Bendia Bones slept fitfully. Her dreams bothered her with the consequences of discovery. Her body seemed to have bumped into every hard surface it could while she was trying to sleep. And the ground shook with the passing of heavy cars.

She settled for getting up and figuring out her next move. She wanted to call Kevin Davis to help her as a contact point, but didn't think it was safe for him. She had seen a glimpse of an organization that wanted what she was trying to find. They wouldn't have any scruples about using him as a hostage.

It was better if she looked around on her own, and left some record of what was going on for him to find if he looked for her.

She was glad that she had passed on that Yuseff had sold her out. That burned him with every other archaeologist looking for things in the area that Mr. Biles knew. They would know he would try to sell them out if the find was rare enough.

She hoped she had a clear area to work with in the daytime. Shooting those three muggers might have caused her some future problems. The town didn't have a doctor as far as she knew. What would they do to help the three criminals?

Would they do anything at all?

She had enough to worry about without worrying if the three stooges had survived a shooting. They could chalk their experience up as a teaching moment, if they bounced back from what had happened.

Bendia hoped they didn't try to get even with her. She didn't have the time to let them come at her a second time.

She exited from her hiding place in the necropolis. She paused to make sure no one was around as she wrapped her head. She needed to get some breakfast, and then she needed to start surveying the town for the entrance to the underground.

She wondered where it could be. Where would she put a door to a treasure room in a town that used to be a bustling metropolis before it fell on hard times? She walked to the wall around the city of the dead. She spotted three, maybe four, places in the graveyard.

She decided to save the necropolis for last after she walked through the rest of the town. She didn't want to be caught in there when she could search other places first. That made the most sense to her at the moment.

Bendia was also ready to change plans if something came up while she was looking around. It wouldn't be the first time a search had switched into high gear to get away from rivals trying to put bullets in her face.

She doubted it would be the last if she could get out of the desert alive.

Bendia started her search at the opposite end of the town from where she had marched in from hiding the jeep. She paid attention to the narrow streets and square buildings as she walked. One of them could be the clue she needed.

Once she knew where the underground entrance was, she could worry about the next step of her search. The key would be keeping it in her hands without alerting any of the people who might want to take it away from her.

And she had no idea how many people that might be. One organization would be bad enough. She didn't need to get caught between two of them trying to take the find from her. She couldn't win in a situation like that.

Bendia paused when she saw something familiar. It looked like one of the signs drawn on the map fragments she had taken from Yuseff. She frowned at the post sticking out of the ground. Pointed arms indicated directions from the narrow meeting of streets.

Were there any more of them? Did they match up with the map she had?

If she could find the big one from her map, then she was one step closer to finding the artifact.

She decided to walk along one of the streets and find the other posts if she could. The map made it look like they marked the corners of the box she wanted to open. The main one would be in the center if it still stood after all that time.

And she had nothing better to do than wander around, so she wasn't losing any time in the endeavor. It would be different if she had an idea of what she should be doing.

By the end of the day, she would have to check in with Mister Biles so he knew not to worry. That would buy her some more time to look around without someone else looking for her.

She didn't want someone getting in her way, and cause her to shoot them. It was better if she made the initial find on her own. Then Mister Biles could send people in to get her out of the country, arrange handing over what she found, and give her time to put things down on paper so they could publish the find for the world.

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If Kevin was on the scene, he would be doing that from the safety of a hotel that no one knew he was in to make the necessary calls for her.

Bendia walked along the street, eyes scanning for the next signpost. If she was wrong about the direction, she would have to turn around and backtrack. A new direction might give her the next signpost, or it might be another false start so she would have to pick another way.

It wouldn't be the first time she had searched an area for the available evidence she needed to find her key spot. She supposed it would always be like that no matter what.

After walking a few miles, she decided that she needed to turn around. She must have picked the wrong direction after all.

Maybe another look at the sign would give her something she could use.

Bendia searched the city with the first signpost as her home base. She found two more posts. The fourth one eluded her. She might have enough to find the center post, but she didn't trust it.

She decided to get something to eat and then retreat back to her base of operations. She could try to find the last signpost during the daytime. Wandering around at night would just attract more jerks she would have to shoot.

She couldn't shoot every jerk in the town. The local cops would frown on that. Claiming self defense wouldn't even be possible since she should know her place.

She decided to avoid the place she had eaten at earlier. They obviously didn't like women roaming around on their own. She didn't need to ask for trouble when there was so much just waiting for her to claim.

It was better to eat somewhere else and then retreat to cover. When the sun came out, she would look for the last signpost. From there, she could figure out where the big piece stood.

She knew the last two posts could have been torn down. She was going on a story that was older than most of the region. There's no guarantee that anything matched with what she had found so far.

She did like the odds that they would match.

Three out of the five still standing gave her a feeling that she would find the other two. She needed to exercise her patience.

Bendia had dinner at an open grilling place. She finished her food and moved on. The proprietor waved at her as she left.

If she couldn't find the posts in the next few days, she would have to give the search up and let Mister Biles flood the place with minions looking for what she didn't find.

She didn't want to resort to that, but it was a viable option she might have to explore. She would have to give up any claim on the find if she resorted to that, but it was better than letting it fall in the wrong hands.

If someone else found the artifact, she might be able to negotiate with them to have it returned.

She might have to take it from them.

Bendia found a hotel dealing with foreigners. The place had the one thing she needed. She went to the phone on the wall and called Mister Biles.

Once she was done reporting in, she could hide in the necropolis and get some sleep. Tomorrow would be another day.

She definitely wasn't going to sleep in a public place where any of her unknown enemies might come after her. Moving around in the day time was dangerous enough.

“Biles here,” said her mentor.

“This is Bones,” said Bendia. “I just checking in. I found three of the five signs from the map I found. I'm hoping to find the other two tomorrow. There's a chance the signs have been damaged. I might have to do some guesswork with what I already have.”

“Your things have been collected,” said Mister Biles. “Someone planted listening devices in your clothes. I suppose they thought you were coming back for your belongings eventually.”

“Tracking me would be the first thing until I found the underground cavern I'm looking for,” said Bendia. “All they would have to do would be go to my last spot on their scope and look around to see where I ditched the bug.”

“Do you need someone to look at your backtrail?,” said Biles.

“Not yet,” said Bendia. “I haven't seen anyone since coming to town. Maybe I lost the main factions at the moment. It won't take them long to figure out what happened, if they haven't already. I might be looking at a troop movement in the near future. I don't want to get anyone else involved until I know for sure.”

“It will take me time to plan an extraction,” said Biles. “Plan accordingly.”

“I think I can handle that,” said Bendia. “Thanks for picking up my gear. I hated to leave it behind.”

“It will be waiting for you at your home,” said Biles.

“I'll call you back in a couple of days,” said Bendia. “Hopefully I'll have something more for you then.”

“I'll be waiting,” said Biles. “Be careful. I don't want them to ship you home in a box like your luggage.”

“I'll see you when I'm done,” said Bendia. “It's your turn to buy.”

“I don't think so,” said Biles.

“I bought the last time,” said Bendia.

“Davis bought the last time, and I bought the time before that,” said Biles. “So it's your turn. Don't be a welsher.”

“That's some strong language,” said Bendia.

“Don't be a welsher, and come home in one piece,” said Biles. “Two days.”

“Two days,” agreed Bendia. The line went dead as he hung up.

Bendia hung up on her end. She had two days of wandering around before she had to check in again. She wondered how many phones there were in Umir, and how easy it would be to bug all of them.

It was a good thing she wasn't staying at the hotel. That should throw any pursuit off that much. It was time for her to get under cover and wait out the rest of the night. Tomorrow was another day.

She didn't need another scrap with potential theives while she was working. It wasn't her job to clean up the world.

She needed to plan where she needed to go, find the last two signs, and then see if that pointed her to the ancient areas of the map. Then she could worry about finding the artifact and eluding anyone else searching for the thing.

And she had two days to do that in.