CHAPTER NINETEEN

Major found his new wife sitting on the stone bench with a large smile on her face, just staring at the cherubic stone statue fountain. He watched her for a moment, making sure she wasn't praying or deep in thought. She turned to look at him.

"Hi. Am I disturbing you?" he asked.

"Not at all. I just had the loveliest, most insightful conversation of my life with Matthew. I feel… lighter. Happier. I can't explain it," she giggled.

"No need to explain," he said, shaking his head. "Matthew is one of a kind, and I can tell you he has always been the ultimate moral compass for me. Babe? What do you want to do about what we found? If we can't get back into that tunnel, what should we do?"

"I think there's more there. There's something else to find and figure out what it was he actually discovered." She stood and walked toward him, taking his hand. "I think these men must have known about the original dig. I need to speak to those men that were on that dig team. Those that survived."

"What about any other archaeologists on the team?"

"Arabel. But I don't know if she's alive or not. I think we start with Efram and see if he remembers anything at all."

"Then let's try to find Efram and go from there," he smiled.

They went back to the offices where the tech team was still scanning the documents and notes from her father's archives. Sly was able to find a phone number for the man and set up the call in the conference room. Major, Luke, Eric, and Hex were seated with her.

"Hello?" said the man looking confused, staring at his phone.

"Efram? Efram, it's me. Elena," she smiled. He stared at the picture on the phone then started to cry. "Efram, it's alright. If this isn't a good time, I'll call back."

"No. No, that's not it at all. I was so worried about you."

"Why? I'm perfectly fine," she smiled.

"The museum said you no longer worked there. I called to be sure you were healthy and to warn you."

"Warn me about what?" He looked at the other faces around her. "Oh. Efram, this is my husband, Major. These are his friends. I'm in good hands."

"Thank you," he said, nodding at the men.

"Efram why were you worried for me?"

"The others have all died, Elena. The rest of your father's team have all been killed. I am only alive because I am in a remote location, away from Egypt." Luke looked at Sly, and he nodded, holding up a sign.

Sicily

"How did they die?" she asked. "Arabel as well?"

"All of them. The archaeologists, the diggers, the engineers. They've all died, Elena. All except you and me."

"Efram, what was in that tunnel on the last dig? It wasn't Egyptian, was it?" she asked.

"I honestly don't know. Your father and Dr. Goldmeir refused to tell anyone what we were looking for. They only said that everything was important. Scraps of cloth, wood, metal, all of it was important."

"The day of the collapse, what happened? Those tunnels had been made safe by the engineers. How did they collapse?" asked Major.

"Collapse? There was no collapse. There were explosives in those tunnels. Your father would have never allowed that. They wouldn't say anything because they didn't want the negative press."

"D-did my mother know of this?" she whispered. Efram just stared at her through the screen. "She knew. She knew, and she said and did nothing."

"She did nothing because she worried that you would take up this cause and get yourself killed. Something was in there, Elena. Something we were not to find. A team dug from the other direction a few years ago and met with the same fate. The tunnel collapsed."

"So, there's no opportunity for us to get in there and start digging again?" she asked.

"The government dug the tunnel out, Elena. They excavated all of it and found nothing except the bones of those who had died. They spent millions to do this behind the scenes, unseen, by themselves. Why do you think that is?"

"There is, was something there," she said. "The question is, who found it and moved it and why?"

"I don't want to know the answer to that," he said. "I'm staying away from it all. I have teenagers now who need their father. I won't risk their lives or my own. I work in construction now. I still dig but dig for apartment buildings and roads."

Elena smiled at him, nodding her head.

"I've missed you, Efram. You were my only friend on those sites," she said.

"You were so excited every time we found something," he laughed. "It was like watching a child open a birthday present. Rocks, pottery, cloth, anything would make you so excited we could hardly contain you. She's not easy to manage sometimes, Major."

"I think I've found that out," he smiled. "It's one of the many reasons I love her."

"I can see that, and it makes me happy."

"Efram, did my mother know anything about this? Was she knowledgeable about anything my father did?"

"I wish I could tell you that she was aware, but she was not. She never came to the sites unless it was to drop you off or pick you up, and even then, for her, it was an inconvenience. She despised the sand, hated the amount of time your father spent at the sites, and began hating him for turning your mind to archaeology."

"He didn't turn my mind." Efram stared at her with a daring glance. "Alright. Maybe he did. But I was happy there. I am happy discovering new things."

"Let this one go, Elena. Whatever it was your father was looking for, let it go. It's not worth dying for."

Elena said her goodbyes to Efram, more confused than she was an hour ago. They needed help on the inside. Someone who could tell them if this was real or a hoax.