"Bill Weasley, I swear if you don't wake up this instant you're going to be on the first boat back to Britain."
Bill opened one eye tentatively, glancing up at a secretary for Gringotts Banking International, Cairo Division. He grumbled and shifted his head to a more comfortable position - under a week old copy of the Daily Prophet to block out the sunlight. "I'm 'wake," he mumbled.
The witch crossed her arms and glared down at the curse breaker. "You think that works on me? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't march right down the hall and turn you in for sleeping during company time?"
Bill smiled groggily, his head still firmly planted on the desk. "I was up until five in the morning retrieving a load of 19th century French gold from the bottom of the Nile." He laughed. "And besides, Nailah," he added, opening his eyes once more under the paper. "You like me too much."
Nailah shook her head and yanked away the newspaper, causing the man to cringe from the intruding light. "Aw, why'd you have to go and do that?" he groaned.
"That was two good reasons," Nailah replied, her eyes twinkling. "I only asked for one."
"Old bat," Bill mumbled, propping his head up on his hand.
"I heard that," she called from the adjacent office.
He laughed. "I said you need a hat. It's hot out there today."
Nailah paused and turned to look at Bill once more, one hand placed firmly on her hip and the other still gripping the horribly out-dated copy of the Daily Prophet. "Thank you, Mr. Weasley. I was afraid that it might be a tad chilly today here in Cairo. And me without my winter parka. What would I do without you?"
"Dress inappropriately for the desert, that's what!"
Nailah just shook her head. "You're going to drive me mad one day, I just know it…"
Bill turned to his desk and tried to straighten up the mess his nap had caused. Nothing like a visit from Nailah to start the morning off right. She was an older witch with long, dark hair that was always wrapped up with a scarf. Other people in the office claim that she'd been with the Cairo branch since it opened, but considering that was in 1337, he highly doubted that. Still, as the regional manager's secretary, she ran the office and only because she had decided that Bill reminded her of her 'of a boy she used to know' could he get away with almost anything.
He leafed through a stack of maps with an assortment of red dots and highlighter circles decorating the canals and landmarks of the Egyptian desert. There had been plenty of small finds, but nothing taking more than an afternoon. And after the successful find last night, today might just end up being a slow day. If he had calculated correctly, after changing the gold coins into Galleons, he pulled up last night around forty thousand Galleons. There wasn't any way he was going to be that find today, so a little time off and a break today, Bill felt, was well deserved.
"Oh, Bill." Nailah poked her head around the corner once again. "Mr. Leftwick wanted to see you this morning. You need to be in his office in twenty minutes."
Bill propped his legs up onto his desk and smiled broadly. "I take it he heard about last night's find, eh?"
Nailah shook her head. "I'm sure that he wants to shower you with blessings and praise. In fact, he may just promote you. Oh, if you're lucky he'll give you my job! And then you can run and get his snacks in the middle of your lunch break when you're supposed to be on break, but that really just means on call."
"Ms. Nailah," Bill replied, rising from his desk and placing a friendly kiss on her forehead. "I would never dream of that. That would mean you would retire and we both know you're the reason I come in each morning."
"Oh you are just the falcon prince of my dreams, aren't you?" Nailah laughed. "Well, go on," she added, pushing him in the direction of the goblin's office. "You're going to be late if you just stand here chatting away with me."
Bill moved quickly down the corridors to the office of his boss, Mr. Leftwick, Vice President of Unclaimed Capital Procurement for Gringotts - Cairo. If there was one thing the goblin insisted on, it was punctuality, and Bill knew better than to test his boss. He pushed open the large wooden doors to the executive suite and quickly cleared his throat. "Mr. Leftwick, you wanted to see me?"
The goblin turned gaze from the window overlooking the local wizarding bazaar to the employee standing in his doorway. "Ah, Mr. Weasley. Please, come in and take a seat." Bill did as he was told, taking the seat closest to the desk. "I wanted to congratulate you on the job you did last night."
Bill smiled. "Thank you, sir. It was trapped under a pretty thick invisibility net, and frankly I'm surprised that it came up after just a few days. I was expecting at least two weeks to be honest."
"Just shows you're quality," Leftwick replied, gruffly. "And we here at Gringotts only employ quality. I know that you're probably thinking that we couldn't find something this soon after your last find."
"Well, sir, I was hoping that-"
"And if you thought that, you were wrong," Leftwick finished. "Abdullah Sadat down in Research has gotten a lead on a find in Abydos. It seems that one of the pyramids has been giving off an unusual magical vibration for the past few weeks."
"How unusual?"
"Muggles won't even go near it."
Bill released a slow breath. "That really is unusual." Tourism was one of the leading businesses of Muggle and wizard Egypt, and usually Gringotts had to completely stake out a magical barrier to ward off Muggles from a search site. Pyramids were usually the hardest because they had to not only perform the wards, but instruct a few of the local guides that happened to be Egyptian wizards to pretend that the site didn't exist for the weeks that it was blocked from public consumption. "Do we know what the cause of the signal is?"
Leftwick shook his head. "We can't be sure until we get someone in there. What we assume is that the pyramid is one of the few in Abydos that hasn't gotten looted in the past few thousand years, and that the vibration is coming from someone intruding and setting off a ward. Which means, if the ward is still in place-"
"Then there is probably still something valuable down there," Bill finished.
"This is why we employed you," Leftwick replied. "You are quite quick."
Bill nodded politely. "When do you want me to head down there?"
"This afternoon. Sadat will be going with you so that he can point you to what he's found." Leftwick leaned back in his chair. "Just examine the structure and try and find out the basic components of the curse. We'll form a full team tomorrow."
"Yes sir," Bill replied, rising from his chair. "I'll get in touch with Sadat and work out the details."
"I'll expect a report of your findings tomorrow morning."
"Yes sir."