"Come, come, step over the threshold and welcome to Cairo prison, my humble home!"

Serena couldn't believe it. Here they were in Cairo's prison led by a large smelly man who desperately needed some exercise and a two-day bathing in order to find a man who may or may not know the way to a city that wasn't supposed to exist. And this morning, all she had wanted was a job…

"You told me you got it on a dig down in Thebes!" Evy whispered angrily to Jonathon.

"Well, I was mistaken," he answered.

"You lied to me!"

"I lie to everybody! What makes you so special?"

"I'm your sister!"

"That just makes you all the more gullible!"

"Jonathon, you got it from a drunk at the local casbah."

"Picked his pockets actually, so I don't think this is a very good idea!"

"Jonathon," Serena said. "You seriously picked a drunken man's pockets?"

"Oh, so now you're siding with her?"

Serena shrugged her shoulders. "That wasn't very smart," she added.

"I'm finding that out."

The warden finally led them to a cell as Evy asked, "What exactly is this man in prison for?"

"This I do not know," the warden answered with an Arabic accent. "But when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself."

"What did he say?"

"He said he was just looking for a good time!"

The warden flicked his wrist and the door banged open. Who, or what, stood there left Serena speechless. He was an animal of a man. Long scraggly hair, tattered clothes, unshaven face, the whole works. And he was fierce. He had huge muscles that bulged on his arms and a buff chest as well. If Jonathon had been able to steal from him, he must've been very, very, very drunk! Serena made a small face at the stench of him and did a terrible job of hiding it.

"This is the man you stole it from?" Evy asked.

"Yes, exactly, so why don't we just go sniff out a spot of tiffin…?"

"Who are you?" the man asked roughly in a scratchy voice. "And who's the broads?"

"Broads?" Evy asked clearly offended.

"I'm just the local sort of missionary," Jonathon answered trying to hide the fact that he was a no-good stealer, "spreading the Good Word and all that and this is my sister Evy."

"How do you do?"

"And our mate, Serena Gardner."

"Hello, sir."

"Well, I guess they're not a total loss."

"Excuse me?" Serena said. "You're one to talk. You're in prison!"

The man looked at her with small annoyance, like he was used to getting that kind of talk. The warden shouted something and then told them he'd be back in a moment. The three were alone with the weird man.

"Ask him about the box," Jonathon whispered to Evy.

"We've found…hello? Excuse me." The man looked at her with that same annoyance. "We found your…your puzzle box, and we've come to ask you about it."

"No," the man said blatantly.

"No?"

"No. You came to ask me about Hamunaptra."

"How do you know the box pertains to Hamunaptra?"

"Because that's where I was when I found it. I was there."

"That's impossible. Hamunaptra doesn't exist," Serena said.

"Wanna bet?"

"Um, no, I'd rather not, but that place is just a myth. You couldn't have been there."

"Okay, let's see. Who was there? Me. Who was not there? You. Case closed, end of story."

"How do we know that's not a load of pig's wallow?" Jonathon asked.

"Don't I know you?" the man said pointing at him.

Uh-oh. "No, no, no, I've just got one of those faces."

The man's eyes widened as he realized who Jonathon was and he got socked right in the face. This was followed by the man getting a beating from the guards.

"Jonathon!" Serena cried. She ran over to his still body and lightly slapped his face. "Wake up!"

Evy went over to the cell. "You were actually at Hamunaptra?"

"Yeah, I was there."

Jonathon slowly came to, so Serena went over to the cell as well. "Are you sure?"

"I was there. Seti's place, city of the dead."

"Could you tell me how to get there?" Evy took off her hat and placed it on the side of her face to keep this conversation as secret as possible. "I mean, the exact location?"

"We'd really like to see this place for ourselves."

"You want to know?" he asked.

"Well, yes."

"You really want to know?"

"Yes!" Serena said quietly. "We've just established that!"

The man beckoned the two closer to him. Then without warning, he grabbed Evy's chin and threw his lips onto hers in a rough kiss. Serena's mouth popped open. That had not been what she was expecting!

"Then get me out of here!" he growled as he punched a guard. "Do it, ladies!"

Evy remained stunned and Serena didn't blame her. The warden came running back to see the commotion.

"Where are they taking him?" Evy asked urgently.

"To be hanged," he said matter-of-factly. "Apparently, he had a very good time!"

"You can't kill him! You don't even know what he's done!" Serena shouted.

"I am the warden, not the judge. I may not know, but he's in here for a reason, and I'm sure it's a good one too!"

"But he—"

Evy gently grabbed Serena's arm. "You're not getting anywhere." She addressed the warden, "May we accompany you?"

He eyed them up and down. "Of course," he said in a seductful tone.

Serena felt her breakfast rise up in her throat but managed to keep it down. After all, this was no time to start puking! Some guards helped Jonathon up off the ground and led him out of the prison. Serena followed Evy and the warden to the gallows.

They sat in a seat while the tied up prisoner was standing on the platform where the floor would soon drop and his life would be taken…unless Evy could do something first.

"I will give you £100 to save this man's life," she said quickly.

"Madam, I would pay £100 just to see him hang."

"200! Two hundred pounds!"

"Proceed!"

"300 pounds!"

Serena saw the hangman say something to the man, and the man said something back, but she couldn't make out what it was. He shouted something up to the warden in a different language. The warden shouted something back in the same language, then in English. "Of course we don't let him go!"

"£500!" Evelyn shouted.

The warden motioned for the hangman to stop.

"Evy, do you even have that much money?" Serena whispered.

"We'll deal with that problem when we get there."

"And what else?" the warden asked as he put his hand on her leg. "I'm a very lonely man." Evy hit his hand with her bag and Serena whacked him on the arm. That was just gross. The prisoners who had gathered to watch the hanging began laughing, having witnessed the warden's failure.

In anger, the warden gave the signal to drop the floor.

"NO!" Evy and Serena screamed. The floor dropped from under the man and Serena knew it was over. She closed her eyes and turned away, not wanting to see the body. There was no way they were getting to Hamunaptra now.

The warden laughed. "His neck did not break!" Serena looked and saw that the man was still very much alive!

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Now we must watch him strangle to death!"

"He knows the location to Hamunaptra!" Evy blurted.

"Evy…" Serena said. Evy shot her a look.

"You lie!"

"I would never!"

"Are you telling me this filthy, son of a pig knows where to find the City of the Dead?!"

"Yes!"

The girls watched the man struggle for breath as his neck was hanging to one side and he started to go purple.

"Truly?"

"Yes!" Evy told the warden in desperation. "And if you cut him down, we will give you…10%!"

The warden looked at her. "50%!" he argued. Well, someone was a little greedy…

"20%!" Evy countered. Serena smiled. There was no way they were going to let him take so much.

"40!" the warden said.

"30!"

"25!"

"Ah!" Evy exclaimed, catching him before he could go further. "Deal!"

The warden paused and whined when he realized his mistake. "Cut him down!" The hangman sliced the rope and the man fell to the ground.

"How did you do that?" Serena asked.

"It's an old trick I used to play on Jonathon all the time," Evy smiled.

The man looked up at the two, and Evy gave a suave smile back at him. "I knew you could do it," the man said with his eyes.

"I'd like to talk to him now," Evy asked the warden.

"Follow me," he answered with sheer annoyance in his tone. He obviously did not get swindled often.

The warden led the girls to the man's cell where he would be taken back to until the proper procedures could be taken in order for him to leave. He came up to the bars, but he wasn't handcuffed or escorted by guards.

"Hello, sir," Evy said. The man just looked at her. "Um, I would like you to take us to Hamunaptra."

"And what makes you think I'm going to do that?"

"Well, I did just save your life."

"And now you think I owe you?"

"You said if I got you out of here, you would show us the way." She stared him down.

"Fine, I'll take you. There's a ship going out tomorrow. Be at the harbor at 1:00 sharp. Otherwise, the deal's off."

"May I have your name, sir?"

"Rick. Rick O'Connell."