The Survivor (Eve Duncan #30)

“Out!” It was Cade outside the window, yelling at her.

She nodded as she saw the cargo door open, and the coffin being slid inside. She got to her feet as Kirby pushed past her and sat down in the pilot’s seat. Then she was out of the helicopter and Cade was grabbing her arm and running with her toward the protection of the cliff where Galdar was still yelling orders at his men, only halting long enough to give her an extremely displeased stare.

She gave him an apologetic glance before muttering to Cade, “He wasn’t listening to me.”

“He had his hands full from what I gathered when I was running past him on the way to the helicopter,” Cade said.

“Well, so did you, but he didn’t realize exactly what was happening with those bastards. They weren’t even near here yet, so he shouldn’t have argued with me. We had to get Silvana to the Gulfstream.” But the helicopter was taking off now, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

You’re on your way, Silvana. It must seem very strange to you. Just try to look on it as a new adventure.

“I’d better go and check out what’s happening,” Cade said as he turned away. “It’s a little too coincidental that Nadim’s men suddenly appear here in this neighborhood at this particular time. Are they going after the temple?”

“That’s what Galdar was worried about. But the temple is so difficult to access, that’s surely doubtful. It has to be the sarcophagus itself.”

“Not if Bevan has been able to pay his spies enough to make it worth their while. It could be either one. He has Nadim’s rich pockets to tap,” he said grimly as he turned and headed for the cliff overlooking the entire property. “But I believe I’ll go take a look at where they spotted those soldiers. Though Galdar said his men had them on the run almost the minute they caught sight of his unit.”

“We’re too late!” Bevan’s voice shouted over the radio. “It’s gone. It’s all gone.”

Nadim gripped his phone harder as he surveyed the bank of monitors. “What are you talking about?”

“We met some resistance when we were still about ten miles from the tomb site.”

“Resistance? What kind of resistance?”

“I don’t know. Major numbers, it had to be Maya’s people. They were well armed. They had us pinned down for over twenty minutes. Then they disappeared. The next thing we knew, there was a large military-style helicopter at the tomb site. They had a whole team there emptying the contents into the copter.”

“No!” Nadim reared back his fist as if he was about to hurl the phone but then gained control of himself at the last second. “Cade. It has to be Cade.”

“Well, their helicopter just took off. You can probably see it on one of your drone video feeds.”

Nadim moved from one monitor to another. Half of the screens were black due to the number of drones destroyed by the high winds, but two of the remaining feeds clearly showed the helicopter soaring away from the mountain with the treasure.

His treasure.

One way or another, he would make damn sure Cade would pay.

He suddenly became aware of laughter and excited chatter at the far end of the tent. Did his failure amuse them? He looked up. Several of the techs were gathered around a monitor, pointing and gasping.

He stepped toward the group. “What in the hell is going on?”

“You’re not gonna believe it,” a female tech said.

“Try me.”

“One of our drone cameras spotted a group of animals on a plateau on the north side. Hundreds of them.”

“And how could that possibly interest me?”

“I think you should look for yourself.” She reached toward her console, zoomed in on the image, and motioned toward the monitor.

Nadim scowled. Fools. He was surrounded by fools. Their entire operation was falling apart and all they cared about was—

He froze. What in the holy hell?

He stepped closer to the screen, transfixed.

Unicorns.