The Sacred Vault by Andy McDermott Read Free Book Online Page A

close to a lot of loud bangs over the years.’
    A conflicted look crossed his square face, immediately making her regret her levity. She sat up, concerned. ‘Eddie, what is it?’
    He sat beside her. ‘The thing is . . . I did see a specialist.’
    ‘What? When?’
    ‘About two months back. I’d been having trouble on and off since that bloody room in the pyramid with the big pipe-organ thing.’ Nina remembered it all too well, an ancient booby trap deep within the Pyramid of Osiris designed to deafen intruders with an unbearable blast of sound. ‘So I made an appointment to have my ears checked out.’
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
    He shrugged; not dismissively, but in a kind of resignation. ‘’Cause I thought it’d go away on its own. It always did before - like you said, I’ve heard a lot of loud bangs. Only this time . . . it didn’t.’
    ‘What did the specialist say?’
    He stood and went into the study, returning with a manila envelope. ‘Let’s see,’ he said, taking out a sheet of paper. ‘ “Permanent threshold shift due to repeated damaging levels of noise exposure . . . sensorineural hearing loss to a moderate degree in the high frequencies . . .” In other words, my hearing’s fucked.’
    Nina felt suddenly cold, the happiness of the evening evaporating. ‘ “Permanent”?’
    He held her hands to provide reassurance. ‘It’s not like I’ve gone stone deaf, and he said it wouldn’t get any worse for now. It just means I can’t hear as well as I used to, and it’s worst with high-frequency sounds, like voices. Well, women’s voices, basically.’
    She wasn’t sure how to respond. ‘Oh, God. Eddie, that’s . . .’
    He smiled crookedly. ‘You’ll just have to nag me in a deeper voice if you want me to hear you.’
    Nina wasn’t amused. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
    ‘Well . . . you know what I’m like. Not big on owning up to being less than one hundred per cent at anything.’
    ‘Yeah, I’ve noticed.’ She managed a slight smile.
    ‘Tchah. But yeah, it’s made me think a bit. If one thing starts going, then what’s next?’
    ‘Is that why you’ve been spending so much time at the gym? Fending off the inevitable ravages of age?’
    ‘Oi!’ he protested. ‘Thirty-eight’s not old. And I’m still in top nick - going to the gym’s just a way to keep from getting a fat arse from sitting in an office all day. You should come with me.’
    ‘Are you saying I’ve got a fat ass?’
    He made a show of examining it. ‘Your arse is a thing of beauty. And women always look better with curves anyway.’
    ‘You are saying I’ve got a fat ass!’ They exchanged smiles, then Nina’s face became more serious. ‘So what are you going to do?’
    ‘Not much I can do. It’s not like when I trained back up after breaking my arm - I can’t lift weights with my ears. I just need to stay away from loud noises.’ A rueful look. ‘It’s funny - the doctor asked me if I’d been near anything loud in the past few years. I was thinking, Christ, where do I start? Underneath a jet while it was taking off, running out of an exploding power station, having a stealth bomber drop bunker-busters on me . . .’
    Nina patted his shoulder. ‘Y’know, I’m more than happy for us to have a quiet life.’
    ‘I suppose . . .’
    She snorted. ‘Oh, Jesus - you really do miss the action, don’t you?’
    ‘No, no,’ he insisted. ‘Well, a little bit. I mean, it’s sort of what I do, innit?’
    ‘Perhaps, but I wish it didn’t go to such extremes. Exotic travel, amazing historical discoveries - that’s the kind of excitement I’d be happy with. No need to add tanks and bombs and machine guns as well!’ She kissed his cheek. ‘You looked after me during everything we’ve been through in the last four years. You can take things easy from now. You deserve it.’
    ‘Aye, well . . .’ He returned the kiss. ‘Just so long as things don’t get boring.’
    ‘I’ll try to find