Standard Disclaimers Apply
A/N: Yehey! We updated and improved this chap! Hope you guys like it! Sorry for not updating quickly. ^_^ Thanks to Tesuka for editing our fic!
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CHAPTER FOUR
Pacing around the room, Nikita Raman was thinking on what to say to her father. The situation about the bracelet was crucial to her and to her family ancestry.
'Why can't they understand?' Nikita thought furiously, as she walked on the carpet for the nth time. 'The bracelet belongs to MY family, MY relatives, no matter who they are, whether they are those roguish twins or that insufferable Selim! That vile 'ol hog…But again, no matter, as long as they are in the family. Blood-ties! And now, thanks to father's faithful servant, it is in the hands of those feeling-superior Englishmen!'
Abdul, Nikita's father, was hovering near the doorway, watching thoughtfully as Nikita's irate thoughts ran. He knew better than to approach her at this state of mind, but it cannot be helped for as her daughter had branded the situation, it was 'crucial'. He knew he shouldn't have trusted the bracelet for safekeeping to his servant, who looked surprisingly like him, Mahmud. He dismissed the thought at that moment and assured himself and his daughter that Mahmud was a trusted fellow and could very well protect the bracelet. How wrong he was, he realized thinking about it now.
'Mahmud is a very honest and reliable man; however, give him a bottle of brandy. Within a few moments, all those honor and valor would be gone from his mind. What evil things alcohol can do to a man,' Abdul thought. That unfortunately had happened to Mahmud who sold the bracelet to a very eager Englishman a.k.a. David for a measly small amount of money.
Abdul sighed as he approached his daughter. His steps threaded softly on the thick carpeting of the floor, moving noiselessly towards Nikita.
"Nikita," he uttered, laying a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Please stop this pacing. You're ruining the carpet," he added with a slight teasing smile.
Looking at her father, Nikita answered his smile, giving him one of her own.
"Father--," she started but was cut off as her father raised his hand.
"Nikita, please, at least stand still o sir down. You're making me dizzy," he commanded softly, waving his hand towards the direction of the settee.
She chose the latter, already feeling the tiredness creeping along the muscles of her thighs and legs. Without saying a word, Abdul poured Nikita a glass of water to calm her down. Normally, a servant would do this, but because of Nikita's distress and disposition, he thought it would be better to have replaceable yet expensive figurines than to replace broken bones. Thankfully, Nikita had only injured a servant once since she was totally out of control at that time. Nikita can be violent and gentle when she wants but her quick temper causes her to conceal her gentler side. Most of the time, when she is with her loved ones, it is when this softer side of her is seen. Violence was just an act to hide her true feelings, being a private person. Ever since that time when her mother died giving birth to her would-be brother, the sparkling smile and the joyous girl at the palace was nowhere in sight.
'Ah, Anya. You should have seen how your daughter grew up. She looks just like you and has inherited your intelligence and your wittiness' Abdul reminisced, remembering his late wife, Anya Sluzhka who was a Russian. They met in Egypt when Anya's father, Ivan Sluzhka, a very respectable Egyptologist, organized an archaeological dig. Unfortunately, she was very ill when she gave birth to his second child. Coming back to the present, he focused his attention to Nikita, who, he noticed, was trying to sort out her words.
"Father, I will get to the point," Nikita said, looking for any reaction on her father's face. Seeing none, she continued, encouraged. "I will go tomorrow or anytime this week to Egypt. I have to get the bracelet back. It is like an insult to our family heritage for those dam…foreigners to get their hands on what is not theirs just to suit their curiosity. I'm not saying what my mother did was wrong but this is different. I hope you understand. There are also some rumors circulating about Mathayus' wife, Selket. On how that fact came out, I do not know, but I assure you, I will find out. That necklace might provide for us a great deal of money that will help you on the next elections, and that power from the necklace might do me good," she said, already thinking about what she will do once she attain both bracelet and necklace. 'Those foreigners do not know all of what happened to Selket. There is a secret that they must not know' she thought deceitfully.
She stole a look from her father for her head was down while she talked. She saw disapproval reflected on her father's face and a bit of…disgust? 'Why does he look at me like that? Doesn't he understand that both power and money are important in this world?'
"Nikita, I have thought and believed in myself that I have raised you properly and that I have taught you the morals that we must follow. I am greatly disappointed from what I have heard from you right now. You must understand. Power and money are not the most important things in the world. It is your family and love. You may not have experience a mother's love but I gave you a great deal of mine and also from the people around you, but I have seen that my failure as a father has made you blind. I may be a powerful sheikh but I have tried to teach you the ways that I thought were good and proper.
Since you are very keen about what you want to do and how you do it, I will not stop you from making you own decisions. It is time for you to be on your own; however, this I say to you, you are responsible and you should take in account about what your actions are and what good will it do for you and your men. You have developed swashbuckling ways from my army and your ruthless men where I have discovered from your speech and no, I do not disapprove. It is just that you have both disappointed your mother and me. I do not know what happened to you that made you change but I will respect you and your decisions," Abdul stated, very disappointed, saddened and ashamed on what he had heard coming from his daughter. True, he may be very busy to attend to his daughter but he made sure that every free opportunity or free time was spent with his daughter.
Nikita was both enraged and surprised at what she heard. 'Is this my father? He has always approved of what I do.' Though surprised, the feeling of rage and frustration was rising from her veins. 'So he wouldn't support me. We'll see about that…' she thought, as she looked at her father with burning eyes.
Abdul saw the intensity of the anger in his daughter's eyes. He knew that he shouldn't have said that but it was time for her to make mistakes and learn from them. She will have to learn them in the hard way.
"I see that is how you feel, father," Nikita said, stressing the last word as she looked at her father's grim face. "Thank you for giving me my, as you call it, freedom. I will leave you now for I have to make preparations for my departure as soon as possible." Without further ado, she left the room with thoughts of revenge circling in her mind.
Feeling tired from the conversations that had happened and the output of it, Abdul Raman pulled a cord to signal for a servant to fix him a drink, a hot bath and announced to his servants to take the day off the next day and help with the preparations for his daughter's departure.
**********
The group entered in the office where Nick and Chris were conversing a while ago. The room was not large but it was suitable for an office, and it was comfortable. It was cooled by a large ceiling fan that was recently cleaned. The rest of the room was spruced up and looked ready for company. It was furnished with a desk that was situated beside the open window where the afternoon sun streamed through. File cabinets are on one corner of the room while on the other side was a bookcase with several books that looked like they were about to fall apart. On their left was a round table with five chairs surrounding it. The room was decked with a few Egyptian and British paintings of the pyramids, Nile River and the Big Ben. Few books were also opened on top of the desk with a telegram strewn about.
"I see that you have already received a telegram from the Bembridge scholars," Allison noted, indicating on the paper on the desk.
"Yes, we were told to meet you at your hotel but we were unable to since something came up. We figured that you could come here instead," Nick replied, gesturing towards the table where they could converse properly.
"How very gentlemanly of you," muttered Rebecca under her breath as she sat opposite Chris.
"Pardon me, but did you say something?" Chris asked.
"Nothing," Rebecca answered.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" Nick offered to his guests and friend.
"Yes, please, we would like that. Chamomile if you have," Rebecca said, quite relieved to drink something. Running exhausted her but she didn't show no did Allison.
"Yes, we have it. I'll bring it in a moment," he said, standing up.
Allison sighed as he did. She was quite tensed when Nick was in the room though she didn't have any clue why. Looking at Chris, she noted how he looked at her friend. "Chris, I was just wondering how you came across the information about the wife of Mathayus," she inquired, intent on getting down to business.
"You are pretty straightforward, aren't you? No small talk," he responded with a wry smile as if amused at her question but not really. He continued, "Anyway, you have heard about how they got together. As I was saying before we chased you, Mathayus had a necklace made from the finest and purest gold found in Egypt. This particular necklace had an emblem of a scorpion which is the same as the emblem found in the bracelet which I assume you have seen," he said pointedly.
They nodded and as Rebecca was opening her mouth to say that she actually has the bracelet right now, Allison interrupted her.
"Yes, yes we have seen it. It has a very intricate design that I think suits the wife of the king,"
"We haven't found any evidence about her except the word of this merchant that we have found who says that he has found something that might tell us about this necklace and the owner. We plan to go to this place but we are still investigating it," Chris explained. Nick entered the room as Chris was explaining. He now settled the cups of tea around the table and begun pouring them like a host. Rebecca, now parched with thirst, reached gratefully for the cup and sipped, savoring the taste of chamomile on her mouth which soothed her as well as her body. The others did the same, a comfortable pause hovering in the air.
"You said something about all this came from the word of a merchant. How can you be so sure to trust this man?" Rebecca asked unbelievably.
"We do not trust this man because we think he is dealing with the black market but he is all we have. We have to go to the site, which is Thebes and see what we can find there," Nick declared.
"I see. In that case, we will come with you," Allison promulgated, holding up her hand to stop the two men from protesting. "We came here to find out more about the bracelet and your declaration is exactly what we are looking for."
"I see that it is useless in talking to you out of…" he abruptly stopped as they heard a sound coming from the lobby of the museum. 'it."
"Were you expecting somebody else aside from Ms. Kingsley and Ms. Welsch?" Nick asked Chris as they slowly walked out the door.
His companion shook his head, "No, I wasn't." They walked along the hallway but Chris suddenly stopped. "Wait, we have to be careful. Sometimes there are robbers that trespass from time to time. We still haven't improved the security measures in this museum. Better be prepared than getting bumped in the head."
The two women looked at him questioningly, but Nick intervened, " This is not the time to reminisce the past. Let's go." He took out a gun from his coat, handing it to Allison with some bullets.
"Here, be careful, Ms. Welsch. Always hit the target," he advised, walking beside her.
"Don't worry, I assure you that we can watch our back and defend it as well," she said, smilingly, showing a set of perfect white teeth, but it was contradicted by a bit of hurt and anger evident on her tone. "Oh, and it's Allison. You make me feel old just by calling me that."
"I'll do it if you call me Nick," he said.
"Deal, now come on," she commanded.
"Uhmmm…Mr. Monroe, can I borrow this sword?" Rebecca asked while prying the weapon from a statue of Ramses.
"Please, call me Chris. No problem. I'm sure Ramses won't mind you using his sword but do take care of it. The museum of antiquities would want it back safe and sound or I, myself will hunt you down." Christopher said while giving her a playful wink.
She smiled at him showing her gratefulness for his kindness.
Nick and crept silently to the front door where they hid at the back of a statue. They got ready and jumped in front, facing whoever the intruders were but were instead greeted by two pistols. Their nervousness and suspense turned to smiles and an exchange of "hellos". The O'Connells and Jonathan were their bunch of intruders.
—Meanwhile—
Out of sight and earshot from the lobby, Rebecca and Allison were staying in one room, waiting tensely for a signal from the men.
"Oh, Rebecca, I just hope there weren't any intruders. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to Nick…and Christopher," she quickly added hoping that Rebecca hadn't caught her mistake.
"Rebecca?" Allison asked, concern heard in her voice when she saw that Rebecca wasn't paying any attention to her.
Rebecca's eyes were trained on a small group of people with a tall redhead standing in front of them.
They backed out and Allison whispered to Rebecca, "Got any bright ideas?"
"Yeah, RUN!!! Rebecca exclaimed.
Nikita saw them and commanded her men to catch them. They were able to sneak I while the curators were running after Rebecca and Allison. She was very determined to get the bracelet back.
Running through the museum was not an easy task. Rebecca and Allison were cautious not to destroy the items on display while Nikita and her men took off after them. Rebecca grimaced and Allison swore under her breath as they heard the crashing of some of the most valuable treasures of Egypt's history. Both of them skidded to a full stop and came face to face with the O'Connells, Jonathan, Christopher and Nick. Surprise was seen in their faces but on the two women were replaced by agitation.
"People are after us," Rebecca exclaimed.
"Who?" Chris looked questioningly \
"How should we know?" Allison retorted.
Nikita entered the room and reached them first before her men, and pointed her sword at Allison, who was cowering and demanded cruelly, "Where is the bracelet and you've to tell the truth or else I'll send you to the afterlife to join your father."
"What bracelet are we talking about here?" Chris and Nick asked simultaneously.
Jonathan cut in, "You know…the one I helped in discovering…" he said proudly despite the tension between the two sides.
"And what bracelet was this?" Nick insisted.
"The Scorpion King's bracelet!" Allison said.
"The bracelet of Anubis is not in my possession."
"We know" "We have it, but right now, we don't exactly have the time to explain" Rebecca and Allison answered simultaneously.
"And you didn't tell us?" Nick said.
"Well you didn't exactly ask and like I said, we don't have time to explain it right now," Allison responded.
Christopher was going to answer to the quip when…
"Well, well, am I lucky or what. Where is my bloody bracelet?" a taunting voice said as her henchmen surrounded the group.
"Uh-oh" Rebecca muttered.
Nikita's men took out some guns, ammunition and swords.
"Not if I can help it" Evy's voice cut through the waiting silence.
With a warrior's whoop, she fought Nikita with two sais (three-pointed truncheon) (AN: The sais are the 3—pointed truncheons that were used in the fight between Evy and Anakh-su-namn) Rick pushed Alex and Jonathan, who were gaping at the arising chaos, behind a pillar. Rick passed a pistol to Jonathan who started joining the one helluva fight. Nick grabbed Allison around the waist as one of the shelves fell. She smiled, gratefulness written in her features.
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Christopher were having their own experience. Christopher shot and shot while shielding Rebecca from bullets, vases, jars, and who knows what else were being thrown on their way. As they were hiding, Nick fought off countless men while Allison swung at the guys attacking them with a rod she found at the foot of Seti's chariot. She winced when a dagger sliced through her cheek and squeezed her eyes shut. She opened her mouth to scream when it was muffled as a hand clamped over her mouth.
She tried to attract Nick's attention but to no avail. She started fighting back but her assailant was stronger than her. She was surprised when the man fell backward with a groan. She saw Alex, holding the rod she had dropped earlier while struggling, with his boyish, blue eyes twinkling.
Rebecca couldn't believe the scene she was seeing. Guns were being fired everywhere., bullets whizzing in every possible direction and swords clashing. She was frightened, but decided not to show it lest she wanted the child, Alex with her to panic as well. She saw a man walking towards her clutching a sword and an annoying smile tugging at his contorted face. She pirouetted but unluckily the sword sliced through her thigh.
"Asshole" she muttered and fought the guy with a warrior's vigor and strength to rival that of the Medjai.
Meanwhile, Jonathan was hiding in a corner because he had no more weapons. He suddenly remembered his companion and he turned around and said, "Alex!" but he tripped over a crack on the floor and sent a statue tumbling to the pillars, which shared the same effect.
Rick saw the debris falling and called out, "Let's go!"
Evy and Alex ran together with Evy clutching a book while Jonathan and Christopher supported Rebecca whose leg wasn't any better.
"What the heck is that?" Rick asked, pointing at the book that his wife was clutching.
"I saw it in one corner and thought that it looked interesting," Evy replied.
Allison and Rebecca looked at each other wondering how on earth could this woman could have found a book in the middle of the hullabaloo.
Rick started to pull Nick's hand but he mouthed, "Allison"
Allison was leaning at the chariot feeling very dizzy and Rebecca almost collapsing. Nick carried Allison, Chris helped Rebecca and they made it to the car with beads of perspiration dripping from their faces. The others were waiting in the car and Rick jumped in and started the engine.
Tbc…