Sands of Time (Out of Time #6) by Monique Martin Read Free Book Online

“Come from the rising moon, and blow. Blow him again to me.”
    “While my little one, while my pretty one, dances.”
    It was a clever code. A simple verse from a Tennyson poem with a few select words changed.
    Mason huffed out a breath as he took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “Thank God. I thought you were one of them.”
    “Definitely not one of them,” Elizabeth assured him. “Wait. One of what?”
    “I’m not sure exactly.” He smiled weakly. “I was beginning to think everyone here was working for the Shadow Council.” He looked even more exhausted than they were. “It plays tricks on you, this country. You search so long and you don’t know who to trust. Can’t trust anyone really.”
    “Have you found it? Have you located the watch?” Simon asked.
    “I think so,” Mason said. “At least I’m close. It’s been an odd sort of thing. I should have known, you know? I knew Shelton. I suppose we’ll never find out what happened to him, will we?”
    “No,” Simon agreed. “Probably not. But the watch—”
    “Right, the watch.”
    The door to the far end of the car opened and a man in a dark galabiya and keffiyeh scarf covering his face looked around. He stared at Mason for a moment, and then he raised his hand. He had a red and black checkered scarf wrapped around it and Elizabeth wondered if he’d been injured.
    And then she saw the flash of the muzzle and the angry sound of a gunshot rang out.
    Simon pulled Elizabeth to him and twisted away from the assailant. The gunshot rang in her ears, made all the louder by the small enclosed space of the railcar.
    “No!” Jack cried from behind them.
    Elizabeth heard the door slam shut and then footsteps. She looked up just as Jack passed her, running toward the doorway. And then Mason, blood dribbling down his chin, eyes frozen in surprise, fell face first into the table.
    Elizabeth’s breath caught. “Oh my god.”
    The bullet wound to the back of his head was small, but brutal. Simon slid out of their seat. “Stay here!” he said and rushed to join Jack.
    Elizabeth stared in shock at Mason as more blood spread out beneath his head. She shook herself out of it and pushed out a bracing breath as she slipped out of the seat, and ran to the door. She found Simon and Jack standing just inside the next car.
    Simon started to say something, but settled for a frustrated sigh.
    “Where’d he go?” she asked.
    Jack held out the dark robe and red and black keffiyeh. The ends were charred from the flash from the gun. The shooter must have shed them immediately in the space between cars and then blended in with the rest of the passengers.
    If the passengers had heard anything or seen anything, they gave no sign of it.
    Simon grunted in frustration and went back into the first class car. Elizabeth and Jack followed.
    To no one’s surprise, Mason hadn’t moved. The blood pool under his head was already starting to look sticky.
    “We need to search him,” Simon said.
    Jack, used to grim business like this, didn’t hesitate. He leaned Mason back in his seat and made quick work of going through his pockets. He found Mason’s watch and handed it to Simon. It was identical to the one Simon’s grandfather, Sebastian, had given him. Other than his wallet, the only other item he had with him was an envelope. Jack put that into his own pocket and eased Mason back down onto the table.
    Elizabeth felt queasy.
    “Now what?” Jack asked.
    Simon looked at Elizabeth and took hold of her hand. “I don’t know,” he said, honestly. “I really don’t know.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    It was early afternoon by the time they arrived in Cairo. They’d successfully managed to mix in with the rest of the train’s crowd when Mason’s body was discovered. They, like everyone else on the train, had nothing helpful to offer. The couple who’d left the car and everyone else who’d seen them searching for Mason had instantaneous amnesia. For the first time,