Andy nodded and slid down into his seat. “You seemed to know a lot about this lighthouse and island. What exactly are we looking for?”

Tania leaned back. “The Lighthouse debris is mostly underwater now, and the Island of Pharos has thousands of archeological pieces scattered over the surrounding sea floor – columns, statues and sphinxes have been lying there for ages.” She turned to him. “I’m looking forward to what we can find there.”

Rick Berry had his head down looking into his GPS, and then pointed flat handed to the north-west. “We need to veer five degrees to avoid a small town coming up.”

Matt knew that running into possible spies was not an option for them. Though he could speak most Middle Eastern languages fluently, the group looked about as Syrian as the Bee Gees. If they ran into rebels, they wouldn’t get away without a firefight.

Hartogg eased the wheel over a notch, and slowed as they hit some heavily stoned ground. Abrams looked back for a moment, grunted and then slid lower into his seat as well, and then pushed his cap down over his eyes. The dust cloud was worse, and, as they barreled along, the thick tires kicked up a huge rooster tail of debris.

Matt sipped from his canteen and looked past Tania and out her window. It was easy for the eyes to become tired, looking out over the crumbling yellowed ground, and the occasional pale spiky leaves of stunted trees.

Though they were heading into an area of higher elevation, it was still hot and dry with the outside temperature around ninety and the humidity at a moisture-sapping fifteen percent. This was not the sort of land you took to by foot. Without lots of water, you could end up dehydrated and delirious within twenty-four hours. He bet that the two SEALS, Abrams, and probably even Tania might be physically equipped for the terrain, but city slickers like him and Andy would be in a world of hurt. He was…

Their vehicle was kicked up into the air, to spin in slow motion. Matt felt his stomach lurch as light and dark swirled in and out of each other. The truck struck the ground on its roof, and his head and neck compressed. Everything went black.

*

Matt opened his eyes as he was being dragged backward, his boots furrowing the hard ground. He looked up to see the SEAL, Hartogg, smiling down at him; the big man winked.

“Nice to see you back in the land of the living, Professor.”

“Wha…?” Matt’s vision swam and the SEAL’s white grin in a dust-and-soot-covered face stood out like a Cheshire cat’s.

“Bit of a lump in the road, is all. All good now.” Hartogg continued to grin and drag him.

Matt craned his neck; Tania was sitting up, hunched over and holding her head. Andy was beside her, sipping from a canteen; his face was streaked red.

Matt went to sit forward. “I’m okay.”