The Devil's Triangle (A Brit in the FBI 4)

“The warmth is stronger, but I hear no buzzing.”

Of course he couldn’t hear the buzzing, it was meant only for her. “I can’t believe it.” She slipped her fingers under the wing and slowly lifted it, gathering it to her chest. “Oh no.”

“What is it? What’s wrong?” But he could already see. The gold wing wasn’t attached to anything.

“Then the Ark is still down there. Hurry, shift the earth away. Cassandra, move away.”

The team got to work immediately.

They stood, Cassandra still holding the wing. “I heard it calling to me and you felt its warmth. I’m sorry, Ajax, but whatever is below us isn’t the Ark.”

Gregory looked up, as did two other archaeologists digging with their small plastic scoops. “How do you know? How could a chunk of gold break off?”

“I don’t know,” she said, and held the golden wing close. “Feel, Ajax, touch it and feel the warmth coming off of the gold. For you. And it sings for me. It’s definitely a part of the Ark. It was here, I’m sure of it. It’s not here anymore, though. We’d feel it.”

Ajax said, “The wing broke off from the Ark. We know it was here. Keep searching.”

The archaeologists finally uncovered a large crate. When they eased it from the ground, they saw the stylized G for Genesis on the rotting wood.

Gregory sat back on his heels. “I thought, I’d hoped . . . I must tell you, we uncovered the bodies of all the members of your mother’s team. But the count is off. We are missing one female. Based on the evidence we’ve gathered from the bodies, remnants of clothing and jewelry, your mother is not here.”

Cassandra felt a bolt of excitement but it quickly faded. “But how is that possible? You must be wrong, Dr. Gregory. Where are Mother’s bones?”

“I don’t know. I do know they aren’t here, with the others. Another thing—the skeletons are mostly intact. We didn’t see anything that speaks to a cause of death. No bullet holes, no broken bones. Yet all the team members were somehow killed. Not only are your mother’s bones not here, neither is the Ark.”

Ajax said, “It must mean she took the Ark. But where would she have gone? Why wouldn’t she have contacted us? And why would she leave behind the wing, and all the team members, dead?”

Cassandra had no answer. She felt numb.

For an instant, Ajax wanted to slit Gregory’s throat, but he gained control, shrugged. “Someone double-crossed them—perhaps they were poisoned, it’s a decent explanation, a very fast-acting poison—and they simply dropped where they’d stood. And whoever it was stole the Ark from the site and took Mother captive, someone who knew the prophecy, knew they couldn’t open the Ark without her. She could still be alive.”

“She could, yes,” Gregory said, but he didn’t believe it for an instant. “Whatever happened here—it’s a mystery. I’m so sorry.”

One of the technicians, Maccio, rose, dusted his hands on his trousers. “There’s nothing else here, only the crate.”

The sandstorm struck and they ran for their tents, the assistants dragging the crate with them.

Cassandra watched Ajax stalk around their small tent, knew he was cursing, but she couldn’t hear him over the shrieking winds. She knew without looking that the skies were dark red.

Once Ajax had gotten a hold of himself, he said again, “Mother isn’t here, and neither is the Ark. All of our work has been for nothing. Nothing!” He flung a canteen against the tent wall. Cassandra calmly picked it up, unscrewed the lid, and took a long drink. Even safe inside the tent, the sand still somehow managed to get into everything. She handed the canteen to Ajax.

She said, “We have to believe Mother made it out of the Gobi, either on her own or she was forced by someone who took her, someone who killed the team. So there is more work to do and we will do it. We will contact Grandfather and start the search again.”

Ajax cursed, then threw himself onto the camp cot. “Fine. Call Jason. Tell him we failed, and listen to him moan about the thousands of people dying for nothing. And just where do we tell him to look now?”

“We didn’t fail, Ajax. We’ve discovered a piece of the Ark.” She picked up the gold wing and held it close, rocking, like a mother would a babe. “We know someone took the Ark by force and m

urdered the team. Without Grandfather’s storm, we never would have found this. Grandfather will be pleased.”

“The old bastard will blame us, you know he will. Anything happens that’s not to his liking, he blames us.”

Cassandra said, “Then we won’t tell him.”

There was a knock on the tent pole, and Gregory came in, his eyes wild. “Quickly, come with me.”

They tied heavy cotton scarves around their faces and stepped out into the storm. They followed him along a rope line. Three tents away, Maccio was standing over the crate.

He said, “Dr. Gregory wanted to x-ray the crate before we opened it.”