The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (31 page)

He knew he was absolutely useless
if he didn't focus, so he hunkered down over the coffin and went to work.  With
the exception of his wife and her missing team, it was sizing up to be a
somewhat normal, stable day, something which Marcus desperately needed.  The
more he and Lynn worked, the more he relaxed.  But he was acutely aware of the
time, the minutes ticking down until his wife's expected call.   He would go
back to the administrative tent in a few minutes and wait; the call wouldn't
reach his cellular phone down in the depths of the tomb and he would be damned
if he was going to miss it.

 A portion of the wooden
gold-encrusted coffin seemed weak with age and general degeneration, and Marcus
and Lynn were discussing the stress points when Dennis came into the chamber.
Dennis was fair-skinned and red in the face from the heat and sun. He wiped his
forehead with a red bandana he kept tied around his neck like a farmer.

  "Marcus," he said
quietly.

Marcus looked up." What's
up?"

Dennis jerked his head in the
direction of the outside world. "That agent is here."

Marcus stood up. "Where is
he?"

"With Tony. They're at the
mouth of the tomb."

So the Marines had him. Marcus
looked at Lynn, whose expression suggested that he was ready to rumble. He
cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Be cool."

"I am."

"I'm serious, Lynn. I don't
want any trouble."

Lynn pursed his lips and turned
back to the coffin. Marcus gave Dennis a look that intimated he stay with Lynn.
Marcus was in no hurry as he strolled back through the cool, musty chambers and
up the steep staircase.  Moving his big bulk through the shaft, he could see
Tony standing with a man near the entrance. As he walked up, he studied the man
closely; in two hundred dollar jeans and an equally expensive cotton shirt, the
agent looked like he had just walked off the pages of Gentleman's Quarterly
Magazine. He was the kind of guy women went crazy for, a dark haired, tight bodied
male specimen. Marcus had been hoping for a homely, dorky guy, not Mr.
Magnificent. Lynn wasn't going to take this well at all.

As Marcus exited the shaft, Tony
cast the site director a long glance. Being a friend of the archaeologists, he
knew all about Juliana and Lynn and who this agent was.  He didn't like the
FBI, either.

"Dr. Burton," Tony
said. "This is Special Agent Jace Deverona, Federal Bureau of
Investigation."

Marcus gave him one of his best
indifferent expressions. It was well known that Marcus Burton wasn't the
friendliest guy on the surface. But he went far enough, out of courtesy, to
remove the glove on his right hand and shake Deverona's outstretched fingers.
He squeezed a bit too tightly, watching the agent's expression ripple with surprise,
and perhaps pain. But the handshake was enough; he overlooked any verbal
salutation.

"I'm sorry, but my wife
isn't here at the moment," he said. "She and her team have gone into
Iraq on business. They'll be back in a couple of days."

Jace Deverona observed the
massive, hard-faced man. Considering he was a trained psychotherapist, he used
all of his best guidelines and knowledge to try to decipher his initial
impression of Burton. He couldn't come up with anything right off the bat, just
a strong degree of antagonism.

"That's fine," he said
pleasantly. "Since you were there, too, maybe you can help me with the
initial groundwork before Kathlyn gets back. I don't know if she told you, but
your wife and I are old friends."

Marcus nodded. "She told
me."

That was it. No warmth, no 'join
the gang' attitude. Deverona found himself fighting off a smile; this was going
to be more of a challenge than he thought. He liked challenges.

"I'm Juliana Maurer's
husband," he offered further. "Not much of a marriage, unfortunately,
but we've been married almost nine years. Did Juliana go with her to
Iraq?"

"She did."

Jace really wanted to laugh now.
Burton was a bear and he really couldn't figure out why, but it was funny.

 "Some things never
change," he said. "They've always followed one another around, like
sheep.  Years ago, long before you met her, your wife went through a pretty
rough break up. Juliana and I had just gotten married and I'd come home every
night after work to find Kathlyn camped out on my couch. After a while I think
she kind of moved in with us, which isn't exactly good for a new marriage. I
remember bringing it up to Juliana and she got so pissed at me that she kicked
me out. Then Kathlyn changed the locks. I couldn't even get into my own
house."

While Deverona laughed at the
memory, Marcus just looked at him. "Kathlyn is a real pistol, but I guess
you've already figured that out," Jace sobered.  "Sweet girl, but a
little hard to handle. Juliana is more my speed. More obedient, if you know
what I mean. At any rate, do you mind if we get started on this?"

The corner of Marcus' mouth
twitched. Tony, watching Marcus' expression, knew it wasn't a good thing. If
Deverona was trying to break the ice by showing how familiar he was with
Kathlyn and Juliana, he had created a glacier instead. Tony was wondering
seriously if he should remove the agent from Burton's presence when Marcus
suddenly turned back into the shaft.

"I've got work to do,"
he said to Deverona. "If you want to talk to me, you'd better keep
up."

Tony watched them file into the
shaft. Lynn and Dennis were down there, more than likely waiting like lions
ready to strike. Tony had visions of the three of them cornering the agent and
making him a piece of wall art. Tony considered following, but thought better
of it. He'd let Deverona sink or swim on his own.

Marcus walked quickly. Jace,
unfamiliar with the tomb, tripped the last few steps of the steep staircase and
ended up on his knees. That brought Marcus sadistic pleasure but there was no
outward reaction. Deverona could see what he was up against and he was willing
to deal with it accordingly. He truly had no idea why he was receiving such
treatment. Maybe there was some sort of underlying jealousy, or maybe Burton
was just an antisocial personality. Whatever the case, Deverona braced himself.

Chambers D and E were magnificent
and Jace found himself gawking at the opulence surrounding him. Conservators
and workers were everywhere. But it smelled like a tomb, all dusty and old. He
sneezed a couple of times and mussed up his longer-cut, carefully tossled
bangs.  He watched Burton walking in front of him; the man had the bulk of a
professional body builder but walked like a stalking panther.  And he had the
personality of a rabid dog. Jace followed him from the magnificent chambers
into a small chamber, unadorned and stenchy. A good looking blond man was
working in one corner, looking up curiously as he passed through. But Burton
made no attempt to introduce them. Passing into another chamber, it was suddenly
beautiful again with muted colors and things of gold.  He sniffed the air and
sneezed again.

"What's that smell?" he
asked.

Marcus walked over to the
sarcophagus. "Ancient incense," he said. "Myrrh and
Sandalwood."

"This place is really
magnificent."

"Uh-huh."

Lynn was squatting next to the
coffin's head. His clear brown eyes focused on the agent standing in the
doorway.  If Jace noticed anything odd in the expression of the man staring at
him, he didn't say so. He was too busy figuring out why Burton was being such
an ass. Jace walked up to the coffin where Burton had obviously gone back to
work.

"I'm Special Agent Deverona
with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," he said, introducing himself to
the others in the room because Burton had no intention of doing so. The
behavior, which he had initially found humorous, was now becoming irritating.
Reaching into the bag he had with him, he removed a small voice-activated tape
recorder. "Dr. Burton, if you don't mind, I'd like to proceed. Since my
primary investigation will be to profile Dr. Fayd Fahdlan and his accomplice de
Tormo, I'll be focusing more on their actions and not the situation as a
whole."

Marcus looked at him. "You
can ask whatever you want, but I didn't know Fahdlan or his fat friend very well.
Kathlyn knows him better; he asked her to marry him once, but maybe you already
know that since you obviously know so much about my wife and her best friend.
You'd probably do better to wait for her. I'll just be wasting your time."

Jace's brown eyes glimmered.
"I don't think you'll be wasting my time at all. Sometimes I get a much
better feel from outside observers than from those who actually know the
person.  In fact, I can direct my questions to all of you if everyone in the
room was also involved."

Lynn didn't say anything. He kept
his head down, working on what they thought was a crack in the structure of the
coffin. He had promised no trouble and the best way to accomplish that was to
keep his mouth shut. Dennis, as unfriendly as the others and probably more so,
looked at Deverona as if the man was a snake. The enmity was just too much to
laugh at any more and Jace put the tape recorder down.

"Gentlemen," he said
quietly. "I'm not sure what's going on here or why I have received an
instantly hostile welcome, but if there's a problem, I'd sure like to know what
it is. I've got a job to do and it would make it a whole lot easier if I had
some cooperation. The President of the United States is pulling the strings on
this one and I'd really like to be able to tell him something positive."

Marcus suddenly stood up, his
cobalt blue eyes blazing. The first thing he did was thump Deverona in the
chest and send the man stumbling backwards. "Is that what this is? Leeves
sent you here to report back to him about Kathlyn personally? If that's the
case, I'll throw you out on your goddamn ass."

Jace's cool demeanor fractured.
Though he was a trained agent and held a Ph.D. in Psychology, he was still
rightly intimated by Burton. "Of course he didn't send me here like some
damn spy," he said. "He sent me here to help solve a case in which
you personally asked for his help."

Marcus kept advancing while
Deverona stood fast. "I know she and Leeves had a relationship,"
Marcus bumped up against him, glaring down at him. "I also know he asked
her to marry him. And I further know that the two of them and you and Juliana
used to double date. So what's the story, Deverona? Is Leeves still interested
in my wife and that's really why he sent you here, to check up on her?"

Jace shook his head and put up
his hands. "Okay, I get it now.  No, Leeves did not send me to spy on your
wife and report back to him, or otherwise try to interfere in her personal
life. He sent me to find out what she could tell us about her abductors and nothing
more. As far as I know, he doesn't have any personal interest in this other
than helping out an old friend and seeking justice for a terrible
transgression."

Marcus stopped his advance. In a
sense, he was testing Deverona and the man had stood up to him truthfully. That
was a good thing. But there was still the matter of Lynn and Juliana, the
bigger powder keg.  As Marcus turned back to his work, Lynn stood up and
removed his gloves. Since Marcus had a go-around with the agent, he too decided
to make himself clear so there would be no question in Deverona's mind as to
what he had walked into. His promise for no trouble was conveniently forgotten,
and Marcus didn't seem to care.

Lynn was a big man, shorter than
Marcus but with the same bulky build which made him look wider. He had been a
half back in college, earning himself the nickname of "Bulldozer". He
faced off against the husband of the woman he was in love with.

"Deverona," he rolled
the name of his tongue with contempt. "What's up with you, man?"

Jace felt like he was in a room
full of jackals. "Like I said, I'm here to do a job. And you are...?"

Lynn smiled, humorlessly.
"Dr. Lynn Davis. So you're Juliana's husband?"

"That's right," Jace
said.

 Lynn studied him carefully, his
expression bordering on menacing. "Why didn't you ever get a
divorce?"

Jace cocked his head, thinking on
his answer. With only a few sentences spoken, he could pretty much see where
this was leading and he wasn't surprised. Juliana was, in fact, a beautiful
woman and men found her very desirable. "I'm not sure if that's any of
your business, Dr. Davis.  That's between my wife and I."

It was the wrong thing to say.
Lynn moved forward, knocked into Deverona, and backed him against the wall.
Marcus, instead of intervening, stood beside Lynn with equal force. Deverona,
though he should have been intimidated, merely rolled his eyes.

"Jesus Christ," he
hissed. "You two are a couple of bullies. What in the hell did I ever do
to either of you to deserve this kind of treatment?"

He had a point. But like a good
pair of bullies, they didn't take their eyes off him.

 "Answer my damn
question," Lynn demanded.

"Why?" Jace shot back.
"Are you going to beat me up if I don't? Want my lunch money, too? Want me
to write a paper for you so you can pass English? Give me a goddamn
break."