Cairo, Egypt
Cairo Museum of Antiquities
1926
A beautiful young Arab woman in her early twenties, dressed in traditional Egyptian clothing, walked through the library with some books and approached one of the shelves.
"Let's see, Egyptian gods, Egyptian deities, and exodus." Fitting them on the shelf. "Now we go with the S." She goes to the bookshelf but finds Evy, her best friend and librarian, going up the stairs. "Evy?"
"Hello Hana...Sacred stones, sculptures and aesthetics, Socrates, Seth, volume one, volume two, and volume three." Evelyn listed as she placed them in the shelf. "And… Tuthmosis? What are you doing here?"
"I don't know, I thought you ordered the books in alphabetical order." Hana places the book on the shelf.
"T. T, T, T ..." Evy looked back, on the other shelf. "Ah, T."
"Give me the book." Hana extends her hand.
"No, no, I got it." Evy told her friend before putting the other books on the shelf then stretching her arm to the T shelf. "I'm going to put you where you belong."
"Evy, I... I really think you should just pass me the book." Hana looked nervously at her friend.
"Nope." Evy moaned, trying to stretch out more. "I've got it."
"Okay, when you finish I'd like to talk to you."
"Sure." Evy responds without seeing her.
Hana goes to a table where there are other books that people left there, she arranges them in alphabetical order although in her mind she was somewhere else.
"Good morning, is there a book you recommend me?"
Hana turns to find a young woman, a little older than her, in an explorer's suit with a backpack and a hat.
"Nubia" Hana smile with enthusiasm.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Both women look at each other and run to see what happens, between the shelves S and T to see Evy trying to balance herself on the ladder that was in the middle of the shelves.
"Help." Evy whispered when she saw them.
"OK calm down." Hana approaches little by little to grab the ladder.
"Be very careful, if Evy falls it is very sure that she will have an immediate death". Nubia comes a little closer.
"Thanks for the information Nubia!" Evy says annoyed starting to lose her balance. "WOW AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" fall on a shelf.
"EVY!" Hana goes away in shock to see him fall.
The shelf hit another shelf for more than it fell hit another and another shelf since they were dominoes, Evy and Hana quickly retreated before the shelf fell on them. Evy, Hana and Nubia watch the great disasters surprised and frightened and more for what awaits them.
"Oops." they whispered in unison.
"What! How…" Dr. Bey spoke from behind them as he looked at what has happened before finding the three women there. "Oh look at this!" he said as he came walking to them. "Sons of the pharaohs! Give me frogs! Flies! Locusts! Anything but you three! Compared to you three, the other plagues were a joy!"
"Wait, I just got here." Nubia says quickly.
"It's true, Nubia arrived about two minutes ago." Hana confirms it.
"Yes, yes ... forgive me, Miss Halsey." Dr. Bey apologizes quickly. "But you two." watching Hana and Evy.
"Do not blame Hana, it was my fault ... I'm very sorry, it was an accident". Evy apologised in her soft voice
"My girl, when Rameses destroyed Syria, that was an accident. You... are a catastrophe! Look at my library! Why do I put I up with you?"
"W...Well, you put up with me because I can... I can read and writeancient Egyptian...and I can... I can decipher hieroglyphics and hieratic... and, w...well, I am the only person within a thousand miles...who knows how to properly code and catalog this library, that's why." Evy said.
"I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why! Allah rest their souls." Dr. Bey with sadness the last. "Now, I don't care how you do it, I don't care how long it takes. Straighten up this meshiver!" says annoyed and begins to move away.
"Oh Dr. Bey I was just coming to speak with you." Nubia said to him but he kept walking.
"If it's about claiming me for accusing you of what Miss Carnahan did to my library, I already apologize." without stopping walking
"No, I'm talking about the Egyptologist with whom you recommended me, he and his group left without me, they gave me another boat schedule."
"Miss Halsey, I am a very busy man."
"But..."
"Listen, Miss Halsey, I'm sorry that they left you after you were very excited." Dr. Bey grabs her shoulder. "Maybe your grandfather is a great Egyptologist, but you have to understand that many men do not believe that women are suitable for many things, but I know that one day all of that will change."
"I hope it's soon."
"Me too, and maybe two days ago you're gone but ... welcome back." smiling.
"Thank you." Nubia smiles.
"And since you're here and you're one of my three headaches, help them fix the library, since you have nothing to do." walking away and Nubia rolls her eyes.
Nubia returns to the library where she looks at Hana and Evy putting the books on the tables.
"Dr. Bey is a saint, do not you think?" Nubia says sarcastically.
"Give thanks that he has not raised you." Hana says as she leaves some books on the table. "We will never finish cleaning this library, for that we need a miracle!" deranged.
"Calm down Hana, but you're right, we need a miracle." Evy looks around and turns to see Nubia. "By the way, what are you doing here?,... I thought you would be in the Valley of the Kings."
"Yes, but that idiot Egyptologist decided to leave me in the harbor." Nubia responds with anger and sadness.
"Oh Nubia, I'm so sorry." Evy looks at her sadly.
"It seems that I will have to wait for the opportunity to return to Egypt to explore a city or a grave some day." Nubia sits down. "My great dream is to find the tomb of Princess Ahmanet or of any pharaoh, queen or someone important from ancient Egypt who tried to be erased from history."
"Nubia, how many times do we have to tell you that that princess is a myth?" Evy gets a little closer to her. "There is no information or record of it."
"Like the book of Amun-Ra?" Nubia folded her arms.
"That book exists and I'll find it!" Evy says quickly.
"Right… I'll find that princess, in case you forgot Evy my grandfather discovered the tomb of Queen Nefertari and I want to be able to discover the tomb of someone famous or whose name they wanted to erase from history." Nubia gets up a little annoyed. "And I know that Princess Ahmanet is among those eliminated from history."she proudly says "By the way, although that disappointment was not so bad for me, I met someone." smiling
"Really?" Evy and Hana ask excited.
"Yes, he's an American who comes with his friends, he did not tell me that, that was the reason why I did not return two days ago." Nubia smiles.
"Be very careful, I've heard about American men." Evy warns her.
You are lucky to be able to choose someone Nubia". Hana says something jealous.
"Why do you say that?" Nubia asks confused
Hana was about to answer, but she heard a noise coming from the other room where the museum is located. The three look at each other and walk towards the semi dark room where it is full of Egyptian artifacts and sarcophaguses.
"Hello?" Evy called out, while Nubia grabbed a burning torch. They walked forwards a little in the dark and dusty room. "Abdul? Mohammed? Bob?"
"Bob?" Hana murmured confused.
"Evy, these people are dead, obviously they will not answer you." Nubia murmured.
"Maybe they will answer you, not because of something your name is related to Anubis." Hana murmured while looking at Nubia.
"Very funny." Nubia looks at her badly. "I'm sure it's just someone having a joke."
"Ssshhh ... did you hear that?" Evy whispers softly to both of them. "It comes from there." pointing to the sarcophagus.
Nubia passes the torch to Hana and, next to Evy, they lean over to see the sarcophagus more closely. A fake mummy sits in front of them making them terrified. Although their screams stopped slowly when they heard a laugh. Jonathan, Evy's older brother, appeared in the sarcophagus, laughing loudly.
"Are you kidding, Jonathan?" Nubia hissed with a withering look.
"Have you no respect for the dead?" Evy asked her brother indigently.
"Of course I do! But sometimes I'd rather like to join them." Jonathan said, as he played with the mummy's arm.
"Well, I wish you would do it before you ruin our careers the way you've ruined yours. Now get out!" Evy yelled at him and he started to climb out.
"My dear, sweet, baby sister. I'll have you know that at this precise moment my career is on a high note." Jonathan climbed out of the sarcophagus, and almost particularly falling out of it.
"Yeah, right." Hana murmured.
"Jonathan, please, I'm really not in the mood for you. I've just made a mess of the library…and the Bembridge scholars rejected my application form again. They say I don't have enough experience in the field." Evy lamented, as she sat down on the base of a golden statue.
Jonathan looked at his little sister, Nubia and Hana sat next to her, leaned in front of her, took her hands and smiled at her.
"You'll always have me, old mum."
Evy laughed as Jon smiled widely leaning his forehead against hers,
"And what are you doing here?, Should not you be in the Valley of the Kings?" Jonathan looks confused at Nubia.
"Yes, but the Egyptologist and his friends decided to leave me." Nubia responds a little annoying
"I'm sorry, Nubia." Jonathan grabs her hand and she smiles at him. "And you know that if you need me just ..."
"That will not happen." Nubia says quickly.
"I know… Besides, I have just the thing to cheer you up." Jon said as he got up and dived back into the coffin.
"Oh, no, Jonathan, not another worthless trinket. If I have to take one more piece of junk to the curator to try and...sell for you…." Evy says but he held up a somewhat circular box. "What is this?" she grabbed it and started examining it, trying to date it and work out where it could have come from.
"Where did you get this?" Nubia questioned, lifting her eyes briefly from the box to Jonathan.
"On a dig down in, uh, Thebes. My whole life I've never found anything, girls... Please tell me I've found something." Jonathan pleaded.
When Evy turned the key a certain way and placed her fingers on various section of the box, she pressed her fingers in and that was when the box open up to show a folded up, old papyrus inside.
"Jonathan."
"Yes?"
"I think you found something." Evy said.
"You see the cartouche there. It's the official royal seal of Seti the First, I'm sure of it." Evy pointed out to Dr. Bey as we stood in his office.
"Perhaps."
"Two questions. Who the hell was Seti the First, and was he rich?" Jonathan asked and Hana rolled her eyes.
"He was the second pharaoh of the 19th dynasty... said to be the wealthiest pharaoh of them all." Nubia explained excitedly.
"Good, I like this fellow, I like him very much."
"I've already dated the map." Nubia explained. "It's almost 3,000 years old, and if you look at the hieratic just here, well, it's Hamunaptra."
"Wait, Hamunaptra?" Hana asked in amazement and Evy nods. "Incredible..."
"Dear God, don't be ridiculous. We're scholars, not treasure hunters. Hamunaptra's a myth told by ancient Arab storytellers...to amuse Greek and Roman tourists." Dr. Bey told them.
"Yes, we know all the silly blather about the City being protected by the curse of a mummy nonsenses, but my research has led me to believe that the City itself may have actually existed." Evy explained with a hundred percent confidence in her tone.
"Are we talking about the Hamunaptra?" Jonathan asked, making sure that he heard correctly.
"Yes, the City of the Dead, where the earliest pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Egypt." Nubia answered.
"Right, right, in a big underground treasure chamber. Everybody knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand. On Pharaoh's command, a flick of the switch! And the whole place could disappear beneath the dunes." Jonathan said dramatically.
"Oh please, all we know for certain is that the city mysteriously vanished around 2134 B.C." Hana said.
"As the Americans would say, it's all fairy tales and hokum... Oh, my goodness! Look at that!" Dr. Bey throwing the map that was on fire.
Jonathan dropped down immediately with the girls and managed to put out the fire, although they could not save a third of the map.
"You burned it! You burnt off the part with the lost city!" Jonathan cried in horror.
"It's for the best, I'm sure. Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra, no one has ever found it, most have never returned." Dr. Bey warned.
"But uncle ... you've always been very careful with antique objects." Hana looks at him surprised and confused by what happened.
"Enough." Dr. Bey gets up. "I do not want to hear more about this issue, you three have an important mission and that is to clean up the library disaster." watching the girls "And since Mr. Carnahan has nothing to do, help them." giving him the broom.
"But I..."
"Come on Jonathan, the faster we start, the quicker we'll finish." Hana pulls him towards the library.
"But I do not clean." Jonathan tries to free himself.
"Something tells me that Dr. Bey is hiding something." Nubia whispers to Evy.
"You're right, after cleaning the library, we're going to investigate more about Hamunaptra, do you think your grandfather left something in your house that could be useful?" Evy whispers and Nubia nods.