CHAPTER FIVE

 

Nigel was settled on a large rock, just inside the giant Buddha head. The left eye, which was the entrance of the temple, was high above the ground, offering a perfect vantage point for anything that might be coming their way, and you had to climb the statue to get to the entrance so it would be difficult for any intruder to get the drop on them.

            His gaze remained alert for the barest movement of brush below, his ears listening for the smallest sound. He had to admit that Sydney was right, as usual. This was the perfect place to mount an offence and turn the tables on whoever was after them. From their vantage point, they could see for miles in almost any direction and they certainly did know the area well enough from their last encounter.

             The natives in the small neighboring village had welcomed them warmly, offering to supply them and offer any support. Sydney and Nigel did not want any innocent lives on their hands, so they asked only that if anyone came looking for them, to point them in their general direction. The villagers were suspicious of most intruders and that would also work to Sydney and Nigel’s favor

            It felt odd to be back in Nepal again, here at the start of all things and where his entire life had been changed forever. On his very first Relic Hunting adventure, after his new employer almost skewered him with a spear she was using in her class, he was almost arrested, chased, tossed around, thrown from a moving truck, and suffered through beetles and cockroaches, before almost being buried alive.

            He smirked, ahh yes, the good old days, all of which was actually quite tame compared to what came later. He recalled telling Sydney that when he had checked yes for travel on the application, he’d thought it meant the occasional lecture in Boston . God, he had been green then, naive, uncertain, and so totally out of his element that it was a wonder he had survived.

            But he did, thanks to Sydney , and eventually he began to trust her and understand what exactly they were fighting for. Her cause became his foundation, and her friendship became the main staple in his life, even before food, clothing, or shelter. He would forgo all of them, and had several times, as long as he still had Sydney by his side.

             She had made him a better man, granted he’d gone kicking and screaming for the first year or so, but he had still been learning then. Now, they were so connected in their vocation that they could anticipate each other’s needs and ideas, felt each other’s worry and pain, and shared that indescribable elation of each newly discovered relic. God, how time has flown, it hardly seemed three years had passed and yet, he felt as if he had known Sydney forever.

            Nigel pulled his thoughts back to the present. Wouldn’t do to be daydreaming while there were murderers after them, now would it? He had no doubt that their new predator would find them in a very short amount of time; they’d left a trail a child could follow and he just hoped that these people were more driven toward achieving their goal of murder than deliberating why their prey would lead them here.

            He glanced back at Karen and Cate, who were sleeping soundly on the two sleeping bags he had purchased at the small sporting goods store in town, before heading to the village. They had to do so discretely, just in case anyone had been harboring any ill will for them from their last visit.  Karen had been stunned by the giant Buddha and had wanted to explore, but Sydney warned her of the hoards of cockroaches that waited further inside the temple and she decided exploring wasn’t for the faint of heart.

            He and Sydney opted to take the first watch and let the two women sleep, they were not used to such a rigorous schedule and it would do them good. Sydney had wandered off to scout the area and no doubt set a few traps for their unwanted visitors. He’d caught a glimpse of her a few times as she went about her work and he wasn’t overly worried about her, because no matter how connected the people after them were, it would still take several hours to find them. Besides, Sydney could take care of herself, it didn’t stop him from worrying, but that was just because he cared so much for her.

            A sound to his right caused him to turn and Sydney waved at him, as she carefully made her way across the narrow ledge leading to the entrance, a satisfied smile on her face. Nigel could just imagine the ambush she’d set and almost fell sorry for the people that obviously had never encountered an angry Sydney Fox in full defense mode.

            “Hey,” she greeted quietly and settled beside him, dusting off her hands. “Was your spider sense tingling?”

            Nigel pursed his lips and returned her gaze. She had been teasing him about his ‘knowledge’ of the last two attempts on their life, trying to get him to explain it. Instead, he said. “Yes, right now it’s telling me that someone’s about to get a kick in the…”

            “Nigel!” Sydney exclaimed, laughing.

            Nigel grinned and returned his attention to the land around them.

            “I’m sorry for getting upset with you at the office,” Sydney offered, nudging his leg with hers. “I didn’t mean to call you a coward. You’re one of the bravest people I’ve ever known.”

            Nigel flushed at her praise and stared down at his feet. “Thanks, Syd, but I don’t feel very brave right now.” He rose and moved closer to the entrance; all that jungle between them and how many murderers? “I’m quite frightened, actually.”

            Sydney move to stand beside him and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. It always amazed her how easy he would admit his fear, most men wouldn’t, and despite being afraid he still followed her through any danger. “Me too, but we’ll get through this, Nige.”

            Nigel nodded.

            They stood in silence for a few moments, hoping that whoever was coming arrived before sunset, it would be much harder to see in the dark.

            Sydney sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, winding her arm through his. “Yesterday seems so far away, doesn’t it? Hard to believe that just twenty four hours ago we were relaxing at my place, ready to eat some hot, greasy pizza and…” She paused and looked at Nigel, who was regarding her, solemnly.

            “Yeah,” he agreed, not bothering to finish her sentence, they both knew what the other was thinking. “Syd, about that…”

            Here it comes, Sydney thought. He’s changed his mind, or he’s decided it would be too complicated to have a sexual relationship with her, or she’d turned him off completely by her stupid temper. “I know what you’re going to say, Nigel, and it’s okay. I understand completely. I mean we’ve both been under enormous stress lately and…”

            “Syd…”

            “…it’s normal to feel a little overwhelmed and start rethinking things…”

            “ Sydney …”

            “…and I won’t be upset if you’ve decided to…”

            Nigel placed his hand over her mouth. “ Sydney , shut up, please?”

            Sydney had no choice but to comply.

            Nigel pulled his hand away. “I haven’t changed my mind, at least…unless you have?”

            Sydney shook her head, afraid to speak.

            “I just think…well, like you said, we’ve been under a lot of stress and…” He glanced around grimly. “It looks like it’s bound to get worse, so I…I think we should just…um…put off making any more decisions, um…one way or the other.”

            Sydney wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.  She pulled her arm out of his. “Oh. Well, that’s…sensible.”

            Nigel nodded, wondering if she could hear the sudden pounding of his heart.

            “So…does that mean…” She glanced at him and suddenly wanted him to hold her so badly that she could hardly stand it. She was more frightened than she would show. The car explosion and then the attack at Nigel’s had rocked her harder than she had expected, but she had to remain strong, for him and for those that were depending on her.

            “What, Syd?”

            Sydney wet her lips, suddenly nervous. “Well…we don’t have to make any decisions, okay but…um…what about…” She glanced up at him, unable to believe she was even feeling so shy. “Kissing?”

            Nigel flushed. “Oh, well…that isn’t really a…um…decision or anything it’s just…”

            Sydney leaned in, expectantly. “Going with the flow?”

            Nigel tilted his head, bringing their lips even closer. “Amongst other things,” he agreed, softly and started to close his eyes in anticipation.

            A sound to the left caught their attention and they both moved apart, breaking the romantic moment. Sydney pulled her knife from her boot and motioned Nigel to get back behind her, toward the wall. Nigel grabbed a heavy rock and did as he was told; offering their sleeping comrades a concerned look, before turning his attention back to the intruder.

            Sydney held her breath and was posed to strike from behind the large stone that had rolled back to reveal the entrance. The sound of rock falling, someone was on the ledge all right. A shadow stepped forward into the temple. Sydney leapt and caught the person around the neck, only to be quickly flipped onto her back. Nigel surged forward and moved to strike with his rock, but received a hard fist to his chin instead, which threw him backwards. Sydney knocked the assailant’s legs out from under him and lunged to subdue him.

            “Stop! It’s me!” a familiar voice declared as Cate and Karen scrambled awake, Cate with her gun drawn and aimed toward the commotion.

            Sydney paused as she straddled him, and realized that her knife was pressing against the throat of Derek Lloyd. “You!” she hissed, and pressed her knife even closer as her knees dug into his sides. “What the hell are you doing here?”

            “I came to help!”

            “What makes you think we need any?”

            “I know you do.” Derek winced as the knife inched closer. “Syd, come on. It’s me! I’ll tell you everything, just take the knife away.”

            “Derek!” Nigel exclaimed as he climbed to his feet and rubbed his jaw. “What the hell are you doing here?”

            Derek sighed, was there an echo in here? Why couldn’t it ever be easy with these two? He offered Nigel a hopeful smile. “Nigel, buddy! Sorry about the punch, it was only in self defense.”

            “What’s going on, Sydney ?” Cate demanded, leveling her gun at Derek for added threat. “Do you know him?”

            “This is Derek Lloyd,” Nigel replied, grimly.

            Cate raised her eyebrows, the infamous government spy that no one could ever get any information on because his security clearance was so damned high? “He’s not as big as I thought he’d be.”
            Nigel smirked.

            “You have two seconds to tell me why you’re here and how you found us,” Sydney warned. “And I am in no mood for a ‘need to know’ explanation.”

            Derek nodded, and then winced as the knife dug into his tender flesh. Wow, she wasn’t kidding. Sydney must really be scared, he’d never seen her so ferocious. Of course, the blond with the gun was nothing to sneeze at either, she looked like she’d shoot him if he so much as blinked the wrong eye.

             “Okay, I’ll tell you, but it’s hard to talk with a knife at your throat. Can you at move that thing away at least?”

            Sydney pulled her knife back, but kept it ready for any sudden movement. She just didn’t know who she could trust anymore and she wasn’t about to risk the lives of Nigel, Karen and Cate on what her heart was telling her about Derek Lloyd.

            “Talk!”

            “I…I heard about the explosion in Egypt and I was just keeping tabs on you, just making sure you were all right.”

            “How thoughtful,” Nigel muttered.

            Derek grinned. “Hey, I’m a thoughtful guy…”

            Sydney grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “Don’t push it, talk!”

            “Okay, so then I was informed about your car blowing up and I high-tailed it there to Trinity. But, by the time I got there, you weren’t at your house and with what I found at Nigel’s apartment, well I began to worry.”

            “What were you doing in my apartment?” Nigel demanded, suspicious. “How do you even know where we live?”

            “I make it my business to know,” Derek reminded dryly.

            Cate snickered and deliberately removed the safety from her gun. “I make it my business to shoot first and ask questions later,” she warned.

            Derek swallowed, hard. He had little doubt of that. What the hell kind of people was Sydney hanging around with? “Look, from what I found out the hired guns that are after you don’t come cheap and they’re not for the weak of heart; they play for keeps, Sydney . Whoever is after you wants you dead, and is willing to pay, whatever the cost.” He paused, concerned. “I’m only trying to help, I swear.”

            Sydney decided that he was telling the truth, but she glanced at Nigel for confirmation. He nodded, reluctantly. Lloyd may be arrogant, enigmatic and often irritating, but over all the man had never done anything to cause them any real harm. Well, except when Derek hit him over the head and kidnapped him, but he supposed they had to trust him.

            Sydney rose and slid her knife back into her boot, as Nigel offered the agent a hand up.

            “Thanks, buddy.”

            Nigel really hated when the agent called him that, like they were friends or something. Granted, he did have a soft spot for Derek, and it had nothing to do with him having Stockholm syndrome no matter what Claudia said. When he wasn’t trying to get them involved in some scheme for the government, Lloyd was a charming and amusing fellow. He wasn’t however, very pleased at how the agent continued to pursue Sydney and could not take no for an answer.

            Derek dusted himself off and extended his hand to Cate, who had not yet lowered her weapon. “It’s rude to shoot a man without at least a proper introduction.”

            Cate was not amused by his attempt to be charming.

            “Derek Lloyd, government spy,” Nigel offered reluctantly. “Cate Hemphill, Interpol.”

            Derek kept right on smiling and his hand never wavered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cate. Any friend of Sydney ’s is a friend of mine.”

            Cate slowly returned her weapon to her holster, ignoring his hand. “I wouldn’t count on it.”

            Nigel noticed Karen, lingering behind him. “Oh, forgive me, Karen, this is our colleague Karen Petrusky. Karen, Derek Lloyd, or whatever he’s calling himself these days.”

            “Are you the one who kidnapped Nigel?” she demanded.

            Derek frowned. Why did he suddenly feel like he’d entered a pit of hungry cobras? He offered her a sincere smile. “Well, that was just a bit of a misunderstanding and Nigel and I are old friends, aren’t we?” He smacked Nigel’s shoulder, almost toppling the smaller man over.

            “Enough chit chat, how did you know where we were?” Sydney demanded.

            “I made some inquiries after I left Nigel’s place and found out you’d booked a flight here.” He scowled. “Syd, if I found you this easy, whoever is after you won’t have any problem doing the same.”

            Sydney nodded. “Good. We’re counting on it.”

            “Wait,” Nigel began and looked at Derek. “How did you get up here without us seeing you?”

            Derek grinned. “I’m a trained professional, remember?” He winced at the look the two relic hunters shot him. “You forget, I have the government resources at my disposal, I was here before you were and once my contact in town told me the supplies you were buying, I figured you were headed here; I saw it when we flew over and knew you’d pick it to hide out.”

            “So you’ve been here hours then?”

            Derek shrugged and moved further inside, setting his pack down. “Yeah, and frankly I’m starved. Got anything to eat?”

            “Why didn’t you tell us you were here?” Sydney demanded.

            “I was afraid to, you looked pretty fierce when you arrived, Syd, I figured I’d let you calm down a bit first.” He rubbed at his throat, remembering the knife. “Guess I didn’t wait long enough.”

 

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