Piece by Piece

54. The Drafts

The good stuff really was good.

The earthquake had uncovered what appeared to be an ancient tomb further south in the desert, one that had been mentioned by one of Hitler's former scientists. Their mission was to find it, search it, and retrieve their target, which was inside it. Of course, this involved learning how to survive in the desert, familiarizing themselves with ancient Egyptian, as well as basic archeological techniques and anticipate potential traps.

They had three months to do this, and once they did, they would be setting out on their own to find...

"I don't like this," Rachel said, staring at her tray of food. Her pasta was untouched, even if she'd been twirling her fork around her fingers for the past ten minutes.

Davyn continued to chew and finished the phrase he was reading before lifting his nose from his book. "It's actually quite decent."

"No, I mean what Edwards said." She plunked a fusilli with her forked but still didn't eat it. "About what whe have to retrieve."

Davyn frowned and closed the book on Egyptology. Once the briefing was over, the seven of them who were left were shipped off to the museum to start their study. Davyn had been so enthralled by all the books that he'd forgotten about food until Rachel came over to ask him to lunch. Now in the cafeteria, it appeared that food was not the only thing on her mind or, by the state of her plate, not on her mind at all.

"What about it?" he asked.

"A giant jewel," Rachel whispered. "Why does it have to be a jewel?"

Davyn tensed and pushed his tray away. He could tell that this was an important moment. Rachel was confiding her doubts to him out of all the other people she'd spent more time with. She was offering him her trust. Unless she was actually trying to lull him into some sort of trap.

"So what if it's a jewel?" he ventured on.

She watched him through narrowed eyes as if trying to determine if he could be trusted. He wondered where this paranoia was coming from. Weren't they supposed to trust each other if they were to work as a team? But once the briefing was over, the ride to the museum had been silent, and then they'd all spread out as if trying to avoid each other. Davyn wasn't doing that per se, he just liked to be by himself, but now that he thought about it, it was strange.

Rachel had the right idea. He needed more information, and he obviously needed an ally. She seemed smart and observant and had brought it up, so maybe it was time to build some trust.

"What's the deal?" he asked.

She bit into her lower lip for a moment. It was full and rosy, even if she was obviously not wearing any makeup.

"It's been strange since we got here," she finally said, her voice low. "From the beginning, we were told that some might leave, so not knowing who, we kept to ourselves. No matter what we believe... Well, it's obvious that the CII aren't joking around."

"It is, isn't it?" He indicated where they were because he still couldn't believe he was eating lunch in the cafeteria of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

"I don't..." She sighed. "We don't know much about each other. We didn't talk. I don't know what your circumstances are and how you got here, but... I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it."

She wasn't. It was him who'd completely ignored the team, caught up as he was in his excitement to do something. To matter. He'd been picked up off the side of the road as he was running away from the police. Who were the others? However, he didn't think this was the best time to get up close and personal with Rachel, so he focused on something safer.