The Phoenician Falcon (A Chyna Stone Adventure #3) Read online

  At her desk, Chyna sat sifting through a ton load of unopened mail. Mostly, it had turned out to be letters of thanks from the local authorities and intellectual societies they had come in contact with as well as cards from agencies and organizations who had been the beneficiaries of the items they had found during their investigations. Diplomatic communiqués confirming details she had submitted to embassies, consulates and other authorities regarding the teams’ objectives while in their country, as well as declarations for her firearm and their equipment. There were also wire transfer advices for the payment of her fees and some bills for the team’s expenses. She was angry when she saw those; unopened and parked on her desk to wait until she returned to the office.

  When she had opened them all, Chyna put them in separate piles for Sandra to attend to. The sight of the unpaid bills and unconfirmed fee payments confirmed to her that a decision she had been contemplating for the past four months since her return home was now imminent. She could no longer afford to put off making it. Chyna picked up the telephone on her desk and dialed Sandra’s number on the intercom.

  “Hi, Sandra,” she said. “Could you please call Lana and Oscar and ask them to meet me in the conference for lunch? I need you there as well. There are some really important things regarding the future of this company that we need to discuss especially since we’ll be off again so soon to Syria.”

  “Sure thing, Chyna,” Sandra replied. “Is there anything you’re going to need me to get for the meeting?”

  “Yes, since I’m not sure how long we’re going to be, could you make sure that the phones are covered and also order some lunch for us from that Chinese place, Land of Plenty? You know what everybody likes.”

  “I’ll do that, Chyna.”

  “Let’s make it twelve thirty, okay?”

  “Certainly.”

  At twelve fifteen the food arrived and shortly after Lana and Oscar strolled into the conference room and started to serve themselves some lunch. Chyna and Sandra joined them a few minutes later and did the same. When everyone was settled down, Chyna began to speak.

  “Good afternoon everyone,” she started. “Now that everyone has something to eat, I’ll just say what it is I’ve asked you all here for and then I’ll take the chance to eat while you give me your feedback.”

  “Fair enough,” Oscar mumbled, around a mouthful of Szechuan noodles.

  “As you all know, last year Lana and I went on a six month assignment in Greece which turned into eleven months of the most successful and rewarding work ever accomplished by Found History. Oscar, you had your first chance to join us in the field and what was supposed to be a three week expedition for you in Greece, turned out to be four months of plane hopping and equipment lugging. In the end it was worth it though; we had a great time, met some amazing people and found a lot of lost history.

  “But it got me thinking about the future of our company and I think it’s time for me to take action on a plan I’ve been toying with for a long time. It’s why I hired Sirita a couple years back; I’ve just never taken it further because I wasn’t convinced it was lucrative enough. Even after coming back from our trip, I still wasn’t convinced until Sandra sent me the dossier on our latest assignment a couple weeks ago. After confirming us for this trip to Syria, I’m ready to propose that we open a second office, Found History East LLC. Tell me, what do you all think?”

  “Wow, Chyna,” Lana said, looking dumbstruck. “I can’t believe it but I do think it’s about damn time! We’ve been spread pretty thin and when we’re on that side of the world, there’s so much that gets neglected at home both personally and business-wise.”

  “I agree,” Oscar said. “This was my first time overseas with you guys but now that I know what assignments like these entail, I’m eager to get involved with more of them.”

  “Really, Oscar?” Chyna said, surprised. “I’d have thought all the traveling was especially taxing on you; with all the equipment and such.”

  “Nah,” he said, lifting another forkful. “I was in my element; like a hog in mud.”

  Chyna laughed at his down-home southern expression which reminded her that even in New York, Oscar was far from home. He really didn’t get that much time to get back to Tennessee and when he did it was really just a quick visit to family and friends before heading straight back to work. Lana had gotten engaged after their return from Turkey and Chyna knew it was only fair that she should have the opportunity to spend more time closer to home.

  “What do think about it, Sandra,” Chyna asked. She had noticed the secretary had been rather quiet.

  “I have to say I’m in shock,” she replied, “but it’s certainly the right move. It’s evident that the company’s reputation is fast outgrowing its capabilities. We’ve come too far since your father passed away to allow ourselves to become obsolete.”

  “That’s why I love you guys!” Chyna exclaimed. “Well, since we’re all in agreement, I have a few announcements to make. You all know that I consider those assembled around this table to be my inner circle as far as the company goes, so it’s only natural that I would structure this expansion around you guys.

  “Sandra, I’m going to need you to start interviewing for a new executive assistant because effective the first of next month, you will be the new Office Manager of Found History New York. I’m going to need you to find someone that Lana can get along with. She’s always on the top of her game, so that’s not going to be easy.”

  Chyna saw the look of confusion on both women’s faces and reveled in it for a little before she continued.

  “That’s because Miss Lana Ambrose is going to be heading up our offices here as the Lead Investigator.”

  Lana was flabbergasted. She jumped up from her chair and ran over to hug Chyna.

  “I’m so happy and Ted will be even happier to hear that I’ll be based here now,” she said. “Hold on, that doesn’t mean there’s no more traveling at all, does it?”

  “Of course not, Lana, you’d better let Ted know he’s still going to have to give you up when the need arises.”

  “Awesome!”

  “Now wait one cotton pickin’ minute here,” Oscar said. “What about me?”

  “Oscar,” Chyna said, “you are going to have to interview and select two new computer technicians, one in New York and another in Istanbul, because I need you in the field with whichever office has the big assignment going on. You are now our Senior Technical Engineer and I’m glad you love to travel because the position is an international one; you’re going to have to be between the two locations as needed or as you see fit.”

  “I’m a happy man,” Oscar said, smiling broadly.

  “Well, now that all of that’s out in the open, the only thing left to decide on is where,” Chyna announced. “I have a few ideas but what we need is a decision that’s just based on location and stability. It wouldn’t make sense opening an office in a city that didn’t have at least seven hours in time difference with New York; the point is really to cover the world. So, the obvious choice, London is out of the equation. I thought of Athens, Cairo, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Istanbul and New Delhi. So vote on it; write down the name of the city you want.”

  There was a silence for a short while and then everybody took up their pens and wrote down the city they would prefer to open the east offices in. When the count was taken there were four ‘Istanbuls’ lying on the table. It was unanimous.

  “It’s certainly a stable city and country, Chyna,” Lana said.

  “And we have a truck load of friends over there now to give us all the help we could ever need,” Oscar added.

  “I agree,” Sandra finally chimed in, “and it certainly was the least expensive.”

  “I guess it’s all agreed then,” Chyna replied.

  She wanted desperately to think that they had made a purely practical and well thought out decision to choose Istanbul, but she knew deep down that they had made the choice they thought would make her the happiest. She had made all her decisions with their personal happiness in mind and now they had done the same for her. Though she had tried to hide her relationship with Agent Anthony Stewart from Lana and Oscar, they must have picked up on it. Chyna knew she had been as careful as she could have but somehow they must have found out. She appreciated that they had never been tempted to be unprofessional about it before but now she felt as if they had seen something in her soul that she wasn’t ready to divulge yet. Nonetheless, she was happy with their decision. She knew that Istanbul was only a six hour drive from Izmir.

  “So, you all know what you’ve got to do,” Chyna finally said. “We don’t have long to get this set up before we leave for Syria. I’d like to get East up and running immediately after we’re done on that assignment. So Sandra, hire the assistant and get the paperwork started for everybody’s new responsibilities. I want that all signed off on and settled by the end of the week; all new contracts and job descriptions, offer letters, everything. Lana, you’re gonna have to get in touch with Rashid and have him recommend a good realtor and an even better lawyer. I want well-appointed offices of at least 1500 square feet, preferably with a good view of the Hagia Sofia. We need business licenses, work permits, bank accounts, driver’s licenses, gun licenses, everything legal; again, you have a week, Lana. Oscar, I need the names and credentials of those two technicians and a training report of what they’ve been taught. They should be in office working and familiarizing themselves with our operations by Monday. I need them as our back up for the Syrian assignment because if things go pear-shaped politically, we’re going to need a good exit plan. Let’s get moving on this immediately; I’m going to need to have a status report meeting on Wednesday and a final one on Friday. Okay?”

  The others all nodded and m
urmured their understanding, so Chyna moved on to the next topic for discussion.

  “Let’s talk about revenue,” she started. “I already mentioned that our last year had been lucrative enough for us to go ahead with expanding the company but what I’d like to go into is exactly how we performed monetarily. I’d like you all to know that we made more in profits in the last year than all three previous years combined. I’m convinced it’s solely due to our last four assignments: The Knossos dig and the recovery of the Minoan Mask, the Luxor excavation and the locating of the Mummy Codex. In both cases we were brought in on one job and then launched into another. To me, this is proof that we have got to keep knowledge of the company circulating in the right networks and the image of the company pristine. That’s going to mean attending more industry functions, keeping up to date with all recent discoveries and ensuring we maintain our usual impeccable standard of work. Heck, we need to get back into some discovery work; we don’t need to sit around waiting to be called in to consult on digs, we can get back to finding our own excavation sites as well. We certainly have the resources and manpower with the east office opening. The point of expansion is really to capitalize on new opportunities on that side of the world, right in the midst of the ‘Cradle of Civilization’ and keep expenses manageable while we do it.”

  After the meeting, Chyna could hardly wait to tell Anthony the news about the decision the team had made to base the new offices in Istanbul. He was a longtime boyfriend she had a very passionate, long distance relationship with. They had spent a record amount of time together over the past year while she traveled the Middle East; he and his team from Izmir had assisted Chyna’s team tactically every time they had been in Turkey and he had spent the lion’s share of his six week hiatus with her at her seaside cabin in Cape Cod. They had come back to the city a week ago and now Anthony was scheduled to travel back to his post in Izmir the next day. The news of her moving to Istanbul should make him ecstatic and Chyna was sure that he would be.

  Anthony would be in Istanbul to see her every weekend; it was only fifteen minutes by plane as opposed to the usual fourteen hours he traveled to New York when he sometimes came to see her. Although he would never admit it to anyone, he was just about ready to settle down; the problem was that he wasn’t quite ready to leave the Middle East. He had done a lot of work and spent a lot of time there but he hadn’t done a lot of exploring and he wanted to see some of the Orient before he had to leave it behind.

  So many times, when one of his postings or one of Chyna’s assignments had brought them to the same region or city, he had told her that they were lucky to have each other. They were pursuing their dreams, each of them on a different path almost parallel to each other but every now and then their paths would cross and it would be as if they had never been apart. He always felt lucky to have a woman in his life who felt exactly like he did about his career; it meant they could have absolutely no contact for years, and come together as if they were never apart, with neither being bitter about anything.

  It was a half-life of sorts though; learning to take satisfaction from a lot of pieces of everything as opposed to a whole lot of one. He had always felt that a little bit of something was always better than a whole lot of nothing and Chyna felt the same. Having her so close on a permanent basis would be a great way to transition into the next phase of his life though. What exactly the phase would entail, he didn’t have a clue, but the prospect of having Chyna so much more prominently in his life while he moved through it was like a dream come true.

  The next morning, Chyna drove him to J.F.K. to catch a flight to London; it was time to get back to work. There was so much going through Anthony’s mind, he had to physically shake it off. At the terminal, he took his bags out of the trunk of Chyna’s Audi A4 and set them down on the pavement. She walked close beside him holding on to the left sleeve of his coat as they made their way to the check in counter and waited. When his bags were checked, he turned to walk her back outside to her car. Chyna turned to him and held him close and his arms went around her tenderly.

  “I’ll be right behind you, I promise,” she said, softly.

  “I know you will,” he replied. “Just remember what I’ve always told you; we’ve got a little bit of a lot of different things.”

  “We do,” she agreed, “but maybe it’s time for us to have a whole lot of just a few.”

  He put his lips to hers and kissed her as deeply and as passionately as he could. He couldn’t believe that Chyna Stone had, in her own strange way, just told him that she was ready to have more with him than they had learned to be satisfied with for all these years. There was a feeling of complete happiness that came over him when he heard her say those words; it was exactly the confirmation he had needed. It was clear that they felt the same about their relationship and that she wanted what he did. In that instant Agent Anthony Stewart knew what he needed to do and as soon as he got back to the base house in Izmir he sent an email initiating his request for a transfer from the consular agency in Izmir to the consulate in Istanbul.

  As Chyna drove back to Manhattan, she couldn’t help but think about their last night together. She and Anthony had gone to dinner at their favorite restaurant, Annisa, in the West Village, followed by a Broadway show that was getting some great reviews. Back at Chyna’s apartment they had talked for hours and drank several bottles of wine on her balcony overlooking the city.

  He had come straight into bed from the shower and held her body closely to him, kissing the nape of her neck. She looked so peaceful lying there, like an angel fallen against the white pillows of the bed. Anthony moved closer to her until her naked body was pressed firmly against his. He let out a sigh and snuggled closer to her warmth. She smiled and turned to face him, taking in the soft scent of his shampoo and letting her kisses trail over his neck and shoulders and down his chest. When she kissed the skin on his shoulders, Anthony pulled her closer and sighed deeply. He lifted her head to face him and they smiled at each other as he took her mouth with his. He kissed her with a passion that rose from deep inside him, a hunger that he couldn’t explain. The desire he felt for Chyna now was nothing like the young love he had experienced with her when they had just met years ago in a lecture hall at F.B.I. headquarters. This was something deeper, truer, more urgent, and more potent.

  He knew he was as hard as a rock by the time he dipped his mouth to the bounty of her breasts. Chyna’s head went back as her back arched, moving her body even closer for him to enjoy. A breathy sigh escaped her lips and soon after she was moaning deeply. Her thighs undulated seductively against him and it wasn’t long before Anthony could stand it no longer. He lifted her leg and swung it over his hip and around his waist, separating her delightful thighs. She grasped hold of his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye as he positioned himself at her entrance. With one powerful movement, they were one and he had filled her with his manhood.

  She held on to him as if for life itself when he started to move inside her. Chyna felt as if he were moving her entire world with every kiss of his hips. She met his every move with the rocking of her thighs and the feeling of intense unity between them soon made him throw back his head in ecstasy as he exploded with their passion. His body was cosmically charged and so was hers. The energy between them was intense. Even as they reveled in each other’s embrace, Anthony began to move inside her again. He never faded after his brush with rapture but only took a moment to regain his breath and to lavish kisses along Chyna’s neckline.

  It was her turn to surprise him as she swung her leg around, turned him over and sat squarely on top of him. She gathered the sheets around her waist and positioned herself. Slowly, she moved her hips back and forth, rocking in the rhythm of passion and abandon. They were one, moved as one and soon their breathing was ragged and urgent but she was determined for their encounter to last so she slowed the pace, her movements becoming more deliberate and sensual. Their eyes were locked on each other, both of them drinking the other in and fully immersed in their lovemaking.