Moon Mask Read Free Page B

never seen the victims used in the foundations before.”
    “Are you sure they’re actual skulls?” Sid asked.
    Nadia was irritated by her friend’s questioning. Having met at Oxford, Sid was probably closer to the Russian woman than anyone, yet even she appreciated the reason most of the expedition members referred to her behind her back as ‘The Ice Queen.’
    While brilliant, she had few people skills and didn’t like her conclusions to be questioned. As an osteoarchaeologist, specialising in the study of human bones, she didn’t expect to be queried by a ‘run of the mill bog-standard archaeologist’ like Alysya “Sid” Siddiqa.
    In many ways the two women were like chalk and cheese. Sid’s grandparents had moved to London from the slums of Bombay in the nineteen fifties and with their entrepreneurial spirit selling clothing at Camden Market they had built a successful business. Eventually, Sid’s parents had taken that business global and become very wealthy. Wealthy enough to finance their most promising daughter’s education through Oxford University.
    She was attractive in a very pretty way, her mocha-coloured skin offsetting dark eyes and a round face framed by black-as-night hair. Despite coming from a very privileged family, albeit self-made, there was nothing pretentious or superior about her. She had an ever-ready smile and a gentle, caring nature.
    Nadia, on the other hand, had lived a hard life, growing up in the Dagestan town of Izberbash on the coast of the Caspian Sea. She had seen her fair share of war and horror as a young child in the troubled state which was fighting for independence from Russia, but had escaped the difficulties when her genius level IQ had been spotted at an early age.
    By sixteen, she had won a scholarship at Moscow State University and became the youngest ever graduate in Quantum Physics. She went on to study practical science and medicine and became known as one of the world’s most intelligent people.
    With three degrees to her name by the age of twenty five, she returned to her home town to work with her father, Iosef, himself a respected quantum physicist. But following his brutal murder by the militant organisation Shariat Jamaat, Nadia had fled to Great Britain, seeking asylum, both from the militants, and from the state that had declared Iosef Yashin a traitor. Traumatised by her experiences, Nadia had sought a new direction in life and earned her fourth degree, this time in archaeology, from Oxford.
    Her experiences had made her hard and cold. She rarely socialised with people and a smile was a very rare thing to grace her beautiful yet stern face. She was the epitome of sexiness, turning many young men’s eyes. Her body was toned and firm, but not as firm as her icy manner. Much as most of Oxford’s young men may have wanted to, no one got close to the Ice Queen.
    Deigning to respond to Sid’s query, Nadia instead said, “We must report this to Doctor McKinney.”
    “What?” King demanded, shocked. “We’ve not even checked this passageway out yet.” He started off down the tunnel.
    “Nadia’s right, Ben,” Sid called after him. “We’ve got to report in.”
    “But who knows what else might be down here?” he argued.
    “Precisely,” Sid pressed. “No one knows what’s down here. More to the point, no one knows that we’re here. If something happens to us they won’t know to look for us in a hidden passageway- it’s hidden , you see, that’s kinda the point.”
    “The procedure is to report any unmapped passages before proceeding down them,” Nadia added.
    “What, and let McKinney and all her brown-nosers find whatever’s down here and take all the credit? No way! This is our discovery. The three of us. You go back and make your report if you want but I’m taking a better look around.”
    He headed off again, this time with the tell-tale gait of a man whose mind was made up. Sid rolled her eyes and glanced at Nadia. “Why can’t he