King Solomon's Curse

6

‘You want to do bloody what?’ Eddie barked.

He was in Larry and Julie’s luxurious home outside Southampton, Macy reading a book with her grandparents while he took the phone call. ‘What’s Mommy doing?’ she asked, worried. ‘Is she okay?’

‘Yeah, love, she’s fine,’ he assured her. ‘At least, until I get hold of her!’

‘I heard that,’ said Nina.

‘You were meant to!’ He went into the adjoining room to continue what he knew would be a heated discussion in privacy. ‘Okay, say that again, so I can be sure I didn’t just have a massive brain fart. You want to go to…’

‘The Democratic Republic of Congo.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. You haven’t got a talking gorilla or Tim Curry, so why the’ — he lowered his voice — ‘fuck do you want to go there?’

‘The map room I found in the First Temple? I figured out where it leads. There’s a lost city, somewhere in the jungle in the eastern Congo. King Solomon visited it three thousand years ago and built a palace to protect a biblical relic. It might still be there.’

‘And it might not! Three thousand years is a long time.’

‘The Atlantean temple we found in Brazil had been there even longer, and it was still intact.’

‘And it’d been looked after by a tribe who tried to kill us, remember?’

‘I can hardly forget,’ she said. ‘But someone leaked photos of the map room online — with enough detail for anyone else to find the city the same way I did. If looters get there first, they’ll destroy the site.’

‘So? Tell the IHA where it is. I know you think Blumberg’s a cock, but he’s on the same side as you.’

‘Lester’s too by-the-book. He’d tell the Congolese government everything up front — and I’m not sure I’d trust them to protect the site. There’s a high level of corruption — and right now, there’s a lot of conflict with a secessionist movement in the east.’

‘Uh-huh,’ said Eddie, unimpressed. ‘And whereabouts in the country is this place again?’

Her voice became almost apologetic. ‘The… east?’

‘Right. So you want to search for a lost city full of treasure during a civil war in a country that’s famous for violence and corruption?’

‘Well, when you put it like that, of course it makes me sound crazy,’ she said sarcastically. ‘But we won’t be near the conflict zone, because we’re going into the jungle.’

A humourless laugh. ‘Where do you think rebels go and bloody hide? They’re not working out of their bedrooms.’

‘Eddie, I already checked all this,’ she protested. ‘Most of the secessionist violence is in the population centres along the eastern border. We’re going much farther west, into an uninhabited part of the country.’

‘Oh, “we” are, are we?’

‘Not we-us, obviously. You’ll stay with Macy, because I sure as hell don’t want her coming to the Congo! But the network has already agreed to fund the expedition. The documentary crew is coming with me.’

‘Great, so a bunch of rich Americans with expensive camera gear want to trek through one of the world’s poorest countries, that’s full of men with guns?’

Nina made an irritated sound. ‘We’re not all Americans, and that’s not the point anyway! I certainly wasn’t intending to go out there without help. That’s actually something you can help with.’

‘Me?’

‘I can’t think of a better person to arrange international security. You’ve got friends and contacts everywhere, and you’ve worked in the business — from behind a desk and on the front line. You must know people who can protect us.’

‘Well, yeah,’ he told her. ‘There are people in Congo and the countries near it who I’d trust. Question is, whether any of ’em’d be available. Especially on short notice.’ He thought for a moment. ‘How short notice?’

‘I want to start as soon as possible.’

‘Why am I not bloody surprised? And for how long?’

‘Eight days in the DRC. Two days to reach the site from the nearest airport, two days back, and four to explore.’

‘Uh-huh. And what about the time it’ll take you to get to and from that airport? Airlines don’t do direct international flights to piddly-shit little airstrips. What you’re actually saying is that you want me to look after Macy on my own for another two weeks on top of the time you’ve already been away!’

‘I thought you loved looking after her?’

‘I do! But it’s her I’m thinking about, not me. She hasn’t seen her mum for three weeks, and now you want to extend that by another fortnight?’

‘I know it’s a long time, and I know it’s not what we planned,’ said Nina. ‘But this is a big deal for me.’

‘Why?’ he demanded. ‘I mean, you’ve just found the original Jewish temple — and you found that because you also found the bloody Ark of the Covenant! And you found Atlantis, and the Garden of Eden, and all the other stuff you got books and movies and TV shows out of. And you did all of that before you turned forty! So why’s it so important that you find this city, right now?’

A long pause, enough that he wondered if they had lost the connection, then Nina spoke again. She sounded almost sad. ‘It’s because I did all that stuff before I turned forty, Eddie.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean… I know when you turned forty, you didn’t treat it as a big deal. But for me…’ Another lengthy silence. ‘Maybe this’ll sound silly and petty. But I found Atlantis when I was twenty-eight. In academic terms, that’s still practically just a kid. I hadn’t even had my PhD for long. But then there was this mad rush, all these incredible discoveries, fame of a sort, running the IHA… and then it stopped.’

‘But you did plenty even after you left the IHA,’ he said, puzzled. ‘You found the Ark of the Covenant, and then after that you found the Midas Cave. And while you were at it you saved a load of world leaders from being gassed and stopped North Korea from shipping out a plane full of nukes. That’s not bad going.’

‘I found the Ark five years ago, Eddie. The Midas Cave was two years ago. What have I done since then?’

‘You made a TV series? Two, actually. And you wrote your books about everything you’ve done—’

‘Exactly!’ she cut in unhappily. ‘That’s all I’ve done — I’ve gone back over things I already did when I was younger, regurgitated my own work for a new audience. I haven’t done anything new. And that’s been making me think lately: what if I’ve already done everything I’m ever going to achieve? I’m not a wunderkind any more. I’m forty, and I’ve accomplished so much already that I’d wondered if there isn’t anything left for me to find. But this city, Solomon’s palace… that’s something. And this time, it’ll be documented on camera. Nobody’ll be able to doubt it.’

He was puzzled. ‘Nobody does doubt you.’

‘Are you kidding? Do you know how many emails I get accusing me of being a fraud, an agent of the New World Order, the frickin’ Antichrist? I got some abuse right to my face here in Jerusalem from some fundamentalist types who think that because I wasn’t struck dead on the spot when I opened the Ark, I must have fabricated the whole thing.’

‘They did, eh?’ said Eddie, feeling a flash of anger that someone had threatened his wife and he hadn’t been there to force an apology. ‘They really thought we’d blow Macy’s college fund on a fake Ark?’

‘People believe all kinds of things, and they get very angry when someone challenges them. But this is one discovery nobody will be able to deny. So that’s one reason I want to do this. And another is… to prove that I’ve still got it, I guess. Yeah, I’m forty, I’m a mom, I did all these things when I was younger — but I can still do them now.’

‘Who do you need to prove that to?’

‘Myself, as much as anyone,’ she admitted. ‘Consider it my mid-life crisis.’

‘Couldn’t you just buy a sports car? Although wait, that’s what men do. Women have boob jobs.’

‘I know you’d rather I had a boob job — and you can stop smiling!’ she added in faux outrage.

‘I’m not,’ said Eddie, smiling.

‘This is what I want to do, though, Eddie,’ she continued, serious again. ‘I need to do it. Not just for myself, either — I really do think a major archaeological site will be looted if I don’t get to it first.’

‘You always have to do everything yourself, don’t you?’ he said. ‘But I won’t talk you out of it, will I? I can tell.’

‘You know me.’

‘Yeah, I do. And that’s probably going to knock twenty years off my life…’

‘Don’t say things like that. You need to be around for Macy for a long time yet.’

‘And so do you! Wandering around the Congo jungle isn’t the best way to guarantee that, though.’ Now it was his turn to fall silent, as he made a decision he suspected he would come to regret. ‘Okay. You go and find your bloody lost city.’

She was delighted, but also surprised. ‘Really? Are you fine with this?’

‘No, but I’m going to do everything I can to keep you safe.’

‘I wouldn’t expect anything less.’

‘Two things I want. First, I need to know what your plan is so I can figure out who to contact in Africa. So, start at the beginning. When are you going?’

‘As soon as possible — in the next few days, if we can. I need to get permission from the Congolese government, but I can use my United Nations connections for that.’

‘All right. How many in your team?’

‘Me, a four-person film crew, and another archaeologist. An Israeli, David Ziff.’

‘And where are you going?’

‘I’ll send you the city’s GPS coordinates, but the nearest major town is a place called Butembo. It’s on the eastern side of—’

‘I know where Butembo is,’ he interrupted. ‘Worked over the border from it in Uganda and Rwanda back in the day.’

‘Anyway, that’s the nearest place with an airport. I think it should take two days to reach the city from there; a day overland to a village called Nakola, and then by boat upriver. Once we’re there, we explore, film what we find, then head back. Do you think you’ll be able to find people to help us?’

Eddie considered the matter. ‘I can probably get TD — Tamara Defendé, you remember her?’

‘Of course.’

‘She’s worked in DR Congo before, I can get her to fly you and your team in. People on the ground, though? I know some good blokes, but no idea if any of ’em are available right now. I’d have to check.’

‘If you could, that would be fantastic. Thank you.’ She hesitated. ‘What’s the second thing you wanted?’

‘The second,’ said Eddie, ‘is that you can tell our lass yourself that she won’t see you for an extra two weeks! I’m not dropping that one on her.’

‘Oh. Yeah. I should, shouldn’t I?’

‘You really, really should. Macy?’ he called. ‘Your mum wants to talk to you.’

Macy hurried in and eagerly took his phone. ‘Mommy? Hi!’

Eddie leaned in the doorway, turning away so she wouldn’t see his dark expression. It was clearly visible to his father, though. ‘Something up?’ asked Larry.

‘You could say that. Nina’s decided that not only is she going to be filming for another couple of weeks, but she’s going to the middle of the bloody African jungle.’

Larry shook his head in disapproval. ‘Why didn’t you just tell her that’s unacceptable and not let her go?’

Eddie snorted. ‘You’ve met my wife, haven’t you? Red hair, green eyes, about five-five, makes the average mule look as stubborn as an easily persuaded jellyfish?’

‘Then you haven’t tried hard enough. I wouldn’t just give in to something like that.’

‘Of course you wouldn’t, dear,’ said Julie, with exaggerated sweetness. ‘Now go and play with your toy trains.’

‘They’re scale models, not— Ah, very funny.’

Eddie smiled, but then heard a sound of dismay. He turned back to Macy. ‘Are you okay, love?’

She looked stricken. ‘Mommy said she’s not coming back!’

‘I don’t think that’s really what she said, is it?’ He gently took the phone from her. ‘Is it?’ he asked his wife.

‘Of course it’s not!’ cried Nina, almost as upset as her daughter. ‘I just said I wouldn’t be home for another two weeks.’

‘She’s five, love. To her, that’s like three thousand years!’ He hugged Macy, then switched the phone to speaker. ‘Mummy is coming back, don’t worry.’

‘I absolutely will, honey,’ Nina promised. ‘I miss you so much, and I can’t wait to see you again. I’ll be home as soon as I can.’

Eddie decided not to remind her that could be the day after tomorrow if she chose; the last thing he wanted Macy to witness was a parental argument. Instead, he said: ‘We’ll talk to Mummy again later, okay? I need to make some phone calls for her. Is that all right?’ Macy nodded, but did not look happy. ‘Nina, I’ll see who’s around in that neck of the woods. But first, I need to cheer up our little girl!’

‘I’m so sorry, Macy,’ said his wife. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you. I’ll be back with you real soon, I promise. I love you. Bye-bye.’

‘Bye, Mommy,’ Macy said, with a reluctant pout.

Eddie added his own farewells, then disconnected. ‘Okay, love. Daddy’s got to ring some people.’

It took a few hours to get answers from his contacts, and they were mostly not what he had hoped for.

‘So what did your friends say?’ Nina asked when he called her back. ‘Did you find anyone who can provide security?’

‘I did,’ he replied, ‘but literally only one. Everyone else was either already on a job, or out of contact. And I called everyone I know in central Africa. Flight’s not a problem, TD said she can take you. But as far as security goes, the only guy who’s free is a mate of mine, Fortune Bemba.’

‘He’s the only person you could get?’

‘He’s from DRC, so he knows the country, and he’s got plenty of local contacts. He said he can round up some help. The thing is, I don’t know ’em. I trust Fortune, but even though he says he’ll vouch for anyone he brings aboard, I still want to check ’em out for myself. You made our little girl a promise that you’d be back. And I want to be absolutely sure it’s going to be kept.’

Uncertainty entered her voice. ‘Wait, so you’re saying… you want to meet this Fortune’s associates in person? You want to go to the Congo yourself?’

‘There’s no “want” about it. It’s definitely not high on my holiday list! But I need to be sure that whoever else is helping out is up to the job. And I want to check out the situation on the ground, an’ all. The news doesn’t pay much attention to countries like that unless something really major happens, but just because it doesn’t make headlines doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous.’

‘You’re not suggesting that you bring Macy, are you?’

‘Course I’m bloody not! No, she can stay here, either with my dad and Julie or with Lizzie. I’ll fly into Butembo with you, meet Fortune and check out his mates, then come back. If I time the flights right I should be able to do the round trip in three days.’

‘That’s a long time to leave Macy with someone else, even if they are family.’

‘We did it before, with the Midas Cave. And then North Korea.’

‘And in hindsight I wish we hadn’t. I know she’s sometimes had a nanny at home, but one or both of us has always been there if she needed us. I don’t think you should come.’

‘Well, I don’t think you should go, but hey. Look, Nina,’ he went on, wanting to forestall the approaching argument, ‘I just want to be sure you’ll be safe. Okay? Once I know you’ve got reliable people watching out for you, I’ll come back to Macy and let you get on with it. But there’s no way I’m going to let you go out there without knowing what’s what.’

‘There isn’t, is there?’ she said, terse.

‘You’re not the only one who can be stubborn. God, I feel sorry for whoever marries Macy. She’s going to be as bloody-minded as both of us combined.’

Her tone lightened. ‘Afraid so. Have you told Macy yet?’

‘No. And I haven’t asked my dad or Lizzie if they can take her either. This should be fun.’

‘Well, I already upset Macy today, so I think it should be your turn.’

‘Gee, thanks!’ They both laughed. ‘Okay, love. I’d better go and do it, and then wipe up all the tears — probably from Dad as well as Macy!’

‘Good luck,’ she said. ‘Love you.’

‘Love you.’ He went to find his daughter.

She was playing in the living room with Julie, Larry stretched out in a recliner reading the news on his phone. ‘That’s the face of someone with bad news,’ he said as his son entered.

Eddie crouched beside Macy. ‘Hey, love. I need to tell you something very important.’

She sat up. ‘What is it?’

‘You know how Mummy—’

‘Mommy.’

‘Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you remember she’s going to be away for a bit longer?’ She nodded. ‘Well, Daddy needs to make sure that everything’s all right for her. So that means I’ll have to go away too. Just for a little while, and I’ll be back as soon as I can,’ he quickly added, seeing her sudden worry.

‘Is Mommy going to be okay?’

‘Yeah, of course she will! I’m going to talk to some of my friends in Africa who’ll—’

Concern was instantly replaced by amazement. ‘You’re going to Africa? That’s where they have elephants, and lions! Can I come?’

‘Sorry, love, I’m afraid not.’ She looked disappointed. ‘I’ll bring you back a toy elephant or lion, though. How about that?’ She gave him a begrudging nod.

‘Wait,’ said Julie, confused. ‘If you’re going to Africa, who’s going to look after Macy?’

Eddie put on his broadest smile. ‘That’s something I wanted to talk to you two about…’

Larry popped upright. ‘Wait, what?’

‘I’ll only be gone a couple of days.’

‘You want to leave your daughter with us for two days?’

‘Well, more like three.’

Julie looked appalled, but at her husband rather than her stepson. ‘Larry! She’s your granddaughter! Of course we’ll look after her, Eddie. We’d love to. Wouldn’t we, Larry?’

Larry was far from thrilled. ‘But I was going to play golf with Trevor and Michael and the boys this week.’

‘Oh, you and your golf. The course’ll still be there next week, but how often do we see Macy? You don’t mind staying with us, do you, Macy?’

‘Can I stay?’ Macy asked, directing the question at her grandfather. ‘We can go and see the magic horses again!’

‘I think Macy’s fine with it,’ said Eddie, amused by Larry’s attempt to mask his dismay. ‘I guess that settles it, then.’

‘It does,’ Julie added firmly. Larry gave her a thin smile, before treating Macy to a more genuine one.

Eddie turned back to his daughter. ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can. Is that okay?’

Her enthusiasm had already faded. ‘I… think so. Are you going right now?’

‘No, we’ll do some fun stuff together first. Us, and Julie, and your grandad. Whether he wants to or not.’ That drew a giggle from Julie and a resigned sigh from Larry.

‘And you and Mommy are coming back soon?’

‘Definitely,’ Eddie assured her. ‘That’s why I’m going to Africa. To make sure of it.’