Gold of the Lost Empire: A Lost Origins Novel by A. D. Davies

Author:A. D. Davies [Davies, A. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crater of the North Publishing
Published: 2023-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

THIRTY-FIVE

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG, WESTERN CHINA

The sun rose between two peaks, rising at a distance beyond the forested hills which Toby Smith could not determine. Five or ten miles? Fifty? Toby would never understand how Jules assessed such things without flinching. It should have lifted his spirits, which were currently swimming in the gutter, as he made his way to the communications station near the newly built helipad, the odor of dry soil and human sweat heavy in the air, and the occasional waft of gasoline and engine fumes ghosting by.

The encampment was now teeming with workers, twenty shipped in from various impoverished villages in the region, working hard for minimal reward. At Toby’s objection to the exploitative labor, Roger Carson vowed to add a significant bonus to whatever remuneration the local government had forced them to accept. They’d uncovered much of the landscaped gardens surrounding the children’s statues, which gave those funding the dig a smattering of good news: ornately constructed walls, a maze, and a summerhouse filled with rotten furniture and what Toby identified as an artist’s stash of paintbrushes and canvasses. Unfortunately, there was no actual art.

Toby’s consternation was not caused by the workers’ amicable banter as they prepared for their meager breakfast rations, but at Dan waking him with news of Jules, Bridget, and Charlie. They were alive, had escaped serious injury, but were in the hands of Valerio Conchin. Despite having—incredibly—discovered the Tayos Gold, Valerio’s partners had betrayed him, fleeing with the artifacts and Prihya. Since then, emails had poured in, hand-drawn renderings of what Jules had memorized and shared with Valerio’s permission. Toby did not know why this was happening.

Dan and Harpal were already on edge when he entered the communications station—a prefab unit housing satellite feeds, several computers, and a couple of large ultra-high-definition screens—with Roger Carson leaning against a tall stool. Valerio was front and center on one of these high-definition screens, with Jules, Bridget, and Charlie standing submissively behind him in a tent similar to the one LORI slept in for the China dig.

“We’re all here?” Valerio said in his boardroom voice. “Good. You’ll have received the material by now.”

Toby had distributed the images to the team’s e-tablets. “Everyone has been briefed. Now, why are you holding our people?”

“I’d like an answer to that, too,” Roger Carson said, hands gripping the stool seat so hard it could leave an imprint forever. “I have teams in the area, ready to deploy if you so much as—”

“Daddy, Rayyana’s dead,” Bridget said.

Roger’s mouth hung open, and he jumped as if startled. His eyes took on a sheen as his skin paled. “Dead…? How?”

“She was saving us.” Bridget’s voice strained, holding herself together after a loss. “She was a real hero, Daddy.”

And… Daddy? What was that? Bridget was in her mid-twenties, and Toby had only ever heard her call Roger Daddy when being sarcastic or trying to manipulate him in a knowing, somewhat meta way. Was it a code, perhaps?

“Touch any of them, you die,” Dan said.

“Oh, it’s macho posturing time, is it?” Valerio jammed his hands into his pockets.

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