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A lingering black scarab crawled over the side of the gap and disappeared.

Neil had never been particularly bothered by bugs, unlike his foreman. He still found that he had to steel himself against an instinctive sense of horror in order to carefully lower the lantern into the hole.

A beetle flew out of the fractured stone, buzzing at Neil’s face. He shooed at it furiously with his free hand, biting out a curse. Then he brought the lantern lower and the flickering light washed over what lay inside the ragged fissure.

He was only vaguely aware of rustling of cloth behind him. A moment later, Ellie slid into place at his side.

“What is it?” she asked.

Neil stared into a cavity that went down, down, down into the heart of the mountain, its lamplight-washed walls peppered here and there with the iridescent bodies of lingering scarabs.

“We need to go in there,” he declared, his voice tight with both certainty and unease.

??

Thirty-Three

The space underthe boulder had grown crowded. Zeinab had arrived a few moments before, immediately taking charge. She crouched over the fissure in her black abaya, carefully withdrawing the lantern.

Neil was squished in between her and Ellie. The others hovered outside—all except for Sayyid, who had displayed no interest in getting a turn under the rock.

“I have no desire to crawl into a scarab nest,” he declared firmly.

A coil of rope spilled through the gap, sliding to a stop near Neil’s boots. Adam lowered his face into view behind it. “We’ve tied it off,” he reported. “You should be all set.”

“Dr. Fairfax?” Zeinab prompted impatiently.

Neil quailed—but he was the one who had found the opening in the rocks and insisted on investigating it. Who else did he expect would squeeze into the fissure to see where it led?

“Shouldn’t Bates do it?” he blurted out hopefully.

“I’ve got about thirty pounds on you, buddy,” Adam replied from outside.

“Maybe I should go,” Constance eagerly suggested, dropping down beside him to peer in at Neil and the others. “I’m the smallest of us, and if there are any wild animals down there, I have a better chance of overcoming them than he does.”

“How’s that?” Neil returned with a note of panic. “Why would you be better at dealing with wild animals than I would?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Constance returned.

“Dr. Fairfax goes,” Zeinab ordered. “Preferably quickly, before someone from that dig hears all of the talking you are doing.”

She punctuated the remark with a glare at the rest of the party, who quickly clammed up.

Neil stared down at the dark mouth of the fissure. The opening looked barely wide enough for him to squeeze into, which begged unpleasant thoughts of what might happen to him if he got stuck.

“Dr. Fairfax goes,” Neil echoed in a wretched whisper. “And why wouldn’t he? Who else is qualified to descend into a pit full of beetles?”

But even as he loathed the notion of lowering himself into an unknown scarab-lined hole in the mountain, another part of him was drawn toward the fissure like a moth to the moon.

Yes,his instincts urged.This is right.

He faced the descent with a new sense of determination. “Pass me the lamp.”

“You are not taking the lamp,” Zeinab replied.

“What?!” Neil exclaimed.

“You cannot climb down a rope while you are carrying it. I will lower it down to you once you are inside.”