"James Rollins - Sandstorm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Romeyn Henry)

British Museum




Crypt of Nabi Imran
Tomb of Ayoub




Shisur
Part One


Thunderstorm


1
Fire and Rain




NOVEMBER 14, 01:33 A.M.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
LONDON, ENGLAND

HARRYMASTERSONwould be dead in thirteen minutes.

If he had known this, he would’ve smoked his last cigarette down to the filter. Instead he stamped out
the fag after only three drags and waved the cloud from around his face. If he was caught smoking
outside the guards’ break room, he would be shit-canned by that bastard Fleming, head of museum
security. Harry was already on probation for coming in two hours late for his shift last week.

Harry swore under his breath and pocketed the stubbed cigarette. He’d finish it at his next break…that
is, if they got a break this night.
Thunder echoed through the masonry walls. The winter storm had struck just after midnight, opening
with a riotous volley of hail, followed by a deluge that threatened to wash London into the Thames.
Lightning danced across the skies in forked displays from one horizon to another. According to the
weatherman on the Beeb, it was one of the fiercest electrical storms in over a decade. Half the city had
been blacked out, overwhelmed by a spectacular lightning barrage.

And as fortune would have it for Harry, it washis half of the city that went dark, including the British
Museum on Great Russell Street. Though they had backup generators, the entire security team had been
summoned for additional protection of the museum’s property. They would be arriving in the next half
hour. But Harry, assigned to the night shift, was already on duty when the regular lights went out. And
though the video surveillance cameras were still operational on the emergency grid, he and the shift were
ordered by Fleming to proceed with an immediate security sweep of the museum’s two and a half miles