The Death Relic Read Online Free PDF Page B

hour.
    ‘So,’ she asked, ‘where is your team stationed?’
    ‘Wherever our research takes us. Right now less than a hundred miles from here.’
    ‘Anywhere in particular?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said cryptically as he dug through the wicker basket for the perfect-sized chip. ‘But if it’s OK with you, I’d rather focus on your role in things, not mine. I’m sure you must be wondering why we brought you here on such short notice.’
    She nodded. ‘The question has crossed my mind.’
    ‘Any theories?’
    ‘Plenty. Including some I’d rather not share.’
    He laughed at the insinuation. Somehow her statement had been playful and accusatory at the same time. ‘Now you’ve gone and done it. After a comment like that, I’m afraid you have to share.’
    ‘I’d rather not.’
    ‘I’m afraid you must. My reputation as a gentleman is at stake!’
    She blushed, realizing she had little choice but to explain her remark. ‘OK. But please keep something in mind: I had these thoughts before I knew anything about you, your research, or all the awards you’ve won in the field of anthropology.’
    He grinned. ‘If you’re buttering me up, this has got to be good.’
    She nodded, then took a sip of her drink for some liquid courage. ‘What can I say? A man I’ve never met calls me out of the blue and offers to fly me halfway around the world and put me up at a five-star resort for the weekend. What do you think I thought?’
    ‘That I was a dirty old man looking for action.’
    ‘Actually, I didn’t know you were old during our initial phone call, but I did think you were
dirty
. I didn’t find out about your age until I researched you on the Internet.’
    He gasped in mock horror. ‘Wait! Did you just call me
old
?’
    She nodded. ‘However, I no longer think you’re dirty.’
    ‘Well then,’ he toasted, ‘here’s to small victories.’
    She clinked his glass and smiled. ‘Trust me, it’s a major victory in my eyes. Normally it takes a very long time to get on my good side. Yet you’ve managed to do it in two days.’
    ‘That’s the daiquiri talking.’
    ‘Maybe a little. But I think it’s more than that. I think it’s your passion for history. That’s what convinced me to accept your offer.’
    ‘My passion?’
    She nodded. ‘Like I said, I looked you up on the Internet after you called. I wanted to get a better feel for your personality before I took a job so far from home, so I watched several of your lectures online. Let me tell you, I was impressed. Your passion for history oozed through the screen. No wonder you’ve won so many awards.’
    Now it was Hamilton’s turn to blush. ‘Believe me, I don’t do it for awards. I do it for myself. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than making a discovery about the world we live in. It’s the reason I live in a tent eleven months a year, the reason I never settled down or got married. History is my first and only love. It’s the reason I breathe.’
    ‘Yep. That’s the passion I was talking about.’
    He shrugged. ‘I can’t help it. That’s who I am.’
    She shook her head. ‘Never apologize for passion. Like I said, it’s the main reason I’m here. I figured, if you’ve discovered something so secretive that you couldn’t tell me about it over the phone, then it was bound to be important.’
    ‘Trust me, it is.’
    She studied his face. ‘How important are we talking?’
    The cocksure grin returned to his lips. ‘Very.’

7
    In the last decade, Mexico has passed Colombia as the drug-trafficking centre of the Americas, creating an atmosphere of crime and corruption. Border towns like Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez are particularly violent – the 2009 murder rate in Juárez was the highest in the world by more than 25 per cent – but in terms of the sheer number of crimes, it’s hard to beat Mexico City.
    With a population of over 21 million and a police force that is undersized and underpaid, no one knows how many crimes actually