The Giza Cipher (Shane Riley Adventure Thrillers Book 2) by Nick Thacker

Author:Nick Thacker [Thacker, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Conundrum Publishing
Published: 2024-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 49

SHANE

"Listen, Zari," Shane began. "I'm not sure what you think is going on, but we are just as in the dark as you are."

"If you expect me to believe that, your naivety is even worse than I imagined."

"It's not naivety, it's a fact."

"Is that so?" Zari said. He shifted, stepping away from Professor Swain, focusing his attention – and the weapon he still held in his right hand – on Shane. Though he wasn't pointing it, Shane knew the drill. He couldn't close the distance between himself and the government official before the man got a shot off, nor could he expect to do any harm to the man with just his fists with two more armed officials standing behind him.

"Tell me, then. Why did you come here? What was it you were hoping to find at this site?"

Shane's eyes glanced over to Professor Swain. The professor had already ratted him out – told them who he was – so he wondered if Jack had also taken it upon himself to spill the beans on every detail of their operation already.

Jack offered him a slight shake of his head.

That would be good news, if Shane had cooked up a plausible back story. Unfortunately, he had not, and since he and Jack were separated from the other half of their party, he couldn't expect to make something up on the fly that would corroborate whatever story Natia and Isaiah were telling over there.

"We're tourists," Shane said. "Visitors, just passing through. Professor Swain's been studying sites like these for some time. He wanted to see them."

"Tourists."

Shane stared at the man, his eyes squinting slightly.

"And I don't believe you are a professor or an academic of any sort," the official said. "So why are you here? What exactly do you add to this little operation, Mr. Riley?"

"I am… good at retrieving things."

Zari smiled. "Retrieving things. I see. As naïve as you may be, you can't expect to come into a country like Egypt – one rife with crime, theft, grave robbers, every breed of criminal miscreant – and look at a man like me, one who has been in his position for over a decade, and in government for three, and think I share any of that same naivety.

“I know exactly why people like you – tourists, as you say – come into my country. You look for the artifacts of my people. At worst, you help to loot, to extract treasures and sell them at your discretion on any number of black markets around the world. And there would be buyers; it is a lucrative game. At best, however, you want to take these same treasures – the remnants of a culture I've spent my life trying to piece back together – and offer them to museums around the world. What a philanthropic effort! So altruistic. You get your name on a plaque next to an artifact you find here, the museum gets a few extra donors, and many more visitors. It's a win-win, no?”

Zari didn’t wait for Shane to offer a response.

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