The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (7 page)

 Marcus started the car and headed
to the airport.

***

Valley of the Kings, Egypt

"Then sign the letter Dr.
Juliana Maurer."

"It would sound better
coming from Kathlyn."

"They know I'm her second-in-command.
Hopefully, that will carry some weight."

A woman with bright red hair sat
behind a laptop computer, supported on a beat-up folding table. Behind her
stood a lean, tanned blond with lovely features and olive green eyes. She
leaned forward, squinting through her glasses at the computer screen as the
redhead typed.

"Don't put assistant to
Kathlyn Trent," the woman snapped softly. "I'm not her
assistant."

"Fine, then," the woman
at the keyboard was close to grinning. For as many years as she had known
Juliana Maurer, she had always loved to tease her.  "How about 'Henchman
to Kathlyn Trent'?"

"Get serious."

"Trained Monkey?"

Juliana shoved her half-out of
the chair. "Get out of my way, woman. I'm going to do this myself."

Debra Jo Shulte laughed softly.
"How about if I put 'Associate to Dr. Kathlyn Trent'? That sounds better."

"All right," Juliana
was mollified.

She straightened up, fanning
herself in the heated air. Although November was the beginning of the Egyptian
winter, it was still blazingly hot. The heavy canvas tent that they called home
to their computers and fax machines did little to ease the temperatures. Grit
covered everything.

It was the fifth season for the
most popular dig in the world. The site director was Dr. Marcus Burton of the
University of California Paso Robles in association with Dr. Kathlyn Trent of
Southern California University.  The dig was supported in part by World
Geography Magazine and The World of Exploration Channel. Once you had all of
these affiliations identified in their correct order, the underlying factor was
that they had all worked very hard to make the discovery of the pharaoh Ay's
tomb a reality. Hundreds of thousands in dollars and man hours had been poured
into the seven chamber tomb carved into the side of a hill in the east Valley
of the Kings, officially known as KV 65.

The letter Juliana was sending
had something to do with that. Donations were arriving all of the time from
private benefactors. The universities and World Geography had been very
explicit about not accepting any direct donations and it had fallen to Juliana
over the past couple of weeks to deal with that. Debra Jo, the administrator
for Kathlyn's team and also for the site, had actually written the letter of
refusal to an Arabian prince, whose substantial donation had come along with a
dinner invitation for Dr. Trent.

Dr. Maurer wanted to get the
letter and money returned straight away before Dr. Burton returned, saw the
letter, and returned it personally with a couple of body shots to boot.  No one
so much as passed Dr. Trent a glance without Burton being all over them.  He
was very protective of what belonged to him.

An African American man entered
the tent, his pale cocoa skin glistening with perspiration. He was dressed in a
tank top, heavy jeans, and leather gloves on his big hands. The red bandana
wrapped around his shaved head flapped the breeze as he headed for the
refrigerator and pulled out a gallon bottle of sports drink. He downed half of
it as Juliana signed the letter and handed it back to Debra Jo.

"Well?" Juliana turned
to him. "How goes it down in the salt mines?"

Dr. Lynn Davis smacked his lips.
"Well enough," he said. "Heard from Marcus yet?"

Juliana nodded. "He called
from the airport. He and Kathlyn left New York about six hours ago. We should
see them by tonight."

"How did everything
go?"

"He didn't say."

Lynn wriggled his eyebrows and
put the drink back in the refrigerator. Closing the door, he lowered his
muscular body onto the nearest chair and kicked out his thick legs.

"It will be interesting to
see what kind of response they get," he said, folding his hands behind his
head. "It must really be a killer for Marcus to have to do this."

"Do what?" Juliana
asked.

Lynn looked at her with eyes the
color of melted chocolate. "Present this kind of stuff for
sponsorship," he said. "Look, I don't mean it the way it sounds, but
face it; Kathlyn Trent is used to asking for sponsorship based on stories of
grails and arks and stuff like that. Marcus Burton is a purely-facts man. It
must have been a demeaning experience."

Lynn had worked with Marcus for
ten years. He couldn't have been more loyal, but he also very much admired
Kathlyn for her work and convictions. It was an odd combination; Burton was
rigidly logical and Trent was a dreamer. Juliana, on the other hand, was as
loyal to Kathlyn as Lynn was to Marcus. She tried not to take offense at his
statement.

"It was probably an
eye-opening experience for him," she said. "Things aren't always so
cut and dry in this world, Lynn.  Kathlyn's a master at this stuff. If Marcus
was smart, he paid attention and learned something."

Lynn smiled at her; he was a
handsome man and it was no secret that he thought Dr. Maurer was something
special. She kind of liked him, too. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Demean was the wrong word. I probably should have said humbling
experience."

Juliana returned his smile.
"You're forgiven."

A warm body blew into the tent, a
Hispanic man emitting a stream of expletives. Right behind the first came a
second body, like a raging bull. Juliana stood out of the way before she was
run over.

 A man with curly blond hair
secured in a ponytail faced her. He was short, built like a truck, and wore a
perpetual expression of annoyance. As the third member of Marcus' very capable
three-man team, Dr. Dennis Reams always gave the impression that he was angry
about something. Today was no exception.

"Do you know some guy named Fahdlan?"
he demanded.

Juliana blinked, in both surprise
and recognition. "Sure," she glanced over Dr. Ream's shoulder at a
heavy-set Hispanic man. Dr. Mark La Coste was digging voraciously in the
refrigerator for something to drink. "Why? What's got you guys so fired up?"

Mark grabbed a grape drink and
slammed the door. Usually cool, congenial Mark, a senior member of Kathlyn's
team, was verging on a temper tantrum. "He's here," he ripped the top
off and took a huge swallow. "I left Andy, Larry and Otis with him. He's
over in the mess tent."

Andy Sutton and Larry Dyche were
doctoral students assigned to Kathlyn's group. They did most of her
videographic work with the zeal of a music video director. It was young, artsy
and hip and tended to make the viewer motion sick. Otis Dison was the team
architect, older, wiser, and calmer than most of them. He was the perfect
babysitter. Juliana's eyes widened at Mark's statement.

"He's here?" she
hissed. "What's he doing here?"

Mark shook his head. "Big
trouble, sounds like. When is Kathlyn getting back?"

Lynn stood up, waving his big
arms. "Wait a minute; who is Fahdlan?"

Juliana was in the process of
making all sorts of disturbing noises, apparently unable to answer at the
moment. Debra Jo stood up from her folding chair. "You've never heard of
Dr. Fayd al-Rashad Fahdlan from The Center for Middle Eastern History in Amman,
Jordan?"

Lynn thought a moment, a twinkle
of recognition in his eye. "Yeah, I've heard of him and of CeMEH," he
said, using the acronym for the Center pronounced 'see-mah'. "Doesn't he
do Biblical stuff, too?"

"He's a Biblical
Archaeologist like Kathlyn," Debra Jo confirmed. "He's done a lot of
work in and around Jerusalem. He was working on the Temple Mount when Kathlyn
worked on the Calvary Escarpment last year and he was fairly pissed off that he
didn't get the jump on her for the Escarpment."

"So what's he doing
here?" Lynn demanded.

 Mark was flushed around the
ears. "Seems someone tipped him off about Kathlyn's angel," he said.
"He's already got funding and permits. He’s come to find out if Kathlyn
wants to go along with him."

"What?" Juliana nearly
fell over. "How in the... who in the hell told him?"

"Who knows? All I know is
that someone did. And he jumped on it, snatching it right out from under
her."

"But how could he get all of
that support so fast?"

Mark gave her a hard look.
"His mother is Iraqi and his grandfather works for the Ministry of Defense.
Need I say more?"

Juliana was beside herself.
"Did he tell you this?"

"Of course he did, right
now, in his own arrogant style. He couldn't wait to gloat about this."

Juliana could only shake her
head. "He's getting back at her for the Calvary Escarpment." She
could only imagine how Kathlyn was going to react to this. "Christ, I
thought the man was Jordanian. No one has ever said a word about his Iraqi
connections, though we knew he had some pretty good ones. What seems to take us
months to accomplish by way of permits and stuff only takes him days. Hell,
when he was working on the Mount, it was with the full cooperation of W.A.D.F.."

"What's W.A.D.F.?" Lynn
jumped in.

"It's the Muslim religious
foundation that controls the Temple Mount. No one can do anything on The Mount
without their permission." Mark looked at Juliana. "Last I heard, he
was still on the Temple Mount excavating the cisterns. But you know why he's
here to see Kathlyn."

Lynn had no idea what he was
talking about, although Mark and Juliana were apparently on the same wave
length. "To get back at her for the Escarpment?" Lynn said
hesitantly.

"Partially. But not
all."

"Then why?"

Juliana sighed heavily. She
wasn't sure she should say anything, but if a battle was brewing, the man had a
right to know why.  "Because he's always had a thing for Kathlyn. He tried
to talk her into marrying him once over shots of Bacardi one-fifty-one."

Lynn looked at her, long and
hard. He glanced at Dennis, whose face was turning red, and not from the heat.
"Does he know she's married?" Lynn asked.

"Of course he does. They're
in the same field; they keep tabs on each other, professionally in Kathlyn's
case. Non-professionally in Fayd's."

"She never went for him?
They never had a thing?"

"Never, but it wasn't for
lack of trying on his part. She just wasn't interested."

Dennis had about all he could
take. He turned for the tent flap. "I'm going to throw that guy out on his
ass."

"No, don't," Juliana
stopped him.  "He'd only come back, and since this has everything to do
with Kathlyn's angel, you should probably let her and Marcus handle it."

Lynn stood with his hands on his
hips, chewing his lip. "You know how Marcus is. He's going to rip this guy
a new one, for a multitude of reasons."

"Quě sara sara."

"So what do we do?"

"Wait until Marcus gets
here, I guess. He'll know how to handle him. God help the man."

"Marcus or Fayd?"

Juliana wouldn't answer. She
wasn't sure who she meant, either. Mark didn't want to go back to Fayd, nor did
Lynn or Dennis. This left Juliana and Debra to do the honors. It wasn't so much
that they didn't like the guy; Fayd al-Rashad Fahdlan was an extremely
handsome, charming man with flowing dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard.  He
was also very smart and, like Kathlyn, one of the very best in his field. It
was more the fact that they viewed him as a threat; he was sly, cunning and
egotistical.  Frankly, the men didn't like him because he was competition.

Kathlyn had gone head to head
with him on more than one occasion. Now, Fayd was going to have to come up
against the insurmountable opponent of Marcus Burton, a war he clearly couldn't
win. Juliana needed to find out more about his purpose and she couldn't seem to
shake the heady sense of foreboding. She would make sure to text Kathlyn the
moment she landed in Cairo.

 
Fayd Fahdlan on site. Brace
yourself.

CHAPTER
FOUR

A swirl of dust accompanied the
car as it came to a halt in the area designated for the motor-pool.  It was
very late, after midnight, as Kathlyn and Marcus emerged from the taxi that had
brought them from the airport in Luxor. Marcus collected the bags from the
trunk and back seat as Kathlyn paid the driver. Lynn, Dennis and Juliana
emerged from a nearby tent, having heard the motor of the car.  They had been
waiting up for them.

"Hey stranger," Juliana
called casually to Kathlyn. "Good to see you back in the land of no
bathrooms or decent showers."

Kathlyn was exhausted but managed
to grin. She and Juliana had known each other since grade school.  "Don't
remind me," she grumbled as she hugged her. "How are things?"