Chapter One
"Look What The Sand Blew In"
Indiana Jones sat in a local tavern in Saudi Arabia. The lighting was dim, and the mood suppressed. Many of the rouge men were drunk, but they weren't acting it. Some were passed out, and the bartender was in the back hiring men to take the unconscious ones outside to the alley.
"I'll have another." He motioned to the man behind the counter, who had his back turned. When the man did turn around, Indy could see a long scar that ran seemingly through his right eye and down his right cheek, to the corner of his mouth. An ugly imperfection, but it wasn't uncommon in the brawls these days.
A drink was placed in Indy's hand, and he downed it in one gulp. Standing up, he walked towards the door. A poker game was in progress in the corner, and he sauntered over with small interest to see who was winning.
Amazingly, a woman sat among four other men at the table, with at least a dozen more men egging their similar gender on. She had piled around her tens upon twenties of chips, and she sported, with a grin, a full house.
"Aw, not again! She's going to clean me out of house and home!" one of the men complained.
"She's gotta be Poker Alice, I swear. This girl's never lost a game! At least, not to me!" another exclaimed.
Indy was surprised. Not many women would be able to sit down at a game with these types of men, let alone win anything from them. He inspected her more closely and found her a more reasonable facsimile of himself than he'd like to imagine.
She wore brown, dusty pants and what once was a white tee shirt underneath an aged, brown leather vest. Her brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, with a few wisps hanging down over her cheeks. She had on a pair of black leather finger-less gloves, which gripped her cards with dogged determination. She obviously needed no makeup since she had that sort of outright, desert beauty that couldn't be improved by applying paints and oils. Her mud-brown eyes twinkled in the firelight of the bar. And the brownish, dusty, denim handkerchief she wore over her head added the only feminine touch to her attire.
Indy also noticed a small pendant she wore on a thin strap of aged leather around her neck. It looked like an emerald green leaf, hung upside-down. It was the only piece of jewelry she had on.
"Royal flush. Sorry gentlemen, but you know how it goes. I'm sure I'll run out of luck sooner or later…" she chuckled to herself. As the men pushed over their last remaining chips with a few groans and challenges for the next time, she noticed Indy for the first time.
"Well, look what the sand blew in." She smiled a soft, deceiving smile.