Kathlyn Trent, Marcus Burton 01 - Valley of the Shadow (4 page)

Her mind was whirling with all of the information she had absorbed. Juliana and Mark met her in the storage area, lingering in the shadows like spying kids.

"Well?" Juliana asked. "Did he finally kick you out?"

Kathlyn smiled; she had known Juliana since high school.  The two had never gotten far away from one another. The woman could read her like a book.

"He did not," she said with feigned indignity. "I kicked myself out. Too much Burton and I can't breathe."

Mark grinned at her. "I think he feels the same way about you."

She looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean he's used to being King of the Hill.  Now you're here, you're bigger than he is, and his ego is having a hard time with it."

That thought had occurred to her, sort of, but she hadn’t given it much credence. She scowled. "You're crazy."

"No, I'm not."

"So what am I supposed to do?

Mark shrugged his shoulders as they walked back towards their side of camp. "Maybe you should low-key it for a while.  Like this morning; don't film right where he can see you. Go do it somewhere else. The way you did it, it was like you were rubbing it in his face. I don't blame the guy for being annoyed."

She made a face at him. "Thanks, Marky."

"I'm just telling you my opinion."

Juliana cut in. "Don't be any less than you are, Kat.  You can't lie down and play submissive just because Burton has an ego problem. You've got a job to do and he's got to accept that."

Mark interrupted. "How would you feel if this was your dig and Burton was stepping in?"

The women looked at each other. "Threatened, I suppose," Kathlyn finally said. "But I've tried to go out of my way to be polite and non-intrusive. Haven't I?"

"You have," Mark agreed. "But Burton is going to take a little more."

"Like what?"

"Sleep with him," Juliana said helpfully.

The three of them laughed. "Not on your life!" Kathlyn said, though the thought wasn't completely repulsive. In fact, it intrigued her more than she wanted to admit, so she held up the flash drive Burton had given her and changed the subject. "Here's his data, at least the stuff he was willing to share. Let's give it to Otis and Ed and see what they can come up with."

Otis and Ed were thrilled with the information. They downloaded it and absorbed it all in less than an hour. Kathlyn, Mark and Juliana sat in their tent, loaded down with computer equipment, and waited for their analysis.

"Kat," Otis rubbed his eyes wearily. He had been a strikingly handsome man in his younger days. "Why in the hell does Burton think his pharaoh is buried in this valley?

She thought about it a moment. "According to Burton, Ramses VIII, or User-ma'at-a Ankh-en-Amen as his throne name hails him, was something of an enigma. He ruled anywhere from one year to four years, depending on who you believe, and has been identified with other rulers in some odd fashion, as if later generations weren't even sure about his succession or relationship. There's speculation that he wasn't a true son of the Ramesside dynasty, but a general or vizier that rose to power and assumed the name. He might have even been a fanatical priest."  She shrugged her shoulders and sat back in the fold-out chair, running her fingers through her hair and scratching her scalp. "Burton hints that Ramses thought himself above being buried in the east valley with the rest of the kings. There might have even been some guilt there, because Ramses VII died in what some thought was a successful assassination alluded to on his tomb walls. He was supposed to be buried in KV1, but his mummy has never been found, either."

Otis and Ed knew all of this and more. Finally Ed shook his head. "Did it ever occur to Burton that this king doesn't even exist?"

"I doubt it," she said. "He sites the fact that he is, in fact, documented in the line of succession and also the fact that absolutely nothing has been found of the man, no relics, potsherds, mummy, or anything else. He believes it indicates an intact tomb in an area in the west valley that ground scans have shown to have a vacant area underneath."

"Weak indications," Ed said skeptically."A man with Burton's reputation shouldn't risk himself on so little to go on."

"It's deeper than that, it has to be," Kathlyn said. "There’s a sonar scan on that flash drive. Take a look at the light and dark areas, light indicating space or loose rock, and you'll notice how the shape looks nearly man-made. There's also something else."

"What's that?"

"He ran a magnetometer over the area. The thing went nuts."

"Really?" Otis perked up, but Ed was still skeptical. "Are we suggesting a treasure trove here?

"Or antiques left behind by the Romans or Turks or centuries of tourists,” Kathlyn conceded. “Maybe somebody's old watch is a few inches underground or something, who knows?  I'm not doubting that his data is solid, but I just don't get a feel there."

They knew exactly what she was talking about. They were all credible scientists, maybe more than most, but Kathlyn Trent had a sixth sense about these things that they believed in, no doubt about it.  They'd seen it in action for years and knew that she could feel what others couldn't. She called it Intuition; any other label upset her. She didn't like the word clairvoyant, or psychic, or anything else along those lines. Good old Intuition was all she would admit to.

"Did you get the feeling again?" Otis asked.

She nodded slowly. "Big time."

They all looked at her. "Where?" Mark asked.

"East valley, right at the entrance,” she said. “It was really strong, but I couldn't say anything because Burton was there and he'd think I'd lost my mind."

Juliana and Mark looked at each other. "Then we need to go back over there without him around," Juliana said firmly. "You need to have a clear field to do your work."

"Let's do it now," Mark stood up, quickly. "The moon is bright, but we'll bring a couple of flashlights. But what about getting in? The gate must be locked."

"There are security guards," Kathlyn said. "Tell them we're with Burton. They saw me there with him last night. They should let us in."

The five of them headed over to the west valley. The moon seemed a little brighter this night, casting the barren hills in silver light. It was stark and eerie as they marched down the road toward the east valley, but any creepiness was overshadowed by their sense of anticipation. The security guards saw them coming and pointed their guns at them. It took quick talking by Mark to keep them from getting shot on sight.

But getting them into the valley proved to be more difficult. After a good deal of negotiation, in which Kathlyn promised them both the equivalent of twenty American dollars and two cases of Coors Light beer, the guards finally relented and opened the gate. Once inside, they locked them in, which gave the group a rather disturbing feeling.

"I feel like they just shut the door on the Lion's Den," Otis muttered. 

Their trek was slower from that point. Their boots made soft crunching noises on the concrete path, echoing off the hills. They were all enthralled with the sight and presence of the Valley of the Kings, sunlit or not.  KV2 came up immediately, which Kathlyn pointed out.  It yawned at them like a great, dark, open mouth. Just west of that, she paused and gazed up at the steep hillside.

"This is it," she said softly, as if afraid of offending the ghosts with the intrusion of her voice. "This is where I feel the strongest."

They stood there in silence.  Ed and Otis looked around, looking at the rock samples, studying the slope of the hill. Otis jotted down a few notes. Kathlyn stood still a moment, centering herself, before beginning to slowly retracing her steps back toward the gate. Turning around before she reached the locked grate, she wandered back within several yards of them. She suddenly stopped, eyes closed, and lowered her head.

They called it The State. She always went into The State when she was doing her work. This is what people paid her for. Juliana and Mark wait for what she would say next, remembering the details between them for later recall.  It wasn't exactly a trance because she was very conscious of her surroundings. If you asked her a question, she would immediately answer. But whatever she was feeling, the energy she was pulling, fed every sense and every emotion.

"There's a great deal of flow here," she said, sweeping her hands in a forward motion. "It's like a river, moving past me, pulling me along."

"Pulling you where?" Juliana asked quietly.

She moved forward, haltingly. "I sense a great deal of sorrow here, a feeling of great pain."

"Kat, where is it taking you?"

The moonlight shone down upon her white clothing, creating an eerie, ghost-like effect. She wandered up to the slope, eyes intermittently closed, until she stepped up onto the hill.  The grade was steep and she couldn't take more than a step or two. The flow was pulling her someplace uncertain, and in frustration, she knelt on the hill, dirtying her white pants.

"It goes here," she muttered. "I can feel it come here, but I'm not sure...."

She trailed off and the others leaned closer, listening for what she might say next. Even Otis and Ed stopped what they were doing.  Somewhere in the distance, a nighthawk called, but the valley remained silent and eerie as Kathlyn's fingers probed the dirt. She was trying to feel what the flow was telling her.  But nothing more seemed to come to her. Just when it seemed there was nothing else to be learned, she suddenly let out a shriek.

"It's a... a...," she pushed herself off her knees and staggered back down the path again. She retraced her footsteps from the gate, moving her hands in that same odd sweeping motion. Her eyes were closed as she struggled to understand what her senses were telling her.  "It's a... oh, damn, I can see it…."

"What is it?" Juliana demanded. "What do you see?"

Kathlyn couldn't quite grasp it.  Mark walked up beside her. "What's moving? A river? Could it be the Nile?"

Juliana shushed him up when Kathlyn shook her head. "Don't confuse her," she hissed.

Mark shrugged his shoulders but continued to walk beside her. Finally, Kathlyn came to a halt.

"It's a procession," she finally muttered. "A funeral procession."

"A funeral? Like one for a king?" Mark asked.

"Lots of emotion here."

"Christ, she's hit it," Otis said to the others. "She's hit it again."

Ed and Juliana turned to the hill she gained such strong feelings from, gazing up at the ancient pile of rocks and dirt with new eyes. "There's something here, under all of this," Ed said. "They just did a mapping study of this valley, but their data doesn't support any potential burial beneath this rise."

"Did they scan it? Juliana asked.

"Probably just the base. There's no suggestion that they used sonar on the entire slope."

"Then that's what we've got to do." Juliana's face suddenly lit up. "Do you suppose we could get permission to do depth-charge scans?"

"Are you kidding?” Ed scowled. “Put charges in the ground and read back the sound waves for geologic anomalies?  The SCA would never allow it here. There's too much of a potential for damage."

As Juliana and Ed went back and forth, Kathlyn sank to her knees once more against the slope. She put her palms against the earth and opened her eyes, gazing up once again at the towering hill above her.

"It's a damn funeral procession," she whispered. "No wonder I was feeling such sorrow. But it ends here; I felt it further on inside the valley, but the river flowed this way, out of the valley. At the gate it flows into the valley.  It all comes into this spot, like a drain or something. It's really strange."

"Then there's something here," Juliana said firmly. "Kat, you've never had a feeling this strong, this quickly. You just don't work this fast."

"It's weird, isn't it?  It's like I've been pushed right to it."

"Then Burton is digging in the wrong place."

"Looks that way."

"What are you going to tell him?"

"You can start by telling me what you're doing on your knees in a restricted area."

Kathlyn didn't even have to look up. She knew it was Burton before she even saw him.

CHAPTER THREE

On her knees was not the best position to be facing Burton.

Marcus stood beside Kathlyn, somehow having gotten past Mark, Juliana, Otis and Ed without a word of warning or a scream of fright. Glancing over his shoulder, she saw Dr. Davis and Dr. Reams standing like two great sentries. Or two great guard dogs, ready to bite her head off when Burton gave the word. Her sense of flow left her and the spell of the moment was broken. She stood up, brushing her knees off.

"I'm doing what I was hired to do," she said evenly.

"This is a restricted area."

"If I need a personal permit to gain access to this site twenty-four hours a day, I’ll get it,” she told him pointedly. “But my access is piggybacked on your permit, therefore, I have unlimited access, do I not?"

He crossed his enormous arms with biceps bigger in circumference than her waist. "I told you that you needed to clear all dig-related activities with me,” he said, jaw flexing. “What part of that directive did you not understand?"

She could feel her cheeks growing hot. "We haven't done anything wrong, Dr. Burton. We were simply discussing your data and surveying the area. Why do you have a problem with me doing my job?"

"I don't have a problem with it at all provided you inform me, as the administrator in charge of this dig, of your activities."

"It was a spur of the moment thing."

"There's no room for that around here. You play by my rules or you don't play at all."

"As you've said many times."

"You're not hearing me."

Kathlyn could only take so much. The man was as unreasonable as they came and something inside her suddenly snapped.

“Let me tell you something, Dr. Burton,” she jabbed a finger in his face. “I came to this dig with the intention of working with you peaceably and submissively, but since the moment I set foot on your dig you’ve been an egotistical jerk. You may have all the rest of these people scared of you but I can see you for what you really are, and that’s a jumbo-size bully who throws temper tantrums every time he doesn’t get his way. No one else has had the nerve to say anything to you because they’re all frightened of you, but I’m not. You’re not even worth my contempt.”

She removed the finger from his face and marched off, leaving him in her dust. The rest of her group rushed to keep pace with her, trying not to laugh at the expressions on Dr. Davis’ and Dr. Reams’ faces. No one ever dared look back to see what Burton’s expression was.

They continued all the way back to camp, entering the dimly lit group of tents now tucked in for the night.  The hour was late but Kathlyn marched straight into McGrath's tent and rouse him from bed.

"I'm done!" she shouted. "You find someone else to deal with that pompous bastard because it won't be me."

McGrath struggled up from a deep sleep. "What's wrong?"

Kathlyn was furious. "I can't work with him,” she seethed. “You've seen how he treats me, how he keeps me pinched under his thumb. I'm sorry, but UCPR hired me to do a job that I am not being given enough freedom to do. I've tried everything I can to be polite and cooperative, but I'm just not getting the same treatment. I'm sorry, Dr. McGrath, but Burton is on his own."

McGrath sat up, trying to pull on some shoes and calm Kathlyn down at the same time. "I'm sure there isn't that much to get upset over. I know he can be abrasive, but...."

"Abrasive?" she choked. "Abrasive isn't the word I had in mind. He's an arrogant ass and it will serve him right for not finding his tomb."

McGrath cocked an eyebrow. "Not finding it? What do you mean?"

She paused in the middle of her tirade, knowing she probably shouldn't say anything but unable to keep her mouth shut. It all came spilling out.

"Just that,” she took a deep breath, struggling to calm down. “Continuing on the path he is, he’s not going to find it. Dr. McGrath, you've been very kind to me and I appreciate that. I've dealt with a lot of idiots in my time and it's rare that I get pushed beyond my endurance, considering what I do. But Dr. Burton is frankly unfair and rude and belligerent, and I cannot work in those conditions. No one can."

"Everyone can work by the rules, Dr. Trent. You choose not to."

Burton stood in the doorway behind her.  Kathlyn's blood pressure soared and she stormed past him, unwilling and unable to talk to him at the moment. She was beyond rational and the next step would be a good sock to his jaw. But she shoved past Burton so hard that she caught him in the shoulder and it was like striking a rock. Instead of shoving him aside, she glanced off him and tripped. When he instinctively reached out to keep her from falling, she slapped his hand away in a stinging gesture. 

Burton watched her stomp away without any discernable expression on his face. McGrath sighed deeply and scratched his head.

"Marcus,” he said ominously. “You'd better go after her and apologize."

His eyes were on her shapely backside, torn between appreciation and loathing. "What for? If she doesn't want to stay, I'm not going to beg her."

"You'd better."

"What the hell for?"

"Because Bardwell will pull the plug on your funding if she leaves, plain and simple."

Marcus looked at him, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"You heard me. Your dig hinges on your cooperation with her."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

McGrath stood up, running his fingers through his hair to comb it. "I don't know how much plainer I can be. Bardwell will pull your funding if you don't let Dr. Trent do her job. Three seasons and no results bring that about. I wasn't going to tell you, but now you've left me with no choice. If she doesn't stay, neither does your dig."

Burton stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. "You're serious?"

"As a heart attack."

Burton didn’t say anything for a moment.  "You can't possibly expect me to believe that."

McGrath nodded at the Iridium cellular phone on the table top. "Call Bardwell. Ask him for yourself."

Burton stared at the little black phone. Then, he let out a vicious hiss. “Christ,” he rumbled. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

McGrath cocked an eyebrow. “Because given enough rope, I was hoping you weren’t going to hang yourself. The success or failure of this dig hinges on her instincts. And you know what else? I think she already knows where the damn thing is.”

An odd gleam came to Burton’s eye, between curiosity and disbelief. “What makes you say that?”

“Because she said that continuing on the path you are on will cause you to fail. You won’t find it.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“You’d better ask her while you’re apologizing.”

It was a hard thing to swallow his pride, but considering what McGrath had just told him, he had little choice. “I doubt she’ll listen to me right now.”

“As the younger generation says, you'd better kiss her ass like a big dog.  If she’s gone in the morning, so is your project.”

Marcus held up a quelling hand.  “All right, I get the point. I’ll… see what I can do.”

“You’d better do all that and more.”

Marcus quit the tent, strolling back across the neat compound, wondering what he was going to say to her. He’d never been any good at apologizing, especially when he had been in the right. Well, hadn’t he?  But he’d suspected all along that Bardwell had sent her for more reasons that McGrath was telling him. He knew old man Bardwell hadn’t been pleased that his star archaeologist hadn’t shown results on a heavily publicized dig. That’s why McGrath had been here the past couple of months, to observe and report back. In that amount of time, they’d poured thousands of dollars into the dig with nothing to show for it. Now Bardwell wanted results, enough to call in a witch to conjure up the tomb.

Crossing the parking lot that defined the line between “us” and “them”, he heard the distinct sound of weeping wafting out from behind some cars. He almost continued walking, but something made him stop and listen. Ears perked, he made his way back behind some empty boxes and an old Yugo that was propped up on bricks. Kathlyn was sitting on the ground by one of the jacked up wheels, crying her eyes out. Marcus noticed that she hadn’t gotten far from McGrath’s tent before breaking down completely.

He stood there a moment, wondering if he should say anything or if he should just let her get it off her chest and talk to her later. He continued to stand there, watching her head quiver as it rested upon her bent-up knees. Her arms were wrapped protectively around her legs, her white outfit filthy and her blond hair spread out like angel’s wings. She really was a beautiful woman and maybe that was part of his problem. She put him on his guard in so many ways that he wasn’t sure how to handle it.

He knew he should leave her alone but he couldn't seem to do it. There was no reason in the world why he should bother with her. Very quietly, and very carefully, he sat down beside her. She was sobbing so hard that she hadn’t heard him. When she finally brought her head up to wipe her eyes, she caught a glimpse of him and shrieked with fright. She was half way to her feet before she realized who it was.

“I’m sorry.” He really meant it. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I just… well, I was crossing the compound and heard you.”

Her heart was in her ears and she could hardly catch a breath. Her first instinct was to ream him like she had earlier, but she was on a crying jag and the words wouldn’t come. Instead, she broke into fresh sobs and Marcus leapt to his feet.

“I’m sorry.” He didn't know what else to say. "I didn't mean... well, hell, I'm just sorry, that's all."

She wept as if her heart was broken. "Why do you hate me so much? What have I done that you would be so horrible to me?"

His was beginning to feel like a real jerk. He had come to apologize to her because he had been forced to but now he found himself doing it because he wanted to.

"Nothing," he said, the huff and puff gone out of him. "You've done nothing but your job. And I've done mine. We just do things differently, I guess."

She looked at him, her eyes overflowing, her dusty cheeks pouring with tears. "Being unreasonably mean to me is how you do your job?"

He felt himself fold like an idiot. She was miserable and he was the cause. Of course he'd made people miserable before and had always taken a sort of fiendish pride in it, but not this time. Not knowing what else to do, he simply pulled her into his arms to comfort her.

Surprisingly, she didn’t pull away. In fact, she was pressed rather closely against him and had the circumstance not been so dark, it would have been extremely enticing.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is for me, doing what I do?" She smeared wet mascara on his polo shirt. "When I came here, all I wanted was to do good work and you've treated me like I’m… I’m….”

“A leper?”

“Yes!” she sobbed with agreement. “I tried to be nice, and pleasant, and cooperative, but that wasn’t good enough for you.”

He pulled her closer, maybe just because he liked it. “Yes, you were pleasant,” he said softly. “And nice. And cooperative.  But you stepped into my dig and I guess I was having a problem with that. I didn’t react well at all and I’m sorry.”

Lynn picked that moment to come around the crates.  When he saw Marcus and Kathlyn in their embrace, his eyes bugged with surprise. At first he thought Marcus was strangling her, but then he realized it was quite a different scene. After a moment’s disbelief, he pursed his lips as if to whistle and strolled away as if he hadn’t seen anything at all.  Marcus knew he would have a hell of a lot of explaining to do later.

But Kathlyn hadn’t seen him. Her face was still buried in Marcus’ chest. “You are so nasty,” she berated him softly.

“I know,” he rocked her back and forth. “I'll be nicer, I promise. I’ll make it up to you.”

“You can’t make it up,” she sniffled, wiping her nose on his shirt because she was so mad at him. “I’m leaving tomorrow. I’ll be out of your hair forever.”

Marcus remembered what McGrath had told him. He felt guilty now, like he was trying to manipulate her to save his own hide. “Look, you don’t have to leave,” he said. “I promise to behave myself if you’ll stay. You were right when you said it was a floundering dig; it’s been floundering for three years. I suppose seeing you hear made me realize that I had actually failed for the first time in my life. That’s a hard thing to admit.”

Her sobs lessened but she remained folded in his massive arms. Even after the weeping ceased completely, they simply stood there, unmoving. Marcus was still rocking her, though. Kathlyn had enough sense to realize, over her rampant emotions, that he was a very good rocker.

“I’m not here to validate your failure, Burton,” she finally said, her voice husky from crying. “I’m here to help you realize success. Can't you understand that?”

He sighed heavily, gazing up at the stars. It was a brilliant night. “I’m not used to having any help.”

“I figured that out.”

“I’d like you to stay, if you’d consider it.”

“I don't know. I’m not done hating you yet.”