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“Get him out of here,” the voice said. Maddock heard it clear as day.
“Get who, Striker?” Kendra’s eyes were wide with excitement. “Who do you want to leave? Let me guess—the big Indian.” Kendra mentioned each man in their party in turn, but no more words came through the spirit box. They wrapped up the shoot, thrilled with the results.
“Kendra, you want to grab a drink while you’re in town?” Bones asked.
“No, thanks. I’ll be busy helping Spenser with the episode.” She turned and collected her equipment.
“On that note, I don’t mean to ditch you, but I’m eager to get to work on this,” Spenser said to Maddock. “If I leave you two unsupervised for the evening, will you keep out of trouble?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep him on the straight and narrow.” Bones put an arm around Maddock’s shoulders.
“That makes me feel worse.” Spenser kissed Maddock goodbye.
“I’m staying with Spenser, so I’ll see you there later,” Kendra said to Bones.
“Can’t wait.” Bones kept a smile on his face until the others were out of sight. “I’d better make the most of tonight. She’ll probably cling to me like a barnacle the rest of the week.”
“She doesn’t seem interested in hanging out with you,” Maddock said.
“Trust me, they’re always interested.” Bones sighed. “There goes my week of debauchery.”
“We can hit Vegas before we go home,” Maddock said.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Bones said. “How are we going to spend our evening liberty? What’s the beach where all the hot women roller skate?”
“Venice Beach,” Maddock said, panning his flashlight across the floor of the mausoleum. Evening was fast approaching and it was growing dark inside. At a spot in the corner, something caught his eye. “What’s that engraved on the floor tile in the corner?”
Bones knelt, brushed away the dirt and detritus that had gathered there. “It’s a hieroglyph. The one that looks like a jellyfish with two legs.”
Maddock laughed. “Amenta. It symbolizes the land of the dead.”
“Perfect for a mausoleum. What about the other corners? Anything there?”
They checked each corner. Two more corner tiles were engraved with the Amenta symbol.
“I guess it’s just a boring design choice,” Bones said. Without much enthusiasm, he used his Recon knife to clear away the dried dirt that caked the stone like concrete. After twenty seconds of digging, he paused. “This one is different.” Carved in this cornerstone was a hieroglyph shaped like a short, fat letter T, hollowed out in the center.” “Looks like an ancient doorway,” Bones said.
“Abydos.” Maddock locked eyes with Bones. “It means ‘gateway’. And unlike all the other floor tiles in the mausoleum, those in the corners are big.”
“Trapdoor size, you think?” Bones asked.
“Won’t hurt to take a look.” Maddock scanned the area for potential booby traps, but nothing caught his eye. Using their knives, they cleared decades of packed earth from around the stone tile. Maddock worked his fingers under the edge and ran them along the surface. Indentations on two sides were large enough for them to work their fingers into. “On three,” Maddock said.
“Three.” Bones lifted his side. Maddock had to move fast to keep his fingers from being crushed.
“Warn me when you’re going to do that.”
“I don’t always know what I’m going to do until it’s already happened.”
Where the tile had lain was a hole large enough for a man to fit through. Down below was an open space. Maddock ducked his head inside and shined his light around. A dusty bronze vault lay in an alcove in the far wall. Above it, gold letters spelled out STRIKER. In the middle of the room lay a granite slab with symbols carved around the sides.
“What do you see down there?” Bones asked.
“Striker’s vault. In the middle of the space is a stone like an altar.” The circle of Maddock’s flashlight beam fell on something blue. It took Maddock a moment to realize what he was seeing. “Holy crap.”
“That sounds ominous,” Bones said.
“That is precisely what it is,” Maddock said. “There’s a body down here.”
