"Tanya Huff - Victoria Nelson - 03 - Blood Lines" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

Behind him, the fourteenth baron cleared his throat.

Dr. Rax continued to ignore him.

Although one corner had been chipped, the sarcophagus was in very good condition. Tucked away in
one of the lower cellars of the Monclairs' ancestral home for almost a hundred years, it seemed to have
been ignored by everything including time.

And excluding spiders. He brushed aside a dusty curtain of webbing, frowned, and with fingers that
wanted to tremble, pulled a penlight out of his suit pocket.

"I say, is something wrong?" The fourteenth baron had an excuse for sounding a little frantic. The very
exclusive remodeling firm would be arriving in a little under a month to turn the ancestral pile into a
very exclusive health club and that great bloody stone box was sitting right where he'd planned to put the
women's sauna.

The thudding of Dr. Rax's heart almost drowned out the question. He managed to mutter, "Nothing."
Then he knelt and very carefully played the narrow beam of light over the lower edge of the sliding
plate. Centered on the mortared seam, six inches above the base of the sarcophagus, was an oval of clay-
a nearly perfect intact clay seal stamped with, as far as Dr. Rax could tell through the dust and the spider
webs, the cartouche of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom.

Just for a moment, he forgot to breathe. An intact seal could mean only one thing. The sarcophagus
wasn't-as everyone had assumed-empty.

For a dozen heartbeats, he stared at the seal and struggled with his conscience. The Brits had already
said they didn't want the artifact. He was under no obligation to let them know what they were giving
away. On the other handтАж He sighed, switched off the penlight, and stood. "I need to make a call," he
told the anxious peer. "If you could show me to a phone."

"Dr. Rax, what a pleasant surprise. Still out at Haversted Hall are you? Get a look at his lordship's
'bloody-great-black-stone-box'?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. And that's why I've called." He took a deep breath; best to get it over with
quickly, the loss might hurt less. "Dr. Davis, did you actually send one of your people out here to look at
the sarcophagus."

"Why?" The British Egyptologist snorted. "Need some help identifying it?"

Abruptly, Dr. Rax remembered why, and how much, he disliked the other man. "I think I can manage to
classify it, thank you. I was just wondering if any of your people had seen the artifact."

"No need. We saw the rest of the junk Montclair dragged out of his nooks and crannies. You'd think that

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with all the precious bits and pieces leaving Egypt at the time, his Lordship's ancestor could have
brought home something worthwhile, even by accident, wouldn't you?"