Chapter Three: A Discovery
Cairo Museum--Cairo, Egypt, a few months later
Balancing herself on the ladder, Jill Valentine whistled a happy tune to herself as she placed the books
back in their right places. Rather than the S.T.A.R.S. member who had annhialated the Nemesis back in Raccoon
City, Jill looks rather uninteresting; eye-glasses, hair-in-a-bun (she's wearing a wig), long boring dress,
basically, your typical prudish nightmare.
Right now, she was placing all of the books that started with "O" back in their rightful places on the
bookshelf. She pulled out another one from under her arm and looked at the title. "Huh? Tuthmosis? What's
this doing here?"
Carefully, so as not to lose her balance, she looks over her shoulder to the bookshelf behind her, where all
the titles begin with the letter "TO". Then she looks down. It's a long way to the bottom. Jill gently sets
the other books down on the top shelf, then turns and gingerly starts to reach across the aisle with the
Tuthmosis book. It's a little too far, so she stretches, reaching, holding the top of the ladder with
her fingertips, she's almost got it, closer now closer.
And that's when the ladder pulls away from the shelf. Jill yelps, flings the Tuthmosis book and grabs the top
of the ladder, which stands straight up. Jill holds her breath, swaying precariously, and then she loses her
balance, the ladder swings around and Jill starts stilt-walking down the aisle.
That's when it happens. The ladder crosses the aisle, does an about face and heads back the way it came.
Jill clings to the top, struggling for balance. The ladder teeters out into the main aisle and picks up
speed. Jill screams as it does a 180, spins into another aisle and finally crashes into a bookshelf.
The effect was dramatic the bookshelf that Jill had crashed into tettered forward and smashed into another
one...and that one fell forward and smashed into another one...and another...and another, until all of the
books and shelves were on the floor.
Jill slipped off the glasses and looked at the mess that she singlehandedly made. "Oh, boy."
That is when the curator walked in. The curator is none other than Barry Burton, and after taking one look
at the mess, he is pissed. "Look at this mess! Give me frogs, flies, locusts, Anything but this! Compared to
you, the other plagues were a joy!"
"I-I'm sorry, sir," Jill managed to reply. "It was an accident."
Barry fumed. "When Ramesses destroyed Syria, THAT was an accident. You are a catastrophe! Why do I even put up
with you?"
Jill took a wild guess. "You put up with me, because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher
hieroglyphics and hieratic, and I'm the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code
and catalogue this library?"
Barry shook his head. "Wrong. I put up with you because your late parents were our finest patrons.
Now straighten up this mess!"
After Barry had stalked out of the libary, Jill stood there, fuming. But then again, it WAS her fault that the
library was in its present condition.
Then she heard a noise from another gallery. Jill decided to check that out before she set about cleaning the
libary. Then she heard it again. It DEFINITELY came from the Middle Kingdom gallery. Jill walked through the
stacks of books and enters the gallery. Geabbing a torch from nearby, she looked around for a moment. All she
saw was a statue of Anubis, another of Horus. Jill was starting to get scared.
The wig was starting to itch, so she pulled it off and tossed it aside, revealing her usual short brown hair.
Jill looked around for a moment before she saw an sarchophagus with the lid removed. She freezes, swallows
hard, nervously looks around to see who could have opened it. Then she slowly leans forward with the torch,
and peers inside.
A hideous, rotted mummy sits up and screeches at her. Jull screamed, drops the torch and backs away, scared
out of her wits. And then, coming from inside the sarcophagus, she hears someone laughing. A man sits up in
the sarchophagus, drunk and laughing like a hyena. It is none other than Leon Kennedy, her 'brother.'
Jill was pissed at his latest stunt. "Have you no respect for the dead?"
Leon grinned and slung his arm over the mummy's shoulders. "Right now, I only wish to join them."
Jill smacked him one and hauled him out of the sarchophagus. "Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than
later, before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours."
"My dear, sweet, baby sister, I'll have you know, that at this moment my career is on a high note," Leon
insisted.
Jill rolled her eyes. " High note? Ha! For five years you've been scrounging around Egypt, and what have you
to show for it? Nothing."
Leon began to search his pockets. "I have something right here!"
Jill sat down at the base of a statue. " Oh no, not another worthless trinket, Leon, if I bring one more
piece of junk to the Curator to try and sell for you, he'll fire me."
Leon shows Jill his find. She took it and looked at it. It was a rather unique box, about the size of an orange
and shaped like an octagon.
Jill was immediately curious. "Where did you get this?"
Leon shrugged his shoulders. "Some excavation in Thebes. My whole life I've never found anything, Jill. Tell
me I've found something."
Jill fiddled with the box, until she finds some slats in them. She shifts the box, almost like a puzzle, and
the top half unfolded, almost into a key. Inside the key/box was a piece of folded papyrus.
Jill grinned at Leon. "Leon...I think you have sound something."
***
"Do you see this cartouche?" Jill pointed out to Barry. "I'm sure it's the official royal seal of Seti the
First."
The curator rubbed his beard. "Perhaps..."
Leon leaned inand looked at the map. "Okay. Two questions. Who the hell is Seti the First? And was he rich?"
Jill beamed. "He was the last of the Old Kingdom Pharaohs, said to be the wealthiest of them all."
Leon began to drool at the thought of how much wealth this guy have. "I like this guy already."
Barry picks up the map and reguards it for a moment.
"I've already dated it, this map. It's almost four thousand years old. And the hieratics over here..." Jill
took a deep breath. "It's Hamunaptra."
Barry freezes, but he recovers. "Hamunaptra is a myth. We are scholars, not treasure hunters."
"Are we talking about THE Hamunaptra?" Leon asked.
Jill nodded. "Yes. The City of The Dead. Where the early Pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of
Egypt."
Leon knew this 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."
"All we know is that Hamunaptra disappreared sometime around 2134 B.C.," Jill noted.
Barry holds the map closer to the candle-lamp. "The city doesn't exist. It's all faiy tales and myth." He
doesn't realize that the map was on fire, since he was holding it a little too close to the lamp. He then
realises that it is on fire and throws it to the floor.
Leon quickly puts the flames out and picked up the half-burnt map. "You burned it! You burned off the part
with the lost city!"
Barry leaned back into his seat. "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."
Cairo Museum--Cairo, Egypt, a few months later
Balancing herself on the ladder, Jill Valentine whistled a happy tune to herself as she placed the books
back in their right places. Rather than the S.T.A.R.S. member who had annhialated the Nemesis back in Raccoon
City, Jill looks rather uninteresting; eye-glasses, hair-in-a-bun (she's wearing a wig), long boring dress,
basically, your typical prudish nightmare.
Right now, she was placing all of the books that started with "O" back in their rightful places on the
bookshelf. She pulled out another one from under her arm and looked at the title. "Huh? Tuthmosis? What's
this doing here?"
Carefully, so as not to lose her balance, she looks over her shoulder to the bookshelf behind her, where all
the titles begin with the letter "TO". Then she looks down. It's a long way to the bottom. Jill gently sets
the other books down on the top shelf, then turns and gingerly starts to reach across the aisle with the
Tuthmosis book. It's a little too far, so she stretches, reaching, holding the top of the ladder with
her fingertips, she's almost got it, closer now closer.
And that's when the ladder pulls away from the shelf. Jill yelps, flings the Tuthmosis book and grabs the top
of the ladder, which stands straight up. Jill holds her breath, swaying precariously, and then she loses her
balance, the ladder swings around and Jill starts stilt-walking down the aisle.
That's when it happens. The ladder crosses the aisle, does an about face and heads back the way it came.
Jill clings to the top, struggling for balance. The ladder teeters out into the main aisle and picks up
speed. Jill screams as it does a 180, spins into another aisle and finally crashes into a bookshelf.
The effect was dramatic the bookshelf that Jill had crashed into tettered forward and smashed into another
one...and that one fell forward and smashed into another one...and another...and another, until all of the
books and shelves were on the floor.
Jill slipped off the glasses and looked at the mess that she singlehandedly made. "Oh, boy."
That is when the curator walked in. The curator is none other than Barry Burton, and after taking one look
at the mess, he is pissed. "Look at this mess! Give me frogs, flies, locusts, Anything but this! Compared to
you, the other plagues were a joy!"
"I-I'm sorry, sir," Jill managed to reply. "It was an accident."
Barry fumed. "When Ramesses destroyed Syria, THAT was an accident. You are a catastrophe! Why do I even put up
with you?"
Jill took a wild guess. "You put up with me, because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher
hieroglyphics and hieratic, and I'm the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code
and catalogue this library?"
Barry shook his head. "Wrong. I put up with you because your late parents were our finest patrons.
Now straighten up this mess!"
After Barry had stalked out of the libary, Jill stood there, fuming. But then again, it WAS her fault that the
library was in its present condition.
Then she heard a noise from another gallery. Jill decided to check that out before she set about cleaning the
libary. Then she heard it again. It DEFINITELY came from the Middle Kingdom gallery. Jill walked through the
stacks of books and enters the gallery. Geabbing a torch from nearby, she looked around for a moment. All she
saw was a statue of Anubis, another of Horus. Jill was starting to get scared.
The wig was starting to itch, so she pulled it off and tossed it aside, revealing her usual short brown hair.
Jill looked around for a moment before she saw an sarchophagus with the lid removed. She freezes, swallows
hard, nervously looks around to see who could have opened it. Then she slowly leans forward with the torch,
and peers inside.
A hideous, rotted mummy sits up and screeches at her. Jull screamed, drops the torch and backs away, scared
out of her wits. And then, coming from inside the sarcophagus, she hears someone laughing. A man sits up in
the sarchophagus, drunk and laughing like a hyena. It is none other than Leon Kennedy, her 'brother.'
Jill was pissed at his latest stunt. "Have you no respect for the dead?"
Leon grinned and slung his arm over the mummy's shoulders. "Right now, I only wish to join them."
Jill smacked him one and hauled him out of the sarchophagus. "Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than
later, before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours."
"My dear, sweet, baby sister, I'll have you know, that at this moment my career is on a high note," Leon
insisted.
Jill rolled her eyes. " High note? Ha! For five years you've been scrounging around Egypt, and what have you
to show for it? Nothing."
Leon began to search his pockets. "I have something right here!"
Jill sat down at the base of a statue. " Oh no, not another worthless trinket, Leon, if I bring one more
piece of junk to the Curator to try and sell for you, he'll fire me."
Leon shows Jill his find. She took it and looked at it. It was a rather unique box, about the size of an orange
and shaped like an octagon.
Jill was immediately curious. "Where did you get this?"
Leon shrugged his shoulders. "Some excavation in Thebes. My whole life I've never found anything, Jill. Tell
me I've found something."
Jill fiddled with the box, until she finds some slats in them. She shifts the box, almost like a puzzle, and
the top half unfolded, almost into a key. Inside the key/box was a piece of folded papyrus.
Jill grinned at Leon. "Leon...I think you have sound something."
***
"Do you see this cartouche?" Jill pointed out to Barry. "I'm sure it's the official royal seal of Seti the
First."
The curator rubbed his beard. "Perhaps..."
Leon leaned inand looked at the map. "Okay. Two questions. Who the hell is Seti the First? And was he rich?"
Jill beamed. "He was the last of the Old Kingdom Pharaohs, said to be the wealthiest of them all."
Leon began to drool at the thought of how much wealth this guy have. "I like this guy already."
Barry picks up the map and reguards it for a moment.
"I've already dated it, this map. It's almost four thousand years old. And the hieratics over here..." Jill
took a deep breath. "It's Hamunaptra."
Barry freezes, but he recovers. "Hamunaptra is a myth. We are scholars, not treasure hunters."
"Are we talking about THE Hamunaptra?" Leon asked.
Jill nodded. "Yes. The City of The Dead. Where the early Pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of
Egypt."
Leon knew this 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."
"All we know is that Hamunaptra disappreared sometime around 2134 B.C.," Jill noted.
Barry holds the map closer to the candle-lamp. "The city doesn't exist. It's all faiy tales and myth." He
doesn't realize that the map was on fire, since he was holding it a little too close to the lamp. He then
realises that it is on fire and throws it to the floor.
Leon quickly puts the flames out and picked up the half-burnt map. "You burned it! You burned off the part
with the lost city!"
Barry leaned back into his seat. "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."