What had once been Borthwick showered to the earth in a fall of white ash.
The grass stilled with a whisper of shifting blades.Silence settled over the enclosure.
The soldiers had dived for cover.Dawson lay flat on the ground, his hands over his head.
Neil held Constance, pressing her to the relative shelter of the temple wall.
The shocked, frozen tableau was broken by the sound of a bow hitting the ground as Jacobs unceremoniously tossed the artifact aside—and began to walk away.
?
Thirty-Nine
Dizzy with shockand horror from within the circle of Adam’s arms, Ellie watched Jacobs walk away.
Singh Rao was the first to recover.The subedar whipped his sidearm from its holster as he rose to his feet.“Halt!”
His men followed his lead, scrambling upright and leveling their rifles.
Jacobs paused, glancing back at them over his shoulder.
The terrible wound showed through the tear in his shirt.He showed no fear as he stared at the weapons ranged against him—only a cold, unflinching contempt.“I could have killed all of you.I won’t say I didn’t consider it.”
He turned away and kept walking.
Singh Rao’s expression flickered with uncertainty—and then firmed.He stepped forward, the pistol steady.“You will need to come with me.”
Jacobs didn’t stop.
The subedar’s lips thinned with frustration, his finger tightening on the trigger.
Wild instinct pushed Ellie free of Adam’s arms.Her wounded calf made a hot protest as she stumbled toward them.
A plea burst from her mouth.“Don’t shoot!”
Jacobs hesitated at the foot of the stairs—where Singh Rao clearly intended to stop him, whatever that required.
The Sikh officer kept his eyes on Jacobs as he responded to her.“Why?”
The question echoed through Ellie’s mind.Why indeed?
Jacobs was a ruthless, vicious killer.He had tried to throttle her only a few hours before.She knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was leaving now to go hunt down and slaughter a peer of the realm—one that Ellie felt uncomfortably certain was also a murderer.
Jacobs was dangerous.He would always be dangerous… and he had more or less promised to kill both her and Adam the next chance he got.
The idea of seeing him shot down like a rabid dog still filled her with horror.
Singh Rao waited for her answer with an air of exasperated impatience.The subedar simply wanted to do his job—which obviously included not allowing the man who had just obliterated his commanding officer to walk away.
Adam stared at Ellie with worried surprise.Constance’s eyes were wide as she stepped out from the shelter of the temple, Neil at her back.
Ellie had no idea what to say—except that no one deserved to be gunned down like that, not even a killer.
And that she was oddly, uncomfortably certain that her and Adam’s story with Jacobs didn’t end here.
Singh Rao wouldn’t accept either of those explanations.
This could not go well for Ellie and her companions, either.They had been caught red-handed trying to interfere with an official government expedition.That very likely qualified as treason.At the least, a man like Singh Rao would feel obligated to put all four of them under arrest and return them to the colonial authorities in Madras.
