A Perfect Fit Read Online Free PDF

with hers. This time she did not pull away.
    Taher pushed back in his chair. “Few men have laid eyes on the cave paintings and lived to tell of it. Once there was a Bedouin camel driver who lost his herd in a sandstorm. He tracked his animals to the Cave of the Swimmers. He went in . . . and he never came out. Death resides at that place.”
    “Well, obviously not everyone dies at the cave. Almásy came home,” Lawrence argued.
    “He did not go inside,” Taher countered.
    “Then how did he write a book that describes the cave’s interior?” Magdalena asked.
    “His exploration partner went in.” Taher leaned in close. “And he died.”
    “Clayton died of polio two months after they got home,” Lawrence declared. Rumors and legends were the kind of things that made finding definitive proof so important. “Not in the cave.”
    “Either way, a bad omen.” Taher slid the baggie back to Lawrence. “I cannot help you.”
    “Then how are we going to find out how this ten-thousand-year-old image magically appeared on a third-century funerary urn when everyone who has supposedly seen it firsthand has died?”
    “Maybe it is best not to know.”
    “If you won’t help us, then I guess we’ll have to go to the Cave of the Swimmers ourselves.” Magdalena stood. “Just one more thing, Taher.”
    “Yes?”
    “Where exactly is this haunted cave?”
    “In the pit of hell.”

6
    M AGDALENA PUSHED THROUGH THE glass doors of the hospital. The confined stench of antiseptic hung in the corridors, stale and stifling compared to the fresh air she’d enjoyed at the harbor. Maybe her sudden attraction to fresh air and freedom had nothing to do with the demands of the hospital. Maybe it sprang from the raw vigor of the man who’d opened a window and shoved her toward a world of dangerous yet exciting possibilities.
    “ We are going to the Cave of the Swimmers?” Lawrence huffed, trailing behind her with as much speed as he could muster. “I thought you had work to do.”
    Her proper pedigree had paved the way for acquiring the proper credentials to ensure a proper, well-ordered, and safe life. And where had that gotten her? Engaged to a proctologist, that’s where. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a break from her exhausting responsibilities, let alone indulged in a little adventure. Father would be furious if he found out about today’s unexplained absence. He’d have a heart attack if he knew her time away from her duties had been spent chasing after the origin of a possible pathogen in a mythical cave with an itinerant American archaeologist. She would tell her father the truth once she shucked the attraction to this world traveler and slid safely back into her preordered routine.
    “I haven’t necessarily committed to hopping a camel and trudging through the desert, but exploring the cave would be the most efficient way to trace the origin of the disease.”
    “ We haven’t even proven those kids died of disease.”
    “Not yet.” She slipped into her white coat and set a brisk pace for the medical library.
    “Dr. Kader?” Kaifah blocked her path. “Your father is looking for you.”
    “Could you please tell him I need to do some research?”
    The nurse’s suspicious eyes darted from Lawrence to Magdalena. “He’ll ask what you’re working on.”
    “Uh . . . a case.” Which wasn’t a lie. So far, all she had to back her theory of some unknown virus was a strong hunch. If she could somehow tie a pathogen to the mysterious deaths at the legendary desert cave, they would be one step closer to understanding what had happened at the Tophet. “Excuse us, Kaifah, we’ve work to do.”
    Gray light filtered through the windows of the quiet library. Magdalena scanned the stacks and discovered the research assistant face-planted in an open book and snoring loudly. “This way,” she whispered. “We must be fast. Kaifah won’t keep our secret long.”
    She skipped the reference