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CHAPTER

39

CAIRO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

THURSDAY, JULY 22

IT WAS DEPRESSING BEING BACK at Cairo International Airport. They’d spent the last three and a half weeks cataloging and hadn’t found any more clues as to the location of the Emerald Tablets. There was a lot more to process, though. Still, Matthew hated that he was starting to give up hope that the Tablets were out there at all. That’s probably why he was opting to return to Canada. He couldn’t take any more disappointment.

But it’s not like they were leaving without having had any success. Robyn was already negotiating with the Egyptian government to arrange for an exhibit of the tomb’s contents at the Royal Ontario Museum. Matthew had no doubt she’d come out on the winning end with some of the artifacts. Egypt was stringent about what mummies and sarcophagi they lent out.

Alex pulled Matthew to the side. Robyn glanced over a shoulder and kept walking with Cal toward the terminal check-in for their airline.

“I’m going to miss you.” Alex grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to kiss her.

“Well.” He drew back, licking his lips, loving that he’d gotten to spend nearly a month with Alex getting reacquainted, getting better acquainted.

“Well? That’s all you have to say? I must not have done that right.” She leaned toward him again, but this time, he assumed the role of aggressor and took her mouth with a hunger that needed satisfying.

A few seconds later, he ended the kiss.

“Well,” she said and gave way to giggling. She fanned herself as if she were playing up the kiss, but she truly was flushed. “I’m gonna miss that,” she added with a wink. “And this.” She pinched his butt.

“Hey.” He squirmed out of her reach. “Control yourself, woman, we’re in a public place.”

Her expression fell serious, casting shadows over her face.

“What is it?” He wished to God that she wasn’t about to cry.

She bit down on her bottom lip. “I know it’s more complicated than either of you are letting on.” She pointed behind him, and Matthew turned to see Robyn laughing at something Cal must have said. Matthew caught her eye, then looked back at Alex.

She straightened the lay of his T-shirt. “But at least I had you for a brief time.”

Matthew conjured his best goofy face, widening his eyes and letting his mouth go slack and fall open. He’d never tried it in front of a mirror, but it usually got women to laugh or roll their eyes.

She punched him lightly in the shoulder. She was trying to slough off his diversion, but was failing miserably. Sadness paraded across her features.

He took her hands. “Hey, this doesn’t have to be the end. You could come visit me in Canada. I could come visit you.”

Alex shook her head. “Long-distance relationships never work.” Now, she was wielding reason like a knife, and he wasn’t sure he cared for it.

“We could give it a try. Besides, you never know when I’ll be in the States.”

“I’m in Egypt ten months out of the year.”

Matthew hitched his shoulders. “I have money for travel.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I’m not just going to wait around for you. I do have a life to get on with.”

“Ouch. From hot to cold in a flash.” Matthew snapped his fingers with dramatic flair but was smiling. “Nasty,” he teased.

Alex laughed and squeezed his hands. Her touch confirmed that this was the end of their relationship, or their tryst, or whatever it had been. He’d just have to accept that what they’d had was over and go back to his life.

“I should probably check my bags.” He let go of one of her hands to grab the bags at his feet.

“Stop there!” a man called out.

Matthew looked over his shoulder. A cop was heading straight for them, and he’d come with backup: five other officers and Reda Ghannam.

“What’s going on, Minister?” Alex asked.

Three officers continued past them and headed toward Robyn and Cal. The cops were stripping them of their bags and handcuffing them.

An overeager officer started patting Matthew down. Another was apprehending Alex.

Adrenaline rushed through him, mingling with anger and confusion and raising his blood pressure. “What’s going on here?”

“Minister?” Alex’s voice was tense and high-pitched.

Reda stepped forward to within a few inches of Matthew’s face. “As if you don’t know.”

“If I did, I wouldn’t be asking,” Matthew stamped out, wondering who this man was in front of him. Matthew had spent hours working with Reda at the site. In the last few weeks, they’d shared dinners and drank wine. But this wasn’t the same man.

“I am so disappointed in you. And you!” Reda slid his gaze to Alex. “I have known you for many, many years.” He spat on the floor by Alex’s feet.

“Red— Minister, please. Tell us what’s going on.” Her plea was loaded with desperation.

“What’s going on is that you are all thieves,” Reda answered. “You disgrace Egypt with your lies and betrayal!”

“Thieves?” Matthew’s head was spinning. Everything was coming at him so fast.

The officer who had been patting Matthew down pulled his arms behind his back and snapped cuffs on his wrists. The metal bit into Matthew’s skin and had him seeing red.

“We’re Canadians. Take us to an embassy,” he ground out.

Other passengers were milling about the airport, gawking at them.

“Please, Mr. Connor, you are making a scene,” Reda said in a calm but disgusted manner.

“I’m making a scene?” Matthew served back loudly. “It seems to me you’re the one doing that.” As he held eye contact with the minister, the way Reda had addressed Matthew as “mister” instead of “doctor” sank in. “Take us to an embassy,” Matthew repeated, doing his best to get a grip on his nerves.

Reda glared at him. “Your crime has been committed against Egypt.”

“You said that,” Matthew protested, “but what is it we’re alleged to have done?”

“Get him out of my sight.” Reda made a sweeping motion with his hand, and the cop yanked on Matthew’s cuffs, leading him toward the front doors of the airport.

“You better be taking me and my friends to the Canadian embassy,” Matthew said, feeling sick. Reda wasn’t listening to a word he was saying.

As the cop shuffled him off, he looked over his shoulder to find Alex wasn’t far behind. And Robyn and Cal were being hauled along, too. The accompanying officers were getting their luggage.

The cop who had Matthew led him to one of four police cars parked bumper-to-bumper. He was put in the back with Alex. Robyn and Cal were placed in another cruiser. Their luggage was loaded into the trunks of the third and fourth police cars. The last of which, Reda got into. But not in the back like a criminal. He was riding shotgun.

Matthew’s breath was coming in short, choppy gasps. What the hell had just happened? What the hell was happening? Reda had accused them of betraying Egypt. This had to involve the expedition, but how?

“Why are we being arrested?” Maybe if he asked instead of demanded, he’d have better luck.

The officer who was driving looked at him in the rearview mirror. “You have stolen from Egypt.”

“We never stole anything,” Matthew said, feeling utterly frantic but volatile at the same time. “Do you have any idea who my father is?” He hated playing that card, but William Connor knew people in influential positions all around the world. His father had clout, and when he found out about this travesty against Matthew and his friends, there’d be hell to pay.

“You were the ones in charge of the dig, and now an artifact is missing,” the officer said, indifferent. He was following orders, but he certainly didn’t come across as having any empathy for their situation, either.

“We…” Matthew’s mind went blank, and the words he was going to say were gone. He looked at Alex, who was shaking her head.

Who the hell had stolen an artifact? It wasn’t him or his friends. Sure, he’d had his suspicions about Jasper a few weeks back, but they had fallen away seeing as the man had stuck around to help with cataloging everything. In fact, Alex’s entire crew had worked tirelessly over the past three and a half weeks. This was obviously a setup, but the challenge would be getting anyone to believe them.