«Sandstorm», James Rollins

SANDSTORM

JAMES ROLLINS

To Katherine, Adrienne, and RJ, the next generation

Contents

DOSSIER MAP FILE:

ARABIAN PENINSULA

BRITISH MUSEUM

CRYPT OF NABI IMRAN

TOMB OF AYOUB

SHISUR

PART ONE: THUNDERSTORM

FIRE AND RAIN

FOXHUNT

MATTERS OF THE HEART

WHITE WATER

HIGH WIRE ACT

PART TWO: SAND AND SEA

HOMECOMING

OLD TOWN

SNAKES AND LADDERS

BLOOD ON THE WATER

STORM SURGE

PART THREE: TOMBS

MAROONED

SAFETY FIRST

FOOTPRINTS OF THE PROPHET

TOMB RAIDER

MOUNTAIN TREK

PART FOUR: THE GATES OF UBAR

CROSSROADS

PICKING A LOCK

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

PART FIVE: FIRE DOWN BELOW

ANY PORT IN A STORM

BATTLE UNDER THE SAND

STORM WATCH

FIRESTORM

EPILOGUE

AUTHOR’S NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

BOOKS BY JAMES ROLLINS

COPYRIGHT

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

Dossier Map File

DEPT. OF DEFENSE CODE:

ALPHA42–PCR

SIGMA FORCE

Arabian Peninsula

British Museum

Crypt of Nabi Imran

Tomb of Ayoub

Shisur

Part One

Thunderstorm

1 Fire and Rain

NOVEMBER 14, 01:33 A.M.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

LONDON, ENGLAND

H ARRY MASTERSON would be dead in thirteen minutes.

If he had known this, he would’ve smoked his last cigarette down to the filter. Instead he stamped out the fag after only three drags and waved the cloud from around his face. If he was caught smoking outside the guards’ break room, he would be shit-canned by that bastard Fleming, head of museum security. Harry was already on probation for coming in two hours late for his shift last week.

Harry swore under his breath and pocketed the stubbed cigarette. He’d finish it at his next break…that is, if they got a break this night.

Thunder echoed through the masonry walls. The winter storm had struck just after midnight, opening with a riotous volley of hail, followed by a deluge that threatened to wash London into the Thames. Lightning danced across the skies in forked displays from one horizon to another. According to the weatherman on the Beeb, it was one of the fiercest electrical storms in over a decade. Half the city had been blacked out, overwhelmed by a spectacular lightning barrage.

And as fortune would have it for Harry, it was his half of the city that went dark, including the British Museum on Great Russell Street. Though they had backup generators, the entire security team had been summoned for additional protection of the museum’s property. They would be arriving in the next half hour. But Harry, assigned to the night shift, was already on duty when the regular lights went out. And though the video surveillance cameras were still operational on the emergency grid, he and the shift were ordered by Fleming to proceed with an immediate security sweep of the museum’s two and a half miles of halls.

That meant splitting up.