The Tenth Saint Read Online Free PDF

build the elaborate wood scaffolding that enabled her to reach the escarpment without negotiating steep stone faces and scorpion-riddled gravel paths. She had put about a dozen locals to work under the supervision of her structural engineers, and together they’d constructed the elaborate wooden structure in record time. With the scaffold built, she and a couple of her most trusted colleagues had set about the task of moving the stones stacked next to the mysterious symbol.
    “Hello, gang,” she called as she reached the final rung of the scaffold. “Any luck today?”
    Dennis, one of the most senior members of the expedition and an archaeologist with whom she’d collaborated in Zimbabwe, was sitting on a pile of stones the crew had dislodged. His round face was pink from the sun and heat. With the corner of his T-shirt, he wiped the sweat off his glasses. “We’re gettin’ there,” he said in an East End accent. “Go on, then. Have a look.”
    She approached the area where they’d removed the stones and put her hand on the small opening. “Cool air.” She was surprised. “There’s got to be a cave back there.”
    “Too right. And my guess is this little rock formation here—”
    “Did not happen naturally,” she finished, excited. She could only imagine what lay behind the stones. But something was there. “Let’s concentrate on this portion of the structure. I want us to remove only enough rocks to make a vertical corridor one of us can fit through for the recon. Then we can decide how to proceed.”
    “Shouldn’t take too long. This is the weakest part of the structure. The stone practically crumbles.”
    Sarah and her crew went to work removing the rocks the rest of that afternoon, breaking them with pickaxes and dislodging them carefully by hand, until a narrow vertical shaft had been cut into the rock. Sarah shone her flashlight inside. She saw only rock, possibly the walls of a cave, but she couldn’t be sure. “I’m going for it. Aisha, rope me in.”
    Aisha looked about her. “Where’s the rope?”
    “Oh, bugger. I left it in the jeep. Right. Back in a flash.”
    She negotiated the scaffolding to the base of the cliff and ran the half mile to the jeep, parked off the nearest road. Daylight was dwindling fast. She rummaged through the trunk and cab, looking beneath maps and tools and loose sheets of random notes. She found the rope on the floorboard between the front seats. That explained why she’d accidentally left it behind.
    “So this is what you do when you go into town.”
    The voice behind her startled her so much she hit her head on the roll bar.
    “Sorry,” Daniel said. “Should’ve knocked.”
    “Are you following me?”
    “Yes, I am. I figure you’re lying to me, so this evens the score.”
    “Look, I’m in a hurry.” She brushed past him.
    “I don’t think so,” he called behind her. “I suggest you offer me an explanation. Unless you’d like me to give my own version to Dr. Simon and your funders.”
    ”Bastard,” she intoned behind clenched teeth. She had little patience for overbearing, self-important men.
    “You’re treating me like the enemy. Has it occurred to you that I’m here to help?”
    She turned to him. “Well, help me by going back to the dig.”
    He nodded at the scaffolding. “What’s up there? Or do I need to climb up and see for myself?”
    “This has nothing to do with you. It’s a little side project.”
    “A side project? With expedition crew and resources? Do you even have the proper permits to be here?”
    “For your information, our permits cover a twenty-mile radius from the valley of the stelae. So, as you can see, we’re perfectly within our rights to be here.”
    “So this is why your project has been so delayed.”
    She sighed in frustration and threw the rope to the ground. “Damn it, Madigan. What do you want from me?”
    “The truth would be nice.”
    “Fine. I see I have no choice but to tell you and wait for you