“All comms are functioning.” Luna now had two different audio feeds—their body cameras and their earpieces. She could hear them, and they could hear her.
“Viking and Calliope, report when you’re in position.” Cole’s voice was so clear, it sounded like he was sitting right next to her. “Time to take this shitbag down.”
They all knocked knuckles and separated.
She could hear their boot steps on the ground and their gear clicking against their vests as they ran to their designatedlocations. She checked each monitor to ensure their cameras continued working.
Calliope scaled a tree at the northeast corner of the ruins. Viking made his way up another tall tree at the southwest corner. How in the heck did they climb so fast? Between them, she had a bird’s-eye view to almost all of the ruins.
“In position.” Calliope checked in first.
Then Viking checked in. “In position.”
The rest of the team split up.
At first, all Luna could see through their body cams was indistinguishable piles of rubble and debris that had once been a massive stone monument to a dead shah. As they jogged to their designated spots, she was able to make out the sections of the structure that were still intact.
Lucas and Hawk arrived at their positions on opposite sides of the ruins and crouched down behind parts of the building that had not completely collapsed. Cole and Eddie did the same at the other corners.
Her attention continued to travel back to Boone’s camera. He was approaching the front of the ruins, and the remains of the two columns flanking the main entrance to the tomb came into view. Like tired sentinels from a bygone era, the once beautiful, twenty-foot-tall, white marble columns had cracked in several places. Their top sections had broken off and left large chunks of marble scattered around their bases.
In front of him was the archway of the only remaining entrance into the main part of the tomb.
“Entering the tomb.” Boone continued forward into the darkness. “Switching to infrared.” His hand appeared at hischest, then there was aclickwhen he switched over the camera. Everything glowed various shades of green. “Switching to NVGs.”
She recognized the brief high-pitched whine when they powered on.
Night-vision goggles would help him see what Luna was seeing through the infrared of his body cam.
With each crunch of his boots over debris, he moved deeper into the tomb, and his gloved hand lifted to sweep away years’ worth of cobwebs.
“Ew.” She shivered.
His deep chuckle made her smile, and she glanced up at the monitor to check the readings from everyone’s bio-patches. All looked normal.
“I found some steps, but I can’t tell how far down they go.” Boone’s camera showed some broken and cracked stone steps that led down to absolute darkness. “You seeing this, ops?”
“Yeah. Those steps should lead to a circular, main burial chamber with tunnels leading away out from it. Sort of like spokes on a wagon wheel. Unfortunately, I don’t know how far down the chamber is, how many tunnels there are, or where they lead.” Luna had been frustrated by how little information she could find while researching the tomb.
According to local legend, the shah had been very wealthy and wanted to be entombed with his valuables to use in the afterlife. Very much like Egyptian pharaohs. It had taken almost ten years to build the tomb and series of tunnels and hidden chambers. Some might have led to where he’d stored his riches; some could be dead ends. Unfortunately, there was no specificinformation about this particular tomb. The shah had ordered the deaths of everyone involved in its design and construction. Which was a pretty sure-fire, albeit barbaric, way to ensure no one pillaged his riches after his death.
Another legitimate concern was the structural integrity of the underground tunnels and catacombs. As with anything beneath the ground, natural or manmade, there was a very real possibility the whole thing could collapse on top of them.
Get out of your head, Luna.
“Lucas, go with him,” Cole said.
“Roger that.” He ran in a crouch toward the entrance, moved deeper into the structure, and switched his body camera to infrared. “Switching to NVGs.” They whined, he walked up next to Boone, and they stared down into the abyss. “Shit, it’s dark as a coal miner’s asshole down there.”
“Starting descent.” Boone took the lead, and Lucas followed.
She looked at the monitor and checked the time: 4:13 p.m. her time, 2:13 a.m. in Aliabad.
The satellite would be over the area any minute, at which time Luna would be able to provide overwatch. As far as she was concerned, that couldn’t happen soon enough. Having visibility from above gave them a definite tactical advantage.
A moment later, the screen with the satellite crackled with static and, slowly, a smattering of lights from Aliabad came into view.
She clicked a few keys to look up the estimated time for sunrise in Aliabad—seven thirty-seven.
