Page 12 of Crossing Quinn

The bugs were right behind him, clicking loud enough to raise the dead. The idiot never even noticed.

I watched as he climbed down into the pit. His face a mask of delighted greed, my uncle grabbed a chest and opened it. It held sand and the petrified remains of who knew what.

“Drekk.” He dropped the chest and grabbed another. Nothing but sand.

I pulled out a lockpick, unlocked the cuffs, and crawled out of the hole in the fuselage. The bugs veered around me. Mami’s brew was potent.

My uncle’s bellow echoed off the rocks. “Where’s the drekking treasure?”

Not here. The Nabateans had taken it with them.

The bugs crawled into the pit.

Dolon shouted in horror. “Get away! Get away! Get away!” Drawing his laser pistol, he started firing. He vaporized most of the bugs, along with hundreds of corpses and burial chests.

A cold rage filled me. Our pristine find was rapidly being destroyed by the careless fool. I smiled as more bugs poured into the pit. They should keep Dolon busy for a while. I scrambled down a narrow crevice and entered a cavernous passageway that led into the stone buildings.

The ancient city was built to align with the sun and illuminate the Nabatean’s sacred places. The empty chambers had inscriptions carved into the walls. Were they warnings? Directions to the new world? Or something else? Mami was still trying to interpret them.

The floors were paved with multicolored stones. Two black obelisks guarded an ornate facade painted with a grotesque blue dwarf glaring defiantly at a swarm of var bugs. Even back then, the bugs were a pest.

The earth shook, and pieces of the ceiling pelted me. I quickly checked the tracking scanner on my bracelet. Two ships were battling overhead, exchanging laser fire.

“Pirates, Papa?”

“No. Jeebito and Tabaw are fighting over who gets to claim the city.”

Jeebito and Tabaw were the bane of legitimate relic hunters. The murdering grave robbers had destroyed over eight hundred historical finds. “How did they find Qeeturah?”

“Your uncle gave them the coordinates.”

Horror knotted my stomach. “They’re his crew?”

“Yes.”

“But, everyone knows Jeebito put a death bounty on Tabaw. They hate each other.”

Papa’s anger filled my mind. “The henchman said Dolon was drunk when he first hired Jeebito, and an hour later he engaged Tabaw’s services.”

“Once they discover there is no treasure, they’ll cut Dolon’s throat.”

“They won’t live that long.”

The loud crack of cannon fire filled the air. Multiple energy bolts hit the area, and the ground shuddered beneath me.

“If they don’t stop, there won’t be anything to claim.”To lose Qeeturah and the artifacts would destroy Mami.

“This is the last site they raid,”Papa said and unleashed the laser cannons.

I sprinted over to the remains of a window and peered out. Trailing fire, a ship fell from the sky. It barely missed the graveyard and crashed into the sand. It was Tabaw’s ship. Kablooey! The ship exploded, sending shards of metal flying in every direction.

A rain of laser fire brought down Jeebito’s vessel. It hit the ground hard, and flames belched from the ruptured hull.

Out of nowhere, a bombardment of missiles struck our ship. Kaboom! A huge explosion turned our spacecraft into a blazing inferno.

“Papa!” For what seemed like an eternity, I watched the ship burn. Every nerve in my body twanged with shock and denial. Had Papa gotten out in time? Of course, he had. Papa’s psychic senses would have alerted him to the danger. I reached out mentally, “Papa? Are you okay? Papa?”

Silence was my only answer. I hunted for his familiar mental patterns. A cold snake of dread curled in my stomach. Why couldn’t I find them? “Papa! Please! You’re scaring me. Talk to me, Papa.” I chewed my lower lip. Maybe he was unconscious or had a head injury that kept him from answering.

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