~ Cairo, Egypt—A Small, Yet Modern-Looking Hotel~
The German woman, Greta, led Suzette up the stairs of the hotel towards the room Greta had secured, the gun hidden in her sleeve, still pressed against Suzette's back. The hotel was not far at all from the port…in fact, Suzette could still hear the boats and the crowds from the large window in the room.
"I have to make a telephone call." Greta told Suzette roughly, and then she frowned, as if she had no idea why she had just said what she did.
"Fine with me." Suzette sneered, sitting on the bed.
"Watch it." Greta threatened, pointing the hand gun at the French girl. Suzette did not gasp, she just regarded her German captor angrily, thinking of all the nasty, harmful things she would like to do to the damned Kraut. Suzette was confused, though. When the woman had come to her door with Gerhard and Josef (what seemed like an eternity ago, Suzette reflected wryly), she had seemed almost as afraid as Suzette.
The necklace, Suzette realized suddenly, the necklace is making her like this. The pendant had given Suzette and her family incredibly bad luck…and now it was making the German woman into a monster. That pendant had to be destroyed!
Greta picked up the phone on the table by the bed and asked for the overseas operator. She then gave out a number and waited a moment.
"Who are you calling?" Suzette asked, simply to be irritating.
"None of your business." Greta hissed quickly. She looked anxious, and Suzette watched her as her hand went to the pendant.
"Guten tag, mein Fuehrer!" Greta greeted after a moment. "Ja…ja, we have secured the pendant. Ja, we are leaving for the temple today, and we will…ja. Of course, mein Fuehrer. Ja. Me either! Nein…nein, we had no trouble at all…" Greta paused and gave Suzette a disgustingly triumphant look, then turned back away. "Nein. Ja, we will be ready soon…er…where are they? Uh, Gerhard and Josef are off securing a boat. Ja. A private one, so we will not…ja, exactly. Danke! Danke…ja. All right, do not worry, mein Fuehrer, we will be…ja! Auf Weidersehen, mein Fuehrer."
Greta hung up the phone.
"'Mein Fuehrer?'" Suzette raised an eyebrow.
"Ja…we are doing this for Germany." Greta sneered.
"Ostensibly! You are doing this…whatever you intend to do, anyway…for your own benefit. And no wonder. I have heard stories about your leader. About his violent ways and views." Suzette accused.
"I am very hard to anger, you stupid, French brat. So keep your mouth shut and I just might not kill you. I do not know why Josef and Gerhard desire you to be alive, but…well, if I must." Greta smirked.
Suzette just stared, hard, trying not to belay her feelings to the dangerous German woman. Suzette knew that would be the worst thing that she could possibly do. She really was terrified, of course, but come hell or high water, she would not show it.
***
Meanwhile, not very far away, Rick, Jonathan, and Ardeth were trying to figure out what their next step would be.
"Apparently, we have to retrieve the girl." Ardeth announced as they walked away from the crates. The three scanned the crowd with anxious eyes, watching for their two German 'friends'. Fortunately, Josef and Gerhard were nowhere to be seen.
Thank God for small favors!
"Apparently." Jonathan rolled his eyes.
"Why did they take her, though? Why would they need her?" Rick mused. "After all, didn't her however-many greats grandfather just take that pendant thing? Suzette shouldn't have anything to do with it."
"I wish I could tell you, my friend." Ardeth sighed. "But if they find out she is not useful to them…" Ardeth trailed off, allowing Rick and Jonathan to draw their own conclusions.
"Yes. Well. We must, ah, prevent that, eh boys?" Jonathan suggested.
Rick, still on the look-out for their German friends, only nodded in agreement.
***
Josef and Gerhard, at that moment, were not too far from Rick, Ardeth, and Jonathan, actually. They were waiting for Greta by the port, and had just secured passage down the Nile to their desired location. As they had expected, the ticket vender had been a bit suspicious…the British trading post they had described had been deserted for decades, but with the right amount of money, one could easily overcome suspicions, and, luckily, Gerhard, Josef, Greta, and the French girl would have an empty boat.
Which would work to their advantage, if they decided that the French brat was not as useful as they hoped.
"Do you see them?" Josef asked his partner. Besides waiting for Greta, the two had also been on the look-out for their escaped prisoners.
"No…you would think the Med-Jai would stand out just a bit." Gerhard sneered in angered exasperation. Josef raised an eyebrow…Gerhard's hatred for the Egyptian warrior was inexplicably strong and sudden. Even Josef had been a bit taken a back when Gerhard had attacked the Med-Jai back in the room with such violent vigor.
"Speaking of…Greta seemed to react when she saw the Med-Jai…do you think that has anything to do with her connection to the pendant?" Josef asked warily.
Gerhard turned to his partner and raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you think I recommended her to the Fuehrer? She's simply some young, no-account scholar, but when we get to that outpost, her…'connection' will prove quite useful." Gerhard explained.
"So it would explain the Med-Jai." Josef mused.
"Ja. Which may be dangerous…if the Med-Jai is able to turn her from us, she could destroy the pendant, and all our plans with it. I wish I could have killed the damned 'warrior'." Gerhard sighed roughly, practically spitting out the word 'warrior.'. Josef raised an eyebrow at the new information. He had not been told much…not much more than he had already known of course. And Greta was connected to this…? Perhaps it explained Gerhard's hatred of the Med-Jai.
Suddenly, something occurred to Josef…something somewhat startling.
"Gerhard…why do you suppose the American and the Englishman were with the Med-Jai? I would expect him to be watching out for the French girl and her pendant, but what would the two of them have to do with anything?" Josef frowned.
Gerhard turned to his partner, his expression relating that the thought had never occurred to him, either.
"Perhaps…perhaps he knew them…from somewhere…" Gerhard stammered.
"Something tells me that this may be harder than we expected." Josef foretold darkly, and Gerhard did not reply, although he was thinking the exact same thing.
***
Suzette watched in confusion and fear as Greta glanced at her watch, then held the pendant. A strange smile crossed her face, an unmistakably dangerous smile. Greta caught Suzette staring at her unhappily, and smirked. She moved across the room, taking out the small hang gun.
"What?" Suzette squeaked, discretely frowning at the terrified quality of her voice. Greta laughed with dangerous superiority, twirling the gun around like some sort of crazy American cowboy.
"Come on, we're going out." Greta told Suzette, sticking the gun into her back again and pushing the French girl to her feet.
"Where? Why?" Suzette whined.
"You do enjoy trying to annoy people. How old are you?" Greta demanded.
"Eighteen." Suzette replied in a clipped way, starting towards the door.
"You look younger." Greta scoffed.
"Merci bien, but I am eighteen." Suzette spat.
"How interesting. Now once we get out there, if you let on anything, I will shoot you right there…and I will." Greta hissed, and Suzette nodded, believing her completely.
The two exited the hotel and headed out into the busy, bustling, afternoon streets of Cairo. Of course, they had know way of knowing that a little less than two hours later, a British librarian named Evelyn Carnahan would be purchasing a room, and making a few inquiries as to the whereabouts of her soon-to-be-husband and her ne'er-do-well brother.
***
"Stop!" Ardeth hissed, pulling Rick and Jonathan back.
The two froze, and followed the Med-Jai's wide-eyed gaze. Sure enough, there two very-favorite Germans were leaning against an information kiosk, Gerhard smoking a cigarette, staring ahead intently, and Josef reading an apparently German newspaper disinterestedly. He flicked the pages, and looked as if he were sighing.
"What are we going to do?" Rick asked.
"How about…run away very quickly?" Jonathan suggested quietly.
"That's your solution for everything." Rick told him dryly.
"And a bloody good one it is!" Jonathan defended petulantly.
"Shhh! They'll hear us. Come now, Jonathan, we cannot run away. Perhaps if we watch them, we will find the girl and retrieve the pendant." Ardeth motioned to his two companions. Jonathan and Rick rolled their eyes in unison, and Ardeth chose to delicately ignore that.
The three hung back behind a parked car, hoping that the owner would not make an appearance any time soon. For a while, nothing happened…the two Germans would simply scan the area (causing the American, the Briton, and the Med-Jai to quickly duck down behind the car), check their watches, sigh, say something angrily to one another, than go back to smoking and reading.
"Look…" Rick pointed out, just as Jonathan was about to express how flippin' boring this 'deathly' mission was quickly becoming.
Ardeth and Jonathan followed Rick's finger, and sure enough, the German woman and Suzette approached. The French girl looked quite afraid, and the three didn't have to be geniuses to guess that the damned Kraut woman was holding a gun to her.
"What do we do?" Jonathan hissed, looking around desperately.
Rick was about to respond when a large, heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder. He cried out, jumping up in shock. Ardeth and Jonathan whirled around, coming face-to-face with an incredibly large Arabic man.
"I'll tell you what you can do…you can get away from my damned car!" he cried in heavily-accented English…and also, in a quite loud tone.
Ardeth looked at the Germans, who were, unfortunately, looking over in their direction.
"Men…" He whispered.
"Uh, we're very, very sorry sir, we didn't mean to, eh, stand…here. Yes…we will leave now." Jonathan smirked.
"HEY!" A voice called.
"Oh damn!" Rick cursed. Gerhard had seen them, and he and Josef were dashing over. The Arabic car-owner looked over in confusion.
"We will actually be leaving quite fast, now…" Jonathan squeaked, and he ran past the man. Ardeth and Rick did as well as Josef pulled his gun from his pocket and shot at them. The bullet whizzed past Rick's ear, and he looked back.
"HALTE!" Gerhard screamed.
"Ya, sure, I MIGHT JUST DO THAT!" Rick smirked back, still looking back at their German assailant, which was not the best thing to do when one is running quickly through a crowded port city.
"RICK!!" Jonathan and Ardeth screamed, and Rick smacked right into a parked car. With a pain-filled 'oof', Rick fell back to the ground, and Ardeth and Jonathan skidded to a stop. Gerhard and Josef were catching up quickly…
"That was…er…graceful." Rick moaned as Ardeth and Jonathan helped him up.
"Don't you ever make fun of me again, O'Connell!" Jonathan demanded as they started running again, the two Germans chasing after them, shooting wildly into the air.
Meanwhile, as Josef and Gerhard ran off after Rick, Ardeth, and Jonathan, Suzette used the distraction to writhe away from Greta's iron grip. Before the German woman knew what had happened, Suzette was dashing down the street, laughing wildly. Greta cursed heavily in German, and started after the girl, ignoring the odd looks the people on the street were giving her.
Suzette, mentally congratulating herself on her great escape and ignoring Greta's cursing behind her, caught sight of Gerhard and Josef, chasing after her three companions.
"HEY! MEN! HEEEEEY!" Suzette called wildly, motioning with her hands. Unfortunately, she also alerted Gerhard and Josef to her presence, and Gerhard screamed out something in German that Suzette was a little embarrassed to translate.
Gerhard aimed his gun at Suzette and shot, but Suzette managed to dodge, and Gerhard ended up shooting out the window of a truck. Sighing in relief, Suzette dashed across the busy street to catch up with Rick, Ardeth, and Jonathan.
"Nice." Rick smirked at her, unable to say more.
"Merci bien, Monsieur." Suzette panted.
"Hey gents! Sorry to be a downer, but I don't think I can run much more…" Jonathan panted, dodging another of the German's poorly-aimed shots.
"I have an idea!" Ardeth called, and motioned to a pick-up truck that was speeding down the road by the port. Crossing into the street, Ardeth made an amazing leap and landed in the bed of the truck. Rick and Jonathan followed his example, and Suzette tried to, but she almost slipped off. Jonathan managed to grab her arm before she did, though, and pulled her on board. Luckily, the driver did not seem to notice.
"Uh…thanks." Suzette smiled at Jonathan, who smiled back, giving her a frantically relieved looked. Suzette was pretty sure she had the same expression, "I think I may collapse." She panted.
"Not yet, child, there is still much to do." Ardeth told her seriously. Suzette raised an eyebrow and Rick smirked at her, mouthing 'he takes everything too seriously'.
"All right, I will try to hold off on the fainting until we stop those bloody Krauts." She promised.
The truck rode off, the four unwelcome passengers ducking in the back, as Gerhard and Josef, screaming angrily, faded out of view.
The German woman, Greta, led Suzette up the stairs of the hotel towards the room Greta had secured, the gun hidden in her sleeve, still pressed against Suzette's back. The hotel was not far at all from the port…in fact, Suzette could still hear the boats and the crowds from the large window in the room.
"I have to make a telephone call." Greta told Suzette roughly, and then she frowned, as if she had no idea why she had just said what she did.
"Fine with me." Suzette sneered, sitting on the bed.
"Watch it." Greta threatened, pointing the hand gun at the French girl. Suzette did not gasp, she just regarded her German captor angrily, thinking of all the nasty, harmful things she would like to do to the damned Kraut. Suzette was confused, though. When the woman had come to her door with Gerhard and Josef (what seemed like an eternity ago, Suzette reflected wryly), she had seemed almost as afraid as Suzette.
The necklace, Suzette realized suddenly, the necklace is making her like this. The pendant had given Suzette and her family incredibly bad luck…and now it was making the German woman into a monster. That pendant had to be destroyed!
Greta picked up the phone on the table by the bed and asked for the overseas operator. She then gave out a number and waited a moment.
"Who are you calling?" Suzette asked, simply to be irritating.
"None of your business." Greta hissed quickly. She looked anxious, and Suzette watched her as her hand went to the pendant.
"Guten tag, mein Fuehrer!" Greta greeted after a moment. "Ja…ja, we have secured the pendant. Ja, we are leaving for the temple today, and we will…ja. Of course, mein Fuehrer. Ja. Me either! Nein…nein, we had no trouble at all…" Greta paused and gave Suzette a disgustingly triumphant look, then turned back away. "Nein. Ja, we will be ready soon…er…where are they? Uh, Gerhard and Josef are off securing a boat. Ja. A private one, so we will not…ja, exactly. Danke! Danke…ja. All right, do not worry, mein Fuehrer, we will be…ja! Auf Weidersehen, mein Fuehrer."
Greta hung up the phone.
"'Mein Fuehrer?'" Suzette raised an eyebrow.
"Ja…we are doing this for Germany." Greta sneered.
"Ostensibly! You are doing this…whatever you intend to do, anyway…for your own benefit. And no wonder. I have heard stories about your leader. About his violent ways and views." Suzette accused.
"I am very hard to anger, you stupid, French brat. So keep your mouth shut and I just might not kill you. I do not know why Josef and Gerhard desire you to be alive, but…well, if I must." Greta smirked.
Suzette just stared, hard, trying not to belay her feelings to the dangerous German woman. Suzette knew that would be the worst thing that she could possibly do. She really was terrified, of course, but come hell or high water, she would not show it.
***
Meanwhile, not very far away, Rick, Jonathan, and Ardeth were trying to figure out what their next step would be.
"Apparently, we have to retrieve the girl." Ardeth announced as they walked away from the crates. The three scanned the crowd with anxious eyes, watching for their two German 'friends'. Fortunately, Josef and Gerhard were nowhere to be seen.
Thank God for small favors!
"Apparently." Jonathan rolled his eyes.
"Why did they take her, though? Why would they need her?" Rick mused. "After all, didn't her however-many greats grandfather just take that pendant thing? Suzette shouldn't have anything to do with it."
"I wish I could tell you, my friend." Ardeth sighed. "But if they find out she is not useful to them…" Ardeth trailed off, allowing Rick and Jonathan to draw their own conclusions.
"Yes. Well. We must, ah, prevent that, eh boys?" Jonathan suggested.
Rick, still on the look-out for their German friends, only nodded in agreement.
***
Josef and Gerhard, at that moment, were not too far from Rick, Ardeth, and Jonathan, actually. They were waiting for Greta by the port, and had just secured passage down the Nile to their desired location. As they had expected, the ticket vender had been a bit suspicious…the British trading post they had described had been deserted for decades, but with the right amount of money, one could easily overcome suspicions, and, luckily, Gerhard, Josef, Greta, and the French girl would have an empty boat.
Which would work to their advantage, if they decided that the French brat was not as useful as they hoped.
"Do you see them?" Josef asked his partner. Besides waiting for Greta, the two had also been on the look-out for their escaped prisoners.
"No…you would think the Med-Jai would stand out just a bit." Gerhard sneered in angered exasperation. Josef raised an eyebrow…Gerhard's hatred for the Egyptian warrior was inexplicably strong and sudden. Even Josef had been a bit taken a back when Gerhard had attacked the Med-Jai back in the room with such violent vigor.
"Speaking of…Greta seemed to react when she saw the Med-Jai…do you think that has anything to do with her connection to the pendant?" Josef asked warily.
Gerhard turned to his partner and raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you think I recommended her to the Fuehrer? She's simply some young, no-account scholar, but when we get to that outpost, her…'connection' will prove quite useful." Gerhard explained.
"So it would explain the Med-Jai." Josef mused.
"Ja. Which may be dangerous…if the Med-Jai is able to turn her from us, she could destroy the pendant, and all our plans with it. I wish I could have killed the damned 'warrior'." Gerhard sighed roughly, practically spitting out the word 'warrior.'. Josef raised an eyebrow at the new information. He had not been told much…not much more than he had already known of course. And Greta was connected to this…? Perhaps it explained Gerhard's hatred of the Med-Jai.
Suddenly, something occurred to Josef…something somewhat startling.
"Gerhard…why do you suppose the American and the Englishman were with the Med-Jai? I would expect him to be watching out for the French girl and her pendant, but what would the two of them have to do with anything?" Josef frowned.
Gerhard turned to his partner, his expression relating that the thought had never occurred to him, either.
"Perhaps…perhaps he knew them…from somewhere…" Gerhard stammered.
"Something tells me that this may be harder than we expected." Josef foretold darkly, and Gerhard did not reply, although he was thinking the exact same thing.
***
Suzette watched in confusion and fear as Greta glanced at her watch, then held the pendant. A strange smile crossed her face, an unmistakably dangerous smile. Greta caught Suzette staring at her unhappily, and smirked. She moved across the room, taking out the small hang gun.
"What?" Suzette squeaked, discretely frowning at the terrified quality of her voice. Greta laughed with dangerous superiority, twirling the gun around like some sort of crazy American cowboy.
"Come on, we're going out." Greta told Suzette, sticking the gun into her back again and pushing the French girl to her feet.
"Where? Why?" Suzette whined.
"You do enjoy trying to annoy people. How old are you?" Greta demanded.
"Eighteen." Suzette replied in a clipped way, starting towards the door.
"You look younger." Greta scoffed.
"Merci bien, but I am eighteen." Suzette spat.
"How interesting. Now once we get out there, if you let on anything, I will shoot you right there…and I will." Greta hissed, and Suzette nodded, believing her completely.
The two exited the hotel and headed out into the busy, bustling, afternoon streets of Cairo. Of course, they had know way of knowing that a little less than two hours later, a British librarian named Evelyn Carnahan would be purchasing a room, and making a few inquiries as to the whereabouts of her soon-to-be-husband and her ne'er-do-well brother.
***
"Stop!" Ardeth hissed, pulling Rick and Jonathan back.
The two froze, and followed the Med-Jai's wide-eyed gaze. Sure enough, there two very-favorite Germans were leaning against an information kiosk, Gerhard smoking a cigarette, staring ahead intently, and Josef reading an apparently German newspaper disinterestedly. He flicked the pages, and looked as if he were sighing.
"What are we going to do?" Rick asked.
"How about…run away very quickly?" Jonathan suggested quietly.
"That's your solution for everything." Rick told him dryly.
"And a bloody good one it is!" Jonathan defended petulantly.
"Shhh! They'll hear us. Come now, Jonathan, we cannot run away. Perhaps if we watch them, we will find the girl and retrieve the pendant." Ardeth motioned to his two companions. Jonathan and Rick rolled their eyes in unison, and Ardeth chose to delicately ignore that.
The three hung back behind a parked car, hoping that the owner would not make an appearance any time soon. For a while, nothing happened…the two Germans would simply scan the area (causing the American, the Briton, and the Med-Jai to quickly duck down behind the car), check their watches, sigh, say something angrily to one another, than go back to smoking and reading.
"Look…" Rick pointed out, just as Jonathan was about to express how flippin' boring this 'deathly' mission was quickly becoming.
Ardeth and Jonathan followed Rick's finger, and sure enough, the German woman and Suzette approached. The French girl looked quite afraid, and the three didn't have to be geniuses to guess that the damned Kraut woman was holding a gun to her.
"What do we do?" Jonathan hissed, looking around desperately.
Rick was about to respond when a large, heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder. He cried out, jumping up in shock. Ardeth and Jonathan whirled around, coming face-to-face with an incredibly large Arabic man.
"I'll tell you what you can do…you can get away from my damned car!" he cried in heavily-accented English…and also, in a quite loud tone.
Ardeth looked at the Germans, who were, unfortunately, looking over in their direction.
"Men…" He whispered.
"Uh, we're very, very sorry sir, we didn't mean to, eh, stand…here. Yes…we will leave now." Jonathan smirked.
"HEY!" A voice called.
"Oh damn!" Rick cursed. Gerhard had seen them, and he and Josef were dashing over. The Arabic car-owner looked over in confusion.
"We will actually be leaving quite fast, now…" Jonathan squeaked, and he ran past the man. Ardeth and Rick did as well as Josef pulled his gun from his pocket and shot at them. The bullet whizzed past Rick's ear, and he looked back.
"HALTE!" Gerhard screamed.
"Ya, sure, I MIGHT JUST DO THAT!" Rick smirked back, still looking back at their German assailant, which was not the best thing to do when one is running quickly through a crowded port city.
"RICK!!" Jonathan and Ardeth screamed, and Rick smacked right into a parked car. With a pain-filled 'oof', Rick fell back to the ground, and Ardeth and Jonathan skidded to a stop. Gerhard and Josef were catching up quickly…
"That was…er…graceful." Rick moaned as Ardeth and Jonathan helped him up.
"Don't you ever make fun of me again, O'Connell!" Jonathan demanded as they started running again, the two Germans chasing after them, shooting wildly into the air.
Meanwhile, as Josef and Gerhard ran off after Rick, Ardeth, and Jonathan, Suzette used the distraction to writhe away from Greta's iron grip. Before the German woman knew what had happened, Suzette was dashing down the street, laughing wildly. Greta cursed heavily in German, and started after the girl, ignoring the odd looks the people on the street were giving her.
Suzette, mentally congratulating herself on her great escape and ignoring Greta's cursing behind her, caught sight of Gerhard and Josef, chasing after her three companions.
"HEY! MEN! HEEEEEY!" Suzette called wildly, motioning with her hands. Unfortunately, she also alerted Gerhard and Josef to her presence, and Gerhard screamed out something in German that Suzette was a little embarrassed to translate.
Gerhard aimed his gun at Suzette and shot, but Suzette managed to dodge, and Gerhard ended up shooting out the window of a truck. Sighing in relief, Suzette dashed across the busy street to catch up with Rick, Ardeth, and Jonathan.
"Nice." Rick smirked at her, unable to say more.
"Merci bien, Monsieur." Suzette panted.
"Hey gents! Sorry to be a downer, but I don't think I can run much more…" Jonathan panted, dodging another of the German's poorly-aimed shots.
"I have an idea!" Ardeth called, and motioned to a pick-up truck that was speeding down the road by the port. Crossing into the street, Ardeth made an amazing leap and landed in the bed of the truck. Rick and Jonathan followed his example, and Suzette tried to, but she almost slipped off. Jonathan managed to grab her arm before she did, though, and pulled her on board. Luckily, the driver did not seem to notice.
"Uh…thanks." Suzette smiled at Jonathan, who smiled back, giving her a frantically relieved looked. Suzette was pretty sure she had the same expression, "I think I may collapse." She panted.
"Not yet, child, there is still much to do." Ardeth told her seriously. Suzette raised an eyebrow and Rick smirked at her, mouthing 'he takes everything too seriously'.
"All right, I will try to hold off on the fainting until we stop those bloody Krauts." She promised.
The truck rode off, the four unwelcome passengers ducking in the back, as Gerhard and Josef, screaming angrily, faded out of view.