Chapter 5: Flashlight.
-The death is only the beginning.
Imhotep
Old Ford thundered down the Cairo streets, sending a clouds of yellow
dust in the morning air.
Randy watched the rising sun, huge and purple, trudging its way up
the azure sky over the roofs and tree-tops. Light breeze drifted overhead,
caressing palm-trees' leaves, and Randy's thoughts drifted with it in lazy
procession. Piles of gold and ancient jewelry, along with marble villa
somewhere in Florida or, may be, big and flourishing casino in Las-Vegas
were not the last participants of it. However, one point kept disturbing
this Arcadia, i.e. the existence of several nasty-tempered guys who for
no apparent reason were also interested in the treasure.
"Ok", said our detective to himself, squinting at red sun disk. "Let's think positively. The main question is who are the leader and the wits of the gang. Use deduction, Julian, my son, and you'll get your answer.
"The guy must have some knowledge in Egyptian legends and also local superstitions, so our poor Americans are obviously excluded. No way they could conceive such a thrilling piece of shit. Now, who remains in the list? Egyptologist, of course, he must have known something about all this mummy history. The guide, what the hell was his name? Right, Beni. He looks very suspicious, of course he knew all this fabulous mummy stuff, and looks like very evasive and foxy little bastard. And then the girl. She is a librarian in Cairo museum, so all bookworm stuff is out of question. She had lived here enough to learn all the fire-tales about curses and walking corpses. And…she had read from the book, she had found the mummy, and, continuing this way, she had led O'Connell's party to Hamunaptra! Dammy, it's she hundred percent! "
Randy gasped and clapped his arm to his forehead, sending Ford Lincoln zigzagging like crazy blind armadillo.
"What I bit of idiot I was! Of course, this maddening scenario is her
nice artwork! She must have known where to find damn mummy to start the
show, and she'd led O'Connell straight to the spot.
I guess she's a smart girl…Brilliant mind and sickening intelligence,
that's it "
Little smile curled the edge of Julian's mouth. He liked smart girls very much, but this passion was kind of platonic love, because he had never met one. Now, it seemed, he had his chance…
At this happy point his pondering was interrupted, because in his concentration he had missed the gates and had drove right into the sign "UK Royal Military Airforce", smashing it into splinters. Cursing, he slammed the brakes and the car skidded to halt halfway into the little khaki tent. Randy expected that the owner of the tent would jump out (if he wasn't to scrape himself off the car wheels), swearing, but nothing happened. Then the bellow of rotors made him look toward the airfield, to see tiny shabby plane taking off, its wings shuddering in the turbulent air stream.
"Shit!" cried Randy. The plane was only way to get to Hamunaptra fast enough, and, no doubts, O'Connell was the first in this race. Nasty trick of fortune. However, being professional gambler, Randy was used to nasty tricks of fortune. He examined now empty airfield with searching eye and spotted a little boy in the far corner of it, fidgeting with big gramophone pipe. Judging by hustle in boy's movements, he had stolen it right away after the pilot's departure. Randy waved to kid, bidding him to approach, but with entirely different result: kid jumped, dropped the pipe and sprinted toward the farther edge of the field. However, not fast enough to beat the long-legged Mr. Julian, who was very skilled in running away after several arguments with New York State Police. He gained on with the kid, leaped forward and snatched boy's elbow. Kid squealed, twitched, and two of them fell sprawling onto the ground.
Minute later the dust cloud dissipated, and Julian found himself sitting on the top of yelping boy. The kid was Arab, with bronze tan and huge dark eyes, now bulging in horror. However, it became clear that the kid wasn't as bewildered as he looked for, because next moment he plunged his surprisingly sharp teeth in Randy's forearm. Young man hissed and shook the boy off his hand, which took some effort. Then he gave him a little jolt to make him behave, and grunted "You, little rat's brat, could you speak English?"
The boy, obviously surprised by the little amount of beating, piped "Yes, sir. Please don't beat me, sir! It was my gramophone, Winston said I could take it!"
"I don't care about this damned gramophone, you little thief! Have you seen the men on this plane?"
"Yes, sir. T'was O'Connell and John Carnarvon, and one more guy with them with tattoos all over his face."
Obviously, it was Med-Ji guy, one of the curse-keepers. One more pain in the ass.
"Ok, listen to me. You see this one?"
Julian produced a one-pound banknote and swung it in front of boy's nose. Kid gaped and reached for it, but Randy yanked it back.
"Not so fast, little rascal. Tell me first, if there is one more plane in this goddamn hole of Cairo?"
"Yes, sir" whispered kid, mesmerized by the sight of money. "Izi've got one for his "Magical Carpet Ltd.""
"Show me where it is and it's yours".
**********
Izi turned out to be short black guy with squeaking voice and cautious manners. He blankly declined the honor to convey Ambassador's secretary to some unknown spot in deep desert. Randy showed him fifty pounds, but the guy kept muttering something about his shot ass and broken ailerons. At last it got on Randy's nerves, and he declared
"Listen to me, sonny. If you don't move your shot ass and don't fly wherever I had said immediately, you will find yourself under investigation about drugs smuggling, and you will be subject to revocation of license, penalties in excess of ten thousands dollars, and twenty years in jail. But don't worry about all this things, buddy…" continued Julian, smiling ominously.
"Nothing of it will actually happen, because I'm going to kill you right now, confiscate your plane and fly to Hamunaptra by myself. You see, I have had several flying lessons and now I'm going to use them for good"
With these words Julian unholstered his Colt, cocked it and aimed at Izi's forehead. Guy paled (which, considering the color of his skin, meant that he became slightly gray and slightly grin), trembled and scampered to the plane, crying "We are takin off right now!" Randy smiled complacently and followed him to the second pilot seat.
Hour later they crossed the Nile and were flying over the enormous yellowish bowl of Sahara. Their shadow on the ground leaped from one sand dune to another, frightening tiny gray lizards, baking in hot sunbeams. Roaring of rotors through the swishing wind was only sound in these lone spaces. Randy squinted through the blinding torrent of dusty air, hoping to spot another plane. However, it wasn't the plane what he had seen. Over the far horizon raised enormous yellow wall, veiling the sky and the desert, obscuring one's vision.
"What the Hell is this?" cried Julian, bending to bellow right into pilot's ear.
"Dunno!" yelled Izi back, note of panic in his voice. "But be I damned if I'd fly there!"
"Oh yes you will, boy!" cried Julian, jamming the pistol's barrel in back of Izi's neck. "Or you'll fly right down, without wings and propellers!"
It seemed that Izi might prefer the second option when the wall instantly
quivered and crashed down, with fountains of sand springing from the ground.
Randy had I deem impression that he'd noticed a cross of falling plane
in the sandstorm, picking to the ground, but he wasn't sure, it was too
far to be confident.
Soon they traversed the ridge of gray rocks and Randy gasped in awe-magnificent walls and giant statues of Dead City lay beneath the wings of the plane. But soon he realized one thing…and Izi realized it, too.
"Hey, buddy, I have no place to land here!"
"You better try to find one, if you don't want to see your brains on your windscreen" hissed Mr. Randy, but with no avail. He surveyed sand hillocks, rocks and ruined buildings, with no place for landing.
"Kill me if you want", squeaked Izi, sending the plane upwards. "But I can do nothing!"
"Shit" muttered Randy. Then closed his eyes, prayed to all known and unknown gods benevolent to idiots, loosened the belt and cried "Fly down!"
When little aircraft jumped down, trembling violently in the rising streams of hot air, Randy crawled on the wing, cursed and dropped on the sand.
********
Force of inertia rolled him several times, but at last he scrambled on his feet, spitting sand and blood from his injured lip. In front of him erected giant ornamented portico, half obliterated by sands and winds. Behind it was a squat building, or may be tomb, with gaping hole of entrance and traces of digging around it. Randy didn't like the sight at all, but all suggested that the treasure chamber must be inside, in the depth of necropolis, so he shrugged, pulled the flashlight out his pocket, clutched it in his left hand, cocked the Colt in the right and crept down the stairs, into the gaping darkness of Dead City.
Inside he clicked the flashlight on and the narrow white beam lighted cracked walls with patches of yellow mold and ancient painting. Julian glanced at the mold apprehensively, recalling the stories about poisonous fungus inside the Pharaohs' crypts. He glided down the corridor, careful to make as little noise as possible and moving with almost inhuman grace. He turned a corner and then some weird creepy noise made him freeze on the spot. Screeching and buzzing, as if thousands bugs decided to have a riotous party down here. Then the sound faded away and Randy continued his moving. He was wondering where the rest of treasure-seekers had been hiding and whether they'd finished O'Connell and his buddies already. As if to answer this question sounds of screaming and fight came from the far end of the corridor, along with dim yellow light. Randy switched his flashlight off and hurried towards the source of noise.
Corridor ended abruptly by wide arch, and Randy blinked at the light streaming from it. He crept forward soundlessly, trying to keep near the wall and thumbing the hammer of his Colt. Screaming instantly stopped, transforming into deem words on unknown language, and Julian poked his head from the corridor to survey the scene. He looked down the immense hall, illuminated by torches and strange radiance rising from the black pool in the middle of it, and his jaw dropped.
All around the hall were scattered shreds of corpses or something that looked like corpses, only actually they were severed mummies, as Randy checked himself. In the middle of room by the erected tablet were staying two guys: short thin jerk, jumping on his toes, and girl with enormous gold-bound book in her hands. He was reading from the book something, which sounded pretty like "Phocus-Pokus-Amoebus-Proteus". But it weren't the girl and her companion who made Julian goggle in disbelief. Near the pool stayed a tall, half-naked and dark-tanned guy, clutching the neck of another, also not-so-miniature guy in his hand so that the feet of the last were dangling a foot over the floor. Instantly girl stopped her reading and slammed the book shut with loud snap. Randy raised his gun, ready to shoot or shout or run or whatever, but then the scary marvels started to occur.
Luminous swirling portal opened in the wall, and semi-transparent chariot with couple of semi-transparent guys thundered down the stairs and rushed right through dark-tanned person, who already let go of his buddy's neck. Randy watched in utmost bewilderment as semi-transparent copy of guy was snatched by mysterious charioteers and dragged away. It appeared that the victim of this strange procedure missed his ghostly win, because the guy ran after the chariot crying blue murderer (ad Randy was pretty sure that murderer he was, but was he also blue? He didn't look like, but…). Anyway, chariot dissolved in solid wall, and the pursuer stopped and turned on his tracks, looking murderously. He snarled something and strode toward his former victim, who was now holding big ancient sword.
"Uhoh", muttered Randy, because the murder was obviously coming. Time to show himself. He leaped out of his hiding place, raised his gun and cried "All of you guys, don't move, police!"
Girl, short man and owner of the sword gaped at him, but half-naked jerk didn't put a bit of attention to his warning and rushed to sword-man (was it O'Connel? It looked like it might be), ready to kill. However, it didn't go well with Randy's plans, so he aimed and pushed the trigger. Sound of shot racketed through the huge hall, echoing like distant cannon fire. Man stumbled, blood pouring from his shoulder. He watched it trickling down his forearm in astonishment, as if he had expected to bleed in whiskey instead of blood. Randy cocked his pistol again, ready to shoot, but instantly the remote thunder shook the walls, jets of sand and little rocks started to crumble from the ceiling, floor trembled beneath their feet.
"Time to go!" yelled the man who must have been O'Connell, snatched girl's arm and rushed to the exit, shorter man on his heels.
"You won't go nowhere!" shouted Randy, taking aim at him.
"You may stay if you want, idiot!" yelled the girl. Randy considered this point and decided that he rather won't. He whirled around to see the wall sealing corridor entrance, and darted after the company. With the edge of his eye he noticed that half-naked vicious guy also joined the run, apparently not crazy enough to stay in the crashing cave. They sprinted through several small rooms, then erupted into large cavernous hall, full of gold and jewels.
"Treasure chamber!" wailed the voice in the back of Julian's mind, but he ordered it to shut up and only snatched a little golden pendant from the neck of one of the golden guys. Then they were out, speeding toward exit, while the walls of side passages kept crushing down and sealing the doors. Julian heard cries from behind, but was too busy making his legs move faster to turn and listen. And then they all ran puffing into the small room, Randy only noticed the huge statue hiding in the shadows in the back of the chamber. They hastened forward, but the door slipped down with muffled thud in front of them, sealing the exit, they turned back only to see that the gate behind them became a solid wall, too-and realized that they are ensnared, locked in the rending necropolis. Upon the realization O'Connell dropped his torche and the room sunk in complete darkness.
Not for a long time, however. Randy switched on his flashlight and the white electric beam swept down the wall in short ragged jerks. It fell on the faces of captured men: pale and awestruck of Jonathan, desperate of O'Connell, who held terrified Evelyn in his arms, and absolutely blank and unreadable of Imhotep. Randy coughed, moved the light uneasily and said
"Well, I guess we have enough time now. Could somebody please explain
what actually had happened, if its not too much trouble?"
The End of the First Part.
Disclaimer: But don't you guys think it's a real end of affair, oh
no! Read the continuation in "Scorpion King" and "Warriors of Eternity"
! Please let me know if you want to read the sequel!