Chapter 4 - The Shadow of the Sphinx
The train yard was a graveyard of rusted iron and overgrown weeds. Giant locomotive carcasses lay half-buried in the tall grass like dead metallic beasts.
They had escaped the office building through a subterranean service tunnel that Kiara knew from her days of collecting copper wire. For six hours, they navigated the dark, damp underbelly of the city, arriving at the train yard just as a heavy tropical rain began to fall.
Inside an abandoned passenger car, the air smelled of rust and wet earth.
Helena lay on a makeshift bed of old coats, her skin pale and clammy. The strain of the escape was taking a terrible toll on her frail heart. Kiara sat beside her, gently wiping her forehead with a damp cloth.
"Grandma, please," Kiara whispered, tears mixing with the rain on her face. "You have to stay strong. We're going to get you help."
"My time is like the sand in an hourglass, Kiara," Helena said, her voice a mere whisper. "It is almost gone. But yours is just beginning. You must promise me... you will not let them open the vault."
"I promise, Grandma. I promise."
Marco walked to the door of the train car, looking out into the rain. He was on his phone, speaking in hushed, urgent tones. After a moment, he hung up and walked back to them.
"My contacts have secured a private yacht in Hurghada, Egypt," Marco said. "We have a cargo plane waiting at a military strip two hours from here. We can bypass customs if we leave within the hour. But we have to move now. The police are searching the district."
"We can't move her," Kiara cried, pointing to Helena. "She’s too weak!"
Helena reached out, her trembling hand gripping Kiara’s wrist with surprising strength. "Go, Kiara. Go with Marco. He will protect you. I will only slow you down."
"No! I'm not leaving you!"
"You must," Helena said, a tear finally escaping her eye. "If they find us together, they will use me to make you do whatever they want. If I am gone, they have no leverage over you. You are strong, Kiara. You have the blood of the desert in you. Run. Run with the eagle."
Suddenly, the sound of a drone’s high-pitched whine echoed through the rain.
A bright searchlight swept across the windows of the train car, illuminating the rusted interior with blinding white light.
"They found us," Marco said, drawing his weapon. "Viktor’s using thermal imaging."
"Go!" Helena pushed Kiara away with her remaining strength. "Go through the floor hatch! Now!"
Kiara screamed as Marco grabbed her around the waist, pulling her toward a rusted trapdoor in the floor of the train car.
"Grandma! No!"
"I love you, my little eagle," Helena whispered, her face calm and serene in the harsh glare of the drone's spotlight.
Marco dropped Kiara through the hatch into the muddy space beneath the tracks. He slid down after her, pulling the metal hatch shut just as the door of the train car was kicked open.
Through the cracks in the wooden floorboards, Kiara saw the muddy boots of Viktor’s men enter the car. She covered her mouth with both hands, tears streaming down her face, forcing herself not to make a sound.
"Where is the girl?" Viktor’s voice boomed over the sound of the rain.
Helena did not answer. She sat up slowly, looking at Viktor with cold, absolute defiance. "She is gone, Russian. And you will never find her."
Viktor looked down at her, his face turning into a mask of pure fury. He pulled a silver-plated pistol from his coat. "Then you are of no use to me."
Bang.
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Kiara’s world shattered.
She wanted to scream, to tear the floorboards apart with her bare fingernails, but Marco held her tight, his hand clamped over her mouth, his own eyes filled with a dark, burning rage. He dragged her backward through the mud, pulling her away from the train yard as the rain poured down, washing away the blood of the woman who had saved them both.
