come in and then locked the door behind them.

  The furniture was rudimentary, an old, faded couch and a heavy wooden coffee table. The air was musty and stale.

  Riley dumped his backpack on the floor, as did Myles. They each pulled out two flashlights. Riley handed one to Abigail and Myles handed one to Charles. “Now, I don’t have to tell you all to stick close together. That’s very important. It’s also important to follow my orders. Don’t ask questions because we might not have the luxury of time inside there. If I think it’s dangerous, we all get out, even if you can’t see a reason why it’s dangerous. Is that clear?” Riley looked directly at Charles as he spoke.

  Charles saluted. “Yes, sir.”

  Myles shook his head. Charles chuckled.

  “Now we have to find the way in. Alaric said it was a trap door in the newest part of the building,” Abigail said.

  Riley was already heading that way. He signaled to Myles, and the two of them lifted a blue fabric couch off a beautiful Turkish rug. Sure enough, under the rug was a large trapdoor. Riley hauled it open. He shone the flashlight down there and Abigail walked over to look inside. A metal ladder disappeared into the darkness. The unmistakable stench of bat manure rose from the void.

  “So far so good,” Charles said. “No jumping into an abyss.”

  “Myles can go first,” Riley said. “Charles, you’re next, then Abigail and I will bring up the rear.”

  Abigail knew Riley didn’t quite trust Charles and wanted to keep an eye on him. Myles went down into the ladder. It wasn’t long before he called out, “It’s safe to come down.”

  After Charles disappeared, Riley helped Abigail onto the ladder.

  Abigail’s heart raced as she descended lower and lower under the professor’s house. The metal ladder seemed to go for some time. She was relieved when it finally ended and she stood on a rocky platform.

  “It seems to be downhill from here,” Myles said.

  They moved along for some time, ever so slowly, in a crouched position. “This seems to be the original part of the complex,” Charles said, his words echoing around the room.

  “I hope we don’t keep descending,” Abigail said. She would feel a little better if she knew they were closer to the surface.

  “I’m sure the labyrinth itself is on level ground, so we’ll know when we reach it,” Charles said.

  The tunnel was getting hotter and hotter and the air was stale. It was filled with the smell of ammonia. Abigail was relieved when they reached a passageway where they were able to stand upright, but the passageway was narrow. She was certain the labyrinth itself would have wide passageways, as that was the way temples and structures were built.

  Soon she realized they were climbing again. She wondered how far they had gone. They had been moving ever so slowly in a dark place, the only illumination being their flashlights.

  A sudden breeze sent a chill through her bones.

  “What was that?” Myles said. “Is there another exit close by?”

  Abigail hurried to set him straight. “No, it’s a phenomenon. The archeologists Vyse and Perring who dug at Dahshur mentioned mysterious breezes in passageways within pyramids.”

  “What causes it?” Myles asked her.

  “No one knows.”

  They crept on through the dark, narrow passageways. Abigail did her best to fight the claustrophobia threatening to overwhelm her and was relieved when the roof height increased to allow her to stand upright.

  With a yell echoing gruesomely around the walls, Myles disappeared from sight.

  23

  DAHSHUR

  Riley did not hesitate. He cracked a chem light and threw it into the pit. Abigail could scarcely bring herself to look into the void. She half expected to see a bottomless pit and at least expected to see Myles lying sprawled on a stone floor.

  Instead, she was surprised to see Myles upright although standing in murky water.

  “I’m all right,” he called out. “The mud broke my fall.”

  Riley took a rope from his backpack and threw it down to Myles. “I’ll brace it, and you pull up the rope,” Riley said to Charles.

  Abigail felt helpless. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “No, just stand back.” With that, Riley tied the rope around his waist and threw the rope into the pit. He looked at Charles. “Ready?”

  Charles nodded.

  “All right, Myles, climb up now,” Riley called out.

  Abigail held her breath.

  “I think there’s something down here with me,” Myles said.

  Abigail shuttered.

  “It could be a crocodile,” Charles said. “There are still crocodiles in the Nile. Maybe it flooded in here on occasion and crocodiles got washed into the labyrinth.”

  Abigail trembled violently. What if Myles inadvertently pulled Riley into the pit? She and Charles would never be able to get them out. Myles was a thickset, muscle-bound man. Sure Riley was strong, but was he strong enough to haul Myles out of the pit? She had no idea.

  All Abigail could do was lean back against the cold wall of the narrow tunnel and watch as Riley pulled on the rope with Charles helping him. She could see Riley was under visible strain. Tiny beads of sweat broke out on his forehead and his face grew white. She saw his foot was braced against a piece of stone jutting from the tessellated floor.

  Abigail considered Charles was more making a show than doing any real work, but then again, she doubted Charles had done a hard day’s work in his life, or even gone to the gym.

  Finally, Myles’s head appeared, and he flung his arms over the edge of the pit. Riley grabbed him and pulled him hard before falling backward onto the ground. Riley’s breathing was coming in ragged gasps. Abigail hurried over to him, “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. What about you, Myles?”

  “Nothing is broken,” Myles said. “There was more mud than water.”

  Riley shone his flashlight over Myles. He was covered in thick brown slime. He looked like a creature from a horror movie rather than a person.