Sheik Protector (11 page)

“According to Queen Dara, Aziz spent a whole week here not long before his death.” He panned the area with his flashlight.

“What did he do?”

Exactly. What did Aziz do in a bare cave for a week? Aziz had never been the introspective, meditative type. He lived for excitement. What excitement could he have possibly found here that held his attention for a full seven days?

Karim had a fair idea. “I think he might have found another passage. When Saeed came across our grandfather’s hidden treasure down here, it was such a surprise that nobody looked much beyond it. What they carted off to the National Museum was staggering. It wouldn’t have occurred to anyone to look for more.”

“Why would it occur to Aziz then?” She cocked her head.

Good question. “He was always studying ancient scrolls. Could be he found some information in those.” No way to tell. He’d spent a couple of hours looking for some of his scrolls while he and Julia had stayed at Aziz’s palace, but had found nothing. Whoever had ransacked the palace had taken those, along with who knew what else.

“So we look for another passage.” Julia was already walking toward the rock wall.

“You can check around the perimeter and see if you find something. If you do, do not go anywhere. Watch out for large crevices in the cave floor so you don’t fall in. Here.” He tossed her the flashlight and she caught it.

“And you?”

“I’ll get the rest of our equipment down here.”

K
ARIM’S INITIAL
estimate of one to two hours for a quick scan turned out to be optimistic. The cavern was larger than he had remembered. They searched late into the evening, with him persevering in getting Julia to take regular breaks, since she refused to leave until they examined every inch of the cave wall. He’d even set up ropes to check higher up all around. They’d found nothing.

“This is it.” He rappelled back down to her. “I don’t know where else it could be.”

She was standing at the water’s edge. “Mind if I take a dip before we go back? The ride will take hours yet. I can’t believe how hot and sweaty I am.”

The images that flickered through his mind froze his hands to the harness for a second.

“Trust me, you would not want to sit close to me for the next couple of hours.”

Just because she was an intelligent woman, didn’t mean she couldn’t be at times utterly wrong. He would have liked to be as close to her as possible. Closer.

“Go ahead.” He carried the harness to the area of the cave where a wall of boulders blocked the pool from view, and considered the trip back to occupy his mind. A couple of hours in the car. And she looked exhausted already. He’d been telling her to rest, but here he was, planning to drag her all over creation for hours yet.

He made up his mind and went to the crate he had lowered earlier because it contained most of his pulleys. As luck would have it, he had wrapped his equipment in his sleeping bag along with a couple of blankets. He had planned to spend a night or two here before he’d known that she would be joining him. They could stay a single night, he supposed, and start on their return journey in the morning, refreshed.

He was blocking thoughts of Julia naked in the water so vehemently, that he hadn’t heard her come up behind him and was startled when she asked, “Do you have a towel I could use?”

She hadn’t even undressed yet.

He could get her there. In seconds. About three would be enough. Instead, he drew a slow breath, removed a towel from the crate and handed it to her. “Here.”

“Thanks.”

He shouldn’t have turned to watch her walk away, but he found himself leaning against the crate. She took his flashlight with her, the swinging light outlining her silhouette. She wore her slacks and tunic, her shapeless
abaya
discarded at the top of the cave. She wouldn’t have been able to climb the rope in that.

He couldn’t look away until she disappeared behind the boulders. Then he pulled over one of the dozen cave lights he had strategically placed on the floor, and began to set up the few supplies he had. Since he’d planned on spending only a couple of nights—alone—he had brought little.

He was done and sitting on their bedding by the time he heard water splashing at the back of the cave. He clenched his jaw, his hands going still on the food bag. He drew a deep breath, looked up in the direction of the ceiling he couldn’t see. The lights he had weren’t powerful enough to light the whole cavern all at once. They’d been working in sections. “Take your time. We’ll stay the night. You need your rest. It’s too hot out there for another long ride,” he called out to her.

She didn’t respond. Probably didn’t like being told what to do, yet again. He couldn’t afford to worry about that. His first priority was to protect her and her child.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture Aziz in this cave, what he had found and how he had found it. Images of Julia Gardner naked in the water kept breaking in. She was beautiful, strong, honorable, smart. He wanted her, there was no denying that. He wanted her and was jealous of Aziz that he had found her, that she had fallen in love with him, that she was carrying his child.

“Karim?” Her voice reached him from a distance.

He opened his eyes, and for an insane moment held his breath that she might ask him to join her in the pool. The hope of it alone was enough to make his body harden. “Yes?”

“I think I found something.”

S
HE WAS OUT OF
the water by the time he reached her, and partially dressed. Her tunic came to midthigh. She hadn’t put on her slacks yet. He tried not to stare at her shapely limbs and failed.

“What is it?” He dragged his gaze upward at last.

“Look.” She squatted and pointed at the rock with her flashlight where a hole had been drilled about the width of a finger.

He squatted next to her to examine it, looked around and soon found another.

“Do you think it’s marking something? What do you think it means?” she asked.

He knew exactly what it meant. His mind was moving a mile a minute. “There was a hook for a rope here, and a backup rope.” He peered into the water then stood to shed his shirt, shoes and socks, leaving only his pants. He slipped in.

“There’s an undertow there,” she warned when he had resurfaced. “That’s why I grabbed on to the edge and my finger slid into the hole.”

He stood right in the undertow and felt the wall of the pool with his hand. Solid rock. Then he extended his right foot forward and felt a crevice. He dipped under, and found a tunnel that started on the pool’s floor and was about three feet wide and tall. He couldn’t get to the end of it, the flow of water working against him, carrying him out. He gave up after another moment and broke the surface for air.

“I think I found an underwater passage. That’s how this pool is fed. The water is coming from there.” “Did you bring scuba equipment?” She glanced up.

He still had crates on the truck he hadn’t removed.

“Everything but.”

“You can come back another time.”

He wasn’t going to turn around without giving this a serious try. He pulled himself out of the pool and brought over two ropes plus a helmet with a waterproof light attached to it. He fastened that on first, then set the ropes up and secured himself before slipping back into the water. “Hang on to this.” He handed her the end of one of the ropes. “One tug, I’m okay. Two tugs, pull me back.”

“I don’t think—”

“This could lead someplace.”

“Maybe Aziz had proper gear.”

“But the people who hid those statues hundreds of years ago didn’t. If they could get through so can I.”

“Hundreds of years ago, the cave could have been dry. Don’t things in the earth shift over time?”

She was right. But still, he had to try. “I’ll come back.” And with that, he took a deep breath and went under.

He could see much better with the light on. The tunnel was slightly smaller than he’d previously judged, but as far as he could tell, he wouldn’t have to worry about getting stuck. He kicked away with all his strength, swam against the current, pushing against the tunnel wall with his feet.

He pushed again, got jerked back and realized his rope had gotten caught on something. He had to turn around to free it, losing a few feet as the current pushed him back. Using all his strength, he kicked away.

Nothing but water and rock for as far as he could see.

Had Aziz been here? Were those screw marks by the pool his? Other possible explanations came to mind now. Maybe after they’d emptied the cave of treasures, the archaeologists had dredged the pool. He hadn’t followed the proceedings closely, knew most of what he did from the media.

He wondered if he’d been in a full minute yet. Time had stopped as soon as he’d entered the tunnel. It seemed he’d been here long, too long already. But that couldn’t be. It didn’t seem he’d gotten all that far. He pushed forward again.

Rock and water.
Push.

His lungs began to burn. He spotted some sort of obstruction ahead. He would just go that far and see if that was the end of the tunnel, if it narrowed down so much that passage was impossible. That way, they would at least know this was a dead end.

He held his breath and moved forward until jagged rocks protruding from the bottom blocked his way. Only one way to figure out if he could get through. He pushed through them carefully. The space was impossibly small now, his air all but gone. He shoved his body forward. He would give this a good try then yank on the rope and between the water pushing him out and Julia pulling, he should be back in the pool in no time.

Unless Julia had taken her passport from his wallet, climbed up the rope and was even now driving the van away from here. He shut the uneasy thought down.

Some of the rocks were loose, he realized, and tried to roll one out of the way with little success. Had Aziz blasted in this section so that nobody could come back here?

He twisted and his rope got caught again. No, not the rope, he realized after a moment as protruding rocks scraped his side. He’d gone too far.

And now he was stuck.

Without having a watch, it was hard to tell how long he’d been underwater, but it sure seemed like a long time. Julia glanced toward her sandals at the other end of the pool, her wristwatch on top of them. She considered running over there and grabbing it, but she didn’t dare let go of the rope in case Karim signaled that he needed her help.

Her best guess was that more than two minutes had passed since he’d submerged. Had to be more than that. She tugged on the rope tentatively. It gave. Too easily. And she knew without a doubt that there was nothing on the other end.

Maybe the rope had gotten tangled and Karim had to cut himself free. She tried the security rope. That one didn’t give at all, stuck. She yanked as hard as she could. All she got were rope burns on her palm.

“Karim!” she called, knowing he couldn’t hear her, getting panicky now. “Karim!” She yanked frantically at the rope.

He was overbearing and bossy and very difficult to deal with. There’d been a time when she would have been happy to be rid of him, but now she wanted him back. His stubbornness aside, he was a good man, he really was. He was honorable, he cared for others, he stood on the right side.

Dozens of images flashed through her mind. Some had to do with the way he had protected her from the assassins, others with the way he had kissed her. She let go of the rope and slipped into the water as she was, not wanting to waste time taking off her clothes. “Hang in there,” she said to the water.

She couldn’t give up without trying to get him out.

T
HE FIRST THING
he heard over the ringing in his ears when he broke surface was Julia yelling, “Where have you been?”

The first thing he registered was relief that she was still there. He grabbed on to the side of the pool and gulped air, trying to catch his breath.

“What happened to your ropes?” She was in the water with her clothes on.

Had she jumped in to pull him back?

“Had to cut one when it got tangled.” He helped her out then dragged himself up on the rock next to her, still breathing hard. “The other one I tied out as a lead line.”

She stared at him, her face awash in the remnants of fear then relief. She cared whether he lived or died. That came as a surprise. He would have thought the only thing she cared about was getting away from him.

She had tried to save him. The wet clothes plastered to her tempting body were a testimony to that. And it hit him suddenly what could have happened to her, venturing into that passage without a rope, without anyone watching out for her.

If he had gotten out of the water on the other side, if he had tarried instead of coming straight back…She could have gotten stuck. She could have…

He stood to shake off the gut-wrenching feeling that came from that thought. And when she stood, too, still visibly shaken, he couldn’t help taking her into his arms.

He could feel the rapid beating of her heart against his chest, and he held her until it slowed, a moment passing between them, an understanding of what they could have lost. He
hated
the thought that he could have lost her just now. How easily he could have lost her a number of times since she had walked into his life.

“Lead line to where?” she asked after a while as she pulled away, curiosity having replaced fear in her eyes. Trust her not to overlook a thing.

The tension in his shoulders eased and he grinned. Because what he had found was so unbelievable he couldn’t help himself. “Another cavern.”

“Are the idols there?”

And now that the tension of what could have happened leaked out of the moment, he registered nipples protruding under her wet top, and got momentarily distracted. Of course, the helmet light was still on, spotlighting whatever he turned his head toward. He reached up and turned it off. “The place is too big. I need more lamps.”

“I’m coming, too.”

Again, hard to focus with those perfect breasts not two feet from him. Deep breath. “No.”

“You might need help.”

He needed a lot of things right now. None of which she would willingly give, he was betting. “I won’t.”

“You lost your rope.”

“I had backup.”

He considered telling her to take her clothes off before she caught a cold. But the air in the cave was a comfortable temperature. And truth be told, Julia Gardner without clothes was more than he could handle.

She was glaring at him, pursing eminently kissable lips. “My baby’s father died for whatever is in that cavern. I’m coming.”

He drew another long breath, sobered by her mention of Aziz. “Were you in love with my brother?” Suddenly, it was important to know.

“No. I—” She closed her eyes for a second.

He nodded, feeling immeasurably lighter, then feeling guilty about it. “I won’t be long.” With some luck.

“I can come after you anyway. You can’t keep me here.” She flashed him a
so there
look.

Technically, he could. He could tie her up, worst came to worst. But he didn’t want to. Truth was, he had an idea that something extraordinary waited on the other side of the passage. And he wanted to share that with her.

He didn’t dare closely examine that piece of insanity.

“Fine.” He would have liked to argue further that it wasn’t safe, that she should be careful in her condition. But her condition hadn’t slowed her down so far and, Allah knew, just mentioning that word to her was dangerous enough. The tunnel wasn’t too bad now that he had cleared the obstruction. They should be able to get over to the other end relatively fast with the help of the lead line he’d left.

His gaze dipped to her breasts again. Damn, that was it. He looked up with effort. “Get packing,” he said.

“T
HERE ARE VISITORS
at the cave.”

Mustafa paged through a religious newspaper as one of his men reported over the phone. He had his followers patrol all of Aziz Abdullah’s latest digs. They had searched them thoroughly, finding nothing. But he hadn’t given up yet. He had a strong, holy purpose and it gave him strength to see the task through, no matter how difficult it was becoming nor how long his mission stretched out.

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know. I can only see the truck. Should I go in?”

“No.” Mustafa dropped the paper and rubbed his burning eyes. “What kind of truck?”

“Delivery. White and yellow.”

His fingers tightened on the phone. The only vehicle that had left Karim Abdullah’s palace in the past twenty-four hours had been a white-and-yellow delivery truck.

“It’s him.” His pulse quickened at the knowledge of how close he was to his prey now. Karim was out in the middle of the desert. Possibly alone. Only a single driver had been reported leaving with the truck, although he couldn’t be sure that some of his men hadn’t hidden in the back. Still, the number of guards he could have taken was limited.

“I could go in and find him,” his man offered.

“Wait outside. Report if anything changes. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

He couldn’t trust his man to take care of Karim. Karim was a true warrior, a worthy adversary. Mustafa stood. He would bring backup. And he couldn’t trust his man with the idols, if they were in there with Karim. Those idols had corrupted two eminent sheiks already. Who knew what power they had over lesser men?

Only he should be the one to handle them. Allah had chosen him for that glorious task.

J
ULIA’S CHIN
was hitting her chest as Karim lit the last lamp and the full magnificence of the new cavern was finally revealed. The water that fed the pond she’d bathed in did, indeed, come from here. An underground stream broke the rock high above her, creating a stunning waterfall before collecting into the larger pool at her feet that was connected to the pool in the cavern they’d come from.

Next to the fall, black rock rose up as far as they could see, its dark color a contrast to the rest of the cave. As Karim directed a lamp at it, the stone sparkled.

“Some kind of granite,” he said.

But her attention was focused on the niches carved out of the granite, four perfect indentations, six inches wide and about a foot tall, overlooking the pool. Each niche held a carved and painted figure she couldn’t quite make out from the distance. They were situated so they would be at the focus of attention, everything leading toward them, even the odd undulations of the rocks, the cracks in the ground and on the cave wall.

But as Karim raised the light and panned it, she realized that those cracks and other shadows were not random, nor were they natural. Man-made patterns decorated nearly every square foot of the cavern. And as she looked down at her feet, she realized that the lines she stood on, too, were part of some bigger whole. As she walked forward, following it with the lamp on her helmet, she realized she was moving through a garden.

Pictures depicting plants of all shapes and sizes covered the floor, some with familiar leaf motifs, others she’d never seen. Animals hid in the grass and behind bushes. Trees towered on the side with exotic birds sitting among the braches. All of that faced the four niches. And all, from the smallest parrot to the largest tree, seemed to have this awed feel to it, as if they were in the process of worshipping.

The closer she got to the granite, the thicker the air felt, heavier. She stopped, feeling like an intruder at an ancient, secret ceremony. She felt a distinct sense of being pushed back and down, to the ground. “What is this place?” She couldn’t raise her voice above a whisper.

Karim stood completely still, in that warrior readiness state of his she’d seen before. “A pagan temple.”

She could believe it.

“And that?” She motioned toward the granite rock with the four carved images that appeared to have some human features. They looked similar at first glance, but upon closer inspection, she could tell that two were definitely male and two female. They had large, round eyes painted in white that took up most of their faces.

“I’m guessing those would be the idols. See that?” He pointed up to a circular hole in the wall above the four figures, at an empty niche she hadn’t noticed before as it was well above eye level.

“What do you think was there?” The drawing from the thief who’d broken into Aziz’s palace only depicted the four idols.

“I don’t know, but look.” He went to the back of the cave.

She moved over to him.

“The patterns seem to come in stripes.” He pointed to the ground and the cave walls. “Connected to the niches like sun rays.” He walked forward several feet.

She examined each picture they walked over, and the farther they went, the more she understood what he meant. There were definitely several themes here. The first section was the darkest and scariest. She hadn’t come back this far before and now noticed that the “forest” she had stood in had disappeared. The shadows were deeper, the rocks more jagged. The drawings resembled weapons and twisted limbs and torsos, faces distorted in pain, bones, in places piles of them.

She moved closer to Karim and stuck to him. “What do you think it means? Could be a warning to anyone who violates this place.” Kind of like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, she thought and shivered when she remembered that the last person who’d been here before them, Aziz, was now dead.

“I don’t think so.” Karim turned toward the darkly glittering granite. “It’s all connected to that first niche, to that god statue that’s in there. I’m guessing he might have been the god of war or something like that.”

Could be. She moved out of the “war zone” as quickly as possible.

The next swatch of images seemed like an ancient city, a jumble of mud brick dwellings. She felt easier treading among those, until she noticed a large dark circle to her right. Karim caught her gasp and moved that way immediately.

“Charred rock. Something has been burned here.”

“You think Aziz—”

“My brother might have been only an amateur archaeologist, but he would have known not to violate a find. He would not have camped here and lit a bonfire.” He squatted and ran his finger over the dust and ashes. “This is much older. Not just the ashes of one fire but many.”

They moved on to the next section, but the geometrical patterns of this she could not begin to recognize. She looked at Karim. He simply shrugged.

The last section, belonging to a goddess, encompassed the waterfall and the pool, leaving little room for drawings. But, although the available surface was much smaller, the ancient artist or artists had been determined to overcome that handicap; not a rock was left unadorned here. This was the magical forest she’d seen when she’d first looked around. The picture was teeming with life.

“The Garden of Eden?” she asked.

“You could say that.” He moved forward. “I’m guessing this quadrant belonged to some goddess of fertility.”

That explained the appearance of human forms as they neared the pool, always in pairs, always touching.

He stopped at the edge of the water. “This could be where they performed fertility rituals.”

And the way he looked at her suddenly sucked the air out of her lungs. Thinking about Karim and fertility rituals at the same time, and looking at the suggestive images all around them, was scrambling her brain big-time.

“Um. Okay.” She stepped back too quickly and almost slid into the water.

Karim steadied her elbow. And kept his hand there.

“So I guess we can go back then.” She slipped away from him, hoping that if she moved beyond his reach, maybe her brain cells would return to work.

“I think we should sleep here.” He watched her.

“Here?” Her voice positively squeaked.

He pointed at the pool. “Water.” Then toward the area where the charred circle was. “Fire.”

“Earth. Air,” she finished for him. “The four elements.”

His first response was a smile. “Feel that?”

“What?”

“The air. There is fresh air here. A flow of air. Which means there might be a small opening to the outside. It’s dark out there right now, so we can’t see anything. Tomorrow morning when the sun comes up, we could see where the air comes from.”