“Great choice.” Leila huffed and dropped the heavy book back onto the shelf with a thud. Never mind the fact Drake called herself a Medjay as well. “You know he left me for dead out there? For two whole days. I almost died. Other people died. Awful doesn’t even begin to describe what happened.”
“Yeah.” Drake tapped a booted foot. “Didn’t realize he was that bitter. I know our enemies destroyed his family, and home, and livelihood. I did offer him half the hit money. I thought he’d do it. For Landon’s sake.”
Leila blinked, her heart skidding to a stop. Did she just say Landon? As in her father, Landon? But then, how many Landons would she know?
“I’m sorry, Leila,” Soliman said softly, “you should never have been dragged into this. We had only tried to help. Why don’t you head home, and get some rest.”
He was asking her to leave? Oh no, she had too many questions to leave now. Leila studied his face. His eyes were sympathetic but his mouth was pressed into a firm line. She turned to Drake, who now stood at the other end of the desk. “Did you say Abdullah knew my dad?”
Drake gave Soliman a sideways glance and a nod. The professor let out a long sigh, leaned into his chair, and placed his glasses back on his nose.
“The Medjay, as you should know,” Soliman started, “were a tribe of Ancient Nubians from the Medja region, which today is a part of northern Sudan.”
“I know the history.”
Soliman put up a hand. “Of course. But let me start at the beginning. It was during the Middle Kingdom that Egypt stopped referring to Medja as a region and the name started to refer to a tribe, the Medjay.
“An alliance was formed with this tribe, and the Medjay became an elite police force that protected the assets of the Pharaoh throughout Lower and Upper Egypt. Soon they were incorporated into the Egyptian army and Egyptians themselves also became a part of the regiment.”
“And then they vanished. Why?”
“To keep a long story short, politics. They became too powerful and there were fears of a coup. So, they were diminished. Save for the few Medjay who proved loyal to the Pharaoh. These Medjay continued to operate in secret. They protected the tombs and went to many lengths to keep them hidden.”
“And they still do?”
Soliman nodded.
“Like Abdullah?”
He nodded again. Leila glanced at Drake, who now leaned against the desk, one elbow resting on the stack of papers. She nodded as well.
Leila wandered back to her seat and lowered herself into it, rubbing her forehead as she tried to put all the puzzle pieces together. “But… how? You’re an archaeologist. You’re supposed to be opening tombs, not hiding them.”
Soliman leaned on the desk and touched the tips of his fingers together. “We don’t hide all tombs. We choose which ones to open and which ones will stay closed. Nefertiti and Imhotep’s tombs, for example. I know exactly where they are, but they won’t be opened any time soon.”
“You know where they are? Are you serious?” This conversation was getting crazier by the minute. “But why was it okay for us to open Neferkheri’s and not Imhotep’s?”
“To put it simply, it’s not their time.”
In disbelief, Leila shook her head. How could she ever wrap her mind around this? It was too much to take in. And yet there was still so much information missing. She tore her gaze away from Soliman and began to fiddle with the thin, silver scarab necklace at the base of her throat.
“So what exactly does my dad have to do with all this?” she asked softly, keeping her gaze on her lap.
“I recruited him,” Soliman admitted. “He never believed your mother was dead when she vanished. Faris had stalked her for years before she supposedly fell off that boat and drowned in the Nile. Landon had always suspected Faris had taken her but he could never prove it. Joining us was a way to get back at him. And maybe, just maybe, find your mother again.” The professor sighed and lowered his eyes. “In the end, Landon’s hunch had proved to be correct. It’s just a shame he wasn’t here for that moment.”
Soliman glanced back up. “But you see, one of our long-desired goals is to find Faris’s hoard of stolen artifacts and put them back where they belong. You remember the chalice you found, right before you were taken into the desert?”
“Yes.” Leila drew out the word and let go of the necklace, refocusing on the professor. “I found it under a table. When I checked, it had been marked as stolen in the system.”
“Correct.” Soliman tilted the tip of a pen in her direction. “It was first photographed in Neferkheri’s tomb but somehow never made it into the lab. Drake retrieved it from the thief.”
Drake snorted from her spot against the bookshelf. “And he won’t be stealing any more artifacts, that’s for sure.”
Soliman narrowed his eyes at her. “We try to be as discreet as possible when returning artifacts. We hide them, somewhere safe where they can easily be found by the proper handlers.”
“Why be discreet though?”
Drake cleared her throat. “We were an agency under the Department of Antiquities until about twelve years ago, when things went… awry.”
“Very unfortunate.” Soliman reached out for the stamp, still lying on its side on the desk. He set it upright and his fingertips rested on the jackal’s head. “A few of us went after more prominent targets. Politicians. Quite astounding since they, of all people, should have known better. Due to this, we became targets as well. We had to work in secret. Some Medjay were killed. And Landon, he was no longer allowed to enter Egypt.” His eyes flickered to Leila and he pulled his hand away. “I’m sorry if this is all too much.”
Leila anchored her gaze on the silver balls of a Newton’s Cradle on the desk. She couldn’t believe her father had hidden all this from her. But she supposed it would have been easy.
He had traveled often to give lectures and be on the field excavating, leaving her safe at home with her grandparents. Not until she went with him on his final journey to England. Even then, things seemed normal. Until that night when she and Xander broke into the Weston Manor.
“So,” she spoke slowly, trying to formulate her questions before blurting out a bunch of nonsense. “Dad was a Medjay? How? He wasn’t Egyptian. He wasn’t even an Egyptologist.”
“We haven’t been exclusive to Egyptians for over a hundred years. Anyone we trust, who’s willing to put in the effort, and sometimes put their own lives on the line, can become a Medjay.” His expression softened.
Leila tugged at her necklace again. Anyone? “How many of you guys are there?”
“About twenty altogether. Most of us are in Egypt, but there are a few elsewhere. Some travel around quite a bit, hunting down artifacts.”
Twenty. That wasn’t as many as she thought there would be. And she’d already met at least three of them. Who else could be hiding their association with the Medjay? Forgetting the necklace, her gaze darted to Soliman.
“Xander.” She gasped. “Dad had asked Xander to help and—”
“He knows nothing,” Soliman said sharply. “And you won’t dare speak of this to him. Each of us has taken an oath of silence. One word is all it takes to destroy all of us. We’ve made a lot of people angry over the years. We have bounties on our heads.”
