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ONE
CHARLIE
Charlie stiffened outside of Ajmal’s tent when she heard him. “You still owe me for the coverup, Barton.”
Sir Barton, from the Ministry of Defense?Charlie’s knees wanted to fold in, but she held firm and snuck around the side of the large, black tent. She hid behind a stack of crates so no one from the expedition team would announce her presence to the man.What does he mean bycoverup?Charlie peeked one sapphire eye through a small gap where the canvas walls met.
Ajmal paced his tent, his dark skin contrasted by his white suit. How he kept the thing so clean at a dig site was a mystery, but this conversation was clearly a deeper one.
“You’ll not see a single payment till I receive what I’m owed.” Sir Barton’s recognizable baritone rolled out from Ajmal’s cell phone. “You sold those artifacts on an expedition I’ve funded and cleared through parliament. I will receive what is mine. Your task of cleaning up those horrid pits is a separate issue.”
Shit! They’re covering the pits?Charlie and the team of anthropologists had been digging in Thiorheil for months. After an underground pyramid was found, mostly intact since grave robbers had never found it, the country had become an archaeological gold mine. The Ministry was quick to put a leash on things, though, placing men like Ajmal in charge of people like Charlie.
Ajmal decided where to send all their findings. Be it jewels, golden vases, silk tapestries, or masterly crafted weapons, he was the one to say which pieces went where, when to leave one site in favor of another, and who was allowed to dig and who wasn’t.
The things that Charlie and her team found over and over again were “killing pits” or “starving pits,” as some called them. Created in the last two hundred years at most, these barbaric pits littered the country. Many of them showed signs of having barbs or shafts in them that would kill the Thiorheilian enemies, and if they didn’t, the pits were far too deep to climb out of without some sort of aid, and those who survived starved.
“You owe me payment,” Sir Barton continued. “Once I receive your wire transfer for thefullamount, I will send you what is owed.”
“I was owed first.” Ajmal threw his ledger to the ground. “You might be a minister, Barton, but all that means is that you’re a paper pusher. If you want this business deal to continue, you will push my paper to me first.”
Sir Barton scoffed. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, boy.”
The phone beeped as the call ended, and Ajmal roared in frustration before throwing the phone against the tent wall.
It smacked Charlie in the face, punching the canvas out against her cheek. “Oww!”
She muffled her cry, but Ajmal’s eyes grew wide with fear and viciousness. “Who’s there?”
Charlie scurried to her feet and ran, not waiting for Ajmal to catch her outside. She dashed to her tent, logged onto her computer, and typed what she’d heard verbatim. Outside, shouting rose as Ajmal’s guards laid into Charlie’s team.
“Check her tent,” a man called out.
She clicked save for the document to be put in the cloud, but given their remote location, it wouldn’t happen instantly. She grabbed her phone and texted her father,911, just as the blue flap of her tent flew open and Dariom, the head of security, stepped in, followed by another man, then another.
“Dr. Jackson.” Dariom’s dark eyes homed in on her bruised cheek. “Where did you get that?”
Good. This is good. Just need to keep him talking till the file saves.“I fell.”
“Come with us.” Dariom jerked his head to the door, his muscled neck bulging. “Flatline the computer.”
One of the thugs lumbered up to the desk, probably expecting Charlie to move, and when she put her hand out, he stopped, turning back to Dariom.
“There’s critical information on this computer about our digs. You can’t just destroy it.”
“I said, turn it off,” Dariom commanded.
He stomped up to Charlie, but she used her self-defense training.Lesson one: Attack first.Her knee rose and slammed into Dariom’s pelvic bone, crushing his scrotum in the process.
The big man roared in pain before falling backward, dry heaving, and coughing.
The thug closest to her grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him.
Lesson two: Don’t stop attacking.She turned, being pulled into forward momentum, and slammed her knee into his balls, as well.
As the second man’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and he thumped to the floor, the third man grabbed her from behind, a massive hand gripping each bicep.
She stomped on his foot, but it did nothing to his thick combat boots. She threw her head back but only hit the man’s shoulder as he dodged, getting hit in the chin.
