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Sayyid had used the distraction of Neil’s outburst to inch out from behind the cluster of Al-Saboors. Nobody seemed to notice. The thugs had clearly decided the scholarly Egyptian wasn’t a threat. He took another careful step along the wall toward Ellie as Neil climbed down from the platform of the altar and held the tablet out to Julian.

Julian took it, gave it a disinterested glance, and thrust it blindly back behind him. “Sort that out, will you, Mr. Dawson?”

Dawson scampered forward to catch the block of clay, fumblingly clutching it to his chest. He cleared his throat. “Actually, it’s ‘professor.’ Professor Da—”

Julian turned to Constance. “I’m dreadfully sorry about this, Connie! I don’t know what these people told you to get you mixed up in this, but we’ll sort it out in a jiffy.”

Constance blinked with surprise and quick comprehension, and then her expression shifted to one of benign confusion.

“I should certainly hope so!” she exclaimed charmingly. “Really, Julian—waving knives and guns about? What would my Aai say to that, do you think?”

Julian blanched a bit at the mention of Constance’s grandmother. Adam couldn’t entirely blame him. The woman was mildly terrifying.

“I’m sure we don’t need to worry her about it.” Julian flashed Constance a nervous smile. “Well! Now that we have all that sorted… Fairfax, I’m afraid we’ll have to delay your return to Saqqara for just a tick. I’ll need you along for this next bit, if you don’t mind.”

“Next bit?” Neil echoed uncomfortably.

Sayyid was still moving. He had reached the wall of the sun court and picked his way along it, closer to where Ellie still stood on top of the far side of the altar.

Jacobs’ head swiveled, and Sayyid froze like a bug on a windowpane. Jacobs gave him a look of bland consideration—and then turned away again, clearly dismissing the foreman as beneath his consideration.

Adam slightly adjusted his mental calculations. Not that they amounted to anything remotely approaching a plan at this point.

“What do you needhimfor?” Dawson protested, still clutching the tablet possessively. “This is in Akkadian, and my Akkadian is excellent! Well—with just a little consultation of some of the books I brought along, of course,” he hedged.

“I…We,” Neil corrected himself with a pleading look back at Ellie, “really ought to be getting back to the dig at Saqqara. We left things in an awful muddle, and there’s a great deal of very urgent… er, conservation work…”

He trailed off in the face of Jacobs’ amused gaze and Julian’s cross frown.

“I’m afraid I must insist,” Julian countered. “And I do hope we can keep this all civilized.” He caught himself with a nervous glance back at Constance. “I mean, of course we’ll all be civilized. We are all civilized people here, aren’t we? Mr. Al-Saboor, why don’t you have your cousins… er, very politely escort Dr. Fairfax back to our conveyance.”

Constance looked as though she could barely contain the urge to roll her eyes. Adam was right there with her.

Jacobs had let the machete fall to his side—but his hand was still tense and ready on the hilt.

Mr. Al-Saboor jerked his head at Scarface and Gaps, who took hold of Neil’s arms. They propelled him forward through the crowd of their cousins as he bleated out protests.

“But I really must… You can’t just… This is outrageous! Peanut!” he called out, his expression tight with worry as he twisted to look back at his sister.

Ellie watched him go, her mouth drawn into a grim line.

Constance’s gaze followed Neil as well, sharp as one of the knives she had strapped to her body. Adam could practically see the wheels turning in her head.

They clicked into place—and she looked to Adam.

He could read the question in her eyes. He answered it with a subtle nod.

Determination flashed through Constance’s expression—and then a blindingly bright smile lit up her face as she hooked her hand possessively around Julian’s arm.

“Well, now all that nonsense is out of the way,” she cut in as Julian startled. “How long will you be staying in Luxor?”

“I’m… er, afraid we must be moving right along, darling,” Julian returned awkwardly.

“Splendid, then,” Constance replied. “I’ll join you.”

“W-what?!” Dawson jumped with surprise, nearly dropping the tablet.

Constance looked from the obviously horrified professor to Julian. “Unless you would rather not have me?” She widened her eyes with every appearance of dismayed surprise.