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“You’ll ht,” Hank said “Those two can wait”

“Good point” She smiled at Sam and Remi “Shall we?”

Saerly “I’ll introduce myself and catch up to you”

“I’ll go with Sam,” Hank said “Better fill a bucket if you really want to show it off”

“We will” Renee smiled as she looked over at Remi “You have to see this … Did I mention there’s a curse?”

CHAPTER FOUR

Hurry, hurry, has no blessings

– SWAHILI PROVERB –

What curse?” Remi asked as Renee led her toward the villa

“Not that I believe in that stuff, but it was so brutally killed because of it” Renee stopped in her tracks, grinning “With all the thefts going on around here, it just occurred to ns Property Cursed Violators Will Suffer a Violent Death”

They laughed, then continued down the uneven path for several more minutes to an area cordoned off with a chain-link fence A padlock and chain hung on the open gate, and yellow caution signs warning Excavation in Progress were posted around the perimeter

Renee pointed to their left “Somewhere over there is where we think the stairs are located Buried beneath tons of rubble and centuries of dirt”

“I thought they’d discoveredthere was to find and that the work noas all about preservation”

“Exactly what I thought, until I got to know Aave a conspiratorial smile “That’s when I learned about the curse That was the hook of her thesis But the idea that the city extended farther than anyone had previously believed caia passed down through the women in her fa past the dig site “That’s where she lives with herthe entire hillside and all the land just beyond it has been in their faenerations The university rents the house there at the bottom of the hill for our crew”

A gust of wind swept through the ancient trees, swirling the twisted branches “A warning, no doubt,” Reround