Blowing Adam’s cover to hell in the process.
At the sound of Borthwick’s coolly echoing words, Jacobs stepped to Ellie’s side at the lip of the well.
He took in the scene below with a glance—and smiled.
New fear layered over the tension already twisting Adam’s guts.Jacobs would like nothing more than to have Neil and Constance within his reach—giving him all the leverage he needed to force Adam and Ellie to bend to his will.
All of this was extraordinarily bad.
Borthwick was still talking.
“I’m sure we can make this all much easier if you’ll agree to cooperate, Dr.Culpepper.”
Adam frowned.Culpepper?What the hell was that about?
Neil’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment.Constance looked a little smug.
Dawson’s voice resounded irritably from Adam’s back.
“Doctorwho?”
Adam whirled like a man trying to stop a falling vase from breaking, but Dawson had already pushed past him.The professor stomped down to the edge of the pool and jabbed a self-righteous finger across the water to Neil.
“That man’s not Culpepper.That is Dr.Neil Fairfax—though he hardly deserves the title.The man’s grasp of Akkadian is absolutely wretched.”
From above, Ellie made a choked sound as she bit back a protest—probably related to the abysmal quality of Dawson’s own skills with ancient Semitic languages.
Adam felt the situation veer wildly out of his control.
In a moment, Borthwick was going to demand how Dawson knew Neil.The ginger twit would tell him—which would make it very damned obvious that Ellie and Adam hadn’t just randomly happened upon Borthwick’s expedition.
He was about to lose whatever slim chance he had of trying to talk his way out of this situation.He took a desperate step forward, flailing for a way to intervene.
His brain coughed up nothing.Dawson opened his big mouth to answer, and Adam ran out of time.
So he did what he did best and tossed the self-important ass into the water.
A subtle bump was all it took to send Dawson tumbling into the green pool with a splash that washed over the toes of Borthwick’s boots.The professor rose a moment later with an astonished splutter as the soldiers all turned to stare.
Subhas used the distraction.Darting into the cover of one of the pillars, he whipped his Enfield from his shoulder and let off a shot.
The sepoys dove for cover and returned fire.
Constance grabbed Neil by the back of his waistcoat, hauling him into the shadow of a monkey-faced god.She whipped a dagger from her torn-out pocket and threw it at the first soldier who charged toward her.
The man ducked back, raising his rifle with new caution.
Adam read the odds.They weren’t good.He readied himself to wade in, hoping a machete and lousy instinct for self-preservation might be enough to swing the balance.
Then he realized Dawson was drowning.
The professor’s head had sunk below the surface of the pool, his hands flailing uselessly at the surface—because the damned fool couldn’t swim.
“Hell,” Adam bit out as guilt wrenched through him—and he dove into the water.
He snagged a handful of Dawson’s coat as the professor continued to sink.Dawson grabbed at him wildly, wrapping a desperate arm around Adam’s face.
Adam sank too, murky water blinding him.
