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Lost Egyptian City, Grand Canyon
“WHAT HAVE WE got?” Lily asked, her eyes alive with curiosity.
Crowley set his pack down and carefully removed the small pyramid to show them. “Don’t touch it,” he warned.
Lily crouched, looked closely. “So that’s the Anubis Key,” she said in a soft voice.
Crowley described what he had seen inside the room, the way the thing reacted so strangely to the dripping water. Rose frowned throughout, concerned and, he thought, only half believing him. Lily’s face was a picture of fascination, a small smile tugging at one side of her mouth.
“That’s astounding,” she said when he’d finished his recounting.
“We thought the Anubis Key was about summoning the dead,” Rose said. “Or maybe some kind of spell to communicate with them. But something like this, out in the world, exposed to water? It seems it’s actually for creating legions of dead! Is that why the Anubis Cult want it?”
“It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen,” Crowley said, still perturbed by the existence of the strange thing.
“So what now?” Rose asked.
Crowley wrapped the plastic bags carefully around the small black pyramid again. “It should probably be destroyed, but maybe we need to understand it first.”
Lily looked uncomfortably at the backpack as Crowley secured it again, but remained silent.
Rose pursed her lips in thought, then said, “No good to drop it down a crevasse or anything like that. There’s every chance the Anubis Cult might find it again.” Her face brightened. “We could rent a boat and drop it into the ocean.”
Crowley shook his head. “No way! After what I saw a single drop of water do to this thing, no telling what an ocean of water might do.”
“I was thinking we’d wrap it thoroughly first.”
“Too big a risk. Maybe, years from now, the wrapping gets compromised somehow and then... Who knows?”
“Seed it into a rain cloud,” Lily said quietly, then looked abashed. “Sorry, I’m still thinking of what the Anubis Cult, the Illuminati, might want with it. It’s... It’s a terrible thing.”
“The only thing we know for sure,” Crowley said, “is the Anubis Cult should absolutely not get their hands on it and, in the meantime, we absolutely should not get it wet. For now, let’s just get it out of here.”
Rose took off her pack, emptied out unessential things, then shoved Crowley’s pack deep inside her own.
Crowley picked up a few items and put them back in on top. He glanced at Rose’s frown. “Partly to wedge it in securely, to brace it against movement. But also to conceal it from a casual inspection. Imagine some busybody park ranger seeing us emerge from the cave and demand to know what we found in there.” He shrugged, pushed the thought away. No need to create worries that would probably never come to pass.
“Can’t be too careful,” Rose said. Crowley reached for the newly combined pack, but Rose shook her head, slipped it onto her back. “I got it. Hardly weighs anything anyway.”
“Okay,” Crowley said. “Then let’s get out of here.”
They made their way quickly back along the curving passage, the way clear with both their flashlights and Lily’s headlamp. They emerged into the huge, dimly lit cavern with the balance bridge and Lily laughed.
“I never thought of using rope like that. It took those two goons all kinds of effort to support each end and balance their way across.”
“Brawn not brains,” Crowley said.
“And yet you whupped that one guy.” Lily looked him up and down with narrowed eyes. “Just what are you anyway?”
“I’m a friend, that’s all.”
Lily looked from Crowley to Rose and back, a smile playing at her lips. “A friend. Okay. If you say so.”
“I’ll hold this end,” Crowley said, before the moment could get any more uncomfortable. “You two go first.”
Rose quickly hurried over. The bridge shuddered and swayed, made more groans and creaks than it had before. Crowley felt the vibrations through the railing he held. Lily crossed next, carefully but quickly.
“Put some pressure on that end,” Crowley said.
The women each leaned on one railing and Crowley started across. His end dipped sharply and something cracked. A section of wood under his left foot dropped, spiraled away into the darkness below. He braced, hands to the railings either side, and watched his feet as he took one careful step after another. He had to outweigh both women by at least twenty kilos, but surely they were strong enough. Would it be too much? The ancient bridge was not holding up well under all the recent traffic. Crowley chose his steps carefully, tempted to run, but he feared one of his feet might punch right through a weak spot if he did. More creaks and groans sounded, more frightening cracks, quickly increasing in frequency. Then another sound came to him, one that turned his stomach to water. A rapid sawing and snap. Rose cried out in surprise, and the bridge vibrated violently. Crowley staggered and almost went to his knees as he looked up in horror.
“Both of you freeze!” Lily shouted. In one hand she held a knife that she had used to cut the rope Crowley had previously secured. In the other hand was a gun, pointed at Rose. Rose leaned heavily into the railing on her side, one foot on the bridge, the only thing preventing it from tipping Crowley into the abyss.
“What the hell, Lily?” Rose yelled.
The gun. Crowley ground his teeth, remembered disarming the cultist, the weapon skittering away across the stone floor. While he hoped Lily didn’t spot him disposing of the cultist, which she surely had though she might have chosen not to mention it, she had secretly retrieved the pistol. What an idiot he was. He should have noticed that. And then he might have foreseen this. He took a step forward and Lily stared him down.
“Stay where you are or I kill her.”
He stopped stock-still, hands up, mentally calculating how long it would take to cross the bridge. But he knew it would only take a fraction of a second for Lily to pull the trigger. She might miss; most people firing handguns under stressful situations did, but he couldn’t take the chance. Clearly the woman had secrets.
“Walk out onto the bridge,” Lily ordered Rose. “Balance it out for your friend there.”
“Why are you doing this?” Rose said, but she complied.
Crowley felt his end rise and backed up a couple of steps. The bridge shuddered, groaned deeply.
“Give me the backpack,” Lily said, her gun still aimed at Rose’s back.
“Why are you doing this?” Rose asked again, turning to face her sister. “Grandfather...”
Lily laughed harshly. Yes, Grandfather! I’m continuing his work.”
“What are you talking about?”
Lily sighed melodramatically, shook her head. “You really are as stupid as he always said you were. Grandfather was an Illuminatus.”
“What? No!”
Crowley heard the disbelief in Rose’s voice, but he had already reached that conclusion the moment Lily turned a gun on her sister. Rose simply didn’t want to believe it, though she was smart enough to know it couldn’t be any other way.
“He worked all his life to bring about the New World Order,” Lily said. “He was distraught he wouldn’t live long enough to see it come to fruition. But his dying wish was that I would see it to completion. And I will! Now, give me the bag or you both die.”
Rose hesitated, looked back to Crowley, then her sister.
Lily smiled, trained the gun on Crowley. “How about I shoot your boyfriend first and let you watch him bleed to death? Don’t think I can’t do it. I’m quite good.”
Trembling, face a mask of fury, Rose complied. She removed the pack slowly as the bridge swayed alarmingly, and tossed it to Lily who dropped the knife and caught the bag easily.
Lily chuckled. “I could tell you had a thing for him. Does this mean you’re finally over Liam?”
“You bitch!” Rose shouted, and Lily fired a shot at her feet. Rose danced back, the bridge trembled and creaked loudly.
Crowley kept one eye on Lily as he frantically looked for a way out. Some angle to use against her. But she had them well trapped on the rickety old wood. He ground his teeth in frustration. “Let her go,” he said, loud enough for Rose to hear but maybe not Lily. “We’ll run her to ground again. We did once, already.”
“I’d love to stay here and catch up,” Lily said, shouldering the pack. “But I’ve got a lot of important work to do.”
She reached into a pouch at her waistband and dug something out. “But here’s a little parting gift. As the American’s say, ‘Don’t say I never gave you anything.’”
She tossed the small, rounded thing out onto the bridge. It bounced twice and Crowley’s mouth fell open in horror. “Grenade!” he yelled.
Rose turned and ran toward him, then everything vanished in noise and fire and smoke.