The Forbidden Tomb

65

Jasmine should have been frightened by the question.

After all, she had assumed that the person lying in the corner was a corpse. Not only did he smell like a corpse, but he looked like one, too, in the gloom of the dungeon.

Presented with evidence to the contrary, she didn’t know whether to appreciate the company or to fear his presence. Ultimately, her instincts took over and she decided to run to his aid. Or at least she tried to. When the slack pulled taut on her chain, the shackle grabbed her ankle and she crashed clumsily to the floor.

‘Shit!’ she said under her breath.

Despite his condition, the withered old man crawled toward the middle of the room to see if she had hurt herself during her fall. ‘Are you… okay?’

Jasmine sat up and smiled. ‘I’m fine. Are you okay?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said between labored breaths. ‘I feel… strange.’

She knew the sensation. She had felt the same way when she had awoken from her drug-induced slumber. She knew that he was probably suffering from blurred vision, muscle aches, and severe confusion.

‘It will go away,’ she assured him. She grabbed his wrist to check his pulse; it was slow, but strong. His breathing was similarly steady and deep. ‘You’re going to be fine. Just give it time.’

He stared at her with confusion in his eyes. ‘Who are you?’

‘My name is Jasmine.’

‘Kaleem,’ he said as he closed his eyes and lay on the stone floor. His head was still spinning from the drugs. ‘Jasmine, what day is it?’

‘Good question,’ she said with a laugh. Despite their situation, she was trying to stay positive for his sake. ‘If I had to guess, I’d say it’s the fourth of the month. Or maybe the fifth. I’m not sure how long I was unconscious.’

He shook his head in dismay. ‘May fifth? Has it really been twenty-some days?’

His comment roared through her mind like a freight train. The unavoidable truth forced a lump into her throat: it was November, not May. She stared down at him, temporarily unable to speak out of both concern and pity.

To him, he had survived twenty-some days.

In reality, it had been twenty-some weeks.

As hard as it was, he needed to hear the truth.

She grabbed his hand tightly. It was a desperate act of comfort that wouldn’t offset the news she was about to deliver. But at that moment it was the only thing she could offer. ‘I need to tell you something, and it’s going to hurt.’

Kaleem grimaced in anticipation.

‘Spring has passed. We’re well into fall.’

It was the gentlest way she could think of to convey the news.

Tears flooded his eyes as he groaned in pain. Then his body went limp, as if all hope had been sucked out of him. ‘God, just let me die.’

She squeezed his hand. ‘Don’t say that. You’ve survived this long. You’re not going to die in here. My friends are coming to get me. I promise.’

He did not reply. He merely lay there and cried.

Jasmine knew that she needed to do something to bring his mood back around — a distraction of some kind. She decided to engage him in conversation.

‘Tell me about yourself. How did you get here?’

Several seconds passed before the question sank in. When it did, he wiped the tears from his face and began to speak. ‘I was… I am an expert in Egyptian history. I traveled here from Greece as part of an expedition.’ He stared blankly at the light above, as if the memories were not readily available. ‘We were investigating rumors about Alexander’s tomb. We set up a campsite in the valley and started to dig.’

‘Did you find anything?’

He glanced at her. ‘An entire village buried beneath the sand. It was remarkable. But before we had a chance to excavate the site, they came in the night.’

‘They? Who are they?’

‘Hooded men in black tunics. They stormed our camp after sunset, wielding ancient swords. We tried to fight back, but they were too strong. The bodies of the others were dragged into the desert… For some reason, I was kept alive.’

Jasmine was familiar with the incident. As a fellow historian, she kept her ears tuned to reports of any developments in her field — good or bad. ‘Your expedition made the news. When your team failed to return, the authorities were sent to find you. They spent days searching the desert.’

‘Did they find anyone?’

She shook her head. ‘All they found was your camp. Everyone was presumed dead. And as far as I remember, there was no mention of an archaeological find.’

He sighed. ‘The desert hides its secrets quickly.’

Jasmine knew her next question would sound indelicate, but she also knew it had to be asked. After all, her life was at stake too. ‘I hate to ask you this — I really do — but do you have any idea why they spared your life?’

He shrugged. ‘I honestly don’t know. Sometimes I wish they hadn’t.’

‘Have they questioned you?’

‘Repeatedly,’ he answered. ‘And I have told them everything that I know. I was merely there to interpret our discoveries. I was not the team leader.’

Jasmine nodded. ‘I know the feeling.’

He looked at her. ‘What do you mean?’

‘My story is similar,’ she explained. ‘Just like you, the whole reason I was in Egypt was to put my team’s discoveries into the proper historical context. And just like you, we were also looking for Alexander.’

‘In which part of the desert?’

‘We weren’t in the desert. We were in Alexandria.’

Kaleem grimaced. ‘My dear, Alexandria has been picked clean. They even have a name for those that search there. They are known as the Fools of Alexander.’

She nodded. ‘Trust me, I know. I’m very well aware of the reputation. But what if I told you that the fools weren’t so foolish after all?’

‘Are you saying that you found Alexander?’

Jasmine smiled. ‘Not Alexander, no. But we may have found a clue that no one else has seen. We were exploring the tunnels under the city when we came across a wall covered in ancient carvings. It implied that Alexander’s body had been moved long ago.’

‘Are you surprised by this message? Because I, for one, am not. Alexander’s whereabouts have been unknown for centuries. It only stands to reason that his body has been transported elsewhere. The question is not if he was moved. It is when? And where? And how?’

‘That’s three questions.’

Kaleem smiled. ‘Yes, I guess it is.’

Jasmine realized that saying anything more would come dangerously close to revealing the secrets that her team had worked hard to uncover, but she thought it was worth the risk. If their captors had interrogated Kaleem, he would know what type of information they were seeking.

She lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘What if I told you that I could answer two of those questions?’

A look of hope spread across his face.