Page 247 of Empire of Shadows

“How many more things like that do you think are lying around out there?” Adam asked.

“Speaking in terms of pure logic, if we have already encountered two of them, I think we must assume there are a fair quantity of others,” Ellie rambled, and then caught herself. “Though of course, there is nothing logical about any of this.”

“I’ve never been that crazy about logic anyway,” Adam replied. “I’m more of a winging it kind of guy.”

“Dawson… Jacobs…” Ellie burst out. “They couldn’t possibly be trusted with anything like the power inside that cave. Nor could anyone who would hire them.”

“Can’t say I disagree,” Adam replied grimly.

“But they’ll keep looking for more of them,” Ellie filled in. “Won’t they?”

“Seems more than likely,” Adam agreed. “I mean heck—I’m pretty sure I saw their list.”

Ellie stiffened.

“You saw alist?” she echoed urgently.

“It was just some stuff Dawson had scribbled in the back of his notebook,” Adam hedged. “I dunno if it was in any order of priority, but the last bit mentioned a dig at Saqqara.”

“Egypt,” Ellie clarified automatically, and her attention abruptly sharpened as a rising alarm rang through the back of her mind.

“Yeah, Egypt,” Adam drawled in reply. “I’m not that bad at geography. I do draw maps for a living.”

“Butwhereat Saqqara?” she pressed urgently.

Adam seemed to pick up on her change in tone. His expression grew more serious.

“Unas South Cemetery,” he replied carefully.

“Unas South Cemetery,” Ellie repeated. Her head started to feel tight. “Where Neil is digging?”

“Is… ah… that where he is?” Adam returned tentatively.

“What were they hoping to find there?” Ellie demanded.

Adam took a moment to answer. When he did, his words had an uncharacteristic weight.

“They mentioned something about the Staff of Moses.”

“The Staff of Moses,” Ellie echoed queasily. “The one that parted the Red Sea. That unleashed the ten plagues on the Egyptians. Turned water to blood. Brought down a thunderstorm of hail and fire, and then killed the firstborn sons of an entire nation.”

“Yeah,” Adam answered quietly. “Pretty sure that’s the one.”

“But they can’t possibly…” Ellie spluttered as panic rose in her throat. “For someone like Dawson or Jacobs to possess… For even afragmentof that kind of power to fall into the wrong hands…”

She shook her head and fought for some sense of logic.

“If Neil is tangled up in it, he can’t possibly understand the real implications,” she insisted. “He hasn’t the imagination for that. And even if he figures it out, he’s not remotely equipped to handle this sort of thing. This is Neil we’re talking about. He gets lost in libraries!”

The rest of the truth settled neatly into place. It was as undeniable as it was terribly intimidating. Ellie’s heart pounded with it as she raised her head to meet Adam’s gaze.

The words fell numbly from her lips.

“We have to stop them,” she said.

Adam’s expression shifted in a way that made the air around Ellie begin to feel just a little warmer.

“Interesting ‘we’ you’ve got there,” he noted.

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