Chapter Two

A few days later, after Olivia and Jonathan had helped Evy get the library back in one piece, Olivia waved goodbye as her brother and sister jumped into the car, to get their expedition started. Hopefully they would find the owner of the 'puzzle box', as Evy called it, and then be on their way to Hamunaptra. Olivia chuckled, knowing Evy was going to get one hell of a surprise when Jonathan drives her to Cairo Prison; his research had told him that the guy he pick-pocketed had ended up there.

She returned inside to Evy's apartment, where she was staying whilst on leave from her work, and set about finding a cheap way down the Nile using the many leaflets Evy had stored. This was, of course, being based entirely on myth over where Hamunaptra is, and of course using the non-burnt parts of the map from the box. Another thing Evy had set her to do was to start packing the essentials they'd need—so, Olivia got to work.

In the background, Olivia had the radio on, and talk turned to King Tutankhamun's tomb. She smiled in pride as she heard her name thrown around here and there as recent developments were discussed. Howard, her friend and employer since her late teens, had seen her potential after she had left Oxford University and she had been by his side ever since.

November 26th. The day Lord Carnarvon arrived, Howard finally chiselled away at the left hand corner of the doorway, after they had found steps in the Valley of the Kings. "Can you see anything?" Olivia had asked excitedly. "Yes," came the reply. "Wonderful things."

If going to Hamunaptra was going to be as exciting as finding the Boy King's tomb, and if Evy finally had a chance at the success she deserved, then Olivia frankly couldn't wait. Her friends back home who were married and had children were missing out on the adventures...who needs all that.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Evy and Jonathan burst into the room, looking completely flustered.

"How'd it go?"

"Well we drove to Cairo Prison," Evy started, glaring at her brother, who smiled sheepishly. "And we found him. A filthy criminal, holding the key to finding Hamunaptra!"

"Did you find out anything?"

"Not quite..." Evy said, but then broke out into a grin. "But he's going to take us to Hamunaptra!"

"And back again," Jonathan added.

"That's great!"

"So have you found anything?" Evy asked. "Is there a boat available?"

"I think I've found one," Olivia replied, pulling out the leaflet. "It has rooms available for a few nights, food...if we take a walk down tomorrow we should be able to book it in time."

And so it was all settled. The man, a Rick O'Connell, was staying locally after Evy had saved his life and Jonathan drove to his hotel, telling him when they were meeting. And so, even more days later, Olivia, Evy and Jonathan walked down the banks of the Nile with their suitcases, stopping by the boat that would start their voyage.

Olivia was wearing an Egyptian-style dress, perfect for the blistering heat, and had a small pistol tucked inside the layers for precaution. Her sister, on the other hand, was wearing a typical Western dress, her heels and an extravagant hat; Olivia wondered sometimes how they were so different but yet were sisters. Evy had curly dark hair whilst Olivia had straight black locks; this was their Egyptian blood, one of their few similarities.

"Do you really think he's going to show up?" Evy asked sceptically as they waited by the ramp.

"You saved the man's life," Olivia reminded her. "I'm sure he will."

"Yes, undoubtedly, knowing my luck," said Jonathan. "He may be a cowboy, but I know the breed. His word is his word."

"Well personally I think he's filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel," Evy directed at Olivia. "I don't like him one bit."

Suddenly, an American voice sounded from behind them. "Anyone I know?"

Olivia turned to see quite a handsome man in a shirt and blazer, who had his eyebrows raised at Evy's comments. She smirked as Evy's mouth dropped open in surprise as she admired him, looking him over. "Hello..."

"Smashing day for the start of an adventure, eh O'Connell?" Jonathan said, patting him on the chest and shaking his hand, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah...smashing," O'Connell replied uncertainly, checking his blazer pocket.

"Oh no, no, I'd never steal from a partner, partner," Jonathan chuckled.

O'Connell laughed along slightly and then said, "Oh that reminds me, no hard feelings about the—?" He made a punching gesture with his fist.

"Oh no, no, happens all the time," Jonathan replied casually, causing Olivia to chuckle at that sad truth.

It was then that O'Connell noticed Olivia. "Hello," she said to him warmly, shaking his hand. "I'm Olivia, their sister."

He nodded his head. "Pleasure. I'm Rick."

"Mr O'Connell," Evy said strongly. "Can you look me in the eye and guarantee me that this all isn't some kind of a flimflam?" Olivia felt a pang of embarrassment in her gut on Evy's behalf for that awful British word. "Because if it is, I am warning you—"

"You're warning me?" Rick said in disbelief. "Lady, let me put it this way. My whole damn garrison believed in this so much that without orders they marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city. And when we got there, all we found was sand and blood."

There was an uneasy silence which made Olivia forget about Evy's attempts at warning O'Connell.

"Let me get your bags," he added on a lighter note and walked up on the ramp, onto their boat.

Evy stared after him as went, with Jonathan saying sarcastically, "Yes, yes, you're right. Filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel, nothing to like there at all."

They all grinned at each other until a voice interrupted them. "Bright good morning to all!"

It was a smelly, fat, short Egyptian man. "Oh no, what are you doing here?" Evy asked, disgruntled.

"I am here to protect my investment," he said, making his way up the ramp too. "Thank you very much."

Evy and Jonathan sighed, whilst Olivia asked, "Who on earth was that?"

"The prison warden," Evy muttered. "I said he could have 25 percent of what we find in Hamunaptra."

"Right," announced Jonathan, boarding the boat with his sisters following. "Time to find the bar."

A little while later, after Olivia had found her room and unpacked, she wandered around the boat, finding out where everything is until she bumped into Rick O'Connell. The moon was high in the sky now as the noises of the river surrounded them.

"Oh, hello Rick," she smiled.

"Olivia," he acknowledged. "So you found Tutankhamun's tomb then huh?"

"How did you know?" she teased as they walked down the deck towards the chatter of people.

"I recognised you from your photo in the paper," he told her.

"Ah."

"So what are you doing going to Hamunaptra?" he asked her.

"Well, for my efforts Howard gave me some time off," Olivia explained. "And, by chance, when I arrived back in Cairo to visit Evy and Jonathan—"

"—they had found a way to Hamunaptra," he finished for her.

"That's right. I would never have missed this." Rick chuckled. "What's in the bag?"

"Weapons."

Olivia stared, noticing the size of it and realizing how much ammunition must be in there. She pulled out her own pistol to show Rick. "And here's me, thinking I came prepared," she joked.

He looked at her with respect as they rounded the corner onto the main deck, where people were sitting and drinking with one another. Rick nodded towards Jonathan's direction as Olivia put her pistol away out of sight, and they made their way over to him and his new friends.

"Oh, O'Connell, sit down!" Jonathan invited. "We could use another player...hey Livy."

"Jonathan," Olivia warned. "You're not gambling again are you?"

He waved a hand at her. "O'Connell?"

"I only gamble with my life and never with my money," he replied, as Olivia looked at him admirably.

"Never?" replied one of those playing; he sounded American. "What if I was to bet you $500 that we get to Hamunaptra before you?"

"You're looking for Hamunaptra?" Olivia asked, stunned.

"Damn straight we are," said another American, as he winked a little bit at her. "And who might you be?"

"This is Olivia, my sister," Jonathan said proudly. Was he a little bit tipsy already? "She helped find Tutankhamun's tomb."

"Oh so you're Miss Carnahan?" said the blonde American, grinning at her as the others looked up sharply at her introduction.

"Watch it," Rick warned, as Olivia frowned at his arrogance. "Anyway...who says we are?"

"He does," they all said in unison, pointing at Jonathan.

"Jonathan!" Olivia hissed. He laughed nervously.

"Well, how about it? Is it a bet?"

"Alright, you're on," Rick replied, smiling.

"What makes you so confident, sir?" asked a British voice, sitting away from the others. Olivia recognised him as the Egyptologist Dr. Allen Chamberlin, formerly attached to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He suddenly left under a cloud of scandal and when Evy found out she called him "treasure hunting riffraff."

"Well what makes you?" Rick countered.

"We've got us a man who's actually been there," said the blonde American cockily.

"Oh what a coincidence because O'Connell—" Before he could finish, Rick's bag collided with his head. "Whose play is it? Is it my play? I thought I just..."

"Gentleman, we've got ourselves a wager. Good evening Jonathan," Rick said, clamping his hand down on Jonathan's shoulder as a warning to say no more on Hamunaptra.

"Hey Olivia, come and join us," invited the blonde American. "Perhaps you'll be my lucky charm."

She shrugged. "Alright, I don't see why not." Pulling up a chair she sat by him.

"I'm Henderson," he introduced himself, planting a kiss on Olivia's knuckles. "That's Burns and that's Daniels."

"How do you do," she murmured, watching as they split the deck, serve the cards and began to play. And to Olivia's immense surprise, Henderson actually won that round.

"Well if you excuse me gentlemen," she said, getting up. "I must retire to my room now."

"Yeah, I'll come with you," Jonathan muttered miserably, his luck seemingly ran out.

"That's a shame," said Henderson. "You really were my lucky charm." He winked at her again and she couldn't but smile back a little; Jonathan frowned at this. "Goodnight."

"Night all."

Olivia and Jonathan left the deck, walking inside. "Those beastly Americans have taken a lot of my money," he said with an annoyed tone.

"Why didn't you cheat like you normally do?" she asked, amused.

"That's the thing, Olivia—I tried!"

She laughed but stopped dead in her tracks as a black robe whipped around the next corner of the hall. "Did you see that?"

Jonathan nodded. "And do you hear that?" he asked worriedly.

The sound of gunshots being fired and also the smell of smoke hit them both quickly.

"EVY!" they both yelled, running down the hall towards her room.

"Evy?" Jonathan yelled again, running into her burning room, knocking over a hooked man with a black cloak into the fire. Olivia stared in horror and hoped to God that Evy was alright.

"Jonathan! Grab the box, it's on the floor!"

But it was too late; the hook man had taken it first, so they both ran from the burning room. As they reached outside, other cloaked men were setting fire to the boat as people began to jump in the river.

Olivia grabbed her pistol instinctively and began shooting at the nearest cloaked men whilst returning to her room, which was nearby; grabbing some of her essentials, she left again, turning a corner and bumping back into Jonathan.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" he yelled in fear as they dodged bullets and fire.

"How am I supposed to know?" she retorted crossly but they both stared in amusement, despite the situation, as Rick picked Evy up and tossed her into the river. "Thank God she's alright," Olivia sighed in relief.

But before Rick could jump in after her, he was attacked, dropping his bag of ammunition. Olivia ran to his aid and grabbed the man from behind as he strangled Rick, throwing him to the floor as she did so. Rick nodded in thanks, before picking the man back up and punching him into the inferno.

"You alright?" he asked Olivia breathlessly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She nodded. "Yeah—now let's get the hell out of here!"

"O'Connell! O'Connell!" the prison warden ran up to them. "What are we going to do?"

"Stay here," he advised. "I'll go get help."

"Right."

"I'll go make sure Jonathan's alright," she muttered, hiding a small smile from the stupid warden.

"Alright but don't be too long," Rick warned her as he leapt over the boat.

Olivia ran to where she had left Jonathan, who was watching the Americans shoot the cloaked men, cowboy style. "Americans."

Before Olivia had time to react and shoot her pistol, one of the men in the black robes was burning alive and was coming towards them menacingly. She grabbed onto her brother in fear as he grabbed her, before being saved by Henderson.

"I say, bloody good show chaps!" Jonathan shouted over them. "And did I panic? I think not."

He held up the box in triumph and Olivia asked him, amazed, "How did you get that back?"

Before he could answer her a great flame of fire exploded, throwing him into the water. Olivia ran and grabbed Henderson, who was still firing his gun. "Come on you idiot, this boat is going to blow!"

They all jumped off of the boat. Olivia felt the cold water hitting her skin painfully as the current pulled on her dress, threatening to drag her down. Spluttering, she followed her companions to the shore.

"We've lost everything," Evy said in disbelief as the boat burned behind them and the others assembled on the other bank. "All of our tools, all the equipment, all of our clothes!"

"O'Connell! Hey, O'Connell!" shouted a voice from the opposite bank. "It looks me to like I've got all the horses!"

"Hey, Beni," taunted Rick, in a sing-song voice. "It looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!"

Olivia grinned at Beni's response before asking Rick, "Who even is that?"

"He's the guy leading the Americans to Hamunaptra," he answered. "He was with me in the foreign legion."

"So what now?" asked Jonathan, as they stood there shivering.

"We head to the nearest village and buy some camels, food, equipment," Rick said, leading the way off of the river bank.

"...and clothes," Evy said hopefully as she wrapped her arms around her nightgown.

"Do you think our boat was attacked because a lot of us are going to Hamunaptra?" Olivia asked.

"Yes," said Rick, looking serious. "I recognise those guys. They were watching me last time I was there."

Author's Note:

Thank you for your response to the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed the second instalment :) hopefully we can get Ardeth in the picture verrrrry soon...