He stared at her blankly for a moment. “Keep your money. I’ll see if I can fit it into my schedule.” He stuck the picture into the pages of his appointment book.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” She rose and put her bag strap over her shoulder, hoping Vivian would get at least one more visitor.
“Next time you consider putting yourself in danger, let me know first, okay?” Mark said then rose to his feet and followed her out the door.
“Yes, sir,” she assured him as they started down the hallway together.
“So. I hear the Cairo Museum is getting the exhibit?”
“Yeah. We’ll have a ton of work to do to get it ready. They want it fast, while there’s still hype.” Leila raised her eyebrows. The idea of preparing an exhibit for one of the most famous museums in existence made her insides swirl. She hoped they would be able to meet the museum’s demands in time. They were investing a lot of money into the project so it could happen.
“Great. I hope to be there, so I’m sure we’ll see each other then, if not before.” Mark stopped and opened the glass door for her. He smiled down at her as he held it open. “Keep your chin up. Have fun working in Saqqara.” He then narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at her. “And don’t go looking for trouble.”
“I’ll try.” One corner of her mouth lifted as she walked out the door. She didn’t need to go looking for it.
Trouble would find her.
• • •
The excavation continued a week later. Although they were now missing Xander and Karl, Soliman didn’t waste any time in getting his team back to work in the tomb. There was another door to open.
Leila was more than ready to fully immerse herself into the job. Anything to keep her mind off of Xander and Amir. She watched from the side as Soliman and Hamza carefully removed the slabs of stone blocking the passageway leading to the rest of the tomb. She caught Emma’s eye and they exchanged excited grins.
When the doorway was opened, they waited for the air to circulate for a few minutes before continuing. One by one they filed through, holding their flashlights in front of them. As light filled the room, they took in the scene in silence. The room wasn’t quite as full as the other two. The furniture and vases were more neatly arranged to draw the focus to the large rectangular sarcophagus in the center of the room.
Before the sarcophagus stood a short table where four white Canopic jars of clay had been placed in a neat row. The lid of each jar was carved into a different shaped head… a jackal, a baboon, a falcon, and a human. Even from the light of their flashlights, the jars glittered from more gold detailing.
Due to the table in front of the sarcophagus, they weren’t able to get too close. Yet it appeared to have been chiseled out of stone and colorfully painted with hieroglyphics.
Soliman decided Emma and Leila should begin with photos and labeling immediately so they could remove the first few artifacts that afternoon, and more lamps were promptly brought into the chamber for better lighting.
The professor’s curiosity must have gotten the better of him. He decided they would begin with the table, but Leila suspected he was eager to finally get a glimpse of the Queen’s coffin. Once Emma finished the photographs, the jars and the table were transferred to another room so they could begin documenting the sarcophagus.
When the lid of the sarcophagus was finally removed, they all peered inside for a glimpse of the coffin. Gold twinkled back at them. The queen’s full lips curved into a soft smile. Her eyes were lined with black paint with the iconic curved flair at the corners. The sculpted gold formed a headdress of black hair crowning her head, clasped with bands of gold, purple, and red. Her arms were folded across her chest and her golden hands lay flat over her forearms. Below her arms, her coffin was covered in hieroglyphics, detailing her life from birth to her untimely death.
“She’s beautiful.” Emma sniffled, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.
She truly is. Leila gazed down at the coffin of the resting queen. After a moment, she backed away from the sarcophagus, despite that the camera on her collar was running. Seeing the coffin reminded her this was a grave. The dead deserved her respect.
She turned away as the others gaped at Neferkheri. What would Xander be thinking at this moment? She could envision him peering into the sarcophagus next to Soliman, pointing out some of the details of the hieroglyphs. Hopefully he had been watching.
Wherever he was.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The keyboard clacked as Leila’s fingertips danced over the keys. She sat in front of a computer in one of the labs in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, surrounded by boxes and computers. One year had passed since the opening of Neferkheri’s tomb. She’d managed to make it through the year without incident.
As the months went by, Amir stopped crossing her mind, though the longing for some kind of contact from her mother and little brother never fully faded. She immersed herself in the research for the exhibit, though she never could shake the feeling someone was watching her every move. It was probably all in her head. Maybe Soliman was right. The papyrus had been a peace offering.
Since the excavation went smoothly, the curator of the Cairo Museum had decided to celebrate the opening of the exhibit with pomp and circumstance. That night would be less of an exhibit of ancient Egypt than it was for evening dresses and tuxedos. But first came work, which was to finish up the label for the Senet display, an ancient Egyptian board game.
Waiting for the printer to warm up, she turned to Karl.
He sat across from her, typing up a presentation Soliman wanted to give that night.
“How’s it coming?” she asked with a glance at the clock. She could give Karl another twenty minutes. He was merely visiting today, having asked to use the museum’s computers to finish the presentation.
“Don’t pressure me,” he said through gritted teeth. He leaned toward the monitor, blocking her from view.
Leila raised her hands in apology. He didn’t have a keycard to get in and out of the research and preservation labs, so she would just have to wait until he was done.
She took a moment to glance around the lab, wondering if there was anything else she could catalog while waiting. Microscopes stood unused among the foray of boxes. The only sound came from the hum of the fluorescent lighting and Karl’s frantic typing.
All the other lab techs and researchers had already gone home for the day. The clock was the only way to tell the time of day since the large window stretching from wall to wall faced the underground hallway instead of the outdoors.
“Are there going to be aliens in the presentation?” Leila asked before she could stop herself.
“Shut up!”
The printer spat out her label. She snatched it up and hurried to the counter where the artifact waited. She slipped the paper into a plastic holder which she then placed inside an empty cardboard box. After slipping on a pair of gloves, she picked up the wooden game and slid out the small compartment that filled the hollow.
The box was etched with hieroglyphics along the sides and small squares had been carved on top to mark where a player could move his game piece. She took out the various geometrical shapes used as game pieces from the compartment and placed them to the side.
Holding one of the pieces in her palm, she examined it, wondering who the last person to play with this set was. Maybe it had been Neferkheri herself, thousands of years ago. The very idea it waited all this time in her tomb, only now to be shown to the world, was nothing short of miraculous.
Leila set the pieces into a box for it to be taken upstairs and placed into a display case. She set the box on the counter and walked out into the L-shaped hallway. At the far end to her left were the elevator and the stairwell, both of which were only accessible by keycard. She went to the right and closed the door to the storage room. Once secure, she rounded the corner to make sure the door to the garage was locked.
On her way back, she glanced in the window to the lab across from the one she and Karl were using. It was a much larger room spanning the entire length of the hallway. The lights and equipment had already been switched off and the door was shut. She tested the handle to make sure it was locked. Satisfied, she returned to the smaller lab. As she walked in, she glanced up at the clock. Her heart skipped a beat.
