Chapter Ten

Something woke her.

The beep of her laptop.

Eve was sprawled face-down on the bed, still fully dressed. She’d fallen asleep waiting for Star to get back to her. They’d chatted again. Star had said there was nothing in the system, and no satellite currently in position. Which didn’t surprise her.

Star had come up with a plan to hack into one of the nearby satellites and realign it. It would depend on finding one with the capabilities to take the ultra-high definition images they needed to see beneath ground level. Eve didn’t want to know the details; she had no doubt it was totally illegal.

That had been around midnight. It was now six in the morning. She flipped the lid on her laptop open and read the message.

Star: Got them. Don’t ask and I won’t tell, and you might not end up in the cell next to me. I’ve attached what I think you’re looking for. Let me know if it’s not and I’ll try again. xoxo, Star

Star’s talents not only lay in obtaining the images, but also in analyzing them, spotting the minuscule details other people missed that often held the answers to big questions.

There was a file attached, and Eve clicked to download it. It was huge and slow to open, and she drummed her fingers against the laptop.

The file contained three images.

The first showed the whole area she’d asked Star to look at. There was very little detail at that level, just a blur of shades of gray showing the vague topography. She could tell it was a mountainous area, the blue of a lake just off-center, but little else. Star had marked a red circle around an area about a mile east of the coordinates Eve had given her, approximately ten miles inside the Great Taboo. The next image had the exact coordinates along the top and presumably showed that marked area in much greater detail. A group of ocher granite outcrops rising from the green mountainside, with the lake to the left. Eve magnified the image and saw what had caught Star’s attention. The central outcrop had a darker, shadowy area at the base. The entrance to a cave?

She opened the third file. Star had taken ultra-high definition images of the area and interpreted them into a 3-D representation that penetrated below ground level and showed what was hidden beneath the mountains. In this case, what appeared to be an extensive cave system. A network of tunnels and chambers. She examined the scale; the tunnels were big enough for a person to crawl through. She shuddered a little at the thought. But wasn’t this whole trip about facing her fears. And at least there wasn’t water involved.

There was that tingling in her stomach again. This was it.

She typed a message…

Eve: Perfect! You’re a star, Star!

Flicking her gaze back to the image, she sat, legs stretched out in front of her, her finger tracing the tunnel beneath the mountain. Was it there, hiding beneath the rock? Pointing the way.

She smiled.

She’d been right to come here. Everything was going to work out. She felt like her old self. The fearless one from before the kidnapping, before she’d realized that safety was an illusion. The last of her fears were slipping away from her, leaving her mind clear.

The incident on the way from the airport had been carjackers.

Yuri was the victim of a local gang; they hadn’t intended to kill him, just steal his money and his watch and anything else they could get.

And Zach was wrong. There was no terrorist connection. Even if her funding had originated from the same account that had paid for terrorist activities, that didn’t mean they expected anything from her other than finding the spear. Though, perhaps the same person could be responsible for both? Would discovering who wanted the spear lead Zach to his terrorists?

Maybe, and she would do what she could to help.

But first she would find the Spirit Banner of Genghis Khan. And that would lead her to the ultimate archaeological find of modern times. The lost burial place of the greatest leader who ever lived.