THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET Read Online Free Page B

after Alexander the Great died.’
    Alice nodded, as she studied the tablets and statuettes on the shelves.
    Damon looked at his watch. ‘We should inform HQ. They’re waiting for us. They’ll want to leave right away to see this for themselves.’
    ‘Mmm. Why don’t you carry on to the hotel and wait for them? I’ll finish photographing the tomb.’ Alice was already pulling out the camera from her bag. ‘I’ll also tag the artefacts and pack them in the containers.’
    ‘Thanks. I’ll send Marco back for you.’ Damon smiled at her and left, followed by Marco.
    Alice looked around as an enormous sigh escaped her. This was the high point of her career as an archaeologist. She busied herself clicking photographs of the chambers, the larnax and the murals.
    After she had finished, she turned her attention to the artefacts in the hidden chamber, carefully photographing each one before she packed them in the padded containers.
    ‘Hey, what’s this?’ she muttered to herself as she picked up the final artefact, a yellowing cube with inscriptions on five sides. It had been hidden until now behind the statuettes and clay tablets. At first she thought it was made from ancient bone which had discoloured over the centuries. But, as she turned it over in her hands and studied it in the light of the lamps, she realised that it was actually carved from ivory. The “cross-hatch” or wavy pattern that is so distinctive in ivory was clearly visible in the strong light of the lamps.
    ‘Ivory in Madeconia two thousand four hundred years ago?’ she muttered to herself. ‘That’s strange. There weren’t elephants in these parts.’
    ‘You done?’
    Alice jumped and almost dropped the cube. She turned to see Marco grinning at her.
    ‘You startled me,’ she complained light-heartedly. ‘Don’t go doing that to folks who are alone in dark ancient tombs.’
    ‘Sorry,’ Marco grinned back, his voice betraying his excitement. It wasn’t every day that a student got to be a part of a discovery like this. ‘But you were talking to yourself, so I couldn’t resist it. Damon’s spoken to HQ. They’re on their way. Oh, by the way, Damon asked you to get the cube with you. Apparently the directors want to see it.’ He indicated the ivory cube that Alice was still holding.
    ‘Sure. I just need to photograph and tag it.’ She photographed all the sides of the cube, placed it in a container like the other artefacts and then dumped the container in her backpack along with the camera.
    ‘Great. I’m done here. Let’s get these to the dig hut.’ Alice led the way out of the tomb. Together, they lugged the containers containing the artefacts to the dig hut, and carefully laid them out on the central table. Alice was sure the two directors would want to see these immediately, since they had specifically asked for them to be removed from the tomb.
    ‘Done.’ Marco slipped off his white gloves and looked at her expectantly.
    Alice nodded. ‘Let’s go.’ They locked the door of the dig hut. There were two guards posted at the site and it was miles from anywhere, so it was unlikely that anyone would steal the artefacts. But this was the discovery of the millennium, so one couldn’t take chances.
    Back at the hotel, which was little more than a cluster of rustic villas, Alice made her way to her room while Marco parked the car and left to find Damon. ‘I’ll join you guys in five minutes,’ she told Marco. She knew that she was just trying to postpone the inevitable. All through the excavations, she had avoided interacting with the two directors as far as possible, leaving Damon to brief them, report to them and take instructions where required. But tonight there was no escape. She would have to accompany Stavros and Peter, the two co-directors of the mission, to the tomb. She wasn’t very fond of either of them and she was aware that the sentiment was reciprocated by both of them. But, as one of the lead archaeologists on