“It was an ancient kingdom in the area of modern-day Bahrain,” Nate said absently as he scanned the room. “From about three thousand to eight hundred BCE. The area was an important source of copper, and it was said the people there never grew old or sick.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Ana said.
“Some people believe it was the inspiration for the story of the Garden of Eden.” He set the tablet down and shone the light farther down the room. It was long and narrow, and continued for perhaps fifty meters before stopping.
“No way out here,” he said.
They backtracked and exited the room. There were several similar rooms to their right and left. They quickly destroyed the locks and checked them all, being equally stunned and disappointed. None contained an exit, though all held similar quantities of valuables. Natechecked his watch, the hands of his Omega glowing in the dim light. They needed to head back and meet up with the others.
When they arrived Wally and Shane were already there.
“Find anything?” Shane asked.
“Only a few trillion dollars in valuables, but no exit. You?”
“No, just lots of rooms,” Shane said. “Bedrooms, kitchens, other boring stuff that would probably fascinate you. No exit, though. The way is blocked. Caved in with sand.”
“Shit. Wally?”
“Maybe,” he replied. “There’s a river of sorts that may have something on the other side.”
“A river?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, mate, you’re going to have to see it to believe it. Come on.” They moved out after him.
“Hey, were you serious about that treasure?” Shane asked as they walked. Nate grinned at him but didn’t answer.
They hurried through several hallways and antechambers lined with statues, columns, and ornate fixtures, as well as a few ancient corpses. As they moved closer, Nate’s nostrils began to sting from a sharp, acrid smell. It grew stronger, transforming from one of rust soaked in vinegar to a rotten egg stench. Eventually, the hallway dipped down and ran right into the river Wally had described.
It was strange that the water didn’t move, and Nate instantly recognized it as the source of the sulfur smell that hit him in the face as he approached. He pulled his scarf over his mouth and stared at the viscous black liquid that appeared to be menacingly eating the hallway.
“Oil!” Ana said. “It’s a natural oil reserve.” She looked out over the sea of black as Nate shone the light. The beam from the flashlight disappeared far off in the distance, yet the oil field continued. “And it must be enormous!”
“But it doesn’t provide us with an exit,” Shane said dryly.
“Maybe not out of the cave, but perhaps away from whoever is coming after us,” Ana said. “Most oil is stored in porous rock. What we’re looking at is probably seepage, no more than a foot or so deep. We should be able to walk it.”
A rifle shot rang out from outside, followed by a second, and then a third. Soon, multiple shots were cracking off in the distance and it began to sound like a proper gunfight.
“Tim,” Nate said, and began to move back toward the entrance but stopped in his tracks.
“Ana!” he yelled suddenly. “Look out!”
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Novikov and his team of mercenaries marched forward along the road, marveling at the sight. The city was truly amazing. When he found out that Wilde was a graduate student looking to do research in the middle of the desert, he had thought it a flimsy cover. Now, as he stared at it in bewilderment, he wasn’t so sure.
He also knew a good deal when he saw it. His employers paid him to do a job, which was eliminating Wilde and his team. He would do that job, and then like a good businessman, he was going to take full advantage of the discovery down here. Novikov would let the men take as much as they wanted, and he would do the same. The doors to the city alone would see him set for life. He knew there must be more riches inside, likely enough for all of them. They would stay quiet about their find, and return multiple times, taking all they could. Eventually, his employers would discover what was down here, and that was fine. By then he would have all he needed and then some.
But first he needed to eliminate the last impediment to his retirement. He had no idea if any of his quarry had survived the fall from theexplosion, but if they had, he felt certain he knew where to find them. The road ran up toward a palace in the distance, and that was where Wilde was sure to be. If he was still alive, his body would soon litter the ground, becoming just another corpse in a sea of the ancient dead.
He fully expected an ambush this time, and would be disappointed if there wasn’t one, so he sent his men ahead with a word of caution. Novikov hoped that Wilde was still alive. He wanted to kill the man himself. It was true that he had led him to a treasure that would make him rich beyond his wildest dreams, but he had also made a fool out of him several times. He would pay for that, and so would any of his friends who were still alive.
As his men moved toward the palace gate, Novikov crept around the walls of the palace itself. A few hundred meters away, he found a place where a tower had fallen and crashed into the wall, knocking it down to a height of about five meters. He unslung the rope he had brought and fashioned a loop before tossing it up onto the wall. After several attempts, it snagged on something that would support his weight, and he was able to pull himself up and over the other side into the courtyard.
There were several windows leading into one of the wings of the palace and he scaled the wall and climbed inside. Withdrawing his MP-443 Grach 9mm pistol, he silently went about checking rooms and finding them empty. He retraced his steps and found himself in a large room filled with corpses and capped with a magnificent dome. Novikov appreciated beauty, but he appreciated wealth more, and so he kept pushing forward into the other wing.
Passing by the large doorway that must have marked the entrance to the palace, he could make out the shape of a figure behind the gate. It was the man with the bushy red beard whom he had seen in Cairo, and it appeared he was waiting to ambush his men as they approached the gate.Good, Novikov thought to himself. He would likely take outone or two before they killed him, which would reduce the number of ways they needed to split their fortune, and the number of people with knowledge of the discovery. He left the man in place and slunk by through the corridor.
