Free THE MAHABHARATA QUEST:THE ALEXANDER SECRET by CHRISTOPHER C. DOYLE Page B

cube?’
    ‘I put it in my backpack.’ The realisation struck Alice hard. In her panic and wild attempts to get away, she had forgotten that she still carried the cube, safe in its container inside her backpack, which she had brought with her to India.
    ‘So that’s what they wanted,’ Vijay murmured. ‘The cube.’
    Alice shook her head. The images from two nights ago were burned into her mind as if they had been seared by a red hot branding iron. ‘They were after me because I had seen the tomb. Marco had nothing with him. But he was in the tomb with us. So they killed him, too. They just wanted to kill everyone who was there that evening.’
    Vijay looked thoughtful. ‘What did you do with your laptop and camera?’
    ‘Left them both in my room at the hotel.’
    ‘So they would have the photographs of all the artefacts with them.’ Vijay looked puzzled. ‘That doesn’t explain anything.’
    Alice’s eyes widened. ‘No, they wouldn’t,’ she said. ‘I didn’t have time to upload the photographs to the laptop. I thought I’d do it later so I took out the memory stick and put it in my waist pouch. I still have it with me.’
    Vijay slapped his thigh. ‘It has to be the cube,’ he persisted. ‘Two good reasons why. First, the cube is the only artefact that is missing from the collection. And since they don’t have the photographs either, they need the original. Right?’
    ‘Right,’ Alice murmured, still doubtful.
    ‘Second, you mentioned that you discovered the cube right at the end since it was hidden behind the tablets and statues and Damon had left the tomb by then.’
    ‘That’s right.’ Alice realised what Vijay was leading up to. ‘So you’re wondering how Damon could have known it was there when he hadn’t seen it. It is possible that he saw it while he was examining the artefacts in the hidden chamber.’
    Vijay shook his head. ‘That’s not it. What I’m wondering is this. The co-directors had given instructions to remove all artefacts and place them in the dig hut. Correct?’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘So why did Damon ask you to bring only the cube with you to the hotel? Why was the cube so significant? And, more importantly, Marco told you that Stavros was reprimanding Damon for asking you to bring the cube to the hotel. According to Stavros, Damon should have brought it himself. Which could mean that Damon had been told that the cube was significant in some way and should be brought back to the hotel. Which begs the question: how did Stavros or Peter, or anyone for that matter, know that the cube was down in that tomb when they weren’t there to see it?’
    Alice mulled this over. ‘It is possible,’ she said slowly, thinking aloud, ‘that Damon told them about the cube and they asked him to get it to the hotel.’
    ‘I don’t think so,’ Vijay argued, ‘there are too many coincidences for your explanation to be acceptable. First, Damon would have needed to have seen the cube before you discovered it. Unlikely. And then, it is also very unlikely that Damon would have told Stavros about it and would be asked to bring only that particular artefact to the hotel without there being any particular significance attached to it. And, why did they want to see only the cube? Why not any of the other artefacts from the tomb? Finally, the cube is the only artefact not in their possession and they don’t have a photograph of it either. So it has to be the cube that they are after.’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Alice replied. ‘You could be right. Your logic certainly makes sense. The cube was intriguing. But there was nothing special about it. Other than the fact that it was made from ivory and it had unintelligible inscriptions on it.’
    ‘Why would an old ivory cube in a tomb drive people to kill?’ Colin wondered. ‘Whose tomb was it anyway?’
    Alice smiled at him. ‘Maybe I should give you a background of this excavation, so you can get an idea of what we were looking